My comment: What we (any of us) think doesn't matter. Only God matters. His name, His will, His kingdom. Our challenge is to walk in His Light and not wander off into the darkness of our vain imaginings.
adiaireton8 reply: If it didn't matter what any of us think, then there would be no such thing as "damnable heresies".
Again I assert that only God truly matters. He is the First Cause and the Final Cause, the Alpha and the Omega. He alone sits on the Great White Throne and judges the hearts and intents of men. No matter whether we believe Him directly or through the counsel of trusted religious leader(s) – in the end, He alone is the judge – and everything that fails His judgment will not continue into the new heaven and the new earth:
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. - John 6:63
For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things [are] naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. – Hebrews 4:12
He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. - John 12:48
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. – Matt 25:31-33
And he [was] clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. – Rev 19:13
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. – Rev 20:11-15
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. – Rev 21:5-8
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. – Galatians 5:16-23
Of course I agree that God's judgment is the one that ultimately matters. But the fact that God's judgment is the one that ultimately matters does not mean that we should not judge ourselves (I mean our own individual self). I think you agree with me on that point at least.
So the fact that God's judgment about whether someone is a heretic is the one that ultimately matters, does not tell us *now* whether any particular person is a heretic, or whether any particular theological belief is heresy. And yet it is extremely important for us to know whether what we are believing is heretical or not, since as I pointed out, at least some heresies are "damnable".
We often never take the time to consider whether or not our present position is heretical. Most people I talk to have never taken the time to consider this. They assume that their present position is correct, and that those who disagree with them are wrong. And they say that God will sort it all out at the Final Judgment. But that is what the heretics of the first four centuries said as well, and that is how they thought. And yet they were seriously mistaken, being themselves ensnared in those "damnable heresies".
Strangely enough, it is a quirk of [fallen] human nature that always tends to think that error belongs to "the other guy". We don't find it surprising that there were so many heresies in the first four centuries. But we seem to think that 21st cenutry man has quite outgrown heresies. Sure we acknowledge that there are liberals who deny the deity of Christ, etc. But do we really think that there are heresies all around today? Generally not. Heresies were for back then, when all those people couldn't seem to get the truth right. But we're past all that. Surely, at the very least, *I* am not a heretic. Why, the thought has never even crossed my mind, and if it did, I would dismiss it in a heartbeat as absurd.
But that is the most dangerous position to be in, a kind of false security that prevents one from reflecting on the very possibility that one is grossly mistaken. That is why it is an important exercise to consider whether one might be wrong. And one way to do that is to look at the whole situation from another point of view, a point of view one presently does not hold. (Of course that may require a little study in order to understand the other point of view.) So my question to Quix was an attempt to prompt that sort of mental exercise. Assuming for the sake of argument that the Catholic Church is the true Church that Christ founded, and its Magisterium the true ecclesial authority, how would Quix know that? Would his subjective experiences feel or smell any different than his present subjective feelings and smells?
If not, then he can't be so confident in dismissing the authenticity and authority of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
-A8