Posted on 02/15/2006 6:22:47 AM PST by NYer
Spare me. There's already a little too much of that business going on, don't you think?
I haven't thought about the issue in question much, but I do feel insulted that some people don't know that Catholics are Christian. We are the largest "denomination" in the US, IINM, but we still manage to get discriminated against and hated.
If the world doesn't want to be Catholic, why do they all stop when the Pope dies? They don't like it that the Pope is the Leader of Worldwide Christianity, but deep down they know its true.
Agreed.
Ditto.
When Billy Graham passes to his reward, there will be the same media frenzy recounting his life decade by decade and a televised funeral. He did serve the Lord faithfully as a Protestant. Do you think that the Catholics will spew venom over him? I don't.
This is truly a blessing! Thank you for sharing it. Rest assured of my prayers.
Among the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots.)
Of course not. Then again Catholics are not protesting Billy Graham. The Protestants you speak of are quite obviously still protesting against the Papacy.
SD
Lots of people also don't want to associate themselves with the lukewarm mainline Protestant denominations like the Episcopalians, the Methodists, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, and the Congregationalists.
Well the Catholics split from the Orthodox and the protestants split from them.
I say we call the lot of them protestants. ;p
Those enormously successful "megachurches" are where all those missing Protestants have gone. The mainstream protestant churches (with 1 or 2 great exceptions) have largely fallen prey to secular humanist ideas. "Be ye holy for I am holy" is the spiritual battle cry.
I wouldn't as an ordinary sinner ever make such an idiotic claim that outside of my church there is no salvation. Yet people that are called into Christ's holy family feel the need to boldly claim that they are members of the "true church" Nothing could be more prideful, divisive,or uninformed. God can't be subject to man's petty puny ideas. He's God after all.
I'm not gonna stoop so low as to denigrate the RCC. That would be a sin.
Agape, DrMike
Hey now, not all of us Lutherans deserve that /joke.
If we wish to locate the Church founded by Jesus, we need to locate the one that has the four chief marks or qualities of his Church. The Church we seek must be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
The Church Is One (Rom. 12:5, 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:13, CCC 813–822)
Jesus established only one Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus can have but one spouse, and his spouse is the Catholic Church.
His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).
Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.
The Church Is Holy (Eph. 5:25–27, Rev. 19:7–8, CCC 823–829)
By his grace Jesus makes the Church holy, just as he is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt. 7:21–23).
But the Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Eph. 5:26).
The Church Is Catholic (Matt. 28:19–20, Rev. 5:9–10, CCC 830–856)
Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20).
For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28).
Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).
The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it probably went all the way back to the time of the apostles.
The Church Is Apostolic (Eph. 2:19–20, CCC 857–865)
The Church Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the Church, and their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops, and, since the first century, there has been an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians in Scripture and oral Tradition (2 Tim. 2:2).
These beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s special role, and much more —even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself.
Early Christian writings prove the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic in belief and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their leaders. What these first Christians believed is still believed by the Catholic Church. No other Church can make that claim.
Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth
Probably not. We Catholics aren't supposed to be spewing venom. But Billy Graham wasn't the end-all be-all of Protestant ministers, if you ask me. Sure, people flocked to see him and many were converted, and he certainly isn't as theologically unsound as your basic Oral Robertses of the world. But he was pretty liberal.
IMO, if you pray only to God in Jesus' name, or some variant of the Trinity, then you are a Christian.
I ended up becoming a Catholic over the grace displayed when John Paul II died. And the grace displayed by the current occupant of the see.
We do not say there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. Like you, that is not our place to say. The Church as well teaches that others may be saved.
"They don't like it that the Pope is the Leader of Worldwide Christianity, but deep down they know its true."
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This is one of the most glaring flaws in your church.
The real leader of the Christian world is JESUS CHRIST.
IMO, if you say the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed you are a Christian.
Oh, you got me there didn't you! Leader of the Christian World among solely human men. Hows that? I almost left out the solely, but I knew you would skewer me over Jesus being Fully Human and Fully Divine. You'll probably find something else to nitpick. Get Thee Behind Me!
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