One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.

[Mark Dohle]

I am Roman Catholic and have friends who are fundamentalist Christians. They do not agree with the Catholic faith, but they actually listen when the faith is explained to them, about Mary and the Saints, etc. We pray together and share. It is a true scandal to the world when men and women who should be brothers and sister in Christ Jesus fight and attack each other. Catholics are guilty of this as well. We think we understand more than we do. Personal Infallibility is a real danger and can lead to a deep-seated arrogance.

When a Fundamentalist attacks me(yes a real attack) and thinks that they can say silly things like "all Catholics go to hell", It amazes me. There is good reason why we are commanded not to judge, each soul belongs to Jesus Christ, only he sees the heart.

Scripture can be used to back up many theological positions. Like "once saved, always saved", there are threads that back that up, and threads that don't. It is best to try to do what Jesus said when he gave us the first two commandments: To love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind, and the second, to love our neighbor as ourselves".

At this time, Christianity is a tower Babel, a lot of yammering and not much listening. If someone tells me they are a Christian, I believe them, I can't see into the heart......I am called to love and speak the truth in a gentle manner.

So when I am attacked, I just tell the fundie that I have been over this too many times. If they are actually interested in understanding the Catholic Faith, well there are lots of books and of course the catechism. Just read and learn, and if they don't agree, well forget it. If they don't believe that I am Christian, well take that up with Jesus, complain to him.

I say the same to my fellow Catholics who bad mouth other Christians. Read about them from their own authors, learn, and then forget it, but I also tell them that they may be surprised at how close we all are. We all say the same creed. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.

Peace
Mark

 

[Ttalkkugjil]

We share one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God of all, who is over, through and in all. Jesus, our Lord, to whom we belong, who has redeemed us with his blood, is Christ. In him we believe, him we recognize as our Lord; for him we've put on in Baptism. So we all have the same faith, which united us with Christ by the same Sacrament. Through Christ’s work God's our God, the God of all of us. God's over us all, God rules over us, God exercises God's authority over us as God's children, God's our Guide. God's through us all as through God's mercy, God carries out God's intentions; the good works we do, we do by God's power which works in us. God's in us all; we're God's temple, God's abode. Thus we're connected with one another; we're united.

 

[The Righterzpen]

This is a tricky one; because where do you draw the line at something that is so far off doctrinally. I've known Muslims who say "Well we believe in Jesus." (But what that means to them is different than what it means to me.)

So there does come a place where you have to make a decision about the division between the saints and the aints.

Personal Infallibility is a real danger and can lead to a deep-seated arrogance.

Totally with you here! I see a lot of this too!

I know people who have not a whole lot of knowledge; but they do have faith. Then there's those who can quote you Bible passages but really have no clue what any of it means.

There are 2 kinds of "zealots" in this world.
Ones that want others to understand God better and ones who just want to be right. The distinguishing factor I find is "Who is teachable".

 

[Mark Dohle]

We share one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God of all, who is over, through and in all. Jesus, our Lord, to whom we belong, who has redeemed us with his blood, is Christ. In him we believe, him we recognize as our Lord; for him we've put on in Baptism. So we all have the same faith, which united us with Christ by the same Sacrament. Through Christ’s work God's our God, the God of all of us. God's over us all, God rules over us, God exercises God's authority over us as God's children, God's our Guide. God's through us all as through God's mercy, God carries out God's intentions; the good works we do, we do by God's power which works in us. God's in us all; we're God's temple, God's abode. Thus we're connected with one another; we're united.

Yes, we need to not forget that. Thank you.

Peace
mark

 

[Mark Dohle]

This is a tricky one; because where do you draw the line at something that is so far off doctrinally. I've known Muslims who say "Well we believe in Jesus." (But what that means to them is different than what it means to me.)

So there does come a place where you have to make a decision about the division between the saints and the aints..

Those who truly seek will find, that goes for all of us I believe. A seeker rejoices in the truth...but we always need to speak of the love of God that is truly manifested in Christ Jesus, and our need for mercy from God.

Peace
Mark