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To: HKMk23

I agree with all your points. The Charismatic Renewal would not be allowed to continue in the Catholic Church if it were not Scriptural, and in keeping with historic Christianity.

I think we "rediscover" parts of the message of Christ as we go through history. Each time, it seems new to many people, whether it's the message of healing, of sharing the glory of God, or of Divine Mercy. Obviously it's our human nature to just not GET IT :-).

G.K. Chesterton, I think, said that the Christian religion proves that man did not "invent God," because if we had, we would NOT have invented a god like the one revealed in the Judeo-Christian faith. We would have invented a god like us, not one who is everything we, in our fallen nature, are not!

We get things so wrong, when we think God is like us, and He even reminds us of that specifically, in the prophecies, "My ways are not your ways, and My thoughts are not your thoughts." I was reading a book recently that discussed the Jews at the time of the Crucifixion, and how they said, "His blood be upon us, and upon our children!"

It's been common to interpret that as being a condemnation of the Jews, from that time forward, but this writer said that God answered that prayer: Christ's Blood is upon the Jews, and upon their children, and it redeems them from eternal death, just as it does you and me. Everyone is washed by the Blood of Christ, or they're not freed from sin at all.


3,746 posted on 04/18/2006 4:35:37 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Although You're invisible, I trust the Unseen.")
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To: Tax-chick
G.K. Chesterton, I think, said that the Christian religion proves that man did not "invent God," because if we had, we would NOT have invented a god like the one revealed in the Judeo-Christian faith. We would have invented a god like us, not one who is everything we, in our fallen nature, are not!

I don't recall that in Chesterton, but it might have been him. If it was, G.K. was probably combatting Freud's terribly simple claims about God. Namely, that man invented God to deal with life's uncertainties. A good Jewish boy with an absent father should have known better than that.

I see the manmade idol of God everyday in people who find it unfair that he should send anyone to Hell; in those who overlook sin, since "God" only cares about the big stuff; and in the truly insipid idea that all roads eventually lead to "God" so long as one, on the whole, does what they and others around them consider good.

Thank God for God.
3,760 posted on 04/18/2006 4:48:36 PM PDT by Das Outsider (Are Marxist academics and apostate bishops trustworthy enough to tell you about the *real* Jesus?)
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To: Tax-chick
I think we "rediscover" parts of the message of Christ as we go through history.

YES! Well stated. Eldredge doesn't bring up something "new"; he brings BACK some things that are old, but have been forgotten by many. One must wonder how such profound things came to be laid aside? One thing is sure, though, we can ill afford to be so clumsy in our handling of scripture.

3,793 posted on 04/18/2006 5:11:18 PM PDT by HKMk23 (We keep you alive to serve this ship. Row well, and live.)
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