"A Humble Servant's Catholic Blog"

It’s not so uncommon to run into a fundamentalist Christian who celebrates the reformers for leaving the “Roman” Catholic Church and “reforming” it. What IS uncommon, however, is running into a fundamentalist Christian who knows what these “reformers” actually taught and believed. Obviously, not all that they taught would be surprising, and less surprising is the fact that some of them disagreed with one another. But there are a few things that seem to shock some Protestants when they realize what their predecessors believed. I believe the reason it can be shocking is because Protestantism is an ever-changing thing, with no actual authority to draw a line anywhere on any topic, because every person is essentially free to interpret Scripture however they see fit, or however they feel the Spirit is guiding them, regardless of conflict with others. There is no basis at all for any person within Protestantism, including the so-called “Pillars of the Reformation”, to say what is or is not T...

Over the past few years I have lost count of how many times I've heard various prophesies, dreams and visions from Scripture get tossed around to 'prove' that " the world will end on [such-n-such date]", or " Rome is the great harlot ", or " the rapture will leave the sinners behind [in such-n-such fashion for such amount of time]".  Of course, it only takes a closer look at Scripture and history to see that these assertions are a gross misapplication of Scripture.  But there is one prophecy in particular that seems to get ignored.  While hunting through the various prophesies to 'prove' one thing or another, this one, for whatever reason, is simply overlooked by those folks who otherwise 'seem' like they are out to uncover the truth.  It is a prophecy tucked into the first chapter of the book of Malachi while the Israelites were being reprimanded by God. “ For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among...

I've heard it said before that Catholics don't hear as much of the Bible during our services, nor do we read the Bible as much as non-Catholics. I've even heard that the Church doesn't want Catholics to read the Bible. While I believe that ALL Christians can and should read their Bibles more often and learn the Scriptures, I will say these statements are false. I do have a feeling that if you asked the average Catholic if he/she reads the Bible regularly, you’d get a “no”. But, I think it’s likely that a non-Catholic would say the same thing, and I don’t think this speaks to the character of the Church, rather to the fallen nature of people who have not put God’s Word high up on their priority reading list. A set of polls [1] last year on Catholic Answers Forums showed that the Catholics there spend at least as much energy and time in learning the Scriptures as the non-Catholics. While these polls are limited in what they convey, reaching only a small audience,...