The Roman Catholic Church is Not The True Church of God (via Eliseo Soriano)

Very Well said Bro. Eli!

I am giving way to a response posted by a certain Kay for my article entitled "Are Other Christian Not True Churches?". I appreciate the responses to my comment and the spirit of Christian correction in which they are given. I understand your passion to defend the truth as you perceive it, as this similar passion is the same love I have for the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Though not all of the posts directed to me were polite and on-tangent, than … Read More

via Eliseo Soriano

The Virtue of Humility, a Superhero’s Quality

By Heaven’s Knight

Every man in this world possesses his own inborn ability or talent. Some are outstanding in academic aspects, and some in arts and literature. Others are gifted to have a beautiful voice, while others are in painting, or dancing, or acting. What more can we ask in this world which is abundant of persons showered by God of different talents and different skills!

But, no matter how talented a person is, no matter how well he mastered his craft, no matter how proficient he is in his ability, modesty and humility should not be forgotten. As God gave us different talents, he also disciplined us on how to handle these. St. Paul wrote Corinthian to learn to acknowledge the source of different unique characteristics.

(I Corinthians 4:7 NKJV)

For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Most people are always more delighted to see a person greater than what was expected in him. That could be better than those who are boasting themselves but prove lesser than what was promised. Humility and meekness make the difference. Because of this kind of attribute, many heroes were generally accepted and admired by most people. Even fictional characters like Superman, though they possessed a supernatural strength, have a mild character like any ordinary people.

Superman, the Man of Steel, known to be meek in his Clark Kent mode.

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave example of this kind of trait. Despite of the fact that He is the Son of the Almighty God, He humbled Himself and mingled with servants.

(Philippians 2:5-8)

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

But if there is a hero in every story, a villain could be expected. Jesus Christ, as a hero of our faith, has an antagonist – satan. They have the opposite character where satan is so much ambitious to exalt himself to equal with God.

(Isaiah 14:12-14)

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

So That Everyone Should Know

In the following statements made by Abraham “Abe” Arganiosa, a Catholic priest, in his response against Members of the Church of God International’s (MCGI) belief, we have a very good example of an egotist.

Abe Arganiosa said,

HINDI  NAMAN EVIDENCIA ANG IYONG BINIBIGAY. THE RULE OF EVIDENCE IS THAT THE ONE ARGUING MUST PRESENT A RELIABLE DOCUMENT TO SUPPORT HIS CLAIM.

In this statement, Abe is trying to pose as being knowledgeable in rules of evidence. It can also be seen through his other statements how well he boasts his intellect regarding this matter.

IF YOU ARE TALKING OF HISTORY. PRESENT BOOKS WRITTEN BY HISTORIANS. PRESENT SCHOLARLY DOCUMENTS FROM ENCYCLOPEDIAS NOT YOU TUBES AND ARTICLES WRITTEN BY UNKNOWN. HA, HA, HA…

I’M POSTING. BECAUSE IT DOCUMENTS FOR US HOW IGNORANT AND STUPID YOU ARE IN HISTORY JUST LIKE YOUR COMPANIONS WHO TRIED TO ARGUE WITH US ABOUT CONSTITUTION.

WE KNOW THE HISTORY OF OUR RELIGION. WE HAVE OUR OWN RELIABLE AND SCHOLARLY CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. IS THERE AN ADD ENCYCLOPEDIA? WALA, KASI WALA KAYONG KAKAYAHAN AT CREDIBILIDAD PARA GUMAWA NITO. (None, because you don’t have the capability and credibility to do these.)

If a professor of political law will have read Arganiosa’s remarks, he might raise his eyebrows. First, he stated that, “The rule of evidence is that the one arguing must present a reliable document to support his claim.” He then mentioned encyclopedias as examples of documents in conveying evidence.

Generally, books such as encyclopedias are taken by layman as documents but strictly speaking, they are not the same. According to Mr. Francis Africa, a Professor of Political Law and Mercantile Law, “Documents are manuscripts or pieces of printed matter regarded as conveying information or evidence. Examples are a deed of sale, a mortgage contract, a marriage certificate, a letter written by one person to another. It must be borne in mind that not everything reduce into writing is a document. Books, magazines, pamphlets, are to be regarded as personal testimonies of their authors.”1

1 Africa, The Art of Arg. and Deb., p.46

History books or encyclopedias, therefore, are not documents but testimonies of their authors. Arganiosa must know this for he  pass  himself off as knowledgeable in history and rule of evidence.

Another noticeable thing about Arganiosa, he presented his knowledge about rule of evidence but he seems to be violating the rule he, himself, has presented. Consider his statement.

ELI SORIANO IS TEACHING THAT THE ADD MEMBERS KNEEL BEFORE THE SUN.

He made an accusation that in any manner he hadn’t presented any reliable person, document, or any thing to support his assertion. In order to refute, he invented lies against Bro. Eli Soriano, the presiding minister of Members, Church of God International, then attacks the lies he invented. This is a very good example of a straw man argument, where “he sets a man of straw, attacks it, then proclaims victory. All the while, the real opponent stands by untouched.”

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/strawman.html

Some mistakes in argumentation could be pardonable if it was done out of honest misunderstanding. But, it is shocking to man’s conscience if mistakes are committed from a malicious intent to malign others, to distort the fact, or just to put others in ridicule. Someone who poses as a messenger of God but placing dignity as his jest could be prone in making prevarications. How much more if someone is doing it out of pure deviltry! Self-contradictions and inconsistencies are sure signs of having this kind of an unreliable arguer or speaker.

The Priest Refuting Himself

In his article entitled, “An ADD Inquires Catholic Practice of Kneeling Before Graven Images”, Abe Arganiosa clearly condemns the practice of praying towards the east. He even marked MCGI Members as doing satanic practice when kneeling towards this direction. He also called them stupid and ignorant. He said,

IN ALL ACCOUNT YOU ARE PAGANISTIC IN YOUR WORSHIP. KNEELING BEFORE THE EAST IS SATANIC PRACTICE FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU CLAIMED THAT IT IS IDOLATRY TO KNEEL BEFORE ANY CREATURES.

…Well, it seems that you are as stupid and as ignorant as she is. That is why she is poisoned by your reasonings. You have the same illogical ideas and distorted concept of truth.

But months later, he then contradicts what he stated – the very practice that he highly condemns is now the one he propagates.

First, The Ad Orientem is focused on Christ as the Light of our Life. Because for us Jesus is our God and He is our Light. When we pray to the East it symbolizes and manifests our essential doctrine of Jesus’ Divinity, that Christ as THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

The priest himself is also praying to the east. Whenever an argument has an inconsistency within itself, it is innately weak.

A Model of Humility

On the contrary, Bro. Eli Soriano, the one being attacked by Arganiosa, possesses a different characteristic. It can be manifested every time he was regarded or praised highly, he refused to accept such compliments. For example, he repudiates being called a Sir, from the Old English word sire which means Lord, and he prefers to be addressed simply as Brother Eli. More so, he also refuses being called as reverend, most holy father, your highness and the likes.  Bro. Eli Soriano never  graduated in high school but never in his life he poses himself nor boast like someone who has a very high profession. As what our Lord Jesus Christ taught, the same way Bro. Eli is practicing it.

http://esoriano.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/a-scientific-way-of-discovering-biblical-truth-part-2/

Bro. Eli Soriano

(James 4:10)

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

It could be better if we inherit what our Lord Jesus Christ taught about humbleness for being boastful will not win the admiration of others more easily.

(Luke 14:11)

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Survivor: Irish priest committed abuse, destroyed family

Orginally posted on http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/17/ireland.abuse.abroad/index.html

From Drew Griffin, CNN Special Investigations Unit

Brookfield, Connecticut (CNN) — Ireland, one of the world’s most Catholic countries, has been reeling from the revelation that Catholic leaders there covered up child abuse, including sexual abuse, by priests for decades.

But not all of the victims were Irish.

The Emerald Isle exported many priests over the years. And that’s how one of Ireland’s most prolific, known child abusers ended up in Rhode Island in the late 1960s.

Helen McGonigle was 6 when, she says, the Rev. Brendan Smyth fondled, raped and sodomized her.

She says she remembers him, dressed in white priest’s robes, at the back sliding glass door of her bedroom.

“All I wanted to do was to escape, to fly away. There were little cubbies in my room — a twin bed with a headboard that had little cubbies,” she remembers. “I just wanted to be tiny enough to hide in those little cubbies so he couldn’t see me.”

McGonigle, now a 48-year-old lawyer in Connecticut, says Smyth abused her, her sister and even her mother over a period of two years.

She believes the abuse drove her mother mad and drove her sister to suicide.

“My mom’s breakdown was caused by this. There’s no question,” she said.

Her mother was found hysterical, half-naked, on her front lawn, screaming, “The pope owes me,” McGonigle remembered.

She was acting “like she was a rape trauma victim,” the lawyer said.

“I believe Smyth attacked her. I believe that’s what caused her breakdown,” she said.

“You have to understand my mom was also a devout Catholic. Her brother was a seminarian. So for the same person to be on the front lawn saying, ‘The pope owes me,’ she was really mad,” McGonigle said.

Brendan Smyth was ultimately convicted of dozens of counts of child abuse in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. He died in prison in 1997.

But his victims on two continents, like Helen McGonigle, are living reminders of the crimes of this pedophile priest at the center of a sex scandal in the Irish Catholic church.

By the time he reached Helen McGonigle and her family, this Irish priest had already abused dozens.

Records dating back to the 1950s show Smyth was moved from parish to parish: Ireland to Scotland to Wales to Northern Ireland to Rhode Island, back to Ireland, then to East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and Langdon, North Dakota — each time under a cloud of suspicion, or worse, after a family came forward to report the priest was an abuser.

Helen McGonigle says Smyth tended to abuse children in the same family.

“That seems to be a common pattern,” she said.

But McGonigle was never able to get her sister to tell her about abuse by Smyth.

“She couldn’t handle it. … I think she was asked by my mother not to say anything,” she said. “I mean, this is something that she probably swore to my mom that she would never bring up.”

Helen’s sister, Kathleen, took her own life in 2005.

McGonigle is now suing the Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. The church is already paying for her therapy.

She says six others from her parish have come forward to say they, too, were abused by Smyth, including one of her childhood friends, a neighbor.

What she wants most of all from the church, she says, is an apology for destroying her family — and an acknowledgment that the church knowingly placed a pedophile into her parish. So far, she says, she has received neither.

The Diocese of Providence has refused to comment, citing two pending lawsuits involving abuse allegations against Smyth.

Smyth’s superior in Ireland admitted that the diocese where the priest was sent in the United States was not told of his history of abuse.

Smyth was finally arrested in 1994. He was sent to an Irish prison, where he died of a heart attack.