And therein, above, lies a huge part of your problem: adhering to doctrine made by men, rather that the simple, pure truth of the Bible. While the Catholic church does have some truth (mainly that Jesus shed His blood, died and rose from the dead all so we could be with Him in Heaven, there are FAR TOO MANY Pagan practices incorporated along with that. You are in a trap of tradition and legalism and IF you were to study the Bible on it's own with only Holy Spirit bringing the understanding that you are due, you would be one step closer to the true freedom in Christ that you seek. I was brought up Catholic. It does not, in it's wholeness of Catholicism, follow the Bible and in many places goes against it. For instance, speaking to the dead: MARY IS DEAD, yet they pray to her and that is a demonic deception. You want real freedom? Find a church that PRACTICES THE TRUTH of the Bible, not one that just claims it.
Maggie
Maggie,
1. What is the Catholic Church.
1.A. Is Roman Catholicism and the Pope of Rome the Catholic Church?
1.B. Isn't the true Church called the Catholic Church? Isn't the true Catholic Church having Christ alone as Her Head, and not the popes of Rome, or any mere man?
2. How does a person study the Bible on it's own?
2.A. Doesn't that mean Acts 8:30-31 is false? The Ethiopian eunuch studied the Bible "on its own", and didn't know what the Bible meant by what it said.
2.B. Didn't St. Philip tell the Ethiopian what Isaiah 53 means?
2.C. Don't all Protestants follow a man, Martin Luther? Yes. Because all Protestants believe in justification "by faith alone", and Luther invented the doctrine by adding the word "alone" after the word "faith" in Romans 3:28, in opposition to James 2:24!
3. Where in Revelation does it say the 24 Elders are dead? If they are dead, how can they be praying to Jesus Christ? Don't you believe the souls of the dead are alive? Yes, their bodies are dead. That doesn't mean that THEY are dead. A Christian is more than his mortal body.
4. What is the simple, pure truth of the Bible?
5. What man tells you what the Bible means? If you don't listen to some MAN, you are disobeying St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.
6. Where do you get your understanding of the Bible? Did the Ethiopian get his understanding "direct from the Holy Spirit", or did he get it from a man of God, and Apostle of God, St. Philip? See Acts 8:30-31?
7. Dear Sister, God bless you in Christ. After 1 Corinthians 14: comes 36-30. Which tells us not to be ignorant of the Truth of the Bible! And to not fail to listen to St. Paul, "If anyone think to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge what I write to you, that they are the commandments of the Lord" (ONT Orthodox New Testament, Volume 2, page 168, q.v.). Cf. 1 Cor. 14:34-35, op.cit., q.v.
If the Ever-Virgin Mary is "dead", then why does Revelation 12:1-6 picture the Woman as alive in Heaven?: This is Mary as a type of the Church. This is Mary as a type of both OT Israel and the NT Church, 12 stars, the 12 tribes of Israel; 12 stars, the 12 Apostles of Christ.
Why do some people "want the saints to be "dead"? Don't you believe that to "be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD"? Is Mary, the Mother of God, not present with Jesus Christ, the LORD?
Are not all the Saints whom we know are in Heaven, present with the LORD.
Saints in Heaven such as
St. Peter
St. Paul
St. John the Baptist
St. Andrew
St. John
St. James
St. Thomas
St. Matthew
St. Mark
St. Luke
St.Barnabas
St. Timothy
St. Titus
St. Jude
St. Philip
St. Bartholomew
St. Apollos
St. Silas
St. Stachys
etc.
God save us all from ignorance of God and the Scriptures. cf. 1 Cor. 14, cf. above.
God bless us everyone, in Christ Jesus. Amen.
MaggieMye: I don't follow Catholicism. I follow Eastern Orthodoxy, for Christ is IN ORTHODOXY, and ORTHODOXY is IN CHRIST. GOD (CHRIST) is IN HIS CHURCH (1 Tim. 3:15, Matthew 16:18).
Catholicism and Protestantism are TWO SIDES of the same coin, the same false INDIVIDUALISTIC, PRIVATE FAITH.
Orthodoxy, holy Orthodoxy, is "the faith once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3), the Faith of Christ and His Apostles, of His Church and His Bible.
GOD SAVE US. AMEN. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington