Originally Posted by **jblake **
What I was pointing out was that different groups can, and do view the exact same event, coming to different conclusions about its cause, effect, and affect. Those conclusions are how the group defines the event.
But there is only one Truth. Truth is not subjective…it is objective. Your point is a contridiction of terms and the writings of Sacred Scripture. How one interprets Truth does not change its reality.
Originally Posted by jblake
Such as those great non-Catholics, Pope Honorius and Pope Gregory. (Both of them wrote grimoires.)
**Your angst is clearly focused on the Catholic Church and on the imperfection of its membership. If you find the perfect Christian communion on earth with a flawless membership…well, the moment you or I join we ruined it for everybody else because it will then no longer be perfect. That is the nature of being a Christian…we are only perfected by Christ and truly ministered to by His Church (His bride, His embodiment on earth). **
Originally Posted by jblake
That hasn’t prevented Catholic Priests from either practicing, or keeping alive the traditions and knowledge of Ceremonial Magic.
Indeed, it is due to their efforts that so many grimoires, and the like were preserved.
The Salem witch trials, the KKK, Jim Jones and the massacre, Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Oral Roberts, the Branch Davidians, the Mormon and Jehovah’s Witness movements, the Peasant Wars, Henry VIII murdering his wives and burning churches and looting the relics of the Church, Martin Luther approving of and knowingly taking part in officiating a polygamist marriage ceremony for Philip the Landgrave of Hess, Jeremiah Wright (most recently in the papers), etc. I now see the flawless nature and impecability of Protestant leadership and history. What was I thinking?
Originally Posted by **jblake **
By breaking the disinterested, it is easier to break the Bride of Christ.
This is a completely illogical assertion. The interested are the members of the bride of Christ fully invested in her Truth. The disinterested are those willing to entertain something other than the Truth of the Church.
Dear jblake:
My previous post (the point of your initial criticism) was based in Sacred Scripture…not the conjecture of personal opinion. That was one of the hardest things for me to accept about being Catholic (or Orthodox for that matter). One has to overcome one’s own opinions and be truly faithful.
“You must deny yourself, pick up your cross each day, and follow me.” In this one statement…no health-wealth-prosperity doctrine, no once-saved-always-saved doctrine (it is a marathon day after day, not a sprint), no God-on-my-terms doctrine (if they reject you they reject me). It says wake up, expect suffering, persevere through it by living in Me (the Christ) and following my teachings.
And since Paul says that the Church (the household of the Lord) is the bullwork and foundation of all Truth, and that we must follow those with authority over us in the Church, and that we must accept all or nothing, and because Christ said “This is my body, this is my blood, you must eat my flesh or there shall be no life in you, if you deny me before others I will deny you before my Father.” As for me I guess I’ll go with the testimony of Christ and His holy apostles.
I’ll wake up each day (a sinner still in need of grace and the mercy of God)…deny myself (which I sometimes do so poorly)…and follow Christ (observing all that He and His appointed disciples…and their disciples…and their disciples, etc. have instructed). And I will not try to make him into a liar…I think we have all done that enough in our lives. I take God at His word because He was the Word made Flesh.
I also think that 1.5 billion Catholic and Orthodox Christians who are able to trace their Priestly and Bishopric lineage as well as their Sacramental doctrine of the 7 Sacraments (including the Most Holy Eucharist) back to the very Apostles of the Lord who have professed the same body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord present in the Most Holy Eucharist for 2,000 years from the very days of His death, descent into Hades, and glorious ressurrection on the 3rd day, pretty much says it all.
WE BELIEVE IN ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH…Council of Nicea in 325 AD, the vote was 314 yeah and 2 neah.
My Faith is is the Holy Spirit that overshadowed and moved the hearts of 314 just men (not just in themselves, rather justified and sanctified in the Spirit)…not in the heresy of the 2 in dissent. Even Christ Jesus had Judas! I beleive in the words of Christ in MT 16 and MT 18 when He gave the Apostles authority and power over the earthly Church. It teaches by the authority of Christ…either accept it or reject it. There is no “feel good” middle ground.
More simply, either Jesus said…“This is my body, this is my blood, you must eat my flesh or there shall be no life in you” or He didn’t. Either he meant it “truly” as He said “Amen. Amen. I say to you…” or He didn’t. I know that He did! And I shall pray that you see it, too!
The disbelief in the reality of the Eucharist is an indictment of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself (His very flesh) and eternal gift of His flesh and blood back to us for the saving of souls and His experiencing the separation of the body and soul of man just as we die, it is an indictment of His bodily ressurrection, an indictment against the promise that He would be with us always and that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Most sadly of all it is an indictment of the reality of the actual words of the Word Made Flesh who lowered Himself for our sakes and dwelt among men as man incarnate.
Yours in Christ,
Veritashunter
Former Protestant