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To: boatbums
I believe the TRUTH that the "gates of hell" have not, nor will they ever, prevail against those who are members of Christ's body. Gates, BTW, don't DO anything but keep out or keep in something. These gates cannot come and drag someone out of Christ's body and they cannot prevent one who they are keeping in from being taken out to believe the Gospel and become part of Christ's body. The Catholic church, on the other hand, is not that body of Christ - it can't be because not everyone within it is saved, whereas, those who are IN Christ ARE saved and will never be cast away back into hell. Catholic theology has misapplied Jesus' words to claim they are THE church that the gates of hell cannot prevail against even though history has shown time and again that they HAVE done wrong, taught error, been led by depraved men and entertained hell within the very walls of the Vatican. Once you understand Jesus' point, you will see this is the right way to apply that passage. There was no need to "re-form" the true church because the true church (God's spiritual building) is going to ALWAYS be the buttress and support of the truth - no matter what organizational names they may use. The truth will NEVER be lost, forgotten or revised.

It seems to me that your entire ecclesiological theology is complete focused on being antiCatholic. It is what defines your brand of Christianity. You have no physical, real, genuine, church to proffer as a replacement for the Catholic Church. At least the Fundamental Baptists (usually) proffer up themselves as a real physical example of the holy catholic apostolic church with that succession from the First Century until now; or at least they used to teach that; of course Westboro Baptist Church is one of those churches and all fundamental New Testament churches are local and independent so all they could choose to do is not fellowship with it, barring some heresy which would make it not really what it said it was.

Is that what you believe or are you really one of those universal invisible body types who teach a church no one can see, with a history no one can read, with all things defined by the antiCatholic bogeyman ?

421 posted on 06/09/2014 7:08:04 PM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began)
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To: af_vet_1981
It seems to me that your entire ecclesiological theology is complete focused on being antiCatholic. It is what defines your brand of Christianity. You have no physical, real, genuine, church to proffer as a replacement for the Catholic Church. At least the Fundamental Baptists (usually) proffer up themselves as a real physical example of the holy catholic apostolic church with that succession from the First Century until now; or at least they used to teach that; of course Westboro Baptist Church is one of those churches and all fundamental New Testament churches are local and independent so all they could choose to do is not fellowship with it, barring some heresy which would make it not really what it said it was. Is that what you believe or are you really one of those universal invisible body types who teach a church no one can see, with a history no one can read, with all things defined by the antiCatholic bogeyman ?

It seems you are having a problem separating a discussion disputing claims Catholics are making on this thread with others stating why they are in disagreement with that conclusion. I didn't post this thread. A Roman Catholic did and most likely with the intent to provoke a reaction from those being attacked and which WAS an anti-Protestant article. You can't turn around and blame those who defend against such claims as doing so out of an anti-Catholic bias. Scold the one who keeps putting these discord causing threads - not those who won't sit by and not have a reply.

I've already explained plenty of times that there ARE real, physical, genuine churches (your Catechism calls them "eccesliastical communities") that CONTAIN those that are members of Christ's body. They may go by different names but what unites them is the rule of the Christian faith as it has always, everywhere and by all been believed and as spelled out in sacred Scripture. Everything that Jesus and His Apostles/disciples taught from the start is found within the Bible. God left nothing out pertaining to truth and Godliness. What binds believers together is the unity of the Spirit, the bond of love and saving faith in Jesus Christ. This body HAS been visible throughout ALL time and it is incredibly short-sighted, not to mention elitist, to assert it is ONLY found in one assembly that was started in Rome. There actually were MANY churches in Rome - it's a big city. The churches in Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Colossi, Constantinople and others were no more or less visible congregations of Christians. What bound them together was the gospel of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Maybe if you could think outside that box for once, you could start to grasp what MAKES a church a part of the Body of Christ. There's no need for a "replacement" church since the REAL body of Christ has always existed and spans nations, peoples, languages and time - all become one IN Christ Jesus.

439 posted on 06/10/2014 12:00:14 AM PDT by boatbums (Proud member of the Free Republic Bible Thumpers Brigade.)
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