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To: Forest Keeper
Does it really seem to you that our beliefs are rooted in arrogance?

Well, honestly, to some extent it does. Why? Because when I see this group as saying that there are people who are damned with no choice in the matter, it does make people smug and yes, arrogant.

Are your beliefs "rooted" in arrogance? Perhaps, though I think it's more in misjudgement. It's almost like the CAthar heresy.

According to all of "our" collective posts, do you really think we place faith in ourselves, or do we place it in God and the Bible? For

By the tone of most of the Protestant posts, I'm truly sorry to say, but it does seem that the general protestant theme is to place faith in yourselves. To elaborate, I'll take your next point: It is true that we do not place our faith in the current men (or any previous men) occupying the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church.

Do we place our faith in the current / previous men? No. Do we learn from their mistakes? Yes.

The debates that you have, the spiritual struggles, all we say is to read the Church Fathers -- you will come to your own conclusion, hopefully through God, but if you don't have the strength, you can see the questions that have risen through the ages.

Is it arrogant to think that the questions, the doubts, the clarity you have, haven't been thought of in 2000 years by men of God made wiser by the Holy Spirit than you or me? Yes. And note that the Church Fathers DID doubt, did question.
902 posted on 01/10/2006 2:59:28 AM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11. Restore Hagia Sophia!)
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To: Cronos
Do we place our faith in the current / previous men? [RCC hierarchy] No. Do we learn from their mistakes? Yes.

The debates that you have, the spiritual struggles, all we say is to read the Church Fathers -- ...

Is it arrogant to think that the questions, the doubts, the clarity you have, haven't been thought of in 2000 years by men of God made wiser by the Holy Spirit than you or me? Yes. And note that the Church Fathers DID doubt, did question.

Well, in this case by faith I meant trust, given previous discussions I should have been clearer. It seems to me that you presume that RCC leadership has special insight into scripture and that you are to trust them definitionally, even to the point of adopting unscriptural views. Our side does not trust any leader unless the teaching is solidly backed by scripture. Our trust is in the Bible itself, rather than mechanically following the holdings of other fallible men. (You admitted that the hierarchy makes mistakes.)

I and my brethren do not begrudge you your choice to follow teachings of the Catholic hierarchy. We simply and honestly disagree with some of them. We also agree with some of them.

I still do not understand this charge of arrogance. Our side does not presume to be the first to ask the questions we do. In addition to our spiritual questions we also question the authority of the answerer. We tend to say that if the authority is God, then good, but that if it is man, then bad. Do you think we are arrogant simply because we dare to disagree with you? For that WE are the arrogant ones? Tsk tsk. :)

961 posted on 01/10/2006 7:39:40 PM PST by Forest Keeper
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