Is The Evangelical Jesus same with The Catholic Jesus?

[Daniel_Marsh]

If you mean Theotokos as the church creed council defines it, then yes they are the same. But, if you mean “mother of God” in the way that modern Maryologists want us to believe then NO, neither the historical Theotokos, nor Evangelical Mary is the same as the modern maryologists defines her.

google.com/search?hl=en&q=Theotokos+church+creed+council

You will find that evangelicals accept the first six to eight councils. But, we do not accept modern maryology.

I suggest you go back and study the church councils, creeds before falsely accusing others of not being christian.

 

[Home_at_Last]

I’m sorry. I never meant to accuse anyone of not being a Christian. I was just trying to explain to the best of my ability a little about Marian teaching from the Bible. As far if Evangelicals and Catholics believing in the same Jesus. Jesus is Jesus, He never changes. However, how the two view Him and understand his teaching is very different in many cases. This does not mean a person is not a Christian if they do not have a Catholic understanding of Jesus. However, the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth, therefore the Churches doctrines about Jesus are correct. We are all on a different path to God and he meets us where we are in our faith walk. I do not believe for a minute that anyone who is sincerely seeking Christ and is not Catholic is not a christian. I was a very, very anti-catholic evangelical (fundamentalist) Christian most of my life. However, because Christ’s love, mercy, and grace, He brought me home. If I was fine where I was and there was nothing more and my view of Him was sufficient, than I do not believe I would be Catholic today. Why wouldn’t He have left me right where I was? I prayed for Him to please show me the Truth, because I knew it had to be somewhere and this is where he lead me. Again, I am sorry if I was unclear in my previous posts. I did not mean to offend anyone.

 

[rlj0929]

Just a couple of things to think about. Jesus made His own mother.
If you had the power to create your own mother how would you create her? The bible says you will know them by their fruits. What is the greatest FRUIT any person has produced as a result of their great love for God and obedience? Jesus, Mary brought salvation into the world. How pure, sinless, and holy do you think one would have to be to be able to bring God himself into the world? The Gospel of Luke does a wonderful job of showing Mary to be the new ark of the covenant. Read the account Mary going to Elizabeth and how Elizabeth FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT exclaims, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the FRUIT of your womb, and how is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me,” and how John the baptist filled with the holy spirit is actually leaping in his mothers womb at the sound of Mary’s greeting, then read the account of David in the OT and his reaction when the ark of the covenant was brought before him and you will see a great parallel. Remember, that the OT is but a shadow of the NT. The OT ark carried the manna, the 10 commandments (word of God), and Aarons rod (the symbol of the high priest). Mary carried in her womb: The manna (Jesus, the bread of life), the word of God (Jesus is the word made flesh), and Jesus the true High Priest in her womb. When the angel appears to Mary, an angel that stands before the throne of all mighty God, he says to her Hail, FULL of Grace, which when actually translated from the Greek means one who has been and continues to be completed in Grace…no room for sin there. Also, the language that it used when the angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her is the same language that is used to describe the glory cloud that overshadowed the OT ark.There is a lot of good information out there in the Catholic Answers archives, Tim Staples has some great cd resources. Also, Ed Sri and Scott Hahn have some great books about Mary. I would encourage you to take one thing about the Catholic teaching on Mary you do not understand and pray and ask God to show you the truth. He will, I know from experience. Don’t try to understand it all at once. I will be praying for you.

Thank you for your intelligent response and thank you very much for praying for me.

Robert Johnson

 

[rlj0929]

I’m sorry. I never meant to accuse anyone of not being a Christian. I was just trying to explain to the best of my ability a little about Marian teaching from the Bible. As far if Evangelicals and Catholics believing in the same Jesus. Jesus is Jesus, He never changes. However, how the two view Him and understand his teaching is very different in many cases. This does not mean a person is not a Christian if they do not have a Catholic understanding of Jesus. However, the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth, therefore the Churches doctrines about Jesus are correct. We are all on a different path to God and he meets us where we are in our faith walk. I do not believe for a minute that anyone who is sincerely seeking Christ and is not Catholic is not a christian. I was a very, very anti-catholic evangelical (fundamentalist) Christian most of my life. However, because Christ’s love, mercy, and grace, He brought me home. If I was fine where I was and there was nothing more and my view of Him was sufficient, than I do not believe I would be Catholic today. Why wouldn’t He have left me right where I was? I prayed for Him to please show me the Truth, because I knew it had to be somewhere and this is where he lead me. Again, I am sorry if I was unclear in my previous posts. I did not mean to offend anyone.

Since you are seem to be an intelligent Catholic I hope you don’t mind if I ask you another question. My question is why do Catholics call the pope “Holy Father” when Jesus says call no man “Father” in Matthew.

 

[Home_at_Last]

Since you are seem to be an intelligent Catholic I hope you don’t mind if I ask you another question. My question is why do Catholics call the pope “Holy Father” when Jesus says call no man “Father” in Matthew.

To be honest, I do not have scripture and verse that I can give you to show, for example, that Abraham was referred to as Father in the OT and also in the NT, and that the apostles were also referred to as fathers. I think Jesus was referring more to the fact that the Pharisees who were suppose to be spiritual fathers, were not fulfilling that obligation and should therefore not be referred to with that title. If we were to take this verse literally, than we should not call our biological fathers, father either, since it does say “call NO MAN father.” It does not say, except for your biological father. Our biological fathers and well as our priests share in the one spiritual fatherhood of God. Our Holy Father is the successor of Peter and is our spiritual father, placed in the position to guide Christ’s Church. For me, the title is a way of showing him respect for his position and his willingness to accept his vocation as servant to the servants of Christ. It is also important to try and understand the context surrounding what is being said in Scripture. What was Jesus trying to get us to understand? Was it all about the title “father” or about something more serious, such as what the responsibilities are for one who is given such a title? Was his focus on the people calling these men father and rebuking them or was his focus on the Pharisees and there abuse of the title, and there lack of reverence for being given the privilege to share in the one spiritual fatherhood of God?

I know this isn’t a great answer, but I hope it helps.

These are great questions. I asked all of these before becoming Catholic, though, I am ashamed to say, I was not as kind as you are to the people I would ask them to.

 

[johnstown_johnn]

When the boy Jesus was lost for three days and His mother and St. Joseph searched for Him and finally found Him in the Temple.

He was asking questions of the learned rabbis of the Temple and they were all amazed.

When His mother lamented to Him that they searched everywhere for Him His reply was: “Did you not know that I must go about My Father’s business?”

If God is His Father and Blessed Mother His mother…then how can evangelicals discount her role?

 

[MariaG]

I agree.

I knew the same Jesus as an Evangelical as I now know as a Catholic.

Me too!

As for things like “mother of God”, titles like that are rejected because they misunderstand what they mean not because they believe in a different Christ. While there may be some who border on or are outright believe in the heresies that the title brought about to combat, I do not believe most evangelicals believe that Christ was not divine until after coming out of the womb of Mary.

 

[MariaG]

If you mean Theotokos as the church creed council defines it, then yes they are the same. But, if you mean “mother of God” in the way that modern Maryologists want us to believe then NO, neither the historical Theotokos, nor Evangelical Mary is the same as the modern maryologists defines her.

google.com/search?hl=en&q=Theotokos+church+creed+council

You will find that evangelicals accept the first six to eight councils. But, we do not accept modern maryology.

I suggest you go back and study the church councils, creeds before falsely accusing others of not being christian.

Modern maryologists? I guess I missed that memo

What do “modern maryologists” believe about Mary and you don’t lump the entire Catholic Church into that do you? just a subset of them?

But I 100% agree with you about accusing others of not being Christian. I found the OP to have made just as many wrong assumptions about Evangelicals as the most uneducated Anti-Catholics on this site make about the teachings of the Catholic Church.

 

[Burning4Christ]

Yes. He is one in the same. There only one LORD. I think you should focus on what unites Christians rather than what divides us. We worship the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whether we are Catholic or Evangelical. why spread division within the greater body of Christ?? As a Catholic I know of many evangelicals who are very devoted to Christ, as I know many Catholics who are as well. We recognize them by the Love they express to God and our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. I sometimes visit thier church, and find though I don’t agree with every doctrine, that I learn quite a bit from the spirited preaching at thier services and am able to more deeply appreciate the Catholic faith in doing so - indeed Catholics do believe in more things - such as Mary, and that is a good thing - after all Mary did say YES to God and is our Mother as Jesus said in one of His last words on the cross, but even still evangelicals have something Catholics don’t always have (though many do). they pray before meals, they fight for thier faith, they express it in public, they attend small groups and bible studies to learn more about the faith - and they tell people about thier faith whenever chance they get. These are good thing, that we Catholics could learn to do more - I am not saying we don’t - after all we have the sacraments, but they have same Jesus in a different way - they insist that everyone who calls oneself a Christian, have a deep and convicting belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior (as most Catholics do as well - and I would submit as any Christian who hopes to get to heaven must have) - for without His cross - without his blood in our place, the great chasm between ourselves and a Holy God is far too great for any mere human to cross - focus on the fact that evangelicals and Catholics share this same belief - we just disagree with them if acceptance of the free gift happens at a moment in time, ushering in a life which is filled with the Love of God in a profound way, or a lifetime of perserverance, struggling with our selfish desires and sinful ways to be able to stand before our Lord and have Him say - YES I truly knew you - welcome Home my Child - you walked the talk - so you have truly accepted Me.

AMEN BROTHER! Wow, that is the best response to such a question I have heard in a very long time. I can tell my friend that you truly are a servant of the Living God and you are devoted to Christ. I am personally a Pentacostal, which is a Evangelical Charismatic church, spesifically I am in training to become an Assemblies of God ordained Pastor. I beleive that although there are doctrines in the Evangelical/Pentacostal/Charismatic movement that do not line up with the Roman Catholic Church, even some that do not line up with protestantism.

Something I feel on my heart to say is that above all else we are Christians. We all confess that Jesus Christ is our personaly savior and he died for our sins. We all worship the same Jesus, there is only one Jesus, there arnt two or three of them. With denominations I like to put it like this; I am a Christian, my religion is Pentacostalism. The term Religion I see as a worldly term, and because such I avoid it when ever possibly. A religion is a set of practices and beliefs. Thats not christianity, Christianity is knowing, loving and being fully devoted to God and his Son Jesus. Our Beliefs about how we worship and the spesific doctrine is relativly inconsequential in the big picture. I dont think that when we go to meet our lord in heaven, and lay at the feat of jesus that he is going to tell us “Because you were baptised by immersion you cant come in, or because you were baptised by (and forgive the use of this term, I am ignorant of the true term) trickling you cant come in” Jesus is going to tell us “because you loved me and accepted my Gift of grace and followed my commands, welcome home, good and faithfull servant”

My prayer is that we all can come together under the rock that is Jesus Christ, our lord, our savior.

Praise his name, for he is holy, mighty and worthy of our praises.

Be blessed, my Brothers and Sisters in the Body of Christ,

Brendan Marchione

 

[Burning4Christ]

Concering the Verse in mathew about calling someone father, I did a little research with my concordance as to the meaning of the greek. The word used in that verse is Pater, which is greek of course for father. But I dug around looking for other instances of the use of this word, and every time jesus used the word Pater, it was in refrence to either the Holy father in heaven, or in a parable that was teaching somehting about our father in heaven. In contrast when ever the gospel writers were refering to an earthly father, the term patera was used. Now I am no theologian and by no means an expert in greek (although that is going be my focus when I go for my Masters of Divinity at Seminary) and I may have this arguement completely wrong, but I think that there is something there.
Given the fact that I can almost guarantee that very very few people read the bible in its original laugenges Greek and Hebrew (also aramaic in some instances) We sometimes loose the little idioms and nuences of the Word of God that cannot be fully translated into english or latin or what ever your laungage of choice is. I advise anyone who is searching for meaning in a passage of scripture to bust out a greek/hebrew concordance. It can give insight that will suprise you.

Again, I am not sure if the diffrence of the word Pater and patera amounts to much, and if anyone is an expert in Helenistic Greek I would love nothing more for them to prove me wrong, for the truth will have been made known. But I personally think that the diffrence is significant.

Be Blessed my brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ,

Brendan Marchione

 

[scylla]

Regardless of the amount of study of greek, all we can do is approximate exactly what the original Christians understood by the words written in the Bible. In the original Greek, or the closest we have to the original words since they do not exactly exist.

What we can do is look at early Christianity and check to see how they understood the faith. 2000 years later just looking at the documents all we can do is offer our interpretation, no matter how much scholarship goes into it.

It would be taking the verse out of context to use it exclusively to exclude the word Father as Jesus also specifies Master or Teacher. So is this a prohibition against using the words Father, Master or Teacher? We should look at all three words, not just one. Is this a vocabulary prohibition or something else?

No Catholic would replace God with their Priest and Catholic’s place a huge difference between God the originator of the Faith, the Universe, our Savior and His Priest ministers, our family in the faith. (Catholics use the word father in a family sense)

So unless this is a prohibition against using the word Father in a family sense then it is simply a dishonest attack against Catholicism. (unfortunately Catholics are attacked by misrepresenting the Catholic faith, this is common but understandable)

There is one Christ, the Lord, the savior of mankind.

In Christ
Scylla

Feel free to PM me if you disagree.

 

[johnstown_johnn]

The Church is “The Bride of Christ.” The peopleare her children. The priest is married to The Bride of Christ (the Church) and therefore he is the “father” in the earthly sense.

 

[mozart-250]

Oh boy…so much to respond too and so little time.

I want to challenge both Evangelicals (I am not sure if Evangelicals are truly and fully Protestants, never mind if they are Christians) and Catholics…

Well then, your pope doesn’t have the same issues that you do. Google Billy Graham and Pope John Paul and read where your pope called Billy Graham his brother.

We all know that Evangelical Jesus WAS NOT BORN of the SAME and ONE mother with Roman Catholic Jesus, although their mothers share the same name;

Oh really? Ours is the Mary in the Bible, the husband of Joseph, the Mother of Jesus. Who is your Mary.

Mary… It doesn’t take a theologian to know that The Evangelical Jesus’ mother IS NOT and HAVE NEVER BEEN The Mother of God! She is the mother of just a human being, or at best she is just and only the mother of His human nature but never His Divine nature. Because God can not have a mother…

Oh really…I don’t know one evangelical that would deny that Mary is the mother of God the Son Incarnate…or that would split natures like you describe. Where do you get that idea.

It might be in your interest to study and learn before you speak.

At this point it becomes fuzzy and unclear if Evangelicals really and sincerely believe that His human and divine natures have perfectly and really united in His human body?? Do they sincerely believe that Jesus’ Divinity really and truly INCARNATED in Mary’s womb ?? (“The Word became flesh” John 1:14)

Oh where do you get that idea.

:newidea:

I bet it’s because some Evangelicals don’t like the term “Mother of God”. Have you ever thought that maybe Mother of God is theologically ambivalent.

Mary is certainly not the Mother of God the Father or Holy Spirit.
Neither is she the Mother of the preincarnate Christ.

If what was born of Mary was just a HUMAN NATURE, howcome that HUMAN NATURE alone can possibly save us from our sins on the cross?? No matter how much righteous he was, can the death of “just a human being” on the cross is worthy enough to SAVE all humanity from his sins?? (Are Evangelicals really SAVED by the way??)

Your conclusions do not follow.

Pope JP didn’t seem to have the same problem with evangelicals that you do. But maybe you are a cafeteria Catholic and do not respect your own popes.

See ?? We are not even quite sure if Evangelical Jesus qualifies enough to be A Saviour… If He is, then which one ?? The Human Nature One?? Or the Divine One (who never had a mother since He doesn’t need one) ??

Reiterating faulty conclusions. This is getting tiring

*Furthermore Evangelical Jesus’ mother WAS NOT IMMACULATELY CONCEIVED…

How outrageous.

Maybe because there is absolutely no reason to believe it.

And if so how in heavens are we ever able to make sure his mother didn’t pass her sinful nature on her HUMAN NATURE baby ??

Perhaps because Scripture teaches that she did not.

What about you my friend ??

What about me?

Who do you think that Jesus is ??

Can Roman Catholic Jesus and Evangelical Jesus possibly be the same Divine Person ??

Well your denomation teaches that they are one and the same Jesus.

Maybe you disagree with your own denomination. Then you would be a cafeteria Catholic.

If not, who do you think that this Evangelical Jesus is ??

And what kind of spirit can ever preach an Evangelical Jesus ??

And whose spirit is that ??

And how can you recognize that spirit ??

Go ahead and read I John 4:2-3 and find out what kind of a spirit is an evangelical spirit…

Oh…so the evangelical spirit is the antichrist.

Now I know you are a cafeteria Catholic. So why should I listen to you. Your own denomination does not teach what you are saying.

 

[upciguy26]

I want to challenge both Evangelicals (I am not sure if Evangelicals are truly and fully Protestants, never mind if they are Christians) and Catholics…

We all know that Evangelical Jesus WAS NOT BORN of the SAME and ONE mother with Roman Catholic Jesus, although their mothers share the same name; Mary… It doesn’t take a theologian to know that The Evangelical Jesus’ mother IS NOT and HAVE NEVER BEEN The Mother of God! She is the mother of just a human being, or at best she is just and only the mother of His human nature but never His Divine nature. Because God can not have a mother…

At this point it becomes fuzzy and unclear if Evangelicals really and sincerely believe that His human and divine natures have perfectly and really united in His human body?? Do they sincerely believe that Jesus’ Divinity really and truly INCARNATED in Mary’s womb ?? (“The Word became flesh” John 1:14)

If what was born of Mary was just a HUMAN NATURE, howcome that HUMAN NATURE alone can possibly save us from our sins on the cross?? No matter how much righteous he was, can the death of “just a human being” on the cross is worthy enough to SAVE all humanity from his sins?? (Are Evangelicals really SAVED by the way??)

See ?? We are not even quite sure if Evangelical Jesus qualifies enough to be A Saviour… If He is, then which one ?? The Human Nature One?? Or the Divine One (who never had a mother since He doesn’t need one) ??

Furthermore Evangelical Jesus -with one side of his mouth- says “This Is My Body and This Is My Blood”, while with the other side of his mouth he says “Not really so !!”… And you can never make sure what on earth he really mean while he is saying “You have to be born of WATER and SPIRIT.”

Unlike Evangelical Jesus, Roman Catholic Jesus is true to His Words. He means what He says, and He says what He really means… However Evangelical Jesus is not so…

Therefore;

*Evangelical Jesus’ mother IS NOT the MOTHER of GOD…

*We are not quite sure if HUMAN and DIVINE natures of Evangelical Jesus is truly unified in ONE PERSON…

*Evangelical Jesus is quite confused about what he says and what he means…

*Furthermore Evangelical Jesus’ mother WAS NOT IMMACULATELY CONCEIVED…

And if so how in heavens are we ever able to make sure his mother didn’t pass her sinful nature on her HUMAN NATURE baby ??

We hope that Evangelical Jesus didn’t inherit the ORIGINAL SIN from his mother.

If he didn’t, howcome we say that he was really incarnated without inheriting from his mother from whom he was supposed to be incarnated ??

What about you my friend ??

Who do you think that Jesus is ??

Can Roman Catholic Jesus and Evangelical Jesus possibly be the same Divine Person ??

If not, who do you think that this Evangelical Jesus is ??

And what kind of spirit can ever preach an Evangelical Jesus ??

And whose spirit is that ??

And how can you recognize that spirit ??

Go ahead and read I John 4:2-3 and find out what kind of a spirit is an evangelical spirit…

Protestants do not believe Mary mothered Christ’s divine nature, but do believe Christ’s divine nature was born with the human nature together as one.

 

[saylo]

If Jesus is “The Son of God” then He has to have a mother.

Jesus said that “…the Father and I are One…I am in the Father and the Father is in Me…if you see Me you also see the Father…”

When Jesus was baptized the Voice from Above announced, “…this is My beloved Son…” At Mount Transfiguration the Voice once more announced, "“This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased…hear Him…”

One has to have a mother to be a son and be part of our humanity.

 

[Lief_Erikson]

marko_pasa, I agree with you that the doctrinal differences between Protestants and Catholics are very important. I think that they can and have damned souls. I think that they still do, though certainly not always (“invincible ignorance”).

The Jesus worshipped by Protestants is often the same Jesus worshipped by Catholics. I know from firsthand experience. My parents, Protestants, came to know the Lord and he dramatically changed their entire lives. They led me to the Lord and nurtured my faith as I grew in knowledge. I had many powerful mystical experiences and the Lord developed a strong love relationship with me.

At one point, I began to feel hungry again, though, began to feel a keen desire for deeper intimacy with the Lord. It was at that time that I began to pray, “Lord, please reveal to me more about your kingdom,” and “please release to me your kingdom.” I prayed also more often for the fruits of the Lord’s kingdom.

When I began to pray these prayers, the Lord led me to Catholicism. The journey from the time the Lord first began to answer those prayers to now has been about two years. That’s how long it has taken for me to get where I am now from the time the Lord first addressed me about this. But here I am, and I assure you that it is the same God.

The Lord my Protestant parents knew, they introduced me to, and my relationship with him bloomed in a Protestant household. I had errors in much of my understanding of God that Catholicism has cleared up, but the Lord graciously interacted with me anyway and released his love for me while I was Protestant.

Then, when God put it in my heart to desire deeper intimacy with his kingdom than I’d had before, he led me the rest of the way.

 

[Marlin_Hoge]

Well I must say that this first post is not what I would use with most evangelicals, I might consider using it with livid anti-Catholics, but even there I would be leery of using it at all. I did find it intriguing that you would say this here. From what I have seen, anti-Catholic posts would not even make it through to the forum after a couple of times or maybe three. I can think of groups where it might be appropriate at times when anti-Catholics are just posting the same old rubbish while never answering clear posts by Catholics. Even so, I think it would be inflammatory rather than productive.
God bless,
Marlin

 

[Marlin_Hoge]

If you really do study the Greek New Testament, you would wind up becoming Catholic when you actually realized what anamnesis is and what adelpho means and how those brothers and sisters of Christ were born of women other than Mary. Also the word Petros and many others clearly indicate the Catholic point of view. Distinguish between what man’s traditions mean and what the “traditions I taught you by word or in writing” actually mean. Koinania is a strong word used by Paul to talk about how the Body of Christ is one. I am only sorry that I cannot use the Greek letters here, but have to use transliteration of the words into English letters.
Back in the 1980’s an ecumenical group put out an agreement on what the Holy Eucharist is and surprisingly even denominations that clearly do not teach the “Real Presence” of Christ in the Holy Eucharist and agreed with the Catholic teaching on this. I use Greek in my apologetical work all the time.
God bless,
Marlin

 

[PIR1000]

Yes. He is one in the same. There only one LORD.

And there is only one God, but Allah and the God of Abraham are incompatible. So is the God of Truth and the feel-good god of many evangelicals.

I think you should focus on what unites Christians rather than what divides us. We worship the same Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whether we are Catholic or Evangelical.

Do we really? Just because they use the same name? Scripture would disagree with you vehemenently: “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Cor 11) Paul says that this is a bad thing, and he goes on to say that those preaching a different Jesus are condemned men. Hence the Catholic doctrines regarding heresy and excommunication. They are well justified in this.

why spread division within the greater body of Christ??

The only ones spreading division are those who refuse to submit to the only Authority of God that was instituted by Christ Himself. According to Scripture, the leaders of these movements are perishing. They are in a state of rebellion, and are not in communion with either Christ or His Church.

As a Catholic I know of many evangelicals who are very devoted to Christ, as I know many Catholics who are as well. We recognize them by the Love they express to God and our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. I sometimes visit thier church, and find though I don't agree with every doctrine,

It doesn’t matter what we agree with or disagree with. God is the God of Truth, not opinion. Does the Church instituted by Christ have the Authority to defend Truth, or do they not? Do they have the responsibility? Different doctrines amount to a different Gospel. This is not a trivial matter, but a matter with Eternal effects: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1)

but they have same Jesus in a different way

This, of course, is impossible. There is only one Jesus, like you said earlier. They have redefined Jesus into their own world-view. They have redefined the phrase “God is love” into almost pure sentimentalism. They treat denominational divides as if they were inconsequential. But Christ is Lord, and He said that we are His friends only if we do His will. Yet many evangelical types are in defiance of the Lord’s Command that women may not be ordained, for instance. In Matthew 7, Christ spoke about these movements and He said that many who think they are getting into Heaven will be turned away at the Pearly Gates. He said that even casting out demons and working miracles and prophesying in His name is not an assurance of Salvation. Only obedience to Him is any assurance.

-focus on the fact that evangelicals and Catholics share this same belief - we just disagree with them if acceptance of the free gift happens at a moment in time, ushering in a life which is filled with the Love of God in a profound way, or a lifetime of perserverance, struggling with our selfish desires and sinful ways to be able to stand before our Lord and have Him say - YES I truly knew you - welcome Home my Child - you walked the talk - so you have truly accepted Me.

This is modern philosophy that denies the Sovereignty of the Lord, and it denies the Authority that He instituted into the Church. Scriptures define love for God as obedience to His commands. (1 John 5:3) If you preach a different Jesus, then that proves that you didn’t truly know Him. All that proves is that you sincerely love your opinion of who He is. There is no salvation in that.

If we love our friends and want to see them live, then it is important that we point (kindly of course) out that the Scriptures are adament about a day of rebellion, wherein men will not put up with authority. That day is today. Authority means that our opinions are irrelevant and we must submit ourselves to the Infallible Teaching Authority of the only Church that was instituted by Christ Himself. Every other church was born from the arrogance of men who think they know better than God.

 

[PIR1000]

Marko Pasa,

I will join the first respondent in suggesting that we focus on what unites us. I was a member of the Southern Baptist Church for some years a decade ago, and in college I attended two other Southern Baptist churches although I did not formally join at that time. The differences between Evangelicals and Catholics are much, much less than they might appear at first glance. For example, we both believe that Jesus died on the cross for our salvation; we both believe that we are saved by grace through faith; we both believe that we need to show the fruits of grace in our lives; we both believe that the Bible is the Word of God, without error when properly interpreted; and the list goes on and on.

There was only one Jesus Who is the Son of God and Who died for our sins; to say that Evangelicals and Catholics worship different “Jesuses” is like saying that Catholics and Muslims worship different Gods. They may be a little confused about some of the finer points, but there is only one God and there is only one Jesus, Son of God.

• Liberian

Having studied Islam for almost 2 years, interviewing Muslims and their clerics, I would have to testify that God and Allah are NOT the same God. In fact, the central tenets of Islam are tenets of the spirit of the anti-Christ. Mohammad taught that belief in Jesus as more than a prophet will earn a person a seat in Hell. They teach that Christ did not die on the Cross. They teach that belief in Christ as the Son of God will earn a person an irreversible seat in Hell, this is an unforgivable sin. They revert to some of the harshest of the Old Testament Laws. They seek to undermine all of the work that Our Lord did. Mohammad was a proud and devout anti-christ.

Allah and God are not two perspectives on the same Deity. They are different deities who are incompatible with each other. Sure, muslims are monotheistic and claim the God of Abraham, but they have redefined Him, and they accuse us of being great heretics who will burn in Hell.