New Post by Ex-CoCer

Wanted to share this post on God's sovereignty and the whole blog in general.

http://lovebeingcatholic.wordpress.com

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Two Resources

I wanted to quickly post two resources here that I think are very good to those who are in the Church of Christ and examining other beliefs.

The first is by a preacher who left the CoC and became Catholic. This book is a great introduction to the differences between the two groups, and I believe it to be written with respect for both traditions:

http://www.amazon.com/Christ-His-Fullness-Bruce-Sullivan/dp/0970262175

The second is from a gentleman who became Orthodox after leaving the CoC. His introduction is freely available online, and I heartily recommend it (although obviously I am Catholic and not Orthodox, I have an extreme respect for their beliefs.)

http://www.craton.net/journey/prologue.htm

Bible Canonization

A big issue that has made me feel like the Catholic church *has* to be the church that Christ established is around the canonization of the Bible. Something that no one in the CoC ever even attempted to adequately explain to me was where the Bible came from - not the individual books, but the entire Bible. How was it accurately compiled and canonized? The closest thing I ever got to an answer was someone claiming that one of the apostles (presumably John) had to have lived long enough after the time of Christ, probably two or three hundred years, to collect and compile all of the books of the Bible. (I can only assume that this was a difficult task, as the CoC teaches that the church almost immediately went apostate and the small remnant of the "one true church" - aka forefathers of the CoC - was stuck hiding out from the evil Catholic church).

It seems to me that this is something that most CoCers won't touch with a ten foot pole - I think they like to believe that a few years after Jesus died, the Holy Spirit dropped a couple hundred bound copies of the KJV on the doorsteps of the churches at Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, etc. and then completely disappeared. Yes, I'm being a little snarky, but they do completely ignore the fact that the Bible was, in fact, canonized by the Catholic church. It is completely illogical to me that God would leave this task to any group but the church that Christ established.

Comment

Here's a comment from another ex-CoCer who posted in the comments. Wanted to share them to make them more prominent.

Anonymous said...

in vetro fertilization comes to mind. This was something that certain members of my church of Christ family considered. I had issues with it but only based on what I now understand to be "Moral Theology". In my understanding man should not be trying to play god or try to take God's place at all. Taking human life into ones own hands is gravely sinful. But then, so was a white lie. I also realized that scripture clearly points out that there are sins more severe than others. Why would we [Church of Christ Christians] deny this fact. I've found a considerable amout of peace returning to my faith that my father exposed me to in my teenage years. I found truth and guidance. The anxiety of having to figure it all out on my own was removed once I understood God's grace and how we can receive sanctifying grace. After all, are we tryin to do God's will or our own? I choose God's will and therefore I choose Christ in His fullness in the Catholic Church. The history books show the truth, not an anonomous group of "modern experts" invoked in "The Eternal Kingdom". It's rediculous for anyone to believe that the Church that Christ founded immediately went into major heresy as claimed because it contradicts what Christ said, that the gates of hell would not prevail aginst it. So, here we are, Catholic and loving it....still...even after discovering that the real Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, is filled with sinners. I think a prerequisite to belong to it is to be a sinner. We won't be disfellowshipped here, that's for sure. And forget about family run churches. No elder is going to appoint their son or son in law to a high position to "keep it in the family". Nope, this is the real Church that Christ founded and with all His wisdom he must have seen this coming. Don't get me wrong here. I love my separated brothers and sisters in Christ. But they are missing out of the rest of the story and the truth in others. Pray for them, I do. Pray for us so that we may continue to be charitable with them for some of the stunts they've pulled trying to "save us". How misguided can someone get? I believe we've seen that already I guess. Why do they live in fear? What an enormous poverty they suffer.

PAX

Grey Areas

I blogged on my other blog about the Catholic Church and its clear teaching - how it eliminates grey areas. Thinking back to the Church of Christ days, it seems as though there was a real struggle to pretend like there aren't any grey areas, however since the Bible isn't an instruction book, it leaves a lot open. Abortion, for instance, is it killing? Is a child a person or are they not? Regardless of the few passages people throw out, the Bible doesn't clearly spell this out. Especially in instances like life of the mother. How about contraception? Killing in war? For self-defense? Lying to protect someone? All grey. It seems like the Church of Christ wants to say there is no grey area, but it is almost all grey - we need an infallible authority to tell us right from wrong, someone guided directly by the Spirit to lead us to all truth...a "pillar and foundation of the truth".

La Bella Vita's Introduction

Hello!

I'm la bella vita. I was born and raised in the Church of Christ denomination and I am currently learning about Catholicism. As an adult, I attended the CoC sporadically for several years, but in the last year I finally admitted to myself that I no longer believed in the denomination's teachings. I knew that I still believed in Christianity, so I began educating myself about other Christian faiths, including Catholicism. I am still early in the process of learning about the Catholic church and her teachings, but I am consistently amazed by not only how much sense everything I am learning makes, but also by how much biblical and historical evidence there seems to be backing up Catholicism. I'm not Catholic yet, but I'm hoping to share my journey here - what I'm learning, what questions I have, and the answers that I find. I know that this journey will take time, but I'm enjoying learning and exploring at my own pace.

Joseph's Introduction

Hello all,

I'm Joseph the Worker. I took my name after my patron saint, St. Joseph. I was raised in the mainline Church of Christ, and later switched to the non-institutional (anti) Churches of Christ. I became Catholic about 3 years ago, and have not looked back sense. I hope to share in future posts some of the things I learned after becoming Catholic and maybe open up some dialogue between myself and others thinking about converting or even happy in their faith in the Church of Christ but willing to have dialogue with others. I am not writing these with the direct intent of converting people from the Church of Christ to Catholicism.

I believe the next post will be by a young woman who is currently in the process of leaving the Church of Christ and discovering the Catholic Church. More to come soon.