Posted on 02/13/2007 1:16:39 PM PST by Gamecock
What is with the Protestants obsession with the Catholic Church beliefs? Could it be they aren't so sure about their own, so they have to question Catholic's? We Catholics don't pay any attention except to our OWN....maybe this could catch on????
Not sure he REALLY wants an answer. This Alpha and Omega story is stuff from 1995 to 2000...JPII.
What religion are you?
What denomination? It's just so darn curious why Catholics and Jews happily state what they are but Protestants won't give a denomination...they just say CHRISTIANS. What is the name of the Church you go to every Sunday if you don't want to answer what denomination.
Not the TENETS of the Catholic Teachings, but sure, all Popes have slightly different ideas at different times. I think you would find that in ALL religions...two people will state the same thing differently.
Not the TENETS of the Catholic Teachings, but sure, all Popes have slightly different ideas at different times. I think you would find that in ALL religions...two people will state the same thing differently.
So what you are saying is that Catholics are a denomination? Are Cathnolics Christians? Are you a "Christian"? Why isn't that sufficient?
Answered 2000 years ago. Everything since then is mere elaboration.
"Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, only faith working through love."
Nobody is saved outside the Catholic Church. In the final analysis, the question "Who is outside the Catholic Church?" is answered by God, not by man.
That question was asked and answered 1750 years ago:
Suppose, this very day, I entered a populous city. When I had found Marcionites, Apollinarians, Cataphrygians, Novatians, and others of the kind who call themselves Christians, by what name should I recognise the congregation of my own people, unless it were named Catholic? Come tell me, who bestowed so many names on the other peoples? Why have so many cities, so many nations, each their own description? The man who asks the meaning of the Catholic Name, will he be ignorant himself of the cause of his own name if I shall enquire its origin? Whence was it delivered to me? Certainly that which has stood through so many ages was not borrowed from man. This name "Catholic" sounds not of Marcion, nor of Apelles, nor of Montanus, nor does it take heretics as its authors.
7. Many things the Holy Spirit hath taught us, Whom God sent from Heaven to the Apostles as their Comforter and Guide. Many things reason teaches us, as Paul saith, and honesty, and, as he says, nature herself. What! Is the authority of Apostolic men, of Primitive Priests, of the most blessed Martyr and Doctor Cyprian, of slight weight with us? Do we wish to teach the teacher? Are we wiser than he was, and are we puffed up by the spirit of the flesh against the man, whom his noble shedding of blood, and a crown of most glorious suffering, have set forth as a witness of the Eternal God? What thinkest thou of so many Priests on this same side, who throughout the whole world were compacted together in one bond of peace with this same Cyprian? What of so many aged Bishops, so many Martyrs, so many Confessors? Come say, if they were not sufficient authorities for the use of this name, are we sufficient for its rejection? And shall the Fathers rather follow our authority, and the antiquity of Saints give way to be emended by us, and times now putrifying through their sins, pluck out the grey hairs of Apostolic age? And yet, my brother, be not troubled; Christian is my name, but Catholic my surname. The former gives me a name, the latter distinguishes me. By the one I am approved; by the other I am but marked.
8. And if at last we must give an account of the word Catholic, and draw it out from the Greek by a Latin interpretation, "Catholic" is 'every where one,' or, (as learned men think,) "obedience in all," i. e. all the commands of God. Whence the Apostle, Whether ye he obedient in all things; and again, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. Therefore he who is a Catholic, the same man is obedient. He who is obedient, the same is a Christian, and thus the Catholic is a Christian. Wherefore our people when named Catholic are separated by this appellation from the heretical name.
-- St. Pacian of Barcelona, d. ca. AD 390, "On the Catholic name"
Catholic means whole, or universal, and it is used to differentiate between the One True Church and the heretical sects that developed afterward. It was first used as early as 110 AD by Ignatius of Antioch.
Christian can mean just about anything today. So many people with very diverse beliefs refer to themselves as Christian.
***It's just so darn curious why Catholics and Jews happily state what they are but Protestants won't give a denomination***
a. My tagline should provide you a huge clue.
b. My DENOMINATION is and has been posted on my FR homepage for at least three years.
But lest I continue to be accused of participating in some sort of Protestant Conspiracy, I will tell you, like I have told others in the past,
Anything else?
I would think that the Pope should be able to state official church doctrine in a way that is clear to all.
It's always worked out better when this was the case. See post #29
How in the heck would I know by your TAGLINE that you are a Presbyterian? Thanks for answering, even if you were a little snippy. Is this Alpha and Omega site that you posted also Presbyterian?
Of course Catholicsm is a Christian denomination.....all Christians were Catholic until Henry VII, then the denominations started.
We got 8" here in Iowa, and lots of blowing snow. Which really means I should buy a snow blower.
Alpha and Omega Ministries has been around for years, I believe it is a non-specific Evangelical group. It is very well known and taken about as seriously as a three dollar bill in most circles...or as seriously as Jack Chick.
As for the self identifying as Christian by members of various Protestant groups it is (by and large) it comes out of the reformation belief that the Catholic Church is a construct of Constantine and they were restoring the original Church through their reforms (read Neuhaus for more on this).
In (hopefully) rare cases, some Protestant groups (like those that govern Alpha and Omega) don't believe Catholics are Christians and therefore use the term to differentiate.
I do believe (based on my personal interactions with non-Catholic Christians) that in most cases in the modern era Protestant Christians will use the term as a unifying rather than divisive term.
Realistically you could probably do a post on the history and usage of the word "Christian" and get some very interesting insight.
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