This has gone way further than I intended to desired and I'm going to stop right now. However Catholics are not the only ones that as you say make things up. I think nearly every denomination, theology school has taken something that scripture has merely hinted at and ran with it. No I won't go into example as many that I can think of would get me in hot water with Bibleman.fatherfisher wrote:"I'm not here defend Catholics, it is just they don't violate scripture as many protestants believe."
Hoo boy, anyone who actually is familar with Roman Catholicism firsthand will know better.
And anyone who wants to can go to the link you provided or any of the other links on Google to the Catholic Catechism to see whether the context changes the meaning of what they wrote. If anything, reading the quotes I gave in their context makes matters even worse.
"The church will not make up things"??
Ever hear of the perpetual virginity of Mary (she never had any children but Jesus), or the immaculate conception of Mary (she was born sinless), or the assumption of Mary (she was taken to heaven without ever dying)? All of these were made up and announced as dogma by the Pope.
Notice how they use a capital "T" when they talk about Tradition. For them, Tradition is both oral (unwritten) and written (the Bible). And both are equal, as the quotes I provided say. And who is it that holds the oral Tradition? Why, the "living teaching office of the Church", of course! And who might that be . . . 3 guesses.
Do you actually believe the Muslims honor Abraham and adore the God of the Bible as the merciful God? Is that who you seriously think 'Allah' is to the Muslims?? Please.
And do you actually mean to suggest that the Bible verses you quote mentioning Mary teach us that "she continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ" and that she (who called God her Savior) is the "Holy Mother"?
Yikes.
Biggest problem I have with Protestantism is they forgot tradition and in many cases it was tradition the clarified various troubling passages of scripture. You may not want to agree but I believe Tradition would have put a stop to Protestantism having over 3000+ denomination and schools of theology.
And not I don't believe Muslims believe in the God Abraham, even as they insist they do. But I know many so called Christians that don't either, the believe in a God of their own making just as the Muslims do. That said I have always found it easier to share Jesus with another by saying come here my friend rather than saying get your pagan butt destined for hell over here.
We share different perspectives of what the Catechism is saying, I see it as positive leading people to Christ you see it as reinforcement of Catholic lies.
Fact remains if the Catholic church did not exist we probably would not be Christians today, we probably would not have bibles today, many of us would not be able to read today and a few of us would not be alive today (hospitals) and many people that lived for last 2000 years would have died without ever hearing the name of Jesus.