CATHOLIC WHOPPERS
In my contact with Catholics, in debates, e-mail and personal contact, I have come across several choice statements which I would like to share with you.
This will demonstrate the absolute poverty of their arguments; when one cannot rely on the plan words of scripture, it is easy to be taken up with vain traditions.
As most of you know, the "fast-every-Friday" rule in Roman Catholicism has been dropped. Now there are very few meatless days, and most Catholics like that.
I was corresponding with a Catholic on the Catholic Message Board and he assured me none of our Catholic grandparents went to Hell for eating meat on Friday; they went there for disobeying a law of the Church.
I was further informed that the Church did not ever forbid eating meat on any Friday. "They did not forbid eating meat; they merely required that you didn't eat meat."
DO/DONE
In e-mail correspondence with Ginny Lopez, I told her that "Nothing I had ever done, nothing I am doing and nothing I will ever do" is contributing to my salvation, because Christ has finished the work.
She replied that she agreed 100% with that statement, and she repeated it, "Nothing I had ever done, nothing I am doing and nothing I will ever do" is contributing to her salvation. She went on to say, "The only thing I have to DO is to keep from committing a mortal sin." (Emphasis mine)
THE LEAKING ARK
One thing that has always amazed me is that the Catholic Church has always looked upon Noah's Ark as a type of Baptism. Even the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church repeats this.
In corresponding with a Catholic, I pointed out that this was not a good type of Baptism, since no one got wet. The water was outside of the Ark.
He wrote back and said it was common knowledge that, back in those primitive days, it was virtually impossible to build a boat that was absolutely waterproof. Therefore, he said, as the boat floated through the flood, they were sprinkled by rain water than came through the leaks in the roof.
PETER LEAVES HOME
Of all the Pauline epistles, the Epistle to the Romans is the only one that has a long list of people to be greeted by name. This was the Holy Spirit's way of demonstrating that when Paul wrote to the Romans, Peter was not in Rome, hence destroying the Catholic theory that Peter was Bishop of Rome for 25 years, 42 to 67 AD.
When I brought this up at a debate with Karl Keating, I was expecting the usual Catholic response - that God didn't want to call attention to Peter's being in Rome as he would be killed by the authorities.
We know the epistle was written to the Church, not the Roman authorities, and we also know Peter had been told by Christ he would suffer martyrdom.
But Karl surprised me.
He said that we all know Peter was in Rome for 25 years because the Church tell us so. But there were a few times when Peter left Rome for a brief period, and that when Paul wrote his Epistle, Peter was away for a short visit and therefore his name wasn't included.
CHRIST AND HANUKKAH
This is an interesting sequence of Roman Catholic logic, sent to me recently via e-mail.
1. 1 Maccabees tells of the initiation of Hanukkah, or the feast of the dedication of the Temple. (4:59)
2. Jesus was in Jerusalem during the feast of the dedication (John 10:22).
3. Therefore, Jesus observed Hanukkah.
4. Therefore, Jesus accepted 1 Maccabees.
5. Therefore, Jesus accepted the entire Apocrypha.
BLESSED ICE CREAM
Going to the extremely bizarre, we have this story the Houston, TX Star-Telegram (Associated Press), Jan. 14, 2000 - Virgin reveals herself in spilled ice cream, faithful say.
They've come from far and wide, clutching rosaries and cameras, jostling to peer through the afternoon heat at an improbable shrine on the cement floor of a Houston apartment complex.
In the midst of wilting roses, candles and crosses, they say, the Virgin of Guadalupe reveals herself to the faithful in an amorphous stain of melted ice cream.
To unfaithful eyes, the crusty smear looks about as earthshaking as, well, a melted popsicle. But ecstatic believers swear they can discern the form of the beloved Mexican idol.
The uproar began Monday, when residents picked out the brilliant robes of the Mexican saint in the sticky swirls at the foot of a soda machine. Word spread, and there have been 500 to 800 onlookers from as far away as Miami, Seattle and Canada, Ms. Cervantes said. Some stay at the shrine all night long, absorbed in meditation.