My coment on Ochuks blog . . .

Interesting post. "Why do evangelicals convert to Catholicism?" I’m glad to see you’re respectful of us “reverts” and “converts” to Catholicism and the Catholic Church. Thank you!

Luis Palau is coming to Omaha July 14-15. Our Archbishop, Elden Curtiss, (The Catholic Voice) has given his blessing on the event and we will be worshiping the Lord with our separated brothers and sisters of other faith traditions. Please don’t misunderstand my use of the word “separated.” It is not derogatory in the least, but only true. We are. When people aren’t in full communion with each other, they are separated. That’s not always a bad thing, but it mostly is a sad thing.

Be that as it may, I’m glad to see that you’ve done some research and study and don’t badmouth the Catholic faith here. I’ve been around a few who do. In fact I used to myself when I was a ‘know it all’ 20-something and influenced against the Catholic Church by one fabulous and prolific Christian songwriter, musician of the Jesus Movement days. He was a favorite of mine, but he really led me astray and turned me against the CC with his anti-Catholic tracts. I’m sure he has a different opinion regarding Purgatory NOW, having passed from this life, well intentioned and sincere, but sincerely WRONG. God rest the soul of one Keith Green. Good guy, but ignorant as all get out about the CC. He should have done half the research you have before sending out countless tracts, full of misinformation all those years ago leading gullible twerps like me down a very wrong theological path.

Regarding the Immaculate Conception let me just say this. Why would God, who made his own Mother, make her sinful? Even the tabernacle in the OT was of PUREST gold and anyone who even TOUCHED it DIED! Oops. Now, here’s a young Jewish girl, Mary, visited by the Angel Gabriel who tells her the Holy Spirit will overshadow her and she is to bear a son and call him Emmanuel. She will be…the Mother of God. Jesus being God the Son, and Mary giving him birth and being his mom, can rightly be called the Mother of God without there being an uproar…although many can’t get their head wrapped around that for some reason. Too Catholic for some it would seem.

So, Mary prayed and “rejoiced in God, her Savior.” She did need a Savior, as did and do we. HOWEVER, one can be saved from drowning in a quicksand ooze, who’s already fallen in it, or one can be saved BEFORE ever falling in to the slime. Either way, they are thus ‘saved.’ So really the Immaculate Conception should not be so hard to comprehend or accept. She was simply saved BEFORE she ever could sin. Light and dark can never “meld.” Jesus could not have resided in a body “just like ours” and I sure as heck am not yet anywhere NEAR “FULL OF GRACE.” That was the greeting, the salutation of the Angel of the LORD to Mary, the teenage girl. HE called her FULL OF GRACE, long before Catholics did while praying the Rosary (which is praying Scripture but I digress.) Full of Grace means just that, FULL…of GRACE. FULL of grace can’t mean that there’s also “room for sin” or Full of Grace is moot and makes no sense whatever. Do you see what I mean?

I’m not here to argue or get in some heated debate. I will pray that you and your readers will consider going deeper, though, and ask God to show you the Truth about all the Catholic Church teaches..without error. Jesus left a Church, not 30,000 churches with diametrically opposed doctrines to “sort it all out” and ‘agree on the essentials” and be slap happy one day in Heaven having fought like cats and dogs on earth. For if the essentials can’t be agreed on, and there’s no final authority to trust, then Jesus did one heck of a bad job holding His Church together. But like he said, “the gates of hell will not prevail against her…” Either He had the power to hand down the authority to the Church, so she could teach complete Truth w/out error, or Jesus blew it and blew it BIG TIME!

I believe the Catholic Church has stood the test of time and puny, human minds thinking they know better than God, will never get it all right. So we need an Authority who DOES get it all right, don’t we? If the CC is right on ‘most things’ then she’d better be right on all things, for there’s no ‘sorta,kinda, sometimes’ with Truth. We are called to worship God in “spirit and Truth” not “spirit and sometimes this, sometimes that depending on how I feel or think about this or that.” Either he left a Church with THE TRUTH, or not. Mary was conceived without sin. Period. She was kept from sinning. Period. Her blood was pure because it nourished JESUS Christ, God incarnate… in her womb. How could tainted and impure blood nourish the Son of God? It’s impossible. So, the Catholic Church again is RIGHT on this dogma. Regardless of when it became dogma, the Magisterium of the Church either has the authority from God on all things she tells us are True or not. I don’t want to worship a God who “thinks like me” or live like a “Burger King Christian.”

If I don’t agree with the CC on some things, then I’d better be finding out the truth about those things and issues and wrestle with God about them, and then come to accept it, albeit with a “limp” or go join a ‘have it your way’ Burger King fellowship. GOD knows there are tons of them out there, some good and some horribly off the wall. The thousands of denominations can’t make our Lord or our Blessed Mother happy. Jesus gave Mary to us while hanging on the Cross, right be fore he died, the last thing he did was to give us his sinless, Immaculate Mother to be our Mother also, and believe me, I’m going to defend my Mother until I die, because for the longest time, I didn’t “get it” and I didn’t “get her.” I thought Catholics gave her too much attention and revered her way too much. Guess what…I was completely wrong. It’s like Rich Mullins said, “I don’t think Catholics revere Mary too much, I think we revere people too little.”

The Immaculate conception was ‘beyond’ me and for a while I thought it meant Jesus being conceived in Mary. DOH! Nada. Wrong again! Mary was immaculately conceived to bear Christ, to be the “ark of the New Convenant” PURE…holding the Bread of Heaven” as in the OT…to give Christ his flesh, so she could in no way have one minute particle of sin tainted flesh as part of her. Simple really. Don’t make it so hard. Trust and believe Jesus on this one, He’s right about his momma and he’s right about his Church, his Bride. She’s right about Him, too. How cool is that!

PAX,
susie