We have had threads that discussed the Deity of Jesus Christ. It gets pretty easy to figure out what religious tradition someone follows based solely on their expressed beliefs on this subject and those who deny Christ's deity are almost always some kind of cult without them even having to name it. My point was that, whether someone goes to a Southern Baptist church or Methodist or Lutheran or a nondenominational Evangelical church, there IS unity on these major doctrines of Christianity unless an individual church has gone apostate. And, like I said, if you genuinely wonder what a person believes on a tenet of the faith, you can just ask. Knowing their denomination is superfluous. You ought to cease making such an issue over it as it comes across as demanding, unduly nosy AND petty.
Does it bother you to have someone in your alliance who teaches that abortion is not murder, that there is no soul created until the baby takes a breath outside the mother's womb. Therefore there is no scriptural prohibition against abortion.
For some strange reason, it seems like Roman Catholics think they ONLY qualify as children of God and brothers and sisters with the Apostles and prophets in Christ. You aren't. And Mary is ALSO our sister in Christ, not our mother. We don't have to have the Apostles with us right now to know what they believed and taught because we have the sacred Scripture they wrote under the leading and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As long as we follow what Scripture says, we will be walking in truth. I think the Roman Catholic church has much to explain about why they stopped teaching what Scripture does and why they have changed many of those doctrines that were once delivered unto the saints.
You keep reverting back to this defense that individuals have total independence and a right to make the Scriptures say whatever they want them to say, but that is neither what sola Scriptura means nor is it what genuine believers think or do. God's word isn't written in some secret code - the Gnostics believed that - but is clear and reveals the truths God wants us to know. Words in context mean what they say. The "deeper" things of Scripture are illuminated by the Holy Spirit with each believer and truth is absolute not relative. If the early leaders of the Christian faith used the Scriptures to combat error and heresy and advised their followers to NOT accept anything they taught if they could not find it in Scripture, then that sure sounds to me like they trusted in the authority and sufficiency of the Bible.
In that same way, those who follow cults and false religions can be disputed by that SAME sacred Scripture. It is our rule of faith and every assembly/church who remains faithful to it will continue to teach the truth - the UNCHANGABLE truth.
Does it bother you to have someone in your alliance who teaches that abortion is not murder, that there is no soul created until the baby takes a breath outside the mother's womb. Therefore there is no scriptural prohibition against abortion.
I don't know anyone in my "alliance" who teaches abortion is acceptable. I have and will continue to support and defend the right to life for ALL innocent human life. And you are wrong to say there is no "Scriptural prohibition against abortion". There are PLENTY of supporting Scriptures that teach abortion is wrong and is an offense against God. Just because the word "abortion" isn't in Scripture doesn't mean it cannot be condemned BY Scripture. Do you need me to show you where?
THANK YOU! for providing such a stellar example of WHY none of us play the *What church do you go to game.* That is EXACTLY the sort of thing I referred to in my recent previous post.
Oh, you mean Nancy Pelosi / Ted Kennedy / John Kerry / Joe Biden?
No more than it bothers the RCs here that there are practicing RCs, whom I have as relatives, that actively practice abortion. The standard RC rationalization is to deploy the No True Scotsman fallacy, "they are not true Catholics," but no such defense works for us poor Prots when we get an outlier because the double standard is deemed acceptable. Oh well.
But really this is projection of a Roman theory of authority onto a belief system that explicitly embraces a decentralized power structure. Of course that's always going to fail the Roman test. This is why I've always been somewhat bemused by the persistent effort at creating denominational pigeon-holes.
It's sort of like asking the Patriots coach why he isn't using the Tampa Bay playback, and then recoiling in shock when the coach says he's not the Tampa Bay coach and wouldn't want to be anyway.
If you have a clearly defined notion of church defined for you by the church you've already chosen, its begging the question to impose that model on other models. They aren't going to match. So what? The premise that the RC model is the right model is the very premise that can't be proven simply by assuming its true and then trying to impose it on everyone else. That's not a sound form of argument.
But I understand the attraction to making such an assumption. It becomes unnecessary to find any sort of authority that might arbitrate between the two models. Logically, how can you compare two things objectively without having a meta-standard that sits above them both? True, to use such a standard one has no choice but to be honest about the difficulty of the interpretive process. Like figuring out what the Constitution really says. But how do you get out of it? You don't. It is what it is. Happily, the elect are not on their own, but have the promise of God's help. But who knows what the rest will come up with.
As for references for Scripture, the Masoretic point system isn't inspired either, but the translations uniformly rely on it. There is actually a place in Isaiah where the KJV handles a Messianic prophecy better because apparently they disregard the pointing. My point is (pun intended) there's nothing wrong with using advances in textual apparatus if the teacher and the student can distinguish between tools and text. I know of no one who regards the versification as inspired. Certainly no one here. And it is nearly universal that such aids are used in any serious inquiry to make all parties accountable for fair use of the text. I don't see the problem with using such aids. They contribute to the general peace and comity. Certainly on law review I would not be able to cite statutory data without providing location. Just sayin ...
Peace,
SR
Does it bother you that so many of your fellow Catholics support abortion and homosexual marriage?
That works both ways. Catholics cannot hurl that charge without it blowing up in their faces.....
There are some who say that...But do you know why that is??? It's because that's what God says...
Gen_2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Obviously then a soul has no life until the breath of life is breathed into it...Looks pretty simple to understand to me...
Any one above 5 years old knows a baby can not live inside his/her mother on its own...It gets its life from the mother...Regardless the baby is still alive during that period...
Any one who knows any scripture at all know that we humans have a body, a soul and a spirit...We are a trinity just as God is a Trinity...
Gen_1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
1Th_5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore there is no scriptural prohibition against abortion.
How could you possibly make a connection between those statements you made??? The baby in the womb is alive (howbeit not on its own)...There is plenty of scriptural warrant for not taking the life of a baby in the womb...
But that's what happens when your religion is taught and led by philosophers instead of the words of God in the scriptures...