actually, he said i’m going to the “lake of fire” (because i’m catholic). that got me to thinking: why isn’t there more unity among Christians than there is? why do we Christians attack, and judge, each other? why can’t we just accept the fact that we have theological differences and leave it at that? why do we have to say that those Christians who are not in our group are going to hell?
of course, the answer for the baptist guy who damned me is that he doesn’t consider me a Christian.
so, what must one believe to be a Christian. in my opinion, the essential beliefs are as follows. please tell me if I missed anything.
- God exists in three persons–Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God.
- Jesus was fully God and fully man.
- Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
- Jesus is the only way to the Father.
if a person believes these things, isn’t he a Christian? if not, what else MUST he believe?
For the basics, that sounds about right…specifically:
We believe in one God. The Father, the Almighty.
The maker of Heaven and Earth
Of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ.
The only son of God
Eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God,
Light from light
True God from True God
Begotten, not made.
One in being with the Father
Through Him all things were made.
For us men, and for our salvation,
He came down from Heaven.
By the power of the Holy Spirit
He was born of the virgin Mary, and became man
For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate
He suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day He rose again
in fulfillment of the scriptures.
He ascended into Heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His Kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
who proceeds from the Father and the Son
With the Father and the Son, He is woshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one Holy Catholic and apostolic Church
We believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sin,
We look for the ressurection, and life in the world to come
Amen.
It is my understanding and belief, that one must also be baptized in a trinitarian form.
Full belief in the creed, and baptism are what make a Christian.
As far as I know, the Roman Catholic Church started the whole Christian life, and is the universal church begin by it’s founder, Yeshua bar Yosef, Jesus son of Joseph, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Lord, the Prince of Peace, the Bread of Life, the Lamb of God, when he told his disciple Simon, that he was Petra (the Rock), and that His Church was to be built upon Him, and that it withstand the gates of hell.
Look, I know some protestants have a different set of ideas. Myself, I was baptized in the Fousquare tradition just prior to going off to a life of new age theosophy and finally buddhism before being knocked off my horse by the Lord. But I sure hope I didn’t tell any Catholic CHRISTIANS that they were going to hell.
We need to pray for our protestant brothers and sisters. Please remember that many of us Catholics came from protestant beginnings. Protestants are Christians, so long as they are baptized with the trinitarian formula, and believe the creed word for word, but also that they eat the body of Jesus, and drink his blood. That they work out their salvation and fear and trembling.
The baptism BEGINS a journey to a completeness which won’t be fulfilled until Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.
It becomes apparent with enough courage, and openness to truth, the our Lord only intended on authority, which is to be guided by the Holy Spirit until His return.
It becomes the challenge of the protestant, (and once again, that is my background, so please don’t kick me), to prove somehow that the universal Church of our Lord Jesus the Christ is not the Church intended since it preceded the reform by a good 1,000 years earth time, and never, to this day, has taught in error from the Chair of the blessed Apostle Peter, who is represented on Earth by the Bishop of Rome through apostolic succession from the incarnation, until now (so far), on faith and morals. The Church that assembled and gave Christianity the Holy Bible. The Church that essentially gave us Western civilisation. The Church which even Martin Luther was a member of!
So when somebody says that a Catholic Christian shall be cast into a lake of fire, what comes into my mind is Christ forgiving his murderers from the cross. “Bless them Lord. They don’t know what they do”. In this case, they don’t know what they say.
God bless us one and all,
and please bring us all, once again, into your universal church.
Help us all to see the truth of Christ, and His Church.
i like to say im a fundamentalist worst nightmare. due to my background. let me guess, the first thing he attacked the OP for was Mary. am i correct? Peace 