Not to bring up the Catholic thing again, but...

'A gospel of works is bad news; it sends people to hell,'

Catholic Church agrees with that but you just keep denying it.

 

Look in the Catechism.
It defines the new birth as being baptized. Baptism is a work. One does not get saved or born again by being baptized. That is a gospel of works.
It demands that one must be confirmed after that, and that is also related to one's salvation. That also is works.
It claims that salvation is a process, and not an event. The link provided was evidence enough. The conclusion stated that there can be no reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants in the area of justification.

Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Either the Bible is right--we are justified by faith, and the RCC wrong.
Or the RCC is right (we are justified by a process of works), and the Bible is wrong. Which is it?

 

We are forbidden to practice ,necromancy(is a form of magic in which the practitioner seeks to summon "operative spirits" or "spirits of divination", for multiple reasons, from spiritual protection to wisdom.

However, since the Renaissance, necromancy (or nigromancy) has come to be associated more broadly with black magic and demon-summoning in general, sometimes losing its earlier, more specialized meaning. By popular etymology, nekromantia became nigromancy "black arts", and Johannes Hartlieb (1456) lists demonology in general under the heading.

Necromancy is used colloquially in fantasy entertainment to mean raising the dead. Creatures raised in this way are typically unnatural, being in a state of decay .
We do NOT make a god out of Mary, we do not practice idolotry. Catholics are forbidden to worship and adore anything but God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) PERIOD!

Ifthe there are Catholics and protestants who have practiced what the Catholic Church forbids it is on their heads. I know of a Baptist who also practices Wicca. Guess she doesn't pay that much attention in Sunday School either.

 

That's what I want to know!

 

She's also not a Christian.

 

I ask the Blessed Mother of God to intercede for me. Not for special favors.

 

Yup, on the roles of the Church, there every Sunday and Weds. evening, receives Holy Communion every time is is served. Assistant Sunday School teacher! Sings in the choir and has applied for the position of Christian education director.

 

That is not a Baptist then is it?

 

You don't ask; you pray; you worship; you adore; you praise--you make her god. That is blasphemy!!

 

Borrowed from 'Scriptural Answers to Protestant Objections'

God Desires and Responds to Our Subordinate Mediation / Intercessory Prayer

1 Tim 2:1-2 - because Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5), many Protestants deny the Catholic belief that the saints on earth and in heaven can mediate on our behalf. But before Paul's teaching about Jesus as the "one mediator," Paul urges supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. Paul is thus appealing for mediation from others besides Christ, the one mediator. Why?

1 Tim 2:3 - because this subordinate mediation is good and acceptable to God our Savior. Because God is our Father and we are His children, God invites us to participate in Christ's role as mediator.

1 Tim. 2:5 - therefore, although Jesus Christ is the sole mediator between God and man, there are many intercessors (subordinate mediators).

1 Cor. 3:9 - God invites us to participate in Christ's work because we are God's "fellow workers" and one family in the body of Christ. God wants His children to participate. The phrase used to describe "fellow workers" is "sunergoi," which literally means synergists, or cooperators with God in salvific matters. Does God need fellow workers? Of course not, but this shows how much He, as Father, loves His children. God wants us to work with Him.

Mark 16:20 - this is another example of how the Lord "worked with them" ("sunergountos"). God cooperates with us. Out of His eternal love, He invites our participation.

Rom. 8:28 - God "works for good with" (the Greek is "sunergei eis agathon") those who love Him. We work as subordinate mediators.

2 Cor. 6:1 - "working together" (the Greek is "sunergountes") with him, don't accept His grace in vain. God allows us to participate in His work, not because He needs our help, but because He loves us and wants to exalt us in His Son. It is like the father who lets his child join him in carrying the groceries in the house. The father does not need help, but he invites the child to assist to raise up the child in dignity and love.

Heb. 12:1 - the “cloud of witnesses” (nephos marturon) that we are surrounded by is a great amphitheatre of witnesses to the earthly race, and they actively participate and cheer us (the runners) on, in our race to salvation. AMEN!

1 Peter 2:5 - we are a holy priesthood, instructed to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. We are therefore subordinate priests to the Head Priest, but we are still priests who participate in Christ's work of redemption.

Rev. 1:6, 5:10 - Jesus made us a kingdom of priests for God. Priests intercede through Christ on behalf of God's people.

James 5:16; Proverbs 15:8, 29 - the prayers of the righteous (the saints) have powerful effects. This is why we ask for their prayers. How much more powerful are the saints’ prayers in heaven, in whom righteousness has been perfected.WOW, EVER THOIUGHT OF THAT?

1 Tim 2:5-6 - therefore, it is because Jesus Christ is the one mediator before God that we can be subordinate mediators. Jesus is the reason. The Catholic position thus gives Jesus the only glory. Not Mary or the other saints!. He does it all but loves us so much He desires our participation

 

Actually, there a quite a few 'liberal' to say the least Baptist churches in this area. Many adopting 'inclusive' language in their prayers and reading of bible passages. I participate in a Freewill Baptist bible study and prayer group each week (bible believing) and we pray for the former evangelical churches in our area to repent. The Presbyterian Church is on the verge splitting. At least on American Baptist Church has disassociated itself from the convention. The Methodist church is less than a third the size it was five year ago. The ELCA church in town is trying to make it a denomination issue and not a local church issue. People are still leaving in droves to the LCMS Church in town. Many have given the 'wink' to the Episcopal Church's new position on ordaining and consecrating openly homosexual clergy. This issue is probably going to result in many more splits and some churches closing. If you wonder if your own denominations doctrines are being 'tinkered' with look no further that your seminaries and what they are teaching.

Personally, I don't think the Catholic Church is the big threat to evangelicalism. I believe we are proclaiming salvation through Christ Atonement on the Cross and believing that God resurrected Him from the Dead that we might repent and turn our lives and will over to Him (and Him alone). Evangelicalism is imploding before you very eyes with the average Joe in the pew thinking 'well it won't happen in our local church'.

Look at the empty pew in most former protestant churches in the U.S. Look how many have had to merger just to stay open. Liberal theology=empty and closing churches.

 

Lori, if I would ask you to pray for me, would you start your prayer off this way:
"My King, my DHK, I offer myself entirely to thee. And to show my devotion to thee, I offer....

Would you pray TO me like that, if I asked you to pray FOR me? Please answer honestly.

 

I know that most protestants do no except 2 Maccabbees as canonical: but this support from what we DO except as scriptural as well as N.T. references.
(2 Maccabbees): Omitting some passages in the Old Testament which are sometimes invoked, but which are too vague and uncertain in their reference to be urged in proof (v.g. Tobias, iv, 18; Ecclus., vii, 37; etc.), it is enough to notice here the classical passage in 2 Maccabees, 12:40-46.

When Judas and his men came to take away for burial the bodies of their brethren who had fallen in the battle against Gorgias, "they found under the coats of the slain some of the donaries of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all plainly saw, that for this cause they were slain. Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord, who had discovered the things that were hidden. And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten...And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve [al. two] drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection (for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead), and because he considered that they who had fallen asleep in godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

Passing over the well-known passage, I Cor., iii, 14 sq., on which an argument for purgatory may be based, attention may be called to another curious text in the same Epistle (xv, 29), where St. Paul argues thus in favor of the resurrection: "Otherwise what shall they do that are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not again at all? Why are they then baptized form them?" Even assuming that the practice here referred to was superstitious, and that St. Paul merely uses it as the basis of an argumentum ad hominem, the passage at least furnishes historical evidence of the prevalence at the time of belief in the efficacy of works for the dead; and the Apostle's reserve in not reprobating this particular practice is more readily intelligible if we suppose him to have recognized the truth of the principle of which it was merely an abuse. But it is probable that the practice in question was something in itself legitimate, and to which the Apostle gives his tacit approbation. In his Second Epistle to Timothy (i, 16-18; iv, 19) St. Paul speaks of Onesiphorus in a way that seems obviously to imply that the latter was already dead: "The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus" -- as to a family in need of consolation. Then, after mention of loyal services rendered by him to the imprisoned Apostle at Rome, comes the prayer for Onesiphorus himself, "The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in that day" (the day of judgment); finally, in the salutation, "the household of Onesiphorus" is mentioned once more, without mention of the man himself. The question is, what had become of him? Was he dead, as one would naturally infer from what St. Paul writes? Or had he for any other cause become separated permanently from his family, so that prayer for them should take account of present needs while prayers for him looked forward to the Day of Judgment? Or could it be that he was still at Rome when the Apostle wrote, or gone elsewhere for a prolonged absence from home? The first is by far the easiest and most natural hypothesis; and if it be admitted, we have here an instance of prayer by the Apostle for the soul of a deceased benefactor.

 

No, but I believe the Blessed Mother has a special relationship with her Divine son and can intercede to our Lord on my behalf. I am devoted to the Blessed Mother (so was Martin Luther) and believe she to be perfect example of how to live a life for her Son Jesus.

Mary by your life and example and want to live more as your precious Son taught us. Pray for me Holy Mother of God, that I might be worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen1