Posted on 12/09/2013 2:43:18 PM PST by NYer
Jason’s journey is very much a testimony.
The “salvation experience” you speak of is a one time saving conversion. The Catholic conversion experience is ongoing.
Consider falling in love with someone you have a one-night stand with. Then, the following morning stating “I am in love!!!”...Then consider falling in love with someone you have committed yourself to in relationship and growing in love with more and more in a marriage. The latter describes a Catholic’s ‘salvation experience’
To be clear, I was myself using a pedagogical device to make a broader point about the educative value of hyperbole, and that at any time, someone may use such to emphasize a point.
Hopefully, smvoice’s own experience right now has made the Catholic claim re Rom 3:23 clear: that it’s not unreasonable at all for anyone to use hyperbole to drive the importance of a point or belief home.
Regards.
Nice try, but adding to what scripture says has been pretty much verboten per God.
Been there done that. I’m still waiting for Catholics to show me where the apostles taught the assumption of Mary. I don’t like man made doctrine.
That’s why I find the attention paid to Mary and the saints as abhorrent. I don’t “venerate” any other woman but my wife in a marriage. I don’t think that by asking another woman to get me favors from my wife I’m respecting my wife all that much. I think that by talking directly to my wife it shows much more respect and love than thinking someone else is closer to her. I get closer to my wife by communicating directly to her. We don’t need anyone between us. The bond between us has gotten stronger over the years without someone getting in between.
1994-2000 - (age 17-23) missionary with Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa in Hungary
2000 - (age 24) enrolled at Westminster Seminary California
2003 - (age 27) expelled from Calvary Chapel
Interesting. Calvary left him high and dry in Hungary. I would have thought that would have been the last straw. Apparently not.
Here's a good piece on the whole situation: The PROBLEM OF THEOLOGICAL NARCISSISM--STOP GIVING JASON STELLMAN ATTENTION, PLEASE!
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I write this to make a plea with those who are still engaging Jason, listening to him, or considering following his path. Look at the real problem here. The radical nature of the paradigm shifts that have taken place in Jason's short life should say something. And the question of why Jason has to make every shift a public event with public attention should say even more. How much attention does Jason really need?
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Jason did understand the gospel and decided it was not the answer for him. I repeat, it was not that he misunderstood it, and has departed in ignorance. Jason grasped it, confessed it, was ordained to it, promised to defend it, and then defected consciously from the system of doctrine he promised to uphold.
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That's definitely a great piece. I like how it concludes:
Jason did understand the gospel and decided it was not the answer for him. I repeat, it was not that he misunderstood it, and has departed in ignorance. Jason grasped it, confessed it, was ordained to it, promised to defend it, and then defected consciously from the system of doctrine he promised to uphold.We've considered the Roman claims, tested them by the Word, and rejected them. Our confession stands because the Word stands. This doesn't mean that the issues are not worth engaging. They are. This doesn't mean that the Romanist claims aren't worth refuting. They are. It's that Jason isn't the fellow with whom we should be having this debate, if only for his sake. There is a bigger problem that the bigger picture exposes. We should be conscious of those who are carried about by every wind of doctrine. The most loving thing we could do for Jason right now is to stop engaging him.
I read somewhere that if former Roman Catholics in the US were to start their own church that it would be the third largest denomination in the US. Interesting that instead of talking about the shrinkage of the Roman Catholic faith, the tsunami of people crossing the Tiber out of Rome, they high five each other over a trickle of converts.
Do not all of you posting on this thread believe Jesus is the Messiah ? Why then do you not love each other ?
This was written to believers.
2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
Well I am grateful the Thirty Years’ War ended ...
and (most of) the pogroms.
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