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| No | 19% | 110 votes | Total: 581 votes | |
| Yes | 81% | 471 votes |
No
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Add to FavoritesChristianity in todays society includes many churches and organizations, whether a person claims they are Catholic, Protestant, United, Anglican, Lutheran, or Pentecostal, etc.., they all have only one thing in common and that is to belittle each other, there doctrines are much different though most stem out of the Catholic faith, which was the founding church for Christianity.
Catholi c Believers have strict ritualistic traditions that include praying to the "Saints", each have a specific day of prayer. Birth control being unaccepted, Female repression.But that is not the topic at hand.
I was born into a Roman Catholic family, and decided at an early age not to participate in "Catechism", the tradition placed upon all children in the Catholic church, you complete your first Confession, then you complete your first Communion, then in the teenage years you complete your Confirmation. These traditions are not part of the other Christian churches that I have attended. The point to what I am Writing is that Christian doctrine is different in all Christian churches.
When speaking of the Christian doctrine, we must look at the book itself "The Bible". You have already many different opinions about what is authentic and what is not. The Apocrypha is included in Catholic and Orthodox doctrine, yet the Lutheran church believes it is good reading material to help increase ones faith, while the Anglican church uses the Apocrypha for edification purposes. The reformed/Presbyteria n, Methodist/Wesleyan, Baptist, or Pentecostal have a bible (King James Version) which omits the Apocrypha.
Christiani ty throughout the years has become the most divided Religion, so many different churches with there own set of beliefs. Which include some of the below listed.
Purgatory which exists only in the Catholic faith as a place one goes after death. If a person is not purified you enter Purgatory to purify yourself to enter Gods Kingdom. All other churches reject this belief, as it has no relation to the Bible.
The means of salvation are different amongst the churches. Catholic faith is that salvation is received upon baptism, it may be lost by mortal sin but regained by penance. Acceptance of Christ as Savior is the means of salvation for the Orthodox Christians, Baptist and Pentecostal. Faith in Christ is salvation in the Lutheran church and the Wesleyan church believes that salvation is in judgement according to good works upon death. I can continue on about other topics such as the Trinity, Angels, and the end times. But I am sure you as the reader have a good idea by now that these churches are divided by beliefs and doctrine.
When entering any church that falls under Christianity whether it is Catholic, Protestant etc..., There is one thing you can find that they have in common. If you look closely and listen to some of the people speak you can hear them criticize and belittle others who don't attend there church. I ask you the reader to go ahead and ask a Pentecostal what they think of Catholic beliefs, or any of the people attending a church to think about another Christian Church and there beliefs. You will hear it for yourself.
The essential principles of Christian doctrine are non existent. Through my studies I have found that most principles associated with one church are looked down upon by other churches, what really makes a person looking in at all of this think, is that they all claim they fall under Christianity. I guess the real topic is asking them to define what Christianity truly is. Then we can write pages trying to explain there definitions.
Learn more about this author, Renee Mcknight.
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Yes
A friend once commented, "If we agree that Jesus Christ is Lord, we may debate the rest of it." That pretty much sums up how I feel about this, but it does not answer the question.
Yes, of course there are principles of Christian belief in which we can agree. We may not agree on all questions of faith and doctrine, but certainly there are things we SHOULD agree on. If there is nothing we can all agree on, Christianity is in dire trouble. Fortunately, I do not believe this is the case.
Jesus Christ is Lord. He is God Incarnate, one of the three members of the Holy Trinity. God came to us in human form to reach out to our broken world in the most intimate, personal and direct way possible. Through belief in Him, we are saved, assured of our place in paradise with Jesus and His Father when we depart this earthly existence.
The above paragraph is Christianity at its most basic. These are principles and beliefs that, I feel, we not only can agree with, but must agree with. If you doubt any of the above, I politely ask; are you truly a Christian?
You will notice that I did not include a multitude of the Biblical teachings that many of us, as Christian believers, hold dear. Core beliefs such as the Ten Commandments, the virgin birth, Jesus' ability to perform miracles and forgive sins are only a few of the numerous examples I am referring to. Personally, I believe these teachings and countless others in our Holy Bible to be sure and true but, at the same time, recognize that many well-meaning persons of faith, for whatever their private reasons, may not agree with and believe in, not only all of the Bible's teaching, but Christian Church doctrine as well.
I may not believe as you do regarding many of the emotional and important traditional precepts of our faith, but if both of us believe Jesus Christ is Lord then we have the necessary and important common ground to worship hand in hand as followers of Christ. We may disagree on many things and still be enlightened, practicing Christians, but there are some things we must agree on. As stated before, I believe this is most often the case.
You may be thinking to yourself that Tom is writing some fairly liberal stuff and asking yourself, will a God who is sensitive to what he has commanded and taught us judge him harshly for it? My answer is; I hope he does not judge me more harshly than he may judge anyone else, especially a person with no belief in God or spiritual life of any kind. I do not believe He will, for our Lord shows mercy to those who love Him and seek His truth. As a Christian, I am saved through Jesus even if I do not understand correctly all I should about my faith and it is that very faith that makes it so. In this life, we are not in 100% lockstep with our Creator or each other, but still we are saved Christians because of our core beliefs.
All of this highlights the need for each of us to have a highly developed prayer life, to not only remember our fellow brothers and sisters to Him, but to seek direction and enlightenment concerning the truth concerning God and His Son. We start by believing Jesus is Lord, even if we are in a place and time in which Christianity does not flourish and Jesus is never mentioned, because God will write the truth upon our hearts if we are open to it. Because of this and many other reasons, there will be much that earnest people of faith will disagree on, but, we will agree on the most important thing of all; that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Learn more about this author, Tom Fowler.
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