What Is Better, Catholic or Protestant? Francis: “Both of Them Together”

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[ebb tide]

What Is Better, Catholic or Protestant? Francis: “Both of Them Together”

The Youth Pastoral Office of Magdeburg diocese, Germany, will organize an October 2020 “ecumenical pilgrimage” for young people to Rome.

The motto of the journey is “With Luther to the Pope”. A similar trip was already taken in 2016.

The pilgrimage is co-organized by the regional Protestant State church, although the Protestants repudiate pilgrimages.

On the trip's webpage Mit-Luther-zum-Papst.de, the tour operator, Hans Höffmann, remembers what Pope Francis said to the participants of the 2016 pilgrimage when asked by a youngster: "What is better, Catholic or Protestant? Francis answered in German: "Both of them together!”

Martin Luther attended school in Magdeburg as a boy. As a preacher, he led the city to defect from the Church. Magdeburg became the first major city to publish Luther’s writings.

[Mark17]

14 How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Matthew Chapter 7

I agree with that bro. My question is, when do you plan to enter by the narrow gate? I suggest you put it on your bucket list, before you find yourself in eternity, and the gate sealed shut. If you had already entered in by the narrow gate, you WOULD have, can I say, the horror of horrors, assurance of salvation. It’s a beautiful thing. Try it, you will like it. Or, don’t try it, and deal with the eternal consequences. Again, let me say, I have assurance of salvation, and I couldn’t care less what anyone thinks of it. 😁🤣😂👍😆😀☝️🙃

[boatbums]

Are you saved, metmom? Do you now know that you’re assured salvation, no matter what sins you have committed or what sins you will commit in the future? Will you answer that question for all protestants to see?

How many times and on how many threads has that question ALREADY been answered??? Do you have Alzheimer's or something? Besides, you just got done claiming earlier:

I find the ex-Catholics on this forum to be the most adamant about "once saved, always saved".

So, you DO know us by screen name. Maybe you should write it down this time.

[boatbums]

Presumption is a sin.

Calling God a liar is a REAL sin!

Hope is a virtue.

It is when it's placed in the right thing! Hope in nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, yes. Hope in your own merit, works, holiness and church membership, NOPE!

[Mark17]

Hey Mitch. Bring your pal onboard. 👍😁 How is it in the outback?

[Mark17]

How many times and on how many threads has that question ALREADY been answered???

I said, on another thread, about 47 million times, but Elsie told me a billion times, not to exaggerate. 😀🤣😁😆😂👍

[boatbums]

Indeed! You sound like me now. If only that was the basis for all Catholic doctrine, for distinctive Catholic teachings are not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (including how they understood the OT and gospels), which is Scripture, especially Acts thru Revelation. And as regards Catholic Eucharistic theology, we should ask:

You forgot, Roman Catholics don't NEED to find their doctrine/theology in Scripture. They believe their Pope and Magisterium are equal in authority to the Divinely-inspired word of God - as blasphemous as that sounds!

[boatbums]

AMEN! Me, too.

[thecodont]

Praise be to God through Jesus Christ our Savior.

[imardmd1]

And I can even give you the date that everlasting life in Jesus was conferred on me freely by His Father instantly upon my full confession of worthlessness, trusting in Jesus alone to rescue me from the grasp of self, sin, and Satan, and that was May 24, 1971 at the age of 34. Life has shown me that I cannot save myself, that Jesus saved me in spite of what I was. Someday He will show me that it was worthwhile to Him, when He perfects what He has begun.

(And I am not a "Protestant," by the way, nor engaged with any denomination.)

[boatbums]

Life has shown me that I cannot save myself, that Jesus saved me in spite of what I was. Someday He will show me that it was worthwhile to Him, when He perfects what He has begun.

Amen! His sheep hear HIS voice and follow Him. We know Him and He knows us and he gives us eternal life and we shall never perish nor be snatched from His hands, nor will He cast us out or lose even one. That assurance is the fruit of our faith. If God didn't want us to have that assurance, He wouldn't have told us we can KNOW we have eternal life.

[imardmd1]

Some people sleep at night.

[grey_whiskers]

It's amazing, the willful blindness of some dratted Protties.

To wit: "Catholics are going to Hell because they follow the teachings of men! Show it to me in the Bible."

"This phrase or doctrine is not stated in the Bible, but my denomination / Bible teacher told me, and I believe it with everything within me!"

The catchphrase, of course.

What you're missing, is that there are scads of people who love and serve and obey Jesus, without having formally uttered the sinner's prayer or gone to an altar call.

And here's the points of disagreement:

Besides, if you actually understand what sola Scriptura means, you would know that it is the belief that because Scripture is the Divinely-inspired word of God, by its authority everything we must believe in order to have eternal life and live godly in Christ Jesus is explicitly or implicitly taught in Scripture:

“The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.” —Westminster Confession of Faith

I agree with doctrinal elements for Salvation: the fallen state of man, "original sin," death as a consequence of sin, who God is and his perfection, (implicitly) the Trinity, the incarnation, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, all that.

What I *disagree* with, is that any teachings of men afterwards, must *necessarily* be wrong.

In particular, faith (how to increase in faith, what practices in life aid or increase the faith) and life (how and when to pray, who to pray for, whether for an individual, group, city, country, what have you).

And, I find it odd, that the many Protestant groups seem to neglect, or fail to practice, many practices enjoined in Scripture; and openly insist (as a DOCTRINAL point, from sola scriptura, that any apparitions, vision, prophecy, revelation, from any source whatsoever, on any topic whatsoever, is necessarily an Orwellian "crimethink" instead of Scripturally testing the spirits.

And that they take for granted certain elements of the faith which were hammered out in post-Biblical times, *cough* Arianism *cough* *cough* Albigensians *cough* *cough* Donatism *cough* to name a few, while still loudly Demanding sola scriptura (hint, in a lot of heresies, the heretics cited Scripture, but it was decided they were misusing it; the reason that is important is there are folks like the extreme Calvinists (predestination) who also quote Scripture, and yet both the Catholics and most other Protestants insist they're wrong.

The last area of, hmm, "practice" so to speak, is that I've heard Protties say that "Catholics teach prayers of empty words by repetition" e.g. the Rosary. I used to think so myself, until I started praying it. The practice is to devote oneself to meditation on certain episodes of the life of Jesus, or Mary, thematically. I've published on this thread one such set for the Sorrowful Mysteries. And the statements to meditate on in it, openly contradict a lot of the ignorant blather about dead works and Mary _substituting for_ Jesus.

A lot of the other revelations / apparitions, were calls to prayer for particular circumstances in time, and in particular, calls to pray for Mercy to ward off Judgment or God's wrath. (E.g. Fatima's warning in 1917 of an error which would come from Russia and affect the whole Earth *cough* Communism *cough*, or prayers in Reparation for Atheism and Blasphemy ("what if ten righteous were found there? For the sake of the ten I will not destroy it.")

[grey_whiskers]

Be born from above and learn to ignore Francis the talking Catholic mule.

You spelled "Commie mole" wrong.

And stop insulting mules. :-P

[grey_whiskers]

Right. And the Rosary started in honor of Mary, because St. Dominic had failed for years to suppress a heresy (Albigensianism -- the spirit is good and the material world is bad -- which heresy stomps all over the incarnation of Jesus as a man).

He failed, until he asked Mary to help. (You know, since she is the *Mother* of Jesus, and that kind of has something to do with the Incarnation, I guess.)

When that worked, Dominic concluded that asking her for help worked.

[grey_whiskers]

You gotta eliminate politicians' slush funds first, and get all kinds of logical and physical infrastructure for databases ready first.

Still not there yet.

[grey_whiskers]

I will go out on a limb, and say it WILL burn. 👍

So did the early Christians who didn't get thrown to the lions.

[Mark17]

When did you stop having assurance of salvation?

[Elsie]

‘Tis a good idea; as this pot has been stirred SO much that there are no discernable lumps left in it.

[Elsie]

I will go out on a limb, and say it WILL burn. 👍

Possibly; but we need to vet it thru David Letterman to see if it will float.

[Elsie]

I cannot recall the exact date;
but you were told not to eggs-agger-ate.
Now humor’s a tool;
when tossed towards a fool;
But for some on FR it’s too late.