What is the one true Church?

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Brakelite

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The Bible can lead you to Christ and "the Way" to salvation....but understanding the Spirit of Christ is a separate study, an important study. Because the Bible is an extremely abbreviated account of what went on with little or no background information, being read by people in modern times that have little knowledge of the time period it was written. This is one of the reasons for so many false beliefs.

The individual understanding that come from the Holy Spirit should be in tune with the Christian scriptures as understood through the Spirit of Christ. Individual understands that is said to come from the Holy Spirit is probably one of the reasons for the thousands of denominations we have today that say they got their inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
There is no doubt that many have been led astray by false teachers, claiming to have the "spirit", but I think one other factor may be involved in that paradigm, those same leaders will also be encouraging their followers to trust in his wisdom and guidance rather than what is written. He would not be encouraging his church to read the scriptures for themselves and be trusting in the holy Spirit for guidance. Hence why the RCC has strayed from biblical truth in so many areas... Trusting in fallen man (the magisterium) and discouraging the reading of scripture in order to discover truth. Today, sure, they say Catholics should read scripture, but with the proviso that what they read ought always be with the understanding of the Catechism and the teaching of the clergy to be paramount. So their reading is for the purpose of becoming holy and sanctified, not to discover doctrine. The doctrine, the church decides, not individual biblical study.
 

Ziggy

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I believe the character of this Anti-Christ will be very similar to Pharaoh King of Egypt in the book of Exodus.
Exo 5:2
And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

There are many characters in the Bible that are truly ungodly.
It is, imo, these very characteristics or fruits which we will know who the anti-christ is.
Even though there are many anti christs already in the world.

But brother, we will not be decieved because we know the Lord and He knows us.
And if we were to warn the world of anti-christ, we need look no further than to turn on the television and observe.

Thank you for sharing.
Hugs
 
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Grailhunter

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I agree with this. I think it s misunderstanding that you thought I was saying that others considered themselves enemies, they were as far as I know quite willing to welcome Rome and the Pope as a brother, but the time from Rome was to use force and secular power to bring about submission. This can be seen in the history of Britain, where Catholic princesses were married off to certain kings to were them informed to use military power to conquer the Celtic church, for example at Bangor in Wales.
And whether certain elders and bishops in places other than Rome had particular beliefsi am not so sure. The Assyrian church of the East had regular chicks and meetings and were in constant contact with one another, having a common scripture base.
To understand the Early Roman Catholic Church (325 AD and on) you have to understand the Roman way of thinking and doing things and then you have to understand who is running the Church and who isn't. There were no Jewish-Christians at the Ecumenical Councils that I know of......Its all Gentiles.....Pagans that had converted to Christianity....that the Bible calls Gentiles. They come from different Christian churches from different regions. They converted to the beliefs of Christianity but retained their own customs and holidays. They bring all that into Christianity and that is fine. Eventually they will Christianize their customs and holidays. Emperor Constantine insisted on combining the Christian and Pagan holidays so as not to constantly shutdown the Empire for individual holidays.

So now the Gentile Christians are running the Roman Catholics Church. Emperor Constantine is commanding the Christians to come to agreements on standardizing the Christian beliefs. Notice I say commanding.....Roman Emperors are not going to say pretty please....it is a command. Now the rulings of the Ecumenical Councils are enforced by the Roman Empire. The Christians in the Middle East and North Africa and Europe are protected by the Roman Empire....no Ninja Bishops.

The Roman Empire and the associated Empires after that are the most powerful force in the world and they use it. They are very self centered and self edifying and they will win a battle or a war no matter what it takes. If they have to move one mountain next to another to get to you, they will....If they have to siege a city and wait until they all eat each other, they will. It is important to them that no one believes they could lose....they believe this reduces the challenges to their supremacy. They believe they are more intelligent than anybody else so they believe they are right.

The Roman Catholic Church has a strong influence on the Emperors so they wield this power. The fear of what the Roman Empire can do and how it can do it marches along with the Churches rulings. The Churches power structure is out of the city of Rome and eventually most of the Catholic leaders are Roman Christians.

But the Roman Way is not exactly in tune with the Christian Spirit and they are pretty ham-handed at making religious doctrines so some really silly stuff comes out of Ecumenical Councils. The Romans are very political and politics breeds corruption so it can be said that most of the corruption in the Church and cruel atrocities were due to adopting this Roman way of thinking. This Roman way continues on through history from Empires to Kingdoms and so on until around the 19th century. And the American and French Revolutions occurs in the 1700's and Vatican II occurs in 1962.
 
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Grailhunter

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There is no doubt that many have been led astray by false teachers, claiming to have the "spirit", but I think one other factor may be involved in that paradigm, those same leaders will also be encouraging their followers to trust in his wisdom and guidance rather than what is written. He would not be encouraging his church to read the scriptures for themselves and be trusting in the holy Spirit for guidance. Hence why the RCC has strayed from biblical truth in so many areas... Trusting in fallen man (the magisterium) and discouraging the reading of scripture in order to discover truth. Today, sure, they say Catholics should read scripture, but with the proviso that what they read ought always be with the understanding of the Catechism and the teaching of the clergy to be paramount. So their reading is for the purpose of becoming holy and sanctified, not to discover doctrine. The doctrine, the church decides, not individual biblical study.
The reading of scriptures is part of knowing the truth but they can cause false beliefs if not read in context of when and under what circumstances they were written. I have said it so many times....you cannot understand the scriptures if you read them like the local Sunday paper....and additionally if you do not understand the Spirit of Christ you can also come away with some misunderstandings. The Christian Spirit....the Christian heart.

How many preachers understand the time period and circumstances that the New Testament was written in. I am 65 years old and I have nearly spent my whole life attending one formal schooling after another in 5 countries and I am still learning new things. There are some short cuts but you have to have a basic understanding of the time period and the history of Christianity and even though the Protestants are not going to like it.....most of that history is with the Catholic Church.....because it is the oldest Church on earth.

Now the Protestants are all good with communing with the Holy Spirit but that is all after the fact. Divine events occurred all through Catholic history and are still occurring. But the Protestants disregard that....so in effect they take a axe to their understand of Christianity. Bible alone pretty much makes a book a God.....it is not. The New Testament is an abbreviated account of the first 65 years of Christian history....God did not retire after the biblical period. No one tied Him up and gagged Him and forbid Him to speak again. He did speak again and through different people ....God was very active with humanity after the biblical period.

Now the study of this has been a point of interest of mine. These divine events....who do they happen to?....well usually it was not with the Pope and you know that has to make him furious. For example; The Mother of Christ, her name was changed to Mary because the Christians did not like what the name Miriam means......bitter-rebellious. They did not think that was a suitable name for the Mother of Christ. Most of the time when she appears it is not with religious leaders and she does not usually appear in churches. She appears to regular Christians....children and just people....sometimes thousands at a time over several days. She has been doing this for centuries and what exactly she is....I do not know....an emissary of God? I am guessing. She appears in fields....in the wilderness....on the battlefront....like she did with me. So I am among the tens of thousands of witnesses to her.

But she is not the only divine event through Christian history. Are all of them true? Probably not. Are all of them false? Absolutely not. But my point here is that to understand Christianity you have to understand the time period that the Bible was written in and the languages it was written and have knowledge of the continuance of Christianity through history. And the truth is, Bible only is only effective if you understand the context that they were written in.

The Bible only approach to Christian beliefs in the 1500's was the way to go because there was just so much wrong with the Catholic Church so it needed to happen, but they were using faulty Bibles so they could only understand what they read. There was a lot they did not know in the 1500's but now we know more about the time periods and the history and the languages. So now it is time to look at it again..... everything.... And it is time for this feud between the Protestants and Catholics to end.
 
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Taken

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Straw man fallacy. There is no "communication with the dead". That has nothing to do with the intercession of the saints. Common sense tells me you are a tricky polemicist.

1. Since the Bible says that contacting in the dead is the abominable sin of necromancy (Deut. 18:10–12), the intercession of the saints seems blasphemous to me.

This objection to the intercession of saints is an honorable and sincere one. It expresses a disposition that all Christians must have—refusing to do anything that takes away from the adoration that belongs only to God. When this objection is raised, you should affirm that if praying to saints takes away from one’s devotion to God, then it is a practice that should end at once. Expressing this to an evangelical Christian will help alleviate his presumption that you may not be as interested in serving God with single-heartedness.
When the Bible mentions necromancy, it condemns the practice of conjuring up the dead, as Saul did through the witch of Endor in 1 Samuel 28.
  • When Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah during the Transfiguration, this was not necromancy.
  • When David asked the angels of heaven to bless the Lord, this also was not offensive to God (Ps.103:20–21).
Likewise, when a Catholic asks St. Peter to pray for him, he is not conjuring up a spirit from Hades in order to acquire secret knowledge. After all, those in heaven are “like the angels,” and are more alive than we are, since the Lord is “not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:36–38). So, if it does not offend God when a Catholic says “St. Peter, pray for me,” we should all rejoice that God has given us the gift of Peter’s prayers.

2. But if you pray to the saints you are worshiping them.

Whenever discussing a doctrine, it is always effective to define your terms. “Pray” is an Old English word that means simply “to ask.” In Protestant theology, the word has become synonymous with worship, but that is not the original use of the term.

Any time a Catholic utters a petition to a saint, it is taken for granted that it is a request for that saint to pray to God for them. For example, the “Hail Mary” contains the request, “pray for us sinners.” If you ask a person to pray for you, it proves that you do not think that he is God. What needs to be stressed here is that none of our prayers terminate in the saints, as if they had the power in and of themselves to answer prayers. THEY DON'T.
read more here


An Earthly Person IS A LIVING Person, when his body’s BLOOD is ALIVE, and his SOUL is IN his BODY.

An Earthly “LIVING” Person, “COMMUNICATES” with “other” LIVING Persons... VIA: their senses;
Hearing, Seeing, Speaking, Smelling, Tasting, Touch.

An Earthly “DEAD” man, IS “BODILY” DEAD.
His “LIVING soul”, departs his body.
His “DEAD body”, hears, sees, speak, smells, tastes, feels, knows, NOTHING.
His “DEAD body” stinks, rots, decays, returns to dust of the Earth.

Departed “LIVING souls”, CAN continue COMMUNICATING, with “other” DEPARTED “LIVING souls”....(WHEN they ARE TOGETHER)...
Departed Living souls....IN HEAVEN, can communicate one with another.
Departed Living souls....IN HELL, can communicate one with another.

(BEFORE...Departed Living Souls, WERE ALLOWED, to RISE UP TO HEAVEN, (which is another LESSON on WHY), ALL Departed “Living Souls” WENT TO HELL, but were SEPARATED by a Great Gulf.
The SEPARATION ALLOWED:
Departed Living souls, TO: See, Speak, Hear, COMMUNICATION ACROSS the GULF....BUT....smelling, tasting, touching SENSES, were prohibited.)

*** POINT BEING***

Departed LIVING SOULS....gathered together IN THE SAME “PLACE” CAN continue to FULLY COMMUNICATE one Departed Living soul to another Departed Living soul


** WHEN a Living Person, HAS BECOME MADE....CONVERTED “IN” Christ:
THAT INDIVIDUAL person’s SPIRIT
has become “MADE” “born again”.

** THAT INDIVIDUAL person’s SPIRIT....CAN thereafter, DIRECTLY Communicate....VIA, his SPIRIT TO: the Lord God, WHO IS SPIRIT.

** MY DISAGREEMENT WITH YOU, YOUR DOCTRINE, YOUR ACTS...
Is you propose, and advocate, that Living souls IN a Living Body, CAN COMMUNICATE....
With Departed Living souls, Departed from their DEAD Body’s....
Or
With Departed Made Born Again Spirits, Departed from their DEAD Body’s.

** THAT IS FALSE.
** Human Persons (Living BODY, with Living soul IN their Body) Communicate WITH (Living BODY’s, with Living souls IN their Body).

** DEAD Human BODY’S DO NOT Communicate, with DEAD Human Body’s.

** DEPARTED Living Souls (Gathered IN the SAME PLACE, heaven or hell), can fully communicate one with the other.

** Born Again SPIRITS, (IN an ALIVE BODY, or DEPARTED OUT of a DEAD BODY, can COMMUNICATE with the Lord God.)

** ANY, Living Human BODY ON EARTH, CAN COMMUNICATE “WITH” a “Created SPIRIT”....(called angels, heavenly OR fallen)...
*
WHEN...an angel APPEARS in the LIKENESS..BODILY: AS A HUMAN MAN.
*
WITHOUT the HUMANS’ KNOWLEDGE...IT IS an angel.

** NO where DOES SCRIPTURE TEACH or ADVOCATE....
For Living Human men TO Attempt, Try, CAN, Communicate, WITH
DEPARTED Living souls, or DEPARTED born again spirits of men.

*** POINT BEING ***

** A LIVING PERSON’s COMMUNICATION, WITH ANOTHER HUMAN MAN, IS LIMITED....that the PERSON’S “BODY” be ALIVE.

You are advocating...A soul in a Living man can communicate with Departed souls (of Bodily DEAD men)....or A born again Spirit in a Living man can communicate with Departed born again Spirits (of Bodily DEAD men)...
NEVER Advocated to presume that is Possible or WOULD BE Pleasing to God to Advocate or Attempt.

** IF you ARE a LIVING person....NOT Converted “IN” Christ...
YOU HAVE an “INTERCESSORY” to PRAY TO, who WILL Take your Prayer requests TO GOD.......His NAME IS JESUS.

** IF you ARE a LIVING person...
AND ARE Converted “IN” Christ...
YOU REQUIRE “NO INTERCESSORY”. Your PRAYERS IN and OF your “born again spirit”, GO DIRECTLY TO God.


Your advocation, teaching, doing...for a Living man to REPLACE Jesus The ADVOCATE, is a grievous error.
In fact, as you even quoted....it is an Abomination unto God.
 
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Illuminator

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The Roman Catholic Church has a strong influence on the Emperors so they wield this power. The fear of what the Roman Empire can do and how it can do it marches along with the Churches rulings. The Churches power structure is out of the city of Rome and eventually most of the Catholic leaders are Roman Christians.
Several sources show Constantine adopted Arianism long before he was baptized. How is it possible for his beliefs, which was initially Arian, be refuted by a council he attended? Where was all his power then???
But the Roman Way is not exactly in tune with the Christian Spirit and they are pretty ham-handed at making religious doctrines so some really silly stuff comes out of Ecumenical Councils. The Romans are very political and politics breeds corruption so it can be said that most of the corruption in the Church and cruel atrocities were due to adopting this Roman way of thinking. This Roman way continues on through history from Empires to Kingdoms and so on until around the 19th century. And the American and French Revolutions occurs in the 1700's and Vatican II occurs in 1962.
This kind of false history is something I would expect from your average made-in-America bible club.

1. Nicaea I

325
Pope Sylvester I, 314-335
Emperor Constantine, 306-337

Decisions: Condemned Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ (elements of Arianism have reappeared in our own time); defined the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son; fixed the date for Easter; began formulation of Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CORRUPT ROMAN POLITICS".

2. Constantinople I

381
Pope Damasus I, 366-384
Emperor Theodosius, 379-395

Decisions: Recondemned Arianism; condemned Macedonianism, which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit; completed the formulation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

Refuting heresies is what you call "some really silly stuff"
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CORRUPT ROMAN POLITICS".

3. Ephesus

431
Pope Celestine I, 422-432
Emperor Theodosius II, 408-450

Decisions: Condemned Nestorianism, which denied the unity of the divine and human in Christ; defined that Mary is the Mother of God (Theotokos), a doctrine denied by the Nestorians and by most of today’s Protestants; condemned Pelagianism, which held that man could earn his own salvation through his natural powers.

Refuting heresies is what you call "some really silly stuff"
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CORRUPT ROMAN POLITICS".

4. Chalcedon

451
Pope Leo the Great, 440-461
Emperor Marcian, 450-457

Decisions: Condemned Monophysitism (also called Eutychianism), which denied Christ’s human nature.

Refuting heresies is what you call "some really silly stuff"
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CORRUPT ROMAN POLITICS".

5. Constantinople II

553
Pope Vigilius, 537-555
Emperor Justinian I, 527-565

Decisions: Condemned the Three Chapters, writings tainted by Nestorianism and composed by Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyr, and Ibas of Edessa.
Refuting heresies is what you call "some really silly stuff"
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CORRUPT ROMAN POLITICS".

It is unquestionable . . . that the champions of Protestantism – Luther, Calvin, Beza, Knox, Cranmer and Ridley — advocated the right of the civil authorities to punish the ‘crime’ of heresy up to and including death, so you moan and groan about Roman power running the Church by proxy, revisionism at its worst.

You will have to show me what pope in history wielded as much power over the state as the champions of Protestantism did.
Your assessment of church history is unfair and one sided.
 
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Grailhunter

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Several sources show Constantine adopted Arianism long before he was baptized. How is it possible for his beliefs, which was essentially Arian, be refuted by a council he attended? You are trying to fuse Roman politics with Church Authority. Contrary to anti-Catholic myth, they are not the same entities.
Yes, the bishops of the church continued to play the major role in interpreting Scripture and constructing theology based on biblical exegesis. Yet behind the bishops and presbyters during and after the Council of Nicaea stood a series of Christian Roman emperors more than willing to intervene in the church’s affairs and doctrine. When a series of pro-Arian emperors arrived on the scene, Arianism spread like wildfire.

Take the case of Constantine himself. Concerned over the growing rift within the church over Arius’s ideas, Constantine both convened and intervened in the Council of Nicaea. Rowan Williams observes that when Constantine viewed Arius as a schismatic, the emperor penned a letter to Arius “and his supporters which is extraordinary in its venom and abusiveness, dubbing Arius an ‘Ares,’ a god of war, who seeks to create strife and violence.”

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CORRUPT ROMAN POLITICS".
You need to learn a thing or two about corruption in the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church.
We can do a review if you wish.

Refuting heresies is what you call "some really silly stuff"
You said...It is unquestionable . . . that the champions of Protestantism – Luther, Calvin, Beza, Knox, Cranmer and Ridley — advocated the right of the civil authorities to punish the ‘crime’ of heresy with death, so you moan and groan about Roman power running the Church by proxy, revisionism at its worst.
I am not pointing to refuting heresies.
But we can also do a review of the silly stuff that the Ecumenical Councils ruled on if you wish.

You said....You will have to show me what pope in history wielded as much power over the state as the champions of Protestantism did. Your assessment of church history is unfair and one sided.

We can talk of the groups of people that were exterminated, like the Cathars. Opposing a heresy is one thing, wiping them out is another. Then you have the Witch-hunt and inquisitions..

In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the Bull Summis Desideranter, authorizing two Dominican Inquisitors, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, to systemize the procedures for the interrogation of witches. Two years later in 1486, they produced a manual called the Malleus Maleficarum, which is Latin for The Hammer Of Witches. The Church financed and supervised the publishing of the manuals that were ordered and sent out to all Inquisitors. This manual was published with 14 editions between 1486 and 1520, and at least 16 other editions between 1574 and 1669. All editions were printed under the supervision and the authority of the Church and distributed by the Church to the Inquisitors.

Some of the so called truths it preached was; That the belief in such things as witches was so essential a part of the Catholic faith that obstinately to maintain the opposite option was in itself heresy. The Malleus Maleficarum was a product of ancient torture techniques specifically instructing how to torture women. Estimates are as high as 1,800,000 women killed during the inquisitions and witch-hunts
Most inquisitions and witch-hunt tortures and burnings, were witnessed and documented by Church clergy so there are records. The irony of it all is that most or nearly all were Christian women.....the local Church just wanted their money and property.....charging them for their torture and murders.

From an article in Time Life
“In Germany the slaughter reached its climax in the mid 1600s. Whole villages were depopulated at a stroke. According to some accounts, the chief witchcraft prosecutor of Saxony, one Benedict Carpzov, personally signed no fewer than 20,000 death warrants. Many of the court’s documents have been lost, and the full number of judicial murders will never really be known. The best estimate is that, in Germany alone 200,000 people were condemned to death as witches before the witch-hunt hysteria came to an end around 1690. All in all it was a dark, ugly, and shameful experience for western civilization and for Christianity.”

In 2000, John Paul apologized for the sins of Roman Catholics made in the name of their faith, including abuses during the Inquisitions.

The Protestants never had the power or inclination to do this sort of thing.
 
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Illuminator

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So now it is time to look at it again..... everything.... And it is time for this feud between the Protestants and Catholics to end.
I couldn't agree more. Vatican II ended the need for a reformation, but nobody wants to cite it's documents. That takes too much work. And when I post small sections as proof, it falls on deaf ears. Centuries old controversies, which have nothing to do with todays world, are more important. And it is time for this feud between the Protestants and Catholics to end, while you try to put out a fire with gasoline.
 

Taken

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Please explain how sola scriptura is not a doctrine of men, since you base all your doctrine on a man made tradition that was unheard of for 15 centuries.

SCRIPTURE ALONE...is ALL the Knowledge given mankind ( VIA the INSPIRATION of God ) NECESSARY for “A MAN” to become MADE reconciled WITH the Lord God Almighty, ONCE and FOREVER.

SCRIPTURE ALONE...is Valid, Reliable, Trustable ....
FOR: LEARNING ABOUT THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.

Any man of any nation on earth...
TO:
Learn ABOUT God,
Learn ABOUT Christ Jesus,
Learn ABOUT Faith,
Learn ABOUT the consequences of BELIEVING in the Lord God.
Learn ABOUT the consequences of CONFESSING Belief in the Lord God.
Learn ABOUT the consequences of NOT Believing in the Lord God.
Learn ABOUT the consequences of NOT CONFESSION Belief in the LG.
Learn ABOUT HOW TO establish a Relationship WITH the Lord God.
* Verify WHAT a man DOES HEAR, About God, About Christ Jesus.


John 5:
[39] Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

John 10:
[35] If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

Acts 17:
[11] These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Rom 16:
[26] But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

2 Tim 3:
[16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

How Do you conclude that is a MAN-MADE “doctrine”?
 

Webers_Home

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.
2Pet 1:19-21 . . We possess the prophetic message that is altogether
reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark
place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Know this
first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal
interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather
human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.

That passage is commonly utilized to discourage people from trying to get
anything out of the Holy Bible sans Rome's oversight as per CCC 85. But the
language and grammar of Peter's instructions are not talking about that. No;
he's talking about the origin of prophesy rather than how anyone goes
about digesting and/or applying prophesy.

In other words: prophetic sayings didn't arise from human reasoning and a
fertile imagination. No, the prophets got their sayings directly from God.

Anyway; whether the Bible is someone's sole authority or their secondary
authority makes no difference because in the long run it is still an
authority— a valid authority fully recognized as such by the Roman Catholic
Church.

According to the Vatican Council (Sess. III, c. ii) the Scriptures are sacred
and canonical because "having been written by inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
they have God for their author
"

There's also this by Paulus PP VI, from the Vatican, September 18, 1970

"In its pages we recognize His voice, we hear a message of deep significance
for every one of us. Through the spiritual dynamism and prophetic force of
the Bible, the Holy Spirit spreads His light and His warmth over all men, in
whatever historical or sociological situation they find themselves.
"

So then; according to that Vatican Council and to Paulus PP VI; when people
listen to the Bible; they're hearing the voice of God, and also listening to
that which the Holy Spirit utilizes to spread His light and His warmth over all
men.

One of Christ's parables spoke of a farmer sowing seed. The Lord interpreted
the seed to be the word of God (Luke 8:11) which in his day did not include
the CCC. In other words: the seed in the parable refers to the Holy Bible.

When John Que and Jane Doe pew warmer allow themselves to become
indifferent to the Bible, they become the soil on the path; a location in which
the word of God does not take root; consequently their indifference becomes
a killing field for evil.

"Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and
takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be
saved." (Luke 8:12)
_
 

Illuminator

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Yes, the bishops of the church continued to play the major role in interpreting Scripture and constructing theology based on biblical exegesis. Yet behind the bishops and presbyters during and after the Council of Nicaea stood a series of Christian Roman emperors more than willing to intervene in the church’s affairs and doctrine. When a series of pro-Arian emperors arrived on the scene, Arianism spread like wildfire.

Take the case of Constantine himself. Concerned over the growing rift within the church over Arius’s ideas, Constantine both convened and intervened in the Council of Nicaea. Rowan Williams observes that when Constantine viewed Arius as a schismatic, the emperor penned a letter to Arius “and his supporters which is extraordinary in its venom and abusiveness, dubbing Arius an ‘Ares,’ a god of war, who seeks to create strife and violence.”


You need to learn a thing or two about corruption in the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church.
We can do a review if you wish.


You said...It is unquestionable . . . that the champions of Protestantism – Luther, Calvin, Beza, Knox, Cranmer and Ridley — advocated the right of the civil authorities to punish the ‘crime’ of heresy with death, so you moan and groan about Roman power running the Church by proxy, revisionism at its worst.
I am not pointing to refuting heresies.
But we can also do a review of the silly stuff that the Ecumenical Councils ruled on if you wish.
I briefly summarized 5 Ecumenical Councils that you dismiss as "silly stuff". If that's the case, then you are another arrogant anti-trinitarian and a waste of screen space.
You said....You will have to show me what pope in history wielded as much power over the state as the champions of Protestantism did. Your assessment of church history is unfair and one sided.

We can talk of the groups of people that were exterminated, like the Cathars. Opposing a heresy is one thing, wiping them out is another. Then you have the Witch-hunt and inquisitions..
But you don't want to mention any historical context of the Cathars, just National Enquirer type headlines, and no mention of the Cathars as an evil cult..
In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the Bull Summis Desideranter, authorizing two Dominican Inquisitors, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, to systemize the procedures for the interrogation of witches. Two years later in 1486, they produced a manual called the Malleus Maleficarum, which is Latin for The Hammer Of Witches. The Church financed and supervised the publishing of the manuals that were ordered and sent out to all Inquisitors. This manual was published with 14 editions between 1486 and 1520, and at least 16 other editions between 1574 and 1669. All editions were printed under the supervision and the authority of the Church and distributed by the Church to the Inquisitors.

Some of the so called truths it preached was; That the belief in such things as witches was so essential a part of the Catholic faith that obstinately to maintain the opposite option was in itself heresy. The Malleus Maleficarum was a product of ancient torture techniques specifically instructing how to torture women. Estimates are as high as 1,800,000 women killed during the inquisitions and witch-hunts
Most inquisitions and witch-hunt tortures and burnings, were witnessed and documented by Church clergy so there are records. The irony of it all is that most or nearly all were Christian women.....the local Church just wanted their money and property.....charging them for their torture and murders.
The Inquisition was formed because the STATE was executing thousands of people for religious reasons. Back then, heresy and treason was the same crime.
From an article in Time Life
“In Germany the slaughter reached its climax in the mid 1600s. Whole villages were depopulated at a stroke. According to some accounts, the chief witchcraft prosecutor of Saxony, one Benedict Carpzov, personally signed no fewer than 20,000 death warrants. Many of the court’s documents have been lost, and the full number of judicial murders will never really be known. The best estimate is that, in Germany alone 200,000 people were condemned to death as witches before the witch-hunt hysteria came to an end around 1690. All in all it was a dark, ugly, and shameful experience for western civilization and for Christianity.”

In 2000, John Paul apologized for the sins of Roman Catholics made in the name of their faith, including abuses during the Inquisitions.

The Protestants never had the power or inclination to do this sort of thing.
And no Protestant has ever apologized for their atrocities. "Your daddy is uglier than my daddy" is a childish stupid argument that goes nowhere, and only serves to further divide the Body of Christ. You are using the Inquisition to lash out at me because your false history exposes your prejudice. No other reason.

"The Protestants never had the power or inclination to do this sort of thing." is a flat out denial of the Protestant Inquisition, which obviously you know nothing about, or too embarrassed to admit.
 
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Grailhunter

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I couldn't agree more. Vatican II ended the need for a reformation, but nobody wants to cite it's documents. That takes too much work. And when I post small sections as proof, it falls on deaf ears. Centuries old controversies, which have nothing to do with todays world, are more important. And it is time for this feud between the Protestants and Catholics to end, while you try to put out a fire with gasoline.
Here is the deal.....what does the truth do? My studies and my ministry I call the Johnny Appleseed of Truth. The truth in any congregation or open forum is going to offend somebody. I am a candle of truth in a wind storm of lies and false beliefs, but that is my calling. Christians deserve to at least hear the Truth....now if they believe it or not, or they look it up themselves or not is not my concern, it is between them and God. That is why I do not have any stress involved with my ministry. They say people that do not know history are cursed to repeat it. They say that because we can learn from our mistakes, but if you do not know them you cannot learn from them.....so truth....even though it is horrible at times, can pave the way for good.

I love Christians....Catholics and Protestants....Eastern Orthodox if I knew any! I am called to speak on occasion but I am not a preacher ...know a lot of them and friends with a lot of them. Would not want to be one because I know the stress they are under. They enjoy talking to me but they cannot repeat what I tell them because people do not like the truth.....A lot of Christians have a strange fascination with lies and false beliefs. The only place a preacher or Priest can preach the truth is out in the woods to the trees. A preacher has to preach what the congregation wants to hear or expects to hear or he is not going to have a job or he is not going to have a congregation. That is one of the reasons that all these false beliefs have persisted so long. The Catholics and the Protestants have truck loads of false beliefs, that is why I say they live in glass houses and should not be throwing rocks at each other. As they say in the Navy...Ya need to get your ducks in row before you say anything to anyone else.

On the history of the Catholic Church I have explained the good and the bad. The Catholic Church has always excelled in having various Orders that did good all around the world and are still doing good around the world....as opposed to a lot of Protestants that think Good Deeds are irrelevant in relation to Christianity. The love they neighbor commandment gets lost with Protestant religions. So you can see that Truth is an equal opportunity offender! lol

Yes part of the Catholic history is dark, horrid, and evil......it is history as a fact and as the past.....a past that the Catholic Church has apologized for. As Christians we should forgive. As remembering, the Catholic Church should be a little more humble......still putting it in the past and moving forward to greatness. What would the world be like if Christian sects could work together against the evils of this world? We should not be the enemies of other Christians.
 
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Grailhunter

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I briefly summarized 5 Ecumenical Councils that you dismiss as "silly stuff".
One big "silly stuff"
COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON
Year: 451
Summary: The Council of Chalcedon -- 150 bishops under Pope Leo the Great and the Emperor Marcian -- defined the two natures (Divine and human) in Christ against Eutyches, who was excommunicated.

Defining the nature of Christ on earth or in heaven is a silly endeavor because they were kidding themselves if they thought they could know it or comprehend it. And making it a religious requirement to believe their ruling was wrong. Right, wrong, or indifferent I go with the generic approximation....100% human and 100% God.

Part of the Catholics effort for one Church and one belief goes beyond what the scriptures suggest....too specific. It has to be exact or it is not one Church. Belief control has always been a issue and enforcing it has always been bloody and wrong. A preacher can look at his congregation and be sure that not everyone in his church believes as he does....but that does not mean he should shoot them.

And then you know that I disagree with the Ecumenical Councils in regard to Original Sin and the One person formula for the Trinity and indulgences....not to mention the selling of indulgences.

Just for the fun of it I will mention purgatory....another Ecumenical Council ruling. Not biblical as in a defined description but Christianity has never resolved Shoal as a third option between Heaven and Hell. It is just something to consider.

But you don't want to mention any historical context of the Cathars, just National Enquirer type headlines, and no mention of the Cathars as an evil cult..
If you are going to get into theology you should know the term cult is usually misused. Tell me why you think they were a cult and...and why exterminating them was appropriate....I want to know, so I know what to tell the police when I bag my limit of LGBTQ's


The Inquisition was formed because the STATE was executing thousands of people for religious reasons.
You could not have that more wrong and you do not want me to dig into it deeper.

And no Protestant has ever apologized for their atrocities. "Your daddy is uglier than my daddy" is a childish stupid argument that goes nowhere, and only serves to further divide the Body of Christ. You are using the Inquisition to lash out at me because your false history exposes your prejudice. No other reason.
Is that all ya got?! And it is the inquisitions and the witch-hunts.
I am not lashing out at you...what purpose would that serve?
False history! LOL All you have to do is look it up. There is a museum out there that has a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum and it cover is human skin.
Now if you have something on the Protestants....lets hear it.
 

Illuminator

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I believe the character of this Anti-Christ will be very similar to Pharaoh King of Egypt in the book of Exodus.
Exo 5:2
And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

There are many characters in the Bible that are truly ungodly.
It is, imo, these very characteristics or fruits which we will know who the anti-christ is.
Even though there are many anti christs already in the world.

But brother, we will not be decieved because we know the Lord and He knows us.
And if we were to warn the world of anti-christ, we need look no further than to turn on the television and observe.

Thank you for sharing.
Hugs

Nicaragua: Bishop Álvarez sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment

The sentence, which was originally expected on 15 February, came the day after Bishop Álvarez declined to be expelled to the United States along with other 222 detained opponents to President Manuel Ortega, including five priests, a deacon and two seminarians condemned to 10 years imprisonment on charges of conspiring against the government.
 
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BreadOfLife

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Why is there no true Church?....no body likes the truth. They would rather have a religion of false beliefs and fantasy.

Your worshipping Peter does not help the Church and the celibacy thing has lead to modern day atrocities.
Peter never functioned as the leader of the Apostles. He was a blessed and great Apostle....just like the rest of them.
And once again, when you vomit out LIES like “Catholics ‘worship' Peter” – you lose credibility and become just another parody of ignorant anti-Catholicism . . .
 

Ziggy

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Nicaragua: Bishop Álvarez sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment

The sentence, which was originally expected on 15 February, came the day after Bishop Álvarez declined to be expelled to the United States along with other 222 detained opponents to President Manuel Ortega, including five priests, a deacon and two seminarians condemned to 10 years imprisonment on charges of conspiring against the government.
What were they conspiring?

All I can say is, regardless what ones religious belief is concerning God Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth..
We are all coming under persocution by a world run by very evil people.
They don't care what our denomination is.
They are on a mission to Kill God.
And if they can persuade people through fear or might, they will.
They want God eradicated from every heart and every mind and every soul.

Keep the Faith.
Pray for all of our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Thank you for sharing.
Hugs

You know us MAGA people are regarded as "terrorists" because we don't want marxism running our country either.
God Bless
 

BreadOfLife

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Already provided the Scripture. (Deut 18:11) For WHAT I DID SAY.
But then I do not READ for you, or UNDERSTAND for you....nor call Scriptural teaching MANURE, as you do.
I did NOT say a person can not ask a person to pray for or with them.
Pay attention! Praying TO the DEAD or TO FAMILIAR Spirits...is an abomination, which you DO EVERY TIME YOU Pray “TO” a Saint IN Heaven!


Asking one to PRAY FOR you WITH you is one thing.
Asking, PRAYING TO the Dead, is another thing, and an abomination.
PRAYING “TO” God is Scripturally taught as ACCEPTABLE.
ASK Him, and you shall receive.
Never does Scripture teach to PRAY TO “the Dead” or TO “Familiar spirits”.

You saying SAINTS in Heaven are “more alive” than me....(which is FALSE)...and that You PRAY to them....IS Hocus Pocus.

So where is YOUR SCRIPTURAL QUOTE for your supposed teaching for You to PRAY “TO” the Dead, or “TO” the Saints in Heaven? Huh?
Your incredible Scriptural ignorance is at the CORE of your confusion . . .

For starters, the prohibition in Deut. 18:11 is against seeking ORACLES from the dead. In other words, Einstein – it is about trying to glean information FROM the dead.

Asking those in Heaven to pray for us is BIBLICAL because they are part of the Body of Christ. Departure from this world does NOT automatically kick them OUT of the Body.

In Rev. 5:8, we see the Elders in Heaven TAKING out prayers to God, They are INCTERCEDING on our behalf.

Asking a member of the Body of Christ in Heaven is no different than asking a member of the Body here on earth to pray for you.

Only a CARNAL-minded, fleshly-thinking person like YOU would think
differently.

NOW
– are you going to show me the Scriptural evidence for YOU idiotic claim?
"Scripture teaches AGAINST PRAYING TO “created” spirits, PRAYING TO dead men...FOR ANY REASON!"


I’m STILL waiting . . .