On Wednesday 12 March 2008, you wrote:
I enjoy discussing this with you and want to continue but I think we need to take it off the LUG mailing list. O.K.
Does KCLUG have an off-topic mailing list? Or I suppose someone can throw up a temporary per-thread list... either way, if anyone else cares to continue this thread, let me know so your email is included in whatever kind of list is made.
I'm not overly familiar with Islam, but the most obvious heresy would be that they deny Our Lord's divinity.
For the record Islam does believe in the divinity of Christ and the immaculate conception. Where they differ from Christianity is that they feel that God would not have allowed his Son to suffer the way he did on the cross. They believe that he ascended to heaven before suffering and dying on the cross and that the human vessel that God's Son inhabited on earth was crucified. Granted, this is a MAJOR point of difference between the two religions, but it still makes Islam the closest religion to Christianity than any other religion. I mean the Jewish religion doesn't even look at Christ as being the Son of God and believe nothing of the New Testament.
I suspect some forms of Protestantism are closer to Christianity than Islam, but "closeness" doesn't matter much in the big picture so long as they persist in denying God's doctrine.
Protestantism was founded by men. The Catholic Church was> founded by God Himself, and He guaranteed it would never teach error or mandate evil.
I think the Catholic church was founded by the followers of Christ's disciples sometime about 300+ years after the death of Christ. I didn't think it was founded by Christ himself.
Matt 16:18, Our Lord appoints St. Peter to be the first pope and promises that that Satan will never at any time prevail over the Church.
Mark 16:15, Christ gives the Church a mandate to teach the world, and makes mention of signs to identify His Church (for example, only Catholics can cast our demons)
Acts 2, Christ sends the Holy Ghost to the apostles, making them the Church's first Bishops.
Acts 15:1, The first council (the Council of Jerusalem) addresses the first heresy (Judaizers), and eventually St. Peter uses his papal authority, accepted by all present, to give a final resolution.
If you say Jesus is not God, and I say He is, both of us cannot be right.
I never said that Jesus was not God.
It was an example.
I follow the Church He founded, protects, and guides. The teachings of the Catholic Church are inerrant on matters of faith and morals.
But the Catholic Church is run by human beings not by God. Human beings are not infallible, God is.
The Catholic Church has Christ as its Head, and is guided and protected by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost prevents men from teaching or mandating error on a Church-wide level. For example, if a pope were inclined to mandate sin upon all Catholics, if there were no other way to stop him from doing so, God would strike him dead before he had done so.