All this sniping seems rather petty to me. I never experienced any anti-Catholic sentiments before coming to this website, and I have never hated Protestants. I would strongly urge people to try to look past labels. I don't have a problem with you having doctrinal differences to me. It is interesting and a different perspective. It makes me think. I may not necessarily adopt them but at least I can learn more about how other people approach God.

From reading your posts they hint that formal Roman Catholic doctrine and what most Roman Catholics believe is different.

To the best of my knowledge, I am an orthodox Catholic.

The confusion, as I see it,lies between what is formal Roman Catholic doctrine and what is thought to be formal Roman Catholic doctrine.

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Originally posted by Carmel:
most of the time the only thing dividing us is language and small details.

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Carmel,

I hope that you and all other Christians who worship in the Catholic tradition feel welcome on these boards, and that we can all learn from each other. The Ship is a better place for having many traditions represented.

It seems to me that the Catholic tradition is not immune from the extremism and fundamentalism that is (in the English-speaking world) more commonly associated with the protestant tradition. I suspect that none of us wants to be judged by the extremists we tolerate.

All Christians are supposed to be as brothers and sisters to each other. But then, aren't all mankind supposed to be as brothers and sisters to each other ?

Anyone who has brothers and sisters will know that they can be quite infuriatingly and unrepentantly wrong about all sorts of things.

Human institutions can appear very threatening things (cf Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" speech) from a distance, and also very reassuring if we've grown up with them close by and are used to having them around.

Jesus doesn't say much about institutions; he seems to relate to people as people rather than as symbols (of empire, nation, priesthood or whatever).

It is probably an inescapable facet of human nature that, perceiving value in the words of Jesus, we wish to divide the world into "Christians" and "non-Christians" with more status given to the former than the latter. But it's not obvious whether such an activity achieves anything worthwhile.

Is there an unwritten commandment of the Ship that says "Thou shalt not doubt whether shipmates are Christian" ? Is it offensive to call other shipmates unChristian ?

Having said that I'm all for mutual acceptance, I have a niggling doubt. Do we consider it acceptable behaviour for someone to deny that anyone from other denominations is Christian ? is saved ?

What about Ratzinger-style doctrine - the view that there is only one Christian church (whose head is the Pope) and other churches aren't churches at all, just collections of individual heretics ?

Can tolerance tolerate intolerance, or must we draw a line ?

Trying to sum up a rather rambling post, I don't find much difficulty in writing off KKK-type "Christians" in far-off places as extremist loonies. But I have difficulty in knowing how to respond to reasonable and
reverent Christians of the largest Christian denomination who implicitly (by their apparently unquestioning acceptance of their church's doctrine) seem to be signing up to unacceptably intolerant attitudes.

Is it just a case of if we all distance ourselves from the extremists in our respective denominations we'll all get along fine ?

I have looked the The Catechism of the Catholic Church up on the net.

With regards to the Mass being a reenactment of the sacrifice of Jesus after reference to 1364-1368 it appears to mean that the Eucharist is a participation in the Sacrifice of Jesus as opposed to an re-enactment.

para 1367

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The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different." "In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner."[188]

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Catechism of the catholic church -Eucharist

The concept of transubstantiation as expressed by myself seems to be the belief of the Roman Catholic church. It certinly seems to be going further than An outward sign with an inward grace.

para 1367

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The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."[204]

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reference page

Hence to the earlier question some protestants will consider the above believes to be heresy. The former because it suggests that the Mass is needed to make the sacrifice of Jesus's death complete and the latter because it seems to ask for several miracles at once and Jesus's body to be on earth in a piece of bread as opposed to in heaven.

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But I have difficulty in knowing how to respond to reasonable and
reverent Christians of the largest Christian denomination who implicitly (by their apparently unquestioning acceptance of their church's doctrine) seem to be signing up to unacceptably intolerant attitudes.

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I think this thread is rather depressing; i hve to agree with those who've said they've seen too much anti-catholic prejudice here.

So to get back to the original point, can we work out what doesn't make a christian and see what we're left with?

I say people are not Christians who:

1. Deny the divinity of Christ.

2. Deny that salvation depends on believing in Him and obeying His teachings.

These two things assume the existence of God, heaven and hell, and divine revelation.

I don't think that any of the Christian religions, Catholic, Protestant, or whatever, deny these things. Maybe I'm wrong.

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Deny that salvation depends on believing in Him and obeying His teachings.

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Originally posted by Freddy:
I agree.

I say people are not Christians who:

1. Deny the divinity of Christ.

2. Deny that salvation depends on believing in Him and obeying His teachings.

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Originally posted by Ham'n'Eggs:
Sparkle - may I ask you where 'accepting him as your saviour' comes from?

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... and exactly what does it mean?

I believe it is through Him we are redeemed, including me personally but along the lines that Karl quotes.

So that's me out - especially if you start introducing an unshakeable belief in hell as an additional criteria.

Might the answer be: Anyone who knows the answer to Jesus' question: "Who do you say that I am?"

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Originally posted by Karl:
That's me out then.

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Ha-ha! I knew this line of thought would bear fruit!

Now having said all that, I should add that I don't believe that you have to be a Christian to be saved. I think everyone is saved who loves God and lives a good life - however they understand those concepts.

But Karl said:
John's gospel says that the judgement works on how we respond to 'the Light', not whether we have this personal Lord and saviour theology sorted out.

That sounds Christian to me.

Sparkle writes:
obeying his teaching is something we strive for, and do because we love him and want to serve him, but it is not our deeds which get us into heaven.

I knew someone would say this!

Jesus clearly said that if we did not obey Him we would not be saved.

And don't pull that stuff about whoever disobeys the least of His commands breaks them all.

Of course we have no strength whatsoever to do His will - that's why we need Him. But we need to try just as if we did have the strength, and He will help us. How could someone be a Christian who didn't even try to obey God?

[fixed code]

2. Deny that salvation depends on believing in Him and obeying His teachings./quote]

That is different than what it is to be saved.

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Originally posted by Ingeborg S. Nordén:
I too would like to apologize for being blunt about my beliefs in the previous message; the administrators may delete that post if they choose. (Although I've mentioned my own beliefs elsewhere on the board, I still enjoy discussing other people's religions whether or not I agree with them!)

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It is kind of interesting to probe around as to what people think Christianity is all about.

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Originally posted by Ham'n'Eggs:
Which part of "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved" do you have problems with?

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For a start, Jesus himself didn't say it.
What part of the story of the Good Samaritan do you have problems with? What part of Matthew Chap.25 vv31-46 do you have problems with?

Sorry if I seem to be banging on about the same old stuff; I'm going to have another go at trying to formulate what I want to say, both to get it straighter in my own mind and in the hope that it might strike a chord with somebody else.

From what you've posted on this thread, I feel I can communicate with you and Charles in the same way as with anyone else on these boards. As one person to another, accepting that we're both in the same boat, trying to make sense of things, to understand where other people are coming from while staying true to the values we hold. (Does StPaul say somewhere something like "Come, let us reason together..." ?)

However, if you truly believe the doctrine expounded by Cardinal Ratzinger - that there is only one Christian church, i.e. the Roman Catholic church, and that all other Christians are simply heretics who reject that church - then that changes the relationship between us. You can't then talk to me on equal terms. You have to talk down to me as one with knowledge of the Truth to one who is in ignorance of that truth. As (if you'll pardon the analogy) a club member in good standing to someone who claims some of the benefits of membership but hasn't paid his dues. I am no longer your brother in Christ, I am someone who lapsed fifteen generations ago, who follows the error of his ancestors who wilfully turned their back on the church.

[The Catholic church once believed that heretics should be punished. Has it ever officially renounced this view?]

That's what I mean by an intolerant attitude; no doubt it was and still is badly expressed, for which I'm sorry. [Some Protestants seem to hold a similar sort of attitude to Catholics, regarding them as targets for evangelisation rather than Christians in a different tradition with different emphasis].

Nothing that you or Charles (or anyone else on this thread) has said suggests that you hold Ratzinger's view of other Christians. But if this is the official Vatican view, then is it surprising if Catholics who don't in some way distance themselves from official doctrine are suspected of holding it ?

I was hoping that you or Charles would come back and say that you regard Ratzinger as an extremist who interprets the tradition of the RC church in a particularly intolerant and unhelpful way. And that your interpretation of the same doctrinal point is only that Catholics believe that the Catholic church has got it broadly right, just like every other denomination.

Any thoughts ?

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Originally posted by Qlib:
For a start, Jesus himself didn't say it.

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What Jesus said was, "Preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. But he who does not believe will be condemned." Mark 16.15,16

This requires, I think, some interpretation.

Believing and being baptized, in this context, means something going on in a person's mind and heart. It would be absurd to think that everyone who says, "I believe", and is literaly baptized, is saved.

Jesus is speaking of people who are in harmony with the teachings of the Gospel, who put away their sins, and who follow Him in their life.

People are condemned who are the opposite of this - rejecting any concept of good and evil, living only to serve themselves, with no thought of benefiting others.

Qlib, I agree with you when you say:
I suppose I shouldn't have said belief is irrelevant. I just think it's not the deciding factor.

The deciding factor is what a person genuinely believes in their heart, and what they therefore love, and the way that they therefore live their life.

And just to comment on what Russ just said about Cardinal Ratzinger - Are you asking the Catholic Church to reverse its position and declare all Christian churches equal? I think that is asking a little much, since the Catholic church was the original one (apart from Orthodox) and we all broke away.

Doesn't everyone think that their church has some kind of edge on interpeting the truth?

Most people tend to think that all churches have a part of the truth, not just their own. But the churches themselves seldom officially teach that they are not necessarily right.

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Originally posted by Freddy:
Why single out Catholics, except perhaps for asserting this with more certaintly than other Christian churches?

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I have been wondering this myself. Nobody has so far had a go at the Orthodox or other denominations. We just happen to be close at hand and so more visible. I am not here as an apologist for the faith that I was baptized into. I am not a theologian or anything to do with the clergy. I do not know the ins and outs and finer details of doctrine. Half the questions raised on this and other threads would puzzle most of the ordinary Catholics I know. In the course of day to day life most of us never even stop to think about whether people we meet are or are not heretics. I've never even heard anyone use the word in real life.

It is clear from the postings I have read that many Protestants perceive far more of a difference between Catholics and Protestants than I do or the other Catholics I know do. If you have difficulty accepting aspects of our faith let me make this clear to you: you are not obliged to.

From the number of times that this topic has recurred, the Catholic/Protestant differences are clearly an issue for some people. I think we must have had at least three threads on it so far ranging from questions framed in a spirit of genuine inquiry to statements condemning Catholics out of hand. Life is full of people who think differently. Sadly, life is also full of people who just can't accept this fact.

Although the original post is worded in such a way as to include discussion of Catholicism per se, since there is now a Catholic Beliefs thread, it would be better to discuss Catholic doctrine about the status of other Christians there.

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Originally posted by Freddy:
Doesn't everyone think that their church has some kind of edge on interpeting the truth?

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Well, actually, no we don't. In fact, we make a point of saying that we DON'T have an edge on the truth.

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Most people tend to think that all churches have a part of the truth, not just their own. But the churches themselves seldom officially teach that they are not necessarily right.

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Originally posted by Campbellite:
No one, including our own denomination, has a monopoly on the truth.

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And is this the correct position to take? Or is it quite possibly wrong?

I think it was Cardinal Ratzinger who objected to the phrase 'Sister Churches'.

'The Catechism of the Catholic Church' speaks warmly of the other Churches.
To quote:

'The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honoured by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter'.

And again:

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Originally posted by Freddy:
Believing and being baptized, in this context, means something going on in a person's mind and heart.

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Believing in what though? I'm not going to re-run the 'I am not a Christian' thread here, but Jesus did not preach the Virgin Birth or (obviously) the redemptive sacrifice. He spoke of God as Father and the Holy Spirit, but didn't preach the doctrine of the Trinity, and responded to both 'Son of Man' and 'Son of David' (and, yes, I know there are many layers of meaning to both these appellations).

I think we partly agree that there is a complex relationship between faith and works, but that passage from Matthew that I referred to suggests to me that service to others counts as service to God. Whether you believe in Him or not. And faith without works is dead.

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I think it was Cardinal Ratzinger who objected to the phrase 'Sister Churches'.

'The Catechism of the Catholic Church' speaks warmly of the other Churches

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It was in fact "Dominus Iesus", issued last September, which put official catholic teaching back before Vatican II and caused quite an uproar - at least here in Germany - because it denied that there are churches outside the Catholic Church. We others are merely ecclesiastical communities lacking the full characteristics of a church.

Practically all Catholics I know were as aghast about that backslide as Protestants, and in general I would say that that Catholicism I meet when I talk to friends, visit a Benedictine abbey or just the church opposite my house is decidedly different from the "official version" - and a lot more accessible in theory and practice.

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Originally posted by Freddy:
We're talking about what it is to be a Christian.

That is different than what it is to be saved.

Or do you think that ALL Christians and ONLY Christians are saved? I don't believe either of these is true.

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Only people who are saved are Christians....

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Originally posted by strathclydezero:
BigAL - sorry to say I'm with Freddy on that one.

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Originally posted by BigAL:
Only people who are saved are Christians....Why would people want to be Christians if they don't feel they want or need to be saved.

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The point is that to be saved you need to love God and love your neighbor, as Jesus commanded.

Many people do this without ever even having heard of Jesus.

Still, doing as Jesus said is the only way to salvation. He is the way, the truth and the life. If you hear His sayings and do them you will be like a wise man. These sayings teach the way of salvation more clearly and truly than any other on earth. There is, in fact, only one way of salvation, which is the way that Jesus taught: love God and love your neighbor.

This doesn't mean that non-Christians aren't saved. It means that those who fail to do as Jesus taught are not saved. Non-Christians who live as Jesus taught are in unity with true Christians, whether they have ever heard of Jesus or not.

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Originally posted by BigAL:
Why are people making such a simple and easy thing so complicated.

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Because the last 2,000 years have shown that this is not a simple and easy thing.

The early church started off by saying that anyone who believed in their heart and confessed with their lips that Jesus was Lord would be saved - yet Christian history has shown that many people who did both were not exactly paragons of the Christian life - by their fruit one could reasonably conclude that they weren't Christians at all.

Seems to me that if a hypothetical non-believing Robinson Crusoe on a desert island were to find a Bible washed up on the beach one day, and reading it, decide that for the sake of being more like Jesus he would be more forgiving to Man Friday, then I'd be happy to include said Crusoe as a Christian - a follower of Christ. At least until the next book washed up on the shore...

My previous doubt related to a different question, which might be phrased as "who should the worldwide community of Christians recognize as being Christian". In which case willingness to recognize other Christians as Christians might in principle be considered a requirement (if it could be implemented in a way that didn't result in circular reasoning).

Abo - thanks for the reassurance.

Carmel - sorry; I had no intention of trying to make you justify the Catholic position on anything and everything, still less of attacking your beliefs. I suppose I'm interested in the relationship between the beliefs of Catholics (what they think inside their own heads) and the official doctrine of the Catholic institution - the process of belief rather than the content.

Peace be with you.

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Originally posted by Russ:
Attempting to address the original question:
"who should the worldwide community of Christians recognize as being Christian". In which case willingness to recognize other Christians as Christians might in principle be considered a requirement (if it could be implemented in a way that didn't result in circular reasoning).

Russ

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Obviously, anyone who agrees with ME!

Seriously, I tend to err on the side of being open to all who call themselves Christian, unless by their own actions or words they show themselves to be completely at odds with Scripture and Tradition. After all, we are not authorized to pass judgement on anyone.

As my journey through life crosses the paths of many genuine believers who's stance on some issues are quite different to mine. I become bewildered and ask my creator "Whats it all about?" He replies " It's all about knowing Me Jesus and the One who sent me. When you turned to Me I came and lived with you." (Something like that anyway) The question is not so much is a Catholic a Christian because that's to general, rather is the individual a follower of Christ and does Christ dwell with them. I cannot live without my Lord, I am nothing and without identity other than that which Christ has given me. If a man can say that, who can judge, only God who knows all things. Beware of labels, sometimes there on the wrong box.

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Originally posted by Freddy:
The point is that to be saved you need to love God and love your neighbor, as Jesus commanded.

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This doesn't mean that non-Christians aren't saved. It means that those who fail to do as Jesus taught are not saved. Non-Christians who live as Jesus taught are in unity with true Christians, whether they have ever heard of Jesus or not.

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There is a difference which must be addressed between being a christian and having a christian lifestyle.
There is only one way to be saved and that is through Christ (John 14:6). Works by themselves are no good (paul.. somewhere)..

We can walk the walk but unless we are saved there is no point it will not get us anywhere. So yes people can be nice people and do good things but it will not get you anywhere in the long run, praise from man in the short term but thats worth nothing once you are dead and it holds no favour with God.

Anyone who is saved is also a Christian ...
By saved I mean " will not face gods judgement at the great white throne and have their names written in the lambs book of life. They have done this by accepting Christ as Saviour(John 3:16)"

If it means that you believe that someone could live opposite to the way that Christ taught and still be saved, the answer is no. You can't be a Christian and think that way.

But if it means that those are saved who live as Christ taught, whether they know about Christ or not, then the answer, in my book, is yes.

So I disagree with BigAl when he says:
There is a difference which must be addressed between being a christian and having a christian lifestyle.

I think the two are one and the same in essence, assuming that by lifestyle you mean a genuine and sincere life from a true love and God and of the neighbor.