Every day we stray further from god’s light.
(media.greatawakening.win)
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The Pope... he's treated like a king/royalty. So much corruption.
Also all of the middle men. Having to go to a priest to confess and then getting penance. None of that has any Biblical basis. We can confess our sins and repent to God directly. There is no need for a middle man. And penance is saying that Jesus dying on the cross for our sins wasn't enough. We now have to say so many prayers in order for the slate to be wiped clean. Doesn't make sense.
Mary being perfect. She was not perfect. Only Jesus lived a perfect life. If a human being was capable of living a perfect life, there would have been no need for Jesus.
The Saints.... we are all Saints. Singling people out and praying to them doesn't make any sense. Praying to Mary as well..... like why all the middle men? It just seems to create more separation between an individual believer and God.
The Eucharist actually turning into the body and blood of Christ instead of just being a SYMBOL. The Bible speaks against cannibalism and the Old Testament forbids the drinking of blood..... so why would God have people become cannibals and actually ingest the body and blood of Christ? It was a symbol. We are to remember Jesus and what He did for us when we take communion. Doesn't mean it actually becomes His body.
Infant baptism. Baptism is an outward public declaration of an inward decision to accept Jesus Christ. And while doing it as an infant doesn't hurt anything.... that does not count as a true baptism because it is to be done AFTER accepting Christ.
Purgatory. Needing a stopover place to be "cleansed" doesn't make sense and is not talked about once in scripture. Jesus cleansed us by dying on the cross. By accepting Him, that's it. Saying we need to go to purgatory to be cleansed before going to heaven is like saying Jesus dying on the cross wasn't enough.
These are just the things I know about off the top of my head. My mom was raised Catholic and very much disagreed with a lot of things the church taught. My best friend in high school was also Catholic, so we used to talk about theological differences. I was just surprised by how little she knew about the Bible, and she always gave me the impression that she wasn't encouraged to read it on her own. Basically, she was told she needed other people to interpret Scripture for her. And nothing against individual Catholic people, and I'm open to discussing things, but there is a lot of teachings that I disagree with.
I like that, that makes more sense to me
Asking the Saints for their intercessions is the same as asking your friend to pray for you, the hagiograph about St. Mary describes her life and how she was very merciful always asking her Son for the forgiveness of those who wronged her or to help those in need because she learned this from Him.
As for "accepting Christ" this is strictly a Protestant idea and no where in the Bible will you find the words to accept Christ it teaches us about a life with Christ which is also why we baptize infants we are bringing them into that life, unlike the Catholics we also Chrismation right after baptism which is the laying on of hands to give the Holy Spirit, this is biblical as it's found in Acts of the Apostles as it's what they did.
Purgatory is a heresy and I have no idea where the Catholics came up with that nonsense.
Going to a priest to confess your sins isn't a middle man, before you go to Confession your are to confess to God (pray ask for forgiveness) because if you don't and you talk about these things you have done before your priest you are just bragging about your sin, we do and don't have penance there's penance like you can't take communion for so long (i think you get barred from it if you have an abortion because that is murder and not just breaking the 10 commandments but are you even a Christian?) but it's extremely rare. As for why a priest, why do you see a therapist if your struggling with mental health? Why do you see a Dr if your physically sick? Why a physical therapist if you're arm was broken and now you need to get it moving again? Our spiritual life needs help just as much.
Also the Pope is a great guy, H.H. Pope Tawadros II, I am Oriental Orthodox we are the true Church while the Eastern Orthodox schisimed from us and the Catholics from them but we always pray for God to mend the schisim and bring them back home.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. -John 3:16.
Whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Period. The thief on the cross is an excellent example of this seen laid out. He was at the end of his life, and accepted Jesus and Jesus told him he would go to heaven. He wasn't baptized and he did nothing except accept Jesus as His savior. So yes it is very Biblical that all we have to do for eternal life is to believe and accept Jesus. And of course we are supposed to live our lives with Jesus and follow him, but that's what the Holy Spirit is there for. Now I don't believe laying hands is necessary for the Holy Spirit to come. I think that happens instantaneously as you accept Jesus. I felt it happen when I accepted Christ, but I was baptized several years later.
I'm not saying it's wrong to go to a priest or a minister or another person for advice or help. And my pastor counsels people regularly, but what I have a problem with is that people are told they HAVE to do this to be forgiven. I don't get the extra step. Once you have confessed to God and repented, that's it. It's the works-based part I have an issue with... like you have to do something (say this many hail Mary's or this many Our Fathers) to earn God's forgiveness when Jesus already did the work for us on the Cross. We just have to accept the gift of salvation and repent from our sin. We don't need to go to any priest or pastor to be forgiven... God can do it without them. So it's not so much that it's "wrong" to go to someone and talk about it. I think that can be very beneficial especially if you're really struggling with something, but I think it's telling people they HAVE to do it when I don't see any Biblical backing for that. I hope that was clear.
And as for the Pope, I have heard of the "good" Pope. And I don't have a problem with him as a person, just the whole idea of a Pope controlling all the churches. I haven't seen any Biblical backing for it, and it's not like how the Apostles set up individual churches during Acts. The Bible is very clear about having elders in authority over each individual church, but to my knowledge they never set one person up as being in charge of all the churches. I know the Apostles traveled around and helped them and supported them, but they weren't in charge of the churches. They were just there to assist and encourage them. This is why I do not go to churches that are affiliated with any one denomination Protestant or otherwise. I don't like or agree with large organizations running multitudes of churches. I think it breeds corruption, and I've seen it first hand. And I am very hesitant for anyone saying they belong to the "one true church." Any follower of Christ is part of the Church. We may differ on theology, but The Church is the bride of Christ and it is all who believe in and follow Jesus.
And I hope no one takes any offense to this. I'm just going with what the Bible says, but of course you are free to disagree <3
The thief didn't accept anything, he turned his heart towards God and made a change, its not a one step prayer. Also, whoever BELIEVES, I suppose you could go into the semantics and argue how believes really means accepts but its about having faith that Jesus is who He says He is and that you turn your heart to follow Him.
As for the laying on hands of the Holy Spirit nowhere do you see EXCEPT at Pentecost (and prior to this Christ laid His hands on His disciples) that the Holy Spirit settled upon them every other time it was for the laying of hands that the Holy Spirit was received.
Ad for the have to go to a priest to be forgiven, I have never been told this but we do need to receive absolution to be able to partake in the holy Communion which is a whole other topic. So that might be something only Catholics do, but in Orthodoxy I have never been taught this.
One thing about our Pope, and I do meme a lot on this subject where I will call the Bishop of Rome just that since the Coptic Church was using the term Pope hundreds of years before the Catholics decided they wanted to take it, is that he isn't controlling all of the Churches. We have for the Coptic Church was is called a Holy Synod and issues are brought up to them and it takes them many years to come to a decision on some issues because the entire Holy Synod has to be in agreement about a decision for an issue. Recently I brought an issue up to my Sayedna (arabic for master its a personal tense when talking about a bishop) Anba Youssef (Anba is arabic for Father, like Abouna for the priests Anba is for Bishops) about Coptic Iconography and an internal issue in our rite with it. He told me he would submit the issue before the Holy Synod and they will make a ruling on this. Now it will probably be many many many years from now if I am even still alive to hear a ruling on this because it really isn't a super pressing matter.
If you read the history of the Church you will see that the Apostles did indeed have particular churches they were in charge of St. Mark was over the Coptic Church, St. James I believe was over the one in Jerusalem (I am not super versed on the history on the councils and which apostle was assigned where) you can even see in Acts of the Apostles one of the councils that happened because it mentions how the Egyptians and Ethiopians were present. Also something that just came to mind is Timothy, he was ordained by St. Paul as bishop of Ephesus. There is a lot of evidence not just in the Bible but history in general that the Apostles and those ordained were consecrated bishops and in-charge of their diocese.
As for theological differences this is very important one theological difference almost ripped apart the entire Church, Arianism that is why they had a council to address it as well this was the same time they laid down the definitions of what being a Christian was and that is the acceptance of the Nicene Creed (which the Catholics later added the filoque heresy into it which most Prot denominations accept). You also have Nestoriansim as well which this teaches that Jesus was just a man who was "inhabited" in a sense by the divine Word, when Jesus was crucified it was the man who died on the cross because the divine could not die and left him. This is also why there are so many writings on Christology.
Once you start to read history you will understand what the fathers believed and what is Biblical. I am more than happy to discuss this a lot further if you ever wish either in DM or discord!
Accepting/believing/following Jesus are all semantics. When we as protestants talk of accepting Christ. What we mean is that we accept the gift of salvation from Jesus. We accept it by believing He is the Son of God who died on the cross to save the world from our sins. He rose and defeated death on the 3rd day so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. So I agree with what you said, we just use different words, but it means the same thing.
Here is my argument about the laying of hands thing. Why isn't it written about in any of Paul's letters to the churches? He never instructs any of us to do lay hands or tells us that that is the only way to get the Holy Spirit. If this was something that was so necessary, then why isn't it in every letter to every church? God always repeats the very important things. Do not fear is written over a hundred times throughout Scripture for example. Jesus never once talks about laying hands. He heals people and tells them to sin no more. Their faith makes them well, etc. He is very clear that faith is what is needed.
And about Paul being ordained as a bishop or whatever. That is nowhere in the Bible. I go by what the Bible says alone, not on what a possibly corrupt church teaches outside of the Bible. I don't know where those teachings come from or who wrote about it or if it is true or not. If it's not in the Bible, I do not look at it as an example for how I am to behave or what we as the church are supposed to do. The Bible is very clear about having elders in charge or individual churches. So even if the apostles did do something different.... which ISN'T in the Bible, so I have my doubts, it's still not what God has instructed in actual Scripture.
We all know that history can be corrupted and changed at a whim. The word of God is above all things, which is why I only look at what the Bible says and not what could be corrupted by fallible men with their own agendas. So we may be at an impasse.