I want to argue with some Protestants?

I'd have to agree with Lighting on this one. The discussions on that forum can get somewhat heated, but they tend to stay intelligent. If your point is to develop your skills, you can do better than this little mud pit.

Explain to me why catholics think its okay to pray to or through saints. Bible says dead people are dead and have no mind. Noone goes to heaven till Jesus resurrects them and even then only God can give them eternal life in heaven after Judgment day.

bible does not to my knowledge support many of the beliefs that Catholics have added to the christian way.

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Yahoo answers does not allow enough text room to really debate this.

The Catholic church was founded in failing Rome as Emporer Constantine decreed it for politically expedient reasons.Before the Roman Catholic Church went on to purge books they classified as heretical, dangerous, and corruptive it is believed that originaly there were up to 600 biblical books and the early catholic church purged all but 80.

The Catholic Church did not write the Old Testament and they did not write the New Testament all they did was assemble and approve of what they were ordered to included in the bible .If the Bible is a Catholic book, why does it nowhere mention the Catholic Church? Why is there no mention of a pope, a cardinal, an archbishop, a parish priest, a nun, or a member of any other Catholic order?.

All of the writeings in both books were in existance before the church was formed. Catholic Bible now has 73 books in all. 46 in the Old and 27 in the new. Protestants have 39 books in the Old Testament, whereas the New is the same.

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, with increasing persecution from the Romans and competition from the fledgling Christian Church, the Jewish leaders came together and declared its official canon of Scripture, eliminating seven books from the Septuagint.

The books removed were Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom (of Solomon), Sirach, and Baruch. Parts of existing books were also removed including Psalm 151 (from Psalms), parts of the Book of Esther, Susanna (from Daniel as chapter 13), and Bel and the Dragon (from Daniel as chapter 14).

The Christian Church did keep all the books in the Septuagint. 46 + 27 = 73 Books total.

1500 years later, Protestants decided to keep the Catholic New Testament but change its Old Testament from the Catholic canon to the Jewish canon.

The books that were removed supported such things as • Prayers for the dead (Tobit 12:12; 2 Maccabees 12:39-45) • Purgatory (Wisdom 3:1-7) • Intercession of saints in heaven (2 Maccabees 15:14) • Intercession of angels (Tobit 12:12-15) The books they dropped are sometimes called the Apocrypha

The first group to omit the Apocrypha from the bible in any language was the Puritans.

Believe what you want as to what is right and wrong in the differnt versions of the Bible. I dont think anyone really knows for certain anymore. I go by the known teachings of Jesus because so much of everything else is debateable.

I think praying for the dead is pointless but I sometimes do it anyway. I think praying to ask a saint to sweet talk God for you is wrong even if they are in heaven.

We will find out the truth in the end.

Well there's something I've always wondered about Catholics, why do you have to pray to God through Mary/a priest? Why can't you just freely talk with God on your own? When Jesus died, the temple veil was torn, which means full access to God.

You should try Catholic Answer Forums. You can charitably discuss various topics in those forums.

When Satan failed to destroy the church by violence, he resorted to a new strategy – he would join the church himself, and corrupt it from within. This prove to be a far more successful plan. By the fourth century A.D. the Roman Empire had invested the growing church with its own wealth and a large degree of political power, thinking to extend its own domain. Unfortunately for the world, this blend of religious and temporal power was an intoxicating mix that forever changed those who tasted it. No longer the meek and harmless body of Christ, the church devoured the hand that fed her, and in 538 A.D. Emperor Justinian decreed that the Roman Church now ruled the world. Henceforth, its reign would be known as the "Holy Roman Empire."

The world staggered under the oppression of the Roman Church during the dark ages that followed. In her thirst for ever greater power and domination, she absorbed all other religions into herself and adulterated the pure doctrine of Christ with an amalgam of superstitions and heresies. This characteristic itself was typical of all the pagan nations, which by conquest perpetually added to their list of deities. Says Durant in The Story of Civilization: "There were gods who presided over every moment of a man's life, gods of the house and garden, of food and drink, of health and sickness.” The Roman Church gathered these gods into her bosom and gave them saints' names. Prayers for the dead, instead of ascending to Cybele were now offered up to the Virgin Mary. The use of idols and amulets was preserved, as were offerings of appeasement (penance and indulgences). The pagan kings were believed to be incarnations of the sun-god, and the Roman Church had its counterpart in the pope as the vicar of Christ.

The earliest Christians had denied all compromise with false doctrine and had gladly suffered horrible martyrdoms for refusing even to place a pinch of incense at the feet of pagan altars. Yet in just a few generations of time, a curtain of moral blackness shrouded the church. Ever anxious to assimilate and conquer, she integrated virtually every feature of sun worship into her own rites. To spite the Jews whom they hated and to accommodate the legions of sun worshipers that were entering the "faith” through conquest, church leaders very early presumed to transfer the sanctity of the Sabbath to the first day of the week. Sunday was proclaimed a holiday in honor of Jesus' resurrection, a cunning perversion that eventually brought scorn upon God's great moral law, the Ten Commandments. In time this master stroke also effectively obliterated the worship of God as the literal Creator of the universe, which in turn prepared a wide path for the emergence of evolutionary philosophy, centuries later.

No need to "argue". the Truth (God's Word) stands firm against your version of the truth Dear:-(

Yet Jesus pressed His disciples: “But whom say ye that I am?” Finally, Peter proclaimed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

To this startling confession, Jesus responded, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” To come to a correct understanding of Jesus requires more than an understanding of history, it requires a revelation from the Holy Spirit.

Jesus then added, “Thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Of course, the rock upon which the church is built is not the fickle apostle, but rather Jesus Christ. Peter didn’t see himself as the foundation of the church; rather, he says in Acts 4:11 that Jesus Himself is the chief cornerstone.

In Matthew 28:18 it says:

"Then Jesus came to them (the disciples) and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.