www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Pressure from a baptist friend

I have this friend who is the son of a baptist pastor. He keeps trying to persuade my sister and myself that Catholics don't follow the bible correctly and he is worried for our souls. He also told be that you shouldn't be baptized as a baby. This is because baby's can't make the decision on wether or not they will follow Jesus. I am byzantine catholic and am very confused. Any advice?

As a former Anabaptist Fundamentalist, I have a TON of advice, some of which may sound a bit harsh.

1. Ask him whether he wants to actually learn the biblical reasons for the Catholic faith or if his mind is made up and he is not going to change regardless. If he is not going to change, then you will be wasting your time with him. Like all converts to the Catholic faith, I went around so excited about finding the truth, only to find that many of my former associates did not wish to approach the Scriptures with an open mind and a willingness to change if they found themselves wrong.

2. You seem to not know your faith very well. For this reason, I would say that you need to be VERY CAREFUL being around this guy until you learn how to defend yourself. Baptist and other ecclesial assemblies are just LOADED with X Catholics who got hornswoggled into these heresies because they didn't know how to defend themselves from Scripture. If you care for your soul and your sister's soul, I would keep a good distance from him. They are very, very clever in twisting the Scriptures and then, when you disagree with them, saying "What? You don't believe God's Word?"

3. Here's your answer for his insistence that infant baptism is wrong. God is a covenant Being. Covenant is relationship. That relationship is analogize in Scripture as marriage (Ezekial 16:8). Over and over again that language is used. God in the OT called Israel His Bride. In the NT, Christ calls us His Bride.

Covenants are entered into with rituals of covenant making. In the OT, that ritual was circumcision. The male Jewish baby did not have to "make a decision for Jehovah." The father did it for him. The faith of the father was sufficient for the baby. The same principle is true in the NT. This ability of one to have faith for another is the covenant principle of hierarchy, in which the covenant head acts on behalf of those under his authority.

Every dogma of the Catholic (and Orthodox) faith is defendable from a covenant position. For me (and Scott Hahn, who's briefcase I am not worthy to carry) covenant was the KEY to unlocking the proper interpretation of Scripture and bringing me Home to the Church

I am currently re-writing my book THE DANCE OF ISAIAH which goes into great detail about the covenant of God as marriage relationship. I have several old copies at my desk and you are welcome to have one, no charge, if you write to me with your address.

My Email is edwardh317 AT verizon DOT com.

(The reason I am re-writing the book is that it is not organized well into clearly defined subjects and chapters. The writings in it are the things I discovered about covenant which drew me into the Catholic faith.)

I am not sure where to start. There is so much information on this topic.

You might want to start with www.catholic.com [catholic.com] and search the forums and use the search engine for specific topics.

For one specific resource I would recommend Jimmy Akin's "The Salvation Controversy". It's published by Catholic Answers, the presentors of catholic.com. They also have a radio program, Catholic Answers Live , M-F 3-5 pm, Pacific Time. Open Forums are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Jimmy usually is on one or another open forum.

Karl Keating also has a useful volume, "Catholicism and Fundamentalism", also published by Catholic Answers.

The Irish Ruthenian has lots of good advice, especially point 1. This basic idea should be re-stated in various ways, again and again: Are you looking for Truth with this question? What if you're wrong? Suppose the Catholics might be right? Then, what?

Also, check out John Martignone's(sp?) web site. The Bible Christian Society (biblechristiansociety.org?) has free mp3s of his lectures. These are very basic and very effective. One of his key questions is "why is your fallible opinion any better than my fallible opinion on the meaning of these verses? At this point, you can bring in quotatations from the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church), which, btw, often quotes from the Fathers of the Eastern Church. He also has a Catholic Open Line Forum Mondays on EWTN Catholic Radio, 3:00 pm, Eastern Time.

Hope this helps.
Glenn

Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and the Nestorian Churches, etc., all came through history, spread from Europe and Africa in the West, through India in the East. Some of these branches were isolated from the others by geography, language, persecution, and other things. By modern times, some of these branches had had no contact with the others for centuries, and some of us didn't know that others of us existed. Some of us were openly hostile to others of us.

In spite of all this, we all agree with each other against all the things the Protestants differ from us on.

Either we all reached the same mistaken ideas about Christ, the sacraments, the Saints, Mary, and the priesthood, independently, and in isolation, or we all got them from the same source and preserved them.

Protestants believe a highly improbable version of history.

Thank you so much for the advice to my issue. It means a lot to me to get help on this.