Over 250 Protestant Leaders Sign 'Reforming Catholic Confession' on Essentials of Christian Faith
(Worthy News) - Over 250 prominent scholars, pastors, and church leaders from around the world released on Tuesday a theological statement affirming the essentials of the Reformation. And its Protestant authors contend that in this 500th anniversary year, the document is a "catholic" statement in its best sense.
The Reforming Catholic Confession is a document which outlines the main theological commitments held by a wide breadth of Protestant Christians, including evangelicals, since the Reformation. The purpose of such a statement is to demonstrate the remarkable togetherness that exists throughout the world among Protestants on the core elements of Christianity, said Jerry Walls, an author and professor of philosophy at Houston Baptist University.
Despite how some Roman Catholics fasten the divisions within Protestantism as a case against it, including the joking about there being 33,000 different denominations — as if the entire legacy of the Reformation is endless religious splintering — the Confession showcases the extensive agreement on the substance of the historic Christian faith, Walls told The Christian Post. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More...) ]
Well, that doesn't make any sense at all.
Perhaps one needs to be privy to the new and most current mal-definitions of the various terms used. Otherwise, the article makes no sense.
Once again, seems to be proof positive that all things "catholic" Protestants (and Messianics) need to remain apart (separate) of/from .
So glad to no longer be a Protestant of The Re-Form-Mation of Catholic church Doctrine. Being a true non denominationalist is so freeing to be Christlike.
This article shows just how ignorant most Protestants are. The Protestant movement, which was a reviving of souls trapped inside of Catholicism, was a true movement, not the be all and end all of all things destined for Christ.
For one thing, these 250 scholars have missed the important things. They are saying only "we are the real Catholics" that is, the real "Church" which is ridiculous and even just plain sinful as they pretend themselves to be scholars and leaders.
"The Church" is not synonymous with being (true) Christianity. The true Church exists only in Catholic realms and I do mean catholic with a capital C. Sure there was an original good use of the word "catholic" which only denotes the fact that all true/real believers are one, in Jesus Christ as him alive and the lamb for our sins before God Almighty. Right now, it means otherwise. Just as a church, the Church, any church, is not one and the same as Christianity. Christianity can not, is not, all of Christ's body on this earth. Jesus rose bodily. It is his bride who remains, and she (we) are "in Christ" because we are espoused and not yet fully joined yet with Messiah Y'shua. He is fully in God, the Father but we are not yet fully joined to Messiah. THAT will happen at the "marriage of the Lamb" to come. The bridegroom comes to get his bride, then the marriage takes place. That can only happen with the Bridegroom's (the Second Adam, sinless) forgiving his espoused bride (Chavah aka Eve). That's us folks, we are the forgiven Eve, men and women alike. Look it up, use those bible search engines online. Look up "second Adam" in the NT and see it for yourselves.
Because Christianity is not all of Christ following. For example, Messianic Judaism is not Christianity and in well over 90% of the cases of it's congregations and/or members, it's sure not "the church" nor should they be.
Church is a (roman, I think) Catholic term. Use it at your own peril. Messianics who refuse to identify themselves as part of Judaism, yet know and follow Y'shua (Jesus of the Bible) are not automatically part of "the Church."
Confusion abounds when any part of any "church" is equated with being a member of the universal (the original meaning of the word catholic) body of Christ's bride here on this Earth. If you mean to say that you are part of the universal (then who've passed on before us, them alive in Christ, and those yet to be born-again) body of Messiah's bride, then say universal, don't use "catholic" anymore than we should use "church" anymore.
1 Cor 14:33, "For God is not the author of confusion."
Misunderstanding what Church, Christianity and/or catholic means, only leave Protestants back there in a "churched" world verses the whole three-dimensional body of the Forgiven Eve (Chavah), the bride of Messiah (Christ).
Catholic means universal and as such can not contain any "church" which is a Catholic Church invention.
Wanna be Protestant and (truly) catholic? Quit using the word church, it's crippling you and keeping you to view the world as "churched" and/or "unchurched" leaving you from seeing all the rest of Messiah's body and viewing those in churches as righteous by that fact.
It's like in Acts 15:19, "Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood." KJV
Which "church" had/has that in it's Statement of Faith or Creed? Where does it cite universal or catholic anything?
It is the first ruling from the only apostolic (the only "holy fathers" that count) Council, the one populated by them who walked with Jesus and were handpicked by him before he returned to sit at the Right Hand of the Father.
No wonder American Christians put up Christmas trees in their churches and homes. No wonder American "conservatives" don't know a bronze and granite/marble statue of anyone, North or South, is a graven image and forbidden to God's people in the first place.
Which commandment of the 10 they so purport to value, forbids idolatry?
So, what are you giving your kid from Santa this year?