Just So You Know, I'm Giving Up On Catholicism...

[Papist]

Light,
I am happy and glad you are sincere in your search for the Truth and following Christ. However, I am sad that you are rejecting the Church that Christ founded. God bless you.

[sixpence]

[quote name='Light and Truth' timestamp='1347813808' post='2483010']
Aww, thanks for your amesome response. What kind of Orthodox?
[/quote]

the Greek variety!

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1347883808' post='2483261']
Bump.
[/quote]
Sorry Bro Adam. I have to ask what the one true church is in Orthodoxy.

[mortify]

[quote name='Light and Truth' timestamp='1347864674' post='2483236']
I lost my interest two years ago. Would you rather I stay Protestant/Messianic? If you truly believe that Orthodox is at least closer to the the fullness of truth as some would call it in Catholicism, then you should be happy that I will be Orthodox. If you believe that Messianic or Protestant is closer, then feel free to be sad about my recent decision.[/quote]

You announced to a Catholic forum you're not interested in Catholicism, now you want a pat on the back?

[quote]Of course, an Eastern Orthodox schismatic sect with weird practices like no passports. I'm going Oriental Orthodox, so I have tried to focus my reading and studying to more directly applicable stuff, plus I never heard of this Alden person before today.
[/quote]

They're only "schismatic" because they refused to accept the novelties introduced by the Patriarch Nikon, which would have actually caused them to depart from Orthodoxy. Their doctrine and praxis however has remained as pure and unadultered as the time Greek Missionaries first taugh their Slavic ancestors about the faith. If I were to ever depart from the truth and accept Orthodoxy, they would be my only choice, but since you have chosen a schismaic (and dare say heretical) sect yourself, the Old Believers will certainly sound like a deviant and obscure choice.

Edited September 17, 2012 by mortify

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='mortify' timestamp='1347892992' post='2483292']
You announced to a Catholic forum you're not interested in Catholicism, now you want a pat on the back?[/QUOTE]
Fine, be sad I am leaving Protestantism. No skin off my back, but I gotta get to work this week. Have fun.

[quote name='mortify' timestamp='1347892992' post='2483292']They're only "schismatic" because they refused to accept the novelties introduced by the Patriarch Nikon, which would have actually caused them to depart from Orthodoxy. Their doctrine and praxis however has remained as pure and unadultered as the time Greek Missionaries first taugh their Slavic ancestors about the faith. If I were to ever depart from the truth and accept Orthodoxy, they would be my only choice, but since you have chosen a schismaic (and dare say heretical) sect yourself, the Old Believers will certainly sound like a deviant and obscure choice.
[/quote]
No. I prefer to go with what I can honestly believe in. It's not about deviant or obscure. It's about honest faith.

[quote name='BigJon16' timestamp='1347823005' post='2483061']
I am happy for you. I would rather see you becoming an Orthodox than staying as a protestant.
[/quote]
This is the attitude I was surprised it took so long to see.

[Anastasia13]

Mortify, were you saying that Old Believers should sound obscure to me because in many areas what I have chosen is also obscure?

[BigJon16]

[quote name='Light and Truth' timestamp='1347893440' post='2483294']

This is the attitude I was surprised it took so long to see.
[/quote]

I can have that attitude because I know that if you honestly seek out God and His truth, He will lead you to Catholicism. You might not see it that way, right now.

I also feel that you have done your homework and made up your mind, so there is nothing that I can say that would change your mind.

All I can do--and will do--is pray for you, and let God do the talking. I trust Him enough that He will not lead one of His sheep away.

[Mark of the Cross]

Light and truth, I believe in the Universal catholic Church. There are no divisions in the body of Christ except for the ones that people make when they hate on each other. We just have different idea's. From what I've seen there are broad spectrum's of idea's and practices within each denomination. So having different names doesn't alter things that much. So long as we follow our conscience and let Jesus be our guide 'The waves cannot wash over us. The winds cannot sweep us away.' For what it's worth, God led me from Anglican to Roman Catholic. I don't really know why, because I've never felt that I fit in, yet I feel at home. Good luck on your search, follow your heart and your conscience and trust. 'He that believeth in me shall never die but have eternal life.'
Peace Sis.

[Mark of the Cross]

[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1347828298' post='2483075']
Does that mean that the Orthodox Church is the one founded by Jesus and the Catholics split away?
[/quote]
The Church founded by Christ is the universal catholic church. The catholic church includes all those who have salvation written in their hearts and follow the apostolic teachings of faith and morals. Probably without realising it the Catholic Church in it's catechism admitted this in it's teaching of salvation for other denominations and religions. The Catholic Church and Orthodox are the branches, Jesus is the vine.

[url="http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=50&ch=10&l=16#x"]John 10[16][/url] And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Mark of the Cross

[Papist]

Didn't Jesus pray for unity...i.e. one branch?

[Brother Adam]

Light and truth, I believe in the Universal catholic Church.

[b]It isn't an 'either/or' it is a 'both/and'. The Church resides uniquely both in the hearts of all believers and visibly in the Catholic Church, founded by Jesus, and led by the bishops and their successors. [/b]

There are no divisions in the body of Christ except for the ones that people make when they hate on each other.

[b]Tears in the seemless robe of Christ are not only caused by hate, but also by pride, ignorance, and other sins. Yes, we are responsible for the loss of unity. "Knowing better" and "being smarter" than Jesus and the Church he founded really doesn't help healing. I am Catholic because I know I am a fool. I don't know how to figure it all out by myself. The rock of Peter through whom Jesus comes to me gives me a comfort and guarantee I can't have by following the doctrines of a man. [/b]

We just have different idea's. From what I've seen there are broad spectrum's of idea's and practices within each denomination.

[b]However, it is not honest if I call myself a Baptist and reject Baptist doctrine. I am cheating myself and harming the very people in my community I should be loving. [/b]

So having different names doesn't alter things that much.

[b]Nomenclature matters. Nominalism may have worked for Ockham, but it has been a complete disaster as a Christian philosophy. [/b]

So long as we follow our conscience and let Jesus be our guide 'The waves cannot wash over us. The winds cannot sweep us away.'

[b]Even if your conscience tells you it is okay to murder and pillage like Joseph Kony? Even liberal Christian scholars are distancing themselves from the 1960's "Jesus is okay, I am okay, you are okay and we are all going to heaven, let's all hug" philosophy. Horrifying things have been done with the best of intentions. One of the most horrific is the catholics who walk around telling people that we should just follow our conscience to the loss of millions of souls who have lost their sense of sin, hunger and thirst for the Sacraments of salvation, and interior relationships with God. I can't even imagine the number of unborn who have lost their lives because of the policy of cafeteria catholics in politics.[/b]

[b]I don't mean to come across as a j.erk or a downer but we have a mighty and amesome God who revealed to us the Way in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and revealed to us the way of Salvation. Outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation. yes, God finds ways of bringing people of good will to Himself through various means when, through [u]no fault of their own[/u], they remain ignorant of the true faith. Baptism communicates God's divine life in us, washing away our sins, and reuniting us as adopted sons of God, from whence we derive our inheritance as a member of God's family, eternal life. Through the power of the Holy Spirit a succession of bishops through Holy Orders bring us the Sacraments of Salvation wherein we receive God's divine life to continue to minister and forgive our sins and bring us to heaven. Without these Sacraments we cannot hope to have a relationship with God. Through this visible Church the joy of a guarantee of the faith is given to us in Scripture and Tradition, less we do not know who to believe.[/b]

[b]Marred by human nature, modern man, just like the Israelites before us often reject God's grace and harm the unity that Christ prayed for. While we may choose to reject what God has revealed fully through the Son, revelation remains a constant and is knowable, with certainty, through the Church. If it were not, then the gates of hell have prevailed against it rendering the promises of Christ null and void. [/b]

[Brother Adam]

The Church founded by Christ is the universal catholic church. The catholic church includes all those who have salvation written in their hearts and follow the apostolic teachings of faith and morals. Probably without realising it the Catholic Church in it's catechism admitted this in it's teaching of salvation for other denominations and religions. The Catholic Church and Orthodox are the branches, Jesus is the vine.

[url="http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=50&ch=10&l=16#x"]John 10[16][/url] And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

[b]The Catholic Church admitted the possibility of the salvation of souls outside the normal means which Christ established. For instance, baptism by blood. It is possible, the Church rightly states, just as it was for non-Israelites to be saved in the Old Testament by indirectly uniting themselves to the People of God in the only way they knew how, for those not visibly united to the Church, to be saved. That does not relieve one of the responsibility to attend to their soul with the knowledge of the truth. If I know the Catholic Church is the Church Jesus established in the new covenant and I opt for something that is easier to swallow (after all even the apostles found the teaching of Jesus to be difficult) then I have turned away from God. If we know the truth and choose to reject it, we place our souls in danger.[/b]

[BG45]

[quote name='Light and Truth' timestamp='1347893440' post='2483294']
No. I prefer to go with what I can honestly believe in. It's not about deviant or obscure. It's about honest faith.
[/quote]

I didn't know about the passport thing, but I can sum up shortly what I did know about them; a schismatic sect that left the Russian Orthodox in 1666 over liturgical reforms, 300-ish years later the Patriarch of Moscow apologized for their having been declared anathema. At a glance, one would think of them as quite similar to another group with which this board is often filled with divisive debate about...

I can honestly respect not wanting to choose something obscure because it might be "prettier" in a sense; such as an Old Believers liturgy vs. a modern Russian Orthodox liturgy. I know that when I converted to Catholicism, people sometimes said I had fallen for all the "smells and bells". Like you said, the journey to leave Protestantism is one in which we search for a fuller Truth than the one we had before. My journey wasn't "smells and bells", but because I believe that Truth lies with the Catholic Church and I hope you don't mind that I join others in one day praying that you cross the Tiber, but until that day comes, I'm glad you've moved on from Protestantism to Orthodoxy.

To lighten the mood a bit, this thread has actually reminded me of my old roommate Joey. I was a Baptist, he was culturally Catholic. One day he came home and I was in our common room with EWTN on, showing the Pope meeting with the Patriarch of Moscow; we ended up deep in discussion about who had the most bling and whose bling was cooler looking. We thought if we put them together like Voltron, no rapper would stand a chance.

[Anastasia13]

[quote name='BG45' timestamp='1347932972' post='2483523']To lighten the mood a bit,[/QUOTE]
Huzzah!

[quote name='BG45' timestamp='1347932972' post='2483523'] this thread has actually reminded me of my old roommate Joey. I was a Baptist, he was culturally Catholic. One day he came home and I was in our common room with EWTN on, showing the Pope meeting with the Patriarch of Moscow; we ended up deep in discussion about who had the most bling and whose bling was cooler looking. We thought if we put them together like Voltron, no rapper would stand a chance.
[/quote]
Cute story. What is Voltron? And who got cooler, and who got most bling?

[BG45]

...who is Voltron? It's an old anime series where the robots combine into a bigger robot to defeat evil. And I think we gave the Pope coolness but they tied on bling. Between the two there had to be enough gold to bury a pharaoh with!