The Official Roman Catholic Position is the True One
Recently the pope made more official some official declarations that the Roman Catholic Church has been officially making for centuries. When they do this it gets some media attention, mostly because so many chafe at the fact that the Roman Catholic Church is claiming to be the one true church. A mainstream news take on it all is here at the Los Angeles Times.
What irritates people is that the church gets all puffy about how you can't earn God's favor or go to heaven or be a good person without the Roman Catholic Church. To keep from being too intolerant the church will say things like other institutions are means to grace or they are respected communities of belief and all the rest of it. But it still holds:
The Roman Catholic Church is the true church.
Want to know something?
They're right. Yes. It's true. They are correct: The Roman Catholic Church is the one single true ecclesiastical body.
They can make such a firmly veritable proclamation about this simply because they are outside the saving power and grace of Jesus Christ. In other words, the Roman Catholic Church is the authorized secular body of rule for ecclesiastical issues, sent out of the presence of God when He charged the church's first pope, Cain, with the job of managing the sin of evildoers with seven-fold vengeance power.
When the pope says, "Believe on us for we rule over your lives," he is indeed telling the truth. When most of the world's population get antsy about that, they are whimpering "Ouch, that hurts because that means you will still work just as hard as you always have to condemn me for my willful sinful behavior."
How does this reveal itself in real terms? Protestants will find the church's declaration "troubling" because they are under the misconception that Catholics are actually followers of Christ, and that "ecumenical dialogue" to bring all folks back together again may be hampered. The fact is, if you are with the Catholic Church as a 501c3 incorporated non-profit, then what is your complaint? You are doing precisely what the Catholic Church is ordering you to do. If you are against the "one true church" statement and rail against it, then what do expect? You're the one who signed up, and are now just ranting about how oppressive your dad is being regarding terms you agreed to.
"I don't like that the pope is doing that--ergh," so many fume. If they aren't in sin, having been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, then what do they have to do with the World's lord, the pope?
The World and its church is completely out of the realm of God and His mercy, truth, and provision. As long as there are devoted Catholicists around requiring their sin to be managed so they don't destroy themselves, there will indeed be the one true church for them, the Roman Catholic one.
I should qualify this. As a ministry of condemnation, the Roman Catholic Church does serve a purpose to draw people tired of that condemnation and longing for complete freedom from their sin into the embrace of Christ. That does indeed involve coming out of the System, leaving it to continue to be the "one true church," and worshipping Him and Him alone.
The Roman Catholic Church, knowing nothing about God (but doing a spectacular job of pretending that it does) can never know this, hence the call to be under their thumb always. That's actually a good thing, even as sad as that is. Those who are Christ's heirs living joyously in His Kingdom, on the other hand, know that any ferocious censure of it is not only futile but demonstrates that a codependent relationship with it still exists.
It's simple, and it's been this way for millennia: You can live by turgid fear, and have the boffo Catholic Church and its adjunct branches (federal government, central bank) and all of its subdivisions (God clubs, ministries, non-profits) whack you around all the time.
Or you can live by authentic love, and revel in fellowship and discovery with the One Who Actually Loves You.
For some more on this "Catholicist Nation," visit this page. To see the picture that accompanied the Times article, that is here.
(6:00 pm note: Just as I'd wrapped up this post, a breaking news story came across from the Associated Press that the Los Angeles Archdiocese is paying out $600 million for sexual abuse victims. This should say everything about the nature of the "one true church.")
What irritates people is that the church gets all puffy about how you can't earn God's favor or go to heaven or be a good person without the Roman Catholic Church. To keep from being too intolerant the church will say things like other institutions are means to grace or they are respected communities of belief and all the rest of it. But it still holds:
The Roman Catholic Church is the true church.
Want to know something?
They're right. Yes. It's true. They are correct: The Roman Catholic Church is the one single true ecclesiastical body.
They can make such a firmly veritable proclamation about this simply because they are outside the saving power and grace of Jesus Christ. In other words, the Roman Catholic Church is the authorized secular body of rule for ecclesiastical issues, sent out of the presence of God when He charged the church's first pope, Cain, with the job of managing the sin of evildoers with seven-fold vengeance power.
When the pope says, "Believe on us for we rule over your lives," he is indeed telling the truth. When most of the world's population get antsy about that, they are whimpering "Ouch, that hurts because that means you will still work just as hard as you always have to condemn me for my willful sinful behavior."
How does this reveal itself in real terms? Protestants will find the church's declaration "troubling" because they are under the misconception that Catholics are actually followers of Christ, and that "ecumenical dialogue" to bring all folks back together again may be hampered. The fact is, if you are with the Catholic Church as a 501c3 incorporated non-profit, then what is your complaint? You are doing precisely what the Catholic Church is ordering you to do. If you are against the "one true church" statement and rail against it, then what do expect? You're the one who signed up, and are now just ranting about how oppressive your dad is being regarding terms you agreed to.
"I don't like that the pope is doing that--ergh," so many fume. If they aren't in sin, having been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, then what do they have to do with the World's lord, the pope?
The World and its church is completely out of the realm of God and His mercy, truth, and provision. As long as there are devoted Catholicists around requiring their sin to be managed so they don't destroy themselves, there will indeed be the one true church for them, the Roman Catholic one.
I should qualify this. As a ministry of condemnation, the Roman Catholic Church does serve a purpose to draw people tired of that condemnation and longing for complete freedom from their sin into the embrace of Christ. That does indeed involve coming out of the System, leaving it to continue to be the "one true church," and worshipping Him and Him alone.
The Roman Catholic Church, knowing nothing about God (but doing a spectacular job of pretending that it does) can never know this, hence the call to be under their thumb always. That's actually a good thing, even as sad as that is. Those who are Christ's heirs living joyously in His Kingdom, on the other hand, know that any ferocious censure of it is not only futile but demonstrates that a codependent relationship with it still exists.
It's simple, and it's been this way for millennia: You can live by turgid fear, and have the boffo Catholic Church and its adjunct branches (federal government, central bank) and all of its subdivisions (God clubs, ministries, non-profits) whack you around all the time.
Or you can live by authentic love, and revel in fellowship and discovery with the One Who Actually Loves You.
For some more on this "Catholicist Nation," visit this page. To see the picture that accompanied the Times article, that is here.
(6:00 pm note: Just as I'd wrapped up this post, a breaking news story came across from the Associated Press that the Los Angeles Archdiocese is paying out $600 million for sexual abuse victims. This should say everything about the nature of the "one true church.")
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