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45000+ Denominations
- Thread starter Fool
- Start date
Some of my Christian - Catholic friends are the most beautiful people I have ever had the privilege to have as friends. I think Jesus would be proud of those of His followers who try to live up to His teachings.
As to those who don’t I believe He has a sin covering Eye and prays that all humanity will one day be as a loving family.
But I think He is very disappointed at the disunity of competing Christian sects and that it deeply saddens Him.
As to those who don’t I believe He has a sin covering Eye and prays that all humanity will one day be as a loving family.
But I think He is very disappointed at the disunity of competing Christian sects and that it deeply saddens Him.
I don't think Jesus cared...
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
What a great way to prove there is no real existing God that communicates whatsoever except what they invent inside their heads.
InChrist
Free4ever
Denominations are only what you see on the outside. Jesus is working on the growth and maturity of His Body from the inside out in the lives of all who believe and belong to Him. Believers come from all different backgrounds and are at various places in their understanding and relationship with the LORD. Denominations reflect this, but Jesus is in the process of bringing believers to unity...
...And He Himself gave some to be apostles some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:11-16
the real god exists within self. that is where people need to start looking. what is stranger is the phenomena that they don't follow the requirements known to that god within themselves. they are at war within themselves.
why follow that spirit, that thought sometimes and other times ignore it?
the father is greater, the body counts for nothing.
InChrist
Free4ever
I don’t know what you mean to say or the point you are trying to make.
I make a distinction between apostolic Christianity and Protestantism (loosely defined) and its offshoots. Most of the innumerable sects are Protestant. Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy remain coherent and visible traditions which combined make up most of the world's Christians. Ignore Protestantism and much of the mess disappears.
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Which is why the Catholic Church really is not a denomination as the others.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
The tens of thousands of protestant denominations are a huge scandal. It ruins the credibility of Protestants that they have so many divisions. It is due to their belief that any person can read the bible, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will correctly interpret. If you look at Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, you only have a few divisions, because they assert that ti is the church (the consensus of the bishops) that determines the correct interpretation. As a Jew, I relate more with the Catholics and Orthodox, since in Judaism we depend wholeheartedly on the authority of the Rabbis in the Talmud to understand the Torah. Jews also only have a mere handful of divisions. If you out there are Protestant, I would think really long and hard whether sola scriptura is really sufficient, because most assuredly the disunity looks very bad to those of us on the outside.
The irony is that sola scriptura is nowhere taught in the Christian canon. On the contrary, the New Testament exhorts Christians to hold fast to the traditions taught by both letter and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:15
That word is called Sacred Tradition. (The Christian equivalent of the Oral Torah). The Protestant rejection of this tradition has predictably resulted in their fragmentation as more and more people attempt to interpret the Bible by their own (usually untrained) lights.
I agree. The Catholics and Orthodox have genuine claims to continuity with the ancient Church. Protestantism is a 16th century movement which requires us accept the notion that no one understood Christianity before [insert favorite reformer] showed up.
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IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
What is even more significant is that th Torah (the first five books of the Bible) specifically gives the levites and the judges/rabbis God given authority to interpret the law. So it is self contradictory for someone to say that only accept the bible, when the bible itself teaches the authority of men.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
If one understands the history of Christianity the schism was largely the fault of the Catholic church itself. It had too much power. Private ownership of Bibles was not even allowed. And the church itself was rather corrupt. One example was the selling of indulgences:
Indulgences, Roman Catholicism, and the Reformation
The power of the Church over both secular and religious life was too much and spawned various splinter versions of the faith. The religious wars of the Reformation saw a lot of bad acts from both sides. A nd the cats were definitely out of the bag then.
And if the pope had listened to Luther there may have never been that initial split.
It was not to hide Scripture but to safeguard interpretation.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Possibly. But the Catholic Church of that time seemed to think that it was infallible. It was not going to happen.
And I did not claim that it was to hide the Bible. Yes, it was to "safeguard interpretation". Once again, the Catholic Church seemed to think that they were infallible. They opposed reasonable discussion. I do not get the view from Jews that the Rabbinical beliefs were imposed on their followers to that extent. In fact those that did were chided for that by Jesus
The Reformation occurred largely due to the actions of the church. The got too involved with the secular world. As a result there was opposition from both other religious Christians and secular powers that did not want the church butting in on business that should have been outside their area of authority.
I don't expect Jesus to have existed as a literal person, and certainly not as a supernatural entity either.
I think that Jesus was always an allegorical character.
As for the doctrines, they will and must vary according to cultural circunstances, which are themselves subject to changes across time and communities.
By a certain perspective, 45 thousands is way too low a number. Religious and ethical teachings truly take form in a myriad ways even for the same person in different circunstances.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I'm not saying there weren't problems with the Catholic church. I'm simply pointing out that sola sciptura has never been sufficient to keep unity in the Protestants denominations.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
There is no doubt that there are problems with sola scripture either. I do not think that we disagree on that at all. I was just trying to explain how the actions of the Catholic Church led to Protestantism.