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Christian Denominations and their Founders

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Have you ever wondered who founded your Church? Better yet, your Denomination? The number of splits in Christian Denominations since 1517 A.D. goes over 20,000. Just think about that for a moment. There is over 20,000 Christian Denominations all which came from the original split by Luther in 1517. All claim to be inspired by Scripture alone and therefore separated from other churches in order to teach what they believed was the truth. "Sola Scriptura" meaning "Scripture Alone" was not believed even by Ancient Jews. The Word of God was not only in written form but also orally spread through tradition. Even the eunuch in Acts 8:26-40 needed help with interpreting what he read so that he didn't interpret it incorrectly.  How do we know if ours is the right Church? How do you? Judaism has many different writings explaining Jewish laws their traditions and culture. So does Catholicism. Judaism has always had written and oral traditions of their beliefs. The same goe...
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My Conversion Story

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This isn't a short story so, go to the kitchen, prepare yourself some popcorn and enjoy this long read. You will be here for a while.  Feel free to pause and come back or just take it all in at once. I’d like for you to open up your Bible as I show you what I have learned. Have an open mind and don’t come in with a set idea or a judgmental attitude. Be teachable. Be coachable. Now, let’s start. How did my journey begin?   With despair. I was questioning so many things. Why are there so many contradictory beliefs within the body of Christ? Why is the Church so divided and not united? I kept begging God to help me. Lead me. Call me. What do I do? Where do I go? These were my constant prayers for years as I slowly departed from God. Doubt creeped in and led me to not trust churches anywhere. There was so much division between each other that I couldn’t find the one that had the full truth. How do we know which one is the one true church? As I prayed both audibly and in my heart, ...
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Mortal vs Venial Sins: Are all sins equal?

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Where do Catholics get the idea of “Mortal” vs “Venial” sins? The most common Bible verse used against the very Catholic and very biblical doctrines concerning mortal and venial sin is James 2:10-11 : For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.” The argument is made from this text that all sins are the same before God. Is this true? As it is defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 1849: “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."  THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: IV. THE GRAVITY OF SIN: MORTAL AND VENIAL SIN CCC 1854  Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction...
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Part V Mariology Series: MARY AS THE PERPETUAL VIRGIN

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Mary as revealed through the Scriptures from The Old Testament to The New Testament Welcome to our Mariology Series. In this fifth part, we will be looking into the Catholic Christian Doctrine of Mary’s Perpetual Virginity. Was she truly ever virgin or did she have children as Protestants believe?  Jewish context is really essential both in terms of customs and language to understand and grasp this topic at hand. If you want a more detailed study about this particular topic, I highly recommend the book “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary” by Dr. Brant Pitre. Now, let's move on to the study. As always, let’s start with Jesus. The Lord Yahweh was the bridegroom and Israel was the bride. Christ comes into the world as God incarnate in order to give his life and love for the church who is his bride. Jesus’ celibacy is crucial to his divinity.  Luke 20:34 AMP ‘Jesus said to them, “The sons of this [world and present] age marry and [the women] are given in marriage; but those who a...
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Part IV Mariology Series: MARY AS THE QUEEN MOTHER

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Mary as revealed through the Scriptures from The Old Testament to The New Testament Welcome to our fourth part of our Mariology Series. Let’s get right to it. As always, we will start with Jesus and understand who He is before we turn our attention to Mary. Luke 1:31-32 NLT Angel Gabriel’s words to Mary at the Annunciation ‘ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David .’ Today we are focusing on the identity Jesus has as the one who is the heir to the throne. This has manifold implications for who Mary is in a 1 st Century Jewish context. Any 1 st Century Jew would’ve known that Jesus is the king who's going to be seated on the throne. That means that there’s also to be a queen.  In the Old Testament at the time of David’s Kingdom, the queen was not the King's wife. It was the King’s mother . The 1 st reference to the Quee...
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My Top Catholic Resources

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Want to know more about what the Catholic Church actually teaches? Here are some of the sites and books that have helped me with my conversion back to the Church. When I started searching for ways to refute Catholic teachings, I wanted actual Catholic resources to grab a hold of and prove wrong. If you want to prove something is wrong, you always go to the source. It is the only way I could prove their beliefs and traditions were anti biblical. Here are some resources I found very useful and explain all Catholic teachings clearly: Online Resources My go to online resource for all Catholic questions is Catholic Answers . They have live Q&As on Facebook, YouTube and their app. Both Catholic and non Catholics can call in with their questions and Theologians answer them clearly and directly. www.catholic.com www.facebook.com/catholicanswers www.instagram.com/catholicanswers www.youtube.com/user/catholiccom United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has all the information on Belie...
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Part II Mariology Series: MARY AS THE NEW ARK

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Mary as revealed through the Scriptures from The Old Testament to The New Testament The Ark of the Covenant vs Mary, the new Ark   ↓                               ↓  An anticipation for Our lady As always, if we are to understand who Mary is, we always have to start with Jesus and who he is.  Jesus comes to inaugurate a New Exodus in addition to undoing the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve. Original Exodus: Delivered the Israelites from slavery, through the desert for 40 years then home to the promised land. Through the transfiguration of Jesus, Jesus himself accomplished a new exodus.  “ And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Eli′jah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.”  Luke 9:30-31 ↓   His passion . His death . His resurrection . His ascension . Jesus wants to take us to the promised land of the Kingdom of ...
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PART III: Peter and the CHAIR: All you need to know on the Papacy

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In the final part of this series, let’s look at the early church and the evidence that Peter was in office, that he had a special place of authority and that there is an office of papacy. The earliest record of the early church would actually be the book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles. Here we will discuss how that portrays Peter in this book and how it lends evidence for the fact that Peter had special authority, the Vicar of Christ.  The term Vicar means representative, a person who acts in place of another; a substitute. A person who is authorized to perform the functions of another. Peter is God’s Vicar on earth. We see this in John 21. Jesus gives his pastoral authority to Peter with three commands: “ Feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep.” In this verse, Jesus delegates his authority three times and in three different ways while using imagery found throughout the Old Testament. In so doing he evidently reveals his delegation of authority to Peter. History...
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Sabbath or The Lord's Day?

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If Jesus kept the Sabbath then why do Christians not keep the Sabbath? SABBATH: The seventh day of the week among the Hebrews, the day being counted from sunset to sunset, that is, from Friday evening to Saturday evening. Believe it or not, there is an impressive amount of evidence from Scripture that Christ and the apostles changed their day of corporate worship from Saturday to Sunday. During Jesus’ early earthly ministry, he began to prepare the way to changing the Sabbath by showing special honor shown to Sunday throughout the New Testament. Jesus raised from the dead on a Sunday and appeared to the disciples on that Easter Sunday evening. The Sabbath was instituted and set aside for Jews (not Christians) to rest and worship. Sabbatarians argue that the Lord observed the Sabbath and we should imitate Christ in this. This reasoning, however, fails to consider that our Lord was still under the old covenant when he observed the Sabbath. He enunciated a new covenant at the Last Supper...
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Scriptural Evidence of the Hail Mary

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Is the Hail Mary in the Bible? Throughout the centuries, the Bible has been translated to over 450 different English translations. Each one to make it easier for people to read and understand. How do we know what the original context said? We have to look at the context as it was meant and written in originally. What most don't understand is that there is a lot we miss in the Scriptures because of the different translations available. Many misquote or misunderstand what the context was because of man’s own interpretation of the Bible. Let's keep in mind again that prayer does not equal worship. Prayer is just a conversation and a petition for intercession between us and the Saints (people who died in the Grace of God and are very much alive in heaven). They are directly in His presence so we ask them to pray/intercede for us BEFORE GOD. Many think they replace our prayers to God or we use them as mediators instead of Christ and this is not the case at all. We pray to God direct...
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