@RevSpitz:

Somewhere along your ancestry they were either Catholic Christians or pagans.

And who gave you the authority to interpret Scripture for me?

If you are a Lutheran, your sect was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.

If you belong to the Church of England (Anglican), your sect was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the pope could not grant him an annulment from his true and lawful wife, catherine of Aragon, with the right to re-marry.

If your a Presbyterian, your sect was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.

If your an Episcopalian, your denomination was an offshoot of the Church of England founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century.

If your a Methodist, your denomination was launched by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.

If you are a Mormon of the Church of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith, Jr. started your religion in Palmyra, New York, in 1829.

If your a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your sect to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1605.

If your a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.

If your a Jehovah Witness, your religion was invented by Pastor Charles Taze Russell in 1874 and incorporated in 1881.

Before the Books of the Bible were canonized, how was the Gospel spread? Before the printing press was invented some one-thousand and five hundred years after Christ, how was the Gospel spread?

How do the answers to these questiions apply to the concept of "sola scriptura," or the "Bible alone" as the rule of faith?

What does 2Peter 3:16 warn against?
2Peter 1:20-21 says "No prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation."

This is why there are 20 some THOUSAND different Protestant sects,...because they are all interpreting scripture to their own whims.

Christ said there shall be but ONE FLOCK and ONE Shepherd.

Therefore says St. Paul, in his Epistle to Timothy, "the Church is the ground"---that is the strong foundation --"and the pillar of the truth."

No, you are in error. You have no proof that that Catholic Church follows from Peter and even if it did, that does not mean it did not go off in error. The only truth directly from God that is able to be verified is what is contained in the Holy Bible. What Catholics like you do not comprehend is it is individual Christians that are actually following Jesus Christ. They are not following a religion; either Catholic, protestant or whatever. It's one on one with Jesus Christ. No man between us and God, as you Catholics like to put the priest between you and God.

Dearest TES - The very premise of the Protestant movement was a priori flawed..... The founder of the Ancient Christian Sees, viz. Antioch-Alexandria, Jerusalem and Rome, is Christ Jesus Himself. Anytime the founder of a Christian movement is NOT Christ Jesus Himself, it is in the wrong. Therefore, Luther, Calvin, Zwingley, Henry VIII, and that lot, being the founders and orchestrators of the Protestant movement, can never be correct - no matter how much their followers try to rationalise it. It's either you are part of the Ancient Fold or you are not.

Therefore, WELL DONE THAT GIRL!!! Do keep steadfast in your new-found Roman Catholicism!

Pax

Thank you kfarley! :) You are right in what you say about teh Protestant churches - they really do have a problem, but they refuse to recognise it. It's just sooooo much easier to make your own way the thruth and live on as you have before, and make many friends on the way... Well, we'll see in the end, what really counts: the Catholic Faith, or the 30,000 "real and correct" protestant versions...
If only all the people would remember Our Lady of Fatima!!!

Tes, I applaud your decision to join the Catholic Church. The problem you mention in the Lutheran church is all too common in many Protestant denominations because they become victim to moral relativism. They have broken from the true faith and throughout the centuries have become influenced by the gradual decay of the society around them. In order to keep parishoners so many churches cater to homosexuals and moral deviants of all types. They claim that it is God who has made them this way and therefore it is good. The truth is that if someone has homosexual tendencies it is a cross they must bear and not act upon these feelings. You must "die to self" to follow Christ. You cannot follow your human passions and follow Christ at the same time. "Feelings" take precident for individuals who compromise what God intends for them to do.

And here I am, the "crazy woman" from Finland, who wants actually to join the Catholic Church! After 20 years of thinking back and forth, having finally in 2010 enough inner courage to announce that aloud. The Catholic Church is the Sacred Body of Christ, and as such Holy and Perfect - what the people within do or don't do is a totally different matter and has nothing to do with the Holiness of the Church itself! Irapuatos sister couldn't have said it more to the point: it's all just excuses to justify their own sins. And in such a way that they themselves think that they become somehow "better" people!
I also agree with ACL and Kfarley; as far as I know, there is no such term in Theology as "de-babtisism" - poeple are just so stupid sometimes!
I would like to ask you people, by the way, what you think of the Lutheran Church in Finland: for 1,5yrs there was a scandal over a pries that underwent a sex-change operation, becoming a SHE. Divorced his wife after 25yrs of marriage and became a woman. And the church allowed him to continue being a priest. (That's when I REALLY seriously started to think that I might be in a "sinking ship" that is morally going under faster than the Titanic!) And here I am, totally happy, having left behind the church that allows people to marry and divorce as many times as they want, who accepts abortion, etc etc
People are not perfect, but when we look for the perfect CHURCH, there's no question about it!

Gosh..... This is a clear example of the lack of understanding, academic as well as spiritual. Once the sacrament is administered ex juris grace has configured the soul already. Therefore, one becomes Christian at this point. This is the most important thing, not that one is Cathoic or Lutheran or whatever. Therefore, if one desires to 'unsubscribe' as it were to the Catholic Church due to scandals and the like, so be it. HOWEVER, it is not possible to do so from Christianity, in this way. (Unless one rejects Christ and God publically and renounces all that is Christian!)

The mere removal of a written name from a book is not enough. Those who think so have not fully grasped the theology of the event; they apply saecular proceedure to a most spiritual reality - "square pegg in a round hole"....!! Yet again, lack of understanding of what baptism is.....

Therefore, I see this issue as one of hurt and angry people wishing to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Catholic Church. NOT, people renouncing Christianity. There is still hope.....

Unfortunately people advocating de-baptism are those without faith in the first place. In this very video a group advocating "secular-morality" (an oxymoron in terminology to begin with) and people that have problems with Church doctrine of contraception and generally morality to begin with are just looking for an excuse to separate themselves from the Catholic Church. Using the bad behavior of fallen priests as a reason for leaving the Perfect Body of Christ-The Catholic Church is no reason at all.