Featured Pope Benedict to Resign at End of Month

Additional Thoughts...

Having said what I have said (which I do believe is true) I think I should also add that these dear folks need the love of God and His redemption just as much as we do and we should have nothing but compassion for them doing everything in our power and from the perspective of sound Biblical truth to reach them for the Saviour. I do believe there are probably some saved Catholics who have not seperated themselves from their "church" for whatever reason. I do NOT believe they were saved BECAUSE OF the teachings of their church (if they are saved) but rather, INSPITE of it. God would and does call them, if they are saved, to "come out from among them". The Catholic "faith", just like the Mormon "faith" many times uses some of the same "Christian" language (that we do)to describe their belief systems....but many times it means something entirely different to them. Both are in essence systems of works that must be performed to achieve what they believe is "salvation". The truths that most Bible-Believing Baptists and others in Orthodox Traditional Bible Christianity teach and embrace are the ONLY path to a right relationship with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and ultimately a home in heaven. Infant Baptism, Mary (or pope) worship,icons, crucifixes, purgatory, indulgences, mass, confession to the "priest",etc. etc. or for Mormon's,baptism for the dead, holy underwear, etc. etc. are all false works to a false god. Biblical Christianity is an EXCLUSIVE faith that is becoming increasingly more difficult to present to an unbelieving world that REJECTS the concept and the fact of "absolute truth". I'll remind all that none of this takes God by surprise and that we are "right on time" according to His plan. Even so,come Lord Jesus! In the meantime, let us love these dear blinded folks, peradventure some of them might see the love of God in us or the scriptures we declare and find the Lord. I don't, however, think we can truly love them unless we tell them the truth about their false religion. The Holy Spirit (the real Spirit of Truth) will have to open their eyes.

Bro.Greg

 

:thumbsup: You may be in the minority, but you're not the only one here who believes that it is not only Baptists who can be counted among the brethren.

 

How would you know if he has a relationship with Christ or not?
One cannot practice what the Catholic Church teaches and practice what Biblical Christianity teaches any more than one can practice what Islam teaches and practice what Biblical Christianity teaches.
Biblical Christianity demands that you forsake the one to become a Christian. You can't be a practicing pagan and a Christian at the same time.

Perhaps you think more along the lines of some of your Presbyterian "brethren" do:

 

Make that 3.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

During the papal election I will be fervently hoping and praying for a hardliner who will clean house even more so than the last one did.

 

I just realized I posted in the 'Baptist Only' forum by mistake. I didn't realize there were two threads about the popes resignation and 'clicked' on this one by mistake. I stopped posting in this part of the board after my decision to leave my Baptist church for the Catholic Church. Beg your pardon.

 

Cultural catholics and actual catholics are two very different things. There are many who claim a name, yet are distant from it. Just like a lot of baptists I have known through the years.

It's funny to me that catholic folks believe almost the exact same thing as some baptist folks - if they really are christian, they would leave where they are at and join up with us!

 

I feel the same way about error of others, who like the Roman Catholics insist that the will of man is the decisive factor in salvation.

 

I am finding out on this board that the here is a ton of pulling verses to agree with your view. Quote the series of verses that you base your verses on which also includes verses from other books also. For the record my denomination doesn't matter. I take on the correct Christian view. God became flesh and was born to die for our sin and salvation. He arose and ascended back to heaven. And also I hate seeing pictures hung year around showing Jesus on the Cross. My Jesus escaped persecution and the cross is empty as is the tomb!

 

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

He escaped persecution??

 

Yeah should have worded it a bit different. Finishing up 6 hours of work for my Masters....my brain is no longer functioning correctly.

 

Well in that case, I won't label him a H_____, just yet.

 

Though there are many comments in here to reply to, perhaps I can begin by just pointing what it that has been said and what hasn't. I do defend my belief that a person can be a faithful, practicing Roman Catholic and be saved. If we are to simply say that anyone who ever has been under the ministry of the Roman Catholic Church isn't saved we are cutting off almost every person who lived from AD 500 to 1517. (I absolutely dismiss the Trail of Blood nonsense as being just that.)

Additionally, I have many good friends who are both faithful parishioners and priests in local parishes. I'll be having lunch later this week with a priest friend of mine and I imagine he'll have some wonderful insights about this upcoming process.

Please do note, I haven't said that I agree with the Roman Catholic Church. Notice in my above points here and in the other thread in the Current Events forum in the General Discussion, that I have mentioned that I disagree with my Roman Catholic peers as it relates to their soteriology...among other things. These disagreements prevent me from fellowshipping with them through their practice of communion. I'm okay with that, they are still people and I can still relate to them.

One of curious things is that almost all Roman Catholics can articulate and agree with the Apostles' Creed which underlies our mutual Christian faith. If no other device exists I can't think of a single thing in there that a biblical Baptist could disagree with. So if we begin with (a) charity and (b) a common confession (obviously they call it a creed but I don't) why not anticipate we might have more in common with them than we realize.

I've been leading ecumenical and inter-faith dialogues for years. I don't agree with everything my friends from other perspectives say but I can respect them. While my Muslim friends believe that Jesus was never crucified and that it was Ishmael and not Isaac who would have been sacrificed I can disagree, I can even point out that in their system there is no hope of salvation. Yet I can also be respectful.

Catholicism (Roman or Eastern) is a part of Christianity. Honestly, in some areas of the world all we have are Catholics or Catholic missions. When I've been out in the mission field I've found multiple times that I've partnered with Roman Catholics who are also bringing the Gospel to people.

We disagree over things. But I also disagree with some of my evangelical and Protestant brethren. I guess I can't just cut off a huge sector of Christians as fellow believers.

 

And this affects Baptists how?

 

Real reason is they required him to join Twitter and to Tweet and he doesn't like it. :laugh: