How is it that Catholics don’t see the wrongful practices in their religion?
Question:
I have a wonderful friend who is Catholic, but she is also hovering on snake handling! (I say laughingly.)
This lady is very active in abortion marches and does wonderful works, but she will not listen to me. She claims King James was a homosexual who tried to destroy the "true" church that all the monks and priests worked hard to preserve. I studied about it and found no evidence he was homosexual or any mention of it.
How can Catholics not see the nonsense of the practices in their religion? They make a simple plan of salvation into a great show of majesty, pomp, and pageantry! They also accept, without question, anything the priests tell them!
I have forwarded this site to her. She converted her "Baptist" husband! This lady is tough!
Answer:
If a Catholic accepted that their religious practices were wrong, then they wouldn't remain Catholics. The real problem is that not everyone is interested in truth; most are determined to be right in their own eyes even if they have to deny everything else.
"The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (II Thessalonians 2:9-12).
The Catholics don't have a lock on this attitude, it is prevalent in most religions. Typically you can spot such people when they sit down to read a passage that goes against what they've always accepted. Ask such a person what the passage means and they will say the opposite of what is in their own Bible. Point it out and they will get upset and insist that you are twisting the verse -- even when you have yet to say the verse is teaching.
I still shake my head at the recollection of a study I had with one young man. He read I Peter 3:21: "There is also an antitype which now saves us -- baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." "See," he announced, "baptism doesn't save us." I told him what he just read didn't say that. "Well, that's because you don't know the Greek," he declared. "I have a dictionary right here in the back of my Bible and it says that the Greek word means 'immediate salvation.' So you see, baptism cannot save!" I was stunned. He contradicted his own Bible and dictionary and could not see it. I packed up and left. There was no point going further with someone blind to the truth.
That is probably the hardest thing for most Christians to accept. We tend to think everyone else is pretty much like we are. For the most part, it might be correct, but just because we see and accept the truth it doesn't follow that everyone will do the same. "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside" (Matthew 13:19).
I don't know why your friend wants to pick on King James. He might have appointed a committee to make another English translation of the Bible and financed it, but the moral character of the sponsor isn't what tells us whether the translation is good or not. People today, who seem to be fascinated with homosexuality, have made accusations that James was bisexual [Wikipedia]. But what his possible lack of morals has to do with Christianity, I really can't guess. A better question would be to ask about the gross immorality in the Vatican during the Middle Ages, but most Catholics would rather gloss over that low point in their history [Encyclopedia Britannica; Popish Immorality; The Medieval Papacy]. While the later is a valid argument against the Roman Catholic church's claim for apostolic succession, in general focusing on the past is not nearly as profitable as focusing on what the Bible actually teaches.
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). So use the weapon God gave Christians. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (II Corinthians 10:4-5). "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek" (Romans 1:16). "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe" (I Corinthians 1:21).
