Catholics Aren't Christians?

[MJ the Skeptical]

I have to laugh when these Protestants play the no true scotsman fallacy on Catholics. Like Catholicism is not the genesis of their faith or the reason why Christianity is popular...

Exactly my point, without the roman church, almost no one in Europe and by extension America would have ever heard of this Christ thing. With a bit of luck, it would now be considered an obscure side branch of Judaism for gentiles, maybe vanished and forgotten like hundreds of other cults that were practised in the roman empire. The roman church may be the evangelicals' estranged parent, but it is their parent.

The problem with them is that the protestant type see them as some other worshiper of another god when the fact of the matter is they believe in the same thing. They will even shame some Catholics into admitting they're not really Christians. They don't even see that they both believe in the same Abrahamic god with some caveats.

[downbeatplumb]

Frodo did pretty good in his "didn't want to know" post.
However, when Jesus said to Peter- you are a small stone and upon this huge rock- I will build my church, Jesus was stating He would build His church upon the statement of Peter that Jesus is the Christ.

The above correlates with the prophet Daniel seeing a huge rock coming down crushing all the kingdoms that man has built- that Rock, the same one which went with the Israelis thru the desert is coming back to fulfill Daniel's word.

Catholicism deceptively uses Christian words to cloak it's lies.
Just as the other cults do which are mentioned in this post above.

Trusting in what Jesus Himself did on our behalf BY HIMSELF and not in Masses (false sacrifice ceremonies) , attendance to rituals,"Holy days of obligation", or all the other hocus pocus, psudo stuff they fling to the "Faithful".

The call is going to come to "Come out of her- My people" to those still dwelling in that false system.
The system which has supplanted Christianity and has the blood of the saints still staining it's hands for more than a thousand years.

In Hebrew petros is Peter and petra is rock.
It is entirely possible that the whole of Christianity is based on Jesus's bad pun.
The whole thing was down to Jesus trying to be funny.

[Tonus]

Your giving to the community from your current earnings. Taking enough for your own needs. Disproportionate wealth is commonly seen as a barrier to happiness. That's what has to be given away.

It gets muddled in the NT, when Jesus criticizes the high priests who make sure to donate 10% of everything yet are not giving the proper guidance to the flock. And then he praises an old woman who donates a pittance because it was all she had, while others gave from what they had to spare even though the implication is that they gave much more in absolute terms. And of course, he cuts a young man off at the knees for not selling all of his belongings, even though it appears the young man is a devout believer in god (to the point that Jesus "felt love for him").

What's interesting is that it allows for an incredibly broad range of possible interpretations. You can decide that giving anything is far less important than being a good person, or you can decide that being a good person means nothing if you don't give away your last coin. And just about anything in between, depending on how you mix and match the stories and shape your interpretation. Then just claim that your opinion is "spirit driven" and you're set!

[Alex K]

Exactly my point, without the roman church, almost no one in Europe and by extension America would have ever heard of this Christ thing. With a bit of luck, it would now be considered an obscure side branch of Judaism for gentiles, maybe vanished and forgotten like hundreds of other cults that were practised in the roman empire. The roman church may be the evangelicals' estranged parent, but it is their parent.

The problem with them is that the protestant type see them as some other worshiper of another god when the fact of the matter is they believe in the same thing. They will even shame some Catholics into admitting they're not really Christians. They don't even see that they both believe in the same Abrahamic god with some caveats.

In Germany, the association of protestant and Lutheran "evangelical" churches of Germany EKD has relatively close cooperation with the catholic church, with such things as joint "ecumenical" services for certain occasions. The only thing they absolutely refuse to do is a joint eucharist,because of technical details about what part of the wine exactly turns into Jesus and how much. It would be considered an absurd proposition that they do not both belong to Christianity.

[vorlon13]

The One True Faith, by definition, is the one true faith.

All others fall short and are DAMNED.

Religion 101 is sponsored by Dahlquist Seasoned Olives, the Buick of olives.

[jesus_wept]

As long as something believes in christ and a skydaddy, they are christians.

You mean like Muslims do?

In only joking. I get what you mean but I'm just being pedantic.

[Minimalist]

Disproportionate wealth is commonly seen as a barrier to happiness.

Not by the disproportionately wealthy, Frods.

[fr0d0]

In other news... apparently psychopaths and the very wealthy share the trait (psychopathic).

The qualities needed to succeed to the upper echelons of business are identical to those employed by the criminally insane. One group laugh maniacally with their friends, the other languish in padded cells in solitary confinement.

[Minimalist]

Funny except those fuckers are running the country.

[fr0d0]

It's almost a billion to one of us idiots keeping them in power. Defies all sense.