[Faith-talk] a distressing book

[Debby Phillips]

Well, my first response is to tell you to throw the book away.  
You should certainly read Scripture and pray.  Your question is 
so huge here, though.  Let me see if ow can break it down into 
pieces.  First of all, and granted, I'm writing from a Catholic 
point of view, okay? So after Jesus was crucified, died and rose 
again, the early Christians only had the Old Testament.  And they 
had the Apostles.  The Apostles studied and prayed.  And they 
laid hands on other men and ordained them bishops.  In the first 
centuries, there began to be writings from what we would call the 
"Fathers" of the Church.  And there were Councils, the first 
being written about in Acts.  It was the First Council, and in 
many Church histories, you will hear it called The Council of 
Jerusalem.  The Church leaders came together and after much 
discussion, Peter shared his vision, and his going to the Roman 
official.  It was agreed by Paul and the other Apostles that 
Gentile Christians should not have to follow the Jewish laws, a 
letter was written and taken to Gentile Christians.  All of these 
Councils have brought about some extremely important doctrines 
that most Christians today, whether Catholic or Protestant, look 
upon as orthodox.  And throughout the years Church leaders came 
together and decided, of all the writings out there, which ones 
should be considered part of the Bible.  At the time of the 
Reformation, Luther decided that certain books shouldn't be part 
of the Scriptures.  Protestants call those books Apocrypha.  
Catholics call them the Deutero Canonical or Second Canon.

Although it is true that the CATHOLIC Church chose the 
celebration of the Birth of Christ to be at a certain time of the 
year, (nobody really knows for sure when He was born) it could 
have been October or April for all we know.  The time of year of 
celebrating Christ's Birth is actually kind of symbolic.  It is 
the time of the Winter Solstice, (the darkest time of winter), 
but Christ came in to the world to bring light and hope.

When the Reformation took place, it was not Luther's original 
intent to leave the Catholic Church and to found his own church.  
I would say that it was pride, stubbornness, and emotion run amok 
on both sides that created the issue.  The Catholic Church has 
continued to reform itself, the last huge one being Vatican II.

As for Catholics and Protestants being the same, except for the 
rituals, well, I'm not sure that I'd totally agree there, but at 
the same time, Catholics and Protestants have much more in common 
than many Protestants or Catholics would acknowledge.  ALTHOUGH 
there seems to be more anti-Catholic sentiment than anti 
Protestant, it does exist.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this to be as long.  And it's not as 
thorough as I'd like it to be.  I'm just sitting here with my 
Apex and my first cup of coffee, and I have no references close 
by, not even my Bible as it's in a whole different area of the 
house.  From a Catholic perspective, I recommend any books by 
Scott Hahn.  There's also a book called Catholicism for Dummies, 
that pretty much sets forth basic teachings of the Catholic 
Church.  There is also a similar book called The Bible for 
Dummies, though I have not read it.  It's in the same style as 
Computers for Dummies.  Anyway that's my dime's worth today.  
Take it for what it is, me throwing together some thoughts based 
on my own study.    Blessings,    Debby and Neena