since i alone will stand before God and answer for my beliefs and actions, i must, with the help of the Holy Spirit, learned teachers, discernment and prayer be responsible for how i interpret and live scripture
i don’t do it in a vacuum, all alone, but neither do i do it in intellectual submission where i allow my questions and beliefs to be usurped by traditions of men
i do not follow calvin
i do not follow luther
i do not follow rome
i follow christ, and i learn and absorb from others who follow christ- but who don’t claim doctrinal infallibility
i rely on grace
i rely on mercy
and i rest in the finished work of christ
christ has died
christ is risen
christ will come again
the more willing a person or a sect or a church is to minimize doctrine to the finished work of Jesus, the more open i am to discussing with them the deep truths and mysteries of scripture
i believe God is bigger than any theology and any doctrine
if we can agree on the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus- we can argue about the rest
but where scripture is clear, scripture is clear
regardless of what doctrine calvin or luther or wesley or anyone espoused here in their life, they have the advantage now of knowing where they were mistaken
and we who follow christ, catholic or protestant, shall one day share in that revelation as well
in the mean time, we argue and we strive to find the truth
i must say, i find many catholic arguments (not necessarily arguments of catholic individuals, but catholic arguments) to be circular and unsatisfactory
but i find many protestant arguments to be so as well
sometimes i antagonize a little in these groups for fun- but under it all is a sincere desire to find truth
i cannot begin to express to you how little theological difference it makes to me whether mary was ever-virgin or not
but it does make a difference to me if someone can demonstrate it to me in scripture
it does make a difference to me when veneration sometimes, by some people looks more like worship than veneration
and those sorts of abuses (because even catholics would say worshiping mary is doctrinely incorrect) along with tradition as the primary support leave me little reason to question what i read in matthew (see above)
grace and peace to you, salvation
will
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