Do you believe in God?
I think most people instinctively believe in God.
Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
So it seems that God says there is enough evidence of Him to prove who He is.
Where did you first hear about God?
I heard Him in a small voice in my heart when I can first remember. He told me what was good and what was not. I knew Him and loved Him.
However I was baptized in a Reformed Church. As a child I did not know that the Bible says:
Mar_16:16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Baptism is only the confirmation that you believed but as a baby who can’t believe, it is ridiculous and of no consequence to be baptized.
Then I was put in the Catholic Church and was baptized again which again meant nothing because as a child I could not grasp salvation.
I was told that Jesus came to us in the form of a host that was produced by some Company and sold to the Church.
Jesus said He would come in the form of the Holy Spirit.
And so I believed what the catholic Church taught and also because mom was a catholic. She was a catholic because her dad was one and so on and so on.
I wondered about different religions, Mormons and JW’s and others but were told they were all cults. How could I be sure that I wasn’t in a cult?
One thing I did notice was that they all said they believed in the bible so I found out which bible was the right one (there are many forgeries but God said He would preserve His word) and then I would study it.
As I did I noticed so many things that I was taught in the Catholic Church was not in that Bible.
No Purgatory.
They said I had to pay for my sins there until I was allowed into heaven, yet the Bible said:1Jn_4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Propitiation, He paid for our sins.
They say we should pray on rosaries.
Here is a quote from the origin of the beads fromEWTN a Catholic web site:
“The origins of the rosary are “sketchy” at best. The use of “prayer beads” and the repeated recitation of prayers to aid in meditation stem from the earliest days of the Church and has roots in pre-Christian times.”
What they just said was they were used before Christians. They were used by Pagans. Also, they were known as “worry beads” to the Greeks to keep them focused on the beads instead of their problems.
All these things were in direct oposition to our loving God who said He would never leave us or forsake us. Your choice, beads or Christ, cookies who are supposed to be Christ or Christ Himself?
Confession, repetitious pray, relics (pieces of hair, dead fingers…) incense all developed from the Pagans.
Catholicism was the result of King Constantine declaring his Kingdom Christian and all the pagans marched into the Church with their beads and statues and relics and what you see today is a result of that.
The commandments say no graven images, especially pieces of someones fingers.
Do you want to know how to be saved from eternal damnation?
Go here:http://payatasbaptistchurch.org/wordfrompastor.asp?mainmenuidno=WFTP2345&content=firstpage