We all live in an interesting times, aren't we?

We all live in an interesting times today. The society that we are living in today is no longer confined to a limited parameter of land we are literally standing on, or the kind of conventional thinking we used to have decades ago. Instead, humans become more and more knowledgeable. Information is easily grasped, despite of its validity and realibility. Not only have we become more complicated in our thinking, beliefs and values, we begin to influence others with our beliefs, philosophies and theories. In the end, we end up pondering over one question, what is the truth? Where is the truth? Who is at fault here?

The same thing goes to our Christianity faith. Over the past few decades, we can't help but to see various churches have come to birth like never before. We begin to see more and more denominations coming out. To me, I don't know how and where they come from. Neither do i know each of their histories. What possibly could they be thinking? Who knows from where they have drawn their doctrine, knowledge and wisdom? And what justified their doctrine or ideology as something wise to the society? And looking at the situation and society we are living in today, i personally don't think it's going to get any lesser or better. Just look at the example of Gay Church we have today in Malaysia, Who is at fault? Where is the truth? and if it's wrong, who are we to say that it's wrong?

Probably, i can give my own 5-cents worth of sharing on my own side. For years, friends of different religious backgrounds have approached me and asked me of my faith in Catholics. I have to say it'd never been easy to give firm answers. And i tell of what i know and what i believe. What i'm not sure of, i keep quiet, and use it as a question to find out later.

And when people started to question me of its doctrine like why like this, why not like that? for example, why you have pope? why you have different denominations? why you play rosary? why you have Eucharist? why you pray to Mother Mary? Is she really that significant? bla bla bla, i often shared with them of its historical backgrounds. Why histories? What's big deal about it? Simply because in histories, we begin to explore where doctrines came from, and the reasons for their existance.

The Catholic church has existed for the past 2000 years and it has every reason for doing what they are doing today. (this also includes some of the wrongdoings they've done in which they especially Pope John Paul II made several apologies.) Some friends of mine have shared with me that we should move towards believing in the universal church. But where is the universal church? Catholic church is one universal church if some of you are not aware of. The word 'catholic' is derived from Greek καθολικός (kata-holos)," or more colloquially, "universal." (Catholic Answers, 2007).

Here, i am not intending to explain what Catholic faith is all about (i've yet to equip myself for this), neither am i making judgment on any other denominations. As a growing teen, i find it interesting to see how Christianity has evolved over the past 2000 years, how our humanly actions and thinkings have brought us into having different beliefs towards doctrines and ideologies which perhaps made us 'better' or 'worse'. And perhaps, we will continue to question this and probably be never satisfied with the answers we have.

Today also, i have read a conversion story by Dr Scott Hahn from a Presbyterian into Catholicism.

http://www.chnetwork.org/scotthconv.htm

What he wrote was really phenomenal, as he wrote down every step of his journey with Christ to finding Catholic faith. There are some things or doctrines mentioned he shared inside in which i myself don't know. he shared with us the distinction between how Lutherans believe and how Catholics believe, and the different interpretations of 'Covenant' by different denominations. Very interesting! Have a read, and THINK, and have your say.

Another link which you would probably like to look into is my friend Henry Lim's blog. What he did was that he gave a little explanation as to some misconceptions you might have regarding Catholic Church.

Thank you for now.

Below is a Copy & Paste email article on 'How Old is your Church?' i once read long long time ago:

If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.

If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry.

If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.

If you are a Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England founded by Samuel Seabury in the American colonies in the 17th century.

If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.

If you are a Methodist, your religion was launched by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.

If you are a Unitarian, Theophilus Lindley founded your church in London in 1774.

If you are a Mormon (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, N.Y., in 1829.

If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1605.

If you are of the Dutch Reformed church, you recognize Michaelis Jones as founder, because he originated your religion in New York in 1628.

If you are a member of the Churches of Christ your church began near the beginning of the 19th century in New England.

Abner Jones, Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell were some of the most well known originators of your religion.

If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.

If you are a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.

If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as "Church of the Nazarene," "Pentecostal Gospel," "Holiness Church," "Pilgrim Holiness Church," "Jehovah's Witnesses," your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past century.

If you are Roman Catholic, you know that your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ the Son of God, and it is still the same Church.