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NASB | Hebrews 12:23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Hebrews 12:23 and to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to God, who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect [bringing them to their final glory], |
Subject: Are Catholic members consider Christian? |
Bible Note: Hi, Edd... Very well. Thank you for shifting back to the original question. I understand what you are saying. May I suggest, that in the future, you might actually tell us that your objective was to resurface in other thoughts from a prior question. The problem is that we get a lot of people who can't seem to do much else than ask the same question over and over. It leaves one to wonder if there is an unstated agenda at work. Posting to Krowland recently I said, "Remember how the Apostles Creed states, 'One holy catholic church?' This speaks to a unity, sanctity, and universality of the called-out ones. This is the Temple made without hands, built upon the teaching of the apostles and the prophets, of which Christ is the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20-22), of which all individual believers are living stones (1 Peter 2:3-10)." The word catholic simply means "universal" (from the Latin "cahtholicus"). My pastor pointed out recently that he understood this word in the Apostle's Creed to mean that the church was fundamentally missional in nature. As I thought about it, I realized that what he was suggesting made sense. We take the gospel to the world -- all tongues and nations (the ethnoi) -- because we understand that the elect are universally found. When a member of the Roman Catholic Church use the word "catholic" they are speaking of the organization headquartered in the Vatican. They see no distinction between it and the Temple of which I mentioned above. It is the Romanists themselves who have promulgated the notion that Protestant is the opposite of Catholic. You asked, "Are you Catholic Doc?" (sic) In the sense in which you are asking it, the answer would be: No, I am not. In Romanist thinking and by decree I am utterly lost (see post #216596). In the sense in which I speak of the invisible church above, the answer would be: Yes, I am. However, for distinction, we would use the adjective catholic rather than the proper noun Catholic. More specifically, I am an Historic Baptist (see my profile). Thank you for clarifying your questions. I hope that my comments will have proven of some benefit. In Him, Doc |