What do you think is the biggest obstacle to unity between Catholic Christians and non–Catholic Christians?

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I know protestants can be saved, by the grace of God working through the Holy Spirit who searches the hearts of all men, not by what they practice. Lets all pray that abortion ends.
🙂
 
Well Friends, Brothers and Sisters, no mention in Scripture about Peter being a Pope…not even the leader, James was the Leader in Acts…no all this about succession of Popes is heresay, it goes back to the bishop of Rome surely, that is where the Roman Catholic Church started, taking over the Jerusalem branch…

Peter is not the Rock either, the Church is built upon our Lord Jesus Christ, God would not build His Church upon a human being!! Peter says,‘This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 1 Corinthians 10:4, …and that Rock was Christ’. I could go on.

It is not wise to build a church on 2 or 3 verses taken out of context, in Matthew 16 the context was about our Lord Jesus, ‘Who do men say that I am’? Peter said,’ you are the Christ the Son of the living God’…‘Thou are Peter’ said our Lord, commending him for knowing, and remember there were no punctuation in those days, our Lord says, ‘Upon this rock I will build my church’, He was talking about Himself, not Peter!!!

Revelation 16:18, our Lord says ‘…and I have the keys of Hades and and of death’. The Pope does not have the keys of heaven and hell, Praise God, our Lord Jesus Christ has them, a much safer pair of hands!!

So, we can be united as Christians, making up the Christian Church, but these claims that is made by ‘the one true church’ don’t stand up…more like the claims of men, and traditions of men, our Lord warned about the traditions of men…

Believing in the Lord Jesus leads us to Salvation and eternal life, not believing in a man made church. The early Church was the start of the Christian Church, only later the bishop of Rome took over…

Shalom. May God bless all here. Michael.:rolleyes
 
Brother You are right the Church was here about 345 years b4 the Bible, By the time the Bible got here the Church had about 4 or 5 popes…
 
You did get me thinking That we still had some one here that was that iignorant of the Church, The cc was started in 33ad and then we got the Bible,not to be rude but if you feel the need to bash the Church please get you fact straight, I see you come from a Church that does Bash other people faith,if you feel jumpimg this way get your fast right.
 
Brother2 I just looked at your profile and I see your church was started in 1844 B4 your church is this what got you upset. If your looking for the truth you can find it here, just ask any Cathloic and you will have your answer and in looking at your first post you do need a lot of Help
 
Hi all. Couple quick questions …

jmcrae, when you say “They are excommunicated members of the Catholic Church”, who is the “they”?

kenis, can you elaborate on what it means to say that Martin Luther was a “precursor antichrist”?
 
Roy5 said:
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT UNITY
Code: 
There is an amazing amount of Catholic-Protestant unity already - spiritually speaking. We share the same Christ and the same Bible, both central to Christianity. My experience that that millions of Catholics like millions of Protestants have an open-minded religion. They continue to worship in their particular churches, but they think individually - that is, they believe what they can and set aside what they find unbelievable. Their concern isn't primarily in theology but in living lives that seek to follow the teachings of Christ. We all may fail now and then, but we are united in our desire to love God and one another - the criteria Jesus gave us to inherit eternal life. (See parable of the Good Samaritan and the question leading up to it.)

  It's important for us to understand that both Catholics and Protestants (I don't know about Orthodox) are essentially divided between the 'true believers' who insist upon conformity and those who identify with their faiths but are friendly toward other faiths. "You go to your church and I'll go to mine, and let's walk along together." Those were the opening words of a hymn that introduced the old radio program of Seth Parker many years ago - I remember Grandma singing it.

  Protestants differ among themselves to some degree, though mainline Protestants are difficult to distinguish from one another. I have been active in Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches in different communities, and the differences are hardly distinguishable. If Presbyterians still believe in predestination I never heard it mentioned. They serve communion a bit differently perhaps - minor - and Methodists are likely to say 'trespasses' while those of Calvinist heritage are apt to say 'debts'. But I feel very comfortable in those denominations and probably would in others as well. My paternal family had been Catholic and became Baptist years ago. Baptists are fine people, too, but some of their churches (not all) require a theological conformity that I cannot accept. Let's face it: I am a 'liberal' Protestant in that I appreciate people who study the scriptures and may come up with different interpretations. Such diversity doesn't trouble me at all as long as my views are respected, too. 

 The biggest obstacle is authoritarianism, the teaching that one church and one church only teaches the full truth. Or that there is only one way to interpret scripture. That makes religion simpler, perhaps, just accept whatever one's church teaches. Sorry, but I can't do that. Some people will accuse me of pride or whatever, but I suspect that God appreciates my honesty. Actually, I profess ignorance in many areas because the marvels and miracles and majesty of God is beyond my mortal understanding. I love the old hymn that includes the world: "Farther along we'll know all about it, farther along we'll understand why...."

Then there are many other things that make union with Catholicism difficult, everything from the Pope, veneration of Mary and the saints, transubstantiation, and comfession to a priest to such lifestyle matters as celibacy of the clergy, forbidding artificial birth control, and divorce (except for 'church-endorsed' divorce called annulment.
Roy5,

You paint a pretty picture for yourself. You do, whether you want to hear this or not, not understand areas of Christianity that are biblical but just not to your liking. You believe that everything is beautiful but won’t accept anything that troubles you or maybe you just don’t spend enough time getting to understand it.

I don’t accept non-Catholic teachings as Gospel truth because I am one who believes that if I am so close to the Holy Spirit to believe that I have the right to choose how I understand the bible than I would also be able to cure the sick along with all the other incredible gifts that our fore-fathers possessed that neither I or you have. They explained what Christ’s only Church was, is, and would always be on earth…His Church! He never said churches. You can’t accept the original teachings of Christ’s Church because you don’t feel good about it. What does this have to do with anything. You think our feelings have the right to set precedence over Spiritual guidance in understanding Scripture.

There is one truth , one Church, and one Christ with this truth. Try not to paint pretty pictures of the parts of the bible that you just don’t accept. Maybe you should ask for the strength you need to accept the truth when you see it.

I don’t like that Jesus had to get crucified and that so many people get murdered, raped, battered and the annihilation of so, so many through war and the animal kingdom’s eating of each other to survive, but this is the way it is. I would like for it all to go away, but it won’t.

This world is rough and tough and many times as terrifying today as it was back then. Look at all the conquerors of the past. They slaughtered millions upon millions, just like World War I and II, Hitler, Stalin, Ho Che Ming. Look at Rwanda, Sierra Leone, boy soldiers all over Africa, Afganistan. And, last, but far from the least,Terrorism.

This isn’t a pretty picture to me and I doubt it is to you after you read this.

Sorry for being so bleak on Sunday morning, the day our Lord raised from the dead to give hope to us all!

respectfully,
jpaul1953
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Brother2 said:
Well Friends, Brothers and Sisters, no mention in Scripture about Peter being a Pope…not even the leader, James was the Leader in Acts…no all this about succession of Popes is heresay, it goes back to the bishop of Rome surely, that is where the Roman Catholic Church started, taking over the Jerusalem branch…

Peter is not the Rock either, the Church is built upon our Lord Jesus Christ, God would not build His Church upon a human being!! Peter says,‘This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 1 Corinthians 10:4, …and that Rock was Christ’. I could go on.

It is not wise to build a church on 2 or 3 verses taken out of context, in Matthew 16 the context was about our Lord Jesus, ‘Who do men say that I am’? Peter said,’ you are the Christ the Son of the living God’…‘Thou are Peter’ said our Lord, commending him for knowing, and remember there were no punctuation in those days, our Lord says, ‘Upon this rock I will build my church’, He was talking about Himself, not Peter!!!

Revelation 16:18, our Lord says ‘…and I have the keys of Hades and and of death’. The Pope does not have the keys of heaven and hell, Praise God, our Lord Jesus Christ has them, a much safer pair of hands!!

So, we can be united as Christians, making up the Christian Church, but these claims that is made by ‘the one true church’ don’t stand up…more like the claims of men, and traditions of men, our Lord warned about the traditions of men…

Believing in the Lord Jesus leads us to Salvation and eternal life, not believing in a man made church. The early Church was the start of the Christian Church, only later the bishop of Rome took over…

Shalom. May God bless all here. Michael.:rolleyes
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St Jerome said: “ignorance of Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” this means it is not about reading but about understanding them. the question is who is teaching you Sacred Scriptures? do you hear from the Apostles and their successors or do you hear from a man made religion?

before you begin to criticize the Church you got the Word of God from, know the facts.

do you even know when the Church begin? tell me please.

do you even know what the keys mean? do you know what the keys here represents?

apparently you dont.
 
Peter_J said:
Hi all. Couple quick questions …

jmcrae, when you say “They are excommunicated members of the Catholic Church”, who is the “they”?
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Catholics who disobey the Church, and teach others to do the same.
 
I got confused reading some of the posts in the thread and I’m not sure who it was who was talking about annulment as “church-endorsed divorce”, but I’d like to clarify that misunderstanding, if I may.

Divorce is simply not part of Catholic teaching because it is not Christ’s teaching. Marriage is a covenant. Enter into a valid marriage and you enter into a covenant. Covenants cannot be broken. Cannot. Violated, not honored, yes. Broken, no. So an annulment can only be granted if there was no covenant established at the beginning. If there was a covenant at the beginning of the marriage, then no annulment can be granted. No divorce is granted by the Church in any case and no annulment is granted unless there was no covenant from the beginning of the marriage. If both parties did not understand what they were doing or did understand but had no intention of honoring their oath to stay together for better or worse, etc, then no covenant was entered into and so, really, no marriage took place. A ceremony, yes. A covenant marriage, no.

If it was a valid covenantal marriage and things go horribly wrong afterwards, then a divorce may be granted by a civil court, but not by the Church. Separation, maybe. Divorce, no.

So calling an annulment a church-endorsed divorce is to horribly misrepresent the truth and to insult the Church and her teachings on the sanctity of marriage all in one fail swoop.

Just wanted to set the record straight for anyone who did not understand the actual teachings on the matter.
 
wisdomseeker said:
St Jerome said: “ignorance of Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” this means it is not about reading but about understanding them. the question is who is teaching you Sacred Scriptures? do you hear from the Apostles and their successors or do you hear from a man made religion?

before you begin to criticize the Church you got the Word of God from, know the facts.

do you even know when the Church begin? tell me please.

do you even know what the keys mean? do you know what the keys here represents?

apparently you dont.
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Wonderful discussion on this page wisdomseeker, spent a nice 15 minutes reading through.

The Church, ‘the one true church’, I indeed do not accept that Brother, I respect you as a Christian, I am Christian too, all Christians make up the Christian Church whom our Lord knows, many denominations but ONE Christian Church made up of all true Christians…with our Lord Jesus Christ as its founder.

The first Church was the early Church in Jerusalem it was only later that it was taken over by the bishop of Rome, and Satan began sowing his ‘tares’ amongst the ‘wheat’! All the different denominations have done their best to return to the beliefs of the pure Early Church in Jerusalem. I enjoyed the previous Post about all the Protestant denominations being quite alike.

One of the biggest obstacles to unity is to be honest, the arrogance of those who claim to be the ‘one true church’, they are right and the rest of us are wrong, (though there is not one denomination all wrong) all Christians are God’s representatives on earth.

I believe the Holy Scriptures which include the Writings of the Apostles, after that the first Church went astray with Constantine baptising whole armies by marching them through the Tiber, so many Pagans coming into the first Church soon watered down the pure beliefs of the Apostles. Let the Empire be ONE under ONE Religion? Problem was that pagan beliefs came in with the ‘converted’!! Which Protestants have been protesting about for years, and trying to get back to the pure religion of the Early Church in Jerusalem.

So, I respect you as a fellow Christian but please stop preaching about this ‘one true church’ rubbish…and I mean no disrespect to you.😛

Shalom. May God bless all here. Michael.👍
 
One question to the above poster:

How many churches did Jesus Christ found according to the Bible?

And the corollary, what scriptures are we talking about when we say “Bible”?
 
I think every non-catholic religion is stubborn and close minded.

God bless everyone.
 
Because catholicism leaves nothing out it is so true and complete that it cannot be wrong. anyone who listens to the truth can see it easily, so they either are not listening at all or they are just stubborn.

God’s blessings upon thee.
 
Disciple96 said:
One question to the above poster:

How many churches did Jesus Christ found according to the Bible?

And the corollary, what scriptures are we talking about when we say “Bible”?
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Our Lord founded the Christian Church, which when taken over by the bishop of Rome later and allowed so many false teachings in it needed reformed, so God raised up the Reformers, but rather than be reformed they excomunicated the Reformers…there is still ONE Christian Church made up of many denominations…among them are true Christians who are God’s people.

The Bible is 66 Books that agree with each other, the Bible interprets itself as a result, so one should not take a few verses and build a church on it. There are apocraphal books which are just that apocraphal interesting yet not agreeing with the rest of Scripture.

So disciple96 I respect you as a Christian and part of a denomination which is part of the Christian Church that our Lord Jesus started when He walked our Earth!! and I’m a brother2!

Agree to disagree Brother disciple96…Oh you are awful but I still like you…

Shalom. May God bless all here. Michael.:rolleyes:
 
Jefree said:
Because catholicism leaves nothing out it is so true and complete that it cannot be wrong. anyone who listens to the truth can see it easily, so they either are not listening at all or they are just stubborn.

God’s blessings upon thee.
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Interesting. Do you think your opinion is commensurate with the formal teaching of the Catholic Church apropos those of us who are not Catholics?

Ecumenically,
Mick
👍
 
Brother2 said:
Our Lord founded the Christian Church, which when taken over by the bishop of Rome later and allowed so many false teachings in it needed reformed, so God raised up the Reformers, but rather than be reformed they excomunicated the Reformers…there is still ONE Christian Church made up of many denominations…among them are true Christians who are God’s people.

The Bible is 66 Books that agree with each other, the Bible interprets itself as a result, so one should not take a few verses and build a church on it. There are apocraphal books which are just that apocraphal interesting yet not agreeing with the rest of Scripture.

So disciple96 I respect you as a Christian and part of a denomination which is part of the Christian Church that our Lord Jesus started when He walked our Earth!! and I’m a brother2!

Agree to disagree Brother disciple96…Oh you are awful but I still like you…

Shalom. May God bless all here. Michael.:rolleyes:
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How does a book, any book, interpret itself?

And by the way, I am sister Disciple, not brother. 🙂
 
Jefree said:
I think every non-catholic religion is stubborn and close minded.

God bless everyone.
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Hey, how did you manage to get banned after joining, let’s see, today? Oh. I see. I just read your post and I think I can answer my own question now. 😉

And what an ironic post it is. Oy.

Not all Catholics share the sentiment expressed rather inelegantly by Jefree. I don’t. I have traveled other paths–Christian as well as non-Christian–and I didn’t find them to be stubborn or close-minded. Some people are, no matter what religion they follow. Some people aren’t. This is not to say that one cannot find more truth in one than in another. The Church’s stance is that one can find truth in all the major religions, but that the fullness of truth is to be found in Christ, who is the Truth, and in the Church founded and taught by Him.
 
Disciple96 said:
Jefree;5490151:
I think every non-catholic religion is stubborn and close minded.

God bless everyone.
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Hey, how did you manage to get banned after joining, let’s see, today? Oh. I see. I just read your post and I think I can answer my own question now. 😉

And what an ironic post it is. Oy.

Not all Catholics share the sentiment expressed rather inelegantly by Jefree. I don’t. I have traveled other paths–Christian as well as non-Christian–and I didn’t find them to be stubborn or close-minded. Some people are, no matter what religion they follow. Some people aren’t. This is not to say that one cannot find more truth in one than in another. The Church’s stance is that one can find truth in all the major religions, but that the fullness of truth is to be found in Christ, who is the Truth, and in the Church founded and taught by Him.
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Hi Disciple96,

Anybody can join this forum and declare allegiance to the Catholic Church but it’s by their fruit that we will recognize them. Inelegant insults do not constitute a fruit of the Spirit so many thanks for taking the time to put forward with due attentiveness and courtesy the formal (and quite reasonable) stance adopted by the Catholic Church.

Appreciatively,
Mick
👍
 
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