Posted on 01/29/2006 5:25:55 AM PST by NYer
What an excellent analysis. I think many of the outraged responses on this thread were from people who read only the title and didn't bother to read the whole article.
"Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine."
That's pretty loose talk, NYer. Doctrine has certainly changed; dogma hasn't at base. Words are important as the sorry history of The Church demonstrates. Its comments like the above which can box the Latin Church into posityions and places it doesn't need to be.
You know, all this theological debate is fine, as far as it goes- but do you know that right now, all over the Middle East, muslims are being saved because they are having dreams? Jesus is revealing Himself to them sovereignly, without ANYONE preaching to them and personally leading them through a prayer or ceremony. I imagine that they know about Him by some secondary knowledge, otherwise how would they know Who He is, but there are numerous testimonies of these 'dream salvations' coming out of that region and making their way to missionary organizations.
Yes, I know- it messes with my theology too. But it's apparently happening.
Together the pope and the bishops form the teaching authority of the Church, which is called the magisterium (from the Latin for "teacher"). The magisterium, guided and protected from error by the Holy Spirit, gives us certainty in matters of doctrine. The Church is the custodian of the Bible and faithfully and accurately proclaims its message, a task which God has empowered it to do.
Keep in mind that the Church came before the New Testament, not the New Testament before the Church. Divinely-inspired members of the Church wrote the books of the New Testament, just as divinely-inspired writers had written the Old Testament, and the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit to guard and interpret the entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments.
Such an official interpreter is absolutely necessary if we are to understand the Bible properly. (We all know what the Constitution says, but we still need a Supreme Court to interpret what it means.)
The magisterium is infallible when it teaches officially because Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles and their successors "into all truth" (John 16:12–13).
Jesus established only one Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus can have but one spouse, and his spouse is the Catholic Church.
His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2).
Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.
What denomination is this church?
Thank you for actually reading the post :-)
Many of these catholic threads are interesting.
This one seems to inspire nothing but flame bait though.
Whats your point for posting it?
non. Used to be a Baptist church about 30 years ago, and God started offending their theology by actually showing up and doing miracles. Healings and such. So now we're independent.
I got saved in this church 15 years ago. The Lord hasn't let me leave yet! :)
I just did.
Was it to gain some perspective on how to bring the church with you?
Was it to once again assert that the catholic church is the only path for salvation?
not sure here...
Can you post some sources, please!
Didn't that just happen to Naomi Wolf recently?
If the printing press had existed in Moses' day, then books would have been included, along with idols and images, among the things that people should not worship in place of G*d himself.
Bumping to read later.
http://isaalmasih.net/isa/dreamsofisa.html
This entire site seems dedicated to the phenomenon.
http://www.missionfrontiers.org/2001/01/muslim.htm
scroll halfway down to "I Have Had A Dream".
I hadn't heard that. But I hope so!
This sounds a little bit like John Kerry could have written it.
So-called "Righteousness" will be Judged.
No one can assume to know the extent of God's mercy in the Afterlife -- least of all we mere mortals -- but the Bible is clear about the terms of guaranteed Salvation by the Blood of the Lamb.
...or for humans to go into space. But that would be impossible!
Muir_Redwoods, this is called an analogy. An analogy does not prove a proposition, but it can very good for illustrating one. And for illustrating, it does not have to be true; it just has to paint a mental picture that can be understood.
For instance, I could say, "Just like Chicken Little, our friend Cindy Sue seems to be easily frightened by trivial events." You could shoot back, "Chicken Little never existed! That's a fairy tale! So that invalidates what you said about Cindy Sue." --- a pointless objection.
Or another example: I was trying to illustrate for my boys the advantage of careful planning in investing money. I said if you want reliably good bread you have to put in an envelope of yeast that's tested for potency and sold for that purpose. You could let dough set out until it gets bubbly from wild yeast in the air, but that's slow and chancy and might not rise at all.
Son #1: I'll take pancakes.
Son #2: Scrambled eggs for me.
Sheesh. What a homeschooler has to put up with.... :o)
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