Featured What are we expecting between Baptists and Roman Catholics?

This board allows non-Baptists to participate in certain forums. I will not question the wisdom of that policy. What I will question is how comfortable Baptists are with Roman Catholic doctrine and practice? For the record, I was raised in a Roman Catholic home. I was baptized in a Roman Catholic church and confirmed at age 13. I did not officially abandon Roman Catholicism until I was in my late teens. That is when I came to faith in Christ. As I have matured in my Christian walk I realized how antithetical biblical Christianity is from Roman Catholicism. As far as this board is concerned, I am not really concerned about what Roman Catholics believe. I was one of them, so I have a pretty good grasp on their beliefs. I am more concerned about Baptists who seem open to different spiritual stimuli apart from the bible. Historically, Baptists have confessed that scripture alone is the sole authority for all matters of faith and practice. It seems, to this Baptist, that confession is becoming just window dressing in many circles. I think one reason for that is many Baptists have no idea what they believe. The may have been raised in the church but have never really wrestled with biblical doctrine. Because they are functionally ignorant of biblical truth, how can they be expected to trust or defend it? If they do understand biblical truth, they will also understand that there is no compatibility between biblical Christianity and Roman Catholicism. This is not a bash on Catholics. By God's grace and mercy, I pray that He marvelously saves them. I am more concerned about my fellow Baptists.

 

No. I was a Roman Catholic when I came to faith in Christ. Eventually, I had to leave the RC church because I no longer could abide its beliefs.

No. I believe that the truth the Bible contains is not dependent on papal interpretation. It is also not dependent on any one man or group of men.

I am speaking mainly to the other Baptists on this board.

Not just my estimation. Roman Catholic doctrine and dogma is diametrically opposed to biblical Christianity. Baptists understand this.

 

Words mean things. What did I write? I wrote, "It is also not dependent on any one man or group of men." The operative word here is "dependent". Most Baptists believe that scripture interprets scripture and that is the Holy Spirit who reveals the truth of the scripture to men. There is a consistency to biblical truth. It does not change from generation to generation and it is not veiled to those who accept it by faith. In the confession I linked to previously, the framers wrote on something theologians call "the perspicuity of scripture". In simpler terms, the term means the clarity of scripture. Here is what they wrote:

1689 LBC 1.7 All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them.

Psalm 19:7 speaks to this. "The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple."

In Roman Catholicism, the pope has the final say. Other offices of the RCC may play their role, but at any time the pope can weigh-in ex-cathedra.

Dealt with above.

We could. If nothing else I want you to understand that most Baptists will not yield on this opinion. There is a reason why the Protestant Reformation occurred. You are participating on a Baptist board. You do not walk into someone's home and lay down your own set of rules.

I have no idea as to the relevance of this question. Reformed/Particular Baptists are more likely to use wine as they consider it the due administration of the ordinance. Much to my consternation this not an agreed upon thing among most Baptists.

 

You, sir, are woefully ignorant of Protestant history and the Regulative Principle of Worship. Either scripture commands how we are to worship or it does not. Also, this thread is about more than just worship.

 

Did you even read what I wrote?

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When you get back to me after you have completed your research based on this post, then we can talk. Until then, please do not parade your ignorance. Try and maintain some level of dignity.

 

The chickens truly are coming home to roost. During Spurgeon's time, the great crisis was the Downgrade Controversy. Nothing has really changed in the past 132 years, at least not among Baptists. There are still those Baptists churches that have substituted Sola Scriptura with therapeutic deism, a moralistic view of Christianity. It is no longer vogue to proclaim "thus sayeth the Lord!". So long as your version of Christianity makes you feel good, that is all that really matters. Teach this tripe long enough and in enough churches and the result will be a systemic departure from biblical truth. There is only one question worth asking and it demands an answer. Is the Bible the sole authority for all matters of faith and practice? If you claim to be a Christian, you must answer that question. You cannot give a non-answer. The answer is yes or no. A non-answer is effectively a "no". A yes answer does not mean Christians will not disagree. I have much in common with my Reformed Presbyterian brethren but we disagree sharply on church polity and baptism. However, we both look to the Bible, and only the Bible, for our answers. We depart from Sola Scriptura to our harm.

 

And if elephants could fly... You are introducing a condition that is so unlikely to occur so as it make it irrelevant. The current pope is incurring the scorn of conservative Roman Catholics but there is not going to be an open revolt.

 

Which is where you should be. Having come out of Roman Catholicism I understand its danger and the works righteousness that enslaves its adherents. My concern is more for my fellow Baptists who have an unnatural attraction to Roman practices. I watched a video recently of a duck swimming close to a large whirlpool that formed as a result of a sinkhole. The duck got closer and closer without sensing the danger. By the time it did it was too late. The whirlpool captured the duck and sucked it in. That is the danger Roman Catholicism presents to those who flirt with its teachings and practices. If nothing else, I am calling attention to that danger.