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(Fraud is fraud is fraud is fraud.)

Do you dispute the accuracy of these claims that Forgione faked it?

FROM INTERNET RESEARCH:

Italian saint Padre Pio reportedly used carbolic acid on his hands, feet and sides to “self-inflict” the wounds Christ endured during the crucifixion, according to a book by professor Sergio Luzzatto.

In his award-winning account dubbed Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age, the historian describes correspondence between Padre Pio and his pharmacist that suggest the saint used acid to mimic stigmata wounds, according to The Sun.

Padre Pio is a popular saint among Italians, and a survey conducted around 2007 revealed “more people prayed to him than to Jesus or the Virgin Mary,” according to The Telegraph. In his book, Luzzatto suggests the Vatican succumbed to public pressure to canonize the popular priest.

In an earlier book, The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19th Century Italy, Luzzatto examined the same documents found the Vatican archive, but his claims were dismissed in 2007 by the Catholic Anti-Defamation League, according to The Telegragh.

Born Francesco Forgione, Padre Pio was canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002, but not before two previous popes had debated the validity of Padre Pio’s wounds, The Montreal Gazette reported.

Lol! “Five year olds, Dude”. Paging Bill Donahue !!!

Slaves work harder when they think they are free men.

“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All great men are bad men.” Acton said that. Usually when it is quoted the third sentence is omitted.

Your remarks about Calvinism are shallow and mean spirited.

Obviously, you have never read The Westminter Confession, the Heidelberg Confession, or The Canons of Dort.

Why don't you educate yourself better before presenting yourself as knowledgeable about The Reformed Faith?

Dear Vladimir:

The difficulty I have with your postings is simple: You use circular reasoning, which is a mark of insincerity and shallowness.

For example: You lead with you conclusion: "Calvin is a heretic".

You then proceed to use this conclusion as the basis of everything that follows; but you never show us exactly:

WHAT IS THE HERESY?

Calvin is a heretic; Ergo: Calvinism is heretical. Ergo: Calvin is a heretic. (This is circular nonsense).

Please show us the heresy! This is what I mean by not debating openly the content of the "Institutes of the Christian Religion" by John Calvin.

What, exactly, makes you conclude that "Calvin is a heretic"?

Which doctrines that John Calvin clarified are you concluding are "heretical"? And by what qualifications do you come to this understanding?

This is what an educated scholar must do, and you avoid doing it.

Instead you attack the man John Calvin with rumors and slanderous accusations, and think you have done a good job of analysis.

If you can't show us the "heretical doctrines" and debate them openly, then you are not what you represent yourself to be: An informed historian.

Please reply, when you find the time. We "Calvinists" await.

Has it never occurred to you that Robert Dabney was a fool?

He was a slave owner.

Has it never occurred to you that he may be the single worst Presbyterian theologian of the 19th Century?

How could he not have looked into the future and seen that Slavery was a doomed institution?

Could the Civil War have been avoided?

Of course! Presbyterian ministers like Robert Dabney played directly into the hands of the Northern Abolitionists by not lookng into the future and renouncing slavery.

Can you imagine how more Christ-like it would have been if Dabney had had the spiritual courage to stand up in his Sunday pulpit and preached a vision of the gradual elimination of the peculiar institution?

Instead, what did he do? He defended slavery with the power of his Presbyterian authority. And we know what happened next.

He encouraged the Southern hot-heads and by his wretched preaching brought down upon the Confederacy the destruction of the Northern Armies.

No, there is not much to learn from Robert Dabney except how not to allow one's own economic circumstances to color your theology.

Robert Dabney was a slave owner and a terrible fool.

Your post #261 is incoherent.

You are not a serious contender of the Faith.

It is obvious that you have not read "The Institutes of the Christian Religion" by John Calvin.

You make slanderous accusations (rumors) without documentary evidence.

Read the "Institutes" and debate like an educated scholar.

The best that the adversaries of Calvinism can do is attack John Calvin, the man.

Because you cannot attack the message, you attack the messenger.

This is the oldest and most transparent trick of Satan (The Adversary).

Let's summarize your accusations:

1) John Calvin had Servetus executed.

2) John Calvin was sodomized.

Therefore: John Calvin is a sinner. Everything he wrote, taught, and did is the work of a sinner.

But of course you know that Saint Paul had Saint Stephen executed.

Do you therefore assert that everything Saint Paul wrote, taught, and did is the work of a sinner?

Why do you not contest the doctrines of Calvinism instead of misdirecting our attention to John Calvin, the man?

Answer: Because you cannot contest the doctrines of Calvinism.

You believe that by attacking John Calvin, the man, you are being clever.

You are not being clever. You are being transparent and foolish.

Repent!

There are two types of sodomy.

The first is "carnal sodomy" which, of course, is a sin. All sins can be forgiven, when they are confessed and the grace of the Holy Spirit of Christ Arisen acquits the sinner.

The second is "spiritual sodomy" which is the perpetual intellectual rape of the Body of Christ.

This enormous sin is the working of Satan's deceit in the minds of his slaves, the disobedient sons of perdition, the slandering of Christ's chosen, the worshiping of the Beast.

In the French vernacular, there is a slang term for "sodomy". It is named after De Molina, the Roman Catholic architect of the teachings of spiritual sodomy.

Beware the greater sin of the perpetual intellectual rape of the Body of Christ.

Beware De Molina.

Thank you for the ping. Merry Christmas, Doctor.

We are always in the "End Times."

Post-Millennialists (traditional Calvinist perspective) defines "End Times" as a progressively occurring event. Pre-Millennialists (dispensationalism) defines "End Times" as a definitive event.

Only Christ knows the "definitive" moment (coming like a thief in the night). To attempt to apprehend the definite moment of "End Times" as Christ apprehends it as God-man is the error that is taught by dispensationalists, and traditionally avoided by Calvinists.

I hope this clarifies the issue.

Are you saying that it was a "sin" for the secular authorities of Geneva to execute Servetus?

Not to ruin the party, but what the heck happened in 1986? If Reagan was such a "Majority builder"...how come he didn't rally the troops so the GOP could maintain its "majority" in the Senate elections of 1986?

I know the gipper was great.

But nobody ever talks about his inability to retain the GOP majority in the Senate in 1986.

How come this is overlooked?

This is an Anti-Protestant screed.

Read carefully the snotty tone in which Protestants are portrayed in this article....

"Protestant Propaganda..." as if the claims of the protestants of the day were no more valid than the ramblings of petty pamphleteers....

Whenever somebody tries to rehabilitate The Inquisition, I begin to wonder what comes next....

"Who was saved at the Cross?"

The Elect, known to God before the foundation of the world.

What is the identity of "The Elect?"

The Invisible Church, known to God before the foundation of the world.

Who is among the Invisible Church?

God only knows.

Excellent post, as usual.

Proud to be a Calvinian Sectarian.

Yes, God creates viruses.

And bacteria, cancer, Multiple Scelorsis, Alzheimer's, and polio.

And God created John Kerry, too.

The one thing that concerns me about Mr. Gibson and his "traditional Catholicism" is that, I think, he is an adherent of the Tridentine Counter-reformational policies of the Council of Trent.

This, clearly, is a position that is anti-Calvinian. But, we can join that battle if it emerges, later.

Perhaps Peggy Noonan is mis-informed.

Sufficient unto today is the good work Gibson has already done by bringing the story of God's love for sinners to the silver screen.

Charlie Carner is one of the great guys in Hollywood, I have been told.

He is a stand-up tough guy with a deep moral dimension.

I have corresponded with people who know him. If you read many of the other threads on Free Republic over the weekend, "karnage" explains how the project was generated (Paulist Productions and Tom Fontana) and what his perspective is.

Please take the time to review these other threads, and watch the film tonight on ABC.

"karnage" is supposed to be a terrific advocate of God's love. He works in the most difficult industry on earth, and he keeps his integrity.

Charlie Carner is one of the great, strong, witnesses of our Faith, and we should commend him, and support him.