Posted on 02/05/2012 2:58:27 PM PST by marshmallow
Fidel Castro will be received back into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island in March, the Italian press is reporting. If true, this is a remarkable story — and one that has yet to catch the attention of editors this side of the Atlantic.
On 1 Feb 2012, La Republicca — [Italy’s second largest circulation daily newspaper, La Republicca follows a center-left political line and is strongly anti-clerical; not anti-Catholic per se but a critic of the institutional church] — reported that as death approaches, the octogenarian communist has turned to God for solace.
ABC’s Global Note news blog is the only U.S. general interest publication I have found that has reported this story. It referenced the La Republicca story and said that Castro’s
daughter Alina is quoted as saying “During this last period, Fidel has come closer to religion: he has rediscovered Jesus at the end of his life. It doesn’t surprise me because dad was raised by Jesuits.” The article quotes an unidentified high prelate in the Vatican who is working on the Pope’s Cuba trip: “Fidel is at the end of his strength. Nearly at the end of his life. His exhortations in the party paper Granma, are increasingly less frequent. We know that in this last period he has come closer to religion and God.”
Some Italian websites have even speculated as to when Fidel will make his confession and credo — setting the date as 27 March 2012 at 17:30 when the two ottantacinquenni, Pope Benedict XVI and Castro, will meet at the Palacio de la Revolución when the pope makes his official visit to the head of state, Raul Castro.
During Pope John Paul II’s 1998 visit to Cuba, Castro attended mass, but did...........
(Excerpt) Read more at geoconger.wordpress.com ...
Well, if you have examined both sides, then I guess we just see it differently.
As for an example of honest and open theological debate, we could take this thread, do the opposite, continue in that direction and eventually converge on one.
thanks for your reply.
Knowing the difference is the key which is something Catholics allow the guys in the pointy hats to tell them what to believe rather than scripture.
When you grow out of the kindergarten picture posts we’ll start taking you seriously perhaps.
Knowing the difference is the key which is something Catholics allow the guys in the pointy hats to tell them what to believe rather than scripture.
And your claim is different than the Protestant next to you which is different than the Protestant next to him, which is different...
Jesus preached One Truth, not many. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, not many ways, truths or lives.
When you grow out of the kindergarten nonsense that Easter and Christmas are pagan we’ll start laughing at you perhaps a little less. Maybe. You are comedic relief until then though.
You obviously meant the way the Catholics believe it with the literal flesh of Christ right?
Here’s what Jesus said about things like that.
Matthew 15:17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
"But this man, [Jesus] because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did ONCE, when he offered up himself." Hebrews 7:24-27, KJV
It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death but they did survive and finally with the invention of the printing press could get scripture into the hands of the lay people and expose the lies of the RCC. The evil of the RCC will once again reign after the rapture of the true church.
Not my intention. I made a couple of comments on the topic of the thread and that was pretty well it for me.
Until, on queue, the same few use the occasion to attack the Church. I'd be gone if not for that.
Correcting erroneous attacks have no effect when the attacker does not care to be correct. YMMV, but that's the evidence over time.
The attack is based on an opinion, for example, idolatry. My response was to illustrate that opinion was worthless. It took tenacity to fully illustrate, but there was point, it was not flaming. I think what you saw as picking was my attempt to force an answer and, IMHO, expose the ignorance of the initial attack.
I don't claim superhuman resistance to flames, I've certainly succumbed at times; but, I think overall I more often than not refuse trading insults. Mostly because I realize it indicates a lack of argument.
You can have the last word, I'm content to let my posts be what they are, those who object can have their own reasons that have little to do with the truth as best I can see it.
You don’t see differences on things that pertain to salvation amongst most protestants. On the other hand all Catholics reject the sufficiency of Christ and claim works are needed.
I’m sure to a kindergarten mind set that would be true.
I have to say I am quite shocked, shocked I say! Here you are throwing out the same invective against the Holy Bible that you did years ago. Has nothing been learned? I accept the writings of the Holy Bible because it came from God, NOT because some group of guys centuries later put their thinking caps on and determined what was what. Have you forgotten that the early church had the OLD TESTAMENT Scriptures as a guideline for determining what truly comes from God? Must I post all the various articles again that prove the reliability and trustworthiness of the New Testament books AS THEY WERE WRITTEN??? It's as if you never even bothered to read them.
We have the Bible because God made sure we that we do. No credit goes to humans because all glory is God's. I reject anyone's interpretation if it contradicts clear teaching in Scripture and, where the Gospel is concerned, there is NO clearer teaching than what it actually says over and over and over again. To miss it and go off track like some do is deliberate. There is NO "doctrinal deviance" unless one is trying to add to it. And, here's the truly beautiful thing - the author of the Bible - God the Holy Spirit - is right here, within those whose hearts are perfect towards him and he teaches us what we need to know his truths. Trying to disparage the Bible because sinful people distort it only shows the motive to upbraid the Bible's authority and replace it with fallible men. God never did and never will work like that.
You don’t see differences on things that pertain to salvation amongst most protestants.Wrong.
On the other hand all Catholics reject the sufficiency of Christ and claim works are needed.Twice wrong.
It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death It was indeed tuff for non Catholics to survive since the RCC put most of them they could find to death ....
I think the teaching that Christ's ministry about the kingdom of Heaven/salvation doesn't apply to us, is a dead letter to Christians, is as far astray from orthodox belief as many of the original heresies. It's different, but IMHO, as heterodox as any.
On many other threads we see quite a bit of what I think could easily be described as Judaizers. And, up until fairly recently, I believe the great majority of Christians, Catholic and Protestant agreed on the Nicene Creed and that Chalcedon definition. Those that did not were 'not orthodox' which I think it would be accurate to say replaced the word heretic among us. Often on here, in my experience, Nicene and Chalcedon are either rejected or unknown.
That's what comes quickly to mind; discussions on the Most Holy Trinity tend show an amalgam of early Christological errors - not identical usually, but in a somewhat modern mix.
This is beside the historical Protestant/Catholic disagreements; I'm talking about heterodoxy outside the areas where there used to be agreement among Christians and Protestants. I have my ideas about why, but I think whatever the reason for it, it is plain to see it does exists.
Argument from absence I believe is the correct term.
It’s the grandest of all conspiracy theories of history. Makes Dan Brown look like Herodotus.
Is there anywhere in the mind of a Church "worshipper" the thought that Christians who hold to the authority of Holy Scripture are not therefore "worshippers" of the Bible but are instead respectful and trusting instead and worship the true God who created the Bible? You make a claim that is NOT backed up by fact when you state:
there is not even accurate translations that can be traced back from Jewish and Greek Scripture we think could be original
This common atheist and skeptic argument has been disproven so many times there are literally hundreds if not thousands of articles around to do so. One, for example http://biblesanity.org/reliability.htm, from the book The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict shows:
PART ONE – BIBLIOGRAPHY TEST
Old Testament
Preservation – Most copies were buried in the dessert.
Accuracy – The Meticulous methodology of the Jews:
Scrolls were written with special ink on specially prepared skin.
Specified columns, specified spaces between letters
Special pen for writing the name of God
Scribes copied letter by letter, counted everything
3 Mistakes and the manuscript would be destroyed.
Proof – Dead Sea Scrolls - 1900 Year old copies found in a cave near the Dead Sea match almost exactly to 1000 year old copies we already had.
New Testament
Comparing copies of the New Testament to copies other historical "Classics"
Time between Original Writings and Earliest Copy
Aristotle Original Writing – 384-322 BC
Earliest Copy – 1100 AD
Time Span – 1,400 Years
New Testament
Original Writing – 48-96 AD
Earliest Copy – 125 AD, Whole NT 200 AD
Time Span – 75-100 Years
Number of Manuscripts
New Testament – 24,633 Manuscripts
Sophocles - 193
Aristotle – 49
Tacitus – 20
Caesar – 10
Aristophenes – 10
Another well done article online is http://themeliosproject.com/2010/02/07/reliability-of-the-scriptures/. There is much, much more to prove the reliability and trustworthiness of the Holy Bible for those who honestly want to know. For those more interested in upholding the other "two legs" of their imaginary stool, we can be sure their motives do not lean towards the glory of God.
Pre-Lutheran German BiblesThere are still approximately 1,000 manuscripts or manuscript fragments of Medieval German Bible translations extant. The earliest known and partly still available Germanic version of the Bible was the fourth century Gothic translation of Wulfila (ca. 311-380). This version, translated primarily from the Greek, established much of the Germanic Christian vocabulary that is still in use today.
Later Charlemagne promoted Frankish biblical translations in the 9th century. There were Bible translations present in manuscript form at a considerable scale already in the thirteenth and the fourteenth century (e.g. the New Testament in the Augsburger Bible of 1350 and the Old Testament in the Wenceslaus or Wenzel Bible of 1389).
There is ample evidence for the general use of the entire vernacular German Bible in the fifteenth century. In 1466, before Martin Luther was even born, Johannes Mentelin printed the Mentel Bible, a High German vernacular Bible, at Strasbourg. This edition was based on a no-longer-existing fourteenth-century manuscript translation of the Vulgate from the area of Nuremberg. Until 1518, it was reprinted at least 13 times. In 1478-1479, two Low German Bible editions were published in Cologne, one in the Low Rhenish dialect and another in the Low Saxon dialect.
In 1494, another Low German Bible was published in the dialect of Lübeck, and in 1522, the last pre-Lutheran Bible, the Low Saxon Halberstadt Bible was published. In total, there were at least eighteen complete German Bible editions, ninety editions in the vernacular of the Gospels and the readings of the Sundays and Holy Days, and some fourteen German Psalters by the time Luther first published his own New Testament translation.
- Source.
Now to go into what The Gospel is in a more in depth and complicated fashion, though D-fendr's simple answer "Jesus Christ" is at it's essence true and wonderful, The Gospel is that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and His death for us on the cross. It is by the grace of God. If you read the book of Galations Paul makes it clear that we are saved by the promise made to Abraham which was by faith and not works. Jesus is the seed promised to Abraham that we Gentiles would become saved by through faith. The law which came by Moses represents works. Nobody can be saved by works. It is simple belief in Jesus Christ and His finished work at Calvary that saves us. It is by grace or promise, not by any works that we could possibly do, but though faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved.
Here are excerpts from the book of Galations where Paul argues for the true Gospel of Jesus Christ which he clearly lays out is having faith in Jesus and His work of redemption upon the cross as the means by which we must be saved and upon which we must live a Godly life. I strongly suggest a prayerful reading of the entire book of Galations which shows forth the true Gospel which is by faith as opposed to any false gospel which is always rooted in works.
This theme, which is The Gospel, is constant though out the entire New Testament.
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Galations 1:3 Grace [be] to you and peace from God the Father, and [from] our Lord Jesus Christ,
Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Gal 1:5 To whom [be] glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another GOSPEL:
Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the GOPEL OF CHRIST.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other GOSPEL unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other GOSPEL unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed................
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified......
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness [come] by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.........................
3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?................
Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the GOSPEL unto Abraham, [saying], In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
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Hope you enjoy The Bible because here are some great verses about the preaching of the Gospel and God's grace:
Ephesians 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
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1Corinthians 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the GOSPEL: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
1Cr 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God........
1Cr 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
1Cr 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
1Cr 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1Cr 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]:
1Cr 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Cr 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, [yea], and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Cr 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
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Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
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