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As much as I disdane Gnostics, I have to reluctantly agree with you.
the true apostolic Church.
especially any of them that were formed in modern times post 1850
Originally posted by Robhaidheuch
reply to post by solo1
"We have profited well off the myth of the Christ"
Who was the Pope, when did he say it, in what context, and where can it be verified?
I frequently hear critics claiming that Pope Leo X once said "What profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!" In fact, this quote originated with John Bale (1495-1563), an English playwright who had Leo X saying this in the play "The Pageant of Popes", a satire of the Catholic church, which he wrote in the mid-16th century. Bale's exact quote was "All ages can testifie enough howe profitable that fable of Christe hath ben to us and our companie". Bale himself was a protestant Christian who disliked the Catholics, and made up this quote for Leo X to say, based on his belief (perhaps true) that Leo X was actually an atheist. There is no evidence that Leo X ever said this quote in real life. Even if, hypothetically, Leo actually did say this, so what? All it would do is confirm the rumor that Leo was a closet atheist, and an atheist calling Jesus a 'fable' wouldn't be anything new.
We have all the writings from all the churches available to us.
There are not some secrets handed down from priest to priest that we can only benefit from if we go to these special priests.
That would be a scam.
I do not belong to a secret society.
Christianity is an open religion.
Heads of Agreement on the Lord's Supper
by John Calvin (1509-1564)
22. Explanation of the Words -- "This Is My Body"
Those who insist that the formal words of the Supper "This is my body; this is my blood," are to be taken in what they call the precisely litered sense, we repudiate as preposterous interpreters. For we hold it out of controversy that they are to be taken figuratively -- the bread and wine receiving the name of that which they signify. Nor should it be thought a new or unwonted thing to transfer the name of things figured by metonomy to the sign, as similar modes of expression occur throughout the Scriptures, and we by so saying assert nothing but what is found in the most ancient and most approved writers of the Church.
23. Of the Eating of the Body
When it is said that Christ, by our eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood, which are here figured, feeds our souls through faith by the agency of the Holy Spirit, we are not to understand it as if any mingling or transfusion of substance took place, but that we draw life from the flesh once offered in sacrifice and the blood shed in expiation.
24. Transubstantiation and other Follies
In this way are refuted not only the fiction of the Papists concerning transubstantiation, but all the gross figments and futile quibbles which either derogate from his celestial glory or are in some degree repugnant to the reality of his human nature. For we deem it no less absurd to place Christ under the bread or couple him with the bread, than to transubstantiate the bread into his body.
www.youthnow.org...
Entering into worship and the Mystic Presence of Christ through taking communion daily is the key to experiencing the abiding Presence of God. You can do this in your private devotions. Take the bread and the juice from the grape, (grape juice or wine) and bless it. Then take it in faith and you will enter right in to the Presence of the Shekinah. The key to the Early Church's Power was that they "broke bread" from house to house and availed themselves of the power and the glory of the New Covenant blessing.
Originally posted by Robhaidheuch
reply to post by Gregarious
"It is CATHOLIC DOCTRINE that the pope is the only man with the indwelling of the holy spirit, and thus should be prayed to, worshipped, and treated as God because he is, literally, God in the Flesh.2
Where do you get these strange ideas? Only Jesus is God in the flesh. Popes are enlightened by the third Person of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit, when teaching and instructing Christians, hence the declaration of papal infallibility rests on the belief that in serious matters of faith a Pope is the mouthpiece of God, and God can never be wrong. It is a totally logical position.
I was, for many years, under the false impression that the venom directed at the Catholic Church during the height of the Reformation had somewhat dissipated, but having read many of the comments on this thread I see that prejudice and bigotry against Catholicism is alive and well, and that the armoury of Protestantism remains well-stocked with the weapons of slander, half-truths, and lies.
Jesus proved who He is while on Earth, by displaying His power through the working of spectacular miracles. His Church still presents its credentials, as it has for the past two thousand years, in the spectacular miracles of Fatima, Lourdes, Gaudalupe, and thousands of others. The Protestant Church is quite impoverished by comparison; all talk, and little action.
Originally posted by Robhaidheuch
…but having read many of the comments on this thread I see that prejudice and bigotry against Catholicism is alive and well, and that the armoury of Protestantism remains well-stocked with the weapons of slander, half-truths, and lies.
The Catholic Mass is the central point of Catholicism. No prayer, or personal sacrifice, can ever be equated with Christ's passion and death on the Cross, and the precious body and blood of Jesus is offered to the Father at every Mass.