boatbums: “Do you believe in him through faith, or not?”
To explain...One Lord, one faith, one Baptism.
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Ephesians 4:5 doesn’t say “how you believe in Him”, it
proclaims there is “one faith.” Christ established one
Church. Protestantism rejected that one Church and
came up with new teachings, not of God.
One flock (one fold in some Bibles) and one shepherd simply means that there is only one Church which Jesus Christ founded.
John 10:14-16
“I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.”
AND
John 17:21-23
“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.”
John 17:21-23
How many times does Our Lord say One? Meaning oneness of
belief.
You can bring up the Orthodox who also split from Roman Catholicism but not into as many fractures as Protestantism. Protestantism is divided by the thousands!!
Why?
A Protestant gets to decide everything personally. The
meaning of Scripture, the requirements for Salvation, you
all are your own pope.
False. If you are at all interested in learning about why the Reformation happened, this is a good link: http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2010/04/historical-roots-of-reformation-and.html. After you get done with that, we can continue to discuss, but your desperate comments are mere efforts to strike out at someone who doesn't see things as you do. I'm interested in dialog, not fighting.
One body of Christ is one church, an organism, not an organization.
He didn't *found* a church, He is building His church, one believer at a time.
You can bring up the Orthodox who also split from Roman Catholicism but not into as many fractures as Protestantism. Protestantism is divided by the thousands!!
It doesn't matter if it's TWO, if it's divided, it's divided. Therefore, Catholics cannot condemn Protestantism for that which Catholicism does itself, without engaging in rank hypocrisy.
It's only self-deception to say that Catholicism is unified because it's just not AS divided as Catholics like to claim Protestantism is.
The requirement for salvation is faith in Jesus, period, and it's not our decision, it's what God has clearly told us in Scripture.
We're simply passing on the message.