Tales of the Heliosphere

The Pope has ruffled feathers among Protestants for reiterating Catholic doctrine about the nature of Protestantism.

"'Christ 'established here on earth' only one church,' said the document, released as the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore in Italy's Dolomite mountains.

The other [Protestant] communities 'cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense' because they do not have apostolic succession – the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles – and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.'" (Here.)

Well, yeah.

This was too much for one online commentator, who happens to belong to one of Christianity's splinter churches, The Episcopal Church USA, although he boycotts his own church because of its heretical teachings. His column criticized the Vatican statement and characterized it as divisive. He concluded with the following:

"In the current Protestant and Reformed theological vernacular, 'catholic' with a lower-case 'c' connotes oneness—the 'full Body of Christ' —all believers united as one church—as it was used in the early church. 'Catholic' with a capital 'C' refers to the institution of the Roman Church.

The question remains, 'Is the Pope, first and foremost, a Catholic or a catholic?' A more essential question might be, 'Which would Jesus be?'" (Here.)

Actually, Jesus would be neither. He was born a Jew, he lived a Jew, and he died a Jew. So, if he ever decides to come back, he'd be a Jew. A Jew for Jesus, probably, but a Jew, nevertheless.

-tdr

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Labels: Religion