Converting to Catholicism

[RFayette]

I will state what I believe which would be consistent with the doctrinal statement.

I believe there is one God the Father
I believe that He created the heavens and the earth at a time close to 6000 years ago.
I believe that that the Lord Jesus is his Son.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I believe in conditional immortality
I believe in bodily ressurection
I believe that the Lord Jesus will return to earth to become king over God kingdom on earth
I believe that baptism is a requirement of God as an act of obedience and is a symbol of the death a resurrection of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
I believe that the wicked will be punished by death in grave.

I do not believe in the trinity, substitutionary atonement, immortal souls, heaven going, a supernatural devil, hell as a place of torture, evolution, once saved always saved or Calvinism.

Interesting.  I like all of that except the young-Earth creationism part (I have studied this topic pretty extensively as a former YEC and have concluded that a young Earth/global flood model is untenable).

[Why]

I will state what I believe which would be consistent with the doctrinal statement.

I believe there is one God the Father
I believe that He created the heavens and the earth at a time close to 6000 years ago.
I believe that that the Lord Jesus is his Son.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I believe in conditional immortality
I believe in bodily ressurection
I believe that the Lord Jesus will return to earth to become king over God kingdom on earth
I believe that baptism is a requirement of God as an act of obedience and is a symbol of the death a resurrection of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
I believe that the wicked will be punished by death in grave.

I do not believe in the trinity, substitutionary atonement, immortal souls, heaven going, a supernatural devil, hell as a place of torture, evolution, once saved always saved or Calvinism.

Interesting.  I like all of that except the young-Earth creationism part (I have studied this topic pretty extensively as a former YEC and have concluded that a young Earth/global flood model is untenable).

So believe in an old age kind of creationism with a local flood not a world wide flood?

[RFayette]

I will state what I believe which would be consistent with the doctrinal statement.

I believe there is one God the Father
I believe that He created the heavens and the earth at a time close to 6000 years ago.
I believe that that the Lord Jesus is his Son.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I believe in conditional immortality
I believe in bodily ressurection
I believe that the Lord Jesus will return to earth to become king over God kingdom on earth
I believe that baptism is a requirement of God as an act of obedience and is a symbol of the death a resurrection of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
I believe that the wicked will be punished by death in grave.

I do not believe in the trinity, substitutionary atonement, immortal souls, heaven going, a supernatural devil, hell as a place of torture, evolution, once saved always saved or Calvinism.

Interesting.  I like all of that except the young-Earth creationism part (I have studied this topic pretty extensively as a former YEC and have concluded that a young Earth/global flood model is untenable).

So believe in an old age kind of creationism with a local flood not a world wide flood?

Yeah.  The big issue with a world-wide flood is that most creationists peg it as having occurred about 4400 years ago.  The issue is that we see many species of plants and animals that are unique to specific islands or nations, such as Madagascar, the Galapagos Islands, and Papua New Guinea.  A global flood model would require one of the following circumstances to take place:
1) Extremely rapid continental drift/activity that there is little geological evidence to substantiate which resulted in the rapid formation of these geographically isolated areas which just happened to contain all of a particular species (example:  kangaroos/koalas only being found in Australia, though this issue extends to many different species)
2.  Extremely rapid speciation post-Flood:  In this scenario, there were only a few species that managed to make their ways on the island, but evolution forces acted so rapidly that those species became markedly different than the ones we see on the nearby mainland of the continent.  The rate of microevolution we observe in different species is far less than one would predict had speciation occurred at the rate that would be suggested by this validation for a global flood model.

If YEC were true, I'd probably have to go with Option 1.  Option 2 makes macroevolution so plausible that it's not really worth believing in.  

Frankly, I think a YEC position would be far more tenable without a global flood, as one could just use the Omphalos Hypothesis to explain distant starlight, radioactive dating, and dinosaur fossils.  But it gets a lot harder when one throws in a global flood that occurred relatively recently.  There are some other issues, but I'll have to wait for tomorrow on it.

[White Trash]

Aw shucks fellas. I didn't mean to go and start this whole disagreement, I just thought I'd ask about the steps I needed to take in order to convert. Didn't meant to get every all flustered with each other.

[Why]

Aw shucks fellas. I didn't mean to go and start this whole disagreement, I just thought I'd ask about the steps I needed to take in order to convert. Didn't meant to get every all flustered with each other.

It certainly is NOT your fault.

[Illiniwek]

Oh my this got insanely out of hand. If you must continue to defame our religion then please leave and create your own thread. This thread is about aiding and supporting one person with a life decision.

[Türkisblau]

I will state what I believe which would be consistent with the doctrinal statement.

I believe there is one God the Father
I believe that He created the heavens and the earth at a time close to 6000 years ago.
I believe that that the Lord Jesus is his Son.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I believe in conditional immortality
I believe in bodily ressurection
I believe that the Lord Jesus will return to earth to become king over God kingdom on earth
I believe that baptism is a requirement of God as an act of obedience and is a symbol of the death a resurrection of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
I believe that the wicked will be punished by death in grave.

I do not believe in the trinity, substitutionary atonement, immortal souls, heaven going, a supernatural devil, hell as a place of torture, evolution, once saved always saved or Calvinism.

You probably shouldn't be attempting to lecture others while belonging to a non-Christian cult.

[Why]

Oh my this got insanely out of hand. If you must continue to defame our religion then please leave and create your own thread. This thread is about aiding and supporting one person with a life decision.

Yes

[Why]

I will state what I believe which would be consistent with the doctrinal statement.

I believe there is one God the Father
I believe that He created the heavens and the earth at a time close to 6000 years ago.
I believe that that the Lord Jesus is his Son.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I believe in conditional immortality
I believe in bodily ressurection
I believe that the Lord Jesus will return to earth to become king over God kingdom on earth
I believe that baptism is a requirement of God as an act of obedience and is a symbol of the death a resurrection of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
I believe that the wicked will be punished by death in grave.

I do not believe in the trinity, substitutionary atonement, immortal souls, heaven going, a supernatural devil, hell as a place of torture, evolution, once saved always saved or Calvinism.

You probably shouldn't be attempting to lecture others while belonging to a non-Christian cult.

It seems you would not a real Christian if they were standing in front of you.

[DC Al Fine]

From a functional perspective, if you're not Catholic, Orthodox, or Coptic (not sure if separate from Orthodox), then I think you're de facto Protestant for all intents and purposes, as you would consider scripture your main source of authority (along with perhaps some additional holy text/external source if one is Mormon, JW, etc.).  Virtually all nondenominational Christians are effectively Protestant.

The thing is that if one claims the Catholic Church is un-Biblical, we've got to make a clear delineation of what the Bible is & is composed of.  We can't just use it as an amorphous term - we've got to be precise here.

I quibble with your definition here. Protestantism ought to have a more coherent definition than "non-Catholic western Christianity". For all of Protestantism's railing against Catholicism/Orthodoxy, the movement founded in the Reformation can at least assent to the Nicene Creed. Unbiased's views/church denies the creed, and appears to have a view of God closer to the Arians.

Fiddling with definitions of God is sufficient to place oneself in a separate branch of Christianity at minimum, and possibly outside the faith as well.

[RFayette]

From a functional perspective, if you're not Catholic, Orthodox, or Coptic (not sure if separate from Orthodox), then I think you're de facto Protestant for all intents and purposes, as you would consider scripture your main source of authority (along with perhaps some additional holy text/external source if one is Mormon, JW, etc.).  Virtually all nondenominational Christians are effectively Protestant.

The thing is that if one claims the Catholic Church is un-Biblical, we've got to make a clear delineation of what the Bible is & is composed of.  We can't just use it as an amorphous term - we've got to be precise here.

I quibble with your definition here. Protestantism ought to have a more coherent definition than "non-Catholic western Christianity". For all of Protestantism's railing against Catholicism/Orthodoxy, the movement founded in the Reformation can at least assent to the Nicene Creed. Unbiased's views/church denies the creed, and appears to have a view of God closer to the Arians.

Fiddling with definitions of God is sufficient to place oneself in a separate branch of Christianity at minimum, and possibly outside the faith as well.

So you don't consider oneness Pentecostals to be Protestants then? 

[DC Al Fine]

From a functional perspective, if you're not Catholic, Orthodox, or Coptic (not sure if separate from Orthodox), then I think you're de facto Protestant for all intents and purposes, as you would consider scripture your main source of authority (along with perhaps some additional holy text/external source if one is Mormon, JW, etc.).  Virtually all nondenominational Christians are effectively Protestant.

The thing is that if one claims the Catholic Church is un-Biblical, we've got to make a clear delineation of what the Bible is & is composed of.  We can't just use it as an amorphous term - we've got to be precise here.

I quibble with your definition here. Protestantism ought to have a more coherent definition than "non-Catholic western Christianity". For all of Protestantism's railing against Catholicism/Orthodoxy, the movement founded in the Reformation can at least assent to the Nicene Creed. Unbiased's views/church denies the creed, and appears to have a view of God closer to the Arians.

Fiddling with definitions of God is sufficient to place oneself in a separate branch of Christianity at minimum, and possibly outside the faith as well.

So you don't consider oneness Pentecostals to be Protestants then? 

That's correct. Their modalism and soteriology are so far removed from the Reformers that they ought to be considered their own category.

At some point one has to draw a line or else definitions become meaningless. The Orthodox patriarchs don't call me Catholic just because I say the filioque in my Creed

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Have fun in Babylon.  Why be one of her harlot daughters when you can go for the gold?