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Why Every Christian, Not Just Catholics, Should Be Very Worried About The Catholic Sex Scandal
The Federalist ^ | 09/17/2018 | By Willis L. Krumholz and Robert Delahunty

Posted on 09/17/2018 11:01:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The rapidly unfolding crisis in the Roman Catholic Church is not a matter of concern to Catholics alone. Its true dimensions have yet to be measured, but we think it will prove to be a crisis on the scale of the Protestant Reformation, which began just over 500 years ago — an earthquake of 9.5 on the Richter scale. If so, resolution of the crisis will take decades to work through.

Resolution and absolution will require serious effort, and most likely require deep, structural reforms. Even if we are mistaken, the Catholic crisis is of such a magnitude that Christians of all denominations must take a serious interest in it.

We are both evangelical Christians with strong ties to the Catholic Church and deep respect for it. One of us was raised as a Catholic, was educated at Catholic primary and secondary schools, and has taught for the past 14 years at a Catholic law school; the other is a graduate of the law school and the business school of that Catholic university, and has many Catholic family members.

We also care deeply about our many Catholic friends, and the health of the Roman Catholic Church, which is an enormous force for good in this world. We also believe that what happens with the Catholic Church will affect Christianity worldwide. In other words, we have a stake in the matter.

Non-Catholics Should Pay Attention

Some Catholics may regard the crisis in their church as a purely internal matter, and consider outside commentary unwelcome and intrusive, even if it is well-meant. Likewise, many non-Catholic Christians may assume the Catholic crisis does not affect them at all, and perhaps even find in that crisis confirmation for their darkest views of Catholicism.

We do not accept that position. Non-Catholic Christians should take an active part in the conversation about the Catholic crisis. While they must be unfailingly tactful and sympathetic, they should also be as critical as is necessary given what is at stake. The well-known writer Rod Dreher, formerly a Catholic and now Eastern Orthodox, has posted frequently on the Catholic crisis, and is a magnificent model for other non-Catholic Christians to follow.

Among many reasons for non-Catholic interventions, three stand out in our minds.

1. The Victims

First, every Christian has a compelling obligation to protect the weak and vulnerable to the greatest extent possible. The victims of clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church (as elsewhere) have often been children. While many victims have been compensated — if “compensation” for such injuries is really possible — and the Catholic Church in many places has instituted practices to guard against future abuse, it remains necessary to speak on behalf of those who have been victimized and those who may still be at risk.

All Christians, especially Catholics, should be angry. It is unbearable to think of what has been done “to the least of these” by those claiming to speak in the name of Christ. Many of the children targeted and abused came from broken and dysfunctional homes. Many are fatherless.

The church is charged with mending the emptiness that a broken family brings, not violently shattering a child’s world. God is the father to the fatherless. What would Christ, who overturned tables at the temple and chased out the moneychangers with a whip, do to those who sexually molest his children?

Far too many in the church hierarchy, including the pope, are not sufficiently angry. For example, this coming January, Cardinal Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyons in France, will be standing trial for allegedly covering up the crimes of a local priest who, in the 1980s, sexually abused Boy Scouts. A local priest has gathered more than 100,000 signatures to petition the pope to remove this cardinal.

Thus far, however, Pope Francis seems not to have responded to that petition. However, in 2016, despite knowing of the allegations against the cardinal, and apparently without meeting or hearing the victims of the priest’s abuse, Pope Francis praised Barbarin as “brave.” He also has not ordered a canonical proceeding against him.

We are not prejudging Barbarin’s guilt or innocence: that depends on the outcome of his case in January. But we think it is fair to say that Pope Francis’ handling of the affair indicates that he is — at best — over-eager to defend his hierarchy and insufficiently attentive to those who have suffered at their hands.

The pope is not the only member of the Catholic hierarchy who seems simply unable to register the severity of the injuries they cause to their victims, and others at risk from them. Recently, on a visit to a seminary, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, a Francis appointee, answered one anguished young candidate for the priesthood by saying, “While the church’s ‘agenda’ certainly involves protecting kids from harm, ‘we have a bigger agenda than to be distracted by all of this.’” His audience was reportedly dumbfounded: Surely the problem of sexual abuse of seminaries and children is more than a “distraction?”

In a similar vein, Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras has excoriated a group of 50 Honduran seminarians for petitioning the Vatican to correct homosexual abuses going on in their seminary. We apparently are to believe that 50 seminaries are spreading malicious lies, while Madariaga, whose top aide resigned last July in the wake of charges of sexual and financial misconduct, is only speaking the truth.

Moreover, the victims of clerical abuse and the hierarchical concealment of them are not limited to those who have personally suffered sexual affronts. The financial costs to the Catholic Church of litigating and settling abuse cases have been staggering, and are now likely to escalate much higher. In 2015, the National Catholic Reporter found that the church had incurred $4 billion since 1950 in costs related to clerical sex abuse.

Research has also found that the church lost about $2.3 billion annually over the last 30 years due to scandal-related consequences, in the form of lost membership, and diverted giving. Specifically, there is a notable drop in giving in areas rocked by abuse. This makes sense. Why should good people give to pay for bad things?

Abuse litigation in the Los Angeles Archdiocese alone cost $740 million. Yet the former archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, under whose tenure (1985-2011) there were 500 alleged victims, is still considered a “priest in good standing” and has not been demoted by the pope.

These amounts will likely rise significantly in the wake of the recent report by a Pennsylvania grand jury detailing abuse in most (but not all) of that state’s Catholic dioceses, the overwhelming likelihood that similar investigations will occur in other states, and the risk that statutes of limitations will be amended to expose the Catholic Church to greater liability.

That means the American Catholic Church has had, and will have, far fewer resources to help the poor, to care for the sick, to shelter the homeless, and to educate children. These are victims too.

2. Concern for Fellow Christians

Second, even if you happen not to be a Catholic, surely you have Catholic family members, spouses, close friends, or colleagues who are Catholics. Almost half of the U.S. population has a “strong” connection to the Catholic Church. We have often found the Catholics closest to us to be dismayed by the situation in their church — angry, stunned, confused, or even in denial. Fellow Christians should share their agony.

The other Christian churches should want a healthy, robust Catholic Church, not the gravely weakened one of the present. American Catholicism was losing members alarmingly even before the current phase of the Catholic crisis. It is said that the second largest American denomination, after the Catholic Church, is ex-Catholics.

Not all of that decline is due to the clerical scandals; the general re-paganization of American society has surely played its part. But it seems likely that many former Catholics have abandoned their church (or at least are boycotting it) because of the scandals. The abuse scandals may also be playing a role in this re-paganization — after all, abuse of young boys was a pagan practice that early Christianity condemned and sought to stamp out.

In light of all this, non-Catholic Christians may be increasingly tempted to view Catholicism as a kind of pariah church within global Christianity. But that would not only be uncharitable; it would be unwise. To a great extent, the reputation of the Christian faith itself is besmirched when a large Christian denomination is engulfed in continuing scandals.

3. The Risk to Religious Liberty

When a large corporate body proves unable to govern itself, the chances are high that the government will step in. We saw this when financial institutions considered “too big to fail” were either shuttered by the government or subjected to deeply intrusive government regulation. The Catholic Church is heading towards the same predicament. Unless it can prove, very rapidly, that it is capable of managing its own affairs, it will come under increasing governmental scrutiny and control. Thereby it will pose a danger to the religious liberties of us all.

Already, the American Catholic Church is under the regulatory microscope. We’ve mentioned the stunning grand jury report from Pennsylvania. Attorneys general in five other states — Illinois, New York, Nebraska, New Mexico, Missouri, and now Kentucky — have been quick to take the cue.

These investigations may well reveal problems as deep, intractable, and serious as those discovered in Pennsylvania. That is, the systematic abuse of children was known to be occurring, and no one did anything about it.

Federal and state courts have already been involved, e.g., in diocesan bankruptcy cases. They are now likely to be trying larger numbers of criminal cases related to the abuse scandals, including some against ranking Catholic prelates. There is even a possibility that the Department of Justice may launch an anti-racketeering suit against the American Catholic Church.

Yes, there is a sturdy tradition of religious liberty in this country, and it enjoys constitutional protection in the First Amendment. But in the past several years, that tradition has been weakening, and government has asserted broader power to control decisions that churches once considered their own.

The Obama administration’s “contraception mandate” is a case in point. Given that growing numbers of Americans have severed their affiliations to any religion or church, the public (and the courts) may grow increasingly indifferent to arguments of behalf of religious liberty, and come to regard governmental regulation of all churches with greater acceptance. These trends will be aggravated if the largest American denomination seems scandal-ridden and unable to right itself. That makes the problems of the Catholic Church a matter of the highest concern for us all.

Gazing Into the Abyss

It is absolutely essential that Catholics grasp the depth of this crisis. As we have said, we think it will become as severe and as comprehensive as the crisis of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. With remarkable swiftness, Catholicism simply collapsed in what had been Catholic strongholds — most of Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Scotland, and very nearly France. In recent decades, Catholicism has likewise lost its grip in what had been bastions — like French Canada, Spain, Ireland, and Brazil.

Forty years ago, virtually the entire population of southern Ireland turned out to welcome Pope John Paul II. A few weeks ago, the Irish population essentially shunned the visiting Pope Francis, and the Irish prime minister gave him a stern lecture on his church’s reduced place in that country. What would St. Patrick, who, despite just escaping from slavery in pagan Ireland, returned to the island after hearing the screams of the damned in his dreams, think of the church today?

As goes Ireland, so will go the rest of Roman Catholic Christendom. The church in Germany has been rocked by scandal and there are thousands of known-victims. Already, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church is under judgment in Chile, the United States, Australia, France, and Honduras. The crisis has long since gone global.

In fact, as the Catholic scholar Benjamin Wiker has argued, the current crisis is more threatening for the Catholic Church than the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. For one thing, the Reformation began in a society that was still overwhelmingly Christian. Some historians of the pre-Reformation period even argue that Christian piety was deepening and broadening in the run-up to the Reformation, and that the Christian laity was already assuming a more prominent role in managing church affairs (a development greatly accelerated by Lutherans and Calvinists). But the contemporary Western world seems rapidly to be losing whatever residual Christianity was left in it. That makes a Catholic recovery more problematic.

Second, the internet spreads news of the Catholic crisis within seconds into every house. Everyone knows everything. Pope Francis, who seems to prefer talking about plastics in our oceans over the systemic problem of child abuse, may count on a friendly and collaborative media to ignore or downplay the charges Archbishop Vigano recently brought personally against him. But even if information leaks out drip by drip, the Catholic hierarchy and the Vatican can no longer safely rely on secrecy and on silence to cover their misdeeds.

Just as the printing press was a major force in the spread of the Reformation in Martin Luther’s Germany, so internet journalism (and, who knows, even the mainstream media when the pope is no longer useful to their agenda) will sooner or later force the disclosure of the facts. So it will not do for Catholics simply to say, “We have been through this before. We will make it through again.” In the end, that belief may be vindicated. We sincerely hope it is. But in the meanwhile, they must be energetically fashioning responses that are truly commensurate to this crisis.

Willis L. Krumholz lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a JD/MBA graduate from the University of St. Thomas, and works in the financial services industry. Robert J. Delahunty is a professor of law at the University of St Thomas and has taught Constitutional Law there for a decade.


TOPICS: Catholic; Evangelical Christian; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholics; catholicsexscandal; popesexscandal; sexscandal; sexualabuse
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To: af_vet_1981; Al Hitan

What do all Protestants believe?

***

Name me a denomination and I’ll be able to pull up statements of faith in a matter of seconds, but I guarantee you that 95%+ of them believe in salvation by grace through faith.

For that matter I’ve also read the Roman Catholic catechism.

I’ve met exactly two Catholics who have ever been willing to A: read and study what non-Catholics believe, and B: Actually talk about it reasonably without prejudice, assumptions, or insults.

And those two were my maternal grandparents.


261 posted on 09/19/2018 10:04:13 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: Just mythoughts
I agree. In light of the humble way of life Jesus and His disciples observed, I don't think ostentatious titles are the way in which He desires we address each other. Peter would have rejected being called Holy Father or Pope, Your Eminence, Most Reverend, etc.
262 posted on 09/19/2018 10:42:17 PM PDT by boatbums (Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us.)
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To: mrobisr

Agreed!


263 posted on 09/19/2018 10:43:04 PM PDT by boatbums (Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us.)
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To: Al Hitan

No doubt you would find the same kind of differences in practice and belief among Catholics!

Do you know the percentage of Catholics that believe in the “Real Presence” or Transubstaniation?


264 posted on 09/19/2018 10:46:51 PM PDT by boatbums (Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us.)
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To: Al Hitan

?


265 posted on 09/20/2018 12:06:09 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Luircin
Most Catholics on FR don’t even know what Protestants believe.

Likewise...

Most Protestants on FR don’t even know what Protestants Protestants believe.

266 posted on 09/20/2018 12:07:31 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: mrobisr
Holy Scripture says you are correct..

That's no damned excuse!


Really; do I need a sarc tag?

267 posted on 09/20/2018 12:09:44 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Al Hitan
I’m sure it can be confusing regarding what Protestants believe because it is really dependent on which of the many denominations being discussed.

Likewise...

I’m sure it can be confusing regarding what Catholics believe because it is really dependent on which of the many writings and teachings over the centuries are being discussed.


Oh; and let's not forget hundreds of apparitional visits; too.

268 posted on 09/20/2018 12:12:27 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Just mythoughts
Not one scripture used to 'justify' the disobedience of Christ's command is justified.

Consider yourself reported to the Department of Redundancy Department.

269 posted on 09/20/2018 12:14:32 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: boatbums
Do you know the percentage of Catholics that believe in the “Real Presence” or Transubstaniation?

Well; if they don't; they sure do a good job of giving it lip service.

270 posted on 09/20/2018 12:15:58 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Al Hitan
Here are just a few examples of where they diverge (I’m sure there are many more):

It is probably based on how close to the Mother Church they are.

271 posted on 09/20/2018 12:18:08 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: boatbums; af_vet_1981
No doubt you would find the same kind of differences in practice and belief among Catholics!

I have no idea what that has to do with what I posted. You’re talking about individuals. I’m talking about variations in official doctrine and practices between denominations.

272 posted on 09/20/2018 12:46:44 AM PDT by Al Hitan
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To: Luircin
Name me a denomination and I’ll be able to pull up statements of faith in a matter of seconds,

  1. Do you need to pull up different statements of faith for each Protestant denomination?
  2. How many Protestant denominations are there?


but I guarantee you that 95%+ of them believe in salvation by grace through faith.

Arminians Versus Calvinists: Some Surprising Statistics

...

This study looked at various parameters over a period of 10 years from 2000-2010. For the sake of brevity, please assume that Calvinism and Reformed are interchangeable. The same goes for Wesleyan and Arminian. All statistics are from the above Barna article. Please refer to the full article for more in-depth understanding.

Church Size

Calvinist church attendance rose 13%.
Arminian church attendance rose 18%

Church Identity as defined by pastors

-Our church is Calvinist/Reformed
2000: 32%
2010:31%
(Statistically, this group has remained flat)> -Our church is Wesleyan/Arminian
2000:37%
2010:32%
(Statistically this group has had more fluctuation both up and down.)

Does age of a pastor affect the percentage who consider themselves Calvinist versus Arminian?

Ages 27 to 45:
Reformed: 29%
Wesleyan/Arminian: 34%

Ages 46 to 64-Baby Boomers:
Reformed: 34%
Arminian:33%

Ages 65+:
Reformed:26%
Wesleyan:27%
(This group was more likely to eschew labels)

Geographical Location
Reformed churches: Common in the Northeast, least common in the Midwest.
Wesleyan/Arminian churches: Equally likely to appear in each of the four regions.

Types of churches
Mainline Churches (American Baptist Churches, Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church USA, and United Church of Christ.

Reformed: 29%
Wesleyan/Arminian: 47%

Non-mainline
Reformed: 35%
Arminian: 30%

Traditionally charismatic/Pentecostal
Reformed: 31%
Arminian: 27%
(This was the most surprising outcome since these churches tend to come from the holiness or Wesleyan traditions).

Churches that consider themselves doctrinally liberal

Reformed: 17%
Wesleyan: 13%


Conclusion by Barna:

Calvinists, hold your breath, count to 10…. “Kinnaman, who serves as Barna Group president, concluded, "there is no discernable evidence from this research that there is a Reformed shift among U.S. congregation leaders over. . Whatever momentum surrounds Reformed churches and the related leaders, events and associations has not gone much outside traditional boundaries or affected the allegiances of most of today's church leaders.”

(Digression: Is he saying all those conferences are not making a difference?)

However, Barna expects changes to occur over the next decade. “…most of the nation's 300,000 Protestant churches are in a state of theological flux, apparently open to identities and trends that do not necessarily fall within expected denominational or doctrinal boundaries. Given this profile, we expect that new theological, relational, as well as methodological networks that emerge will redefine the Protestant landscape over the next decade."

From my perspective, these statistics were most surprising. The hype in evangelical circles over the past five years has been about the rising star of the Neo-Calvinist movement, along with it’s supposed “superstar” preachers. However, if these statistics are accurate, there has not been a net trend change in the past decade. Could it boil down to “big hat, no cattle? Time and statistics will tell.

273 posted on 09/20/2018 4:29:48 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: af_vet_1981

Oh hey, it’s exactly the answer that I expected.

You say that like that’s something to be ashamed of.

Personally, I think the fact that a certain church’s leadership is having cocaine fueled orgies in the Vatican and has been protecting child rapists for decades would be something to be far more ashamed of.

But apparently that’s totally acceptable as long as Catholics can boast about how large their denomination is.


274 posted on 09/20/2018 6:02:45 AM PDT by Luircin
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To: Just mythoughts

IF you are accusing me of straining, at Christ’s command, then that is on you. HIS WORDS are the only WORDS that count when all is said and done.


I was not accusing you of anything, i was agreeing with you.

The Catholic Church is right on some things but they are plainly wrong when they call each other father, they strain on such simply things that is so clear in scripture.


275 posted on 09/20/2018 8:27:20 AM PDT by ravenwolf (Left lane drivers and tailgaters have the smallest brains in the world.)
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To: Just mythoughts

As Christ warned it would be those coming in His name that would be responsible for the mass deception... in case you have never read.


You must not have read many of my comments as that is what i have been saying all along.

I have very little trust in organized religion, especially those who are called Father, Reverand, doctor, teacher, etc.

I have said that Jesus`s Gospel has been preached all over the world in spite of the religious organizations.

Just a little from here and a little from there is all it takes as i believe in predestination.


276 posted on 09/20/2018 8:54:27 AM PDT by ravenwolf (Left lane drivers and tailgaters have the smallest brains in the world.)
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To: mrobisr
Yet there's Paul calling himself, repeatedly, the father of those he brought into the Church (Oneimus, Timothy, Titus and others); and there's Father Abraham.

You might want to explain to me why nobody scruples about somebody being called a "Master" (or the modern equiv. "Mister") or a "Teacher," both there in the same passage under discussion; or why we call things Holy (Holy Bible, Holy Cross for instance) when Jesus -- it seems --- once questioned the propriety of calling even Himself, holy... or even calling Him "GOOD"?

I think there's a deeper meaning here.

Your thoughts?

277 posted on 09/20/2018 11:11:35 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (What does the LORD require of you: to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
You might want to explain to me...

I'll explain nothing to you; for you really don't care about 'my' reasonings.

Your Church's say on the matter is ALL you will listen to.


...why we call things Holy (Holy Bible, Holy Cross for instance) …

Ask Rome; for she started it all.

278 posted on 09/20/2018 3:31:53 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Yet there's Paul calling himself, repeatedly, the father of those he brought into the Church (Oneimus, Timothy, Titus and others); and there's Father Abraham.

This is true, and i have provided such myself, and thus the basic censure of calling anyone a spiritual father is wrong. But using it as a default title for Catholic priests is wrong, for it presumes they all are spiritual fathers, which they are not. For infant baptism simply does not make them children of God, since the Biblical requirement for baptism is repentance and faith, (Acts 2:38; 8:36,37)

Moreover, infants are innocent, and are not culpable for sin, or bear guilt of Adam's, while baptism does not remove the nonredeemable Adamic nature (i wish).

But BTW, how is your whomping those ignorant Catholics with your Catechism going?

279 posted on 09/20/2018 5:55:59 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: Al Hitan
No doubt you would find the same kind of differences in practice and belief among Catholics!

I have no idea what that has to do with what I posted. You’re talking about individuals. I’m talking about variations in official doctrine and practices between denominations.

Well, Al, think about this...in the first centuries were there people who professed to be Christians but who did not agree with what eventually became "official" Christian doctrine? Athanasius of Alexandria, for example, was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century.

    In about 319, when Athanasius was a deacon, a presbyter named Arius came into a direct conflict with Alexander of Alexandria. It appears that Arius reproached Alexander for what he felt were misguided or heretical teachings being taught by the bishop.[14] Arius' theological views appear to have been firmly rooted in Alexandrian Christianity.[15] He embraced a subordinationist Christology which taught that Christ was the divine Son (Logos) of God, made, not begotten, heavily influenced by Alexandrian thinkers like Origen,[16] and which was a common Christological view in Alexandria at the time.[17] Arius had support from a powerful bishop named Eusebius of Nicomedia (not to be confused with Eusebius of Caesarea),[18] illustrating how Arius's subordinationist Christology was shared by other Christians in the Empire. Arius was subsequently excommunicated by Alexander, and he would begin to elicit the support of many bishops who agreed with his position. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_of_Alexandria)

While it was at the Council of Nicea that the controversy over the deity of Jesus Christ was officially settled, we know that there was still not total agreement among all Christians afterward. Prior to Nicea, Christians COULD have opposing beliefs and not be excommunicated. Even Popes disagreed about some of what would later become Christian dogma. Was the Deity of Jesus an absolute truth before then even if NO ONE believed it? Yes. There were other such doctrines that were disputed and this was back when Catholics assert ALL Christians were Catholic!

Today, we have by the grace of God a clearer understanding and agreement about what constitutes the Biblical and historical rule of faith - a canon. If you looked at the early statements of faith of the various mainline "Protestant" denominations, you would recognize that they DID agree on pretty much every major tenet of the faith as Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy do. Do some of those mainline churches today diverge from those basic beliefs? If not officially, many do in practice. Are there STILL non-Catholic Christians (y'all like to label everyone who isn't Catholic or EO as "Protestant", but it doesn't make it correct) that hold to the same doctrines as those taught by the Apostles from the start? Yes, there are. There are still today false sects and cults - just as there were from the start (wolves among sheep/false teachers/prophets, etc.). How we can know them is by what they teach and believe.

You've heard of the Vincentian Canon? The test of religious truth laid down by Vincent of Lérins (early fifth century) in Adversus profanas omnium novitates haereticorum Commonitorium, an attack on Augustine's predestination teaching. The criterion states “what has been believed everywhere, always and by all.” Vincent maintained that the final ground of truth lies in Scripture; by this threefold test of universality, antiquity, and consent the church can differentiate between true and false traditions. THAT should be the measure - what is professed and taught regarding the major tenets of the Christian faith - not what name a congregation or assembly of believers calls itself. Those churches who call themselves "Christian" should be measured by that same criteria. That is how we know that Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, are not truly Christian churches because they do not teach the truth about Jesus Christ's deity, among other things. They may be good people, but they are NOT Christian.

Don't you think God knows who are really His sheep?

280 posted on 09/20/2018 7:00:14 PM PDT by boatbums (Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us.)
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