Katholisch Leben!

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A friend of mine said that his church takes the Bible literally, but that the Catholic Church doesn't...is that true?

Actually, there is no truth to that, whatsoever. Catholics interpret the Bible in a "literal" sense, while many fundamentalists, Evangelicals, and others interpret the Bible in a literalist sense.

The "literal" meaning of a passage of Scripture is the meaning that the author of that passage of Scripture intended to convey. The "literalist" interpretation of a passage of Scripture is: "that's what it says, that's what it means."

Let me give you an example to illustrate the difference. If you were to read a passage in a book that said it was "raining cats and dogs outside", how would you interpret that? As Americans, in the 21st Century, you would know that the author was intending to convey the idea that it was raining pretty doggone hard outside. That would be the "literal" interpretation...the interpretation the author intended to convey. On the other hand, what if you made a "literalist" interpretation of the phrase, "it's raining cats and dogs"?

The "literalist" interpretation would be that, were you to walk outside, you would actually see cats and dogs falling from the sky like rain. No taking into account the popularly accepted meaning of this phrase. No taking into account the author's intentions. The words say it was raining cats and dogs, so, by golly, it was raining cats and dogs! That is the literalist, or fundamentalist, way of interpretation.

If someone 2000 years in the future picked up that same book and read, "It was raining cats and dogs outside," in order to properly understand that passage in the book, they would need a "literal" interpretation, not a "literalist" interpretation. Now, think about that in the context of interpreting the Bible 2000-3000 years after it was written.

Literal, or Catholic, interpretation vs. literalist, or fundamentalist, interpretation.

(Source: Bible Christian Society / John Martignoni. http://www.biblechristiansociety.com/apologetics/two_minute#1. Used with permission)

Some of the issues non-Catholic Christians struggle with when it comes to the Catholic Church – and their clarification:


Question 1: Catholics do not see us as a church! Did not the last Pope say something like that?

Response: Yes, there are some Christian denominations that the Catholic Church does not see as “church”. This is because they do not have apostolic succession and like that no Eucharist (Jesus commanded His apostles – and with them those in line with them through the laying on of hands – to celebrate the Lord’s supper. He did NOT authorize everyone to do that!). It has nothing to do with their size or with their acknowledgment as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Question 2: Apostolic succession is necessary to become a priest and to forgive sins in Jesus’ name, I understand that. But can I also go to others who claim to have that?

Response: There are certain circumstances where the Catholic Church would allow their members to do that. For instance, when you live in an area where there is absolutely no Catholic Church around, but there would be a Greek Orthodox one, you are allowed to go to its priest and ask to receive the sacraments there. However, being “anointed” through some bishop who split away years ago and claiming apostolic succession through that and with it the ability to forgive sins and so on is invalid – and so is the sacrament of confession that goes along. Apostolic succession and the sacraments performed by priests are only valid when it is also legitimate.

Question 3: The Catholic Church thinks she is the only one around. We in our church do not believe we are the only church in town. When Catholics speak about unity, they mean that we should all become Catholic, right?

Response: Jesus founded one physical Church, not some sort of spiritual entity of those who call themselves Christians but have thousands of different beliefs. He only has ONE body. Yes, we are all called to unite. A house that is divided cannot stand. We need to become one again – physically one (“Catholic”). There were grave sins made on both sides regarding the lack of unity. All of us need to do our utmost on a practical basis to reach unity again. It is not about the mean Catholic Church forcing all to become Catholic. It is about being ONE body of Christ again! Imagine the fire we could unfold, if we united our various gifts and talents! Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Traditionalists, Charismatics – all of that united under one roof! Catholics could learn so much from their non-Catholic brothers and sisters – and the other way around! All of us are sinning gravely if we do nothing to become one Church again! This is not about domination of one Church that thinks she is better than all of the rest, but about all of us being humble enough to unite!

Question 4: Why would we need a Pope? All we need is the Bible!

Response: Aside the fact that “sola scriptura” (the Bible as the only authority) is nowhere to be found in the Bible and that without the Church we would not have a Bible to begin with – if it were enough, how come we have 38000+ different Christian denominations with different beliefs? We can’t even agree on the basics! I am glad I have a Pope so I don’t have to be one myself!


It is not about winning arguments, playing the blame game or pointing with the finger at others. We need to become ONE again, fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission and save souls!

I am tired of ex-Catholics who claim to know what the Catholic Church teaches because the spent some time in the Church or were baptized as a child. Aside the fact that few of them even have a basic knowledge of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (along with all other Church documents) teaches [if you do, why did you leave Her at first place? A love that grows cold has never been a love to begin with!]. They usually join other (protestant/evangelical/charismatic - whatever) "churches" and of course believe that their personal understanding of the written Word of God is "biblical" and "godly" (isn't that idolatry - pretending to be God oneself and knowing it all?). Some have the "generosity" of granting other Christians the right to exist ("we basically all believe the same" or "spiritually we are all one church. It does not matter where you go to." - both of which are nonsense and "non-biblical"). Others do, but in the end they end up with having the truth just the same. In the end, all those other "churches" have holes in their theologies to climb through. I am glad I am Catholic, so I don't have to be Pope myself.


Every now and then the question pops up: Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? But there's an even more fundamental question that needs to be asked first, and is much more important: Do Catholics and Protestants worship the same Jesus?

The answer, stated simply: No.

Catholics and Protestants — and that includes those Protestants who don't self-identify as Protestants, like Assemblies of God and so forth — all of these do not worship the same Jesus as Catholics do. Now this kind of statement may result in apoplexy in those parts of the Church that have spent a half a century trying to gloss over the enormous differences between authentic Christianity, which is Catholicism, and heretical Christianity, which is Protestantism.

In the resistance to the status quo and the effort to recapture Catholic identity, this battle is a central one. Catholics and Protestants are opposed to each other on an incredible number of issues. As an aside, Protestants are opposed to other Protestants on an incredible number of issues — but that's another "Vortex."

Catholics need to understand this fundamental, decisive issue. There is a Catholic Jesus and a Protestant Jesus, and they are not really related, beyond the most basic things. The Protty Jesus is not really present in the Eucharist, did not establish a formal visible Church, instituted no sacraments to speak of, has given all His authority over to a book, and not really said anything about how that book is to be interpreted.

The Protty Jesus does not care about how you live your life as long as you believe on Him in some emotion-laden display — preferably in public. The Protty Jesus does not care about birth control, quite often has no real opinion on divorce and remarriage, is even sometimes silent on abortion and same-sex "marriage."

The Protty Jesus isn't even completely understood or accepted as truly divine. He rarely preaches a word about redemptive suffering or the need to reform your life and walk away from sin. He is quite often mute on the necessity of the cross. The Protty Jesus has no regard for saints, even those that died for love of Him. He doesn't even have any real regard or respect for His own mother. Protty Jesus has almost no resemblance whatsoever to Catholic Jesus, who is all these things that Protty Jesus is not.

So the question arises why so many in the Church, even leaders, would be so willing to involve themselves in and accommodate for Protty Jesus? The Church is not in the business of making up excuses for heresies. It is in the business of destroying them.

In the Catholic Church, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Faith. In the Protestant world, the denial of the Real Presence in the Eucharist is the source and summit of their creed. The Church, the original and only one founded and established personally by the Son of God, believes in a eucharistic Jesus. The Protty Jesus has nothing to do with the Eucharist.

How can it ever be said that these two groups worship the same Jesus? Protestant worship is not true worship at all. Protestant worship offers nothing to the Father. Catholic worship offers the Son to the Father, the only pure and perfect thing that can be offered. Catholic worship is the fulfillment of the prophet Malachi, who declared from the Lord, "For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is great among the nations and everywhere a pure offering shall be made to my name, says the Lord" (Malachi 1:11).

The Protty Jesus cannot be the fulfilment of this prophecy because there is no manner in which this can be fulfilled. How can Protestantism, which rejects the Eucharist, offer anything by way of worship to God? The only thing pure which can be offered to God is God Himself.

Yet this fundamental understanding of God is completely lost on those who follow and believe in Protty Jesus, including most especially Church of Nice Catholics. Protty Jesus turns people away from the true Jesus. He denies them the truth of the Eucharist. He denies them the sacraments. He denies them authentic teaching. In short, he denies them the normative means for salvation.

Then why are so many Catholic leaders so content to let the façade of Protty Jesus remain unassailed? This is a horror. It has nothing to do with being nice. It has everything to do with the truth. An alternative Christ has been established by Protty-minded clerics and laity in the Church, who care more about getting along with others than they do the authentic faith. It is evil, and as Abp. Fulton Sheen said, you must hate evil in order to become holy.

Consorting with those who would sacrifice the truth of Catholicism on the altar of social acceptance and human respect is a great sin against Almighty God. It must be opposed. But in America at least, the history of appeasement and going along and accommodating error for the sake of dialogue and so forth has proven disastrous. This all flies under the banner of ecumenism but has nothing to do with ecumenism.

Simple straightforward thought here: Either the Catholic Church is established by Almighty God for the salvation of souls, outside of which there is no salvation — or it is not. If you don't believe that, like so many in the Church these days don't believe it, then have some personal integrity and self-respect and leave the Church.

Why would you belong to an organization that claims to be the only path to Heaven, when you reject that claim? Why would you belong to any organization with which you disagree on such a fundamental level? Protestantism, under the leadership of the original heretics like Luther, Calvin and Knox, created their own false Jesus. This false Jesus, this Protty Jesus, has been handed down through the centuries and treated as though it is an authentic Christ. It is not. And the acceptance of this Protty Jesus among Catholics, and/or the refusal to call him out, has done great damage to Catholic identity.

Catholics no longer understand themselves and their own identity because they have accepted another identity. Before something new can be built or constructed, demolition work must be done. First demolish that which stands in the way of the building. Then begin your construction. The failure to understand the great damage that has been brought about by Protty Jesus and the consequent unwillingness to demolish him is the thing standing in the way of of any efforts at evangelization.

How can you preach Catholic Jesus to Catholics who believe in Protty Jesus without deconstructing Protty Jesus first? As long as this spiritual insanity continues — trying to hold in balance two opposing Jesuses — there will be no turnaround, and Catholic parishes and dioceses will continue to shrivel. And the sad reality is as long as they continue to hold two opposing views at the same time, they deserve to shrivel and die on the vine.

(Source: Michael Voris, http://www.churchmilitant.com)


Links National

Links International

Resources

EWTN: Journey Home (DVD)

Saint Joseph Communications: No Greater Gift (Mike Cumbie) (DVD)

Mike Cumbie: No Bread on the Table, No Crumbs on the Floor (DVD)

Mike Cumbie: Who Has Seen the Wind? (CDs)

Saint Joseph Communications: Testimony to Truth (Dr. Scott Hahn / Alex Jones) (DVD)

Tim Staples: Jimmy Swaggart Made Me Catholic (CDs)

A book that you guys really should read if youy want to give Catholics a chance to bring up what they have to say against all those accusations being made against them and their beliefs (and shouldn't you at least read their side, too, if you attack them? Wouldn't that be fair?):

Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on "Romanism" by "Bible Christians" (Taschenbuch)
von Karl Keating (Autor)
Taschenbuch: 360 Seiten
Verlag: Ignatius Pr (Mai 1988)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0898701775
ISBN-13: 978-0898701777

Warning: After having read that book you might probably not be the same as before and not believe whatever you believed in before!

Here some books by Prof. Dr. Scott Hahn, that might have the same effect:

Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism (Taschenbuch)
von Scott Hahn (Autor), Kimberly Hahn (Künstler)
Taschenbuch: 210 Seiten
Verlag: Ignatius Press (August 1993)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0898704782
ISBN-13: 978-0898704785

The Lamb's Supper: Experiencing the Mass: The Mass as Heaven on Earth (Gebundene Ausgabe)
von Scott Hahn (Autor), Benedict J. Groeschel (Künstler)
Gebundene Ausgabe: 174 Seiten
Verlag: Bantam Dell (November 1999)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0385496591
ISBN-13: 978-0385496599

Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God (Taschenbuch)
von Scott Hahn (Autor)
Taschenbuch: 208 Seiten
Verlag: Bantam Dell; Auflage: Reprint (19. September 2006)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0385501692
ISBN-13: 978-0385501699

Und hier unser Glaubenszeugnis auf Deutsch. Was glauben Katholiken wirklich und warum glauben sie es? Gibt es dafür wirklich keine biblischen Grundlagen?

Katholischer Erwachsenenkatechismus. 2 Bände: Band I: Das Glaubensbekenntnis der Kirche. Band II: Leben aus dem Glauben (Gebundene Ausgabe)
von Deutsche Bischofskonferenz (Herausgeber)
Gebundene Ausgabe: 976 Seiten
Verlag: Herder, Freiburg; Auflage: 1 (August 2006)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3451291533
ISBN-13: 978-3451291531

Katechismus der Katholischen Kirche: Kompendium (Broschiert)
von Vatikan Vatikan / Deutsche Bischofskonferenz (Autor)
Broschiert: 256 Seiten
Verlag: Pattloch; Auflage: 1 (12. August 2005)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3629021409
ISBN-13: 978-3629021403

Catechism of the Catholic Church

United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (Taschenbuch)
von United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Herausgeber)
Taschenbuch: 664 Seiten
Verlag: Usccb Pub (August 2006)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 1574554506
ISBN-13: 978-1574554502

Hier noch einige Bücher von Prof. Dr. Scott Hahn, die ebenfalls eure bisherige Sichtweise von der Katholischen Kirche radikal verändern dürften, wenn ihr Nicht-Katholiken seid:

Unser Weg nach Rom (Taschenbuch)
von Scott Hahn (Autor), Kimberly Hahn (Autor), Ludger Hölscher (Übersetzer)
Taschenbuch: 219 Seiten
Verlag: Christiana-Verlag; Auflage: 5 (2004)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3717110691
ISBN-13: 978-3717110699

Das Mahl des Lammes. Die Messe als Himmel auf Erden (Gebundene Ausgabe)
von Scott Hahn (Autor), Ludger Hölscher (Übersetzer)
Gebundene Ausgabe: 176 Seiten
Verlag: Sankt Ulrich Verlag; Auflage: 1 (Februar 2003)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3929246945
ISBN-13: 978-3929246940

Die Königin des Himmels: Maria suchen und finden (Gebundene Ausgabe)
von Scott Hahn (Autor), Ludger Hölscher (Übersetzer)
Gebundene Ausgabe: 157 Seiten
Verlag: Sankt Ulrich Verlag; Auflage: 1 (Februar 2004)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3936484228
ISBN-13: 978-3936484229

Beitrag von I Love Being Catholic.
Beitrag von I Love Being Catholic.

Sun Gazing

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Fr. William Casey

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Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman said, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant."

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