Sillyness, werd

Sixty-thousand different denominations? I had heard only half of that, but still 30,000 is a huge number. I don’t doubt the higher number, though. Many of these; probably all of these say they believe the equivalent of sola scriptura, but how many of them actually practice it? I remember hearing Pat Robertson saying he believed the souls of aborted babies went to a place of preparation before entering heaven. I thought, “First of all dude, that sounds like the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, and secondly where is that in the Bible?”

I wrote a comment yesterday (7/1/2003) and it went off into cyberspace never to be seen again. :-(

I’m not familiar with Sola Scriptura, but what has always struck me is the fact that at one time there actually was One Christian Church. Can you even imagine? Of course, it had its share of dissenters and troublemakers too, but that’s human nature. I have such a huge problem with Catholics criticizing Protestants for “leaving the fold” when they did the same thing. (I know it’s waaaay more complicated than that, but I’m trying to keep comments short.)

You’d better make that 60k and 1 - I think I’ve probably got my own. I don’t really consider myself to be of any denomination, though out of the three broad terms, I guess I would be protestant - I’m pretty sure I’m not R/C (Catholic, not remote control, though I don’t think I’m that either) or Orthodox.

I have been asked “what sort of Christian I am”, which I found rather amusing at the time, but thinking about it, it does seem a little sad that people should have to ask that sort of thing in the first place.

Any way, I’ve muddled along most of my life kind of picking my own way through the whole thing, and so far it seems to be going ok.

I heard it was 26,000 separate denominations with 5 new ones added each week. I attribute a lot of the denominations to personality types and personal preferences, not to doctrine. But still, 26,000 blows my mind.

On the contrary … I have no opinion on this.

Quite frankly, in regards to any comments I would make, I simply don’t know enough to provide ‘intelligent’ dialogue.

However, to ‘save face’, I’ve always openly acknowledged the fact that I knew very little about the Orthodox faith and was simply ‘picking people’s minds’ in order to come to a better understanding of it.

At the same time, I will say that though the Orthodox tradition appears to have a much more cohesive structure than the 60,000+ Protestant denominations, it’s nice to know that its patrons still struggle with the same issues of pride that we, your lowly Protestant brothers and sisters, struggle with.

A quick note … analogizing this whole topic (something that I know Dr. Bacchus loathes): it seems to me that this schism between Protestants and Catholics, Catholics and Orthodox, and Orthodox and Protestants parallels the schism that took place between Israel and Judah.

Didn’t God judge Israel harshly when they didn’t come to Judah’s aid?

I have no idea what you are trying to communicate here.  Are you refering to something specific, or just making a blanket statement?

My point was only that by the testament of history the Sola Scriptura doctrine has served to severly fracture the protestant world.

I would like to get some more in depth information qualifying your statement, and when and who were being prideful.

I find it unfortunate that schisms exist, but as someone already mention it’s a part of human nature. People have mentioned in this discussion how they’re “tired” of one denomination attacking another. The problem is that every denomination gets attacked, and the only human form of defense is to strike back with another attack. For those who care to know, I am Catholic. It’s obvious I believe Catholicism is right because otherwise there’d be no point in being a Catholic. As far as Sola Scriptura goes, I don’t even believe that the idea exists or can work. In order for Protestants to understand their faith, there’s been Protestant authors who have written books to explain it. If they believe “solely” in the Bible, then aren’t these other books considered apostate? My point is, we’re all part of the same hypocricy. As long as there is something to believe in, there’s something to argue about.

Amen Brother! That’s why I’m a Catholic now. :D

Its funny how much Catholics do not know of their own faith. I was one of them. Now, having read a great deal of books and visited websites that cater to the anti-catholics in this world and regular protestant websites, I think I have an excellent sense that the doctrine of sola scriptura is nonsense. Protestants fail to understand that for the 400 or so years that the Bible wasn’t even in print, Christians relied on oral teaching of the word of Christ. Hence, oral or apostolic tradition. As the Catholic (unified) church can trace its roots all the way back to the original apostles, I feel confident that the true Christian church, is in fact, the Catholic Church. I don’t say that with any malice but it seems that there are more derogatory websites against Catholicism and the magisterium than anti-protestant websites.

Philip thanks for your comment.

When you say:As the Catholic (unified) church can trace its roots all the way back to the original apostles, I feel confident that the true Christian church, is in fact, the Catholic Church.

Are you using the word catholic little c as in universal, or do you mean catholic big C as in Roman Catholic?

I only ask, since I am in fact not Catholic, but I am catholic. I would also put forth that the Orthodox Church, of which I am a member, can trace its roots back to the apostles as well, in an unbroken line of succession, so who is the original Church?

I am beginning to wish more and more that the Western and Eastern Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church could indeed become unified again.