What is the one true Church?

[BreadOfLife]

I thank God that I am saved by the Faith of Jesus. If I had to rely on my own faith, I would probably sink like Peter.
It is in the act of believing in which an unbelieving husband or wife is sanctified.
I don't think marruage itself has anything to do with it.
Lot of people in the world are married and they aren't sanctified in the Truth of Jesus Christ.

I believe Paul stayed unattched, unmarried, because he wanted to concentrate himself totally to the Lord and the ministry.
There is no commandement in the bible to remain unmarried. It simply says it's better if one wants to dedicate his/her life to the Lord, and not be distracted with the worries that comes from divided attention.

Just my thoughts
Hugs

Not exactly.
Paul is talking about those IN CHRIST who are married. THOSE are the marriages that sanctify.

The rest of your post makes sense.

 

[RLT63]

I can ALWAYS count on YOU for a nervous "LOL" when you have NO answers.
NONE of you can refute Paul's words in 1 Cor. 7 regarding the holiness of celibacy in service to God .

ALL I' get are cowardly hit-and-run posts and nervous "LOLs" . . . . .

1Co 7:6 - But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

1Co 7:7 - For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.///// Paul wished everyone could be like him but not everyone can

 

[BreadOfLife]

No need in arguing with you. You believe you have found the one true religion. There’s nothing I could say that would change your mind about anything.

I didn't ask you to "change" my mind.
I asked you to substantiate your idiotic claim.

Because I quoted Paul in 1 Cor. 7 - YOU accused me of being like a JW.
Do you always accuse people of this who quote Scripture?

Be better than just a typical ignorant anti-Catholic and explain WHY you feel this way.
Who knows? - I might do me some good . . .

 

[BreadOfLife]

1Co 7:6 - But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

1Co 7:7 - For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.///// Paul wished everyone could be like him but not everyone can

Right - NOBODY is "forced" to be celibate.
That's a choice every man makes who enters the seminary in the Latin Rite.

Nobody ever said it was a commandment . . .

 

[Grailhunter]

I know PLENTY of mothers that couldn’t be considered “holy”. Having a child doesn’t make you “holy” in and of itself. Being holy is ALL about serving the LORD.

Neither does wearing a robe and horny.

He goes on to say that a celibate person service God does BETTER.

Even a kid in 2md grade knows that “better” means BETTER.

Ok define better for me.
I see churches wear husband and wife and children pastoral teams will blow you away and bring people to the Lord.

 

[Taken]

I can ALWAYS count on YOU for a nervous "LOL" when you have NO answer.

LOL not nerves. Literally Laughing at your endless nonsense.

NONE of you can refute Paul's words in 1 Cor. 7 regarding the holiness of celibacy in service to God .

ALL I' get are cowardly hit-and-run posts and nervous "LOLs" . . . . .

* Celibacy does not MAKE an individual holy!

Celibacy should be a Choice NOT a Condition!

Agreeing to BE Celibate and then sneak around committing all kinds of immoral sexual acts…IS Fraud…

Participating in Covering up the Fraud makes a mockery of the Condition.

 

[Taken]

Right - NOBODY is "forced" to be celibate.
That's a choice every man makes who enters the seminary in the Latin Rite.

Nobody ever said it was a commandment . . .

It’s a conditional Agreement among men, and Ridiculous on its Face.

 

[Illuminator]

The celibate makes his life into a visible witness for the priority of God in our lives, a sign to remind all people that without the inner sanctum our lives lose contact with their source and goal. We belong to God. All people do. Celibates are people who, by not attaching themselves to any one particular person, remind us that the relationship with God is the beginning, the source, and the goal of all human relationships.

By his or her life of nonattachment, the celibate lifts up an aspect of the Christian life of which we all need to be reminded. The celibate is like the clown in the circus who, between the scary acts of the trapeze artists and lion tamers, fumbles and falls, reminding us that all human activities are ultimately not so important as the virtuosi make us believe. Celibates live out the holy emptiness in their lives by not marrying, by not trying to build for themselves, a house or a fortune, by not trying to wield as much influence as possible, and by not filling their lives with events, people, or creations for which they will be remembered. They hope that by their empty lives God will be recognized as the source of all human thoughts and actions. Especially by not marrying and by abstaining from the most intimate expression of human love, the celibate becomes a living sign of the limits of interpersonal relationships and of the centrality of the inner sanctum that no human being may violate.

To whom, then, is this witness directed? I dare to say that celibacy is, first of all, a witness to all those who are married. I wonder if we have explored enough the very important relationship between marriage and celibacy. Lately we have become aware of this intern-elatedness in a very painful way. The crisis of celibacy and the crisis of married life appeared together. At the same time that many priests and religious persons move away from the celibate life, we see many couples questioning the value of their commitment to each other. These two phenomena, although they are not connected with each other as cause and effect, are closely related because marriage and celibacy are two ways of living within the Christian community that support each other.

Celibacy is a support to married people in their commitment to each other. The celibate reminds those who live together in marriage of their own celibate center, which they need to protect and nurture in order to live a life that does not depend simply upon the stability of emotions and affections, but also on their common love for God, who called them together. On the other hand, married people also witness to those who have chosen the celibate life, reminding them that it is the love of God that indeed makes rich and creative human relationships possible and that the value of the celibate life becomes manifest in a generous, affectionate, and faithful care for those in need. Married people remind celibates that celibates also live in covenant and are brides and grooms. Thus celibacy and marriage need each other.

Celibates can indeed have a very good understanding of married life and married people of celibate life. Remarks such as: "You don't know what you are talking about because you are not married (or celibate)" can be very misleading. Precisely because marriage and celibacy are in each other's service and bound together by their common witness to God's love as the love from which all human relationships originate, celibate and married people can be of invaluable help to each other by supporting their different life-styles.​

Celibacy not only witnesses to the inner sanctum to married people, but also, together with marriage, celibacy speaks of the presence of God in the world to anyone who is there to listen. In a world so congested and so entangled in conflict and pain, celibates by their dedication to God in a single life-style, and married people by their dedication to God in a life together, are signs of God's presence in this world. They both ask us in different ways to turn to God as the source of all human relationships. They both say in different ways that without giving God his rightful place in the midst of the city, we all die in the hopeless attempt to fabricate peace and love by ourselves. The celibate speaks of the need to respect the inner sanctum at all cost; the married Christian speaks of the need to base human relationships on the intimacy with God himself. But both speak for God and his Lordship in the world, and together they give form to the Christian community and stand out as signs of hope.

Thus, in a world torn by loneliness and conflict and trying so hard to create better human relationships, celibacy is a very important witness. It encourages us to create space for him who sent his son, thus revealing to us that we can only love each other because he has loved us first.

Henri J. M. Nouwen
Clowning in Rome

 

[Brakelite]

More of your idiotic, SDA bitterness.

It would be refreshing to read just ONE rand from an SDA that wasn’t filled with condemnation and self-righteousness..
BUT, going by the model of your false prophetess/founder – I guess it’s just par for the course . . .

That's all you've got? Abuse? I commended you for your Catholic faithfulness, and your zeal in defending what you believe to be right... You are a good Catholic. But if I am wrong concerning the historical admixture of pagan symbolism and practise within catholicism, then refute it by explaining or expounding on why those overt expressions of occult pagan sexuality and idolatry are so prominently displayed or exhibited at the center of Catholic headquarters?
As for the uniting of and participating in various faith paradigms,  including pagan ones, as well as the ecumenical movement... If I am wrong that the Catholic participation in those programs is bent toward papal supremacy and the expectation that the Pope should be the head of such unions, then testify to my error. Your response as it stands does nothing more than testify to the truth that I speak of. And from where do I get my information? Ellen White? No, the symbolism of paganism within the Papacy goes back a long time before her, and the current politicking of the Pope on the cause of union of church and state, the union of Abrahamic faiths, and the union of Christian denominations, and the acceptance and toleration of non Christian faiths, and the protesting against Protestant denominations in preaching the gospel to other faiths, what the Pope calls proselytizing, is all current news a long time after Ellen White. Nor does it have anything to do with my church.
It is history. It is current news. It is published forth by your Pope's own encyclicals. I am not lying, I am not hating, I am simply gathering together information in order to bring light upon what is actually going on, and the dangers it presents for religious liberty and freedom of conscience. Dangers from which your own American founding fathers and early settlers escaped, and sincerely warned against themselves... Not one of them being a Seventh Day Adventist.
My concerns in this matters extends also to American evangelicalism and numerous Protestant denominations who are not only blind to those things they inherited from catholicism and have retained, but the active politicization of the gospel within the church in America and the collective hope that politics can do for America what the church lacks in power to do. Something else some of your founding fathers warned about.
So instead of the insults, how about discussing the actual issues at stake here. Global papal hegemony through the uniting of churches and faiths, and the union of church and state in American politics contrary to the constitution.

 

[BreadOfLife]

Neither does wearing a robe and horny.

You NEVER learn - DO you . . .
Married Protestant Pastors are diddling even MORE chi;ldren than the unmarried priests did . . .
How Protestant Churches Hid Sexual Abuse ...

Blogger Who Exposed Protestant Sex Abuse Cover Up Sued By Her Pastor

Denial About Sexual Abuse In Evangelical Churches

Southern Baptists Apologize For Sex Abuse Coverups

Confronting Evangelical Enabling of Sexual Abuse

Bombshell: sex abuse, coverup in America's largest Protestant ...

Southern Baptist leaders covered up sex abuse, kept secret ...

Clergy Abuse Coverup within the Protestant Church

Ok define better for me.
I see churches wear husband and wife and children pastoral teams will blow you away and bring people to the Lord.

And I can show you some very godly priests who have brought MANY to Christ.

 

[BreadOfLife]

It’s a conditional Agreement among men, and Ridiculous on its Face.

Then the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul to write 1 Cor. 7 is "ridiculous"??
Good luck telling HIM that . . .

 

[RLT63]

Right - NOBODY is "forced" to be celibate.
That's a choice every man makes who enters the seminary in the Latin Rite.

Nobody ever said it was a commandment . . .

Is it a requirement to become a Preist?

 

[Brakelite]

Of anyone wants to know what to look for in the "one true church", one could do worse than looking for the criteria in scripture for the final remnant church before the second coming.
A. It must be a global church, as they peach the everlasting gospel to every kindred, nation, tongue, and people.(Revelation 14:6)
B. The message will be in harmony with exposing Babylon, the spiritual counterpart to the true church, a fallen apostate system opposed to the truth.
C. This church will be known for keeping the commandments of God.
D. It will be a Christian church for it will have the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 12:17, 14:12)
E. It will be a prophetic church, having the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of Prophecy. (Revelation 19:10)

 

[Grailhunter]

@BreadOfLife
Because celibacy does not sanctify anything.....same before....same after......the only difference is if the Priest falls off his celibacy wagon the only thing that gets molested in a hollow chocolate bunny!

And the Bible DISAGREES with you . . .
1 Cor. 7:38

I think chocolate is better.
But he still does not say celibacy sanctifies or makes ya holy or a saint....but it makes you horny so that it is always on your mind.
And this verse does not even have the words holy or sanctify in it.

As for the “pedophile priests” that need to go to prison – make sure you save a few extra cells for the MARRIED Protestant Ministers who are molesting kids in greater numbers, according to the book, Pedophiles and Priests by Protestant author, Philip Jenkins.

A History of Sex Abuse in the Protestant Imagination
FAQ: Sexual Abuse by Protestant Clergy - The Doan Law Firm
1 in 10 Young Protestants Have Left a Church Over Abuse
Evangelicals ‘worse’ than Catholics on sexual abuse
Evangelical Sex Abuse Record ‘Worse’ Than Catholic, Says Billy Graham’s Grandson
Protestants can no longer dismiss abuse as a ‘Catholic problem’
Child Sex Abuse More Prevalent Among Protestants Than Among Catholics
There Is More Sexual Abuse In The Protestant Churches Than Catholic
Catholic priests no guiltier of sex abuse than other clergy
Data Shed Light on Child Sexual Abuse by Protestant Clergy
Blogger Who Exposed Protestant Sex Abuse Cover Up Sued By Her Pastor

No doubt that evil people are everywhere.....now find the Protestant churches that pay the settlements to keep them out of prison.

 

[Brakelite]

I seem to remember saying something similar a few posts back.
Just sayin...
Hugs

And Ellen White, whom they love to vilify, said the same 150 years ago.

 

[Grailhunter]

And the Bible DISAGREES with you . . .
1 Cor. 7:38

We need to lay this one to rest....
You can forget about a holy person....as I suspected the Bible does not designate any person holy....no Holy Peter...no Holy Paul....not even Holy Apostles. The Bible speaks of Holy cities but not Rome. Paul calls Christians saints but nothing about horny.

How about sanctify, what does the Bible say about becoming sancified.....by being horny?
These verses say the Word of God sanctifies us....John 17:17-19, Ephesians 5:26, 1st Timothy 4:5
Acts 26:18 says we are sanctified through faith.
Romans 15:16 says we are sanctified through the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 13:12 says we are sanctified through the blood of Christ.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,.... 1st Corinthians 1:30

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.
1st Corinthians 7:14 as you previously noted. Is it because the husband had sex with the sanctified wife that he is sanctified?

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:10

Sorry you are wrong.....The Bible does not show any sanctification for horny priests. Sex does not sanctify you or un-sanctify you.

You might try writing your own Bible. The Jehovah's Witnesses did it and they like it.

In stead of the Holy Bible on the cover it could be the Horny Bible.
You are Holy and sanctified if you are horny.

 

[Ziggy]

Out of everything God created in the beginning, there was only one thing God said was not good.
Gen 2:18
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Celibates live out the holy emptiness in their lives by not marrying, by not trying to build for themselves, a house or a fortune, by not trying to wield as much influence as possible, and by not filling their lives with events, people, or creations for which they will be remembered. They hope that by their empty lives God will be recognized as the source of all human thoughts and actions.

"holy emptiness"

This was my life:
When I was 14 I gave birth to a daughter. I was date raped and fearful to tell my parents. By the time I got around to mentioning it I was already 4 months pregnant. This was in 1979 when the only alternative I had was to keep the child or give her up for adoption.
My parents supported whatever choice I made. At 8 months I chose to keep her. They provided everything, clothes, formula, furniture, etc.
I met a man 11 years older than me when I was 18. He was a hard worker. I was having conflicts with my parents on how to raise the child.
Of course I knew ir all, I was a teenager. This man had just come out of a divorce and I was looking to make my own life and create my own family. We worked a lot. We argued a lot. We managed to stay married for 16 years.
Our marriage had become so distant that he lived at one end of the house and I the other. We didn't talk anymore.
He met another woman and I met another man and we parted our ways uncontested.
My second husband was not my husband until after living with him for 6 years. His parents didn't approve and wouldn't stay under his roof as long as we remained unmarried.
So we got married. The relationship for some reason began to go downhill. We both wanted things our own way.
For almost 10 years we were over the road truckers living in a sleeper the size of a twin bed, 24/7/365.
The road was hard. Not much sleep, poor diet, no real exercise. And the conversations always revolved around where the next load would take us. I couldn't get a CDL license because I had no peripheal vision in my right eye. So I was the secratary, the accountant, the scheduler, and I charted out the map.
I ended up getting real sick and couldn't walk. The doctor said my main artery had a blockage in it and I wold need a major operation.
We didn't have health insurance, so we got a divorce so I could get help from the state. The operation would of cost $400,000.00.
I had a belief in God but I didn't know God. And I didn't have a lot of time to study.
Around the same time, he went to get his physical and they found he had the same thing I did, except his blockage was stopping blood from getting to his organsm liver, kidneys... mine only stopped the bloodflow to my legs. I wasn't in critical condition as he was.
So he went in for the surgery and I nursed him back to health for 5 months. When he went back to work he told me I should go and get my surgery. I asked him, will you stay home and care for me? He said he couldn't he had to work to pay the bills. So I opted out.
In 2017 we had a hurricane Irma heading to Florida. We were in the direct path of a catagory 5. He was in Mississippi at the time.
I was scared. I asked him to come home incase something happened, he ssaid he didn't want to put the truck in harms way.
I got furious. His mother lived not far away and told me she wanted to live with her other son in NH and would I take her.
My father lives in Maine and so I asked if I could move up here because the property in florida was devastated. The flooding was bad. The house was damaged by a tree. He said yes.
So I packed up 10 cats, a dog, and my mother-in-law and headed on a 3 day journey. It was difficult. But we made it. She found housing near her son and I came and stayed in my fathers camp.
He didn't want me back and I didn't want to go back.
I been single, unattached to anyone for 6 years. I am at peace. I spend most my time listening, reading, studying, praying, conversing on this forum, and I am content.

Is this what you would consider "holy emptiness" ?
I feel fuller and closer to God than I ever have in my entire life. To me, it is anything but empty. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Just sharing...
Hugs

 

[Brakelite]

This is an illogical assumption.

FIRST of all – NONE of us knows when Christ will rerurm.

You need to read that in context. Paul, as all the other apostles and many church fathers, could not see a future of 2000 years until Christ returns.

KJV 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:
3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

The entire letter was written in the context of time being short.

And no-one here is saying that being a single person in service to Jesus isn't a sanctified ministry, nor is anyone claiming that a single person may not better focus his talents and services to the gospel as opposed to a married person.
The issue here, as it so often is, that one comment and view of Paul which was not necessarily inspired, was taken by the Catholic Church, over emphasized, and institutionalized and bore much rotten fruit. No-one here is disagreeing with Paul, we are disagreeing with how the Catholic Church misused his counsel.

 

[Grailhunter]

Out of everything God created in the beginning, there was only one thing God said was not good.
Gen 2:18
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.


"holy emptiness"

This was my life:
When I was 14 I gave birth to a daughter. I was date raped and fearful to tell my parents. By the time I got around to mentioning it I was already 4 months pregnant. This was in 1979 when the only alternative I had was to keep the child or give her up for adoption.
My parents supported whatever choice I made. At 8 months I chose to keep her. They provided everything, clothes, formula, furniture, etc.
I met a man 11 years older than me when I was 18. He was a hard worker. I was having conflicts with my parents on how to raise the child.
Of course I knew ir all, I was a teenager. This man had just come out of a divorce and I was looking to make my own life and create my own family. We worked a lot. We argued a lot. We managed to stay married for 16 years.
Our marriage had become so distant that he lived at one end of the house and I the other. We didn't talk anymore.
He met another woman and I met another man and we parted our ways uncontested.
My second husband was not my husband until after living with him for 6 years. His parents didn't approve and wouldn't stay under his roof as long as we remained unmarried.
So we got married. The relationship for some reason began to go downhill. We both wanted things our own way.
For almost 10 years we were over the road truckers living in a sleeper the size of a twin bed, 24/7/365.
The road was hard. Not much sleep, poor diet, no real exercise. And the conversations always revolved around where the next load would take us. I couldn't get a CDL license because I had no peripheal vision in my right eye. So I was the secratary, the accountant, the scheduler, and I charted out the map.
I ended up getting real sick and couldn't walk. The doctor said my main artery had a blockage in it and I wold need a major operation.
We didn't have health insurance, so we got a divorce so I could get help from the state. The operation would of cost $400,000.00.
I had a belief in God but I didn't know God. And I didn't have a lot of time to study.
Around the same time, he went to get his physical and they found he had the same thing I did, except his blockage was stopping blood from getting to his organsm liver, kidneys... mine only stopped the bloodflow to my legs. I wasn't in critical condition as he was.
So he went in for the surgery and I nursed him back to health for 5 months. When he went back to work he told me I should go and get my surgery. I asked him, will you stay home and care for me? He said he couldn't he had to work to pay the bills. So I opted out.
In 2017 we had a hurricane Irma heading to Florida. We were in the direct path of a catagory 5. He was in Mississippi at the time.
I was scared. I asked him to come home incase something happened, he ssaid he didn't want to put the truck in harms way.
I got furious. His mother lived not far away and told me she wanted to live with her other son in NH and would I take her.
My father lives in Maine and so I asked if I could move up here because the property in florida was devastated. The flooding was bad. The house was damaged by a tree. He said yes.
So I packed up 10 cats, a dog, and my mother-in-law and headed on a 3 day journey. It was difficult. But we made it. She found housing near her son and I came and stayed in my fathers camp.
He didn't want me back and I didn't want to go back.
I been single, unattached to anyone for 6 years. I am at peace. I spend most my time listening, reading, studying, praying, conversing on this forum, and I am content.

Is this what you would consider "holy emptiness" ?
I feel fuller and closer to God than I ever have in my entire life. To me, it is anything but empty. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Just sharing...
Hugs

Yeap you are definitely sanctified....where do we place the stamp!

 

[Illuminator]

1Co 7:6 - But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

1Co 7:7 - For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.///// Paul wished everyone could be like him but not everyone can

Precisely. A man must be called by God to the celibate life, and the calling is not easy to discern. No lightening bolts, no voices from heaven, no pizzazz. That's why we have specialists called Vocation Directors to help a man through the spiritual and psychological discernment process leading up to final vows. This screening process can take up to 7 years or more. Everyone has a get-out-free card they can use at anytime before ordination.
Mandatory celibacy (only for the Latin rite) didn't begin until the 10th century, but that does not mean there were no priestly or monastic celibates before that time, beginning with Paul. That includes women. 1 Tim. 5:9-12 – Paul recommends that older widows take a pledge of celibacy. This was the beginning of women religious orders.
Non-Catholic Christians have no business criticizing the practice, who offer no biblical warrant for a mandatory married clergy.
Celibacy exists only because Jesus was celibate, married to His Church.
Marriage is good for everybody, celibacy is better for full time ministers. It's good/better. Not good/bad. It's both/and, not either/or.
A false dichotomous mindset distorts the scriptures.

Married clergy with kids have problems that celibacy avoids.

After a rebellious youth, Graham found a straight and narrow path that took him to the pulpit and the helm of his father’s Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.​

• But for every Franklin Graham, there’s a Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheist philosopher whose father was a Lutheran minister.
• For every Condoleezza Rice, there’s an Alice Cooper, the heavy-metal singing, fake-blood spouting son of a preacher man.

Beneath the stereotypes of preacher’s kids as either goody two-shoes or devilish hellions lies a tense and sometimes taxing reality, the children of clergy say. Studies show that many PK’s, as the lingo goes, struggle with issues of identity, privacy and morality. There’s even a support group, Preacher’s Kids International, dedicated to the “celebration and recovery of those who grew up in the parsonage.”​

​

Beyond Stereotypes, A Stressful Life For Preacher's Kids

Beyond Stereotypes, A Stressful Life For Preacher's Kids

www.huffpost.com