Hoss

Absolutely!! And with that....I'll let you guys have this thread AND the pope. I didn't intend to turn this into a religious debate. Y'all take care.

By the way, Rusty, I'm not sure what point you were trying to make when you quoted Acts 15.

RustyJC

Nope, I don't want to argue denominations, either. This forum isn't the place. However, when one presents a formula for how the New Testament church should function, it certainly opens the topic up for discussion.

Acts 15 presents an interesting description of how a doctrinal dispute out in the "hinterlands" was handled by bringing it back to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for a hearing and decision (as was handed down by James in Acts 15:13-20 - see particularly verses 19-20).

Rusty

Commatoze

I would consider myself an active Catholic, and instead of looking down my nose at other faiths, I revel in the theological differences that make up both Christian and non-Christian religions. I liken the donning of my yarmulke and sitting in a synagog as my friend got married to this yankee's first introduction to Ham Hocks and Collards. It's a fantastic cultural feast. As with an Italian opera, you don't have to understand it. Just take it in and appreciate it for what it is, and what it means to those of us who do.

Now to respond to your comment. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to Peter himself. This may possibly be unequaled by any institution in history. Christ gave Peter alone the "keys of the kingdom" (Matthew 16:19) and promised that Peter’s decisions would be binding in heaven. He also gave similar power to the other apostles (Matthew 18:18), but only Peter was given the keys, symbols of his authority to rule the Church on earth in Jesus’ absence. Early Christian writings tell us that Peter’s successors, the bishops of Rome (who from the earliest times have been called by the affectionate title of "pope," which means "papa"), continued to exercise Peter’s ministry in the Church.

Hoss

Thanks for your response Commatoze. Just to clarify....I'm not in the habit of looking down my nose at anything (except for maybe Chevy trucks). I just try to read the Bible and do what it says and I look for a church that tries to pattern itself after the New Testament church. Many times I see denominations teaching things that are inconsistent with what I understand the Bible to say. Being the outspoken person that I am, I have a [perhaps bad] habit of bringing those things to light.

I didn't mean to offend. This is precisely the reason I try to avoid religious discussions over the internet. Sometimes I can't help it though...and with all of the media attention this has been getting this was one of those times.

I hear lots of people pushing for religious tolerance, but God is very specific about what he expects out of Christians in everyday living and in worship. I can't force myself to be tolerant of something that I think is different from God's commandments. It's that whole "love the sinnner, hate the sin" thing. And FYI...I'm speaking in general here....not necessarily about the Catholic church.

I think that's enough out of me on this topic.

phox_mulder

Someone needs to add that to their sig line, Begle, where are ya?



Just a friendly reminder to keep it on topic, "Picking a new Pope"


phox

t-15 firefighter

Sorry guys, I’ve been away all day.

Phox I apologize for this.

Okay Hoss. First things first. I’m not choosing you to question out of the blue. Should I let everyone know what the whole story is? Wasn’t it you that P.M.’d me and asked me to remove a reply to a post that had a quote in it from you? After you removed your inflamatory post. Something about the Catholic Church being the Antichrist? I removed it in good faith that you wouldn’t say any more about the pope and preach your ways. If I had known that you were going to go on and demonize the Catholic religion I would have left it up and never removed it. I assumed that you would just let it go. But you didn’t. You ended up preaching your beliefs as fact and no one else is right.
While I believe no one is right or wrong you just can’t let it go.

So… judging by your post above you have a DUTY to preach. Well good.

Let me throw out this analogy…. Say that someone in your family or a close friend were to die in a car crash because of a under inflated tire (I hope nothing like this ever happens but this is just an analogy). You possessed the knowledge to teach someone about the proper maintenance of the tires. While you are in mourning I decide to chastise you for not passing on that knowledge. At this time I ACTUALLY have a DUTY to preach to you about tire maintance but do you think that this would be the appropriate time to bring this piece of information up?

While you may feel it is your so-called duty to preach, do you feel like this is the appropriate time? Do you really feel like you are going to change someone’s heart right NOW?

Since you feel like you need to broadcast you beliefs then here are the P.M.s that you sent me :


I wish you would have!


And here is my reply….



And your reply back….




So I guess that waiting a few hours until the pope really died was the appropriate time?

I removed the whole reply to your post out of good faith. For some reason you feel as if you need to preach to everyone else while they are in mourning. I just don’t get it.

Also updated my sig Phox.


Britt

Hoss

It appears you're having trouble comprehending what I write.

T-7...what I said in that post and what I said in this one are two TOTALLY different things that have no relation whatsoever to each other. I chose to delete my post in that instance (and asked you to do the same) in order to prevent things from getting out of hand and the thread getting locked.

In this instance, I was simply stating that there is a pattern for church government that is established in the Bible...and that, in my opinion, we should try to pattern today's church after the New Testament church. That applies to Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness and everyone else. As I said in a later post in this very thread (which you must not have read), I was not necessarily speaking directly to Catholics. It was a general statement about church government.

Thanks for bringing all of this to light though. I should have known better than to ask a favor of you.

t-15 firefighter

wish you would have left it alone then.

i'm done with this topic

britt

Geico266

Well then.......

I think we have all learned something here.....

I'm just trying to figure out what it is.

How about we all just watch the "Changing of the guard" and learn and understand the historic significance of the times in which we live?

t-15 firefighter

Yeah I’m with you Geico

It will be very interesting. I have always been interested in religious history and traditions. Whatever religion it may be.


Britt