I am part of a from New Age to Christianity recovery group on Facebook, which is a bit of a long story so I'll try to summarize in a few sentences. I somehow came across one of Doreen Virtue's tarot card readings on YouTube, I don't even remember how, and thought it was amazing. I felt healed, and that feeling never really left me, and this happened in the summer. (That was to be one of her last readings). I then ordered a deck of her Angel Therapy oracle cards, and less than an hour later I came across another video saying that she was denouncing most of her work, because she converted to Christianity. Wow, that was a low blow for me, especially as a Christian I was always nervous about tarot and things like that. I joined a Doreen Virtue Angel Therapy group shortly after this shock (it really was a shock), and there I discovered that she was an administrator in the Christian group, which I promptly joined. She is really a nice lady, I like her a lot, but she left the group. She reportedly deactivated her personal account as she sorted out the challenges of transitioning from becoming a New Age guru (one of, if not the top selling authors and lecturers), however after spending a bit of time in this Facebook group, I think it is really because it is so extreme and fundamental, she in reality struggled with holding on to some of her New Age values while still fitting in.
Today's article inspiration is aided by my "Dragon Oracle Cards" by Diana Cooper, and the topic is on one of the threads that I posted in this morning. The person who started the discussion has a friend who is a wonderful woman, a nurse, and who is also a medium. She cannot reconcile that this friend of hers will go to hell, which all Bible-only believers will claim. Because it is a Bible-only group, and my favourite Facebook group, I play by their rules, so to speak, because I have great respect and even admire them. I don't engage in debate and I do not come from a Catholic stance. Lately, as I have been delving further into my New Age/Rosicrucian studies, most notably with cards decks, I have been less active in the group, but I tend to miss them. So this morning I visited and posted a bit. I exceptionally like Mondays, because they close on Sundays. While I try to keep my Catholic faith out of the group (it's a good idea to not irritate the administrators), today I just had to pipe in, and reassure her that according to Catholic Tradition, it is HIGHLY unlikely that her friend will go to hell.
And it reminded me of what my priest has drilled into me for years that never really registered until now: Catholics wrote the Bible - so therefore there is no way AT ALL, zero, zip, zilch way, that the Catholic faith is inconsistent, or contradicts the Bible. A-ha! Why on earth would the traditions not align with the Bible? The New Testament is very small, the apostles were being killed and they needed to ensure that the message of the gospel would be preserved, and so there is no detail of anything other than Jesus' birth, his message of healing and forgiveness, his death and resurrection, followed by some letters Paul wrote in order to help the early churches that were falling into dissent (growing pains).
The Catechism, the Catholic Church's official treaty, is about ten times thicker than the Bible, and THAT is where we go to understand the faith (the Bible). It can be surmised that any denomination other than Catholicism has fallen into the trap of abiding by man-made teachings (notable examples include Martin Luther, King James, King Henry VIII, and John Calvin), and have in one way or another misinterpreted the message of the gospel. While my favourite preachers are Reformed Christians (mostly Presbyterian), we are to TEST the spirits, for many false teachers have come into the world (1 John 4) and now I realize (Thanks be to God) what it means to test the spirits: Are the teachings in alignment with that of COMPASSION AND FORGIVENESS? If there is any verse that has been used to condemn, then there is one conclusion: the interpretation has been perverted and is NOT Christian.
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