Posted on 01/08/2011 8:19:01 PM PST by marshmallow
8. Who, then, is so wicked and faithless, who is so insane with the madness of discord, that either he should believe that the unity of God can be divided, or should dare to rend it— the garment of the Lord— the Church of Christ? He Himself in His Gospel warns us, and teaches, saying, "And there shall be one flock and one shepherd." John 10:16 And does any one believe that in one place there can be either many shepherds or many flocks? The Apostle Paul, moreover, urging upon us this same unity, beseeches and exhorts, saving, "I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." 1 Corinthians 1:10 And again, he says, "Forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:3 Do you think that you can stand and live if you withdraw from the Church, building for yourself other homes and a different dwelling, when it is said to Rahab, in whom was prefigured the Church, "Your father, and your mother, and your brethren, and all the house of your father, you shall gather unto you into your house; and it shall come to pass, whosoever shall go abroad beyond the door of your house, his blood shall be upon his own head? " Joshua 2:19 Also, the sacrament of the passover contains nothing else in the law of the Exodus than that the lamb which is slain in the figure of Christ should be eaten in one house. God speaks, saying, "In one house shall you eat it; you shall not send its flesh abroad from the house." Exodus 12:46 The flesh of Christ, and the holy of the Lord, cannot be sent abroad, nor is there any other home to believers but the one Church. This home, this household of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and points out in the Psalms, saying, "God, who makes men to dwell with one mind in a house." in the house of God, in the Church of Christ, men dwell with one mind, and continue in concord and simplicity:
9. Therefore also the Holy Spirit came as a dove, a simple and joyous creature, not bitter with gall, not cruel in its bite, not violent with the rending of its claws, loving human dwellings, knowing the association of one home; when they have young, bringing forth their young together; when they fly abroad, remaining in their flights by the side of one another, spending their life in mutual intercourse, acknowledging the concord of peace with the kiss of the beak, in all things fulfilling the law of unanimity. This is the simplicity that ought to be known in the Church, this is the charity that ought to be attained, that so the love of the brotherhood may imitate the cloves, that their gentleness and meekness may be like the lambs and sheep.
What does the fierceness of wolves do in the Christian breast? What the savageness of dogs, and the deadly venom of serpents, and the sanguinary cruelty of wild beasts? We are to be congratulated when such as these are separated from the Church, lest they should lay waste the doves and sheep of Christ with their cruel and envenomed contagion. Bitterness cannot consist and be associated with sweetness, darkness with light, rain with clearness, battle with peace, barrenness with fertility, drought with springs, storm with tranquillity.
Let none think that the good can depart from the Church. The wind does not carry away the wheat, nor does the hurricane uproot the tree that is based on a solid root. The light straws are tossed about by the tempest, the feeble trees are overthrown by the onset of the whirlwind. The Apostle John execrates and severely assails these, when he says, "They went forth from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, surely they would have continued with us." 1 John 2:19
10. Hence heresies not only have frequently been originated, but continue to be so; while the perverted mind has no peace— while a discordant faithlessness does not maintain unity. But the Lord permits and suffers these things to be, while the choice of one's own liberty remains, so that while the discrimination of truth is testing our hearts and our minds, the sound faith of those that are approved may shine forth with manifest light. The Holy Spirit forewarns and says by the apostle, "It is needful also that there should be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." 1 Corinthians 11:19 Thus the faithful are approved, thus the perfidious are detected; thus even here, before the day of judgment, the souls of the righteous and of the unrighteous are already divided, and the chaff is separated from the wheat. These are they who of their own accord, without any divine arrangement, set themselves to preside among the daring strangers assembled, who appoint themselves prelates without any law of ordination, who assume to themselves the name of bishop, although no one gives them the episcopate; whom the Holy Spirit points out in the Psalms as sitting in the seat of pestilence, plagues, and spots of the faith, deceiving with serpent's tongue, and artful in corrupting the truth, vomiting forth deadly poisons from pestilential tongues; whose speech does creep like a cancer, whose discourse forms a deadly poison in the heart and breast of every one.
11. Against people of this kind the Lord cries; from these He restrains and recalls His erring people, saying, "Hearken not unto the words of the false prophets; for the visions of their hearts deceive them. They speak, but not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who cast away the word of God, You shall have peace, and every one that walks after his own will. Every one who walks in the error of his heart, no evil shall come upon him. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. If they had stood on my foundation (substantia, ὑποστα), and had heard my words, and taught my people, I would have turned them from their evil thoughts." Jeremiah 23:16-21 Again, the Lord points out and designates these same, saying, "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out broken cisterns which can hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13 Although there can be no other baptism but one, they think that they can baptize; although they forsake the fountain of life, they promise the grace of living and saving water. Men are not washed among them, but rather are made foul; nor are sins purged away, but are even accumulated. Such a nativity does not generate sons to God, but to the devil. By a falsehood they are born, and they do not receive the promises of truth. Begotten of perfidy, they lose the grace of faith. They cannot attain to the reward of peace, since they have broken the Lord's peace with the madness of discord.
Lots of people, apparently.
It's the overriding principle of religion in America.
Church Fathers ping!
It really is a cabal. Each post the met or cool or doc ock types post is cced to every one of their cabal. And they play the standard game of shoot and move. When you prove their point wrong, some other member of the caval will jump and excerpt somethign you said (half a sentence) and post it and go on a tangent to save the original poster. Pathetique!
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)
I do understand why Catholics and Catholicism is held to a different and higher standard than the members of the anti-Catholic cabal and their active and tacit supporters. We must take up our cross and carry it with pride.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more (Luke 12:48)
We were warned about people like these.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence."(Matthew 23:25) .
Exactly.
It was NOT a quote from the Bible.
Since the objectionable word is not a part of modern urban life I will be sure to do more than make incomplete biblical references going forward for the benefit of those who are less biblically literate or just don't get it. Thank you
I'm sure the Catholics here would appreciate it.
The Church should combat widespread "Biblical illiteracy" among the Catholic faithful, Archbishop Eterovic said.
-- from the thread Synod to Focus on Proper Use of Scripture
But the anti-Catholics would benefit from it far more. They would be secure in their beliefs with the help of the Magisterium under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit instead of the self-anointed Reformers.
Yup, and we can work to spread literacy amongst the PCA and OPC too — since they don’t read but rather memorise the bible by rote and there’s a difference between memorising as the PCA/OPC do and real comprehension as in orthodoxy
Gratuitous quotes from the Bible which serve no purpose other than to put such a word on the table are also unjustified.
Do you consider references to venereal disease potty language? I am not aware of any Biblical references to it.
No, the names of diseases such as AIDS, Syphilis, etc. - whether specific or general - are not potty language.
Normal bodily functions are verboten in the Religion Forum, maladies derived from fornication aren’t....got it.
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