Catholics, why do you choose to believe man made doctrine over the HOLY WORD of GOD?

Question

You say mary was without sin but the Bible tells us in romans 3:23 'for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of GOD', it doesn't say 'everyone except mary'. And don't say the catholics wrote the Bible because that removes all doubt as to your intelligence.

Answer 1

Good observation. Add that to the countless unbibical false doctrines of the catholics.

Catholics are not saved and are not Christians. Catholics believe a false gospel of works that leads to eternal hell (Galatians 1).

Bible teachers that said the Vatican and the catholic cult are an antichrist: John Bunyan, John Huss, John Wycliffe, John Calvin, William Tyndale, John Knox, Thomas Bacon, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Samuel Cooper, John Cotton, and Jonathan Edwards

Answer 2

Why do you ignore the "Scripture" that tells us he is going to send the counselor to lead us into all matter of the Truth---? Where in the Bible does it talk about cloning or Stem Cell Research? Are these areas we as Christians are just supposed to ignor or do you think he might have made provisions for these new things with the counsel of the Holy Spirit through a person of authority---the Pope and the Bishops with rightful Apostolic succession?

Understanding the doctrines of the Catholic Church is involved and it requires the Holy Spirit to guide us in the truth. If you know how to dig a sliver out of your finger it does not mean you know how to perform brain surgery and I think this is the comparison between those who contemplate Catholic doctrine in earnest and those that just think they know Scripture and the Holy will of God

Answer 3

You object to Mary’s sinlessness because Paul writes that "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23).

Have all people committed actual sins? Consider a child below the age of reason. By definition he can’t sin, since sinning requires the ability to reason and the ability to intend to sin. Paul speaks in Romans of the time when Jacob and Esau were unborn babies as a time when they "had done nothing either good or bad" (Rom. 9:11).

All Christians know of another very prominent exception to the "all have sinned" rule: Jesus (Heb. 4:15). So if Paul’s statement in Romans 3 includes an exception for the Jesus, one may argue that an exception for the Mary can also be made.

Paul’s comment refers not to absolutely everyone, but to most of us--including you and me--which means young children and other special cases, like Jesus and Mary, would be excluded without having to be singled out.

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve without sin. All souls in heaven are without sin. It is when man is without sin that he is most fully what God intends him to be. Jesus told Christians to be perfect. He saw life without sin was possible in the example of his own mother, the Mother of God.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 4

We do not believe it is purely man-made (equally as infallible as the Bible). The Bible, as the infallible word of God (matt: XVI, 18-19), gives this infallible authority to the Church to formuate dogmas that one may not be able to prove in the Bible itself. Actually, proving those dogmas is not the main purpose of the Bible. The main purpose of the Bible is to inspire us to love God and our neighbor. In other words, the Bible is not a textbook or dictionary for proving dogmas. The Bible is primarily a love story filled with a lot of real magic. The Church has the ability, from the Bible itself, to formulate dogmas through man as the revealed infallible word of God.

Answer 5

What exactly is your question? You make no sense.

I don't know any Catholics who think we wrote the Bible. We don't worship Mary, she was human. God created her specially so that she could bring Jesus into the world as a human.

Where exactly do you have a problem with Catholics believing in Mary as divine?

Answer 6

If faith were based on intelligence, then nobody would have faith. There are many people who want to understand God, and when they cannot, they reject Him. There are many tenants of many religions which require the faithful to suspend their disbelief. That is just part of it. God doesn't expect us to understand Him. He is way beyond our comprehension. Each of us finds his own way, and because we are people, we won't always agree.
Nobody is telling you that you must believe as I do. I am not telling you that mine is the only way. You are entitled to believe anything that you want, and while I might think that you are in error, based on my beliefs, I will never imply that you are stupid because you don't believe as I do.

Answer 7

Epistle Of Saint James
Chapter 1

19 You know, my dearest brethren. And let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger. 20 For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God.




23 For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass.
24 For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was.
25 But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work; this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

Answer 8

>>>You say mary was without sin but the Bible tells us in romans 3:23 'for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of GOD', it doesn't say 'everyone except mary'. >>>


Romans 3:23 refers to humanity in general, not to each and every individual.

For example, it does not refer to severely mentally handicapped people who are incapable of understanding the concept of sin.

Nor does it apply to babies and young children who die before they are old enough to understand the concept of sin.

Nor does it apply to Mary, who the angel Gabriel said in Luke 1 was FULL of grace. The wording of the original Greek translation meant a fullness and plentitude of grace -- and a person who is FULL of grace is undeniably sinless.

Does this mean that Mary had no need of a savior? Not at all. "My spirit rejoices in the Lord my Savior," she tells us in Luke.

If sin is a deep pit, we are saved from it by being pulled out of it after we fall in. In Mary's case, she was kept from falling in the pit in the first place. In both cases, it's God's saving grace at work.

...

Answer 9

Seems to me you have your mind made up about our "intelligence" already, brother.

This issue has been asked, answered, and hashed over often on R&S. You will get patient answers from Catholics explaining what we believe, and yet all you're looking for is an "amen" to your own prejudice.

The debate, in this case, is fruitless.

"If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20)

Answer 10

Protestants assert that the Virgin Mary could not have been immaculately conceived for then She would not have needed redemption. This is evidenced by Her own words in the Magnificat: "my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour" (St. Luke 1, 47). Further, St. John clearly states that "If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us?" (1 St. John 1, 8). How can Catholics therefore claim that the Virgin Mary was sinless?"

The Catholic Church does not deny that the Virgin Mary needed redemption, for She was a child of Adam together with the rest of humanity. Yet, Her redemption was effected in another, "more sublime manner", namely, "redemption by pre-emption." One can be cured of a disease after having contracted it, or one can be spared of that same disease by being inoculated against it in advance. The Virgin Mary’s redemption was effected in this latter manner, thus sparing Her from ever being under Satan's domination.

The Church finds support for the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in the words of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women" (St. Luke 1, 28 [Douai]). She, who was to conceive the Son of God, the Holy of holies, must Herself be supremely holy, and therefore be preserved, not only from actual sin, but also from all stain of Original Sin. The Angel’s words would not have been entirely truthful had the Virgin Mary, for even one instant, been deprived of grace.

St. Luke 1, 28 continues to be a source of much controversy. Most Protestants would prefer to render the original Greek kecharitomene as "highly favoured" rather than "full of grace." In fact, a strict translation of kecharitomene is "thou who hast been graced." Of the two options, "full of grace" is a more clear and definite rendering of the angel’s words than "favour." For this conclusion there exists the authority of the Latin Fathers; the Codices of Alexandrinus and Ephrem; the Syriac and Arabic versions of the Bible; and even the writings of Protestants such as Wycliffe, Tyndale, and Beza.19

The Church, furthermore, asserts that God, immediately after Adam’s fall, cursed Satan and said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head" (Gen. 3, 15). It was by the Virgin Mary's seed, that is, Jesus Christ, that the kingdom of Satan was demolished. It was not fitting that She, who was to co-operate in the defeat of Satan, should ever be infected by his breath or a slave to his kingdom of sin. The enmity between the Virgin Mary and the serpent placed by God was Her triumph over sin, Her Immaculate Conception.

That God should have created the Virgin Mary in a state of holiness as He had formed Eve and the angels is also befitting the honour of God: of the Father, whose daughter She is; of the Son, whose mother She is; and of the Holy Spirit, who, in the incarnation, took the Virgin Mary to be His spouse. Further, as the "new Eve" and mother of the new Adam, the Virgin Mary cannot appropriately be anything less than the original Eve; on the contrary, as Christ excelled Adam, so the Virgin Mary (though to a lesser degree) should excel Eve.

Virgin Mary herself, when She appeared at Lourdes in southern France in 1858, announced to St. Bernadette Soubirous that She was "the Immaculate Conception." The subsequent flow of thousands of miracles stemming from the waters of the Lourdes grotto attest to the authenticity of the Virgin Mary’s apparitions and are a matter of public record for all to examine.

If you don't want to believe, then don't. But we refuse to believe that you and your ilk 'discovered' Christianity, and the 'truth' only 500 years ago..

Answer 11

Sorry I do not have time to give you a full answer, I will try to get back to you with more, but please read this with an open mind. You will find why we believe that Mary never sinned (493). How could Jesus who was pure sinless be born of a woman with sin? Impossible.

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p122a3p2.htm#493