Christian Denominations and me

[Carpathian Wolf]

God cares not what the hell you called yourself in your life. Orthodox, Catholic, Coptic, or Lutheran.

Find me some biblical backing that makes any earthly lineage of a church to the Original church relevant to any man's salvation. There simply is none. The only thing a man has to look at when choosing a church is "does this all jive with the Bible."

The bible being the word of God is a filter with which we can seperate revisionism from truth. You sir, have a pretty poor understanding of just what Christianity is...you might as well be one of the early church leaders who scoffed at the idea of Gentiles becoming Christians.

I'm not scoffing at all. Simply put if you do everything in the bible you find yourself to be Orthodox. That's what I try for anyway. It isn't about the "label." Even though I am not suppose to I sin and I see people who call themselves Orthodox but are missing the point. At the same time I know people of other faiths, Hindus, Muslims and I can't help but think (even though it's wrong to judge) that they will be in paradise because they are loving people.

Pretty much all of Acts sums up why the Orthodox Church is the early Church. Or you can tell me when it sprung up instead?

[hellas1]

Hi all,

Let's make this simple:

Jesus Christ IS the only "Head" of the Church, which is composed of believers.

Denominations did NOT exist in the "Apostolic Era."

Schism did: I Corinthians: "One is of Paul, of Apollos, of Cephas, of Christ"
Paul however, rebuked ALL of them.....Even the 'Of Christ" group, Why?

Christ has not been divided. Only 1 Christ folks and 1 Kingdom of God with 1 intent: Jesus Christ being formed in his people.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit brings unity & the bond of peace and the Wisdom of God is first pure, peaceable, etc.

It is ONLY by revelation from the Holy Spirit as we, believers, read the written word & abide IN the living word Jesus who is the Christ that unity will come.
The Fallen nature always wants to exalt "self" whereas the Holy Spirit wants to exalt Christ ALONE.

Amen.
hellas1 Church, 1 Faith, 1 Baptism, 1 God, 1 Hope in Christ Jesus alone.

[Emperor Qianlong]

I'm Roman Catholic.

[Zenith Darksea]

The bible being the word of God is a filter with which we can seperate revisionism from truth. You sir, have a pretty poor understanding of just what Christianity is...you might as well be one of the early church leaders who scoffed at the idea of Gentiles becoming Christians.

Here's a simple question for you (though you might find it quite hard, nonetheless) - can you find any one part of the Bible that says that the Bible is to be used as the sole measure of truth in theology?

Once you've mulled that over, try this one - most Protestants will agree with you that the Bible should be used as the sole measure of theological truth, so why is it that there are over 30,000 (often wildly differing) Protestant denominations today?

If you're feeling really daring, have a crack at this one - if the Bible is to be used as the sole measure of theological truth by all Christians, then why is it that Protestants excised the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament from their Bibles at the end of the Middle Ages, despite the fact that hitherto Christians had generally always included them? If individual Protestants took it upon themselves to remove books from the Bible, then don't you worry about your version's ability to act as a measure of truth?

There are a few other questions that I could throw at you, but I think that's enough to be getting on with for now. Answers, please.

Denominations did NOT exist in the "Apostolic Era."

Indeed they did not. It was simply a united Church - united in beliefs, practices and tradition. 'Denominations' are an invention of modern Protestantism, a somewhat embarrassed attempt to explain how a movement that was supposed to uncover 'Biblical truth' ended up fracturing into 30,000 opposing sects.

[basics]

Zenith Darksea,

I see that you are still not learning.

Jesus Christ preached only the Law, Prophets and Psalms as being appropriate for the salvation of man. That is why we ignore the books you state. But after all Jesus is only God and not of the Orthodox or Roman Catholic systems of religion.

Was it not Jesus Himself who said that man cannot live by bread alone but every word that cometh from out of the mouth of God? Now where would that word be found? The Old Testament perhaps but then when we add on the New do we then find the missing books? No, not even a mention of them. Why? Because they are unimportant in the process of salvation.

Concerning the sole measure of truth, we can safely say that Scripture is exactly that. Combine it with the inward leading of the Holy Ghost and you have truth. But then perhaps you would like to answer your own question and therefore tell us were else truth about Godly things may be found? Start with the books we took out.

No, the day that the Orthodox broke away from the Romanists was the day that denominationalism came into being. But if you remember another saying of Jesus, that a house divided against itself cannot stand. It sure didn’t take long for your house to tumble about your ears, this united church that every book in the New Testament letters warn of.

The good news is that despite all the world’s systems, God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is still calling out a people to be His. They are born again and every one I would bet could tell you in an instance how they were saved and what Jesus Christ is doing right now in their lives. That is the continuation of the church made visible at Pentecost and they do not worship idols.

[SigniferOne]

Here's a simple question for you (though you might find it quite hard, nonetheless) - can you find any one part of the Bible that says that the Bible is to be used as the sole measure of truth in theology?

Nothing else is immune to the Original Sin.

Again that's the last thing I'll say, as we' are all clearly exceeding our bounds as per the original poster's intents.

[SigniferOne]

People, it is usually good manners to respect the thread starter's wishes.

[Ó Cathasaigh]

Here's a simple question for you (though you might find it quite hard, nonetheless) - can you find any one part of the Bible that says that the Bible is to be used as the sole measure of truth in theology?

I can't say that I have, but then again, I've never read the contrary either.

Once you've mulled that over, try this one - most Protestants will agree with you that the Bible should be used as the sole measure of theological truth, so why is it that there are over 30,000 (often wildly differing) Protestant denominations today?

Because of small disagreements on petty things as well as the problem of different interpretations of God's word. That of course ignores the fact that some people just wanted to found a church.

f you're feeling really daring, have a crack at this one - if the Bible is to be used as the sole measure of theological truth by all Christians, then why is it that Protestants excised the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament from their Bibles at the end of the Middle Ages, despite the fact that hitherto Christians had generally always included them? If individual Protestants took it upon themselves to remove books from the Bible, then don't you worry about your version's ability to act as a measure of truth?

There is no standard Protestant Bible, nor is there some law stating that we cannot use "Catholic" or "Orthodox Bibles". In fact, we are encouraged to use multiple different versions in order to better understand what we're reading.

Now if It's okay, I'd like to ask you a question. If the Bible is not the sole truth we are to look too, just what is? Fallible men? The Bible calls EVERY man to be a "preacher" in a way.

[Zenith Darksea]

Sig has a very fair point. We can take this discussion to a separate thread.

[Carpathian Wolf]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...56#post7633856

Here we go.

[hellas1]

Hi all,

Let's understand something about the Bible:

The original manuscripts called "Aftographa" in Greek or "Autographs" in English, meant "Self written."
Self written, per se, means that the original authors wrote the original texts and we now have copies of copies.

My second point:
The Bible is not a mere "historical text" full of doctrinal proofs.
The Bible is a story of man's relationship to God.
Furthermore, Paul said that the "Letter kills but the Spirit brings/gives life." In THAT particular context, Paul was referring to the Law of Moses.

I would extend what Paul said to mean the Entire "Old Testament."
Understanding God's word necessitates having the Holy Spirit to "Lead and Guide you into all the truth."

Without the Holy Spirit leading and Guiding you, you'll have "Bible Knowledge" but you will NOT have LIFE, which comes only from God.

Peace out,
hellas1:14.......An epistle read by all people, warts and all......