W
Wannano
Guest
So the Catholic Church never killed any heretics. So when apologies have been made for it they were made not on behalf of the Church they were made on behalf of wicked individuals? Did those evil Catholic murderers get disciplined by the Church for their actions?Okay, maybe I should have rephrased that. The Catholic Church never killed heretics. Sure individual Catholics did but individual Catholics have done horrible things. They aren’t perfect.
But, anyway, the fact that Christ was created automatically says that he is not eternal. Eternal meaning without beginning and without end. Arius himself states that, “God has not always been the Father; there was a moment when he was alone, and was not yet Father.” (Church in the Christian Roman Empire, I, 80). That is a pretty huge departure from Christian theology and pretty essential. As we say in our Creed, Christ was begotten, not made. A distinct difference in Catholic theology.
The Catholic Church sure didn’t think they were being picky when they condemned Nestorianism. Christians believe that Christ has one nature but two persons. Nestorians claim that Christ has two natures. Another distinct difference in Catholic (and Christian) theology. Pretty essential since it would drastically change how we think of Christ.
Donatism is an interesting point since they didn’t primarily deny any doctrine. As you said they denied that priests who have fallen into mortal sin can administer valid sacraments. And they also believed that you had to be baptized again if you came over to their sect. The thing is, you still can’t say that not all Christians before the Orthodox and Catholic split were not Catholic. For all intents and purposes it was. Even with the Donatists since they didn’t deny anything other than the validity of the sacraments preformed by a sinful priest. That’s like saying that if there were only Catholics and members of the Society of Pius X, then Catholics were not the only Christians.