Free Republic

[...] Jesus is not the Son of God and belief in the Trinity is "excess": "O People of the Book! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter anything concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and his word which he conveyed to Mary, and a spirit from him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and do not say 'Three.' Cease! It is better for you! Allah is only One Allah. It is far removed from his transcendent majesty that he should have a son. His is all that...

Moscow, Russia, Aug 23, 2017 / 12:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After a joint meeting during Cardinal Pietro Parolin's visit to Russia this week, both he and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill said the trip marks “a new stage” in relations between their Churches. This stage, they said, is thanks not only to Pope Francis' meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Havana in February 2016, but is also due to the loaning of the relics of St. Nicholas to Russia over the summer, drawing millions of Orthodox faithful for veneration. Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican's Secretary of State, was welcomed to Patriarch Kirill's residence...

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged Methodist and Waldensian Churches to continue to walk together with the Catholic Church on the path towards full Christian unity pointing out that in a world lacerated by violence and fear it is all the more important to live and to convey the Christian message of welcome and fraternity. The Pope’s words of friendship and closeness came in a message on Monday to the annual Synod of the Italian Methodist and Waldensian Churches taking place in Torre Pellice - near Turin - from 20 to 25 August. Recalling recent encounters between the Churches and...

It was Indian Catholic Heritage Day on Aug. 12, sponsored by the Indian American Catholic Association of Greater Philadelphia and celebrated at St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Northeast Philadelphia. The congregation was mostly India-born adults and their American-born children, many in the colorful festive garments of their native land. For the most part they were members of the Syro-Malabar Rite Catholic Church, and the Syro-Malankara Rite Catholic Church, with a smattering of Roman-rite Catholics, all with a common heritage. ..“Ethnicity gives us identity,” he said, relating his own ethnic heritage. “My family brought traditions from Eastern Europe that...

Wolfgang Huber, former Council President of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), believes in a "breakthrough" at the communion of Protestants and Catholics to the Ecumenical Church Day of 2021. "I can not imagine that we will celebrate this church day without A breakthrough has been achieved in the area of ​​Eucharistic hospitality, "said the former bishop of Berlin in the interview of the" Weser-Kurier "(Saturday). Until the event in Frankfurt am Main 2021 something must move. "Machistort des Papstes" less promising According to Huber, the next steps in the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper will be "decentralized". "My feeling...

Gunmen numbering about 5 invaded St Philips Catholic Church, Amakwa Ozubulu, Ekwusigo Local Government Area, Anambra state and killed many worshippers. Reports say 50 people were killed but Police said only 12 died and 18 seriously injured. According to an eyewitness, the gunmen invaded the church around 7:30 am today, Sunday, August 6th, 2017 This may be due to gang violence as opposed to sectarian conflict. More… Gunmen on Sunday morning attacked worshippers at St. Philip’s Catholic Church, Ozubulu, near Nnewi, Anambra State killing at least eight. Several worshippers with gunshot wounds were also receiving treatment at the hospital. Witnesses...

I've been reading Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Originand What the Modern Martyr Should Know: 72 Grapes and not a single virgin. andNo God but One: Allah or Jesus? (with Bonus Content): A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and ChristianityandThe Impact of Islam And for fellow Freepers who know me, I'm an amateur historian.The information in these books blew my mind.To summarise: The Arab empires in the 7th and 8th centuries do not mention any prophet, leave alone a prophet Muhammad. The Buddhists, Christians, Zoroastrians do not mention anything about a prophet Muhamad or Islam...

I was reading a debate on this and saw that in English the verse says "hate" (and this is in the KJV, NKJV, NIV, Douay-Rheims) and yet in other languages it does not. Isn't this strange? Does anyone know why? In English 25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.But in Polish:...

The head of the Lutheran World Federation has called on theologians to remove the obstacles that hinder unity with the Catholic Church. Rev. Dr. Martin Junge made his remarks in a letter commemorating the 50th anniversary of official Lutheran dialogue with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. “Our task as theologians and as pastors should never be to provide explanations as to why unity is not yet possible; our task shall be to creatively and courageously remove the obstacles that still prevent us from the enjoyment of God’s gift of unity,” wrote Junge. He added, “Decades of ecumenical dialogue,...

Several of the people who contribute articles to Rapture Ready have addressed the possibility of Emmanuel Macron being the Antichrist. Most have approached the subject with a good bit of caution. Because the Antichrist comes to power after the Rapture, we, as the bride of Christ, cannot be certain of his identity. The Antichrist will be a man of such incredible charm and charisma, students of Bible prophecy may be able to place high odds on him being the man who will rule the whole world. The Tribulation starts with the Antichrist confirming a peace agreement between Israel and its...

Pope Francis has all the qualifications to be the False Prophet. He hasn’t yet called for a one world religion, but he is nearly there by stressing interfaith unity when he says, “We are all children of God.” Francis gives homosexuals a free pass by saying, “Who am I to judge?” He is clearly the type of man who would be for in favor of a movement to join together all of the world’s faiths. The biggest factor against Pope Francis fulfilling the Bible’s prophecies about the False Prophet is his age. If the seven-year Tribulation started today, the Pope...

A worldwide coalition of Reformed churches representing approximately 80 million Christians has signed onto an ecumenical statement with the Roman Catholic Church to "overcome divisions" from the time of the Protestant Reformation.The World Communion of Reformed Churches signed a "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" with Catholic, Lutheran, and Methodist leaders last week at a church in Wittenberg, Germany. According to a WCRC press release, "The declaration stated that mutual condemnations pronounced by the two sides during the Reformation do not apply to their current teaching on justification." (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)Portrait of Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation,...

The Benefit of Christ – The Most Influential Book You Have Never Read By Simonetta Carr It was 1543. North of the Alps, Protestant reformers were busy publishing books. In Rome, the papacy was busy banning them. Still, the publishers in Venice, a proudly independent republic with a reputation of opposition to the pope, were persistent. That year’s best-seller was an Italian essay by a characteristically long name: Trattato utilissimo del beneficio di Giesù Cristo crocifisso verso i cristiani (Most useful treatise on the benefit of Jesus Christ crucified for Christians). It was called, for short, Il Beneficio di Cristo...

In the Old Testament, the prophets spoke of the day of the “visitation of God.” It was seen sometimes as a day of great comfort and rejoicing, and at other times as a day of great distress and judgment. At the birth of Jesus, God visited the earth. This visitation is celebrated in the Spirit-inspired hymn of Zacharias, in which he twice makes mention of God’s divine visitation (Luke 1:68–69, 78). The New Testament calls Jesus the “Bishop of our souls.” He is the Bishop Incarnate. His visit to this world has changed the course of history. The initial visit...

The World Communion of Reformed Churches has accepted that Joint Declaration on Justification that was originally signed by the Catholic Church and the World Lutheran Federation in 1999, and later by the World Methodist Council in 2016. The World Communion of Reformed Churches will formalize its assent to the statement at an ecumenical prayer service to be held in Wittenberg, Germany, on July 5. The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity welcomed the acceptance of the statement by the Reformed Churches as an “important milestone” in ecumenical affairs. The Vatican body said: One of the crucial issues of dissent between the...

London, England, Jun 29, 2017 / 06:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Methodist Church in Britain and the Church of England announced Sunday that each ecclesial community is considering a proposal that would enable the sharing of clergy between them. Jonathan Baker, the Anglican bishop of Fulham, said that “(t)he separation between Anglicans and Methodists in Great Britain is a tear in the fabric of the Body of Christ. The proposals made in this report are offered as a means of helping to repair that tear.” The proposal, Mission and Ministry in Covenant, would in effect largely end the approximately 200-year-old...

Some groups today, such as the Seventh-day Adventists, teach that keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is a perpetual moral law meant for all people, and that not keeping it is a sign of apostasy and disloyalty to God. They base their belief on Genesis 2:1–3, which tells of God resting after His creative work and then sanctifying the Sabbath day, and on the fourth commandment. They also argue that the New Testament teaches the continuity of seventh-day Sabbath observance by Christ’s followers, even after Christ’s death. These beliefs, however, are misguided. There is no universal moral obligation given in Genesis 2...

Together we contend for the truth that politics, law, and culture must be secured by moral truth. With the Founders of the American experiment, we declare, “We hold these truths.” With them, we hold that this constitutional order is composed not just of rules and procedures but is most essentially a moral experiment. With them, we hold that only a virtuous people can be free and just, and that virtue is secured by religion. To propose that securing civil virtue is the purpose of religion is blasphemous. To deny that securing civil virtue is a benefit of religion is blindness.

ome, June 22 (IANS/AKI) Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Wednesday said he will "in all probability" meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow in August. "Yes, we are verifying whether this visit will take place. It has been planned for a long time and now all the conditions are in place," said the Vatican second-in-command. "I believe I will meet President Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church's top officials because this needs to be a high-level visit," Parolin continued. Parolin made the remarks to journalists on the sidelines of...

Despite the radicalism of early Protestantism toward many ancient Catholic "distinctives," such as the Communion of the Saints, Penance, Purgatory, Infused Justification, the Papacy, the priesthood, sacramental marriage, etc., it may surprise many to discover that Martin Luther was rather conservative in some of his doctrinal views, such as on baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary. Luther indeed was quite devoted to Our Lady, and retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which were held then and now by the Catholic Church. This is often not well-documented in Protestant biographies of Luther and histories of the...