The Pope begins a Bible reading Marathon

Interesting idea. I'm not sure about inviting Jews to read but I do appreciate the invitation of Protestants and the Orthodox to participate. And it is always good to see the Catholic Church emphasize scripture more.

 

Good for +++Benedict.

(I expect we will get the usual Catholic-bashing responses here, though. Shall I save everyone the bother: "Papacy is the Antichrist....Constantine invented the Catholic Church...Spanish Inquisition...salvation by works...Mary is Ishtar-Astarte...Trail of Blood" etc?)

 

I think it's great that the Pope is having a Bible reading marathon and that people from other denominations are participating. :jesus: :godisgood: :thumbs:

 

I hope the pope learns something from the reading of Scripture. If he takes it to heart, he will cease being the pope.

 

Presumably it's the Catholic Bible, complete with Apocrypha....which could be a bit awkward if a Protestant or Jew has to read those bits!

 

Good morning, Matthew.

You got in the scathing remarks before me and summed up Catholic bashing rather well. You seem a bit unsettled regarding conversion and the mechanism thereof.

The Big Papa must answer to John 3:5 along with the laity.

God is no respecter of persons.

Would it not be remarkable if Benedict got converted?

Have a blessed day.

Shalom,

Bro. James

 

Pssst! Having read some of his works, I get the distinct impression that he already is converted...

 

Does this mean he will bypass purgatory? Or must he wait to be beatified or will it take cannonization in three or four hundred years? Maybe it will take an improved formaldehyde.

We must be careful--he may already be a living saint.

Que lastima!

Have a blessed day.

Bro. James

 

It would help him a great deal if he were saved by grace and not by works.

 

Oh, I expect he is; he doesn't necessarily have to believe everything 'right' to be saved, does he?

Anyway, Catholic soteriology does say that they are saved by grace; they just don't believe in sola fide, that's all

 

If they are saved by their works, grace is null and void.

 

Ah, but if you are saying that they can only be saved if they believe 'the right thiings', are you not elevating faith into a 'work'?

 

If you can lose your salvation, then it is based on works. Seems pretty simple, to me.

Anyway, didn't the Vatican say something about creationism getting in the way of a proper understanding of the bible ?

Should be all you need to know. We don't need to read the bible under the tutelage of someone who picks & chooses what verses are important, and which verses you have to be Catholic to really understand.....

 

No, per Eph. 2:8-9. There is only one "right thing" to believe in, that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Jesus saying "I am THE Truth, THE Way, and THE Life didn't leave much wiggle room.

 

Just would add, a lot of historical work has been done, and it seems that A LOT of early Christians believed in salvation by faith but the need to perservere with works. I don't have a problem with that view. Polycarp's letter to the Philippians is CLEARLY teaching this. But the problem with the Roman theology is it's late innovations regarding the Mediatory work of Mary, the treasury of merit, purgatory, and some recent things in Vatican II which imply that people of other faiths can be saved, as long as they don't formally reject the Church and the Gospel of Christ.

It's hard to say what is another Gospel, but Rome comes dangerously close, not because of their rejection of sola fide, but because of their allegiance to Mary as a co-redemptrix(sp).

 

But don't certain Baptists (the Free-Will Baptists I think), Churches of Christ, and Adventists believe that one can lose his/her salvation? Does that mean that they preach works as well? If so, does that mean they are not really Christians either???

 

I'm not really concerned about what they say, save to say, you either believe grace saves apart from works, or you don't. The bible teaches the former, yet the RCC insists on the latter. Other churches don't have popes that claim to be Christ on earth.

 

Regardless of what they believe - reading the Bible through is a good thing and reading the Apocrypha will not hurt in the reading of the Bible through IMHO (for what it's worth ;) )

 

While it is good to read Scripture more, I have to wonder why having the Jews participate is any more problemmatic than having the Catholics participate. Both deny some key biblical teaching on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

That's not Catholic bashing. It is a simple fact that has been recognized for 1500 years until recently. No one, until recent times, believed that protestants and Catholics were merely variations of the same thing. It has been been recognized that there are irreconcilable differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. For the sake of argument, Catholicism may be right but if they are, then Protestantism is wrong. Protestantism may be right, but if they are Catholicism is wrong. They disagree on some of the main points of the Bible itself.