Look, dear Catholic and non-Catholic Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I happen to be Baptist, but I have a great and deep respect for the Catholic church in the preserving of the Scriptures down through the centuries.
I also respect many Catholics for their strong pro-family, pro-life stands.
I think this thread will only cause fighting and dissension among us. I don’t think it is worth the “heat” and puts us in danger of making ourselves a negative witness to non-believers. This issue has been argued over the last 500 years and I don’t think we are going to resolve it today.
I think we should try to look at our points of agreement - that is - it is from the Bible which the essential teachings and doctrines come - that the Bible is God’s Word - that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Word made flesh, that He was/is God the Son, incarnated in the flesh through the Virgin Mary, that He lived as a human being for approximately 33 years, that He died on the cross to remove the guilt of our sin, that He rose from the dead on the third day.
We also agree that it is through faith in Jesus Christ that salvation is accomplished - that there is no other by whom we can be saved.
Let’s not fight. I have my opinions on this issue that would disagree with the writer of the article, and, I’m not denying the importance of the issue, but it just seems whenever we get into these kinds of topics on Free Republic that we often set a bad example for those who are not Christians. They only see people “arguing over religion” and they don’t understand what we are talking about. We give our faith and our Lord a bad rep by the way we argue with each other.
C’mon, please - and, further, it’s Christmas time. Let’s don’t flame each other.
Thank you.
I intended to start a reasoned dialogue over this important issue, not start a thread war.
Catholics inevitably face polemics whenever they get into discussions with Protestants on these threads. But let’s be civil.
We get tarred as pagans, idolaters, etc. People need to think about what they believe and why they believe them. That includes myself.
Don't be so naive...
Catholics teach that works are a required element of faith to achieve salvation...
God rejects any kind of idea like that for the born again believer...That kind of teaching will ultimately set a person up to be his own advocate at the White Throne Judgment, doomed to failure...
As a Baptist, you should know better than that...
If we accept that God allows for the teaching of the Catholic religion, then he accepts the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses as well...After all, they all use the name of Jesus...