Need resources showing Catholic Church has never changed

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svoboda:
I read it, I didn’t memorize it.

So, if you had power, I trust you’d torch me?
Here’s what I wrote above if you need it to be repeated:

“Obviously, someone shouldn’t be killed for [formal heresy] unless they’re spreading their errors, but if they are, then torch 'em!”

Are you spreading your heretical errors? Are you infecting the minds of the faithful with such filth? If so and on a significant scale, then yes I would, but if not, then I’d just leave you rot. Before doing one or the other, though, I’d try to convince you that you’re wrong.
 
Tantum ergo:
Do you not see that you are RETROACTIVELY stating not “the Church changes teaching”, but that the Holy Spirit DOES NOT PROTECT AGAINST ERROR. . .and once you have professed that, what does the Catholic Church become? Not the church which would stand against the gates of hell, certainly. You might make a case, with Orthodoxy, of the Catholic Church being the “oldest Christian church”. . .but the best you could hope for was it being the better of all the alternatives.
Not too related, but prevailing against the gates of hell is more in line with attacking hell, breaking through its gates, and destroying it.

Maybe God wants people to figure things out on their own, to make mistakes, to reflect, to change? Jesus did not write anything while on earth, he did not teach sophisticated doctrines Catholics believe today (i.e. Trinity). Maybe there is more value in learning from our mistakes and changing than in having the one correct answer from the beginning.

Maybe the Holy Spirit guides us through the changes.
 
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JSmitty2005:
Here’s what I wrote above if you need it to be repeated:

“Obviously, someone shouldn’t be killed for [formal heresy] unless they’re spreading their errors, but if they are, then torch 'em!”

Are you spreading your heretical errors? Are you infecting the minds of the faithful with such filth? If so and on a significant scale, then yes I would, but if not, then I’d just leave you rot. Before doing one or the other, though, I’d try to convince you that you’re wrong.
Well I am spreading my disagreements with Church teaching on this forum. I often discuss my views in debates with others (some of them Catholic).

I should point out that you are rather harsh.
 
svoboda, you obviously have a lot to gripe about against the Church. Why don’t you lay it all out in your own thread and have people respond rather than interrupting someone else’s?
 
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JSmitty2005:
So be it. I don’t tolerate nonsense…and neither did my Lord.
Do you think if Jesus was around today he’d be burning heretics?
 
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svoboda:
Do you think if Jesus was around today he’d be burning heretics?
If Jesus were around today, I think he’d make a whip of cords, and drive a lot of liberals out of the Church; and pour out their heresies for everyone to see and overturn the tables of the modernists. (John 2:15) I also think that he’d tie a millstone around the necks of all the pedophile priests and throw them in the ocean. (Matthew 18:6) Finally, I think he would take up the sword in defense of His faithful in the Middle East against the pagan Moslems. (refer to my signature)
 
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JSmitty2005:
If Jesus were around today, I think he’d make a whip of cords, and drive a lot of liberals out of the Church; and pour out their heresies for everyone to see and overturn the tables of the modernists. (John 2:15) I also think that he’d tie a millstone around the necks of all the pedophile priests and throw them in the ocean. (Matthew 18:6) Finally, I think he would take up the sword in defense of His faithful in the Middle East against the pagan Moslems. (refer to my signature)
I think if that’s God, then I’d be glad to go to hell.

God is supposed to be about love, about forgiveness, about kindness, about tolerance.

If God is going to go around destroying human beings for honestly disagreeing with the Church, then who needs the devil?
 
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svoboda:
I think if that’s God, then I’d be glad to go to hell.

God is supposed to be about love, about forgiveness, about kindness, about tolerance.

If God is going to go around destroying human beings for honestly disagreeing with the Church, then who needs the devil?
God is also about truth and justice and vengeance. Truth is absolute. It’s not up to you to decide what Truth (Jesus) is like. If you’ve read the Bible, you wouldn’t say that Jesus was a very tolerant guy. God is also about love, forgiveness, and kindness as you’ve said. But you also forgot mercy. God is merciful when we repent. God’s justice will come down on us if we turn away from His truth. And that’s exactly what the Devil does…confuse us and convince us of falsehoods, after all, he is the father of lies. God doesn’t go around destroying everyone for disagreeing with the Church. We destroy ourselves by doing such things. Basically what you’re asking is this (correct me if I’m wrong): How can a loving God send people to Hell? But you’ve misunderstood Christianity. It really goes like this: God is just and sinners send themselves to Hell. You see, it is because of the very fact that God is infinitely good that people will go to Hell. Anything that is not good cannot even be in His Presence. This is my last post in this thread discussing unrelated topics with you. PM me or start another thread if you want to continue this.
 
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JSmitty2005:
God is also about truth and justice and vengeance. Truth is absolute. It’s not up to you to decide what Truth (Jesus) is like. If you’ve read the Bible, you wouldn’t say that Jesus was a very tolerant guy. God is also about love, forgiveness, and kindness as you’ve said. But you also forgot mercy. God is merciful when we repent. God’s justice will come down on us if we turn away from His truth. And that’s exactly what the Devil does…confuse us and convince us of falsehoods, after all, he is the father of lies. God doesn’t go around destroying everyone for disagreeing with the Church. We destroy ourselves by doing such things.
Personally I don’t believe God will condemn people for disagreeing with the Church. I believe God is good, because I believe my moral conscience comes from God, and when I am most moral I am filled with compassion, and love, and I would never condemn anybody forever no matter how “evil” they were.

I think there will be justice, but I think it will be justice proportionate to the offence. I don’t think anyone will be punished for an eternity, because no one here can commit an infinite offense.

I think people who “reject” God will be at least as happy as we are here on earth, finding happiness on their own, building societies, relying on each other. Even if they reject God, I don’t think God will reject them, and I don’t think he will cast them down into “eternal fire.”

(But I do think people who rape/murder etc. will be punished, but their punishment will end just as their crime was finite.)

Personally I don’t think it would be moral to obey/follow a God who was not just, and to me the kind of God you described is not just, but vengeful and cruel.
 
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svoboda:
I’ve read far more severe passages in the Old Testament. All they did was make me doubt whether the Old Testament was the word of God.
Who ever gave you the authority to decide the canon of Scripture? :confused:
 
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Rejoice:
I’ve been talking with my friend about Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular and I promised him I’d try to answer several of his objections. After some research a few of his questions remain unanswered to my satisfaction.

I’m posting each question individually. This is the second one:

2.) In what ways can the Church be shown to have not changed its teachings across 2,000 years of history? (preferably from a disinterested source)

Thank you!

Brett
The Catholic Church does change. The Holy Spirit in communication with the Pope effects His desires and sends messages through him, in accordance with the Word, and has Christ’s children merit it.

Andy
 
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JSmitty2005:
Who ever gave you the authority to decide the canon of Scripture? :confused:
I believe in God, but I believe in a good, loving, and moral God.

I don’t believe in a God who does some things that God allegedly did in the Old Testament.

For me the only conclusion is that the Old Testament should not be read literally, that some things in it that are attributed to God were not actually done by God.
 
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JSmitty2005:
I think that we should kill formal heretics. If we execute murderers that destroy biological lives, then why not execute heretics that destroy spiritual lives for all of eternity? Heresy is the gravest of all sins.
Personally, i think it would be wrong to execute
Protestants such as President Bush or Vice President Cheney. I don’t think it is the right thing to do. Anyway, in Cardinal Mahoney’s newspaper, the Tidings, there was an article on how Christians are called to oppose the death penalty. So this seems to be a contradiction to me. First you say that you want to execute heretics (and aren’t all Protestants who deny the Real Presence and the infallibility of the Pope heretics?) but then in the Catholic newspaper and on the pulpit in Church, they are telling us to oppose the death penalty. I would be opposed to burning Protestants or Moslems at the stake. If you did such a thing, I suspect that there might be retaliation against Catholics, such as killing priests in Turkey or other places. I don’t know why Catholics are so narrow minded and so bloodthirsty that they want to burn alive any heretic who disagrees with them. Buddhists are much more kind and gentle people and would not think of doing such a terrible thing. But if you really want to burn people alive who disagree with Catholicism, then why should you be surprised by what happened to a priest in Turkey. Isn’t it just about the same thing except that the tables are turned ?
 
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svoboda:
I believe in God, but I believe in a good, loving, and moral God.

I don’t believe in a God who does some things that God allegedly did in the Old Testament.

For me the only conclusion is that the Old Testament should not be read literally, that some things in it that are attributed to God were not actually done by God.
You cannot decide the nature of God for yourself. It’s called relativism. God is God is God. You don’t have your own little God that you can dream up. Well, if you do, it’s an idol and not really God. :eek:
 
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Kirane:
Personally, i think it would be wrong to execute
Protestants such as President Bush or Vice President Cheney. I don’t think it is the right thing to do.
Me too. If you read my posts, you would see that (#13 & 17). Furthermore, it’s not up to you to decide what’s right or wrong (moral relativism is evil and will destroy our souls and end our species). 😉
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Kirane:
Anyway, in Cardinal Mahoney’s newspaper, the Tidings, there was an article on how Christians are called to oppose the death penalty. So this seems to be a contradiction to me. First you say that you want to execute heretics (and aren’t all Protestants who deny the Real Presence and the infallibility of the Pope heretics?) but then in the Catholic newspaper and on the pulpit in Church, they are telling us to oppose the death penalty.
I don’t care about what Cardinal Mahoney said in some newspaper. He is not infallible. He’s just fueling the liberal life-worship that’s rampant in the anti-abortion movement and making even more people think that the Catholic Church has changed, but it hasn’t. It is an unchangeable doctrine of the Church that legitimate governments have that authority to execute people. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a lot on this. And no, heretics are not only people that disagree with the Real Presence or infallibility (yet again, refer to post #17 & 18), they can disagree with any doctrine of the Church…including the one I just stated. 😉 BTW, when JP2 would speak out against the death penalty, it was only his personal opinion and not binding on the faithful. Furthermore, he believed that such measures were justifiable, but no longer necessary in today’s society to protect life. However, the pope is not in the place to make such decisions for other countries like the U.S. of which he knew not the situation.
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Kirane:
I would be opposed to burning Protestants or Moslems at the stake.
Me too. They have been born into their false religions and know nothing different…they’re material heretics, it’s not their fault because they’ve never known the truth.
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Kirane:
If you did such a thing, I suspect that there might be retaliation against Catholics, such as killing priests in Turkey or other places.
Me too.
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Kirane:
I don’t know why Catholics are so narrow minded and so bloodthirsty that they want to burn alive any heretic who disagrees with them.
We may be “narrow minded,” but why would anyone want to be open minded?! :confused: It’s a sign of intellectual weakness and indecision. Like Chesterton said:

“An open mind is really a mark of foolishness, like an open mouth. Mouths and minds were made to shut; they were made to open only in order to shut…The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”

Also, we’re not bloodthirsty! We are thirsty for the truth and have been entrusted with the desposit of faith from Our Lord to preserve in its entirety at all costs, because it is more precious than the most precious earthly things.
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Kirane:
Buddhists are much more kind and gentle people and would not think of doing such a terrible thing.
I don’t agree with this. Early in its history, Buddhism was one of the most proselytizing religions in the world.
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Kirane:
But if you really want to burn people alive who disagree with Catholicism, then why should you be surprised by what happened to a priest in Turkey. Isn’t it just about the same thing except that the tables are turned ?
I think that if you actually re-read everything that I wrote, rather than going on this rant, you’d conclude that I didn’t say that we should kill everyone who disagrees with the Church. I think that we should kill formal heretics that are out preaching against the Church and its truths so as to protect the souls of many if that is the only means of silencing them. And no, it’s nothing like the priest that was killed because of the cartoons. (BTW, don’t you find it ironic that muslims react violently when islam is portrayed as violent?) He personally had nothing to do with it. He was murdered by savage pagans that really do think that everyone that disagrees with them should die. And as I’ve clarified, that’s not what I believe, nor has the Church ever taught such thing. Christianity is a religion of proposition (convert or go to Hell) while Islam is a religion of imposition (convert or die and then go to Hell). In Christianity, however, this proposition must be a true one, because if not, it brings about the destruction of souls. Finally, like I said in post 21, before any action is taken, we should go to great lengths to convince them that what they’re doing is wrong as well as fervently pray for them.
 
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Rejoice:
I’ve been talking with my friend about Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular and I promised him I’d try to answer several of his objections. After some research a few of his questions remain unanswered to my satisfaction.

I’m posting each question individually. This is the second one:

2.) In what ways can the Church be shown to have not changed its teachings across 2,000 years of history? (preferably from a disinterested source)

Thank you!

Brett
Getting back to the OP–

Isn’t your friend asking you to prove a negative? Isn’t he saying you have to prove something has **not **happened?

He is the one making the accusation. The burden of proof is on him, not you! Tell him to show you where the Church has changed its teachings. Then you can show that what he calls a change in teaching is just a further development or understanding of a truth the Church has always held.

If you need help with something he claims is a change, I’m sure there are many enlightened folk here who can help you refute it.
 
Distinquish between core beliefs and secondary beliefs. Core Beliefs relate to who and what Jesus did. Ask him to show where the church changes in reference to what and who Jesus is. Center the dicussion on Jesus.

👍
 
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