Posted on 09/02/2011 9:07:47 AM PDT by marshmallow
Minneapolis, Minnesota (CNN) –Prior to 2006, few people even knew that then-Minnesota state legislator Keith Ellison was a Muslim. Because of his English name, he said, no one thought to ask.
But five years ago, when he ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives - a race he would go on to win - word of his religious affiliation began to spread.
“When I started running for Congress it actually took me by surprise that so many people were fascinated with me being the first Muslim in Congress,” said Ellison, a Democrat now serving his third term in the House.
“But someone said to me, ‘Look Keith, think of a person of Japanese origin running for Congress six years after Pearl Harbor–this might be a news story.’”
Though Ellison's status as the first Muslim elected to Congress is widely known, fewer are aware that he was born into a Catholic family in Detroit and was brought up attending Catholic schools.
But he said he was never comfortable with that faith.
“I just felt it was ritual and dogma,” Ellison said. “Of course, that’s not the reality of Catholicism, but it’s the reality I lived. So I just kind of lost interest and stopped going to Mass unless I was required to.”
It wasn’t until he was a student at Wayne State University in Detroit when Ellison began, “looking for other things.”
(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...
Well said.
Anything but Jesus, eh?
It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit. – I Corinthians 15:42-45
Now we appear to have "Nicene-anity". Anything but Jesus for the Catholics, eh?
"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned"
1Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, 14knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
The spiritual is the the ultimate reality and the physical is temporal. Even the tabernacle that God instructed the Israelites to build was a copy of the spiritual reality. That's another reason to realize that the physical is useless in it's ability to cause spiritual realities to happen. The spiritual reality happens and the physical reflects it in a way that others can understand and relate to. Things like baptism and communion are more like word pictures than the reality itself.
Ironically, my response was just the one above this one of yours. Please take a moment to read it so you can understand what I believe about your question. My post to which you are referring, never names Catholicism, did you perhaps recognize it anyway? I had hoped that your questions were asked in a sincere manner, but now it appears your only purpose in asking is to have another reason to mock and disparage. I had hoped better of you seeing as you have been on Free Republic longer than I have. I take a lot of time to give an answer to anyone who asks me of the reason of the hope that is in me. I will certainly be aware of your seeming "uncharitable" tactics the next time you ask me a question.
It’s not a matter of “middle ground.”
It’s no more a matter of middle ground than of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling because it is God working in you both to will and do; no more than walking in the good works which God has prepared for you to walk in.
And Purgation is not about law. It’s about healing.
I don’t know how to say this gently. I think both of us may tend to exaggerate the other side’s positions. We offer what we think (rightly or wrongly) that we offer a royal road, the easiest to travel with assurance of reaching the destination. But we do say that God must use or does use only this way to bring people to himself.
And yes, if you assume that the sacramental offices of a priest are an interposition, an obstruction, you will conclude that that’s what they are.
For my part, I do not consider shaking a man’s hand an obstruction to getting to know him. We get to know the head and the body not by avoiding the members but by dealing with, by encountering them.
Yea in fact there are some Catholics that think Paul was just plain nuts
We need to look at the original intent of the writers
There was differences in opinion about the nature of baptism among the ECF.
The ECF did not have to consider the separation of the difference between the sign and the signified.
Please also note note the Nicene Creed does not say" water baptism," which would leave open the question of water or Holy Spirit ..which water signifies
Exactly
Ummm...NO. I said: Only by God's grace and a willing heart can the truth ever get through the walls erected. I am stating that only those who earnestly seek the truth will God reward them with the truth and he WILL break down every wall of defense that we may have unknowingly erected. I have given my own testimony that my coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ happened after I prayed to God to show me what is really true about him and Jesus and faith. He answered that prayer through a dear Sunday school teacher simply opening the Bible to John 10:27-30. I read it and that light went on and I GOT IT, I understood the Gospel for the first time.
So, my statement about a "willing heart" is simply knowing from God's own word that he rewards those who diligently seek him. We find him when we search for him with all our hearts.
You must be ignoring posts that you don't agree with (kind of like Scripture). This has been addressed numerous times by me and completely avoided by you. The Nicene Creed codified the dogma of Christianity and formed a baseline for the Canon of Scripture. In other words, the Nicene Creed is not some wacky Catholic interpretation of Scripture, it is the definitional pronouncement of the Church what Christianity is. The compilation of Canon and the exclusion of contemporary works, some authored by Apostles and Disciples, was a result.
So when some ignoramus says they choose "Christianity" at the exclusion of the Nicene Creed it has to be a different religion all together masquerading as Christianity.
++++++++
That’s another reason to realize that the physical is useless in it’s ability to cause spiritual realities to happen.
++++++++
Therefore the Catholic Church does not teach that it is the water or the washing but the Holy Spirit fulfilling the promise of the Son that makes Baptism efficacious, any more than we believe sexual intercourse makes marriage a blessing (and a sacrament.)
Because that would have been redundant.
The Apostle Paul was given a gospel to preach by direct revelation of Jesus Christ. He called it "MY GOSPEL". It IS the gospel that WILL be used by God to judge men by Jesus Christ.
We have talked about and listed all the gospels in the Bible. The hope I have for you is that you find the gospel that was given to Paul. It IS the one that is going to be used by God. That is, according to God. God Bless, smvoice
The Law never could do anything for mankind in terms of redemption except to point to Christ. The physical was always a foreshadowing of the spiritual, not the reality itself.
It's always only been Jesus who saved, not the Law which pointed to Him.
Out of the four basic eschatological views within Christendom, the most consistent element that differentiates one (Dispensational Pre-Trib Premillennialism) from all the others is the belief that God has a different redemptive plan for racial Jews - one that is unique, seperate, and even superior to any other redemptive plan offered to any other racial group (Greeks, Gentiles, etc) in history. This is known as "dual covenant theology", wherein Jewish people don't need to bow to Jesus Christ in order to be saved. They just need to keep the Old Testament laws better! Some Dispensational Pre-trib Premillennialists (Hal Lindsey for one) have even gone so far as to claim that fellow Christians are anti-semites for holding any other eschatological view, i.e. one that maintains a single redemptive plan for all of mankind (i.e. the blood of Christ), throughout history.
The apostles and elders met to consider this question.Related threads:
After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.
God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are"........"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."
-- Peter speaking, in Acts 15:6-11, 19-21“...the very category of ‘replacement’ is foreign to Reformed theology because it assumes a dispensational, Israeleo-centric way of thinking. It assumes that the temporary, national people was, in fact, intended to be the permanent arrangement.”
-- From the thread Replacing “Replacement” Theology"Dual Covenant" Christian theology basically says, "Yes to all of that ... except when it comes to the Jews." According to this theological variant, the Jews, based on their special status as God's Chosen People, have their own, separate, covenant with God. They can achieve salvation by faithfully following the Law of Moses....
....Dual Covenant adherents argue that there is no need to preach to the Jews or to convert them, because they have already been saved. It accepts Judaism as it is. All other religions must convert to Christianity in order to achieve salvation. Opponents maintain that ALL people must hear the Gospel of Jesus and must reject other beliefs....
....if you buy into the Dual Covenant theory, that’s fine. You just can’t ALSO then go around trying to convert Jews, inviting them to your church and telling them they need to be perfected. At least, not if your theology is to remain internally consistent.
-- from the thread Ann Coulter and Dual Covenant Theology
But it does make a marriage invalid
You mean the absence of it?
We have talked about and listed all the gospels in the Bible. The hope I have for you is that you find the gospel that was given to Paul. It IS the one that is going to be used by God."
The term "THE GOSPEL", meaning the Gospel of God is used nearly 100 times throughout the New Testament and St. Paul's utterance of "MY GOSPEL" no more than three times. Only when you place Paul above Jesus can you proclaim that St. Paul is preaching something other than in support of THE GOSPEL and that Jesus was nothing more than an opening act.
"Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God" - Romans 1:1
They mock us when we speak of the indwelling of the Spirit...So of course they would claim things like Nicene Christianity...
They have no choice but to follow man...They admittedly, are void of the Spirit...
They are the natural man that Paul speaks of, which we once were...
There knowledge of scripture is purely intellectual...Man's wisdom...
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