[asa] Re: Considerable agreement with regards to christians across the spectrum?

Ed,

Assuming you meant this for me: Again, I'm well aware of the schism and
other conflicts - and also aware that many of those conflicts involved
issues that had little to do with specific theological issues. Never
underestimate the ability of secular interests to provoke quite a lot of
discord. Further, while you continue to talk about 'splits' with the (false)
implication that the differences between sects must be dire and wide-spread,
I can continue to point out that with rare exception (the Mormons come to
mind as a debatable area in particular) they're all still regarded as
Christians - and all still have a tremendous amount in common.

It's telling that you challenge me to be in the company of YECs - frankly,
I've been in their company, and managed to have very respectful discussions.
Not to mention being able to find quite a lot in common between our beliefs
- while questions of Genesis take up a lot of time and interest nowadays,
it's still such a small part of the overall faith. I think this much is easy
to see, frankly.

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 9:48 PM, Edward T. Babinski <leonardo3@msn.com>wrote:

> Dave,
>
> The Apostle's Creed did nothing to prevent the Great Schism b/w Catholics
> and Eastern Orthodox, whole halves of the Christianized Roman Empire
> excommunicating each other. To hell with each other. It did nothing to
> prevent Catholics and Protestants from rioting and killing each other during
> the fourth century Arian-Athanasian riots, nor during the Reformations many
> wars, nor did it keep Protestants cursing, rioting and killing each other,
> Lutherans vs. Calvinists in various towns where princes enforced rival
> Protestant beliefs. Neither did the Apostle's Creed prevent Catholics and
> Protestants from both persecuting and torturing any other rival groups who
> accepted that Creed but who were members of smaller sects that lacked the
> backing of a prince and for whom it was not permitted to evangelize in towns
> that already were alligned with major Protestant bodies.
>
> The Apostle's Creed to this day does not prevent churches from continuing
> to split, not once, but time and time again and the process continues, like
> the division of one species into two over time. Maybe that's because
> reciting "We BELIEVE in One God, etc." isn't enough, you have to be
> convinced that you have the truth, found the true way to salvation,
> including particular books and rituals and even subsidiary beliefs, all of
> which seemingly will guarrantee YOUR church's authority and it's ability to
> ensure your eternal salvation, while the rest are "less satisfactory"
> (that's putting it mildly and liberally of course, the result of a liberal
> recognition that was hard won after centuries of people's fears of hell --
> hell for them, their country or their neighbor -- getting the better of
> them).
>
> Also, early first century interpretations of the Apostle's Creed differ
> from some modern interpretations like that of moderate-to-liberal Catholic,
> Gary Wills, who interprets it a little bit differently than first-century
> people did, or like Crossan and Kung on the Catholic side, or Barth and
> Tillich on the Protestant side understand "The Apostle's Creed."
>
> And how many churches repeat "The Apostle's Creed" at services each week?
> Mostly mainstream churches, I suppose. For others it's merely implied and
> they take pride in their differences from other churches, and their own
> litany of truth.
>
> Heck just go into a church of young-earth creationists and see how fast
> they call you a heretic for merely mentioning you agree with Darwin about a
> lot of things.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Oct 21 22:06:00 2008