Doesn't it say in the scriptures--Isaiah I think--"If you seek Me you will find Me. If you seek Me with all your heart."
I have some protestant friends who are so very comfortable in their church that every question they have answered by me or other Catholics they just toss aside and say that there are many journeys to God. They grew up in atheist households and are attending a local church run by a former Catholic who decided that he was more holy than the Church so are very ignorant about theology other than what this man tells them (and by the way, they think he is the ultimate authority in regards to anything of faith). But they do ask me questions knowing I am Catholic and very versed in the Bible, and although they are amazed by some of my answers that they check out in their own bibles, they have no interest in furthering their knowledge or changing their thinking. They read the bible constantly, but just skip over any passages that don't seem to agree with their church. So as said above, IF someone searches for the Truth, they will find it! But many are not interested in Truth....
One of the logical problems of protestantism is that the reformers reject the infallibility of ecumenical councils, yet if you congregate in a protestant church, you have to accept its corresponding confession of faith, which is a tremendous absurdity because if the church supposedly erred in the councils, the same logic applies to the confessions of faith.
Great verse, Ann. It is found in Jeremiah; one of my favorite passages! Thank you!!! I needed to be reminded! 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord...
I was reading an article by Brazilian professor and apologist Catholic Felipe Aquino about the differences between the Catholic and Protestant Bibles and the historicity and authority in the early church of the Catholic biblical canon. In this article, I was able to discover that Luther, when translating the Bible into German, also translated the seven (deuterocanonical) books in his edition of 1534, and Protestant biblical societies, until the 19th century, included the seven books in editions of the Bible. This is very interesting because it forces Protestants to accept a kind of "development of doctrine," as if Protestantism needed to evolve over the centuries to obtain the complete and true biblical canon. https://cleofas.com.br/por-que-a-biblia-catolica-e-diferente-da-protestante/
I wonder what the Protestants came to reject in these seven books, some of which, notably both Maccabees and especially Daniel, are among the most profoundly prophetic in the Old Testament? Did they find descriptions of martyrdom distasteful, especially in their 'sophisticated' and rationalistic 19th century?
They threw out Maccabees because it proves that purgatory exists - 2 Maccabees 12:46 It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
Throw out the safety net of Purgatory and is it surprising that they mostly have come to abandon Hell? Scripture Alone and, if it suits me, I'll erase them.
The reference to Purgatory in Maccabees offended them as I understand it. Perhaps the heavy reliance on St Michael as protector in Daniel? That would alarm their anti-saint attitudes. Just guessing here.
