Posted on 10/22/2013 4:45:20 AM PDT by don-o
God is “agapic love,” the preacher said, and paused. “God”—I knew what was -coming, the man being mired in the -sixties—“is a verb.” He assured the congregation that as long as they were “doing agapic love,” that—left -undefined—was all they needed to do. I could hear around me the sighs of people who have heard something they wanted to hear.
“God is a verb” is about as much doctrinal complexity as many American Christians seem to want, vague and useless as it is. They do not want anything too precise and specific, for that means exclusive, intellectual, and binding, nor anything too old, for that means irrelevant.
Average Agnostics
The average American thinks that when lots of nice people follow different religions, no religion should claim to be true in such a way that the others must be false. Everyone is happier, and no one will start fighting, when religion is a matter of taste, enjoyed privately, like an ethnic food. No one minds if a Scotsman eats haggis, as long as he eats it behind closed doors, but no one would tolerate his attempt to make it the sole main course in the high-school cafeteria.
The non-religious will explain their dislike of doctrines by saying that we ought to live and let live, that people are different, that religion is a private matter, and the like. The religious will explain it in two ways. One type (the believer) will say that Christianity is a matter of the heart, or a personal relationship with Christ, or that he has no creed but the Bible.
(Excerpt) Read more at touchstonemag.com ...
I would be interested for any of those of that persuasion to read David Mills' full article, and then comment how and why they differ with his assertions and conclusions.
1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:
3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:
4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:
5. The third day he rose again from the dead:
6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:
8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:
9. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:
10. The forgiveness of sins:
1l. The resurrection of the body:
12. And the life everlasting. Amen.
The Nicene Creed;
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The adoption of a creed all too often allows one to do no further study as it has been all laid out.
If asked, "What do you believe?", one may recite a creed, but if the answer is followed with;' "Why do you believe that", unless there is further study, there is no answer other than, "That's what I was told", which is no different than a government school "education"
And I do take issue with the inclusion of any ecclesiastical organization as part of a creed or statement of faith.
My belief in Jesus is all that is needed for my salvation ... everything beyond that is academic
God is a person and we are made in His image.
Those creeds are completely useless. Neither contains the gospel of your salvation, which is how we are saved. And the Nicene Creed tells us that baptism is for the remission of sins. Christ’s shed blood is our remission of sins, not baptism.
The question is;
"What must I do to be saved?"
Believe on the Lord Jesus ...
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
I posted both creeds because a lot of people have no idea what they really say.
I guess I didn’t do a good enough job ... Latin certainly enhances my comprehension .. youbet’cha’
yep. It’s that simple. Wonder why something so simple, yet so necessary wasn’t included in those creeds? I mean, it wouldn’t have taken 10 seconds to include the gospel that saves, and yet...wonder why that is....??
EVERYONE NEEDS to READ those creeds. They think something is said there that IS NOT. Very interesting when they are actually read. The ONLY thing we need is missing. Hmmmmm...
And if he can accomplish that under the guise of religion .... what a coup !
We are not ignorant of his devices
AMEN and AMEN
While driving in to work today the John Lennon song “Imagine” came on the radio.
It struck me that, while it s a cool sounding song, it is entirely wrong about what will happen.
Imagine there’s no heaven or hell. So whatever we do her is all there is. Why then shouldn’t we grab all we can get, rape when we feel we can get away with it, etc because this is all there is.
Imagine there’s no countries. So there’s no government to restrain us from doing exactly what we want to do!!
He says we’d all live in peace. I think we’d all live as slaves to whomever was stronger than us. (I can think of a few women I wouldn’t mind having as slaves!!)
Liberals make the misguided fantasy assumption that people are basically good. Conservatives make the true (and biblical) assumption that people are basically evil.
When left to themselves, with no external influences whatsoever, people are totally self centered and self focused. We will do the most evil things if those things advance us and our goals.
Without God (heaven) there is no morality. Without morality only self focus makes sense. Without morality might makes right.
John Lennon was a pretty good musician but he was an idiot.
These preachers (and their dumb as sheep followers) who turn away from the God of the bible are even more idiotic. They have (hopefully) read the truth yet they deny it.
Did you read the article?
For discussion purposes, would you copy out what you find wrong in the article and tell why?
I read the creeds, don-o. Have you?
The Nicene Creed was written as “primarily a defense against error”??? The Nicene Creed IS error. For the reasons I gave you. The most crucial information that we MUST have to be saved IS MISSING, don-o. Now you tell me, what good is that creed? Or the other one?
Good grief. I know them by heart. Now, since I answered your question, please answer mine.
Do you have enough courage and honesty to read the full article and point out what he is wrong about and why he is wrong?
His article could just as well be an apologetic for “why we kneel at a statue and pray”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.