Replies

“This is not about what religion I belong to...all this was, was about my not telling another poster if I was a Catholic, or a Protestant, or whatever....there is a difference.....”

I'm not sure whether you are actually pointing this question at me, or writing more rhetorically.

If you look at my posts from over a long period of time, you will see me say that . . .

I am not a (*)Catholic in the Vatican sense, not am I a (**)Protestant in the Geneva sense.

*I have never seen sufficient Scripture to use either the word Catholic or Universal with regard to any organized church visible on this earth. In the last couple of days I posted a lengthy piece stating my position on the Body of Christ. You might look for that.

**Since I believe that there were independent (non-Catholic) congregations of genuine believers in existence long before Wycliffe's day, yea, existing all the way back to the Apostles, (never Catholic in the Vatican sense), and since I believe my heritage could be loosely identified with some of them, I cannot call myself a Protestant in the Geneva sense.

There are some posting on these threads who have either implied or taught outright that there was nothing but Catholic prior to the Geneva movement. That is, unless they were “heretics.” Of course, that would make all Protestants to be “heretics,” would it not? Perhaps the movement got to big and powerful, so the Vatican side eventually thought it might be best (and safer, since John Calvin himself could get pretty ugly) to withdraw the word “heretic” where it applies to them. Obviously, its hard to coax whole movements to submit to you while your are calling them “heretics,” eh?

In the Vatican view, I would surely be a heretic worthy of the stake or the rack or of being thrown in the river in a sack, bound in chains, if I lived in Europe prior to 1500. But then there were at that time some Geneva folks who would have had the same opinion of me, perhaps with the same “remedy” in mind.

You correctly state that there are many other groups that have come along since 1800 that have made themselves altogether different and would not fit either the Vatican sense or the Geneva sense either. It's a good thing they were founded in America which has (or at least used to have) an inherent sense of freedom of conscience. They are relatively safe regardless of what the rest of us think of them, and I would move to keep it that way.

No, it is not I who classifies all professing Christians as either Catholic or Protestant. I strongly PROTEST the narrow classification — which I guess makes me a “protestant” (protester), but not in the Geneva sense, you see.