Desiring Unity

"The Lord never intended for man to break up into factions, sects, parties or denominations."

Totally agree protestant denominations are completely unbiblical, there is only one Church that Jesus established, His Kingdom will have no end.

Jesus our Savior, Grace, forgiveness of sins, Baptism, Eucharist, the resurection of the dead etc or even abortion, birth control, the Catholic Church has taught the same truth for 2000 years, customs may change and our understanding of that truth may increase but the teaching of truth can't contradict itself from generation to the next as you see within these schismatic christian denominations,

The pastors of these christian denominations who decry the teaching authority of the Church wield more authority over their denominations than any Pope. With probably the best of intentions these pastors study their Bible then teach truths which contradict what has been believed and taught by all christians who have ever come before them. Then if the parishioners don't like the truth that is taught by these pastors the parishioners look for another church or start their own church which teaches their personal, man-made understanding of God's truth prevails which also happens to differ from all christians who have ever come before them. Protestantim is Man-made anarchy.

Catholics making compromises on matters of faith with Budhists, Muslims, and schismatic christians etc for the sake of ecumenism..ludicrous, the Church Jesus founded has been teaching a consistent truth for 2000 years. Neither the Church or even a pope has the authority to go back and change the truths already revealed by God, at some point maybe somebody will pick up this the Church cannot compromise on the word of God.

God Bless

 

Born again catholic...

Some of them are, if you include groups like JW's and Mormons as being "protestant". But if you mean those who are preaching the true gospel, why would you say that having different convictions regarding some things is a problem, when God tells us in Romans 14 and other places that we will have differtent convictions regarding some things?

God says its normal, it will happen, and He even advises us regarding how to deal with it, yet you say its unbiblical?

But while we are on the subject, when the Catholic denomination rids itself of the "beam" of massive false teaching in its system, maybe we with the "speck" of error in our ranks might listen to you.

I dont know what you mean by that.

If you mean all those who are born of the Spirit, you are correct. There are some of those(born again, the "wheat") in all "christian" organisations, mixed with some lost people.(the tares)

If you mean the Catholic Church, you could not be more incorrect.

Thas for sure.

God bless,

Mike

 

While I agree that Rome has been basically consistent in its teachings regarding "Jesus our Savior, Grace, forgiveness of sins, Baptism, Eucharist, the resurection of the dead", I think it's historically inaccurate to maintain that Rome has in every respect taught the same truth from the beginning. After all, there is the little matter of the Filioque which Rome initially anathematized and did so as late as the 9th century. Then about the time of the turn of the 2nd millenium, Rome flip-flopped and officially inserted the innovative and divisive clause into the Nicene Creed. There's also a matter of the morphing of the Papal office, from the highly regarded "first among equals" in relation to the other bishops, and still likewise subject to the Ecumenical councils, to an allegedly infallible, sovereign grand poo-bah over all bishops everywhere.

That's a bit of an overstatement, but you make a good point. However, if one can liken Protestant pastors (and Protestants in general) to "mini-Popes", one may also suggest that the Pope was "the first Protestant" when he left the collegial tradition of the Church by declaring himself to be a universal monarch over the church and by inserting the Filioque in the Creed which was forbidden by previous Ecumenical Councils and Popes.

This seems to be a fair assessment of the state of Protestantism. It is always a good idea to keep in mind what Vincent of Lerins said about holding to what "is believed always, everywhere, and by all" in interpreting Scripture so as to avoid introducing novel and false doctrines into the Church.


God Bless

 

I think the point you were trying to make, Gina, has been lost in the catholic/protestant head butting again.

When I saw the pope kissing the koran, it seriously concerned me. When I hear of catholic and some protestant faiths saying that knowing Christ isn't completely necessary for salvation, it worries me too.

The true church is a body of believers, not collected under one roof, but bound by faith and the Holy Spirit. We should all be standing against abortion, satanism, and all kinds of evil. We should be separate from the world, not each other. The question, then, becomes: Who is "we"? The best way I see shown in the Bible is fruits of a person's life. A person who is truely saved WILL show it in their life. Christ even said that others would know us by our love for one another.

Put aside the differences for the greater cause of Christ. But if anyone tells me that I am not a Christian because I don't DO X,Y and Z, then I am pretty sure that they aren't a Christian themselves.

 

Usually those who are rocking the boat are not the ones rowing it.

 

If you were following Jesus Christ in the days when the One True Church that God started at Sinai was in the "error of the traditions of man" described in Mark 7 - then you would be seen as "devise" and "factious". The orthodoxy of that age called this new Christian movement "a sect".

In fact they claimed that this divisive group following after an uneducated Carpenter from Nazareth had an influence that was so bad - it threatened to destroy the nation of Israel itself.

Unity can not be obtained "at the sacrifice of the Truth of God's Word". And because of that - when error and/or practices of paganism infiltrate the church - you will always have reformers crying out "againts it" - just as we see happening in the centuries long history of the nation of Israel.

In Christ,

Bob

 

Bob, on what do you base your claim that Jesus was uneducated? This clearly contradicts the bible. Whatever your source for this anti-Jesus claim you should consider it very suspect.