The True Church

[Random]

Suppose there is only one true believer left in all the world: what then is the Church?

The believer Himself, for if "she", the Church, is the mediator between Man and God, then the Church is the mans feminine side, His intimate Wife.

Bottom line: Church = I AM THAT.

 

[doppelganger]

How can trusting in Christ alone be egotism?

By mistaking the sign for the thing signified.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

By mistaking the sign for the thing signified.

All signs point to the glory of God. What is your sign pointing to?

 

[doppelganger]

All signs point to the glory of God. What is your sign pointing to?

I can't say.

 

[Random]

All signs point to the glory of God. What is your sign pointing to?

The Emancipation of Man by the light of God's glory.

 

[doppelganger]

The Emancipation of Man by the light of God's glory.

Don't you mean "from," Conor?

 

[Random]

Don't you mean "from," Conor?

What's the difference? Man projects an ideation of himself which creates "God" and the Man worships thus a shadow of his own Self, a mysterious Other that he is by his own ego compelled to idealize and adore whilst abstracting what is good about himself unto this supralogical Weird and then wallowing in whatever is left, endlessly seeking control mechanisms to be like the illusory thing he has put in heavens above.

However, realization of this clincal self-deception can free man from the cage of his own delusion, a la the Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Mani, Krishnamurti and others.

Whether from the Light of God's glory or By it, it must be faced from angles which work best for the person seeking Emancipation, and the state of unfreedom reversed.

 

[doppelganger]

What's the difference?

None.

Man projects an ideation of himself which creates "God" and the Man worships thus a shadow of his own Self, a mysterious Other that he is by his own ego compelled to idealize and adore whilst abstracting what is good about himself unto this supralogical Weird and then wallowing in whatever is left, endlessly seeking control mechanisms to be like the illusory thing he has put in heavens above.

However, realization of this clincal self-deception can free man from the cage of his own delusion, a la the Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Mani, Krishnamurti and others.

Yes. Quite.

 

[FFH]

Does anyone agree that the true chuch is not a particular religous organziation like the LDS Church, Roman Catholic Church, Bapist Church, Methodist Church, etc? The true church consists of all sinners who have been converted to Christ, or united to Him through faith in Christ?

Christ's followers are spread throughout all Churches, who profess Christ as their savior...

The LDS church, however, has the most truth, and contains the "fullness" of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is necessary for salvation and exaltation in the highest kingdom of glory, where God the Father and the Son live...

 

[FFH]

I prayed, but I did not get a burning of the bosom.

Ask the right questions, be specific...

For instance, ask God which church has the most truth, for they all contain some truth, some more than others obviously..

There is so black and white answers concerning the many religions of the world...

There is verying degrees of truth in many religions of this world, the question should be asked, which one has the most truth which will make it possible for me to have all that God has and enjoys...

I know that this church is that church...

If you want to be strictly black and white about your questions posed to God in prayer then he will answer in that way....

For instance there are two churches mentioned in the Book of Mormon...

1) Church of the Lamb of God (those who do the will of Christ)
2) Chruch of the Devil (those who do the will of the devil)

At any given point in our lives we are either doing one or the other...

God told me that the Mormon Church is not the true one.

Right because the true church of Christ includes all churches who profess Christ as their savior, but the LDS church contains the "fullness" of Christ's gospel, which is necessary to obtain the highest degree of glory, where God the Father and the Son dwell

I'm still looking.

You don't need to look any further, there are true Christian churches all around you. I personally love all Evangelical/Pentacostal churches. They seem to add to my walk with Christ, but they (all other Christian churches) still they don't have any of the necessary saving ordinances which are required for exaltation with the Father and the Son...

Do a thorough study of the many Christian religions you are interested in and then study it out in your mind and then ask God what church contains the most truth of all the Christian churches...

 

[FFH]

This may seem cotradictory to LDS beliefs but this is straight from the Book of Mormon...

1 Nephi 14: 10 (Book of Mormon)
And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.

Edit: Also keep in mind that Christ broke bread and drank wine as emblems of his body, which was broken, and his blood, which was shed, and he told his disciples to do the same...

The LDS church breaks bread, no other church, that I know of, incorporates this as part of their worship services...

The breaking of the bread is symbolic of Christ's broken body....

www.lds.org/scriptures
www.Mormon.org
www.lds.org

 

[sojourner]

Never in the 41 years of my life have I ever received or greeted a Catholic missionary at my door preaching any news, good or otherwise.

but they sure are out there in the world, living the gospel by their good example. i know lots and lots of good Catholics who have lived the good news and been an example for me...

 

[sojourner]

those doing the will of God . and doing what Jesus commanded them to do . matthew 28;19-20 matthew 24;14 and by their fruits you will recognize them. and they will have love among themselves. just as Jesus said they would.
Jesus said: "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves." (John 13:35)

There are an awful lot of people out there who do these things, but I doubt you'd say they were part of the "true Church..."

 

[sojourner]

Actually there are 4 marks to the true church.

1)." the Church Is One (Rom. 12:5, 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:13, CCC 813–822)

Jesus established only one Church, not a collection of differing churches (Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, and so on). The Bible says the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23–32). Jesus can have but one spouse, and his spouse is the Catholic Church.His Church also teaches just one set of doctrines, which must be the same as those taught by the apostles (Jude 3). This is the unity of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2). Although some Catholics dissent from officially-taught doctrines, the Church’s official teachers—the pope and the bishops united with him—have never changed any doctrine. Over the centuries, as doctrines are examined more fully, the Church comes to understand them more deeply (John 16:12–13), but it never understands them to mean the opposite of what they once meant.

2).The Church Is Holy (Eph. 5:25–27, Rev. 19:7–8, CCC 823–829)

By his grace Jesus makes the Church holy, just as he is holy. This doesn’t mean that each member is always holy. Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt. 7:21–23). But the Church itself is holy because it is the source of holiness and is the guardian of the special means of grace Jesus established, the sacraments (cf. Eph. 5:26).

3). The Church Is Catholic (Matt. 28:19–20, Rev. 5:9–10, CCC 830–856)

Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20). For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28). Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19).The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it probably went all the way back to the time of the apostles.

4). The Church Is Apostolic (Eph. 2:19–20, CCC 857–865)

The Church Jesus founded is apostolic because he appointed the apostles to be the first leaders of the Church, and their successors were to be its future leaders. The apostles were the first bishops, and, since the first century, there has been an unbroken line of Catholic bishops faithfully handing on what the apostles taught the first Christians in Scripture and oral Tradition (2 Tim. 2:2). These beliefs include the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the forgiveness of sins through a priest, baptismal regeneration, the existence of purgatory, Mary’s special role, and much more —even the doctrine of apostolic succession itself.Early Christian writings prove the first Christians were thoroughly Catholic in belief and practice and looked to the successors of the apostles as their leaders. What these first Christians believed is still believed by the Catholic Church. No other Church can make that claim."
These quotes are taken directly from here: http://www.catholic.com/library/pillar.asp

Enjoy!:yes:

I agree, but you'll never prove it to anyone who is a Biblical iconolatrist.

 

[sojourner]

The scriptures obviously mean the Bible. What's their to prove? We're not talking about the Qur'an here. If you read 2 Timothy 3, you would understand what he is talking about:

"Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." 2 Timothy 3:8

Now what did Moses write?

The "Bible" didn't exist when this was written. This letter was not considered to be scriptural until later. What were being referred to were the Hebrew scriptures.

As far as we know, Moses wrote nothing...

 

[sojourner]

I would agree, but we always ask people to pray about it, and not just take our word for it. The church is founded on personal revelation.

I thought the Church was founded on Christ...

 

[sojourner]

Does anyone agree that the true chuch is not a particular religous organziation like the LDS Church, Roman Catholic Church, Bapist Church, Methodist Church, etc? The true church consists of all sinners who have been converted to Christ, or united to Him through faith in Christ?

I would agree that no one denomination or organization has the market cornered on the Body of Christ. But the Body of Christ is organic and is organized into something recognizable. That some parts of the Body call themselves one thing and some another is only corollary.

 

[thedictator]

So, what church shoud I join? I want to join the one true church. Which one is it, and why?

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.



You can not join the ONE TRUE CHURCH, God must add you to the ONE TRUE CHURCH.

 

[thedictator]

athanasius: The "universal" Church is not the same as the Roman Catholic Church. When the Bishop of Rome took power he created the Roman Catholic Church a Denomination. The Pope's power was by force, The Roman Supporters Killed all who would not go along with the power grab of the Roman Bishop. The universal (catholic) Church is made up of those who obey the ONLY WORD OF GOD-The Bible.

 

[Aqualung]

By mistaking the sign for the thing signified.

Nice.