The Reunification of the Body of Christ

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Image_of_God

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I have such a desire that the whole Church, be one just as Jesus intended it to be and the way it was in the earliest centuries of the Church.
I wish all Christians would see the need of reunion of the Church. So I would like to open this thread to debates about the Catholic Church, which is the true Church, in my opinion:) , so that we can gain a clear understanding of her.
Also I want all people to enter this thread with humility (you can teach me more about this gift of the Holy Spirit:) ), not hiding behind the curtains, but to freely admit what they believe.
The Church is nothing like God wants it to be. We have been divided into three sects, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. And this is not the way the Lord would want it. But there is hope. We can work together to see the common misinterpretations of each Churches, and see if we can find an agreement among at least ONE of the Churches.
So Share!
 
I wonder how close each type of Protestant church is to reunifying with the Catholic Church.
 
Image of God:
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 	 		 			 				 					Originally Posted by **ALLFORHIM** 					[forums.catholic-questions.org/images/buttons_cad/viewpost.gif](http://forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=1519591#post1519591) 				
			*What does bump mean?:confused:*
I don’t know, it just something I saw others doing, so I do it.
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You guys are funny! When you post in a thread it moves it (Or Bumps it) back up to the top of the list of topics to read People post the word bump to keep their topic from falling off the bottom of the page. :tsktsk: This topic wasn’t falling off the bottom of the page and some people think it’s rude to bump ones own topic. 😛
 
Syele said:
You guys are funny! When you post in a thread it moves it (Or Bumps it) back up to the top of the list of topics to read People post the word bump to keep their topic from falling off the bottom of the page. :tsktsk: This topic wasn’t falling off the bottom of the page and some people think it’s rude to bump ones own topic. 😛
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🙂
Thank you.
 
You also don’t need to bump a thread 10 minutes after you post. It’s not a chatroom. 🙂
 
Jennifer_G said:
I wonder how close each type of Protestant church is to reunifying with the Catholic Church.
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I wonder too.
I mean the Espicopal and Lutheran Churches are set up in a similar fashion, yet we are not together.😦
 
All things are possible with God. Nonetheless, short of an actual divine miracle, I seriously doubt that there will be reunion of the Christian Churches prior to the end of the world. There might be reunion between Orthodoxy and Rome if the little problem of Papal authority can be worked out, but that’s a stretch also. There are significant differences between the Lutheran, Anglican (Episcopal) and Catholic faiths although, you are right in that there are some similarities also. Utlimately, however, Rome doesn’t budge much in its view of the world and, as along as that continues, you aren’t going to see reunion.
 
It seems to me that a terrible calamity will bring the Church more toward unity. I’m not sure if there’s anything else that can bring this about.

Of course, I could be wrong. God’s always got some plan that he can bring about in his own time. 🙂

I think perhaps a more interesting question may be why did God allow all these divisions in the first place?

What plan did the the Holy Spirit in his divine will have in mind by permitting these things to happen?
 
Mr.Ex_Nihilo said:
It seems to me that a terrible calamity will bring the Church more toward unity. I’m not sure if there’s anything else that can bring this about.

Of course, I could be wrong. God’s always got some plan that he can bring about in his own time. 🙂

I think perhaps a more interesting question may be why did God allow all these divisions in the first place?

What plan did the the Holy Spirit in his divine will have in mind by permitting these things to happen?
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No one knows what is going through the mind of the Holy Spirit. But it is always something good, for God can bring something good out of the worst of events.

However, the problem is in man. Man loves to find his way of doing things rather than what God originally set up. In my opinion, this can be argued towards Luther, Calvin, King Henry, etc.

Luther because he tried to change the number of sacraments, and a bunch of other stuff.

Calvin, because of his unreasonable doctrine on double predestination.

King Henry, because of his wanting of his own way, he wanted to get remarried, but the Pope said no, so he created his own Church.

These are things that Jesus never taught us to do. So it is our fault in a certain sense that such a division could happen. Even the Lutheran Church has splintered into groups,😦 but there is nothing impossible for God. If we believe, he can bring anything good out of bad.
 
Cardinal Ratzinger, before he was Pope Benedict XVI, was once asked this very thing, if now would be a good time to discuss reunification with the Lutheran church. He smiled, and asked, “Which one?”

Personally, I think that, due to the inherent characteristic of Protestant denominations to splinter every time a member or group of members dislikes the way the denomination is headed, it will never happen en masse. For every group that might establish some kind of understanding, no matter how slight, with the Catholic Church, a certain percentage of it’s members will consider it a threat and a betrayal to their idea of Christianity, and move off to start a “reform” movement.

I think it more likely that Protestantism, as a movement (whose roots are only a few hundred years old), will gradually, but eventually, dry up and become a historical footnote, as the mainline “Reformation” denominations are becoming even now, each of which had it’s day. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches have seen 'em come and go for 2000 years, and will still be here, united or apart, when Our Lord finally returns.
 
rr1213 said:
All things are possible with God. Nonetheless, short of an actual divine miracle, I seriously doubt that there will be reunion of the Christian Churches prior to the end of the world. There might be reunion between Orthodoxy and Rome if the little problem of Papal authority can be worked out, but that’s a stretch also. There are significant differences between the Lutheran, Anglican (Episcopal) and Catholic faiths although, you are right in that there are some similarities also. Utlimately, however, Rome doesn’t budge much in its view of the world and, as along as that continues, you aren’t going to see reunion.
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God doesnt renogotiate or water down his Word in order for us to enter into Life with him.We must go to Him on his terms,not what we think it should be.
 
Image_of_God said:
I have such a desire that the whole Church, be one just as Jesus intended it to be and the way it was in the earliest centuries of the Church.
I wish all Christians would see the need of reunion of the Church. So I would like to open this thread to debates about the Catholic Church, which is the true Church, in my opinion:) , so that we can gain a clear understanding of her.
Also I want all people to enter this thread with humility (you can teach me more about this gift of the Holy Spirit:) ), not hiding behind the curtains, but to freely admit what they believe.
The Church is nothing like God wants it to be. We have been divided into three sects, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. And this is not the way the Lord would want it. But there is hope. We can work together to see the common misinterpretations of each Churches, and see if we can find an agreement among at least ONE of the Churches.
So Share!
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I don’t see how it can be done very easily. There would have to be a recognition of a common Nicene Creed. There would have to be a recognition of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. There would have to be an acceptance of married priests. There would probably have to be some kind of limited acceptance of some types of birth control. And everyone would have to give some kind of allegiance to the Pope. Without comment on the merits of the various positions, I think that birth control and priestly celibacy are big stumbling blocks to unification.
 
Image_of_God said:
I have such a desire that the whole Church, be one just as Jesus intended it to be and the way it was in the earliest centuries of the Church.
I wish all Christians would see the need of reunion of the Church. So I would like to open this thread to debates about the Catholic Church, which is the true Church, in my opinion:) , so that we can gain a clear understanding of her.
Also I want all people to enter this thread with humility (you can teach me more about this gift of the Holy Spirit:) ), not hiding behind the curtains, but to freely admit what they believe.
The Church is nothing like God wants it to be. We have been divided into three sects, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. And this is not the way the Lord would want it. But there is hope. We can work together to see the common misinterpretations of each Churches, and see if we can find an agreement among at least ONE of the Churches.
So Share!
Click to expand...
Isn’t it more important that Christians be united in their love of life and God then it is to be united under one Church?
 
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