Posted on 11/25/2011 6:55:10 AM PST by marshmallow
Tens of thousands wait for hours in freezing temperatures to kiss belt that Christians believe was worn by Jesus' mother
MOSCOW — Braving freezing cold temperatures and ice-covered sidewalks, tens of thousands of Russians stood in line Wednesday to see and kiss a newly arrived relic of the Virgin Mary in Russia's largest Orthodox cathedral.
The Virgin Mary's Cincture, a belt that Christians believe was worn by Jesus' mother, was brought to Russia last month from Mount Athos, a monastic community in Greece.
Kissing the relic, which is encased in an ornamental box, is believed to help barren women conceive and heal other ailments.
The line of people, mostly women, waiting to enter the golden-domed Christ the Savior Cathedral stretched for 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) along the Moscow River despite temperatures that dropped to below minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit).
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
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THX MM. Pretty clear . . . for those with eyes to see.
I could do a whole thread about the unanswered questions by protestants here.
They are like hamsters in their cage running on the wheel, going endlessly round and round, going nowhere off the mindless cycle of what they have learned from others.
Not a one of them has an original thought or has come to their beliefs simply by reading Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
What they know they have learned from someone else who had all the accompanying Scripture needed to wrest from it “support” for their interpretation.
Google nearly anything said here by a protestant and it will come up nearly verbatim under a few ministries which seem to have lots of time to convince others the Catholic and now I guess, the Orthodox Church is not just heretical, but satanic as well.
They can accept that the Holy Spirit guided the Church when she defined the NT and preserved it, but then seem to believe that the very same Holy Spirit abandoned the faithful to be led into death by that very same Church, by allowing it to be THE Christian Church for over 1500 years.
Early Christians had no Scripture to read for themselves, yet they were to rely SOLELY on Scripture for their salvation. How was that even possible?
They will not admit that the first Christians had no NT Scripture to read, trusting in those writings of the Apostles and those they taught, to be read to them when they met to break bread. They will not admit that subsequent generations of Christians also did not have Scripture to read for themselves.
The Bible is our blueprint, a guidepost, which is a great and glorious gift that leads us to accept Christ and His Church, but it does not, by its very own admission, hold everything that is truth within the written word. It merely says of itself that everything in it is profitable, not that it contains the entire deposit of truth and faith.
"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1 Cor. 1:18-21.
Bring in your Catholic Cart of Knowledge. Laden with doctrines, and traditions, and councils, and decrees, and creeds. And PROVE them with God's Word.
Please do your thread. Show us your "wisdom" of the "wise" of your religion.
Why did Jesus say this to them then?
“Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain, they are retained”.
What is the point of that? If one must only confess to Jesus, in private, in silence, why would the Apostles be told this?
*****6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. *****
What does it mean to walk in darkness?
What does it meant to practice the truth?
*****7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. *****
If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
Jesus washed the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper, because even if one has been bathed, one’s feet get dirty while walking. Baptism/Confession/Forgiveness
Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem;
Creatorem caeli et terrae.
Et in Jesum Christum,
Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum;
qui conceptus est
de Spiritu Sancto,
natus ex Maria virgine;
passus sub Pontio Pilato,
crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus;
descendit ad inferos;
tertia die resurrexit a mortuis;
ascendit ad caelos;
sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis;
inde venturus est
iudicare vivos et mortuos.
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum;
sanctam ecclesiam catholicam;
sanctorum communionem;
remissionem peccatorum;
carnis resurrectionem;
vitam aeternam. Amen.
In English:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
and born of the Virgin Mary,
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
he will come again
to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen
But evidently you don’t believe in the gospel of your salvation. Because it isn’t there. And THAT is what saves.
So what questions do you have ?
The Bible is our blueprint, a guidepost, which is a great and glorious gift that leads us to accept Christ and His Church
How do you know that Rome is the church scripture leads to?? The Nt church has no likeness to Rome
What is funny is to see how the many disparate prods - unitarians, sabatarians, water baptists, adult only baptists, and the 10,000+ others all gather together to HATE the Universal Church. Even on a thread about Russian Orthodoxy!
They (the modern proddies, that is) embrace divorce, birth control, abortion and a myriad of heresies not all in common - in fact the only things the appear to share are a burning hatred of the Universal Church and the Mother of God. The tiny splintered pieces of schism all gather in the unity of lies and hatred. Unwilling, to a man on this thread, to even identify what sect, denomination or heretical confession they adhere to, and yet together in their nasty attacks. It speaks volumes, no?
Great minds..I was thinking the same thing
So, protestants just dumped the entire old testament? No longer applies? Not allowed to cite it anymore?
only when it suits them
Yeah, they talk a big talk around here. But when challenged to PROVE SOMETHING, they go hiding behind their Pappa’s skirt.
I’ll be waiting! Looking forward to it!
Nice try, though.
"And these signs SHALL follow THEM THAT BELIEVE; In my name SHALL they cast out devils; they SHALL speak with new tongues; (verse 17) they SHALL take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it SHALL NOT hurt them; they SHALL lay hands on the sick, and they SHALL recover." (verse 18).
What are you trying to say? So you drank poison and lived. You take up serpents. What is the point? You are insisting not I.
You have personally done this.
So everyone has to do this as a believer. Where are you going with this statement.
This is an apostolic gift for the formation of the church..it is ecclesiastical in nature and speaks to church discipline( excommunication) as we see in the epistles such as 1 Corth..
Clearly the apostles themselves did not understand it OR TEACH it as the Roman church does.
*****6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. *****
What does it mean to walk in darkness?
...
Jhn 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Jhn 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not
.Jhn 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Jhn 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
,Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, [even] in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
I assume the popes have done this right..I mean with “apostolic succession” and all
I am saying that the Apostles that Christ sent to “all nations”, with their great commission, that ROme claims to be the sole, true owner of is a fraud. That IF they were what they claim to be, to this day, these signs would be following those who believe. Obviously something changed that commission. But Rome refuses to see that. So she takes out the parts she likes, casting out demons, remitting/retaining sins, etc. and mysteriously leaves out the rest. If she was the real, true, only church, then she would be continuing the commission originally given to her. Which included the “SHALLS” of Mark. And the gates of Hell could not stop her from these SHALLS.
Satan said that same thing to Eve in the garden. He told her that God really didn’t tell her everything and that she should trust him that she would know more if she listened to him.
http://bible.cc/john/20-23.htm
Commentary further down the page.
Supposing that the RCC interpretation were correct (not that I believe it is) , for the sake of argument, where in Scripture was this ever practiced or where were instructions on how to practice this given?
Why would Jesus give to fallible, corruptible men that kind of unlimited power?
How does that fit in with Jesus instructions to pray only to the Father and that HE would hear and answer our prayer?
Why would God bind Himself to the decisions of men in regards to a person’s salvation?
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