Hi, Mike.
I hope your move was without incident.
I often disappear for periods of time, it’s the nature of my job.
could you provide reference for this please? not that i doubt you but I would like to see the context in which this is written.
http://www.mcauley.acu.edu.au/~yuri/ecc/mod2.html The Bride of Christ cannot be defiled. She is inviolate and chaste... Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adultress is separated from the promises of the Church; nor will he that forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is an alien, a worldling, and an enemy. He cannot have God for his Father who does not have the Church for his Mother... Does anyone believe that in the Church this unity which proceeds from the divine stability and which is welded together after the heavenly patterns can be divided, and can be separated by the parting asunder of opposing wills? Whoever holds not fast to this unity holds not to the law of God; neither does he keep faith with the Father and the Son, nor does he have life and salvation. (St. Cyprian of Carthage, The Unity of the Catholic Church, [AD 251/256], in: Jurgens, 1970: 221).
that is all fine and dandy but there is a crucial difference between someone who is not againgst us and someone who is. most of the heresies were against orthodoxy not only in attitude but promoting an entirely different belief.
In the Christian world there are essentially only 2 different paths.
One path says you must do something to get yourself saved. By some act of yours you can guarantee your eternal life. There are a lot of divisions on this path because the work required varies. Some examples of works.
You must accept Jesus.
You must be baptized by sprinkling.
You must be baptized by dunking.
You must speak in tongues.
You must be a member of a particular denomination.
You must confess your sins.
You must worship on ______day.
You must not eat certain foods.
You must be circumcised.
You must ___________.
The other path is the one I believe in.
You can do nothing to guarantee your salvation.
God does all the work. Salvation is a rescue. The word is a tool that God uses to save those that He intends to save.
Anyone that goes into the world and spreads the gospel can bring salvation to someone else. It is the word and Gods action on the word that saves.
I believe that if someone was washed ashore on a deserted Island, and a page of the bible washed up with them. God could use this small piece of scripture to save them.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Jesus was talking about those people that did not understand the gospel, but they were still spreading the word. God can use their preaching to save.
I believe that more are saved by a faithful witness, but God can use any bible believing messenger to save.
yes peter was married, it doesn't mean anything, celibacy is a discipline and not a formal doctrine.
I think I have covered this well enough, the bible says it is a doctrine to be married.
as to who is misunderstanding matt 16:18 i disagree with that as well. it makes perfect sense to me, not only in that such a thing promotes unity but that even the churches that disagree with catholicism still have the same system set up within their local little fellowship. a pastor and elders.
Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
When looking at this verse Catholics think that Christ is saying Peter is the Rock that the church is being built upon. That would not follow through with the rest of the bible.
A building only has one cornerstone. This would make Peter the cornerstone.
1 Peter 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Jesus is the cornerstone.
Jesus gave Simon the name Peter to use him as ‘a type’ for believer.
John 1:42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
All believers are stones.
1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
It is the believers that make up the eternal church of God, a spiritual house. The gates of hell cannot prevail against this church.
Ephesians 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Ephesians 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Ephesians 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Ephesians 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
The bible says that the temple, (the earthly church), WILL be overcome by Satan. The Church, (the heavenly Church) Jesus is talking about in Matthew 16:18 will not be overcome by Satan.
2 Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
i just do not have a problem with this. it was in the 3rd and 4th centuries that the major persecutions ended and allowed the church to be more artistic. but again look at the church today in protestantism,,,, suits and ties, crystal cathedrals, mega churches, millenium cruises.... this too is a much different church than the apostles...
The parading of wealth in the church is not limited to Catholics.
What better sign that it is not a church founded with God than this love of wealth.
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Churches shouldn’t need security systems, they have God.
The Catholic church has done a very good job in giving aid to those in need. They have evangelized the world. They have done a lot of good and charitable works. But they have withheld some for their own glory.
Acts 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
The money churches gather should be used to spread the gospel, and to care for the congregation. I know of nothing, in the bible, that says the churches are to have such elaborate ceremonies. In the OT there was some pomp but this was done as a ‘picture’ of the glory of God.
except that the jews understood gehenna to mean a 12 month period of time after death of purgation. if it was invented it was invented before the christians.
The Jews did not understand that the messiah was to die to purge us of our sins. They cannot accept that the blood of Jesus washes us clean.
i have to point out that again it is our reliance on the teaching authority of the church that has kept us together for 2 thousand years. if there were no infallibility there would be no bible, and without both there would have been no defense against the schismatics you mentioned. even today we base our knowledge of cults upon what was offerd through tradition.
We have the bible because God protected it, not the church. I trust God.
The Catholic Church does not follow the gospel in many ways as I have mentioned.
One of the basis of a cult is that the leader is infallible. The leader has special information from God. The leader is a person
In the true church the Leader is Christ.
The true gospel is established and held by the bible and the bible alone, nothing more and nothing less.
2,000 years.
We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with Government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men.
—Charles H. Spurgeon
http://www.reformedreader.org/history/list.htm If you are still interested in conversation after all the work of your move I’ll pay attention.
John
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