Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: imardmd1
Catholicism thus includes not only Romanists, but Anglicans, Episcopals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc

Those are to some degree Catholic as regards her distinctives, never having come out of Babylon as much as we should, and they also tend to be more liberal than evangelicals.

who also subscribe to the Apostles Creed

I think you have this confused with the Nicene Creed which mentions baptism for the forgiveness of sins, which the Apostles Creed does not, while "catholic" should be understood as the universal body of Christ:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come 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.

49 posted on 09/08/2017 2:04:47 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + folllow Him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies ]


To: daniel1212
I think you have this confused with the Nicene Creed ...

No, I did not confuse the Apostles' Creed with the Nicene Creed. Very specifically, the early church formulation did not smack of catholicity, and the word "catholic: was not a part of the earliest "Old Roman Creed" (click here).

The propagation of the Way of Christ in the first days was thero;ugh the formation of local independent autonomous assemblies of believers each governed by a plurality of elders as appointed by the first and only apostle/prophets, which office was discontinued un their deaths. Catholicity was not a part of the universal Gospel.

The concept of catholicity in government was present in the beliefs of a very few prominent teachers like Irenaeus of Antioch, but not put into practice until it was instituted by Augustine, creating a statist church headed by Constantine and administered by his selected bishops.

hundreds of years after Jesus' death.

According to the Bible there is only one univresal church, and it is located in Heaven, not on earth, as the Romanists would have it.

Believers congregating locally, joined by profession of faith and immersion of the believer in the rite of water baptism, and reporting directly to its Creator, Savior, and Lord without any intermediary layer of government exterior to the locally appointed members of the assembly, is the form that the true Christianity has taken from the beginning. It has never united with the Catholicism of Augustine, Roman or Greek, and has remained independent of those always.

Have I made that position clear? That is the stance of Baptists everywhere, and withut question differentiates them from the Roman Catholic and non-Roman Catholics of whom the Protestant Reformers comprise a part.

51 posted on 09/08/2017 4:07:03 PM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson