Oh ok, now it works. Wow! I can't believe these "Christians"! Fr. Manning is the perfect example of what's wrong with American Catholicism-- the relativism, the hipster-ism, the total disregard for his own tradition's understanding of "jus in bello."
And then the Methodist guy (oh, excuse me, "bishop") was just completely off of his rocker. It pains me to think that there are still Methodists who believe in Christ as the only Way to Salvation who have leadership like this deluded man.
The main guy who stood up for exclusivity of Christ was good, although he misquoted Scripture (Paul says "another Gospel")-- which no one on the show even caught! This just goes to show you that Larry King's people don't know how to pick actual Christians when they do a Christian segment on their show. Oh well.
No doubt about it! This is why I laugh at my Roman Catholic apologist friend who constantly talks about how his "church" has always and consistently taught the same thing, LOL! How can you watch something like this and stay faithful?
That Methodist is no Methodist...I think Wesley would spin in his grave.
Now...as for the Reformed guy...lol...maybe I should have posted a better clip of him. That is the renowned Dr. John MacArthur! Lol...he did indeed misquote the Bible which did surprise me...maybe he got a bit flustered and nervous? While at times I do find him a bit of a legalist, I do know is that he is a bulldog and a great Bible teacher...and he doesn't care what anybody thinks. Despite that fumble...he is a brilliant thinker and author. In fact, his study Bible has quickly becoming a modern classic...and he also has a vast library of Bible commentaries which are real gold mines in the Reformed world.
lol...now I'm sorry I put a clip of him sounding like such a buffoon!
Here is what amazes me..."churches" or "religions" that teach people they can get to heaven by grace apart from the “born again” experience (personal, genuine and life changing faith in Christ in this lifetime) are plummeting in attendance numbers! From a purely pragmatic standpoint one would think somebody would stand up and suggest "hey guys...maybe we should re-enforce our backbones". The message of tolerance is not inspiring. “Stay the way you are…nothing is essentially wrong with you…we are all God’s children…God loves you just like you are” doesn’t really create any urgency to “do” anything…why should I do anything differently if God loves me just like I am? Why fix something that isn’t broke?
Roman Catholicism, Mormonism and Evangelicalism were all at one point uncompromising in their message of exclusivity. I'm not at all sure about how ridged Eastern Orthodoxy has been since the Schism...the "we know where The Church is but we can't say where The Church is not" attitude does seem to reach far, far back into Eastern Orthodoxy. Of course Eastern Orthodoxy is filled with crying for mercy…you guys cry for mercy CONSTANTLY, at least at Vespers you do! People who have it together and are essentially “ok” with God do not need to cry for mercy do they? Ok people who have it all together need not humiliate themselves before a priest and God and confess all their sins either, do they? So I would not suggest that Eastern Orthodoxy is “liberal” in that sense of the word at all…but I am concerned with the EO teaching which seems to indicate the unevangelized/heathen “might” be someday saved…or that we “just don’t know” about the unevangelized/heathen…but we can get into that another time.
My point is that this tolerance we find in some circles is counter productive because nobody is inspired to live anything. "Oh...you mean if I'm a nice person my whole life I should be ok when I die...cool...see ya..." does seem to be a logical conclusion many have made.
If works has nothing at all to do with salvation then why work, right? This "justification by physical mortification" doctrine is not only nonsense and heresy...it has also killed many "denominations" numerically and pragmatically! For every Joel Osteen there are probably 1,000 dying liberal churches who are being kept alive only by bingo, fundraisers and renting out their halls.
These are good points and worth serious consideration. Orthodoxy does hold to an exclusive ecclesiology-- we claim to be the one Church which Christ and the Apostles founded, and we also confess that without Christ no one can be saved.
And yet, for Orthodox (of all ages) this does not mean that Christ is not also working in heretical or schismatic groups as well, in order to save those people-- not because of their heresy/schism, but in spite of it. Those remnants of Orthodoxy to which these groups adhere are a cause for rejoicing-- Orthodoxy does not believe that outside her canonical boundaries there is simply undifferentiated darkness.
There are heretics who willfully embrace error and then there are those victims of heresy who are simply deceived and oppose the Church out of ignorance. The Church can only judge those inside of her, and to the rest she commits to Christ who will judge the nations and separate goat from lamb on that great day. Until then we pray for them and for ourselves.
"Not knowing where the Church is not," is simply a way of expressing the idea that while the Orthodox Church is the Ark of Salvation, there might be those who did not have the benefit of its teachings, who nevertheless attained to salvation through what parts of Orthodox Christianity remained in their particular sect. We believe God desires the salvation of all men, and so we do too. Nevertheless, no one can be saved apart from knowing Christ as both Lord and Savior. None can be saved except through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. And mysteriously, none can be saved except in relation to Christ's body, the Church.
Orthodox also do cry out to God for mercy. I should help you to understand this. Mercy for many protestants simply means "pardon" or something similar. It only refers to the kind of mercy that a governor can give to a prison inmate on death row at his last hour before the switch is pulled.
But "mercy" for the Orthodox is much more. The word in Greek is "eleison" ("to have mercy") and is related to the Hebrew "hesed," or loving-kindness. The Church asks God to "have mercy" which really means that we are asking Him to be as He is, to do as He does... to "have mercy" for God means to do as He wills in the world and in our lives.
Mercy, in that sense, doesn't mean something like a "special favor" but instead means something like "let Thy Kingdom come." We do not know why, but the Sovereign Lord of the created world has deigned to act in response to our prayers, and so "we are God's fellow-workers" (1 Cor. 3:9).
So we are asking God to have loving-kindness on us and on His creation. We are asking God to manifest His presence in our lives and to unite us ever more to Him.
We do not wish to preach sermons with our prayers or wow anyone by their profundity-- this would only serve to oppose God since He opposes the proud. Rather, it is the cry of faith and experience that when the Church comes together and asks the Lord for mercy, things happen. The only thing we desire is the Lord and His Kingdom, which is all contained in this simple prayer:
I found this qoute by Spurgeon and it seems fitting to add it here as his comment about the topic:
""...You might go into a Roman Catholic chapel now-a-days, and hear as good a sermon from a Popish priest as you hear in many cases from a Protestant minister, because he does not touch disputed points, or bring out the angular parts of our Protestant religion. Mark, too, in the great majority of our books what a dislike there is to sound doctrine! the writers seem to fancy that truth is of no more value than error; that as for the doctrines we preach, it cannot matter what they are; still holding that 'He can't be wrong whose life is in the right.'
"There is creeping into the pulpits of Baptists and every other denomination, a lethargy and coldness, and with that a sort of nullification of all truth. While they for the most part preach but little notable error, yet the truth itself is uttered in so minute a form that no one detects it, and in so ambiguous a style, that no one is struck with it. So far as man can do it, God's arrows are blunted, and the edge of his sword is turned in the day of battle. Men do not hear the truth as they used to. The velvet mouth is succeeding to the velvet cushion, and the organ is the only thing in the building which giveth forth a certain sound. From all such things, "good Lord deliver us!"
"...Oh! if we had some of the old Scotch preachers! Those Scotch preachers made kings tremble; they were no men's servants; they were very lords, wherever they went, because each of them said, "God has given me a message; my brow is like adamant against men; I will speak what God bids me." Like Micah, they said, "As the Lord my God liveth, whatsoever my God saith unto me, that will I speak.
"...Most churches are shielding themselves behind an ignominious bulwark of extreme caution. You never hear their ministers spoken against; they are quite safe behind the screen. You will be very much puzzled to tell what are the real doctrinal views of our modern divines. I believe you will pick up in some poor humble chapel more doctrinal knowledge in half an hour, than in some of your larger chapels in half a century. God's church must be brought once more to rely upon the pure truth, upon the simple gospel, the unalloyed doctrines of the grace of God. O may this church never have any bulwark but the promises of God! May he be her strength and shield! May his Aegis be o'er our head and be our constant guard! May we never depart from the simplicity of the faith!"
semper reformanda has been placed on the Index of Prohibited Blogs.
The Ancient Church Fathers...
“For a person who had no works, to be justified by faith, was nothing unlikely. But for a person richly adorned with good deeds, not to be made just from hence, but from faith, this is the thing to cause wonder, and to set the power of faith in a strong light.”Homilies on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, Homily 8, Rom. 4:1, 2.
-St. Chrysostom (349-407)
I have fundamental world view differences with my pastor.
I. The Scriptures The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21.
II. God There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
A. God the Father God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
B. God the Son Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
C. God the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
III. Man Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, they are under condemnation from conception. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
IV. Salvation Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
B. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.
D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
Genesis 3:15; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5. V. God's Purpose of Grace Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.
All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
Genesis 12:1-3; Exodus 19:5-8; 1 Samuel 8:4-7,19-22; Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 31:31ff.; Matthew 16:18-19; 21:28-45; 24:22,31; 25:34; Luke 1:68-79; 2:29-32; 19:41-44; 24:44-48; John 1:12-14; 3:16; 5:24; 6:44-45,65; 10:27-29; 15:16; 17:6,12,17-18; Acts 20:32; Romans 5:9-10; 8:28-39; 10:12-15; 11:5-7,26-36; 1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 15:24-28; Ephesians 1:4-23; 2:1-10; 3:1-11; Colossians 1:12-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 2 Timothy 1:12; 2:10,19; Hebrews 11:39–12:2; James 1:12; 1 Peter 1:2-5,13; 2:4-10; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:19; 3:2.
VI. The Church A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the offices of pastor and deacon are limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
VII. Baptism and the Lord's Supper Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
Matthew 3:13-17; 26:26-30; 28:19-20; Mark 1:9-11; 14:22-26; Luke 3:21-22; 22:19-20; John 3:23; Acts 2:41-42; 8:35-39; 16:30-33; 20:7; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Corinthians 10:16,21; 11:23-29; Colossians 2:12.
VIII. The Lord's Day The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Exodus 20:8-11; Matthew 12:1-12; 28:1ff.; Mark 2:27-28; 16:1-7; Luke 24:1-3,33-36; John 4:21-24; 20:1,19-28; Acts 20:7; Romans 14:5-10; I Corinthians 16:1-2; Colossians 2:16; 3:16; Revelation 1:10.
IX. The Kingdom The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God's will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Matthew 3:2; 4:8-10,23; 12:25-28; 13:1-52; 25:31-46; 26:29; Mark 1:14-15; 9:1; Luke 4:43; 8:1; 9:2; 12:31-32; 17:20-21; 23:42; John 3:3; 18:36; Acts 1:6-7; 17:22-31; Romans 5:17; 8:19; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; Colossians 1:13; Hebrews 11:10,16; 12:28; 1 Peter 2:4-10; 4:13; Revelation 1:6,9; 5:10; 11:15; 21-22.
X. Last Things God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
Isaiah 2:4; 11:9; Matthew 16:27; 18:8-9; 19:28; 24:27,30,36,44; 25:31-46; 26:64; Mark 8:38; 9:43-48; Luke 12:40,48; 16:19-26; 17:22-37; 21:27-28; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 17:31; Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 15:24-28,35-58; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians 1:5; 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 5:1ff.; 2 Thessalonians 1:7ff.; 2; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 4:1,8; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:27-28; James 5:8; 2 Peter 3:7ff.; 1 John 2:28; 3:2; Jude 14; Revelation 1:18; 3:11; 20:1-22:13.
XI. Evangelism and Missions It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man's spirit by God's Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
XII. Education Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence. In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage. The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge. Moreover, the cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence, and should receive along with these the liberal support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is necessary to a complete spiritual program for Christ's people.
In Christian education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly relationship of human life is always limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.
XIII. Stewardship God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause on earth.
XIV. Cooperation Christ's people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of God's people in the most effective manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one another in carrying forward the missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ's Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ's people. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations, when the end to be attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.
XV. The Christian and the Social Order All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.
Exodus 20:3-17; Leviticus 6:2-5; Deuteronomy 10:12; 27:17; Psalm 101:5; Micah 6:8; Zechariah 8:16; Matthew 5:13-16,43-48; 22:36-40; 25:35; Mark 1:29-34; 2:3ff.; 10:21; Luke 4:18-21; 10:27-37; 20:25; John 15:12; 17:15; Romans 12–14; 1Corinthians 5:9-10; 6:1-7; 7:20-24; 10:23-11:1; Galatians 3:26-28; Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:12-17; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; Philemon; James 1:27; 2:8.
XVI. Peace and War It is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness. In accordance with the spirit and teachings of Christ they should do all in their power to put an end to war.
The true remedy for the war spirit is the gospel of our Lord. The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of His teachings in all the affairs of men and nations, and the practical application of His law of love. Christian people throughout the world should pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 2:4; Matthew 5:9,38-48; 6:33; 26:52; Luke 22:36,38; Romans 12:18-19; 13:1-7; 14:19; Hebrews 12:14; James 4:1-2.
XVII. Religious Liberty God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.
Genesis 1:27; 2:7; Matthew 6:6-7,24; 16:26; 22:21; John 8:36; Acts 4:19-20; Romans 6:1-2; 13:1-7; Galatians 5:1,13; Philippians 3:20; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; James 4:12; 1 Peter 2:12-17; 3:11-17; 4:12-19.
XVIII. The Family God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
5 comments:
The link is broken.
Oh ok, now it works. Wow! I can't believe these "Christians"! Fr. Manning is the perfect example of what's wrong with American Catholicism-- the relativism, the hipster-ism, the total disregard for his own tradition's understanding of "jus in bello."
And then the Methodist guy (oh, excuse me, "bishop") was just completely off of his rocker. It pains me to think that there are still Methodists who believe in Christ as the only Way to Salvation who have leadership like this deluded man.
The main guy who stood up for exclusivity of Christ was good, although he misquoted Scripture (Paul says "another Gospel")-- which no one on the show even caught! This just goes to show you that Larry King's people don't know how to pick actual Christians when they do a Christian segment on their show. Oh well.
Hey Zac!
No doubt about it! This is why I laugh at my Roman Catholic apologist friend who constantly talks about how his "church" has always and consistently taught the same thing, LOL! How can you watch something like this and stay faithful?
That Methodist is no Methodist...I think Wesley would spin in his grave.
Now...as for the Reformed guy...lol...maybe I should have posted a better clip of him. That is the renowned Dr. John MacArthur! Lol...he did indeed misquote the Bible which did surprise me...maybe he got a bit flustered and nervous? While at times I do find him a bit of a legalist, I do know is that he is a bulldog and a great Bible teacher...and he doesn't care what anybody thinks. Despite that fumble...he is a brilliant thinker and author. In fact, his study Bible has quickly becoming a modern classic...and he also has a vast library of Bible commentaries which are real gold mines in the Reformed world.
lol...now I'm sorry I put a clip of him sounding like such a buffoon!
Here is what amazes me..."churches" or "religions" that teach people they can get to heaven by grace apart from the “born again” experience (personal, genuine and life changing faith in Christ in this lifetime) are plummeting in attendance numbers! From a purely pragmatic standpoint one would think somebody would stand up and suggest "hey guys...maybe we should re-enforce our backbones". The message of tolerance is not inspiring. “Stay the way you are…nothing is essentially wrong with you…we are all God’s children…God loves you just like you are” doesn’t really create any urgency to “do” anything…why should I do anything differently if God loves me just like I am? Why fix something that isn’t broke?
Roman Catholicism, Mormonism and Evangelicalism were all at one point uncompromising in their message of exclusivity. I'm not at all sure about how ridged Eastern Orthodoxy has been since the Schism...the "we know where The Church is but we can't say where The Church is not" attitude does seem to reach far, far back into Eastern Orthodoxy. Of course Eastern Orthodoxy is filled with crying for mercy…you guys cry for mercy CONSTANTLY, at least at Vespers you do! People who have it together and are essentially “ok” with God do not need to cry for mercy do they? Ok people who have it all together need not humiliate themselves before a priest and God and confess all their sins either, do they? So I would not suggest that Eastern Orthodoxy is “liberal” in that sense of the word at all…but I am concerned with the EO teaching which seems to indicate the unevangelized/heathen “might” be someday saved…or that we “just don’t know” about the unevangelized/heathen…but we can get into that another time.
My point is that this tolerance we find in some circles is counter productive because nobody is inspired to live anything. "Oh...you mean if I'm a nice person my whole life I should be ok when I die...cool...see ya..." does seem to be a logical conclusion many have made.
If works has nothing at all to do with salvation then why work, right? This "justification by physical mortification" doctrine is not only nonsense and heresy...it has also killed many "denominations" numerically and pragmatically! For every Joel Osteen there are probably 1,000 dying liberal churches who are being kept alive only by bingo, fundraisers and renting out their halls.
Gary,
These are good points and worth serious consideration. Orthodoxy does hold to an exclusive ecclesiology-- we claim to be the one Church which Christ and the Apostles founded, and we also confess that without Christ no one can be saved.
And yet, for Orthodox (of all ages) this does not mean that Christ is not also working in heretical or schismatic groups as well, in order to save those people-- not because of their heresy/schism, but in spite of it. Those remnants of Orthodoxy to which these groups adhere are a cause for rejoicing-- Orthodoxy does not believe that outside her canonical boundaries there is simply undifferentiated darkness.
There are heretics who willfully embrace error and then there are those victims of heresy who are simply deceived and oppose the Church out of ignorance. The Church can only judge those inside of her, and to the rest she commits to Christ who will judge the nations and separate goat from lamb on that great day. Until then we pray for them and for ourselves.
"Not knowing where the Church is not," is simply a way of expressing the idea that while the Orthodox Church is the Ark of Salvation, there might be those who did not have the benefit of its teachings, who nevertheless attained to salvation through what parts of Orthodox Christianity remained in their particular sect. We believe God desires the salvation of all men, and so we do too. Nevertheless, no one can be saved apart from knowing Christ as both Lord and Savior. None can be saved except through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. And mysteriously, none can be saved except in relation to Christ's body, the Church.
Orthodox also do cry out to God for mercy. I should help you to understand this. Mercy for many protestants simply means "pardon" or something similar. It only refers to the kind of mercy that a governor can give to a prison inmate on death row at his last hour before the switch is pulled.
But "mercy" for the Orthodox is much more. The word in Greek is "eleison" ("to have mercy") and is related to the Hebrew "hesed," or loving-kindness. The Church asks God to "have mercy" which really means that we are asking Him to be as He is, to do as He does... to "have mercy" for God means to do as He wills in the world and in our lives.
Mercy, in that sense, doesn't mean something like a "special favor" but instead means something like "let Thy Kingdom come." We do not know why, but the Sovereign Lord of the created world has deigned to act in response to our prayers, and so "we are God's fellow-workers" (1 Cor. 3:9).
So we are asking God to have loving-kindness on us and on His creation. We are asking God to manifest His presence in our lives and to unite us ever more to Him.
We do not wish to preach sermons with our prayers or wow anyone by their profundity-- this would only serve to oppose God since He opposes the proud. Rather, it is the cry of faith and experience that when the Church comes together and asks the Lord for mercy, things happen. The only thing we desire is the Lord and His Kingdom, which is all contained in this simple prayer:
Lord, have mercy.
to everyone...
I found this qoute by Spurgeon and it seems fitting to add it here as his comment about the topic:
""...You might go into a Roman Catholic chapel now-a-days, and hear as good a sermon from a Popish priest as you hear in many cases from a Protestant minister, because he does not touch disputed points, or bring out the angular parts of our Protestant religion. Mark, too, in the great majority of our books what a dislike there is to sound doctrine! the writers seem to fancy that truth is of no more value than error; that as for the doctrines we preach, it cannot matter what they are; still holding that 'He can't be wrong whose life is in the right.'
"There is creeping into the pulpits of Baptists and every other denomination, a lethargy and coldness, and with that a sort of nullification of all truth. While they for the most part preach but little notable error, yet the truth itself is uttered in so minute a form that no one detects it, and in so ambiguous a style, that no one is struck with it. So far as man can do it, God's arrows are blunted, and the edge of his sword is turned in the day of battle. Men do not hear the truth as they used to. The velvet mouth is succeeding to the velvet cushion, and the organ is the only thing in the building which giveth forth a certain sound. From all such things, "good Lord deliver us!"
"...Oh! if we had some of the old Scotch preachers! Those Scotch preachers made kings tremble; they were no men's servants; they were very lords, wherever they went, because each of them said, "God has given me a message; my brow is like adamant against men; I will speak what God bids me." Like Micah, they said, "As the Lord my God liveth, whatsoever my God saith unto me, that will I speak.
"...Most churches are shielding themselves behind an ignominious bulwark of extreme caution. You never hear their ministers spoken against; they are quite safe behind the screen. You will be very much puzzled to tell what are the real doctrinal views of our modern divines. I believe you will pick up in some poor humble chapel more doctrinal knowledge in half an hour, than in some of your larger chapels in half a century. God's church must be brought once more to rely upon the pure truth, upon the simple gospel, the unalloyed doctrines of the grace of God. O may this church never have any bulwark but the promises of God! May he be her strength and shield! May his Aegis be o'er our head and be our constant guard! May we never depart from the simplicity of the faith!"
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