Posted on 03/30/2002 7:53:37 PM PST by malakhi
| Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. - John Adams |
Wow, all those big words. You must feel threatened by me or something. I don't have God in a Box, I have his Word though - His mind on things written out over centuries by the inspiration of His Spirit. All you have is claims and stuff founded on the wrong foundation. I don't care if you're impressed with me. You're supposed to heed the word of God - His scriptures as it were. And you're responsible to check everything I say against scripture before accepting it at any rate. So don't whine to me about what you are or are not impressed about. You can't even accept proper foundation. Nor can you present proper foundation. Just hollow words and empty claims. I follow the methodology of the Apostles and on their methodology, you've offere nothing.
Your comparison of to the Pharisees is empty. It mistates there case as badly as I think I've seen. Just compare me to the Apostles. They didn't teach any of the spurious junk your side pushes - Lord knows they must be heretics for that alone by your standards.
LOL Becky that is basically the same question I asked last night, and was called blasphemous for it by a RC. But nobody had an answer. Maybe they will try for you.
Yeah Nate listen to this guy and you might see you wife die before your eyes, he knows nothing about you or your life, and what you have went through, trust him, hes got the verses to back it up.
BigMack
The same place that I get the rest of my doctrine - the Church. I believe that the Lord continues to guide the Church; that the Church is a visible organization begun by the Apostles and traceable via Apostolic succession to a visible organization active in the world today; and that this organization is the Orthodox Church. If I wasn't convinced of these three facts, I wouldn't be an Orthodox Christian - personally, I doubt that I would be a Christian at all. My faith in God and in what I believe to be His Church are one and the same. I believe the Tradition of the Church is a unified whole, and that Scripture is only the written part of Tradition.
I know you don't accept any of this, and don't have any new evidence to offer you. But I believe it. Within the context of this belief, I believe that the Lord has continued to reveal His will to the Church and to guide the Church. The process by which the Church recognizes a saint is one and the same as the process by which the Church recognized Scripture. I don't think that the recognition of saints is any more a "work of men" than I think the recognition of Scripture was a "work of men."
On that note, God bless and good night.
NFP is morally neutral itself. Its like the difference between bulimia and dieting to lose weight. Both achieve the same goal. But with one the food is partaken and purged, with the other its just not eaten at all. Same outcome, no comparison in methods.
Another example: I may need $25,000 per year to raise my family. I can get a job and achieve the goal, or rob a bank. Same thing is achieved but they obviously are not morally equal.
With NFP you're not "doing it" then preventing pregnancy. You're just not "doing" anything, you are abstaining.
NFP can still be used sinfully and selfishly, with a contraceptive mentality, in violation of scripture. You must have a serious reason to use it.
We can't. There is no possible way that any human being can proclaim with any degree of certainty that any person other than Jesus and the theif have gone to heaven since the time of the Death on the Cross. And we only know that because Jesus told the thief he would be with Him in Paradise that very day. I've raised this point long ago. For all the Catholic Church knows, everyone in its pantheon of saint/ gods are in hell. And no, I'm not using the term god to be inflamatory, it merely emphasises the point of how they are used. A god for weather, a saint for weather. A god for sailors and a saint for sailors. This is by design - not God's design.
Sorry, I believe these claims are incorrect, at best. But that's JMO.
Well it's at least nice to know you don't ask your priests to do something you don't do yourselves occasionally.
Could you provide some unbiased sources to back up your comment? If so I will honestly examine it.
How about lots of little baby catholics waiting to be baptized?
FReegards
John
Do you seriously think anybody takes you as being serious?
BigMack
He challenged his objectivity, is "attack" the new "talking point?"
BigMack
I've been lurking.
This is an issue that so many get backwards. THEY try to earn salvation and God's love by not sinning, by works. Then someone who really understands the salvation message, like yourself, tries to explain that its not the works, or "not sinning" (although that is impossible) that is the FIRST priority. The first priority is to accept Jesus Christ for who He said He was, Lord and Savior, on a personal basis. Not just knowing about Him, but knowing Him. The works, the desire not to sin, happens after Jesus is Lord, because He changes the heart. If a person loves God, he will not want to sin, although he will, because all do, but the desire of the heart is to "press on" toward Christ. And God looks at the sinner who has accepted Christ and does not see the sinner, He sees Christ!!!!
Anyway, just thought I'd add my two cents worth.
By and large, I think Angelo is objective in his interactions. One major plus is that he's able to evaluate various ideas or beliefs by assuming certain premises to at least evaluate whether or not a belief is intellectually consistent or logically articulated correctly.
The only place where I've seen him lose his normally unflappable sense of objectivity is with regard to historical relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jews. But who's perfect?
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