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Mr. Kempen,
I did not get to where I am without a serious study of my faith and what other sects of Christianity preach as well. This website exists as a result of that.
I will share a story with you. About 4.5 years ago I started dating a girl whose family was Catholic, but then her mother had some questions and didn’t think the Catholic faith followed the Bible and she became Evangelical (along with my girlfriend and her brother). The dad remained Catholic.
When I met my girlfriend, her faith was very important to her as mine was to me. We had deep, serious conversations about it quite often. One night we made a deal. We agreed that because of the differences in what each other’s faith was saying that they both cannot be completely true and one must be right over the other. We agreed to do a serious study of each other’s faiths and whichever was correct then the other would convert to that.
My eyes became open to a whole new world of learning about Scripture and history about both sides (Catholic and non-Catholic). During our study everything had to be proved from Scripture for her and me too. After 6 months of serious prayer, discernment and learning (from Scripture mind you) my girlfriend entered RCIA to become Catholic.
Ron, I’ve read much of what you’ve written already in some form or other. It all looks the same as the other anti-Catholic stuff I’ve read in the past. I’ve read [i:2abbfc6w]The Gospel According to Rome[/i:2abbfc6w] by James G. McCarthy and written a 63 page rebuttal to the first 6 chapters. I’ve debated with people who want nothing more than to evangelize Catholics on messageboards for almost 5 years. I’ve seen the arguments, I’ve been there.
While every now and then an argument looks remotely convincing, when I pray about it and read the Scriptures the things you say just don’t add up.
When you take into account the entirety of the Scriptures, not just random, isolated verses slinging, and the history of Christianity, any non-Catholic, Christian belief system doesn’t quite add up.
Your beliefs only go back about 300 years. Catholicism has developed for 2000 years. The people who made up your beliefs broke away from original Christianity.
Jesus didn’t institute the Bible, the Catholic Church did. In essence you are trying to tear down Catholicism with the very tool it helped put together. Yes, all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work, but that does not say that ONLY Scripture is the rule of faith.
The Bible never says by faith ALONE did someone believe. You sneak these interpretations into Scripture, but that’s not what it says. My friend, it is you who has been deceived.
Now, if you really, really want to discuss your articles and Catholicism and all that then we can. However, there will be limits. First, it’s not really fair to come at us with a rude, accusatory tone flinging out 10 different accusations/topics and expect us to answer them all. So let’s try to stick with one topic at a time. We’ll be courteous as long as you are.
There are at least 5 knowledgeable and well qualified Catholics on this website that may be responding. Enjoy. You kind of walked into the Lion’s den looking for a fight and if you go about it the wrong way then a fight you just may get. But I only want to do this under peaceful terms.
I set up the forum on this website because most of the other religious forums had people that were very rude to each other in debate and it really didn’t seem like they were all that Christian. If you can’t follow the Forum Rules and Policies[/url:2abbfc6w] then I will be asking you to leave.
Sound fair enough?