ironmonk Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 [quote name='mulls' date='Apr 13 2004, 09:54 PM'] what do those words truly mean? baptist.....so what? pentecostal....so what? non-denominational (which is becoming a denomination in itself)....so what? i just don't like the fact that many people that label themselves like this do so because they believe they "have it right" and everyone else doesn't. not all of them think this way, but some of them do. i just don't want to get lumped into a group of closed minded people who think they have everything figured out. they only group i want to be lumped into is that of "believers." [/quote] So what...? So what because they are all seperate faiths... not one faith. You call yourself a Christian... is that not a label? The Church that gave us the New Testament knows it best. It's a shame that you want to make up your own. How can that be what Christ built? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willguy Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 [quote]what do those words truly mean?[/quote] Part of it I think serves as kind of an instant statement of beliefs and practices to people who are curious. Sort of like I can say "I am a student" but saying "I am a high school senior" gives more context and info. For me, when I say "I am Catholic" it is my way of in one sentence declaring what I believe and that I'm proud of it. It is me taking a stand and saying "This is what I believe truth is, and though I'm not going to attack you if you don't agree with me, be forewarned." Maybe because Protestants feel much less loyalty (on average) to any particular denomination they are hesitant to declare themselves members of those denoms. [quote]non-denominational (which is becoming a denomination in itself)[/quote] I was thinking the same thing. [quote]i just don't want to get lumped into a group of closed minded people who think they have everything figured out. they only group i want to be lumped into is that of "believers." [/quote] Being part of a group doesn't mean that you have it all figured out. It doesn't mean that you are closed minded. It does mean that you know what you believe and are willing to make a stand for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.SIGGA Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 Yo Mulls, If any aspect of your belief comes from another person's theology, after totally shedding away their Catholicism, how can one not be classified as or at least related to Protestant? If you don't mind me asking, did you shed away all your Catholicism when you left the Catholic Church? Is your position sort of like Martin Luther, respectively, who actually saw himself as a purified and better Catholic instead of a Protestant, since he said his new beliefs came from his private revelations and not from study of another's work? The only thing that bugs me sometimes is when non-Catholic/Orthodox Christians (protestants) say that we "pre-Reformation" Christians are not really Christians and are certainly not Bible-believing "Christians". I really take offense to this most of the time. If a Protestant is doing this I sometimes have to tendency to say "Protestant" instead of just Christian, or specifically "Baptist" or "Non-Denom" etc... I understand your point though; I use Catholic and Christian interchangeably myself, which urks all the P-Christians around me Protestant is way too broad of a term these days anyway because not many Protestants in the 21st century are versed in what it means to belong to a particular anti-Catholic movement and honor the message of their particular founder, and all the mainliners really like Catholics for some reason these days anyway honestly, God Bless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qfnol31 Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 [quote name='mulls' date='Apr 13 2004, 08:54 PM'] what do those words truly mean? baptist.....so what? pentecostal....so what? non-denominational (which is becoming a denomination in itself)....so what? i just don't like the fact that many people that label themselves like this do so because they believe they "have it right" and everyone else doesn't. not all of them think this way, but some of them do. i just don't want to get lumped into a group of closed minded people who think they have everything figured out. they only group i want to be lumped into is that of "believers." [/quote] I understand the last one. To answer the original question I always considered a Protestant someone who denies the authority of the Magesterium. Now this doesn't work for Eastern Churches because of their reason for denial (they don't accept it because of the whole thing with the Roman Empire). To be honest I don't understand all the Denominations either. I love the term Catholic because it means universal, that we are a universal Church of believers. We know that no one person has all the answers, and we know that no one among is perfect, but we are all called to believe with one mind. Personally I think this is really cool. I like it 'cause the Church is always supposed to be trying to grow at once. And Protestantism? I think they loose a lot of the fun of having a Church devoted to that. I find the Catholic Church is very open. Different significant heroes of the Church even say that the Pagans have some truth in them. And that's why I like our label. And kind of what I think Protestantism means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the lumberjack Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 nondenom is becoming a denom? umm...we say that we belong to NO denomination...that we are simply Christians. but hey, if you guys want to call a square a parallelogram...why not? that is what that means. as for Protestant...I had NEVER used it outside of my HIGH SCHOOL History class...BTW, I graduated in 97, so...yeah...I only use it here because you guys call us that. God bless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justified Saint Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 Well, all that should matter is that they are out of formal communion with the Pope in Rome(That might be the only belief that unites all non-Catholics. ). I am not big on names myself. "Christian" doesn't mean much either, JWs and Mormons call themselves that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willguy Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 lumberjack, The question that many of us are wondering is WHY you don't call yourself Protestant? What do you have against it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironmonk Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 [quote name='the lumberjack' date='Apr 14 2004, 05:23 AM'] nondenom is becoming a denom? umm...we say that we belong to NO denomination...that we are simply Christians. but hey, if you guys want to call a square a parallelogram...why not? that is what that means. as for Protestant...I had NEVER used it outside of my HIGH SCHOOL History class...BTW, I graduated in 97, so...yeah...I only use it here because you guys call us that. God bless. [/quote] A nondenom is actually a denomination unto themselves. Nondenom speaks their own Gospel... a different one from the One Faith (Eph 2:5) = One Church. Nondenoms came from the "Church of Christ" back in the 70's. How did people learn of the Gospel before 1500 AD? God Bless, ironmonk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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