Posted on 10/15/2001 6:54:40 AM PDT by malakhi
Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. - John Adams |
Note loop-hole.
And you are entirely obsessed with the carnal law given to a carnal people! When you learn to think spiritually you will see that God doesn't want our stinky sacrifices, he doesn't want to make sure we have no leaven in our homes on certain dates, he doesn't want to make sure we have no pictures of him. He wants our devotion, our fiat to his wishes. He doesn't care if we have a picture of him or his mom in our yard. It's what's inside that counts.
SD
Note loop-hole.
Loophole, nuanced definition. Potato, potahto.
SD
Not. The Church is made up of human beings who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. This doesn't make them infallible...not even the branch of the Church called Roman Catholicism.
That is because something deep down inside of you knows he is right.
I disagree. Even in the afterlife, my 14 month old daughter will wake me up and want a bottle (...a sleepy angelo). And you wonder why I'm up late at night posting? ;o)
Here's how to add a hyperlink:
(a href="http://www.bergen.com/morenews/pope1620011016.htm")link(/a).
Coded with the proper characters, the above would appear like this ... link.
....and by fallible people! Gee, that makes what they come up with REAL safe to believe, doesn't it? Fallible people's opinions evaluated by more fallible people and results touted as INFALLIBLE.
"Cafeteria" refers to something different.
I do think you are starting to understand, yes I do. There is this thing called "the Truth" which the Church has been entrusted to guard and treasure. When a person writes something trying to explain this "truth" the Church examines it and deems it either worthy or not. Either in line with the Truth, or not.
I can write something inspired and brilliant one day about one part of the Truth. The next day I could be mistaken about another aspect of the Truth.
If you ask me I will tell you everything I write is brilliant and True. I would be biased by my own ego, though.
It is the job of the Church, the Magisterium, to tell me (and the world) whether what I write is True or not, or if parts of it are True or not. This is how she treasures the Truth and guards it. One person can not do this trick without consulting all of the minds of Catholicism, official and lay (bishops and scholars), live and dead to see how the item in question fits in with Scripture and what has been declared True before (Tradition). All three work together.
This is not "picking and choosing" on the whim of an individual (that is what a "cafeteria" Christian does), but carefully using the mind of the entire Church to rightly discern what is True.
SD
Puh-leeze. This tactic has become so tiresome.
If you had been keeping up with the conversation between me and RnMomof7, you would know that most of it was in jest back and forth. That being said, I do not hold the pope higher than Jesus Christ and never even hinted at it.
Why don't you just quit the orthodox stuff, grab onto the Bible and follow Jesus with me. We're doin a pretty good tag team here bud :)
The fundies have no more right to break the laws of God than anyone else. I've said it before; but, your timing is impeccable. There is no label on earth that gives anyone the right to break God's laws. And you all can bank on that.
Is your understanding of God and Christ and Theology the same as it was when you were first "Saved" or "born again" or whatever?
I hope not. Your understanding of the same truths, which were always true, has grown and developed. To a new Christian today you could explain the truth a whole lot better than you could have way back when. You yourself have grown in understanding and in being able to communicate this understanding. Now did the Truth change along with you all of these years since you got saved?
Of course not. Now if we consider the Church to be an organism its collective understanding of Truth has been growing for two millennia. What we all understand now about God is based upon generations before us learning and adding to this store of understanding.
SD
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