Posted on 08/23/2008 1:15:05 PM PDT by Gamecock
Question:
What would a baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic need to do in order to join the Orthodox Presbyterian Church?
Answer:
Allow me to answer you question with a brief autobiographical anecdote. I was born, baptized, raised, confirmed, and educated in the Roman Catholic system. In fact, it was while I was at a Roman Catholic college (of all places) that I was converted by the grace of God. After realizing how different the teachings of the RCC are from Scripture, I joined with a Baptist church. And that church required that I be rebaptized as an adult. So, I went through that process and became a member. Several years later I came to understand the doctrine of the Bible as it was taught in Reformed churches like the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). Joining them was quite easy. I went before the session (a group of men who are officers in the church) where they interviewed me to make sure I had a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The following Sunday they put me before the congregation where I publicly professed my faith in Jesus Christ in the form of several membership vows. And that was it. I was a member!
So, being baptized and confirmed in the RCC is no big obstacle if you want to become a member of the OPC. As long as you have come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, and you trust not in any of your works. When asked the question "What must I do to be saved?", the response of Paul and Silas was "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31), and that is still true today. What is important is to put your full trust in Jesus. If you have done that, if you have repented of your sin and trust in Jesus alone, you are welcomed into the fellowship of the OPC. There is no need to be re-baptized and there is no need to renounce your confirmation.
At this point I would strongly encourage you to seek out the pastor of a local OPC, and he can guide you through the details of the steps toward membership in the OPC. If you need assistance finding an OPC in your area, you can check out our Directory of Churches. May God bless you and may you "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 5:18). If we can be of further assistance, just let us know!
My husband is one of the most humble and servant-spirited men on this earth. God is VERY pleased with him because He listens to God and does the works God has prepared for him since the beginning of the world. He does NOT offend God. He is a better man now than he ever was in the Catholic church because Christ came into his life and changed him. He didn’t live under the shadow of death anymore like he did when he was Catholic, never knowing if his sin would keep him out of heaven.
***You can’t take ONE verse out of context and make a religion out of it.***
Actually, you can. You will be wrong in doing so... <;-)
Can you show me a verse of scripture that states sin was redeemed? You will find there is none. The term "redeemed" is used in scripture as someone under bondage who have been bought from that bondage. God has not redeemed us from sin. If that were the case, then we would not sin. Instead, God has redeemed us from the Law. We still sin, but sin no longer holds dominion over us. That is why Paul use the term "redeemed" in relationship to the Law. Sin is a consequent of the Law.
Only Christians are redeemed from the Law.
Harley, that was a brilliant post.
A murky understanding of the difference between grace and debt leads to all sorts of errors.
20,000 Man made sects Protesting the Church God himself Founded the catholic Church and asked to Be lead on Earth By Peter...a succession that still exist today!....
Your beliefs are founded on Protests against Gods Church and a sect that is founded on man made Protest against the Mystical Body of Christ Himself! and he said he would always prevail...against the gates of hell.
Protestants hwoever believe a man made Church is truer.. or for some you don’t need to worship on the Sabbath ...
Just Imagine..20000 Protestant sects specifically formed to Protest Christ Church!
Please don’t tell me man can make something better than Christ Himself and that The catholic Church is Just bricks and mortar!That isn’t true...
Plenty true.
However, there seems to be a brittle edge to some of the wording . . . most of us Proddies hereon try to leave the brittleness to the Vaticans.
Well, I wished I could take the credit. That was actually a summation of the first five chapters of Romans. :O)
Oooooo....doggy. Yah' fellars sure make this hard.
One follows the other; they are not simultaneous. Forgiveness follows redemption. Forgiveness is separated from redemption.
I never said that they weren't. I'm simply saying that we are redeemed from the Law (please see Romans 1-6). We are forgiven for our sin. They are two different things.
At the risk of seeming like I'm splitting hairs, we are redeemed from the Law through His blood. We are forgiven of our sin by His grace. Non-Christians are simply not redeemed from the Law.
That goes without saying for you, Quix. No need to shout it.
That goes without saying for you, Quix. No need to shout it.
Today we compare grace to sin but that is not the comparison the scriptures make. Paul compares grace to the Law in a number of places but most assuredly in Romans. We are under one system or the other. We are either under grace in which God forgives us and cleanses us of our sins or we are under the Law where God will judge us by His standards. Forgiveness can only come under the grace but grace into this covenant must be given by God.
One word can have more than one meaning.
"Anti-Vatican/Roman Institutional/edifice/organizational/church representative" bigots on FR.
Have observed some of us post fiercely assertions which are anti-organizational [including Proddie] RELIGIOUS heresies, rubber-'Bibles,' rubber-histories, rubber dictionaries, outrageous idolatries, outrageous blasphemies . . . which factions and individuals of the Vatican/Roman institution/edifice/organization/church routinely, brazenly, manifest to alarming, outrageous degrees.
Petty posts seemingly awash in denial and pretense presuming to reserve a monopolistic, exclusivistic, authoritarian mandate/privilege/scope
for the Vatican/Roman institution/organization/edifice/church alone
come across to many of us as similar to the fierce assertions of 2 year olds angrily insisting that their DADDY IS BIGGER.
Actually, GOD IS BIGGER than all that. He has not and will not allow any human organization--which the Vatican is one of the more egregious examples of--to presume to contain HIM OR HIS CHURCH in any remotely small box--much less one so narrow and so tiny.
. . . much less one so full of so much obvious ARROGANCE on the part of so many of it's representatives.
He didn't tolerate it from the Jewish magicsterical 2000 years ago . . . and in due course, He won't tolerate it from ANY modern magicsterical nor any ~1600 year old !!!!TRADITION!!!! BOUND magicsterical [e.g. the Vatican], either.
Individuals clinging to: any organization, leader, set of rituals, set of dogma, set of !!!!TRADITIONS!!!!, set of habits, any groups, . . . ANY ANYTHING other than GOD HIMSELF
Shall eventually find themselves clinging to chaff . . . and very dangerous chaff, at that.
NGR
Hmmm.
People should act like adults and Christians if they are such.
Hmmmmmmm.
Suffering is no fun.
Prayers that God Almighty will lead you deeper to and into Himself regardless.
That He will enlighten you in whatever areas He wishes to show His light on more brightly.
That He will strengthen you in whatever areas He wants strengthened.
That He will encourage you where encouragement and hope are needed.
That He will give you release, peace, acceptance, trust where He requires that vs !!!!CONTROL!!!! on your part.
That He will increase your openness and vulnerability to Him, His Spirit, His guidance, His Truth, . . . HIMSELF.
That He will be more fiercely, thickly, heavily AMIDST all your closest relationships in healing, wholeness, guidance, sustaining strength, joy, fun, faithfulness, resilience.
That He will enable more painlessly the laying aside of all that is chaff, less than Himself, distraction, disorder, distress, a false god, a distorted-out-of-place attraction, 2nd best vs the best, seductive traps, . . .
That He will turn every particle of suffering into refined gold, precious jewels in your life and in your relationship with Him.
Amen/ So be it.
INDEED.
Well said.
Some surprises are ahead [of course for all of us].
May your judgments increasingly be in line with God’s judgments. May your understandings increasingly be in line with His Wisdom, Knowledge and Truths.
I pray your eyes are sufficiently on God and God alone such that you will find, choose, experience HIS WILL in each of those surprises ahead.
When He shines HIS LIGHT on assumptions, presumptions, misconstructions on reality, may you choose immediately, freely and easily GOD’S TRUTH in each situation, issue, choice, understanding.
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