Posted on 04/24/2005 2:53:30 PM PDT by prairiebreeze
The most divisive group out there is the gays and lesbians. The so-called divisive GOP has nothing on them.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Anytime I see the words "spirit of the Second Vatican Council" it brings to mind that the "spirit" only became warped by those who misunderstood the reality of Vatican II's call to holiness. The TRUE Spirit of Vatican II can be seen in Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
As a protest-ant, I rankled at anything that indicated that Catholicism is the One True Faith. However, having studied the early Church Fathers and having "returned" to my Catholic "roots" (there has to be a Catholic in the mix somewhere on my Paternal side), I more clearly understand the sentiment and spirit in which the statement is made.
I guess it's one of those, "you have to be here to get it" kind of things.
Salvation is through Jesus Christ for those who call themselves Christian. The Church He founded when He gave Peter the Keys to the Kingdom becomes disputed by those who protest that action. But that doesn't negate the action.
Will there be others in Heaven besides Catholics? SURELY. Will there be Catholics in Hell? More than likely.
Will there be "non" Christians in Heaven? That is a question only God can answer and He's not given me or you or anyone privy to that information.
Will there be Jews in Heaven? Oh, yes. The Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still exists. It has not been negated.
Don't for a minute think that the Almighty has given "this soothsayer" or "that prognosticator" some kind of advanced directive about the when, who, what, where and how of the Final Judgment Day. No human alive knows anything and everything you read and hear is just speculation. No human has been given any gift of foretelling the end of times by reading the book of Revelation or the book of Daniel or any other Canonical Book. All that we know for sure is that each of us will be judged based on our faith AND our works (which prove our faith) and that GOD alone will do the judging.
+Pace e Bene+
"Sophia" is not necessarily Goddess worship. It is the word, "Wisdom" in Greek, as in "Philosophia," the love of Wisdom.
In many places in the Old Testament, especially the Book of Wisdom, (The ancient Church, including modern Catholic and Orthodox churches, considered the "Book of Wisdom" to be Holy Scripture.) the Holy Spirit is referred to as Sophia.
The danger is that the ancient Greeks named gods and goddesses after vices and virtues. Hence, there were Greeks who worshipped Sophia personnified as a goddess of wisdom. In SOME radical-feminist groups, Sophia becomes less identifiable with the Holy Spirit, and more with the Greek goddess OF wisdom.
This is relatively rare, however: Pagan-leaning groups usually go all the way to rebelling against the God the Father, not content with merely emphasizing the feminine nature of the Holy Spirit. As such, they often worship the false goddess Gaia, a creator-goddess, rather than Sophia.
Sorry, but I can't help think of a twist of the old NY Times biolerplate:
CATHOLICS ELECT NEW POPE! WOMEN AND MINORITIES TO BE HIT HARDEST!
Good info. I consider substituting milk and honey for bread and wine in a communion service in order to "celebrate our feminity" to be pretty far out there though.
Waaaaay far out there.
Plenty WAAAAY far out there. Any group using those has gone pagan. They may justify themselves by citing references to Israel as a land of milk and honey, but the reason those materials began being used in worship was neo-pagan rituals which saw milk and honey as sexual secretions.
T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6
Uh, why are you posting in this forum instead of cruising the bathhouse in whatever blue state/college town hellhole you crawled out from?
Go to church and purify your soul.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
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