Hardcore Christianity Debunked

Have you ever started off on one website then clicked a link from that and gone to another and clicked a link from there to another and so on until you don't remember where you started or how you ended up where you are? Well, I do that quite often. Many times I find myself ending up at some anti-Catholic site or a proclaiming Christian site that is bashing, mocking or outright lying about my Catholic faith. Up until this moment I have never mentioned any sites by name or debunked them for their falsehoods, but today all that is going to change. I guess I am just in a fed up mood and I am not going to let this stuff go without posting the truth. Why would I do that? Because of this verse in scripture: Romans 14:16 "Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil." I think this will make a perfect motto for my blog. So here's the deal, ANY anti-Catholic website or statements on websites are fair game to me. If you know of such websites, please email them to me. I will debunk their falsehoods one by one. It's passed time that Catholics stopped letting others spread falsehoods and lies about our faith. These lies are damaging, not only are they keeping people from becoming Catholic and having the fullness of Truth found in the Catholic Church but they are also leading many Catholics out of the Church in confusion. We need to stop this damage and share the Truth of our faith for all to see and know. So for what it's worth, I will start with this blog. So here's the first site to be exposed for its lying and false statements made against the Catholic Church. It comes from a site called "Hardcore Christianity" (http://www.hardcorechristianity.com/teachings/chapter5.php)
Here is what the site says:
Hardcore Christianity states: "The Roman Catholic church is the largest "Christian" organization in the world and the largest single religious group on the planet with over 1.2 billion adherents (there are approximately 1.1 billion Muslims & 700 million Pentecostals). Untold articles have been authored on this organization, pro and con, over the centuries with much continued confusion. Centuries ago priest's like Luther, Huss & Calvin started the Protestant revolution after they read the New Testament and discovered many of the teachings of the Catholic church were contradictory. What teachings were they talking about? How do their teachings compare to the truths in the Word of God? What caused the start of Protestantism?"
1) Popes, Bishops, Cardinals and Priests are forbidden to marry in the Catholic church, however Peter, the alleged first Pope, was married (Mk. 1: 29-31).
2) In addition, the Priest Zachary was married (Lk. 1: 5,13) and Bishops were permitted to marry (1 Tim. 3:1-4). In fact, forbidding people to marry is a doctrine taught by demons (1 Tim. 4:1-3).
3) The Bible forbids making or bowing down to religious images (Ex. 20:3-5).
4) Only God can forgive sins, humans cannot. (Mk. 2:7).
5) Jesus forbids calling any human, dead or alive, their spiritual "Father" (Mt. 23:9).
6) The Bible says there is only one mediator between humanity and God. It is only Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5-6, 1 Jn. 2:1-3, Acts 4:10, 12, Jn. 14:6).
7) The Bible teaches that when a person dies they either go to Hell or Heaven. There is no evidence of any kind that Purgatory exists, ever existed or any dead person can communicate with the living (Lk. 16:19-31, Mt. 25:41,46, Heb. 9:27).
8) Has the mother of Jesus ever been given an elevated status by God? According to Lk. 11:27-28 and Eph. 4:4-6, she has not. The veneration, exultation, glorification, honoring, blessed imagination and adoration of Mary is unscriptural.
9) What is the N. T. definition of a "Saint"? Is it a deified dead Roman Catholic? No. It is any born again believer, dead or alive (I Cor. 1:2, 6:1-2, Eph. 5:3, Phil. 1:1, 4:22, Jude 1:14, Rev. 13:7, 20:9). Is Roman Catholic doctrine occur.
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OK, so I get a little up tight when I read this kind of garbage, I admit it. Now let's take these falsehoods one at a time and debunk them all.

Falsehood #1: "Popes, Bishops, Cardinals and Priests are forbidden to marry in the Catholic church", clergy in the Latin Rite do not marry because scripture first shows this and Jesus Christ himself was unmarried, Latin Rite Catholic priests are following Jesus Christ's example in celibacy and priesthood: Matt.19:12 "For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of Heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it." That's it folks, Jesus Christ's own words on the celibacy in the priesthood.
Falsehood #2: "forbidding people to marry is a doctrine taught by demons (1 Tim. 4:1-3)". The Catholic Church isn't forbidding anyone to marry, priests make this choice on their own if they wish to be priests. This verse is not about the priesthood as we see from the quote in Matthew 19:12 that I already gave. Jesus said "The one who can accept this should accept it." The men who wish to be priests in the Latin Rite are those men! They accept the celibacy and follow Jesus in a celibate priesthood. This is not unbiblical, but totally biblical!
Falsehood #3: "The Bible forbids making or bowing down to religious images (Ex. 20:3-5)." What an outright lie that statement is! What the scripture forbids is WORSHIPING statues. Well guess what? Catholics don't worship statues! In the bible God commands some statues and religious images to be made, if that was a sin WHY would God command it? He wouldn't! When God command the Ark of the Covenant to be build, He told them to make statues of angels made of gold. When the Israelites were in the wildness and plagued by snakes, God commanded them to make a statue of a snake (Num.21) and when ever someone was bit by a snake to go to the statue and they would be healed. Statues are NOT bad, worshiping anything other than God is. That was the point. How many Protestants have statues of the Holy Family and set up Nativity sets for Christmas? If they truly believed that the bible forbids the making of religious images then what are they doing every Christmas with their Nativity sets and putting angels on top of their Christmas trees? Or how about all those angel pins people wear on their coats? Or the pictures in our homes of "Jesus" (what some artist thinks he might look like)? Come on people, think! This stuff is common sense.
Falsehood #4: "Only God can forgive sins, humans cannot. (Mk. 2:7)". Someone at "Hardcore Christianity" hasn't read their bible very well. John 20:23 "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." This is Jesus Christ talking to his disciples after he breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit making them the first priests in his Catholic Church. (Matt.16:18-19)
Falsehood #5: "Jesus forbids calling any human, dead or alive, their spiritual "Father" (Mt. 23:9)". Now if that were true Jesus Christ would have sinned because he called Abraham "father" in the Gospels, so we know that's not true. We also know that Paul himself explains how priests are "fathers" in the Church: 1 Cor. 4:15 "Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." There it is folks! The priests are fathers through the gospel!
Falsehood #6: "The Bible says there is only one mediator between humanity and God. It is only Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5-6, 1 Jn. 2:1-3, Acts 4:10, 12, Jn. 14:6)" I don't know why this one is here as Catholics believe the same thing. Jesus is the ONLY mediator to God, even our Catholic catechism says so (#2674).

Falsehood #7: "There is no evidence of any kind that Purgatory exists, ever existed or any dead person can communicate with the living". This is two things, purgatory and the false belief that Catholics commune with the dead. Let me respond to the latter first. No saint who's physically died on earth is dead, not one. All are alive in Christ, that is what scripture says. What Communion of Saints is, is the Family of God on earth and in Heaven because death does not divide or separate the Family of God. It can't because Jesus Christ defeated death! Purgatory is seen in scripture a few times, though the word "purgatory" (like "trinity") is not used in the bible. In the scriptures we see it called "Abraham's Side" or "Paradise". All the righteous who died before Christ could not enter Heaven until He ascended, they were in purgatory on their way to Heaven. (Luke 16:19-31) Also, when Christ is on the cross he tells the thief "Today you will be with me in Paradise", this is not Heaven because later when Mary Magdalene tried to touch Jesus he tells her not to because he has not yet gone to the Father in Heaven (John 20:17). In Acts 1 it says Jesus was on earth for 40 days after he came out of the tomb before he finally ascended into Heaven. When Jesus and the thief went to "Paradise" that was Purgatory, the place of the righteous on their way to Heaven. That is scripture.
Falsehood #8: "Has the mother of Jesus ever been given an elevated status by God?" Well at least this time they asked-even though the insinuation is that Catholics are in error about Mary. The answer to the question is of course: YES! It's right there in scripture: Mary's Song, Luke 1:48 "for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,". There it is! Catholics call her Blessed Mother of God because that is what she is! She is blessed because scripture says so and she's the Mother of God Incarnate-hence "Blessed Mother of God" as Catholics call her.
Falsehood #9: "What is the N. T. definition of a "Saint"? Is it a deified dead Roman Catholic? No. It is any born again believer, dead or alive (I Cor. 1:2, 6:1-2, Eph. 5:3, Phil. 1:1, 4:22, Jude 1:14, Rev. 13:7, 20:9). Is Roman Catholic doctrine occur." Now I've read this over and over and I can't make any sense out of it. I can't help but go "Huh?" at this one. So either Hardcore Christianity is saying NO Roman Catholic is a born again believer and hence can't be any form of "saint" or they are so off the wall they think ANY and/or all Roman Catholics are "deified" when called "saint". They are wrong on all accounts. No one is "deified" by the Catholic Church, God and God alone is worshiped.
Ok, so there you have it folks. All "Hardcore Christianity's" claims have been debunked and shown to be false. Onward to the next! (Email me those anti-Catholic sites).