. Goodness...
there are four things we agree on...Hooray!!!
<snip>
... in a nutshell: I do have some idea
why we are all fragmented as we are. Some do not want to accept the authority of The Church. They are their own authority, their own church; a church of one. Some accept the twisted words of unstable men instead of the words from the rock of the Church (Matthew 16:18). If you know what Church that rock is that Jesus spoke of then you will know The Truth because that Church is the foundation of Truth.
I am not un-happy with your response.
I appreciate your response. :)
IHS....Mary
Sorry I did not get here to post yesterday at all.
I am sure this thread has moved on a lot since then.
Well good...at least we can agree on some things. :)
Thank you for sharing why you believe we are all splintered and divided on so many things. ( re above quote)
Sadly you probably guessed that we would differ on this reason.
I cannot take the authority of the Church...
Because the Church itself is splintered...and it differs..
Which ever branch or wing of "the church " that we speak of, ...even they cannot agree.
We don't even have to go or think outside this Forum to find that even those of the same denomination do not agree.
Even those on here of the Catholic church do not all believe the same thing!
And, outside of this forum some Catholics are happy with the Pope and some Catholics are very unhappy with him and do not like him. Some feel he is doing good things, some don't.
So no, sorry Mary..."the universal church" ( the
whole body of all believers) does not have all truth correctly. Neither does the Catholic Church either , even they cannot all agree together!
The Church itself is in a mess....but, I still believe God will get us where He needs us to be.
When we strip all the discord and differences away...and it leaves us with nothing but our
faith in Him for Himself.
Our faith in God Himself as the Good Shepherd to being all of His sheep...safely into The Fold ...at the end.
Faith and trust...until the end. We have nothing else.
Bless you...H