You have summed up the Catholic Gospel I wrote about in #302 nicely. Again, we are simply the Bride of Christ joined to the Family of God. We are one as He and the Father are One. Therefore, the whole Law and history are summed in loving God before all and loving our neighbors as ourselves--because they are our siblings under a loving Father. Just as you want your children to love one another, so does our Heavenly Father. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
Depends? Dotting all of the "i's" & crossing all of the "t's" can sometimes more important than the way we feel about each other?
I'm sorry you feel that way about doctrine and dogma. They illuminate the central reality. It's not about the punctuation, it's about our Life in Christ.
What I mean in pointing out that it's very difficult to call all people to the Truth while acknowledging that no one can agree on what that Truth is is that if we don't offer the Way, the Truth and the Life... what do we offer? There is real, hard and objective Truth. Where Christians can't agree on some of our core tenents hurts our message to the masses. We bicker like children.
I certainly can't take the credit for it...
Again, we are simply the Bride of Christ joined to the Family of God. We are one as He and the Father are One. Therefore, the whole Law and history are summed in loving God before all and loving our neighbors as ourselves--because they are our siblings under a loving Father.
Yep!
Just as you want your children to love one another, so does our Heavenly Father. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
Exactly right. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. I'm sorry you feel that way about doctrine and dogma. They illuminate the central reality. It's not about the punctuation, it's about our Life in Christ.
My point isn't about my "feelings" about doctrine and dogma, except when our striving to come to perfect understanding causes us to miss the message. Helping each other, working together, seeking perfection together should bring us together, not divide us. If it divides us we're doing something wrong. Division reveals hardness in our hearts. We're looking to ourselves, instead of looking to God.
What I mean in pointing out that it's very difficult to call all people to the Truth while acknowledging that no one can agree on what that Truth is is that if we don't offer the Way, the Truth and the Life... what do we offer?
He wants us to pretend that we have figured out all of the answers? We offer everything we are in love!
There is real, hard and objective Truth. Where Christians can't agree on some of our core tenents hurts our message to the masses. We bicker like children.
There is real, hard & objective Truth. Do we seek it together or do we beat each other over the head until people keep their disagreement to themselves, letting it fester & eat away at them.