Whoah dude... Calm down... I was expressing MY view... I am not one to make any such decision... I don't even believe in God... I was expressing an opinion, nothing more.

I didn't mean it to sound offensive. I was just pointing out that no one can really say what is a "true Christian". Especially since the Bible and the original teachings of Jesus have been butchered beyond recognition by now; usually to meet someone's sinister agenda.

I don't see the argument over who is a "true" Christian of particular importance here. So far as I am concerned you are either a Christian or not. If you believe in Jesus as God and attempt to live your life according to his sayings in the New Testament then you qualify as a Christian. There is no true or not true, if you go through the motions, but don't believe you're not a Christian.
Now Catholicism is something I feel has become cultural, rather like cultural Jews who do not practice religion or believe in YHVH. You can be culturally Catholic and not a Chrisitan (as I am), or you can be Catholic and Christian. The Church itself is a Christian organization based upon it's various pronouncments of belief. I think that all of this is besides the point of the meaning of this release.
The Pope said this was a clarification of previous ecumenical pronouncements. So he is saying there is no change in the position of the Catholic Church on other churches. If this is the case then Protestants, Baptists, Orthodox churches and so on have been misled as to the position of Rome on ecumenism. I tend to think that a more conservative element is currently in power and never believed the previous pronouncements anyway.
In the end it is only words, it doesn't change the belief of a single person and has no bearing on who is and isn't a Christian. I'm not even sure why ecumenism is so important, none of the churches are willing to change their stance or admit they were wrong, that is anathema to an organization that claims the corner on metaphysical truth. Humanity would be better served if they agreed to disagree and ignored each other for the most part. The energy they spend on that could be focused on more constructive activities.

I like that... Culturally Catholic... I suppose that could apply to me as well...

To Solon, Tadpole and Oh, Dear!

Of course, you are entitled to your beliefs and opinions appearing on this page. However, from experience, each of your attitudes reflect (to me, anyway) that it's what YOU think is true and not necessarily what is true. Again, you are entitled to believe whichever way you want.

But for me, I believe the Bible is the Word of God. Has it been tampered with? Of course. But if one as honestly as he/she can, believes and accepts what the Bible says, and follows the principles laid out with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, "errors" or tamperings won't matter.

It seems to me (my opinion) that you don't take seriously what the Bible says. It seems you "toy" with it to ease the nudgings of the Holy Spirit. It's like sticking your big toe in the water to test how comfortable the temperature is to before emerging your whole body.

Spiritual matters ought not to be treated frivolously, for entertainment, or taken lightly. The Bible speaks, nay, WARNS of dreadful and frightful times coming and our God and Creator Who loves all of His creation wants us to prepare so that He can deliver us. We also have an enemy who wishes to destroy us. You can hope, wish, believe all you want that "it's God's will that everyone be saved" but all your hopes, wishes and beliefs do NOT change what the Word says. There are, believe it or not, certain conditions that have to be met to qualify for salvation.

It's not my purpose to "preach" to you...but rather (hopefully) point you into the right direction, to point out and PROVE to you the error of your thinking and/or beliefs. For your own sakes, I sincerely hope that you will reconsider and change your attitudes towards the Bible and how God would have us live our lives.

But back to the topic at hand. There WILL be an Anti-Christ (Oh Dear, there is a difference between the Anti-christ and an anti-christ spirit), whether you don't want to believe it or not.

Today is the day to get serious as to whether you will follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or whether you will follow the "god of this world". If we follow OUR hearts instead of seeking God's, we are most certainly following the god of this world. There is a natural man, a spiritual man and a carnal man. It would behoove each of us to find a study of this subject to ascertain where we stand. God didn't protect His Word through the centuries to have us believe we could just pick and choose whatever we wanted from it. He is our Creator. Give Him the honor of listening to what He has to say to you. Not, "oh, this is neat! I think I'll believe this, but I don't know if I want to believe this, so I won't." His Word is not like some servateria to pick and choose.

Observer,

I started out as a courtesy, to bold and underline those gems in your post I was gonna address in this reply. But I must admit that this day has been far too busy and I am far too tired. I am now sitting with a cuppa coffee and maybe ought to rather be in bed already. That aside, let's look at what I did begin to do with your quoted post above.

You assume we have an "attitude" for not believing as you do. Observer, fact is that you too display an "attitude" and by saying that you conclude that we all believe what WE want, I submit to you that you do the same. Or can you tell me that you believe what you do not want to believe???

As to your judgement that anyone here is being nudged by the Holy Spirit and ignoring those nudges, rationalizing away the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, you do a great disservice first to your God and the ministry of said Holy Spirit, as well as a disservice to any of us. You Sir, do not know our hearts. Nor has Holy Spirit given you the gift of discernment. What do you think I believe and why must you warn me that I am in danger, believing amiss?
Let's say that there is an antichrist as you say...how does my lack of belief in such a being posture me for danger? I always thought that it was not what I did NOT believe in that mattered but what I did.

Okay, I challenge you Obs...go for it and PROVE the error of our ways. That being mine, Tad's and Solon's. Dear Observer, you might want to also realize that if you choose to warn and demonstrate our wrong, that it may be you following the God of this world. Ummm, isn't good old Satan called "The accuser of the brethren"???

Do you discount my being your sister in Christ so readily because I believe in universal reconciliation of all God's creation? Do you discount my being your sister in Christ so readily because I do not wait for some spiritual beam me up to a "What the rapturlarity" experience? Do you discount my being your sister in Christ so readily because I believe differently than you? Ah, you see, you will have to discount those who are not in your denomination then too? Christianity is so chopped up as it is. It looks like one of those salads with bits of meat and pickle in mayonaisse: baloney!

Oh and yes, for your sage advice for us to all start living right while we got the time to...thank you! And praytell, how are any of us living? Do you know our values, our norms and standards and that which we will or will not do?

Perhaps you should write. In more detail.

OD

I hope you don't think I was offering anything other than my opinion on the matter. The "So far as I am concerned" would be a good indicator that I am not attempting to speak for anyone else. We all act upon what we think is true rather than what is true, though what we believe and what is true are sometimes the same.

These paragraphs lead me to believe that perhaps a mistake was made in including me in your post. I don't believe I mentioned the Bible in my previous post once. I'm not sure how I left you with the impression I was toying with anything.

I'm not sure what you think you know about me or my beliefs other than that I am not Christian and I have a Catholic background. I submit that you are ignorant of my beliefs and are not qualified to critique my soteriology or hermeneutic prowess.

When you choose this tack with people who hold the views you attribute to the three of us it will only offend or cause us to dig in our heels. It has the opposite affect you seem to desire. Telling us "You are wrong and I have the only truth in the universe, heed me or suffer." is not how to convince us to change our minds. It's a terrible way to get anyone to change their mind about anything. It wouldn't work if someone tried that with you. Let us say someone claims that if you did not heed the holy word of Zarathustra you would discover your errors after it was too late and suffer for it. I imagine you would remain unswayed. Why should anyone else be different? I think perhaps your apologetics need work or you need to switch tactics. When faced with someone who does not hold your a priori assumptions you need to spend time building your argument before it will have any effect on them.

Charisma Magazine

I subscribe to this magazine, and what Pope Benedict did was to light a fire on this author.

I always knew Benedict was the guy who was gonna set back the church. He's so hard line that it's unreal.

You've got me scratching my head here.

What is hard line about saying our's is the only true church? The only church that Jesus was married to?

Is that not only the lowest common denominator of ALL christian churches and indeed the reason there are so many sects, cults, and denominations of Christianity - is that each believes theirs is the one true path to salvation? To admit otherwise would be to admit that salvation can come in many forms and from many varied believes - which then implies that the need for an organized church is irrelevant.

Where one church may use the unforgiving, intolerant god of the old testament to drive home the point of a revengeful god, another may tend to use the preaching and teaching of jesus as an example of a forgiving and tolerant human/god.

Even in christianity there is little agreement on what is the truth and what is chafe.

Seems to me the pope is making the proclamation for self preservation.