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>> “Why would Jesus say, “For God so loved the world” - past tense? Why would He not have said, “For God so loves the world” - present tense? Would it not make more sense, if God does indeed love the world?” <<
When Yeshua said those words, the giving of his son was a past event, or Yeshua would not have been walking the Earth in a mortal body.
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Let’s take the contrarians defenders of the Protestant heresy one by one.
BLUEDRAGON takes issue with Francis J. Beckwith, a “born-again” evangelical, a tenured professor at Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, Tex, was the president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), an association of 4,300 Protestant theologians who resigned and rejoined the Catholic Church.
Why? Because after having reviewed the materials from both sides, he changes his position and reverts to Catholicism. In other words, Beckwith cannot be trusted. One wonders what BLUEDRAGON would say about Ulf Elkman and Richard Neuhaus.
Ulf Ekman, the founder of Scandinavia’s biggest Bible school, with a congregation of some 4000 individuals, converted to Catholicism because his theological inquiry confirmed for him the indispensability of the Catholic sacraments.
Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, was a pre-eminent Lutheran theologian in America. He knew his Bible-text and history like no other Protestant having taught and written extensively on the subject. When he converted to Catholicism he said, “I have long believed that the Roman Catholic Church is the fullest expression of the church of Christ through time.”
DANIEL1212 produces a stack of comments to confirm that Catholicism requires unwavering obedience to its doctrines. But this is an unremarkable finding. Catholicism is not open to picking and choosing in the way Protestantism is that has like a cancer divided itself into some 30,000 sects and keeps subdividing itself. Just as one cannot pick and choose to believe in the writings of one Evangelist versus another, (whose writings from hundreds of scripts were culled and presented as the authentic word of God in the Synod of Rome in AD 382 under Petrine authority), one cannot as a true Catholic accept some part of Catholic doctrine and dispense with others.
Doctrinal menu selection is not how Petrine authority works. Christ, taught ONE coherent truth and this is why He established ONE Church and entrusted the Great Commission to go forth and “teach.” This is why St. Paul speaks of “obedience” to faith and teaching (Romans 6:17).
This implies not only that we cannot have different “teachers” from Billy Graham to David Koresh and your corner street Foursquare Church pastor all offering “different versions” of God’s worth, but that Catholic doctrine is a unified whole, and departures from it must of necessity be labeled a heresy.
DANIEL1212 however hails this division without realizing that he is talking about a division of “truth.” In support of this division he offers this pure piece of nonsense. He says that: “division produced Godly men such as Matthew Henry, Spurgeon, Wesley, Moody, Edwards, etc. Which are desperately needed today.” It escapes him that heretics, like atheists, Hindus, Rastafarian, can all lead good lives. They also all reject the Eucharistic Presence of Christ and the transubstantiation that occurs during the Sacrifice of The Mass, a centerpiece of Catholic doctrine.
Take for example Jay Richard. He is a senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute. Richards holds a Master of Divinity degree, a Master of Theology degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. Read him speak about his transformation from Calvinist to Catholic.
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/discovery-institute-fellow-is-dedicated-to-christian-unity/
aMOREPERFECTUNION insists that we post these “sacred traditions” of the Catholic Church. The canon of the Bible may be the BEST example of Sacred Tradition that the Catholic Church is the Bible itself because nowhere in the Bible does it say what the canon is. We need to rely on Sacred Tradition that tells us what the canon is. Without Sacred Tradition, we have no way of knowing what is inspired Scripture and what is not.
A fuller explanation of this Sacred Tradition is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 74-95, 113
REDLEGHUNTER offers his version that St. Mary Magdalena of the Cross- a Catholic mystic made a pact with the devil. He offers this to prove that her beliefs were no different than those of David Koresh. Seriously?
DEPROGRAMLIBERALISM offers his “own” books on Meta-Christianity to refute Catholic doctrine and poses a series of questions about differences of opinion between James and Peter and Paul. He forgets the very genesis of this confusion. It’s an old Protestant theme used to undermine Petrine authority. This has been answered over and over again. But here’s a basic refutation.
http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2006/03/50-new-testament-proofs-for-petrine.html
If more is needed perhaps try reading some books by Benedict XVI, called the theological Einstein of our times. Maybe get a copy of Benedict XVI, “The Early Apostles.”
EDITOR-SURVEYOR seems to think that Christ is not true man and true God. The early Church Fathers buried this Arian heresy. Indeed, what was formerly a Jewish Sabbath of Saturday observed for centuries was now the First Day of the Week. An earth-shattering and profound change in custom and practice is what Benedict XVI offers as one of the many proofs of Christ’s bodily resurrection. Without a belief in the triune God, references to Yeshua is meaningless rot.
COMMERCECOMET scolds RBMILLERJR because apparently his comment of a “great post” was not directed to the contrarians. At least that much is obvious.
BOATBUMS attempts to minimize the Catholic intellectual tradition. For this he cites scripture: Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength,” is yet another supreme example of why Protestantism thrives in shallow waters.
This quote has everything to with the paradox of the cross. The verses preceding 1:25 puts the selected quote in context. “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
This is the same BOATBUMS who a while ago posted this:
“There IS a firm set of beliefs that identify genuine Christians. They are ALL Biblical, have been believed always, everywhere and by all and have never changed from the start. Creeds, on the other hand, HAVE changed as well as their interpretation on each point.”
The dozen Bible Churches in your town have different pastors and each unlike the Joel Osteens, TD Jakes, and Jimmy Swaggarts all provide different interpretations of God’s word. I suspect they don’t have a Credo or a Catechism.
Reviewing these posts by Bible Christians make it impossible to disagree with Dr. A. David Anders, a born and raised Bible Christian and a Wheaton-educated Protestant historian who after several years of intense study converted to Catholicism and wrote: “Protestantism is a confused mass of inconsistencies and tortured logic.”
I agree. Jesus used the past tense of the word "love" because He was teaching a truth - that God so (in this manner) loved (past tense) the world that He GAVE (also past tense) His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have (present, continuous) everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Jesus was teaching that this was how God demonstrated His love for mankind by giving Jesus (who HAD been born) to be the Savior and that all those who would believe in Him would not perish in hell but have eternal life.
I hope this isn't a parsing of words exercise in argumentum ad infinitum. It's really simple, actually.