Jesus' prayer that 'they may be ONE'

[Guest yod]

Nothing implied in that verse about the Catholic Church.

nothing either implied about being a 'non-denominational, bible-believing, evangelical baptist or any other kind of Christian', either!

no one said there was....

The True Church is none other than all of the people from every corner of this world, from every association or grouping of man kind, that have allowed The Holy Spirit of God to circumcise their hearts so that The Lord Jesus might come into those hearts, and take his place on the throne. That's the only way, there is no other.

this is the truth...and it's not limited to any denomination or religious institution.

[Guest Kandi]

The True Church is none other than all of the people from every corner of this world, from every association or grouping of man kind, that have allowed The Holy Spirit of God to circumcise their hearts so that The Lord Jesus might come into those hearts, and take his place on the throne. That's the only way, there is no other.

This sounds very good to me; like it came from a true Christian.

Thank you His son.

[Guest shadow2b]

-QUOTE (stevehut @ Sep 7 2004, 12:04 PM)

QUOTE (ServingHim @ Sep 5 2004, 06:28 PM)

I'm defending what I believe, and it just so happens to match up with what the Church teaches 

-ASTOUNDING COINCIDENCE huhhhh??

Then there's no need to defend or promote a particular church, is there? 

-

You are absolutely right, steve...and thank you for reminding me of this.

For centuries in the Christian world, all were united in one faith, the Catholic Church. Then came along the "reformation" and splits in the Body of Christ. With it came many changes in teaching by the various Christian sects. Some of these teachings, especially in the 20th century, seem to be poll driven, just like our very own civil government. Their "teachings" are based on public opinion, not on truth. The "teaching" of the day among some of these non-Catholic sects seems to be based on the "let us oil the squeaking wheel" policy. Private opinions do not change the truth one iota, but I'm sure you already knew that.

-Could you "possibly Provide a Verse or two IN the B.I.B.L.E. that states That??EXACTLY??

-Squeeky wheel opinion polls determine doctrine in which church is that now??-

-Should we call Rome & ask the POPE for his Opinion on squeeky wheel doctrine??

[Guest tigger89]

As I was reading through the original comments and the replies I was a little surprised at the diversity of viewpoints expressed,but I think this is a good thing. At the risk of oversimpliying all of the replies I will venture to suggest that most of the replies fall into one of the camps: a physical explaination or a spiritural explaination; although I will concede this division seems to me artificial; because the issues are really more complicated then that, but I think it is helpfull to analyze it in this way. When I use the term physical explaination I mean exploring the issues of church oneness and disunity through the lense of historical inquriry. More precisely, examining these issues by looking at the "Reformation" or the "Rebellion"; whatever way you want to look at it. Physical explorations tend to look at the churches and see how they fought and divided. On the other hand, when I use the term spiritual explanation I mean this view tends to see the problem of church oneness or disunity by emphasizing the universal church, which is made up of all believers everwhere in all times. It is not my intention to imply that the spiritual explaination is better than the physical one; althought the former phrase tends to empasize disharmany among believers, and the latter tends to empasize the unity of believers.

Personally, I find it helpfull to examine the nature of religious authority, Christian culture versus the true universal church, and the Catholic church. Religious authority is important to consider on the bais on the degree of authoritativeness which a theological truth has. Matters on which God as spoken through the Bible in a direct mannor can be held more authoritative than can one which only has divinely revealed priciples, or that Christians gather inferences from. For example, the truth of God's love or holyness has greater authority than does the sacraments, or a particular view of church government; because, the former has been directly reveled by God while the latter truths contain various biblical principles or inferences made from Scripture. This is important because theological truths which have a high degree of authority should be issues on which disunity should occur if there is disagreement in these areas. While, on the other hand, matters of lesser authority should not be issues over which the church should divide over if there is debate. Now I will venture to say that the gospel of God has the greatest authority behind it, and historically the true church of God is united in this respect. This bears resemblence to the spiritual camp. But also, historically the church has split over issues that contain lesser degrees of religious authority. This is like the physical camp. So are both the physical and spiritual camps right? No. To help us further I will introduce the concept of Christian culture versus the true church. What I am talking about here is the 'Christianized' culture and the universal church. Now I can talk about this Christian culture in one of two ways: the sub-culture of the early church and of the twentieth century, or the culture infused by Christianity by Constantine. It is the latter form of Christian culture we will now explore. It is important to note that non-Christians and Christians together which make up this one, but the Christians hold all the power. This culture historically experienced dis-harmony over several issues, but this should not lead us too the conclusion that the Christian church is not one because of this disunity. The universal church stands united. So then, is the church united or not? Among the doctorines which make Christianity what it has been considerably unified, although in other respects the church seems rooted in dis- harmony. On the other hand, perhaps this apparant lack of oneness or in other words lots of choices to choose from, in reality helps to acount for the diverse groups and peoples. For example if a church seperated over music styles at least the un-believers have a choice in music now!