Every mass has been printed! Every belief is laid out for anyone to read. All the rosaries, Saints, prayers, etc. For the last 2,000 years Catholics have been writing profusely about their beliefs! Even the Popes write books for goodness sakes!
I grew up in the Catholic Church. Then I actually read the Bible and realized that the Catholic church doesn't even follow the Bible. They just sort of made up their own rules as they went along...as it suited them. I spent the next 10 years of my life trying to find a church that follows the Bible and I finally found and Independent Fundamental Baptist Church.
Addition - When I read the Bible I realized that the Catholic Church believes in things that are just not in there.
I have been there, done that, for 18 years. Catholicism is a mix of Christianity and paganism. While there is some good there and some elements of Christianity, the idea of salvation by works, the office of priests, the mass, which is basically sacrificing Christ all over again, the veneration of saints and Mary, the persecution of Protestants and the selling of indulgences are all umbilical and therefore places Catholicism on the fringe of Christianity at best.
LOL right. The Catholic Church compiles the Bible from its own writings, for its own use, but then doesn't follow its own teachings which are what make up the Bible. However, all the 20,000 conflicting Protestant sects are following the Bible to the letter, right? Even though they can't agree on a single thing it says. LOL
Question for Protestants - How does it feel to be an offshoot of an offshoot of an offshoot of something on the fringe of Christianity? :-) Where does that place you? Let's get real. Catholicism and Christianity were simply synonyms for most of the history of Christianity. And Catholicism is still the only complete and true version of Christianity, and still the only Church founded by Jesus Christ, and the only Church He ever intended to exist. He said so, remember? And such unauthorized man made churches have value only to the extent that they they are faithful to Catholic teaching. A Church that abandons all Catholic teaching cannot call itself Christian.
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Ask your local parish for a copy of the Catechism.
For the record, the Roman Catholic church did not make the Bible. The OT came about centuries earlier and the NT began circa 80 a.d., most likely in Ephesus.
Obtain a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 'Catechism' means 'teachings'; the teachings of the Catholic Church.
They are $10, softcover, at most bookstores. Or, you can use an electronic version from the Internet. They're easy to find. Just enter "Catechism of the Catholic Chuch" into any search engine.
Yeah, I'm frustrated too at the level of confusion and misunderstanding here, not just about Catholicism but history as well. I'm mostly here just to correct misunderstandings, if I want real information I consult textbooks written by experts or apologetics writings, as well as much of the early writings of the Church Fathers and ... you guessed it, Scripture! I use three different translations plus a Strong's Concordance to walk through the passages.
You wouldn't believe some of the misunderstandings. My favorite one was the response that said the Latin translation of one passage from Scripture, 2 Peter 1:19, says that "Lucifer rises in your hearts" instead of "Jesus rises in your hearts."
The answerer had translated every word of the Latin EXCEPT for Lucifer, which literally means "morning star" and refers to Jesus. It wasn't until Milton wrote "Paradise Lost" that the devil came to be known by the name Lucifer. The term was given to kings, and so was used by the writers of the epistles to connote Jesus as a king. However, because these kings were pagan kings, later Christians, who had dropped Latin and used only the English KJV, gave Lucifer the connotation.
Anyway, don't get too into this stuff. I just call people on their errant ways and move on.
How can you know what the Roman Catholic teaches?
