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?
No way the “Woman” of Revelation can = Mary.
Not in wording, sentence structure and context.
Well, that sounds depressing. :) How can we love God "with all our heart" but without passion? If someone said "I have a passion for God and His word" should we discourage him? :) Don't you all have a passion for venerating Mary that will continue in Heaven? (no shot intended) --- I found this:
Sure, there are sinful passions, we know those will be gone. But doesn't this also say there are Godly passions? What is "joy" without passion or emotion?
Apparently Roman Catholic teaching on Mary is uncomfortably similar to new-age mysticism.
No surprise. All superstition is a lie.
Well, that's the smear, anyway.
“They are chosen and then regenerated to repentance, faith and good fruit by the free gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.”
Still waiting on the scripture to back up being born again before repentance & faith.
30Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” - Acts 16
13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. - Ephesians 1
9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
FWIW, Psalms 65 has a verse 2 in it...are you SURE you want to quote this:
Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall vows be performed.
O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
And, of course, scripture teaches God has chosen those who believe, rather than giving belief to those he has chosen.
Dr E “Our faith is not of ourselves. It is an unearned, merciful gift from God to whom He will for His glory alone.”
Scripture?
Faith is defined as “confidence or trust in a person or thing”. It is something we have in response to something or someone else.
Precisely.
Partly because I happen to like you in spite of all our brick bat tossing--at least I like several things about you--and certainly that you seem to pretty intensely purport to seek to serve God, Jesus The Christ, follow His Holy Spirit . . . but also because today you were quite touchingly kind toward me . . .
THEREFORE, I want to say the following as tenderly and respectfully as I can.
My own . . . standard . . . as well as I can construe it . . . is something along the following lines:
My standard is that
IF A PANEL OF HIGH QUALITY, FAIR-MINDED, SKILLFUL, BEST INFORMED SCHOLARS
were to program a computer with all the available knowledge weighted fair-mindedly in a way that both sides agreed was honorable and fitting
And then set on the task of arriving at the best summaries of the linguistic etc. meanings and evidences,
that the computer would arrive at the same conclusions . . . or very close to the same . . . that I have.
My passion for THE TRUTH is such, that I crave THE TRUTH regardless of the hazard to even life long biases or pet notions. I've been that way most of my life.
I realize that you likely do not see me that way. And, that's sad but understandable.
In any case, that's the kind of substrate in the back of my mind that I approach such issues with in virtually any kind of intellectual conflict.
FWIW.
Please see my last to Petronski just above.
LOL.
Thankfully, the gal in charge of suction did a great job. That’s usually an issue I’m a bit fussy about. She could not have done better.
I discerned that your caring was authentic and tried to respond clearly in kind just as sincerely.
Thank you very much.
Amen!
And the Arminian denial of this Scriptural truth is why Arminianism does a U-turn and heads back down the road to Rome.
I can tell you from my own personal experience that I was raised in a religion that taught my salvation was based primarily upon my doing good and not sinning. There was no eternal security, only a hope that when I died I faced God and he took out a scale. He measured all my "bads" on one side and all my "goods" on the other and whichever side had more determined if I went to heaven or hell. It was that uncertainty and nebulous relationship to God as God, not as a Heavenly Father. It left me with the sense that I was not hearing the real truth. Something was missing, to me.
That all changed. I remember walking home from church one day and praying, God, if you are real I want to know the truth. Was that me seeking God or God seeking me, or both? Shortly after that prayer, within a month, scripture was shared with me from John 10:28-30. It was as if a light went on, is the best way I can explain it. I understood for the first time that I could KNOW I was going to heaven when I died and that it was a gift of God's grace and something he would never take away from me. I believed, I accepted the gift of Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross for me, I believed in him as my savior. The Holy Spirit of God indwelled me and I never looked back, I never was the same again.
So, did God open the door to truth that I knocked on or did God cause me to knock in the first place? Did he reward me with truth because I diligently sought after it or did he cause me to search in the first place? Either way, I am a child of God, born-again, redeemed, saved, walking in the light, trying to live a life that is pleasing to him.
Proof, please?
You want proof that the Vatican does not “sanction” or “authorize” blogs of the various lay groups of Christians worldwide?
That was intended as a joke, right?
Is this to say that Catholicism is HUMOROUS? :)
But you mentioned that link in reference to the Legion of Mary discussion. Apparently you were confused and forgot what that link was about. So you tossed the link into your critical comment about the LOM website.
You will no doubt deny this which is your right.
I will re-assert your error.
You will deny the error.
I will link you to our original exchange, proving my assessment.
You will deflect the entire conversation to something else...again.
I will point this out.
You will deny it.
One of us will finally have something better to do than to keep this going.
I hope it's me.
Prove a negative?
No. You prove your assumption.
It is not for us to prove false all of your false assumptions.
You assumed the blog is sanctioned, now prove it.
About as funny as a biopsy.
Dr E “Hope you’ll forgive me if I ignore 90% of your endlessly long and padded posts stuffed full of repetitive accusations already answered, and instead respond to a point or two.”
Not really. You have steadfastly refused to give answers to my questions, only to claim at a later date that you already did so. And I find it dishonest to complain that I’ve not given answers when you don’t read 90% of my posts. But then, perhaps it gets tiring to read a lot of scripture that you cannot explain...
Now, let’s look at the 4 quotes you provide in your ill-mannered post:
Acts 13:48 comes at the end of a passage that starts in Acts 13:13 - with Paul preaching to the Jews. Remember, this IS Acts 13, and it was only in Acts 11 that the Jewish Church agreed that Gentiles COULD become Christians.
Here is a link for any who wants to read Acts 13:48 in CONTEXT:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+13&version=ESV
Notice verses 13-44 are about Paul’s preaching to the Jews, but the Jews reject the Gospel. Then Paul responds:
“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
“’I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
48And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”
If one wishes, one can interpret this as saying God appoints individuals to salvation. It can also be interpreted as saying that God appointed Gentiles as well as Jews, and that they also believed.
The advantage of the latter interpretation is that it accords with all the rest of Acts, where this terminology isn’t used, as well as the Gospels and Epistles.
1 Cor 2:12:
11For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
Yes, we have nothing of ourselves. If God does not reach out to us, we will never know he is there. But we don’t need to know a lot to know we need to repent. In those long posts you CHOOSE to skip, I’ve given multiple examples of people who knew they were sinners.
“Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.” - Matt 21
It doesn’t take a medical degree to know you are sick. And Jesus came for those who are sick.
Titus 3:
3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Truly, and I thank you for pointing out a passage that says we were, as non-believers, “foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another”. None of that describes someone too dead to respond! And God saved us by his mercy, not by works of righteousness. We agree.
Or we would, but you insist that faith is “work”. That is an unscriptural view of faith, but someone skips 90% of posts shouldn’t be expected to read more than 10% of scripture.
The same interpretation applies to John 6, where we read, “ 35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
Dr E “The point the Arminian misses is that no man is able to believe or do anything God-pleasing unless and untill God first regenerates their hearts, minds, wills and spirits to want to believe and be saved.”
“1At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.” - Acts 10
Yes, I know you’ve skipped this scripture before as well.
Honestly, WORLD WIDE?
That is so strange....
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