Like I said, the Church has PR problems. Rand, of A Pattern of Sound Words, asserts:
"A Christian Roman Catholic, to me, is as opposite as a Nazi Jew. One cannot be a follower of Christ and be a follower of Romanism at the same time. Why? Because the Romanist worships a god different than the God of the Bible. For example, consider the 2nd person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ:"
"Romanism – Jesus was born of a sinless, perfect mother, who is declared the 'Queen of Heaven'.
Biblical Christinity – Jesus was born of a kind, godly woman, but still a sinner by birth and choice (Luke 1:26-38)."
The best explanation I have ever heard for Mary's sinless conception was from a Rabbi. The Ark of the Covenant was the seat of God on earth. It could only be safely approached and touched by ritually clean priests at certain times of the year. Mary was the ark of the New Covenant, Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:26-28). Her preservation from Original Sin, as well as actual sin, does not, as some suggest, imply that she did not need Christ's saving grace, made possible by the cross. God is not bound by time. He created it. Thus, Mary received at her conception the saving grace of Christ's sacrifice.
"Romanism – Jesus did not have half-brothers and half-sisters."
Biblical Christianity – Mary and Joseph had sons and daughters after the birth of Christ (Luke 8:20)."
The Hebrew and Aramaic words for "brother" and "sister" have broader meaning than most modern languages. There are frequent uses of those words to mean "cousin", "uncle/aunt", or even the incredibly vague "relative". There are frequent uses of the imprecise meanings of those words in the Old Testament. I don't know them off the top of my head. Perhaps one of my readers can help out. You may ask, though, "Since the New Testament was written in Greek, shouldn't the Greek forms of those words mean precisely what they say?" It is not uncommon for a speaker/writer of a second language to use idiomatic expressions and/or words meanings from his primary language. There are examples of this phenomenon as well, but I must again appeal to my readers for references.
"Romanism – Jesus died for all of mankind, Christian or not.
Biblical Christianity – Jesus died for HIS SHEEP; there is no condemnation only for those who are IN CHRIST (John 10:11; Romans 8:1)."
Salvation is a free gift offered to all mankind. However, we must choose to accept it. We are condemned if we reject it. We are saved if we accept it.
"Romanism – Jesus made Peter the 1st pope (the leader of the so-called Roman Catholic church), to act as a representative for God on the Earth.
Biblical Christianity – Jesus is the only mediator between man and God there is no place for popes or priests (1 Timothy 2:5)."
"And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek for rock], and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' " – Matthew 16:17-19
"Romanism – Jesus was a long-haired, bearded, skinny guy.
Biblical Christianity – Jesus knew that it was shameful for a man to have long hair, so he had short hair (1 Corinthians 11:14)."
Now this is just silly. First century Jewish culture and 21st century American or European culture bear little resemblance to each other. In Jesus' time, it was not uncommon for men to wear their hair to their shoulders. That was still considered short because women often had hair to their buttocks or lower. Besides, if you're going anathematize Roman Catholics for depicting Jesus with "long hair", etc, then you're going to have to send a whole lot of Protestants packing with them. Granted, I'm not fond of seeing Jesus looking less like a 1st century Jew from Nazareth and more like a Caucasian hippy, but it's hardly an issue to be damned over.
Actually, I didn’t say much (if anything) about whether or not your Jesus is a mistake. In my view, and that of the Catholic Church, you lack the fullness of Chrsitian truth. You have part of it, but not the whole thing. I do not believe that you worship a different Jesus, any more than a liberal has a different U.S. president. We merely see Him differently. Mormons worship someone who only barely resembles Jesus. Mormonism is a heresy. We could argue in circles about whether or not Protestantism is a heresy, but the point is that I don’t believe you and I worship a different Jesus. There’s too much in common. Obviously, we think of each other as having defective views of Him, but that does not mean we are worshipping different gods.
As a general rule, I try to stick to what I know to be true, as opposed to pointing out what I think is wrong. I may be stretching Biblical interpretations with this philosophy, but I think such a mindset is implicitly addressed by the principle of not judging, lest you be judged.
There are things I don’t understand about Catholic theology, as there have been for many years, but I’ve found that a lot of these things, once explained to me, tend to make a whole lot more sense.
Speaking of which, I caught half a show on EWTN the other day that really clarified the reasoning behind Catholic teachings on birth control — and it scares me a little to admit it, but it really did make a lot of sense…
BTW, I apologize if the last line of my post offended, but I had to avoid the near occasion of sin. I didn’t want to bite your head off. I have heard similar anathemas from several sources and each time I hear it again, I am a little grumpier about it. If you’re going to decalre that I’m going to Hell, you’d better darn sure of it. Otherwise, you’re in serious danger yourself. “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” – Matthew 7:2
Funky, I went over there and read his whole post and the comments… It makes me sad. I’m sorry you were censored. The first thing that tipped me off that he was a very confused man was that his time of learning about the Church came when he was a child. I think it’s safe to say that if we stop learning and/or practicing a particular thing when we’re children then as time goes on we’re going to have less and less of a real understanding of it. For example, if we stopped learning history in kindergarten we’d go through life thinking that George Washington really did chop down that cherry tree.
Greetings,
I hesitate at posting a comment (especially considering your last phrase), but I hope to make an observation that both you and I can agree upon: we serve different Jesus(s)! And that was the main thrust of my post.
You dissected my words and have made your case for your Jesus, and in the end, he is different from mine.
Oh course you believe that your Jesus is the right one and that my Jesus is a big mistake; if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be a Roman Catholic.
Anyway, you’ve made your point, and funny enough, you’ve, in part anyway, made mine.
Peace,
I have just started attending a course in the history of christianity. One of the insights I think it gives me is the width of the christian church. Hopefully we will talk to each other in a better way than the blogger you are refering to .
I look forward to it. Welcome to the “family”. 🙂
Maybe his folks fed him the Santa myth.
soon as I saw the word “Romanist”, I saw all I needed to know
Still so sure about the M-word? 😉
I thought this kind of tripe died out with Jack Chick… but alas he and his ilk are alive and well.
Cheers!
Wow Funky I’m dying to know what uncharitable comments you left… whoo whooo. Of course that is all to say that I know you wouldn’t leave an uncharitable comment… That’d more likely be me 😉 Though charitable is a bigger word than we often give it credit for. Was Jesus “charitable” to the Pharisees and teachers of the law? the money changers in the temple? I’d say yes, but it wasn’t what we usually picture with “charitable.”
H2, now you know what you’re sister and I go thru. All RCC doctrine is very well reasoned and rather compelling (even the strange stuff :-)) once you understand it, and this is no less true for their teaching on contraception.
Cheers…
Wow. I experienced a first today. Rand deleted a comment I left on his blog. The comment was civil, polite, and charitable, yet he saw fit to delete it. I was responding to this comment he made:
“NOW PLEASE PAY ATTENTION: as my post clearly states, I reject romanism, because I believe the Bible rejects it. I’m not interested in a debate. I’ve made my case ON MY WEBSITE. You don’t like it, start your own website. Any future uncharitable comments from disgruntled romanists will be deleted and the ips will be banned. If you have an honest question/comment, be my guest, if you just want to vent, don’t do it here!”
I don’t think this fellow is capable of constructive debate on this issue. I advise my readers to save themselves frustration and not comment on his blog.
This really bothers me. I dislike seeing this kind of animosity between Christians. I like even less being a part of it. *sigh*
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