Posted on 01/05/2010 9:46:47 PM PST by the_conscience
I just witnessed a couple of Orthodox posters get kicked off a "Catholic Caucus" thread. I thought, despite their differences, they had a mutual understanding that each sect was considered "Catholic". Are not the Orthodox considered Catholic? Why do the Romanists get to monopolize the term "Catholic"?
I consider myself to be Catholic being a part of the universal church of Christ. Why should one sect be able to use a universal concept to identify themselves in a caucus thread while other Christian denominations need to use specific qualifiers to identify themselves in a caucus thread?
I see that there are several posts from you to me. I advised you before that I do not even bother to read your posts. They are the intellectual equivalent of licking a frozen metal pole. The next time you have an urge to post something to me, which by experience will be bizarre, false, and insulting, save yourself some time and FR some bandwidth and just don’t.
I'm sure if you ever want to know and understand what we believe, God will send somebody to help you. But in the meantime, your co-religionists can provide a much more thrilling sense of moral superiority.
Nietzsche says something funny at the beginning of one of his books: Suppose truth is a woman, what then? Well, suppose Truth is someone who wouldn't break a bruised reed, what then? Will He invite to his side someone wallowing in wild distortions, coarse mockery, and self-righteous condemnation of invented wrongs? Can anyone hope to gain His favor by beating his breast and proclaiming to all his own perfection in doctrine and practice and the viciousness of the ways and thoughts of others?
You may have noticed, or maybe not: I don't spend much time saying Protestants are wrong to be Protestant. I spend most of my time here trying to clarify what we do in fact believe and how we believe it in the face of the arguments of others. But some of the others, though, who knows, they may be right about what God wants, are as wrong as can be about what WE think God wants.
But when that starts to look intentional, that's the time for me to decline the smarmy and smiling invitation to make my case. If you REALLY want to know the Truth, rather than to enjoy the sense of superiority one had when others think one knows the truth, the Truth will continue to disclose Himself to you and all will be well. All who seek find and to all who knock it is opened.
God help and protect you though, if all you want is to win.
And yet some men do not believe. Obviously what was revealed penetrated some minds and hearts and not others.
Who makes the heart and mind? Men? Are those men smarter, more pious, more intelligent than those who do not believe?
Or are all men equally fallen and none seeks God's face unless and until God draws them to Him by the persistent, intentional, free guidance of the Holy Spirit?
The Arminians defense is that men love God and thus they believe. Scripture tells us this is backwards. God loves men and then they believe.
"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." -- Jeremiah 10:23
Consider 1 Peter 1:20...
"(Christ) who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you"
Was Christ's sacrifice merely "known" or "foreseen" by God before the foundation of the world? Or was Christ's sacrifice determined, ordained and accomplished through the perfect, predestined will of the Triune God?
So, too, our lives and faith and salvation.
You can say that again.
Put up or shut up.
Why was it "ready for the seed?" Who made the soil fertile and gave it rain and permitted it to bring forth good fruit?
This is the Bevis and Butthead approach to religion: Heh heh heh, he said “kneel to.” Despite the spoken emphasis on an internal grace of Faith, it turns out many of the Calvinists cannot see beyond or get beyond careless turns of phrase and the occasional fiberglass image of Our Lady.
lol. Believe it or not. I matters to me zilch.
Take your pick. Enjoy them all. You will have to answer for each time you do.
I make no promises or commitments on that score at all.
0.00000%
I respond to posts for a variety of reasons. In this subject field, more for lurkers than folks I’m posting in reply to.
I assume your scroll button works.
However, thanks for your overwhelming Christian charity.
I love it when it gets late, and the Calvinists start telling us what's going to happen to us if we don't agree with them.
ROTFLOL
I'm actually looking forward to it. I would much rather answer for veneration and prayers of intercession than for deliberate falsehoods, vile accusations, and hateful accusations against Catholics and the Catholic Church.
Jesus Christ is our eternal priest according to the order of Melchisedek. As St. Thomas Aquinas says, the proper task of the priest consists in being a mediator between God and men (S. Th. III, 22, 1). And St. Paul instructs us in 1 Tim. 2:5 that Jesus is the one Mediator between God and men. Because Jesus is both God and man by reason of the Hypostatic Union, he is able to reconcile God and man in his own Person. That is what he did by his death on the Cross.
Jesus is the one mediator and that's why it says the priest is the mediator between man and God...The priest is Jesus...
The Catholic faith teaches that the priest is another Christ, an alter Christus; he takes on this sublime dignity by receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The most essential function of the sacerdotal or priestly office is sacrifice. For we read in Hebrews 8:3, “Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.”
By the will of God Christ works through the validly ordained priest, even if he is a sinner. If that were not so, then the faithful would never know for sure whether or not they had really received a Sacrament
Simply stated, the Catholic priest is another Christ. Through his ordination he has been granted the amazing gift of being a channel of divine grace for the eternal salvation of those he come into contact with—both in his official ministry and in his personal life
Cardinal Joseph Hoeffner of Cologne, Germany, said that our people “want a servant of Christ who is a witness and dispenser of a life other than that of this earth.” “The priest in the modern world,” he added, “is an extraordinary challenge because he does not announce himself but our Lord Jesus Christ, judge and savior of humanity.”
Never mind Mad Dawg...I found it...No wonder you didn't want to tell me...
Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Perhaps like turning a piece of bread into a bleeding, pumping heart???
We have all seen it posted numerous times...
Exactly...
Well,I’m happy you’ve found something to keep you amused. Enjoy yourself. Come back when you want to have a grown up conversation.
In fact, IMO calling a priest "another Christ," for whatever concocted rational they come up with, is so startlingly pagan that it's amazing more of them don't see the danger in their path.
They have been blinded and none can say "is there not a lie in my right hand?"
They deny they bow when they’re not busy asserting that they bow. They’re offended we would say they bow except for the times when they’re boasting they bow.
But then the author does indeed state, many in their church don't understand their own beliefs. It would seem very true and if you don't understand why you believe what you believe then you are wide open for deception and he who is the master of.
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