You are absolutely right! Nothing about RELIGION is simple. You see, religion is humanity's attempt at trying to EARN salvation. This is the difference between what Jesus Christ accomplished for humanity and all of the religions of the world. In Christianity salvation cannot ever be earned, merited, or deserved. Jesus Christ alone died to pay for humanity's sin. It is only by placing faith in Jesus that anyone can be saved from their sins.
Look at all of the religions of the world and you will notice a common thread if you will that runs through all of them EXCEPT Christianity: the fact that you must work, or put forth effort at attaining your salvation. You must say a bunch of hail mary's, or chant, or go door-to-door, or fast, or meditate, or do all sorts of strange things in these religions. But Christianity is all about what JESUS DID FOR HUMANITY, not what we must do ourselves to be saved and get to God the Father.
Egad not again. Ultimately a catholic is Christian. Pure and simple. All Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Ctholics.
Christian is a universal umbrella terms, simply put, for people who believe in the Bible and Jesus Christ - Mormons, Protestants, Catholics, Brethren, Seven Day Events, Orthodox, Christian Unitarians and so on are all Christian as a whole, but different Christian denomination/sects.
__________________
From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.
To me it is a matter of semantics. When you say "Catholic" I get an entirely different connation (a negative one) than when you say "Christian.". In Catholiscm the Pope is supposedly God's viceroy, or highest ranking representative on earth (however, the Catholics cannot substantiate any of this with God's Word.) Under Catholiscm Mary--the woman whom God chose to bring His Son into the world so that He could die for our sins--is worshipped. Mary is deified (treated as deity) and SHE IS NOT. Their is nothing at all divine about Mary. With all due respect, Mary is no longer even a virgin. Jesus had "natural, human" brothers and sisters after He was born into this world as a Man.
People even go so far as to direct their prayers to Mary--blasphemy in the highest--for this woman is not divine at all. She was simply a chosen vessel to convey the Son of God--who pre-existed the universe--into this world so that He could die for our sins then go back to Heaven. I am not taking anything away from Mary, she was a noble, holy person, but she is not on par with God the Father, God the Son , and God the Holy Spirit, for They, and They ALONE are divine. Mary was a sinner just like you and me and in need of the Savior Jesus Christ. Remember: my definition of sinner in this context does not mean a person who sins. Sinner is a designation in certain contexts to describe those WHO HAVE NOT YET TRUSTED JESUS CHRIST FOR SALVATION. So, Mary was classed as a sinner, in need of the Savior just like you and me.
Now, I said all that to say this: Catholiscm has many practices that they cannot substantiate or show to be consistent with God's Word/will. They practice their TRADITIONS, teaching as doctrines the commands of MEN.
Christianity--or the sum total of the beliefs and practices of those who trust Jesus Christ for salvation from their sins is like day compared to Catholiscm (night). We do not worship Mary or the saints. We do not pray to Mary or any of the saints. We do not have a Pope (which is unscriptural anyway; and no Peter was not the first Pope either. Jesus never called Peter a Pope. In fact, the word "Pope" cannot be found in the Bible (it is no where near the Bible.)
I am just trying to get you to see that Christianity and Catholiscm are NOT interchangeable, the same, or remotely synonymous.
That is all very nice... which particular Christian sect/denomination do you belong to? There are plenty that just call themselves "The Christian Church" - and they have their own little differences from each other.
Compare Catholics (some would say they were the original Church, due to the Roman connection and Constantine) and the Orthodox Church. Then compare the Greek Orthodox to the Russian Orthodox. Then compare all of them to Protestants/Church of England/Anglicans. Then compare them to the Mormons.
All, ultimately, Christian by definition. They all approach the Bible and God differently - but by definition they remain Christian. Some worship relics, others saints in addition to Jesus/God. Some have added to the Bible (Mormons), some believe in divorce, some in cremation. Some believe thet God/Jesus/Holy Ghost are a single being, others a trinity. Fact is that they are all Christian. Just because each and everyone of those Christian sects/denominations believes they are the one and only doesn't change the fact they are all Christian.
__________________
From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.
Like I said, semantics. But the Mormons and Catholics are not the same as those who simply identify themselves as Jesus's disciples (i.e. Christians). There are those who practice a lot of tradition and hold beliefs that cannot ever be supported by the Bible.
Despite the fact that Catholics predate almost all other versions of Christianity by a few hundred years?
And both of them believe themselves to be of God and Jesus. The Mormons though believe they have access to gospels which clarify the Bible (and would have been in the Bible if they hadn't been in America), while the Catholics believe that Saints, Relics, Mary can act as intermediaries between God and earth. Fact remains the Bible, and Jesus, are primary parts of their belief system, and semantics of no that qualifies them as Christian.
So which, in your opinion, is the one true branch of Christianity? Since, by technicality it can't be Christianity in general as certain Christians are considered misguided.
__________________
From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.
Get into the Word for yourself and find out. I cannot abritrarily decree or declare that "thus" is the one true branch of Christianity.
Who am I? I am a man just like you. But I got into the Word for myself. God has all of the answeres to your questions. I simply attempt to answer your questions as best I can FROM THE BIBLE. But ultimately, you need to get into the Word for yourself, get born again, then ask God the Father to reveal to you the truth concerning these questions that you have.
Actually, the Bible is considered a collection of books with numerous authors.
However, the books contradict eachother, even the chapters contradict each other, and there are hilarious times when adjacent QUOTES contradict eachother !
In a way, yes, but in another way not at all. I say yes, because if God is the Creator, then there can not be a God in Buddhism because there is no such thing as a one-time creation or a final apocalyptic end. The universe is an open-ended and interdependent process, and so are our lives. The idea that there are definitive beginnings and endings or absolute boundaries between things or beings is viewed by Buddhism as part of the delusion that reinforces our selfishness and sense of alienation from all that exists. So we can not talk of a supreme creator in Buddhism because there is no creation -- there is only reality just as it is, beyond words or concepts. This reality we must see for ourselves and deal with directly.
So is this reality an impersonal absolute? Is it a mystic void? Or perhaps it is like the Force in Star Wars? But these are also speculations and cold abstractions. None of them can describe the living reality which Buddhism helps us to awaken to. I think, however, that the best way of putting it is that while Buddhism does not view the ultimate reality as a person, it nevertheless views it as very personal. In other words, the ultimate reality is not a cosmic grandfather with a flowing beard, a toga and the proper genitalia, but is something that defies any category while still being the source of loving-kindness, compassion, joy and the peace that surpasses understanding. One who awakens to this reality (which is what the word Buddha means: “Awakened One”) awakens to that which is the pure, blissful, eternal and true nature of all life.
Are u saying that salvation set forth from Christianity is better than the other? I believe we are travelling on the same mountain top but with different map.
KMC Community Forums
Jul 16th, 2006 04:03 AM
