[Faith-talk] a distressing book

[Linda Mentink]

Hi Debby,

Well said. You should put the Bible in your Apex. I have a copy 
there, and it's great! I can go wherever in there at church, and read 
along with the rest of the congregation!

Blessings,

Linda

At 08:39 AM 12/30/2014, you wrote:
>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