Who are the Catholics: The Orthodox or The Romanists, or both?

Me

[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?

[Quix]

Ignorance often accepts all manner of unfitting, inaccurate, untrue explanations and rationalizations for all kinds of things.

Very impressive.

/s

[Dr. North]

It is faith that those who walk with Christ are in fact good.

That is the beauty of the walk, and the hope that it brings.

[Quix]

Thanks.

That was extremely well put.

Praise God for your spouse’s discernment and sensitivity to The Lord’s voice, Spirit.

Praise God for your very Biblical understanding of God’s workings in our era.

[IrishCatholic]

Aren't you bored yet?
I originally got on this thread to find out if the usual suspects had a new member preening for attention.

It was.

Then there was a little tiff with the RM over the use of the name (he who must not be named) while heartily endorsing (he who must not be named) type behavior.

But seriously, year after year the rabid Catholic haters come on this forum to post the most vile things they can find, or make up, to get a response. I call them the “usual suspects” because even though they are corrected they will re post the lie the the next thread. You can see them on the list as one pings the rest.

They are not Christian. They do not act as Christians. They are not men (or women). They are adult males (or females). They have no integrity, no honor, and why dignify them with your efforts? It's like talking to Code Pink at a protest march. You can't reach them because they don't want to be reached.

I have no interest in diminishing a Protestant's faith in Christ. Why would I? I support it fully. I do feel they cannot see clearly, but better a little vision of the love of Christ and a feeling of love in their hearts than none at all. The Catholics (and Orthodox, God love them) gather not to smear, but to defend. Not to attack but to enlighten or correct.

But the usual suspects, these Know-Nothings, if Christ himself came back to Earth in the Second Coming and declared the Catholic Church his one true church, they would be the very first to nail him to the cross again. That is how deep their hatred is.

You can almost hear the scream of Satan's hatred in the background of their souls as they post distortions, bait others, and seek to destroy Christ in the hearts of their fellow man.

Let it go. They feed on this misery. It is why I so rarely get in this knife fight with such scum. It becomes boring to refute the same lies continuously. Bad manners from them is easy on the computer and it is all just a game.

Say prayer for them. Get all the Catholics to say a prayer for them. Pray for their conversion to the love of Christ and hope they find their way home.

If they don't well, it's sad. But since I left this has popped up to over 500 posts on an original question that could have been answered by an honest man's Google search.

Let it go. There is so much more on FR to catch than dealing with this lot.

[the_conscience]

Quite incorrect -- the term "Protestant" is a broad term for the groups that arre not part of the Apostolic Church, so everyone from the OPC to the eCUSA to the Mormons go in that basket for a forum

lol

This is the perfect example of the arrogance and self-delusion of Romanists. Somehow every religion has it's root in Romanism. Since Protestantism claims to be a return to the Apostolic Church teachings it has an equal claim to the term Catholic. Mormonism and other cults either add or subtract from apostolic teaching and thus are no more Protestant than Protestants are Romanists.

[Quix]

I had read it . . .

I believe in the total depravity of man.

However, I think I tend to . . . pay much less attention to such phrasing when it comes across to me as a Calvinist code word sort of phrase.

The depravity the conscience was speaking of is not something per se that one opts out of . . . it’s the existential thrownness of man.

Only Christ’s Blood is a solution.

Didn’t seem like your exhortation was warranted nor fitting.

[Mad Dawg]

Let's be clear about the story as Quix told it. It was not his wish, or his threat. He "observed" or "reported"what, as he thinks of it, the Spirit told him.

If you're going to mug Quix, be fair, scrupulously fair.

This was not a wish fulfillment thing. Quix, as he reported it, didn't say he wanted the guy to croak. He said that "in the Spirit" he uttered that the guy would cease to be interfering with their stuff if he didn't get his act together and then change it.

Look, I hate this stuff. BUT I have the gift/curse (choose one) of second sight. My grandmother had it, and my daughter has it, though she doesn't understand it yet.

Let me report just this: The alleged "gift" is not even something you're thinking about, certainly not desiring. It's like a camera shutter opens, or a button is pushed, and you know and you speak. That's it. I can't make it happen, I don't even think about it, until it happens. I certainly don't think it makes me special or indicates that I am special. EXCEPT that in that I am a classically edumicated innerleckshual, it is awkward to have this inexplicable thing happen to me. Last damn this I want. What I want is something like being the worlds foremost Dante scholar, or just to be a good disciple of my Lord. But what I have is, "And now this word from the future; [some stuff I don't understand, and don't believe only it "comes true" in a weekend or a year.]

So before you entirely mug Quix, read what he initially wrote carefully. We Catholics acknowledge that folks like Quix are "brethren," albeit "separated." So we need to be open to Spiritual graces, some of which may seem exotic, foreign, and implausible to us.

Having pled for Quix now I will say, yeah, they don't even get when they are doing it, but, yeah, just as the New Yorker readers will mock Baptist and Pentecostalists, without even seeing how parochial and provincial they are, so Baptist and Pentecostalists will mock us for pretty much the same reasons.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus beats not only for us, but for all His children, for all those for whom He died. We Catholics must understand that GOd may have reserved some gift for the separated brethren, just as much as they MUST understand that the readily mockable "Magicsterical" really does teach the truth that not only sets one free but fills one heart with soothing and energizing delight.

Im' thinking the more we lead with mockery and contempt, the longer it will take for them to see that the "edifice" which they mock is really a kind of intriguing and rambling building in which not only are preserved wonderful chestnuts from the past, but also are nursed vigorous saplings for the near future.

We have a treasure. We are called to share it. If those to whom we offer it mock it, we will not change their minds by abusing them. When they see how our treasure has filled our minds with clarity and our hearts with love, then maybe, but not until then, they will ask to be fed with the bread we eat.

[Quix]

I rebuke that.

There’s nothing true in that sentence.

Bearing false witness is not a fruit of Holy Spirit.

[Quix]

“The reverential fear/awer of The Lord is the beginning of wisdom”

has evidently been torn out of your Bible, then.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Not sure why the RM is being pinged, but regardless, your logic is faulty.

All Protestants are Trinitarian Christians. Mormons (as well as Unitarians) are not Protestant. Mormons do not call themselves Protestant. Protestants don't call Mormons Protestant. Nobody calls Mormons Protestant but Roman Catholics who incorrectly use the term as an umbrella for all non-RC churches.

In contrast, Protestants refer to their Christian faith as "catholic" (universal) and once again it's Roman Catholics who take exception.

[Quix]

INDEED.

[Quix]

WELL PUT.

THX.

[Running On Empty]

“Onlookers always know a fraction of the realities involved”

This is true and always has been. It is God alone who knows all.

And it’s good counsel for anyone who involves himself directly or indirectly in the lives of others—in real time or on the internet. (that veil of anonymity)

[sitetest]

Dear Mad Dawg,

“We Catholics acknowledge that folks like Quix are ‘brethren,’...”

That's a supposition devoid of evidence here on FR.

The poster whom you name is not necessarily among the "separated brethren." "Bible-coders" and "UFOlogists" are more likely to be involved in the occult than to be actual followers of Jesus.

sitetest

[the_conscience]

It is faith that those who walk with Christ are in fact good. That is the beauty of the walk, and the hope that it brings.

Draw that statement out a little more for me, if you would. It's not clear to me the meaning and I don't want to make any false assumptions.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

"Every time I put the line down I would say a Hail Mary, and every time I said a Hail Mary, I would catch a fish." Fredo Corleone

lol. Magick.

[Quix]

Let me report just this: The alleged “gift” is not even something you’re thinking about, certainly not desiring. It’s like a camera shutter opens, or a button is pushed, and you know and you speak. That’s it. I can’t make it happen, I don’t even think about it, until it happens. I certainly don’t think it makes me special or indicates that I am special. EXCEPT that in that I am a classically edumicated innerleckshual, it is awkward to have this inexplicable thing happen to me. Last damn this I want. What I want is something like being the worlds foremost Dante scholar, or just to be a good disciple of my Lord. But what I have is, “And now this word from the future; [some stuff I don’t understand, and don’t believe only it “comes true” in a weekend or a year.]

So before you entirely mug Quix, read what he initially wrote carefully. We Catholics acknowledge that folks like Quix are “brethren,” albeit “separated.” So we need to be open to Spiritual graces, some of which may seem exotic, foreign, and implausible to us.

Having pled for Quix now I will say, yeah, they don’t even get when they are doing it, but, yeah, just as the New Yorker readers will mock Baptist and Pentecostalists, without even seeing how parochial and provincial they are, so Baptist and Pentecostalists will mock us for pretty much the same reasons.

##############

GOODNESS! I didn’t realize it was you writing for a good bit into it—maybe I even had to check the name.

Interlekshul was a bit of a clue, though.

LOL.

Very well put, Bro.

I wish to note also, perhaps shockingly . . . that I have SOME respect for a body of earnest believers working out of good hearts toward distilling complex issues into a sense of The Lord about them. And, I suspect that even the magicsterical has done that on occasion.

However, I utterly reject the notion that such a body in the RC/Vatican camp or the So Bap camp or the A of God camp or any other camp is going to be by definition or presumed history or any other set of contingencies chronically anointed and thoroughly right by definition—meeting in, meeting out; month in, month out; year in year out; decade in decade out; century in, century out. Just T’ain’t so.

And, sorry, but I shall likely continue to use magicsterical. I believe it is a very important term because of the deeply entrenched mind-set that any bureaucratic political group in any Christian or any other context can be pure and infallible in any sense of the word flawlessly year in and year out over centuries or decades or even years. I find that notion an absurd UnBiblical heretical notion and a deception from hell.

I believe that kind of deception not only deserves but requires, even demands a very stark and emphatic signal that such a notion is absurdly unBiblical—indeed—magic-sterical.

I realize that the Vatican Affiliates et al will take particular offense because I derived the term from their magisterium. However, even when I derived the term I believed it to be an excellent example of not only the Vatican group but all similar groups.

It is an emphatic insistance that all individuals and groups who are inclined to take themselves too seriously—OUGHT NOT TO DO SO UNDER PAIN OF SERIOUS SPIRITUAL HAZARD.

Anyway—Greatly appreciate your wise discernment and commentary. LUBBRO.

[the_conscience]

Ah, but now you're moving away from theological descriptions.

Free Republic is ostensibly a forum dedicated to the preservation of the ideals that founded this country. That being the case, the hierarchy should reflect those religions that directly conceived those ideals.

[Quix]

Thankfully, some folks’

spiritual discernment by Holy Spirit is way above average—particularly compared to that evidenced amongst the rabid cliques of the Vatican Affiliates.

Lots of things are not as they seem to some people.

Praise God for that.

[Quix]

Again I find much wisdom in your post.

Thx.