Glad you came by! Please join (or start!) the conversation...
[oy]
Um, just scanning briefly (sorry, have to get to the yard-mowing before it gets too dark). This sounds like dinner conversation at my house. Tef is constantly on the forums at Catholic Answers swatting some numb-nads with the Truth. You should check that out. Time consuming, but worthwhile.
WHO THE HECK HAD THE REAL PRESENCE MAILED TO THEIR HOUSE? That's beyond... well, it's beyond beyond! WHA?!
I'll be back after dark to read your disertation in full. Just the scan looks lovely.
If Christianity were merely a set of rules made to dominate and control people, and enslave their minds, then living by those rules would result in misery for the believers and those around them. The evidence is quite the contrary...
I will prove that point from personal experience; I spent 6 years under an oppressive man-made law at a Pentecostal church and can tell you -- you are EXACTLY RIGHT. It was only when we came to the Mother Church that things started to make sense and we became truly free.
But I digress.
Any argument to someone who is determined NOT to believe in what you say is almost like screaming into the wind, but other people are reading and they might be affected. And when we lay our heads on our pillows at night, strong arguments can stay with us.
Keep at it. Your effort is not in vain, even if you can't see it.
[half-shrug] I think the proof for me is that hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of people have died (and certainly will die in the future) for something they believe in so strongly that they are willing to be tortured to death for it. And they weren't convinced to believe under duress. They were convinced by Love. Every single one of the Apostles, save one, died a violent death. One isn't torn apart by lions or sawn in half for kicks and giggles. Sorry.
Don't forget that in the time of Christ, numerous false Messiahs arrived on the scene to claim the throne, only to be killed or driven out of town. And the only evidence we have of their existence is an obscure record from Josephus. Clearly the followers of Christ experienced "something" that convinced them His calling was worthwhile.
And what an odd calling to cling to! To love at the expense of one's self, one's family, country, mortality, at the expense of every fiber of their rage, hatred and inclination to revenge?! Please!
The justification for Islam? Revenge. The justification for Buddhism? Navel-gazing. What's the justification for forsaking everything you have for your enemies?! What could we possibly -- RATIONALLY -- gain from that mindset were it not rewarded by this thing we call GOD?!
Case in point, PETER! Could Christ have chosen a more pathetic candidate for the leader of his church? (And I say that with the utmost affection and admiration.) But someone who denied Him thrice, with swearing and cursing, seems the last person He might want to chose to carry His keys. That in itself makes the Gospels that much more compelling -- that the Truth is depicted, warts and all.
But, again, I digress.
Well done.
As you can tell, Hubby let me have the computer for more than five minutes. He's painting military figurines (the new hobby for him and Senor Bean when he comes of age) and we're listening to Mark Levin. I've had a glass-and-half of port. I hope I've made sense! [LOL]
Good job.
'fly, I admit I did not really read this post. I am trying to get in touch with you because I need you (yes, that is me being needy) to write a guest post for me. My dad has died and I want a good catholic to write something for us. Will you? Love, Nina.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, Christ died for us."
When I was stationed in Germany many moons ago, my dorm room window faced the Base Chapel, right across the street. Coming home drunk, I would leave the window open for cool night air. Of course I would be awakened by the Chapel bells later Sunday morning. And as I looked out my window (hung over as a dog)at all the nice church-goers I thought to myself that I could never be like those people, I could never be normal.
I was a fool, among other things. According to the above verse, Jesus didn't hang on a cross for the cleaned-up church-going sober Spider, He died for the Spider who was throwing up in the hood of a '76 Volare in the NCO Club parking lot, the Spider who was staggering up and down die Reeperbahn. The Spider who harbored winoism, whorism, and a whole lot of other "isms" deep in his black heart.
Some of you may be thinking of the old Cheech & Chong joke, "I used to be all messed up on drugs until I found the Lord, now I'm all messed up on the Lord". But the paradox is that the more I try to follow Christ, the more freedom I have. That's why we evangelicals call it getting saved.
Remember that Christ died for you on your worst day.
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