Ex Nihilo

Consideriing that the one holy catholic and apostolic church was the one actually founded by jesus christ, I dont see how it can be further from him than a sect created in the nineteenth century Dan.

Amen to that! I do love my tattered old copy of the CCC. I have a real hard time disagreeing with anything I read in it. Beats the hell out of the episcopal church's catechism imho

I believe that grace is all that is required for salvation. As a Christian Universalist, I believe that that grace has already been given to all by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. However, giving is not the same as receiving. To receive that grace requires a recognition of the one who gives it as one who has authority to give it. The Pharisees rebuked Jesus when he forgave people's sins, saying only god can forgive sins. They were right in that, but they were wrong when they assumed Jesus wasnt god. Jesus said that anyone who sees the son also sees the father (god the creator). When they recognize him as one who has authority to grant forgiveness, ie God, they can accept his gift. Those Pharisees may not have been Trinitarians then, but they are now. It's as assured as is our eventual and total salvation. It's not cruel to keep things veiled until the proper time of their unveiling when one knows that the Good Shepherd wills that not one sheep will ever be lost but that all will come to salvation...nothing not even lack of knowledge will keep us from our home.

It they allow him in the temple, he has to...or so I'm told. Glenn beck wears one too.

I disagree. It is available throughout the bible, both old ans New testaments, albeit in veiled and later in primitive form. Since I believe that Christ taught it, his disciples, imho, believed it. Just because a complete and thorough explanation and exegesis of the trinity, as we have it today, does not fall from the pages of scripture does not preclude its existence as an idea among the Christians of the new testament. I am not a bible-only Christian. The bible itself testifies that it does not hold all the lord said or did, nor could it. To pass on the fullness of his revelation, he chose apostles, not a book. The apostles passed on the fullness of faith to the church, which has kept it as its tradition. While the bible is a part if that tradition, it is not the only part. For me, the holy trinity is the Rosetta stone of Christian theology, without it, nothing that we know about christ makes sense. But if you have a poll taken during the New testament times proving that Christians disavowed the idea of the trinity, please share.

Couldn't agree more panpareil

An unheard MLK Jr interview has recently been found. In it, king defines what nonviolence means to him: "I would ... say that it is a method which seeks to secure a moral end through moral means," he said. "And it grows out of the whole concept of love, because if one is truly nonviolent that person has a loving spirit, he refuses to inflict injury upon the opponent because he loves the opponent." http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KING_REEL_DISCOVERY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-21-18-38-47 Beautiful words. I'm glad they've been rediscovered.

Hi Sarkany, please don't get me wrong. I never thought you were trying to bash the LDS. I think much too highly of you for that. I was only pointing out theres a lot of misinformation online, especially from evangelicals and fundamentalists, concerning Mormons from sites that appear academic and neutral. I fell victim to them too. I moved to Colorado and found myself swimming in a sea of Mormons and catholics. When I started talking to Mormons, I realized how off the mark those online sources are. I have learned to stay away from anything with "liberty" and "southern baptist convention" in the same sentence because it almost certainly leads to liberty university, which means it leads to jerry Falwell, who is anything but neutral. CARM too is a very misleading site. It appears to be researched based but is in reality a series of sermons created by the site's founder to assist in providing apologetic arguments for why any and all faiths that aren't bible based Protestantism, including Mormonism, Jehovah's witness and roman Catholicism, are false and should be rejected. I'm not saying they are dishonest but they have an agenda, and the facts are presented in a way and a context that furthers that agenda.

hi sarkany, in your quote it did not say they believe in three gods, they believe in three physically seperate persons, which sounds very much like just what the trinity is: one god in three persons (natures) coeternal and consubstantial. The trinity concept necessitates physical distinctness because the father is pure spirit, Jesus is both divine ans human, ie, corporeal, and the holy spirit is that part of god which proceeds from the father and the son to permeate, vivify, and sanctify all creation. They have always been and always will be sepetate yet united in one godhead. To deny this is to embrace unitarianism which is the very thing the athanasian creed seeks to anathematize.As for the SBC preacher, is be careful listening to him, I know what SBCs think of catholics...they might be biased.

Jesus is part of the trinity, and therefore belief in him as not only messiah and savior, but also second person of the godhead is necessary for salvific Christian faith but it is not sufficient. There must also be belief in god the father and god the holy spirit, according to most Christians. People who believe in Jesus but not the One who sent him or the one who came after could hardly be called a christiam, at least in the traditional sense

I'm writing my own prophesies, but in limericks rather than couplets. I think what makes him so popular is his brevity, he was the Milton Berle of prognosticators.

I know people are trying to pawn this guy off as a Randian because he'll sometimes pull out a quote and used to toy with the philosophy back in college, but one quick look show him to be nothing more than a big government conservative in libertarian clothing. He's a younger, slightly more eloquent George W. Bush.

Cults are centered around the personalities and persons of cult-leaders, Mormonism honors Joseph Smith as a prophet but does not worship him as god incarnate. The sect did not die out with the death of Smith, it has continued to grow and evolve. I have a number of friends who are Mormon. They pray in Christ's name, read the bible along with their book of Mormon, and exhibit far more of the Christ-likeness than most other Christians I know. I am not a Mormon, but I don't see how the changes they've made to their theology is any more unique and marginal than Pentecostals evangelicals, Protestants, Anglicans, Catholics, orthodox, baptists, or Quakers...Each sect has its own distinctive doctrines and views on the godhead (some would call these heresies but I think that's above my pay grade). That doesn't make them cults in anything other than the academic sense. According to the Athanasian creed, what makes a christian a christian is his adherence to the Trinitarian faith. Mormons believe the trinity, thus they are Christians. They may very well be wrong, but God said to be faithful not infallible.

This past weekend, I came across a leather-bound edition of The Prophesies of Nostradamus for $0.50 (Score!!) at the local thrift shop. I've enjoyed reading the couplets. His final one reads: "Long awaited, he will never come in Europe He will appear in Asia One issued from the Great Hermes He will be over all the kings of the East." Is this the coming Christ? Antichrist? Anyone care to interpret?? Does anyone find his predictions to be prophetic? As a kid, I watched the Orson Wells documentary about Nostradamus. It showed the third antichrist coming from the middle east. It showed him sending missiles to NYC and one missed its target(...maybe it could have been ariplanes used as missiles...hmmm). This was to initiate a third world war. It scared the bejeezus out of me because they said the war would start in 1996, the year I graduated from highschool. I just knew I was doomed for the draft.

While I don't know what will happen definitively, if anything, on December 21, 2012, I believe that the world is lurching toward some great sea change. I feel it in my bones, as do most people I speak to. As a planet, I think we are coming to the realization that the road we've been travelling is leading to a spiritual and evolutionary cul-de-sac. I think some day, sooner rather than later, big BIG changes will be on the horizon. What they will be and how they will affect us, I don't know. But one thing is for sure, we won't (can't) continue to live as we have been. It may be an end, it may also be a new beginning...For my part I hope we are standing on threshold of a new age...the messianic age...the age of aquarius...something like that.

I believe the Mormonism is a sect within Christianity. They believe in the trinity. They use the bible and biblical doctrines. True, their perspective and theology has been heavily colored by Joseph Smith and subsequent prophets. They are a very unique form of Christianity but Christian nonetheless.

Where has the objectivist model been successful or long lasting?

Hi all, I'd like to tell a story about a difficult day in my life and how god brought me through it. Seven years ago today, an aunt whom I loved dearly passed away after a long and terrible bout with cancer. for weeks prior to that day she'd been so weak she was unconscious almost all the time and could no longer speak. And that morning, the morning of august 9 2005, I woke up with the overwhelming feeling that she would be leaving us. I was so worried for her, I worried that she was in pain, whether she needed to tell us something but couldn't, but mostly I worried that she was afraid of what was coming. She was so strong in her faith but I couldn't help thinking that the battle she'd been through over the last year may have caused her to falter. By the time I got to work I was almost sick. I went in to my desk and there was a copy of a Methodist devotional, called the upperroom, sitting there. This was odd because no one I worked with was Methodist. At some point in the day, I picked it up and turned it to that day's article. It just so happpened to be about people nearing death from terminal disease. It was written by a woman who was in the last stages of cancer (a note at the bottom of the page said she had passed prior to the devotional's publishing). I have found a link to it here: http://devotional.upperroom.org/devotionals/2005-08-09 What she had to say blew me away. It was like god was using this article to tell me what aunt Linda could not. I could almost hear her voice in the words as I read it. It gave such peace. I realized that no matter how dark the valley, god would bring us to final victory. a couple weeks after her death, I was faced with the very real possibility of losing my newborn daughter, this message came back to me and gave me strength to have hope no matter the outcome. Every year, I reread this article and reflect on how aunt Linda blessed me and give thanks for the life we got to share here on earth and the eternal life we'll share in heaven. --God bless

I highly dig this!

pacifist all fight spiritual wars, just not physical ones. Sp

the decay of the Roman Empire in the west and its unifying and civilizing effects, war from barbarians, a mini ice age, and the plague.

Absolutely.

Rereading Lord of the Rings series. Also been reading a number of William Walker Atkinson titles free on kindle. Also, just started Disobedience and Democracy by Howard Sunny. I'm such a fan of A people's history that i wanted to see what else he'd written. Highly recommend all of the above. Bro k, you've got great taste!

That's why I believe that hell is the symbolic fire where souls are purified until they have paid the price for their sins and are welcomed into god's banquet hall

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it polite?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a point when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells him or her that it is right." --MLK Jr.