To: Elsie
Gosh, what I heard is a Church with a ministerial Priesthood, an Altar, a ssacrifice, and seven Sacraments, all instituted by Christ.
The only rituals I've seen added are these bizarre altar calls, tent revivals, communion meals, holy-roller meetings, and the like, and that was all by Protestants. I suppose if one is not willing to believe the truth, they'll believe anything else instead.
To: Hermann the Cherusker
I actually saw an infomercial by some huckster selling holy oil that you pour in each corner of your house and say some prayer, and God gives you wealth.
And they talk about us with our talismans and medallions and "good luck charms."
242 posted on
09/30/2003 6:55:29 PM PDT by
Conservative til I die
(Scratch an evangelical long enough and you'll uncover a heretic or even a blasphemer.)
To: Hermann the Cherusker
There are no "sacrements" mentioned in scripture. There are plenty of requirements in scripture; but, no sacrements.
That's a Catholic invention. Secondarily, to be technically accurate, Christianity has no sacrificial system - it doesn't exist. Christianity exists because of ONE sacrifice that preceeded it. There has been no need for one since that one was finished. That happened over 2000 years ago. If you have a sacrificial system, you already admit you cannot be Christian because none exists in Christianity.
There is no exclusive priesthood in Christianity either. Jesus died to make us all "kings and priests" a necessity since we may all approach God on our own and seek him directly with no middle man to interfere. There are roles to be played within Christianity; but the Minister is no more a priest than those he ministers to so long as they are all christian.
That's two shot down specifically. The sacrements generally pervert scripture as much in what they cause as in what they get wrong. There is no ritual that I'm aware of mentioned in the entire New testament that is required to be a Christian. There are actions that are required. They are three - You must 1) believe with your heart and confess with your mouth to be born again (Paul specifically states this). 2) Per Jesus in Mark 16:15-18 you must be born again (saved - as paul said) and baptized in the Holy spirit. 3) John 10 and Romans 8 you must follow Christ in the Holy Spirit.
That's it. If you can do that, nothing else matters because Christ won't lead you into Sin. If you're walking in sin, you aren't following Christ. And your fruits will bear out which is the case. The same is true for the church as a whole. It's fruits will bear it out. If you want an examination of that - you should give up while you're ahead. Christ defined the fruits that would follow both his followers individually and as a whole. On those marks, your church fails so miserably it had to make up it's own definition of the church. What you are stating above is philosophy, not scripture. Sorry.
253 posted on
09/30/2003 7:13:15 PM PDT by
Havoc
(If you can't be frank all the time are you lying the rest of the time?)
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