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transubstantiation unsubstantiated substantially :P

BobRyan

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Ah but therein is the rub. The Chirch has preserved the Eucharistic doctrine in accordance with St. Paul's instructions. Also, the episcpate and presbytery surely are brethren; this is not a sacerdotal faith and our clergy are not Brahmins.

The claim that the Bible instruction on the Lord's Supper has been accurately preserved in those cases - is a claim that can be tested "sola scriptura" to see just where the Bible mentions "confecting the body soul and divinity of Christ" each week.

It does not take long to discover that it does not say that.

Also in John 6 - Christ is neither sacrificed nor dead nor is anyone biting Christ in John 6. This is also an easy Bible detail for all of us to agree upon.

Furthermore in Heb 10 the "once for all time sacrifice" was completed, ended, finished then Christ "sat down" at the right hand of God.

No ongoing "confecting the body, soul and divinity of Christ" each week on earth.
 
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BobRyan

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It seems to me as an Orthodox Christian that there are no threads on GT that would offend the sensibilities of Protestants as a whole, whereas seemingly one out of five threads is offensive to Orthodox and Roman Catholics.

one or two catholics have argued that the think that their doctrines would stand up to sola scriptura testing. It is not at all clear then why those who think this - would view it "offensive" that a doctrine of theirs should be compared to what the Bible actually says on that subject.
 
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BobRyan

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True enough. For example,
1 Cor. 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
precedes the discussion about communion. It is addressed to brethren, not to priests,

And it describes the event as a "memorial" not as an "on going sacrifice"
 
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BobRyan

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While it is true that we are not at all married to Catholic councils - yet when it comes to simple statements like the "Nicene Creed" we can agree because they are so basic and focused that there is nothing to oppose in them.
 
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BobRyan

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Before we proceed further, it is neccessary to clarify the meing of Catholic. To that end, do you adhere to the Nicene Creed?

The Nicne Creed is very easy for us to agree with. There is nothing in it to oppose when comparing it to the Bible.

However it is not "Nicea" that makes it at all valuable - but rather degree to which scripture affirms it.
 
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BobRyan

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As a simple matter of fact, your own denomination embraces positions classed as heresies at Ephesus, Constantinople III and Nicea II, and by the Synod of Dositheus.

Protestants were called all sorts of names in the dark ages. This is not news. Even in Wycliff's days, and the time of the Waldenses, Albigenses and many others.
 
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BobRyan

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The acts of the councils in question and other related documents, which are readly available online, justify the decisions of the councils according to Scripture.

To the extent that they say anything at all that is approved of in scripture - we of course would agree with them.

We call it "sola scriptura testing" of all tradition and doctrine.

in Christ,

Bob
 
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BobRyan

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When you read the actual Nicene Creed - there is nothing in it that insist that we believe in priests on earth or that such priests have the powers to "confect the body soul and divinity of Christ" -- and I think we all on this board agree on this detail - this fact of history.
 
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Wgw

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And it describes the event as a "memorial" not as an "on going sacrifice"

Rather, it refers to an anamnesis, which carries the meaing "put yourself in this moment," which indicates a direct participation in the One Eucharist.

You might well find it easier to argue your posiikn with a more thorough knowledge of RC and Orthodox sacramental theology, since otherwise we will just talk past each other.
 
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Wgw

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Protestants were called all sorts of names in the dark ages. This is not news. Even in Wycliff's days, and the time of the Waldenses, Albigenses and many others.

There were in fact no Proestants in the Dark Ages. The Albigenses were Gnostics who abhorred reproduction; they believed having children was essentialy sinful. The Waldensians were prior to the 16th century Donatists or Novatianists, with implied Pelagianism. Wycliffe hailed from the 14th century, adter the Renaissance had begun.

As it happens the Orthodox were not involved in the Inquisition so this is really a non-point. I am not personally aware of any incidens where the Syriac Orthodox Church even killed a heretic; I do not think we ever did, which is more than many Protestant denominations can boast, and actually as far as I am aware a point of common ground between us and the SDA. So since your church never killed anyone, and since mine never killed anyone. and since we clearly regard each other as being wrong, let us simply proceed on that basis without delving into various RC attrocities, or for that matter, into abuses committed by the Eastern Orthodox (of which the Syriac Orthodox are not a member).
 
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Wgw

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Catholic propaganda persists.
Antidote:

http://www.cathar.info/cathar_catholic.htm

That website of course confirms that the Cathars were Gnostics, that is to say, theistic Satanists masquerading as Christians. The Waldensians to their credit were not, but were rather droven by the excesses of medieval Catholicism into a schism based on discredited theological errors. I very much like Waldensians as a historical group, but their theology was quite foreign to that of the first generation Protestants.

Now as evil as the Cathar sect was, and it was basically a cult, this does not warrant what was done to it. St. Ambrose of Milan and other pre-Schism Orthodox-Catholic bishops objected with extreme anger when Emperor Theodosius burned the Spanish heretic Priscillian at the stake; it is lamentable the late 13th century Roman church forgot about that incident, or chose to side with the Emperor over the most virtuous St. Ambrose and his colleague. What happened was wrong in the same sense that it would be wrong if modern day Christians began slaughtering Mormons.

What happened to the Waldensian families in the early 17th century, in the Piedmont Easter, was the very worst attrocity to be committed by the Roman church, IMO.
 
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Rick Otto

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Yes well, your repeating Catholic slander and propaganda will no doubt keep slackers comfortably away from the website which actually provides useful and true information.:

athars and local Catholics in the Languedoc seem to have lived happily together for over a century. We have no record of a single incident of friction between the two faiths before the early thirteenth century - indeed we know that Cathars and Catholics coexisted not just within the territories of the Counts of Toulouse and Foix, and of the Viscount of Beziers andCarcassonne, but within each fief, each town and even within many families. It was surprisingly common for even Catholic priests to have become Cathar believers.

The papacy became increasingly allarmed as the power of the Catholic Church diminished along with tithes and a range of other Church taxes. The Church successively tried small punitive military expeditions (as at Lavaur), a preaching campaign and a series of public debates between Cathars and Catholics. The military expeditions of the twelvth century were successful but too small scale to have a significant impact. The preaching campaignes and public debates on the other hand were utter failures. All of these initiatives had been driven by the Cistercians, though the followers of Dominic Guzmán (an Augustinian Cannon) had also engaged, in preaching and public debating, but withan equal lack of success.

As the failures mounted, popes had tried on a number of occasions to mobilise full scale crusades against the Cathars, but without success. in 1207 the murder of a Cistercian papal legate provided a new more concrete justification for a crusade. Previous attempts had failed largely because the King of France was fully engaged fighting the Plantagenate Kings of England. By 1207 the pressure had been reduced (King John having lost most of his continental lands). The King of France allowed some of his senior vassals to answer the call for a crusade. The head of the Cistercian Order, Arnaud Amaury, the Abbot of Citeau, another papal legate, was appointed to lead the Crusade, handing over military command only after the massacre of Beziers and the surrender of Carcassonne.

The Crusade succeded militarily, killing an unknown number of Cathars and Catholics alike. But Catharism still enjoyed extensive support among the broad population of the Languedoc. To extirpate the faith entirely a new approach was needed. Dominic Guzmán's followers had formed a new order, formally recognised in 1216. Properly called the Preacher-Brothers they are more commonly called theDominicans. This new Dominican order acting on the authority of papal legates formed the kernal of new papal Inquisition, an approach formally approved later by the Papacy - so that Dominican Inquisitors were answerable directly to the pope (rather like a new set of papal legates).

The Dominican Inquisitors proved highly effective, but were widely hated. In response to widespead complaints by Lords and nascent city councils alike, Dominican Inquisitors were supplemented by representitives of the Franciscan Order (presumably to soften to approach). In practice the Franciscanswere not always sympathetic to the Dominicanapproach, and at least one was himself charged after he had lead popular opposition to Dominican excesses and alleged corruption.

For Cathars the Catholic Church represented a strand of Christianity that had gone badly astray in the fourth century. Cathars saw themselves as true Christians, retaining the Christian beliefs and practices of the Early Christian Church. In this they were of course a mirror image of the Catholic Church. It too saw itself as representing the One True Church, and saw any deviation from its teachings as heresy. In other words both sides saw themselves as True Christians, and the other side as deviants who had lost their way. Both sides saw the other as intrinically evil, and subject to the rule of of a satanic being. Specifically, Cathars saw the Catholic Church as the harlot of Babylon, referred to the Book of Revelation. Click here for more on the Cathar View of the Roman Catholic Church.
 
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BobRyan

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There were in fact no Proestants in the Dark Ages.

Wycliff, Huss, Jerome -- would differ.

As it happens the Orthodox were not involved in the Inquisition

Then they have no reason to complain that such facts of history are still facts of history.


Nice to know. Perhaps you also know if the Orthodox church in Syria was one of those groups claiming that Christians that keep the Bible Sabbath are "spies for Israel" as was said in Syria about the Seventh-day Adventist church around the time of the 1970's and 80's.

Sorta like the "Adventists don't accept the Nicene Creed statements" suggestions floating around on this thread.

So since your church never killed anyone, and since mine never killed anyone. and since we clearly regard each other as being wrong, let us simply proceed on that basis without delving into various RC attrocities

If it is true that Roman Catholic views in favor of transubstantiation should be dismissed on this thread - (as if this were a discussion in a Syriac Orthodox hosted/specific forum) - I can see your point.

But if this is an open forum where both Roman Catholics and all others are welcome to participate as they have been - then the historic events associated with the rise of this idea - should be considered even if there was no church in Syria leading out in it at the time.

But I agree with you that I am not naming the Syrian Orthodox church as having conducted the inquisition or as being in communion with the Catholic church. You are free to state that case however you like.
 
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BobRyan

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BobRyan said:
And it describes the event as a "memorial" not as an "on going sacrifice"


you are free to insert the idea that this is not "in Remembrance of Me" that we see in 1 Cor 11 - I myself prefer the actual text.

1 Cor 11: 24 "and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” .. so then NOT a participating in the death of Christ as if the sacrifice were ongoing or as if one is being transported back in time. It is a "memorial".

Heb 10 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet."

Instead of continually engaging in that sacrifice weekly - Christ has taken His seat at the right hand of God - no longer making sacrifice at all. It was completed,, "it is finished" ... ONCE for all time.

Sola scriptura testing has declared the correct view -- again.

in Christ,

Bob
 
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BobRyan

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And of course the "Baptist Confession of Faith" and the "Westminster Confession of Faith" make similar statements when it comes to Rev 17
 
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Wgw

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Everything I said about the Cathars was accurate. The very website you link to describes the dualistic beliefs of the Cathars or Albigensians right here: http://www.cathar.info/cathar_beliefs.htm#tenets

"Procreative sex was bad, since conception would result in another soul being trapped. For this reason, normal sex between man and wife was as bad as any other procreative sex. Marriage was worthless, while contraception was regarded with approval. Also, there was no reason to condemn any form of non-procreative sex."

The simple fact that the Roman Catholics decided to butcher these people does not justify their faith. Otherwise I might well contemplate conversion to the Aztec religion or Islam, since the RCs butchered them also. Indeed, Roman Catholic crusaders engaged in cannibalism when their food supplies ran out, yet this does not alter the reality that the Islamic State is killing off my co-religionists.

Lastly, Gnosticism had been rejected by Christianity since the first century, according to the scholarly consensus; at the end of the second century we find St. Irenaeus writing an entire book about its errors. The main development in the fourth century was the Nicene Creed, which is supposed to be uncontroversial in this forum.
 
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Wgw

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Firstly St. Jerome was not a Protestant; that suggestion is entirely laughable; he also pre-dated the Dark Ages. Whereas Wycliffe and Hus post dated it.

Now your second point seems to be the Syriac Orthodox shoukd reject the ancient Eucharistic doctrine because the EVIL ROMANS believe in it, with a vague allusion to dastardly deeds leading to the formation of this doctrine. Yet, the liturgy of the Syriac church is older than the surviving Roman Catholic liturgical texts, and uses less equivocal language regarding the Eucharist; it would be possible to attend a Tridentine mass while subscribing to a view which amounted to "real presence," whereas in the Syriac liturgy, the real change or transsubstantion is conceyed so forcefully and unambiguously that one could not deny it. So if this doctrine is not Apostolic, although we of course insist it was, the it surely began in the East in the Divine Liturgies attributed to St. James and St. Mark, and then permeated Catholicism.

Of course we have no reason to doubt the apostolic origin of this Rite, and in fact the vast majority of the world's Christians agree with us.

If we were to reject beliefs simply because the Romans support them furthermore, there are few if any Christian beliefs that one could not argue we should reject. At that point we might well convert to Taoism or Shinto or some other faith entirely unrelated to Christianity (even Hinduism might be uncomfortably close at that point).
 
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fhansen

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And of course the "Baptist Confession of Faith" and the "Westminster Confession of Faith" make similar statements when it comes to Rev 17
Which is only to say that everyone, whether as individuals or as denominations/churches/groups, think they have it right-or else they'd believe otherwise.
 
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