Posted on 02/02/2011 10:04:55 AM PST by Alex Murphy
What would a baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic need to do in order to join the Orthodox Presbyterian Church?
Allow me to answer you question with a brief autobiographical anecdote. I was born, baptized, raised, confirmed, and educated in the Roman Catholic system. In fact, it was while I was at a Roman Catholic college (of all places) that I was converted by the grace of God. After realizing how different the teachings of the RCC are from Scripture, I joined with a Baptist church. And that church required that I be rebaptized as an adult. So, I went through that process and became a member. Several years later I came to understand the doctrine of the Bible as it was taught in Reformed churches like the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). Joining them was quite easy. I went before the session (a group of men who are officers in the church) where they interviewed me to make sure I had a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The following Sunday they put me before the congregation where I publicly professed my faith in Jesus Christ in the form of several membership vows. And that was it. I was a member!
So, being baptized and confirmed in the RCC is no big obstacle if you want to become a member of the OPC. As long as you have come to trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, and you trust not in any of your works. When asked the question "What must I do to be saved?", the response of Paul and Silas was "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31), and that is still true today. What is important is to put your full trust in Jesus. If you have done that, if you have repented of your sin and trust in Jesus alone, you are welcomed into the fellowship of the OPC. There is no need to be re-baptized and there is no need to renounce your confirmation.
At this point I would strongly encourage you to seek out the pastor of a local OPC, and he can guide you through the details of the steps toward membership in the OPC. If you need assistance finding an OPC in your area, you can check out our Directory of Churches. May God bless you and may you "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 5:18). If we can be of further assistance, just let us know!
If y’all believe Jesus is God, then what did God say His most important commandment was?
Catholic is a word which simply means “universal” and is NOT irrovocably tied to the Church organization tied to the Roman Bishop.
All believing Christians are a part of Christ’s catholic Church regardless of denomination. Hence we say the creeds in good conscience, as they nowhere refer to fealty to the Bishop of Rome.
This is why the Orthodox Presbyterian Church does NOT require any sort of re-baptism, if one has already received a trinitarian baptism in another Christian denomination. Christ Church is universal, otherwise there could be no Christians outside of one denomination.
The minute a Roman Catholic concedes that there are genuine Christians out of communion with the Roman Church, logically he must concede the Church is catholic by definition, not a title... that is universal, transcending denominations.
And are Orthodox Presbyterians Christians or not?
You're right, the organization under the Bishop of Rome is more like a sect, than a Christian denomination.
The Church Jesus Christ founded was on the Apostles, in Jerusalem, not in the pagan imperial capitol of Rome. The Apostles left a sure and certain record of their beliefs and exact teachings in what we call the New Testament—that collection of books all Christian groups agree about.
Conservative protestant Churches, such as the OPC mentioned in the article, regard the Apostles as their highest authority under Jesus Christ—hence, they regard their writings, the New Testament, as well the Jewish Old Testament scriptures, their full and final authority.
Imagine for example that you get in a time machine and come back to America in 1,000 years. There is some mishmash of a highly controlling, dictatorial, socialistic government, which claims that yes, the US Constitution of 1789 is their governing authority—but that Dictator’s Government has an equal authority to the Constitution, and also the ability to infallibly tell you exactly what the Constitution says.
Few at that time read, or really even know about the Constitution, because, after all, the Government tells you what it says....and, is its equal, as well as it’s final unquestionable interpreter—so WHATEVER the Dictator’s Government says is constitutional is, in practice, the law.
Would you wonder that that AD 3011 Government is a dictatorship, and bears little, if ANY resemblance to the original American Constitutional governance?
Of course not! No thinking person would wonder why that 3011 government was NOT at all truly constitutional.
Any organization which puts its current governing authority equal to its constitution...with the full power to interpret it with no questioning from its people permitted, will find themselves in a tyranny—with a very different form and teachings than are actually in its constitution.
This is how we Protestants logically view Roman Catholics. Under a tyranny NOT faithful to the constitutional teachings of the Apostles—as we know for sure what they taught, in the New Testament. “Private interpretation?” No. This is why we have creeds and confessions—as they give public voice to a broadly shared interpretation of scripture (or OUR CONSTITUTION) which every thinking person can understand—and question, in a reasonable way.
So go with your Church that claims “unbroken” succession back to Jesus’ Apostles in the laying of hands...even while it is unfaithful to the actual written-down teachings of those Apostles themselves.
I’ll go with the Apostles, and what they taught....even if in a little bitty denomination. Much safer to be under the authority of His Word, than in a big old human-created organization outside of that Word.
I'll stay where I've been for 50 years.
In the Church that Christ founded.
The Catholic Church.
Classy! No, because of their own issues below the belt.
No, the Church is the Church. Only Protestants really have sects.
Protestant Pedophilia...
It’s not pretty nor is it being cleaned up...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2486420/posts
I’ve noticed that anytime protestants want a giggle, a pretend moral self-righteous superiority, a stop the debate as we’re losing, they generally bring up pedophilia.
Protestant denominations are splintered and decentralized therefore counted separately thus Insurance Companies don’t have accurate numbers - see link. When taken as a whole protestants outnumber the amount of pedophiles in totality.
The leftiest media, especially the NYSlimes hammered us with headlines for at least 60 days. Never before has any one organization gotten such a blitz of attention. Have you ever wondered why??? Especially since the Education Dept has even higher numbers - they were expecting an increase to 10% nationally for last year - haven’t seen the results anywhere, yet anyway.
So please weed your own garden first - we’ve cleaned up - now how about you?
FYI - Pedophilia is linked to homosexuality and it wasn’t an accident that we got infested with them. It’s also of interest to note that NONE of the media stated that fact. Think about it.
Sorry vladimir998 - meant to send it to “All”...
Protestant Pedophilia...
It’s not pretty nor is it being cleaned up...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2486420/posts
I’ve noticed that anytime protestants want a giggle, a pretend moral self-righteous superiority, a stop the debate as we’re losing, they generally bring up pedophilia.
Protestant denominations are splintered and decentralized therefore counted separately thus Insurance Companies don’t have accurate numbers - see link. When taken as a whole protestants outnumber the amount of pedophiles in totality.
The leftiest media, especially the NYSlimes hammered us with headlines for at least 60 days. Never before has any one organization gotten such a blitz of attention. Have you ever wondered why??? Especially since the Education Dept has even higher numbers - they were expecting an increase to 10% nationally for last year - haven’t seen the results anywhere, yet anyway.
So please weed your own garden first - we’ve cleaned up - now how about you?
FYI - Pedophilia is linked to homosexuality and it wasn’t an accident that we got infested with them. It’s also of interest to note that NONE of the media stated that fact. Think about it.
Ex-Youth Minister Pleads Guilty To Sex Abuse
Posted: Jan 25, 2011 10:01 PM
OWENSBORO (AP) - A former youth minister already convicted of sex abuse has pleaded guilty to four more counts.
Jacob Allen Conder was scheduled to go to trial Tuesday in Daviess Circuit Court on the four felony charges, but the Messenger-Inquirer reports that he entered a guilty plea Friday. Under terms of the plea, he would serve three years concurrently with a one-year sentence he received in December for a similar charge in Letcher County.
Conder was a deputy constable and a youth director at Wing Avenue Baptist Church in Owensboro when the allegations were made....
http://www.lex18.com/news/ex-youth-minister-pleads-guilty-to-sex-abuse
Pierce’s family attends parole hearing for Benton sex offender
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
[...]Court records noted that Pierce would “groom boys as young as 11 or 12” by taking an extra interest in their participation in youth choir. During the years of Pierce’s tutelage, he would entangle discussions of a sexual nature with the boys’ choir participation.
As the boys reached puberty, Pierce introduced them to a process he called “charting,” the case file noted. In this process, Pierce convinced the boys that in order for them to progress in the areas of voice and choir that he needed to take measurements of their bodies, including their genitals. Pierce kept records of these measurements through the years.
After Pierce introduced the boys to charting, which reportedly was done on a legal pad, he commonly would have the boys masturbate in front of him, the case file noted. It also noted that often he would “then expose himself to the boys and masturbate.”
The incidents would occur at the church or wherever Pierce could get the boys alone, according to the case file.
One of the victims told authorities that Pierce took him to a cabin in a county location where, in addition to the charting, he also spoke with him about sexual activities, such as masturbation. Pierce allegedly told the teenager that he had a “strong bond with all past presidents in the student ministry and would do ‘charting’ with them,” the records showed.
At the time Pierce was informed by church leaders that he was being terminated from the minister of music position he had held for 29 years, he reportedly apologized to the leaders as well as the church body for his behavior. Part of the letter, which was included in court records, stated: “I feel that it is important for you to know that while I fully acknowledge the sinfulness and immorality of my past behavior, I did not engage in actual sexual contact (specifically oral sex, intercourse or masturbating another individual) with any person, nor do I believe that in recent conversation with legal counsel that I have violated criminal or civil law.”
In last week’s hearing, Saline County Prosecutor Ken Casady officially objected to Pierce’s release or transfer from the Department of Correction. The letter Casady wrote to the Parole Board included the following:
“According to the Risk Assessment and Offender Profile Report, Pierce has been diagnosed as a Level 3 Sex Offender. He fits this designation because he is a repeat sexual offender with a strong antisocial, predatory personality.”[...]
http://www.bentoncourier.com/content/view/247829/
In Fairfax, Va.,
A sentencing hearing originally scheduled Jan. 28 for Robert Dando, former senior minister at Worcester Park Baptist Church in suburban London, was postponed.
A source following the case said Dando’s attorney requested a continuance in order to schedule a psychiatric evaluation. A spokesman for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office said Dando is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and that his next court date is scheduled for March 25 in the Fairfax County Circuit Court.
Dando, 46, pleaded guilty Nov. 3 to four counts of aggravated sexual battery of a victim under 13. He was accused of sexually abusing two sons of a family friend in Virginia during visits to the United States over a number of years.
British police are investigating whether Dando had other victims in the United Kingdom.
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6090/53/
David Pierce - Robert Dando
Churches check closer after molestation cases
By ERIN FRANCE - erin.france@onlineathens.com
Published Sunday, January 30, 2011
Church leaders today want to trust their employees and volunteers, but more churches are taking the time to check backgrounds and train youth ministers to make sure their most vulnerable members are safe.
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In the past four months, three youth ministers in Northeast Georgia churches were arrested and charged with molesting minors in their congregations.
Gwinnett County police arrested James Benjamin Harris, 33, on charges of child molestation earlier this month.
Harris taught Sunday school classes at Brookwood Baptist Church outside of Lawrenceville and was arrested after a mother checked her 14-year-old son’s phone and saw sexually explicit text messages from Harris, police said...
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/013011/new_778281504.shtml
There are lots more but it’s making me nauseated posting them.
It wouldn’t be a problem if they were allowed to marry!
I don’t believe that’s a scientific conclusion. Please see 130-138 for the high numbers of protestant molestations (protestant churches, per their insurance companies, state the numbers are probably much higher as many settle privately and as it is they’re already higher than the Catholic Church).
Protestant churches being decentralized don’t have a centralized authority to ensure everything possible has been done to prevent such horrific acts from happening again. The Catholic Church have taken huge measures and all is now established. So much so that many other organizations have taken their program for themselves.
I didn’t read these Protestant molestations too closely but I believe most of them were married so how can Protestants fix this abhorrent problem?
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