From: atienzam@newton.hartwick.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: Re: Any Christians out there?
Date: 10 Dec 92 13:45:36 -0500
Distribution: soc.culture.filipino
Organization: HARTWICK COLLEGE

In article <Byx183.L9p@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, deguzman@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael R. DeGuzman) writes:
> 
> Hi all.  Ang pangalan ko ay Michael.  Gusto ko lang malaman kung
> mayroon bang manga Christiano sa Pilipinas.  I grew up as a Roman
> Catholic but now that I have come to age I follow the Bible. The Word
> of God.  There are some disagreements I see between the Bible and Catholism
> First of all I want to make clear that the Bible is THE WORD OF GOD and everything in it is right.  Well only the original greek text is error free, but 
> this is the closest.
> 	In the Bible it states that Mary was used by God to bring His son
> 	in Human flesh.  But why do catholics worship Mary?  Isn't this idolitry	Anybody can and will be used by God, That's why we're all here,
> 	I or you can be used the same sense as God used Mary.  The Bible
> 	states that "You should only worship Him."
> 
> 	The Bible does not state the presence of purgatory. So why is there 
> 	purgatory in Catholism?  History revealed that the Church of long 
> 	ago needed to raise money so they said that if you give more money
> 	the souls of you and your relatives would get out of purgatory
> 	Can somebody tell me if this is right or wrong?
> 
> 	Also everybody who has accepted the gift of eternal life is a saint.
> 	Man or woman it doesn't matter.
> 
> 	That's all for now.  But let me take a moment to declare my intentions.
> 	The sole purpose of this letter is to see the difference between 
> 	Christianity and Catholism.  I am Christian.  It only meaning that I hav	e a relationship with Christ.  (Christianity means Christ in one).
> 	So this is not a religion but a relationship.  I would like to know 
> 	the difference and why one is correct or not.  I am a strong believer
> 	In the Bible and I try to follow what it says.  I am not pointing 
> 	fingers either.  I just want to find out for myself.
> 
> 
> 	I really appreciate you taking the tim e to read this letter
> 
> 
> 	Salamat po,
> 
> 	Mike
>
My name is Mike too, and as a person who just gradusted from four years of
high school seminary, maybe I could try and answer some of your questions...
	
	The Bible is the Word of God no doubt about that, the Old Testament
according to what I've learned, was written through Divine Inspiration, that
is God inspired the writer to write the books down, the Bible is not purely
historical, its purpose is to teach....The New Testament was written by
the Apostles and their followers....
	Concerning about Mary and idolatry, that is not so...we do not
worship the saints, instead we VENERATE the saints; they are like the
middlemen between us and God....when we pray to a saint we, are asking
that saint to ask God to do a favor....why do we venerate Mary the most?
If we remember the wedding feast of Canna, when the wine ran out, Mary
asked Jesus to do somethig about the situation, Jesus, of course, 
turned the water to wine...we venerate Mary so that she could ask her
Son to help us, to aid us....There was a big debate about this during the
10th century between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople.

	Hope this helps a little....MALIGAYANG PASKO!


 
> 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino