Posted on 12/04/2006 7:52:47 PM PST by Pyro7480
Thank you for discussing things rationaly and not resorting to yelling (Typing in all caps)
Indeed my favorite verse.. Number one of many many favorites..
What a promise and declaration.. worthy to sell all you have for this pearl of great price..
There are cetainly new testament things which supercede the Jewish religion which misinterpretated many things. I would certainly argue that the New Testament definition of the Saints supercedes Old Testament misunderstandings.
NOTE: In new testament times they did not call each other christians but "holy ones"/"saints".. Non believers called them christians.. they called each other holy ones/saints..
You are wasting your words. He spent years studying Judaism. What made him an inerrant apostle of Christ was not his study of Judaism.
Perhaps Blogger is referring to this:
Gal. 1:15-18 : 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.
I think it most likely that Paul spent those three years in solitude in prayer, meditation and study on what Christ had revealed to him. Only after these years did he begin his full-time ministry.
Well, the prayers that Blogger posted all show a theme. Even from the first one we DO see a fundamental problem:
Mary, Help of Those in Need
Holy Mary, help those in need, give strength to the weak, comfort the sorrowful, pray for God's people, assist the clergy, intercede for religious. Mary all who seek your help experience your unfailing protection. Amen.
Here we have a list of different tasks being asked of Mary. One of the many is to pray for God's people. But that is what you tell us is your entire request of Mary, to pray for us. This obviously does not match. Helping, giving, comforting, praying, assisting, and interceding are all listed as separate requests. Just this one example, among the others Blogger cited, and still hundreds more that are out there, I'm sure, tell us that there is MUCH more going on here than the simple solicitation to Mary to pray for us.
The last thing in the world I think of when reading these prayers to Mary is mediation. These are action requests. "Mary, do this for me now", etc. When I ask my friend for prayer I do not say "Steve, give strength to the weak, and I experience your protection of me." After reading the prayers that Blogger posted, that comparison is now officially COMPLETELY out the window as far as I'm concerned. (Thank you, Blogger :)
That should be intercession.
"I didn't think there was any HTML in that to make it go all squishy!"
Its the Greek words which caused the problem. Whenever you use them, you have to close each paragraph, both before and after the Greek with the appropriate HTML tag. I learned the hard way! :)
Very little faith is blind.
The people you trust are also the ones who wrote the history books.
At some point in time, you are trusting that what the priests and historians are telling you is true. That is faith.
A creed is NOT Scripture. It is not a complete statement of everything that we believe is Christians. Frankly, it doesn't need to be because we HAVE Scripture. So, even though the creed doesn't have a statement on the atonement, it matters not because I do not take the creed as authoritative. Rather, it is a statement of faith. Incomplete, but valuable for a general understanding.
"You have yet to answer my question why is God under obligation to die for us?"
John 3:16, "And this is the way God loved the world, He gave His only Son to die for us...".
Absolute Biblical Truth.
Great sequence of it. Praise God.
Oh, please. There are significant differences in the way the East and West view Mary, purgatory, Church authority, sin/grace, and a number of other issues. About the only thing you two agree on is the Eucharist.
What I am pointing to, as was Kosta, is the "Oneness" and "Catholicity" of The Church, something which lacking in virtually all of "Protestantism". Now it is apparent that "Protestants", despite the fact that they virtually all recite The Creed (another one of those spiritual things The Church gave you, either don't understand what they are praying or they positively reject it.
And where does the Orthodox stand on the Nicene Creed? There are very few of the early creeds that I believe Protestants would "reject".
I have been in a number of church in all parts of the world. I can assure you that, while their services may vary, Protestants have this "oneness" also. That being said, there are some Protestants churches I would not enter. However, after reading some of the problems with the Catholic Church, there are a number of them I wouldn't attend if I were Catholic. I suspect the same is true about Orthodoxy.
Protestantism may be the rejection of "teaching authority" of the Church, but let's look at what that means. You have told me that Orthodoxy is very complex to understand and take years of reading and immersion to fully grasp it. Protestants simply state, "Repent, believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved." We don't need much more "teaching authority" than that.
LOL! You remind me of the, BY FAR, best e-mail scam (and abuse by the responder) I have ever read. It is hideously long, but worth every minute (if you like my sense of humor :). The only thing you need is a working knowledge of the very basics of "Star Wars". This African scammer has no clue. :) If you haven't already seen this, enjoy:
I probably need to meditate on that one more.
A great verse.
Thanks.
Interesting.
Didn't know that.
Thanks for helping me learn something.
This is the site I go to for laughs. The letters are terrific and the scams of the scammers are great.
http://www.419eater.com/
Can you cite any sources for this? After all the Greek bishops which came together in the 7 councils were pretty good speakers of Greek. I think they'd know what words meant.
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