Ask a Christian a question

[LightGrenade04]

Go ahead, ask whatever you want about Christianity.

[Felonious]

Let me get it off, that I am a Christian.

Why are there so many denominations? I can understand Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Protestant, but then we get Baptists, Methodists, Christian, Free Will CHristian, Free Will Baptists, Pentacostal, the list goes on.

Any thoughts?

[McCulloch]

Let me get it off, that I am a Christian.

Why are there so many denominations? I can understand Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Protestant, but then we get Baptists, Methodists, Christian, Free Will CHristian, Free Will Baptists, Pentacostal, the list goes on.

Any thoughts?

None of the denominations of Christianity is totally wrong and many of them agree on certain points. But where they differ, each separate point of doctrine, at most only one of the competing points can be correct. God almighty has provided both his revealed word and the guidance of His Holy Spirit so that the faithful seeker after truth will not be led astray and will find the path of truth.

Either that or the whole thing is made up in the first place and the doctrinal differences have as much significance as the mimsiness of borogoves.

[Greatest I Am]

Go ahead, ask whatever you want about Christianity.

A true Christian believes in the Perfection of God.
He believes that from Perfection only Perfection can come.
He believes that a Perfect God created a perfect world for us and that a perfect Adan and Eve would make the Perfect choice in rejecting the garden of ignorance for the world of knowledge that we live in. Do you agree?

Regards
DL

[LightGrenade04]

Let me get it off, that I am a Christian.

Why are there so many denominations? I can understand Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Protestant, but then we get Baptists, Methodists, Christian, Free Will CHristian, Free Will Baptists, Pentacostal, the list goes on.

Any thoughts?

Hey, sorry I've taken so long to get back to this thread. I think there are two overarching reasons for it:

(1) Since God is utterly transcendent we cannot really describe the essence of God; we approach and understand God through contemplation and mystical experience, not purely through theology (though that is certainly important). Since God is transcendent and ineffable, all we can do is hint at God's nature with metaphors and symbols; as St. Gregory of Nyssa used to say, "God's name is not known, it is wondered at". Thus, all religious language - and, by extension, all of biblical revelation - is inherently analogical and figurative which points to a higher meaning which can really only be grasped through contemplation and experience. The metaphorical/analogical nature of language automatically creates the need for interpretation, which leads to the next factor.

(2) The most widely splintered branch of Christianity is, obviously, Protestantism. I think the reason for this is Protestantism's rejection of Holy Tradition and their acceptance of the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. But the Bible never grants itself such authority, it never calls itself the "Word of God", and there never was a doctrine of scriptural inerrancy until the 19th and early 20th centuries with the thought of people like B.B. Warfield, Dwight Moody, and John Darby. Furthermore, the Scriptures, in conjunction with Holy Tradition, form the basis of the teachings of the Church. Thus, the Scriptures reflect that Tradition and the canon of Scripture was chosen by the Church as a means of supplementing and understanding it. This means that the Bible is based on Christianity, Christianity is not based on the Bible. Due to the points I made in (1) above, the Bible does not interpret itself, it needs to be interpreted in light of Holy Tradition. But, Protestants have removed Tradition from their system even though the need for interpretation is still present; this leads to the thousands of different interpretations Protestants have made and all the hundreds of different denominations within it.

[LightGrenade04]

He believes that from Perfection only Perfection can come.

Not necessarily. Whatever God creates will go good as a reflection of Himself; but it will not necessarily be perfect since to create another perfection would really be to make a copy of Himself! But that's an absurdity. Creation is good, and even very good, but it is not perfect.

He believes that a Perfect God created a perfect world for us and that a perfect Adan and Eve would make the Perfect choice in rejecting the garden of ignorance for the world of knowledge that we live in. Do you agree?

I'm afraid I have to disagree. I agree with the Church Fathers and the Orthodox Church that our first ancestors were neither mortal nor immortal, perfect nor imperfect. Prior to the fall Adam was free from sin but he was still able to sin. Nor was he immortal but was capable of attaining immortality through obedience and growth in God.

What this means is that Adam was like a child, innocent and fully capable of spiritual growth through obedience to the Father and achieving immortality; union with God, or, as the Eastern Church calls it, theosis. Eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was done in disobedience to God but we have to realize that this is not like the Greek myth of Prometheus who had the temerity to steal fire from the gods and was likewise punished for it. The fruit of the Tree was not placed in the Garden with a permanent exclusion zone around it, leaving humanity in a state of perpetual infantile innocence. It was God's intention that Man should grow up and attain the necessary spiritual maturity to to accept such things. What happened in the Garden, however, was that Man would not be taught and wished to be god-like without learning of God, to be powerful without humility, knowledgeable without wisdom, free without responsibility, autonomous without having attained the necessary spiritual maturity to handle such a gift. In doing so he brought death upon himself. As St. Irenaeus wrote:

"Man was a little one, and his discretion still undeveloped, wherefore also he was easily misled by the deceiver."

St. Irenaeus, the Church Fathers in general, and the Orthodox Church then, never speak of death as retribution or punishment from God for the disobedience of Man's progenitors. Death is what befell Man when he distanced himself from God, and it is death which is what Man inherits from "original sin" not guilt.

[Greatest I Am]

[quote="LightGrenade04

"Man was a little one, and his discretion still undeveloped, wherefore also he was easily misled by the deceiver."

I took out the rest of the garbage and would like you to look outside before contemplating the above.

Regards
DL

[McCulloch]

Moderator Caution

I took out the rest of the garbage and would like you to look outside before contemplating the above.

Please reread the Debate Forum Intro and Rules
1. No personal attacks of any sort are allowed.
5. Support your assertions/arguments with evidence. Do not make blanket statements that are not supportable by logic/evidence.

Please do not simply call other debater's points of view garbage. It is not civil and it is not debate.

[LightGrenade04]

[quote="LightGrenade04

"Man was a little one, and his discretion still undeveloped, wherefore also he was easily misled by the deceiver."

I took out the rest of the garbage and would like you to look outside before contemplating the above.

What's that supposed to mean?

[Greatest I Am]

[quote="LightGrenade04

"Man was a little one, and his discretion still undeveloped, wherefore also he was easily misled by the deceiver."

I took out the rest of the garbage and would like you to look outside before contemplating the above.

What's that supposed to mean?

GIA wrote
Please accept my apology for being cranky in my response to your post.
I have no good excuse but would like to explain my mind set at the time.

I had made a mistake of reading all of your replies and had formed an opinion of your mind set. I saw intelligence, good education, yes, but I saw you as not quite having made up your own mind and so busy quoting others instead of giving your thoughts. Further I always get a chuckle when people like to be long winded and use words likemetathis and ergothat.
I saw a good mind being wasted and it pissed me off.
In other words, I was in hard debate mood and did not want to see too much bull.

I also did not realize you were a student and was replying to a hardened veteran of this place.

Sorry.

Regards
DL