And regarding our belief about who is among the elect, this too has been discussed at length on FR threads. No,we do not believe what you say we believe. I honestly do not understand where you get off making wild accusations about what we "probably" believe then launching a half-dozen posts taking for granted what you have accused us of out of the blue.
We believe, with Augustine, BASED ON SCRIPTURE, A PARABLE THAT JESUS TOLD that the Church is made up of wheat and weeds. Jesus told us that many who claim to be his followers will end up in outer darkness. The Catholic Church has many adherents who have sinned against God and refused to repent. We hope they will yet repent but if they do not, they go to hell and are not elect.
We also believe that many who do not adhere to the Catholic faith will nonetheless end up in heaven because they obeyed according to what knowledge they have of the truth, that is, they did not choose to reject God or reject God's grace within the knowledge they had. Calvin and Luther knew the truth and deliberate chose against it but we hope that before they died they repented. Only God knows.
Orthodox share with us nearly all our beliefs. We are sadly not in communion fellowship though we do not normally even call Orthodox schismatics and certainly not heretics. Any Orthodox who accepts God's grace and lives according to it, does not refuse it, is among the elect.
A follower of Calvin or Luther or any other Protestant group who truly does not realize that he has embraced a false teaching, who was never taught differently but studies the Bible and depends on Jesus and, because of his invincible (non-overcoverable) ignorance of the fact that the interpretations of the Bible he has lived with are false ones, can go to heaven. So a lot of Protestants out there have a good chance and a lot of Catholics and Orthodox, unless they shape up (they can't plead invincible ignorance so easily, though if their leaders have misled them, the leaders will be culpable) will end up in hell.
Your problem and your co-religionists on this thread is that we have been giving your reasons why your interpretations of the Bible are untrue. You simply dismiss them, tell us we don't study the Bible, and pat yourselves on the back that you study the Bible diligently thus your interpretations have to be correct. This line of reasoning makes no sense to me but you luxuriate in it.
Did it ever occur to you that God's providential guidance may have brought you into contact with Christians who read the Bible and reach different conclusions that you do because God want's you to reach different conclusions? You've been exposed to the fact that differences exist. You refuse even to entertain them on their merits but dismiss them as impossible. I have done that all my life. You see I was raised with your conclusions. But I was not so stuck on them that I was not always open to considering the conclusions others draw from the same Bible which I have diligently studied for 50 years now and open to listening to the Jesus I depend on to see where he was leading me.
No, we don't believe we have a club. We believe Jesus chose the apostles and entrusted to them his message, entirely (since he did not write it down) and entrusted to them the interpretation of his message and we believe that this is recorded in dozens of passages in the NT. You read those passages differently.
Just be sure your reading is the right one. You've been challenged. It might be for a reason. It might, of course, be diabolical temptation. How do you know which one it is?
Shoot back with gotcha barbs, if you wish. But what if Jesus actually wanted you to drop all the gotcha garbage and actually consider our interpretations? I, for one, spent 20 years considering your interpretations before I made up my mind. How many years have you spent honestly and openly considering ours? I've seen zero evidence on these FR threads that you've spent ten seconds honestly considering an opposing viewpoint.
The gotcha game is a dangerous one, Zeeb. Just be sure Someone far Wiser than you doesn't end up in the end saying "Gotcha" to you.
You need reading comprehension. I asked annalex if that was what he believed, and he clearly stated that yes, that is what he believes. Your post should have been directed to him, not me. In fact, he has clearly stated a lot of what he believes, which has left us all incredulous.