Some observations of American girls vs foreign...

[Adama]

As for who is right and who is wrong, we will see on The Last Day.

It seems you are running out of arguments. Even the Pope in Rome does not agree with you.
This means all what you write in this thread is merely a product out of your fantasy and even after entering the heaven you still have to wait for the Last Day of this universe?

The Pope is not Christ. He is just a man. And why do you hold his opinion so highly, if you hate Christianity so much and you believe he is Christian? See, you are just an antagonist just for argument sake. That is fine, but don't pretend you are on the side of the truth, when you've already said you hate Christianity. None of this thread is for you. You don't need to involve yourself in a discussion of something which you have convinced yourself is not real.

Your last day will be when you die. Then you will receive your reward. That is when you will know for yourself that the God of the Bible is alive. I highly suspect for you however, that you will not like the outcome you received for eternity. God will even remind you, at the Great White Throne Judgment, that you were told the truth, and that you refused to receive it, because you didn't love the truth.

And as far as your insults to me, I find them to be welcome.

[MarcosZeitola]

Live and let live, brother. There is no point in arguing right or wrong here; believing is a choice. One day, if there truly is a heaven awaiting us, I will have a cold one with Jesus and have Him explain it all to my simple mind so that I may be enlightened at last.

Take it easy. Your faith is yours and yours only and no one can take it away from you.

[Adama]

Live and let live, brother. There is no point in arguing right or wrong here; believing is a choice. One day, if there truly is a heaven awaiting us, I will have a cold one with Jesus and have Him explain it all to my simple mind so that I may be enlightened at last.

Take it easy. Your faith is yours and yours only and no one can take it away from you.

There is only one way to heaven. Most people think any old religion is good. That is not true. People are entitled to believe whatever they want. I would just suggest to them that they choose to believe in Christ. Putting faith anywhere else condemns a person to hell for eternity.

[Yohan]

The Pope is not Christ. He is just a man. And why do you hold his opinion so highly, if you hate Christianity so much and you believe he is Christian?

Well, I think the Pope in Rome still knows by far more about Christianity than you do, that's all.

About yourself, you sound more a Muslim than a Christian considering your replies.

To denounce somebody who is Roman Catholic as a non-Christian is really something new for me. This is clearly not what Christians, who are not Roman Catholics, are doing in general. I never noticed something like that while in Philippines.

Even the Iglesia ni Cristo or El Shaddai do not claim something like that.

Brother Mike's Mass Appeal - Philippines

[Blue Murder]

Stop acting like children. Argue in PMs or something.

[Adama]

The Pope is not Christ. He is just a man. And why do you hold his opinion so highly, if you hate Christianity so much and you believe he is Christian?

Well, I think the Pope in Rome still knows by far more about Christianity than you do, that's all.

About yourself, you sound more a Muslim than a Christian considering your replies.

To denounce somebody who is Roman Catholic as a non-Christian is really something new for me. This is clearly not what Christians, who are not Roman Catholics, are doing in general. I never noticed something like that while in Philippines.

Even the Iglesia ni Cristo or El Shaddai do not claim something like that.

Brother Mike's Mass Appeal - Philippines

How would you know? First my religion is lazy. Now it is similar to Islam. Actually most real Christians already know about the Catholic Church. Most Born Again Christians who have studied the matter also believe the same. Catholicism is a cult surrounding the Pope (and the false gods of Mary, the Saints and the worship of statues). It has little to do with Jesus. The Pope himself thinks a personal relationship with Christ is dangerous. The Pope supports abortion and homosexuality. Do you think God would ever permit either of those under any circumstance? The answer of course is no. The Catholic church is not of God. It is of the world.

And you'll probably never know any of this, cause it takes a spiritual person to recognize things of the spirit. There is no sense in you trying to understand any of this, since you have already decided that religion has no place for you.

[Adama]

Question: "Is Catholicism a false religion? Are Catholics saved?"

Answer: The most crucial problem with the Roman Catholic Church is its belief that faith alone in Christ is not sufficient for salvation. The Bible clearly and consistently states that receiving Jesus Christ as Savior, by grace through faith, grants salvation (John 1:12; 3:16,18,36; Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9-10,13; Ephesians 2:8-9). The Roman Catholic Church rejects this. The official position of the Roman Catholic Church is that a person must believe in Jesus Christ AND be baptized AND receive the Eucharist along with the other sacraments AND obey the decrees of the Roman Catholic Church AND perform meritorious works AND not die with any mortal sins AND etc., etc., etc. Catholic divergence from the Bible on this most crucial of issues, salvation, means that yes, Catholicism is a false religion. If a person believes what the Catholic Church officially teaches, he/she will not be saved. Any claim that works or rituals must be added to faith in order for salvation to be achieved is a claim that Jesus’ death was not sufficient to fully purchase our salvation.

While salvation by faith is the most crucial issue, in comparing Roman Catholicism with the Word of God, there are many other differences and contradictions as well. The Roman Catholic Church teaches many doctrines that are in disagreement with what the Bible declares. These include apostolic succession, worship of saints or Mary, prayer to saints or Mary, the pope / papacy, infant baptism, transubstantiation, plenary indulgences, the sacramental system, and purgatory. While Catholics claim Scriptural support for these concepts, none of these teachings have any solid foundation in the clear teaching of Scripture. These concepts are based on Catholic tradition, not the Word of God. In fact, they all clearly contradict Biblical principles.

In regards to the question “Are Catholics saved?”, this is a more difficult question to answer. It is impossible to give a universal statement on the salvation of all members of any denomination of Christianity. Not ALL Baptists are saved. Not ALL Presbyterians are saved. Not ALL Lutherans are saved. Salvation is determined by personal faith in Jesus alone for salvation, not by titles or denominational identification. Despite the unbiblical beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, there are genuine believers who attend Roman Catholic churches. There are many Roman Catholics who have genuinely placed their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. However, these Catholic Christians are believers despite what the Catholic Church teaches, not because of what it teaches. To varying degrees, the Catholic Church teaches from the Bible and points people to Jesus Christ as the Savior. As a result, people are sometimes saved in Catholic churches. The Bible has an impact whenever it is proclaimed (Isaiah 55:11). Catholic Christians remain in the Catholic Church out of ignorance of what the Catholic Church truly stands for, out of family tradition and peer pressure, or out of a desire to reach other Catholics for Christ.

At the same time, the Catholic Church also leads many people away from a genuine faith relationship with Christ. The unbiblical beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church have often given the enemies of Christ opportunity to blaspheme. The Roman Catholic Church is not the church that Jesus Christ established. It is not a church that is based on the teachings of the Apostles (as described in the Book of Acts and the New Testament epistles). While Jesus’ words in Mark 7:9 were directed towards the Pharisees, they accurately describe the Roman Catholic Church, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”

[Yohan]

Stop acting like children. Argue in PMs or something.

You are misguided, listen to Adama - he will save your soul but only if you repent.

[Yohan]

Question: "Is Catholicism a false religion? Are Catholics saved?"

Answer: The most crucial problem with the Roman Catholic Church is its belief that faith alone in Christ is not sufficient for salvation.

In this question the Catholic Church is right. Especially considering people, who were born before Jesus was 'born' and people living in a place where they had no possibility even to know anything about Jesus.

There must be something else existing to reward good people and guide them to heaven. Faith alone cannot be the sole criteria.
If Jesus is into fair play, there should be even something which is replacing faith under certain circumstances.

[Yohan]

How would you know? First my religion is lazy. Now it is similar to Islam. Actually most real Christians already know about the Catholic Church.

Christianity and Islam are quite similar to each other from the first beginning on. Christianity added something using the Thora and created the Bible, and Islam used the Bible added something and this is now the Quran. Basically all out from the same region, merely time is different.

Other cultures, without connection to Thora, Bible and Quran, especially those in Eastern part of Asia come to totally different conclusions when using their fantasy and creating a religion.

I am still not sure if Jesus was a man or a woman, maybe you can explain. I also would like to know if a soul exists and if the soul has consciousness, or can at least regain awareness under certain circumstances. If not, it does not make any sense to 'save' a soul.
For a soul without awareness to be in heaven or in hell makes no difference.

[onethousandknives]

So, my thread's been derailed, thanks Adama, and I don't know if I should throw my pearls before swine, too.

First off, I am not Roman Catholic, but Orthodox. We have the highest number of martyrs of any branch of Christianity. We have Apostolic succession starting from the Apostles themselves. And, the Romans split from us because they wanted their own weird cult of Rome where Rome was dictator of all the churches, and other weird customs like unmarried priests, unleavened bread for communion, etc.

The problem with the presupposition of Protestantism is, every Protestant denomination basically starts out like Muhammed, or Joseph Smith in the book of Mormon. They all say "Oh, the original church is now corrupt, and mine is the true church! Come join MY true church!" This is the premise of Islam for example. This is the premise of Mormonism. This is what Martin Luther said more or less (though in Luther's defense, he actually tried to get reconciliation/a dialogue with the Orthodox...) The problem with Protestantism too, is it all comes from the "tree" of Romanism, with theological ideology of Augustine being the overarching influence even in Protestantism. No Protestant branch is truly separate in theology from Roman Catholicism (not counting Moonies or groups like this...) they all carry over Roman ideology.

The other problem with this supposition. To have a system that works as follows, as in the Protestants' minds, it works like this. They think after 100AD all of Christendom is now apostate, as Protestantism didn't exist until the 1400s. So according to Protestants, God just must be an idiot, and 1300 years worth of people after Jesus Christ came back are going to hell because they were not around during the new manmade religious invention of Protestantism. "Hey, I sent my son to save the Earth, but uh... yeah, after he comes, 1300 years worth of people cannot possibly be saved because they're Catholic!" Is this at all logical? That God would send his son to Earth to die for our sins, raise from the dead, create a church, then just let it fall into complete apostasy in every way so that nobody could possibly be saved in it, then create 30,000 other denominations of Protestantism who mostly all disagree with each other as the replacement?

Again, too, I am not Roman Catholic, and the Orthodox and Romans ended up splitting over many of the problems people list with the Roman church now. For example, St. Cyril and Methodius almost got killed by the Roman church for giving the Slavs an alphabet and conducting church services in the Slav's native language and not Latin. So with the Orthodox, we said enough was enough with the Roman bullying/"innovations" and split. But, there still needs to be a structure and an agreement between the churches. You cannot have "Every man did what was right in his eyes." Like is the situation in Protestantism right now. You can't have the complete insanity and sometimes outright demon possession of people that can happen with the Pentecostal churches for example.

Anyway, Adama, I'm glad you've found Christ again. Like you, I recently (about 7 years ago now) had a revival of sorts in myself as well. And after learning and reading very much, I got very overbearing with people and frankly quite judgmental and pride filled towards people with my religion. But it'll end eventually. You'll stop being "on fire!" for whatever reasons. Then you'll have the true task of really viewing things for the long haul, and your whole life. And you'll look back upon yourself as a fool for being so pride filled and judgmental. Remember, "with the measure you use, it will be used against you."

[jamesbond]

The problem with the presupposition of Protestantism is, every Protestant denomination basically starts out like Muhammed, or Joseph Smith in the book of Mormon. They all say "Oh, the original church is now corrupt, and mine is the true church! Come join MY true church!"

The other problem with this supposition. To have a system that works as follows, as in the Protestants' minds, it works like this. They think after 100AD all of Christendom is now apostate, as Protestantism didn't exist until the 1400s. So according to Protestants, God just must be an idiot, and 1300 years worth of people after Jesus Christ came back are going to hell because they were not around during the new manmade religious invention of Protestantism.

"Hey, I sent my son to save the Earth, but uh... yeah, after he comes, 1300 years worth of people cannot possibly be saved because they're Catholic!" Is this at all logical? That God would send his son to Earth to die for our sins, raise from the dead, create a church, then just let it fall into complete apostasy in every way so that nobody could possibly be saved in it, then create 30,000 other denominations of Protestantism who mostly all disagree with each other as the replacement?

Anyway, Adama, I'm glad you've found Christ again. Like you, I recently (about 7 years ago now) had a revival of sorts in myself as well. And after learning and reading very much, I got very overbearing with people and frankly quite judgmental and pride filled towards people with my religion. But it'll end eventually. You'll stop being "on fire!" for whatever reasons. Then you'll have the true task of really viewing things for the long haul, and your whole life. And you'll look back upon yourself as a fool for being so pride filled and judgmental. Remember, "with the measure you use, it will be used against you."

Well said onethousandknives, people like Adama think that for the first 1300 years of Christianity there was no way people could be saved because protestants were not around at that time (and of course only protestants are able to go to heaven according to people like Adama). Thank god the protestant faith emerged because without them, we would all be going to hell.

[josephty1]

Deleted

[Adama]

The problem with the presupposition of Protestantism is, every Protestant denomination basically starts out like Muhammed, or Joseph Smith in the book of Mormon. They all say "Oh, the original church is now corrupt, and mine is the true church! Come join MY true church!"

The other problem with this supposition. To have a system that works as follows, as in the Protestants' minds, it works like this. They think after 100AD all of Christendom is now apostate, as Protestantism didn't exist until the 1400s. So according to Protestants, God just must be an idiot, and 1300 years worth of people after Jesus Christ came back are going to hell because they were not around during the new manmade religious invention of Protestantism.

"Hey, I sent my son to save the Earth, but uh... yeah, after he comes, 1300 years worth of people cannot possibly be saved because they're Catholic!" Is this at all logical? That God would send his son to Earth to die for our sins, raise from the dead, create a church, then just let it fall into complete apostasy in every way so that nobody could possibly be saved in it, then create 30,000 other denominations of Protestantism who mostly all disagree with each other as the replacement?

Anyway, Adama, I'm glad you've found Christ again. Like you, I recently (about 7 years ago now) had a revival of sorts in myself as well. And after learning and reading very much, I got very overbearing with people and frankly quite judgmental and pride filled towards people with my religion. But it'll end eventually. You'll stop being "on fire!" for whatever reasons. Then you'll have the true task of really viewing things for the long haul, and your whole life. And you'll look back upon yourself as a fool for being so pride filled and judgmental. Remember, "with the measure you use, it will be used against you."

Well said onethousandknives, people like Adama think that for the first 1300 years of Christianity there was no way people could be saved because protestants were not around at that time (and of course only protestants are able to go to heaven according to people like Adama). Thank god the protestant faith emerged because without them, we would all be going to hell.

I'm not a protestant either. Nothing about my church ever broke away from the Catholic church. There is nothing to protest against, because we were never a part of Catholicism. Baptists have been underground and independent from the start. Baptists are independent and fundamental. Baptists are not a multinational corporation crowning kings.

[Adama]

Well said onethousandknives, people like Adama think that for the first 1300 years of Christianity there was no way people could be saved because protestants were not around at that time (and of course only protestants are able to go to heaven according to people like Adama). Thank god the protestant faith emerged because without them, we would all be going to hell.

[As for] the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. 17But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for [then] had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. 18But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all [things], and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.