You said:
“So you believe that Catholics themselves believe that protestants are not Christians? This is not true.”
You also said:
“Because we believe you are Christians and that there is just one Church, under Jesus Christ.”
I’m not sure what you or regular Catholics believe, but those statements are not in line with the official position of Rome, historically or today. The most recent iteration of your catechism, compiled under the direction of none other than Ratzinger I believe, unequivocally stated that the sacraments, which are in the hand of the pope, are “necessary” for salvation. Since I have not availed myself to the sacraments of the Roman church, and I never will, I can’t be saved under Ratzinger’s formulation, which purports to be official doctrine.
Paragraph 1129 says: “The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.”
That seems clear to me. Am I misreading it?
And if we go back in history to 1302, we find Unam Sanctam, Boniface VIII’s Papal Bull, in which he claimed: “Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to maintain that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her firmly and we confess with simplicity that outside of her there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins...”
“Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”
Has this unbiblical blasphemy and utter falsehood known as Unam Sanctam ever been renounced?
I will never ever subject myself to a Roman Pontiff. I don’t know why any God-fearing man who knows their Bible would do so either. The titles that man heaps upon himself are all I would need to run. For instance, Scripture declares that the Lord, and the Lord alone, is holy.
Revelation 15:4 “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.”
“I’m not sure what you or regular Catholics believe, but those statements are not in line with the official position of Rome, historically or today.”
This is, once again. False. Lumen Gentium. It’s already been posted in the thread and I suggest you look it up if you want to know what the Catholic church teaches.
You are free to state whatever you believe, but you are not free to say what is not true about what the Catholic church teaches.
Official church teaching and ex cathedra statements by previous popes does support that.
Much documentation was posted in post 850 this thread and daniel1212 has more.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3042902/posts?page=850#850
They can't renounce that. It was one of those "infallible" declarations. Seriously! Look it up.
I think they now claim to have "reformulated positively" that statement (i.e., gave them a little more wiggle room).
From http://peacebyjesuscom.blogspot.com/2011/09/contradictions-in-roman-catholicism.html:
• RCC: 846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?[335] Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:…Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.[336]
Any person who "knows" that the Roman Catholic Church is the only way to be saved and rejects it, can't be saved. Of course, those who don't believe the assertions the RCC makes for herself CAN be saved by believing in and following Jesus Christ as Savior without belonging to and remaining in the RCC. Got it? ;o)