Hi I have spent over 10 years a on a Catholic discussion board before I was asked to leave. I did this as part of my morning devotion to get some ideas to how can we hear God seeing they have been around a while. And like Gilligan’s Island it started to be a three hour tour but ended up hundreds or more of episodes and ten years later.
They could be Christians but if so it’s a dark place and they need to hear the gospel either to call them out or strengthen them to stay and be a light.
It does not make me an expert. But in the end of the matter scripture God’s word of itself has no authority to give us His faith without the oral traditions of their fathers as the same kind (two kinds of fathers) of fathers that Christ replied in effect. .....Therefore seeing you will not measure your faith in respect to God’s word the final authority , then measure your own in respect to your fathers and called them a brood of vipers, a phrase that indicate false prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Mat 23:32
The Catholics would say they have the fullness of faith because they do follow the fathers from generation to the next (apostolic succession) . This makes the word of God without effect. Never do the things of men become the things of God.
When we see that we know who is behind it seeing he needs a form to produce his own kind of upside down faith coming from the fathers, inspired from the earth.
Interesting the same portion of Scripture(8 verses) The catholic fathers use to give authority to men (Peter) as what they call the key that unlocks the gates of hell is in respect to Peter .God uses the same portion to reveal who is behind that kind of upside down ideology. Helping us to understand to be careful to distinguish between the things of God (His Tradition/law the Bible) and the traditions of men as commands , the oral traditions thereof.
According to the Catholic law of the fathers, there is no difference between the things of God (tradition the Bible) and those of their fathers oral tradition of men . They would conclude the Protestants simply do not what they call have the “whole deposit of faith”.
Interestingly they put the oral Traditions of the father first and called them Sacred as if they were in the place of the Holy Spirit. .and whatsoever comes from the mouth of father that they bind on earth will be loosed in heaven .Turning things upside down.
Law of the Catholic fathers....80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, “flowing out from the same divine well-spring”, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal." Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age".
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.But
he turned, and said unto
Peter, Get thee behind me,
Satan:
thou art an "offence unto me": for thou savourest
not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Mat 16:15
In the end because they need to build their own faith principle they establish it on necromancy which is seeking to worship after disembodied workers with familiar spirits that they have self-appointed as patron saints reigning with Christ from heaven .And sell the idol images needed to go with each one in order to put a face on the legion (officially 3500 and rising) seeing when it comes up it comes up as many and an idol image called a teraphim is needed to help a person focus on the specific disembodied spirit they are seeking in respect to the work that is assigned by the Pope the officiator to each of the 3500 and rising.
It has it foundation in the old testament . God calls scriptures call it an abomination .It is something that Rachel practiced when she stole her father’s teraphims (many) .
Gen 31:34 Now Rachel had taken the
images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.
Strongs lexicon 08655 t@raphiym {ter-aw-feme'}pl. from 07495; TWOT - 2545; n m
AV - image 7, teraphim 6, idol 1, idolatry 1; 15 1) idolatry, idols, image(s), teraphim, family idol 1a) a kind of idol used in household shrine or worship
Without the use of necromancy they have no way to create the illusion as to what they call Mary the Queen mother of heaven and worship an image to go alone with the disembodied worker with a familiar spirit. And this is even though no one l knows what she looks like, even if it did mater. They just create one according to the working of their own faith coming from the fathers. They say they do not worship by changing the word to venerate, as venerable, the Greek word
agiazo (worship-able )which is a form of worship.
But inquiring of to worship a disembodied worker is reserved for our Father in heaven in respect to “one manner” and not manners as many to include what they call patron saints. .
Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Strongs lexicon ..37 hagiazo {hag-ee-ad'-zo} from 40; TDNT - 1:111,14; v
AV - sanctify 26, hallow 2, be holy 1; 29
1) to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow 2) to separate from profane things and dedicate to God 2a) consecrate things to God 2b) dedicate people to God 3) to purify 3a) to cleanse externally 3b) to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin 3c) to purify internally by renewing of the soul
I think most Christian realize it’s the saints on earth that are rienging with Christ as a kingdom of priest bringing the gospel into the word and not the saints like Mary who has departed and never again will have any work to do here again. She a sllep like any saint that departs from this realm under the sun.
The words of Christ below( 1 Thes 4) that should comfort them, I would think should send a chill down their spine when they seek to bring down one of these patron saints(3500 and rising) . Again because the scriptures are of no authority to them they must walk away in unbelief (no faith) as if they were purposely ignorant to what God does reveal. The idea of soul sleep destroys their very foundation.
Like any other who claims to know the Lord we cannot see into their hearts therefore we seek our Father in heaven the one disembodied worker with a familiar spirit who can change the heart of another. It’s with His words alone that we comfort one another not those of the fathers, Christ’s nemesis.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that
we which
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent them which
are asleep.For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with the Lord.Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1Th 4:13