Search results

The Free Methodists were started just before the Civil War, I believe. They were staunchly anti-slavery, opposed to the practice of renting pews (which meant that the wealthy and influential members of the community had an exclusive right to much of the seating in the church), more evangelical...

There's a big difference between having Communion rarely (a few times a year) and not having it at all. By your logic, medieval Catholics (and many Catholics right up to about 100 years ago) didn't receive Communion at all, because they only received it one to three times a year. It was almost...

:among the Episcopalians many consider baptism to have no true efficacy and to be merely an empty ceremony: I wonder who these Episcopalians are? In the mid-19th century the Reformed Episcopalians left because they rejected baptismal regeneration, but I don't think even they would say baptism...

Peter, :No one has answered the question as stated. You all have been influenced by some other source. : Well, that's self-evident. If the question really meant what you seem to think it means, then it was an extraordinary pointless one, since the only person who could possibly answer it...

Obviously in God's eyes, the Church that matters is the "blessed company of all faithful people," the elect from all times and places. But in the only sense in which we can speak of the Church here and now, it is the universal company of the baptized, gathered in local assemblies where the Word...

Bayhawks, "Sacrament" is a Latin word. It is found in the Latin translation of the New Testament, as a translation of the Greek "musterion." English translations render "musterion" as "mystery" when translating the NT, but when dealing with Latin theological texts the Latin "sacramentum" is...

First of all, as others have pointed out, this isn't just a Catholic/Protestant issue. If you really think that OSAS is essential to the Gospel, then not only do Catholics teach "another Gospel," but the entire early Church (including St. Augustine), the Eastern churches (including Eastern...

I've had some experience with inter-church relationships--in fact two relationships (one with a Plymouth Brethren woman, the other with a Catholic) broke up partly because my girlfriends thought I was too Catholic or too Protestant respectively. Now I'm an Episcopalian, still considering...

Calvinism has a rich and complex history and I can't explain it briefly and do it justice. But here's an attempt. It derives from the theology of St. Augustine in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, but it differs from him on a number of points (I won't go into that here). The theology we call...

This is nonsense. Sure, the 300 years from 600 to 900 are not among the best-documented in European history, but there is enough continuous record to make it impossible to cram everything into the centuries preceding and following. What do you do with the Viking invasions of England? The...

If it's in the state constitution, why gripe about it? Recalls, filibusters, etc., are just tools anyone can use. Isn't it a bit shortsighted to make a fuss about it just because one side or the other will benefit this time around? Edwin

Bayhawks, You are completely wrong about Methodists. Methodists, like other traditional Protestants, have two sacraments--baptism and the Lord's Supper. It's true that Baptists and some other more radical Protestants call these practices "ordinances," so in that sense you are right that...

distancerunner, I read your post with interest, because I have nearly become Catholic on several occasions and continue to consider it (also Orthodoxy). I respect Catholicism and I think there are excellent reasons to become Catholic. But it doesn't seem to me that you have given Protestantism...