Results 1 - 11 of 11
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 86942 | ||
angellightboy, You are right about one thing; "The way to God, I dont believe is being straight." It isn't being "gay" either. It is being holy. And chastity is part of being holy. Chastity applies to everyone, whether married or single, widowed or divorced, male or female, tempted by members of the opposite sex the same sex or another specie. Have you considered the possibilty of a chaste life? Yes, I know it is a hard teaching and hard to accept. We all are called to a chaste life. The single person who was never offered a marriage proposal, the handicapped who cannot marry or will not be asked for in marriage, the widow and widower, the married man or woman whose spouse has grown cold, is ill or who has abandoned them. Being heterosexual, married or single, is no guarantee of joy and fulfillment in the sexual or even the emotional realm. Identifying oneself as "gay" is even less of a guarantee. We are all called to and held to the same standard and it is not easy for any. "The gate is narrow and few there are that enter in." Only God's grace makes it possible for anyone. Take up your cross and folow Him. Believe me, it is the cross you refuse or lay down because you think it is too heavy that is lighter than the one you will have to pick up later. Been there, done that. People are not ganging up on you here. We all face similar temptations if not the same ones and they last a lifetime too. No special standard is being applied to you, just the same one as applied to everyone else, the Biblical standard, not what we wished was the Biblical standard so life would be a little easier. Emmaus |
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2 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | John Reformed | 87467 | ||
"The way to God, I dont believe is being straight." It isn't being "gay" either. It is being holy. Dear Emmaus, This is really to much for me to bear! I know you mean well...but what you are recommending is a righteousness that comes by works. Do you really believe that the our filthy rags please God? Isa 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." THIS is the way to God! Recognize that you are a slave to sin, and that no good work of your's will enable you to attain a right standing before God; Cast yourself before the cross and plead to Christ to have mercy and save you from the destruction you most richly deserve. Poor angelightboy is in no mood to repent and mere celibacy will not lead him to God. Rather pray that God will grant him repentance leading unto eternal life. (Let's face facts. How well has this prescription of your's worked in the Catholic church?) John Reformed |
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3 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 87472 | ||
John, "Honey coated poison" ? "Too much to bear"? You must have skipped over the section where I said it was possible only by the grace of God. Here it is again, since you missed it the first time. "We are all called to and held to the same standard and it is not easy for any. "The gate is narrow and few there are that enter in." Only God's grace makes it possible for anyone. Take up your cross and folow Him. Believe me, it is the cross you refuse or lay down because you think it is too heavy that is lighter than the one you will have to pick up later. Been there, done that." It is too much for you to bear Jesus saying that we must "be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect"? Or St Paul who uses that word holy in Romans 12:1, "present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; 1 Cor 3:17 then temple of God, which you are, is holy". You need to go to a Concordance and do a word study on the word holy my friend. You may consider youself "a snow covered dung heap", but God has a better plan in store for you and Scripture says you are by grace a new creation in Christ, not a snow covered dung heap. See also Ephesians 2:10 and 4:24. Emmaus |
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4 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | John Reformed | 87481 | ||
Dear Emmaus, I did not skip over your nod to grace. But, perhaps you have forgotten that I once considered myself a Catholic, and for 8 years was instructed by the dominican order in the essentials of faith according to Rome. Grace, as taught by Rome, is subject to works. The Baltimore Cat. teaches that sanctifying grace is lost by the commission of a mortal sin. So, the grace you refer to is quite different from that which most protestants understand grace to be. How does one recover from the loss of grace? Confession (work) and performing a sincere ACT of contrition (works). This prescripion is quite different than simply going before God in prayer and confessing our sins. Rome cannot support from the Bible their, so-called "sacrament", of confession. But that which really promted my post was your advice concerning celibacy! Angelightboy does not even accept the Bible as being reliable. Evidently those things which trouble his conscience are easily dismissed by him as errors of translation. How convenient. Is it not obvious that his problem is not homosexuality per se, but unbelief! Forgive me if, in my zeal for the gospel, I came across as being unneccessarily harsh with you. The truth is that I have long felt that Rome's unscriptural celibacy requirements have caused the sorry state of affairs it now finds itself in. I thought your next recommendation to angelightboy would be for him to consider the priesthood! (ironic remark) By the way...we really experience very little snow here in Tucson :-) John John |
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5 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 87485 | ||
John, Celebacy is to remain unmarried. Chastity applies to all, single or married, whatever their temptation may be. Celebacy and chastity are not synonymous. I presume you have no problem with Angelightboy or anyone else relying on God's grace to live a chaste life, assuming they are repentent. I do not consider what I said about grace a "nod." Your characterization of it as such seems rather condescending to me. I am sorry that your did not pursue your Catholic studies of grace and the sacraments beyond the grade school level. If you had, you would have learned that the grace obtained in Confession comes from the merits obtained by Jesus whom we encounter there and not from the confession of the sins themselves. As you well know Scripture does speak of the confession of sins to others and their forgivenss in John 20:21-23; James 5:14-16. It goes without saying that if someone is not in the state of grace they cannot attain to it by their own works. But if they repent and confess God is quick to forgive. And it is only serious sin that leaves outside the state of grace that must be confessed sacramentaly to the priest who stands in for the Jesus and his Body the Church. All other sin can and should be confessed just as you would on a daily basis. We just confess sacramentaly in a different context than you. Scripture does not say that if you confess to a priest you are not confessing and being forgiven. In fact John 20:21-23 and James 5:14-16 among other scripture would indicate the exact opposite conclusion. Read the Council of Trent if you think this is not Ctholic teaching. May I suggest you stick with Reformed theology upon which you seem have a better grasp. Forgive me if I take offense at having someone who left the Catholic Church at the eigth grade level lecture me on its teachings. You apparently have never studied Catholic teaching from Catholic sources at an adult level, but have accepted the caricature of it fed to you by others. I don't lecture you on Reformed theology. Please extend the same curtesy to me by not lecturing me on Catholic theology. Emmaus |
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6 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | John Reformed | 87487 | ||
...the grace obtained in Confession comes from the merits obtained by Jesus whom we encounter there and not from the confession of the sins themselves." Dear Emmaus, You left out the merits gained by Mary and Joseph and John and paul and peter and matthew and augustine and etc. etc, In fact Rome has a vast treasury of grace available to those who will bow down to it's interpretation of Scripture. In fact they've even made it available for purchase from time to time. "Luther issued a public call for theological debate on the sale of indulgences by posting ninety-five theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on the eve of All Saints' Day, October 31, 1517. Printers distributed copies without Luther's knowledge and permission. Within a few weeks, Martin Luther was known everywhere as the voice of renewal." "Although Rome wanted to silence Luther, powerful German princes, led by Elector Frederick of Saxony, Luther's benefactor, secured freedom of speech for him. He debated with Cardinal Cajetan and the Dominican John Eck at Augsburg and Leipzig in 1519; he stated his case before Emperor Charles V at Worms in 1521 (where, standing before empire and church he said, "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me." and he published numerous proposals for reform from 1520 on. Nevertheless, Luther was excommunicated as a heretic and condemned as a traitor by pope and emperor in 1521." Been there, done that. Thank God there are catholics whose faith is a lot better than their church's theology. John |
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7 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 87506 | ||
John, Is that the best you can do? Luther has been dead for five hundred years and so have the Medici and Borgia popes. Have you bought any indulgences lately or has anyone since the 16th century? Come on John, did any of those Dominicans Sisters try to sell you an indulgence? I think that point on selling indulgences was conceded long ago. And from where do you think Catholic teaching says all those merits of the saints come? Surprise it's Jesus, because they are in Him! I guess you are conceding all other points to me in the present since you have not refuted anything in my previous post and have not cited a single scripture passage in your current post. And John, guess what the biggest indulgence of all is. It's salvation by grace through the merits of Jesus Christ. No, we don't sell that either. John, You have the mentality of a school yard bully. Grow up! Emmaus |
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8 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | John Reformed | 87527 | ||
Emmaus, Personally, I bear you no ill will, but theologicaly, I am opposed to your Roman Catholic view of Scripture. At times, one needs to be blunt in order to defend the faith. The battle that the christian soldier fights is not against flesh and blood, but, against wickedness in the spiitual realm. A bully is not concerned about the well-being of others. What really got me to sit up straight (no pun intended) was this statement from you: "You are right about one thing; "The way to God, I dont believe is being straight." It isn't being "gay" either. It is being holy. You then went on to advocate celibacy and chastity as means that he should employ which would provide him with the "way" to God First of all, if this were a way to God then why would we have needed a saviour? What, in essence, you recommended (and this to an unbeliever!) was that he should be as holy as he can be and that will lead him to God. Is that the gospel? No! It is a prescription of works righteousness. It could well describe every false religion on Earth EXCEPT Christianity! One might as well recommend to the dead that they would live if only they would breathe. The problem, friend Emmaus, is that you put the cart before the horse. The gospel alone has the power to raise the dead. After they are breathing, and only then, should they be exhorted to live a holy life which is pleasing to Him who saved them. But with that exhortation should come the reminder, "...without me you can do nothing." That is...after salvation we are still totally dependent on God's grace to be able to live a holy life. The greatest theologian the Catholic church ever had said: "I have not hope at all but in thy great mercy. Grant what thou commandest and command what thou wilt." (Augustine) Peace Emmaus, John PS I do not believe that Catholics are damned because they are Catholic, or that Protestants are saved by virtue of being Protestant. I believe that all those, who will be counted among the elect of God, will be saved because of God's mercifull grace alone. |
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9 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 87532 | ||
John, The problem here is that you are not listening. You only hear what you want to hear or expect to hear. I say "grace", you hear "works" because that is what you expect or because you refuse to hear grace from me because you think you have me pigeoned holed theologically. I object to this and you then proceed to tell me that either I did not really say grace but works and if I did say grace I really meant works because by golly that's what Catholics always mean even if they don't say it. A conversation like this is doomed to failure, primarily because it is not a conversation between me and you but rather a coversation between you and a preconcieved notion of me and what you think I should be saying. There is nothing more for us to talk about as far as I am concerned. You can just post both sides of the conversation and it will save me a lot of time and energy. Emmaus |
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10 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | John Reformed | 87537 | ||
Dear Emmaus, You are absolutely right. Upon closer examination of your post my eyes were opened. Please forgive me for my sinful disregard of what you really meant. I behaved quite badly by reading past your words and over-reacting to my own mistaken perception. My desire, always, is to glorify Christ by my words and deeds. In this I have failed. Again, I am truly sorry. I will be copying this reply and posting it to Hank as well. John |
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11 | Disease or Bad Personal Choice?? | Bible general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 87538 | ||
John, All is forgiven. Emmaus |
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