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Lines from the Lord's Prayer, in various languages. From the Eucharist Door at the Glory Facade of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. It's Lent in Rome. That means it's time for one of the great Roman traditions: station churches. Each morning, English-speaking pilgrims walk to a different church for Mass. This morning, on the way to St. Anastasia's, I was once again struck by a line in the Our Father: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” That's a hard thing to pray, It doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. Even the Catechism...

Faith is not alone, Scripture is not alone, Grace is not alone. We ought not separate what God has joined. By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere are a lot of “solos” sung by our Protestant brethren: Sola Fide (saved by faith alone), Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone is the rule of faith), and sola gratia (grace alone). (See the Protestant logo to the right.) Generally, one ought to be suspicious and careful of claims that things work “alone.” It is our usual experience that many things work together in harmony, that things are interrelated. Very seldom is anyone or anything “alone.”The problem of...

It seems to be a matter of common sense to say that good people will go to heaven and evil people will go to hell. Something would be terribly wrong if God could send an innocent, sincere, charitable, helpful person to hell. Yet sometimes people suggest that a person's salvation depends upon his faith alone, and not upon the good things he does, or how he lives, or whether he obeys the Ten Commandments. The Bible never mentions "faith alone" (except in one passage which says faith alone is dead--James 2:24) The concept first came into existence during the Reformation,...

THE INSUBSTANTIAL TRANSSUBSTANTIATION We discuss the Roman Catholic notion of TRANSSUBSTANTIATION a fair amount hereon. As I was driving across the beautiful, majestic Dineh Rez yesterday, I listened to most of more than 75 hymns and praise songs in a particular CD collection I had with me. I was pondering that issue a fair amount—particularly the rather intense Roman Catholic obsession with it. I recalled how my noting that I could IMAGINE that, GOD in His Grace and Mercy COULD allow the verse about ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH, SO BE IT UNTO YOU . . . to operate in...

Roman Catholics often mention that the Bible never says we are saved by faith alone and that the phrase "faith alone" occurs only once in James where it says that we are not saved by faith alone. If this is so, then why do the Protestants say we are justified by faith alone and not by works? Because the Bible teaches that we are justified by faith alone, and not by works. The following is a list of verses about being saved by faith. Please take note that faith and works are contrasted. In other words, we are saved by...

Introduction At the time of the Reformation, many hoped Martin Luther and Erasmus could unite against the errors of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther himself was tempted to unite with Erasmus because Erasmus was a great Renaissance scholar who studied the classics and the Greek New Testament. Examining the Roman Catholic Church, Erasmus was infuriated with the abuses in the Roman Catholic Church, especially those of the clergy. These abuses are vividly described in the satire of his book, The Praise of Folly. Erasmus called for reform in the Roman Catholic Church. Erasmus could have been a great help to...

In "A Deafening Silence" I discussed the unusually low amount of support rank-and-file Christians seem to have for outlawing homosexual marriages. While state initiatives in Missouri and Louisiana have overwhelmingly trounced the idea, US Congressmen are not hearing much from their constituents on the matter. Now, USA Today has weighed in on the subject, or at least, weighed in on one aspect of the subject. The October 4, 2004 issue saw an article by Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington Law School, in which he defended the idea that polygamy, polyandry and group marriage would...

  RETURN to Landmark Independent Baptist Church Homepage The Churches of the New Testament Were Taught the Doctrine of Unconditional Election by Wayne Camp The matter can be settled only in the light of the word of God. I call on any reader who doubts that these churches were taught the doctrine of unconditional election to reason with me from the inspired book of God, the inspired book written as holy men of God were born along by the Holy Spirit. That is the final authority.  The church at Thessalonica was taught that this election was from the beginning and...