Posted on 04/25/2009 7:06:33 AM PDT by GonzoII
A perfect preface for your post.
The story doesn't say that.
Mind-reading (unsuccessful).
Thanks, GonzoII.
I’ve never figured out why a sign or gesture that accompanies the words “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” would invoke such vitriol. And, yes, it is taught at the dinner table from the time we are about two, but so are a lot of things.
No hatred, no venom Petronski...Just pointing out some of the false information your religion puts out to persuade people into believing you are the one true church...
Amazing and revealing that you would identify yourself with that profile.
No one believes I am the one true church.
It's because the Sign of the Cross does not fit in their own personal interpretation of Scripture and, you must remember, THEY ARE RIGHT! donchaknow...
Disagreement with such a person is a scam and if you disagree with them, you are in on it [cue sinister music].
Satan hates the cross in all its forms. The Church has known this for a long, long time:
Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ; but though another hide it, do thou openly seal it upon thy forehead, that the devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling far away. Make then this sign at eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking: in a word, at every act.
St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (d. A.D. 386)
Rev. 7:
After these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that they should not blow upon the earth nor upon the sea nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying: Hurt not the earth nor the sea nor the trees, till we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Christians in the church age don't need a physical sign...Jesus knows us and we know Him...
Joh 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
But the issue isn't making the sign of the Cross, is it...The issue is your religion claiming that 'true Christians' are known as those you make the sign of the Cross...And that's bunk...
I read this article and thought it would be enjoyed by all Christians. Was I wrong! The sign was used by early Christians and so it does not bother me. I think some need to really ask if they really love Christ or do they just hate those damn katlicks.
intelligunt
Crux sacra sit mihi lux, non draco sit mihi dux.
So you say.
The Sign of the Cross is a physical sign to all the world as well as to ourselves and God.
The issue is your religion claiming that 'true Christians' are known as those you make the sign of the Cross...And that's bunk...
Again, such is your opinion, for what it is worth.
Were you?
How deliciously appropriate!
:-)
As Tertullian wrote, they do this whenever they think of Christ or whenever thanks are made to him. Like fasting, it is a prayerful act, something believers do to honor or, or give gratitude to God.
Praying aloud, singing to God, or reading the Scriptures is no different. Protestants, who lift their hands in the air and sway them back and forth, are doing the same thing as long as it is not something "Catholic."
Public prayer is just as "Pharisaical" as making public signs of the cross. There is no hypocrisy in crossing oneself and it is the most appropriate gesture one can do, at a moment, when one needs to "put on Christ" It is no different than saying "Halleuijah" or "Praise the Lord!"
Arguments by Protestants that it is idolatry are as ridiculous as the rest of the Protestant protests. Their treatment of the Bible is no less "idolatrous."
The Gospels teach humility and, consistent with that, that the expression of faith should not be boisterous and hypocritical. Jesus taught that we should pray in private, dark rooms, not public places. That's why all Orthodox homes have a prayer corner in a remote part fo the house.
Yet the Protesters want public prayers, at football games and schools. Our Congress has a chaplain who leads public prayer. In the military, chaplains lead public prayers at various non-religious ceremonies. Many public events are preceded by a public prayer.
All these things are exactly the opposite of what Christ taught. Public prayer is proper only in church, the true home to every Christian.
If God can hear us in silence and knows what we are thinking, no words need be spoken, no gestures made, and that would include the Cross. But Mark's Great Commission (Ch. 16) mentions signs of true believers, so argments that signs are "idoaltrous" are ubliblical. The Bible if full of signs.
But, most importantly, man is an expressive and artstic being, endowed with talents, so people sing, wave, lift their hands, bow, kneel, prostrate and make signg of the cross in their expression of worship and prayer.
Clearly, the Catholic and Apostolic Church found it much harder to make the sign of a fish that so many Portesters sport on their cars, and found the sign of the cross a more appropriate and relevant symbol of the Christian faith.
It is what the early Church did and it is the unbroken tradition of the one true Church. Protestants in their own misery will invent any other kind of gestures so long as it is not what the Catholic Church does. Truly pathetic but consistent.
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