"The ONLY reason 98% of you bought into the Sola deal, is because someone TAUGHT that to you, and you swallowed it in, as well as."

not true. i was catholic, for a long time. i once believed we needed the church to guide us and i trusted it for my salvation. it was when i started reading and studying scripture with a concordance, praying for God to help me understand that i started seeing some things that puzzled me. i started seeing a real difference between what scripture taught and what the RCC taught. it was a problem to me. that led me to looking into history to see what was going on with the RCC. i wanted to get a full picture.

i saw there exists a difference between what Christ and the apostles taught and what the RCC developed into. it took me years to accept there WAS a difference, because i didnt want to.

then i started searching out all the letters and documents the early church had, and saw what they believed and taught and discussed, i wanted to go to the beginning, it was then i really started to see better and get a fuller picture.

i encourage everyone to go look up the early churchs writings and how the church developed. we all need to know this stuff. we need to know our history.

oh, i have never, ever seen or heard any protestant have disdain for mary or consider her a whore. she is considered a holy woman. where the heck do you get that she is called a whore? sheeesh.

i have, however, seen many, many people crawl on their knees, decorate statures with robes, crowns, flowers, light candles to, pray repeatedly to, beg and weep over statues, make sacrifices to an image of a woman they assume (because the church encourages them to) will help them, save them, bless them, heal them, help them get to heaven, believing that this woman has power and authority to do anything.

and it simply is not true. its made up.

thru history, the church has elevated dear mary to this position by declaring her born without sin, never dying but being assumed into heaven, a perpetual virgin, titling her mother of God, Queen of Heaven, etc, etc. if you go back and study the history of the church you can plainly see who brought this up and why, who in the church disagreed with this and why, the politics and the arguments. it is fascinating, really. but a tradition of men nonetheless that created dangerous implications.

protestants just believe this over emphasis and devotion is misguided and spiritually dangerous as Christ Jesus is The Only Way and The Only Truth----His words.

when an organization thru history has repeatedly violated its mandate and continually poses as The Voice of Christ, does not repeant or clean house i think it loses not only its authority but relevancy. its no different than a jimmy swaggart. the RCC is no different, it too has its jimmy swaggarts, just hides them better.

yes, the body of Christ is sadly divided. not all churchs claiming to be christian are actually christian. it is the spirit of religion that divides us, it is people following a leader, a prophet, a prophecy teacher, or a long held tradition as opposed to following the simple words of Christ that we are divided. it is sin and pride and arrogance that divides us.

and the RCC is divided into factions also, it is not all one homogenous happy family either. i did a search once (in a post on a forum defending the RCC by the way) and found there are dozens and dozens of different 'types' of catholics and catholic understandings.

Sola Scriptura has alot of history behind why it has become so important. it wasnt just one day made up because someone was in a snit, it was in response to long term abuses and corruption of leaders of the church.

it is important because the church historically has done some very wrong things, diverged from the Truth of scripture and flat out made some things up. they is why some people feel they cannot trust the church anymore, so they turn to scripture.

Sola Scriptura guides us back to God truth and Gods teachings if we humble ourselves.

if you find spiritual nourishment and a closer walk with Christ Jesus within that church, good for you and God bless you.

but for some of us, we could not, so we seek our closer walk with Christ in scripture trying to be faithful and obedient to Him as opposed to an organization.

i dont seek to batter you or anyone with scripture, or belittle you or change you. i just want people to THINK and EXAMINE as opposed to just follow when a claim is made the RCC is the one true church.

they have proved to me to have lost the right to that title long time ago, no matter what they claim today.

so Sola Scriptura---"the doctrine that the Bible is the only infallible and inerrant authority for Christian faith, and that it contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness" has become my guide to follow Christ. it is the only thing i feel i can trust.