Hey Sufjon how ya doing…
Hi joe370: Thanks for the reply. I have to admit that I find the whole thing confusing…
Your friend
Sufjon
I use to ask myself the following, in my agnostic days:
how could it be that He would let people who honestly sough to follow Him to get it wrong?
Then it occurred to me that he wouldn’t and he didn’t. God cannot fail and if God left us with a church and said that even our worst enemy will never be able to conquer it, then I believe him. It all comes down to faith in the end. It occurred to me, after my agnostic days, and well into my protestant days, that Jesus left us with one church (He said: I will build MY church…) - after his ascension Jesus endowed his one fledgling church with the holy spirit to ineffably guide his one church leadership into all truth, through every century until His return. By the way I am not implying that protestant churches are not part of Jesus’ mystical body of which Jesus is the head and savior; they are. It’s just that his mystical body is horribly fractured due to people breaking away from His one established church and starting their own churches and basing their teachings on their interpretation of their bibles, which is frowned upon in the bible. I believe that we can trust His one church established circa 33 AD in Jerusalem on Pentecost, for the simple fact that He is the architect (as opposed to a mere human) - and Jesus, in some divine way, protects His church leadership from themselves…from altering His revealed truths. People don’t give God enough credit when it comes to this scriptural teaching. Jesus is the reason why we can trust that the CC (if the CC is the historical church of Matthew 16:18) - is infallibly safeguarding said truth.
People always tell me that the CC leaders think that they are infallible and that is just ridiculous. Even the apostles were sinful fallible church leaders, but no one protestant would ever doubt that these fallible men taught infallibly, yet they do not believe that anyone today can infallibly interpret those infallible truths, which begs the question of my thread: what good are these infallible truths if we cannot infallibly discern them. Much of the stuff in the bible, however is pretty straightforward and Christianity, which is terribly divided is not divided, doctrinally speaking, regarding said stuff. It occurred to me as a former protestant that the apostles and the disciples, Luke and Mark, were inspired by God and received infallible truth from Jesus and then, knowing that they were not going to live forever, proceeded to passed those revealed infallible truths on to successors, who of course would pass revealed truth on to their successors etc. etc… just as Jesus ordained Paul who in turn ordained Timothy and Titus and told them to ordain other people, and through this incremental, successive linear chain of transmission, of divine truth, which is forever guided by the holy spirit, as per the bible, revealed truth has been safeguarded so that every generation of believers can have access to the same revealed truths that the 1st century folks were privy to. That was the church that I wanted to belong to as a former protestant. One that firmly has its roots entrenched in the 1st century pentecostal event, at which point the Holy spirit descended on Jesus’ fledgling church. I wanted to belong to a church, founded by Jesus as opposed to a mere man or woman, that could trace its lineage, through every generation, all the way back to that pentecostal event, the genesis of Jesus’ church. But I certainly respect anyones right to belong to a man made church as I once did long ago. I love all protestant churches for the simple fact that they do amazing altruistic acts, and they teach, promulgate and live the good news, but, none of these churches claim to teach infallibly or to infallibly interpret the word of God, and rightfully so, just as I couldn’t if I started a church tomorrow and started promulgating and teaching others. Jesus did not entrust me with the authority to do anything. He entrusted just one church with that authority, and for me, logically and historically speaking, Jesus’ church is the CC built on Peter and the rest of the apostles. It’s not the fault of those people who were born and raised in a church other than the CC, and they are just as saved as any Christian belonging to the Catholic church, but they just don’t have the fullness of faith, since the holy spirit was not sent to their churches on Pentecost. However, I think it is wise for one to search with ones heart, mind and soul for the historical church founded by God for it is there, in my humble opinion, where the fullness of truth can be found for the simple fact that God is the one preserving all of those revealed truths, just as God did for 1500 years, long before any protestant church ever existed.
Some protestants (not all) - want me to believe that the CC, which was founded by God, (who promised that Jesus would be with His church until the end of time, and sent the HS to guide His church into all truth until the end of time) - fell by the wayside necessitating the need for a reformed church established by mere man as opposed to God, to put God’s church back on track; to do what God, apparently could not do. If that were the case, then God indeed failed.
) with a thought that faith is something we might be called to die for. More specifically, I had the thought that I, personally, could one day face such a choice, and that at the bottom of Christianity was this fact: martyrdom is a testament to the faith.