Hey Robo can I suggest you delete all the posts in this thread and close it to replies, the subject does not warrant any discussion. Any Catholics that think they are Christian should sit down and read the bible, you would find that Catholicism is explicitly anti-christ and goes against all of the gospel. It is in plain English and black and white, if you disagree then you are on the wrong site. You might as well go on some Muslim site and say Allah is a lie, it's absolutely pointless to argue this here. If you want the truth you only have to go as far as reading the gospels rather than relying on what other people tell you is true.
And there of course is the problem - those who refuse to find out what catholicism is before attack it. And so we go in the endless cycle.
We clearly ARE hristian, read the nicene creed! The basis of good portion of the catechism and developed at the same time as your new testament, by the same and similar people. Unless you accept they were inspired then goodbye your new testament too.
All those who wish to attack catholicism should read the catechism first, rather than the myths they invent about it, so please find out what it is first!
Don't worry , you are not alone. As a protestant / evangelical I was force fed similar bunk about catholicism, it was only when I grew up a little and decided to make up my own mind that I discovered that much of what was said about it was myth, the rest jusifiable, the objections were synthetic, shallow and false.
It certainly is justifiable in scripture, and moreover study of the history of the canon, and early church fathers give no choice but to accept RCC or reject the new testament completely!
GuitarPraise should also consider that you are not united on this forum in any way at all. So the "them RCC" and "us protestants" is a false dichotomy.
Just study this forum and you will see several different theologies of justification, many different theologies of the eucharist, several of baptism, etc etc etc and a verbal punchup on every issue. So by definition at least 99% of you are preaching false teaching, since hundreds of you all disagree! A clear lack of authority the problem.
Look at the "Opinions" on such as Matthew 16:18, matthew 18 etc and the only thing uniting protestants is the lengths to which they go twisting the scripture to avoid accepting the obvious , that peter is the rock upon which christ built his church. Some protestant interpretations of that are laughable. They are so far removed from the words spoken, they make no sense at all, but for the most part having decided "peter" is wrong, protestants fail to give a viable alternative for many of the scriptures that define catholicism. They are united only on a negative. "we dont know what it means, but we do not want it to be the catholic version". I know. Iasked, got no sensible responses at all.
Indeed far from finding a few dissenters it is hard to find any of you united, except in criticism of RCC, since every Tom Dick and Harry is allowed to make up their own version, it is not surprising that there are now tens of thousands of denominations, since everyone can make their own private interpretaion of scripture conform to them, not the other way round. Endless fractures and schisms the result, because of lack of authority.
And I bring you back to the obvious issue. Scripture says "the pillar and foundation of truth" is the church. NOt scripture, but the church! The hallmark of the true church is constancy of doctrine over millenia. Only one candidate for that. The one supported by early church fathers, who describe a sacramental, liturgical church with appointed clergy and that believed in the real presence and so on. It was only in the post reformation when everyone want their own version, that naming became important. In the early church there was only one of significant size. The one that gave you the new testament.
The one that became RCC
If you look back on this thread, you will find answers to all of the standard objections to catholicism. I do not see why we should keep repeating them, for the next person who fails to study before criticise. There are many books on the subject.
The problem of course is many myths -
The sad thing even in RoboOps post - his mother in law is said to have believed that "mary saves" Whether or not that was a misunderstanding is irrelevant, RCC does not even believe that, so why criticise it for something it does not believe? So please read the catechism first.
He also criticises RCC for saying the honorary title "mother of god" when elizabeth honoured her much the same as "mother of lord"! so clearly scriptural!
Perhaps the worst are people Like KenAllan who now criticise RCC who was at one time part of it, clearly never studied it, was easy prey for the latest evangelical group and now trotts out myths against it So read the catechism and discover that:
WE ARE CHRISTIANS! WE ARE THE ORIGINAL CHRISTIANS, before every Tom Dick and Harry invented their own version of it!