The Eucharist: Scriptural, Historical, and Practical Perspective (by Danny Manthei)


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2Tim 3:16-17 - A Non-Catholic Perspective

Non-Catholics often point to 2Tim 3:16-17 as evidence for “sola Scriptura” (often times referred to as “SS” for short). And recently it was shown to me by someone as exactly such evidence for SS , stating that since Scripture says that Scripture makes us complete, that therefore “ Scripture is fully sufficient and contains everything necessary that God wants us to know in terms of doctrine and theology…if something makes us complete, then we don’t need anything else ”. He said that if we just look at the “ plain language of the text ”, we can see what Scripture is plainly telling us. So, I looked at 2Tim 3:16-17 to make sure what he said is the same thing that Scripture says. 2Tim3:16-17 says, “ All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. ” By my questions to these types of claims are, “ Where are you seeing Scripture ALONE ? It looks ...
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Why Ask Mary to Pray for Us?

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Why do Catholics, and other Christians who honor Christ's Mother, ask her to pray us? It's because we know she can help lead us to Christ like no other person can. In fact, everything about Mary magnifies God and points us to Christ. Mary is the most pure Virgin, conceived without sin. From the very first instant, she was made entirely immaculate by God, her Savior. Gloriously full of grace, she is the mother of our God, the Queen of Angels and of men. We humbly venerate her as the chosen mother of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Prince of Peace and the Lord of Lords chose Mary, from among all other women that existed, or ever will exist, for the singular grace and honor of being His beloved mother. By the power of His Cross, He preserved her from all sin. Therefore, by His power and love, we have hope and bold confidence in her prayers for our holiness and salvation. We pray that her prayers will bring us to imitate her holiness and submission to Jesus and the Divine Wil...
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Pulling Back on the Reins

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Have you ever felt like your life was in full gallop, heading in the right direction and with no obstacles in your way, only to suddenly have things screech to a halt? An image comes to mind of that picture of a person on what they think is their life journey, with nothing but the hill they climbed behind them, and the goal in front. Then a second picture shows a zoomed-out version, “God’s Plan” so it is called, with many more obstacles ahead, but the goal no less achievable. Have you ever been indignant about that sudden stillness, or the additional obstacles? We should be thankful for these times. These are times of reflection and assessment and can stop us from galloping over a cliff in some situations. I’ve got a real-life example for you. Things at work have been going great, and I truly believe it’s because I have been growing in my faith-life. I have an opportunity to go to Mass pretty much any morning that I want, and I have decided on a couple days per week in parti...
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God's Effect on My Life: A Personal Testimony

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I always considered myself a good Catholic Christian, but I didn’t live it. Although I have been described as a “good guy”, “nice”, “kind and quiet”, I gave myself over to sin in one form or another, especially in pride. My friends from school tell me that they thought of me as a good Christian, so I must have masked my sinfulness pretty well, or it just got covered up in my shyness and insecurity, or I just blended in with the rest of a culture that doesn’t really see many sins as being sinful. I look back and see an arrogant narcissist, pre-occupied with my own wants at anyone’s expense, yet too insecure to let it make me into a snob, and only able to really hurt those who were closest to me, or who trusted me with their emotions. I can honestly say I did not hurt all the people in my life, but there those that I did, and making amends has been a process that has spanned years, and will probably never end. My friends in school were few, but the friendships were strong, and the...
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“Sola Scriptura” or “Scripturae iuxta Me”

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Seventh Day Adventism and the Mark of the Beast

In the late 19th century, Ellen Gould White put together the splintered thoughts resulting from a couple of failed predictions of Christ’s second coming by William Miller. What started as an insistence by Joseph Bates that Christians should worship on the Jewish Sabbath (1846-1849) became White’s anti-Catholic beast (pun intended) which we know as Seventh Day Adventism. The SDAs took Bate’s charge that the Catholic Church changed worship from Saturday to Sunday, and came up with several other reasons why the Catholic Church must certainly be the “beast” of Revelation, or the “great harlot” riding the beast. I’ll address some of those here; but first, just a hair more background is in order. Ellen Gould White is regarded as a prophetess by Seventh Day Adventists (who publish under the guise of “Inspiration Books”, “Amazing Truth Publications”, “Review & Herald Publishing Association”, and “Pilgrims’ Press”; and who often identify as “Seventh Day Apostle” or simply “Adventist”,...
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Did God Give us a Religion, or a Relationship?

I continue to see comments lately that pit “relationship” against “religion”, as though there’s a new trend with Christians trying to distance themselves from “rules” that they might be expected to follow. The latest I heard was " Religion gets you to church, but relationship helps you grow in your faith ".  Other examples are, “ Having a religion is against my relationship ”, or “ God gave me a relationship, not a religion to follow ”, or “ I have a personal relationship with Christ, I don’t need a religion’s rules to tell me what to do ”. There are various ways of saying it, but the main message is that “ Christ gave us a relationship with Him, not a religion to follow”, and it's an incredibly short-sighted and incorrect view of what Christ has given us.  The religion that Christ gave us to follow is a reflection of our relationship with Him .  "Religion", from the Latin "religio" means to  bind oneself  [to something]. In this case, our Christian ...
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