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Fri 9 Jun, 2006 06:46 am
I want to know what is the three parts .THANK YOU!
You will need to explain yourself better than you have. Christianity comes in many, many forms. There is Orthodox Christianity, which is probably the most unitary sect--Russian Orthodox believers believe the same things as Greek Orthodox believers. Catholicism can be divided into roughly three parts: Roman Catholicism, Byzantine Catholicism and Syriac Catholicism. Syria Christians believe in the theological authority of the Pope, but Byzantine Catholics don't. Although they have almost disappeared from the world, Nestorian Christians have a different set of beliefs.
Then there are the Protestants. Normally, Protestant describes all of the Christian churches which broke away from the Roman Catholic church after 1520. But Waldensians and Hussites, to name just two, are sects which broke away from the Roman Catholic church before 1520, but are nonetheless often referred to as Protestants. The first formal schism was the Lutheran church from the Roman Catholic church, named for Martin Luther. But Germans who wanted to break away from the Catholic church, but did not agree with Luther's version of Christianity formed the German Reformed Church. Other Germans who believed that children should not be baptized into the church because they were not old enough to speak for themselves, were called Anabaptists, because they opposed infant baptism--today their descendants are simply known as Baptists. The Dutch had some people who remained Catholic, and some people who became Lutheran, and some people who became Calvinists--but most became members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Jean Calvin, usually referred to in the English-speaking world as John Calvin, wrote an important and influential book, The Institutes of the Christian Church. A central principle of his version of religion is predestination--that people are ordained to live the lives they lead, and to be saved or damned. The principle churches which still practice Calvinism are the Congregationalists (derived from English Puritans, they were called Independent Congregationalists after 1660--in the United States they are called Congregationalists, in England they are usually known as Independents, but can also call themselves Congregationalists). The Calvinists in Scotland believed in the authority of elders in the church, also known as presbyters, so they are known as Presbyterians. Presbyterians can be found in Scotland, northern Ireland and the United States. John Wesley took some Calvinist principles, and some of the beliefs of the "Great Awakening," an evangelical (meaning those who believe in conversion and religious prefection from inspired preaching) principles to create a "new method" of worship, and his followers are known as Methodists. They are also to be found in England, Ireland, Scotland and the United States.
Christianity continues to fragment, with many new versions arising in the United States, and spreading out through the world. This includes, but is not limited to, several newer versions of the Baptists, the Nazarenes, the Pentacostals, the Church of Latter Day Saints (know as the Mormons) and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
I suspect you are confused about something you read about Christianity, and that is why you make the otherwise unreasonable statement about "three parts." Many Christians believe in a "trinity"--one god with three aspects, usually referred to as God the Father, the Son of God (usually identified as Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you could explain what your idea is, and then you could get a better answer.
Setanta wrote:You will need to explain yourself better than you have. Christianity comes in many, many forms. .
Christianity has one form, and that form is Chirst.
Any relgion not based on Christ is of Satan.
One Way.
One Truth.
One God.
One Lord.
Just what the enquiring student needs--a loony fanatic to muddy the waters.
Scott wrote:Any relgion not based on Christ is of Satan.
What a bunch of crap. Why would God put souls into humans born of Satan's religion. Christians are a minority in this world. Are you saying God has no control over birth and death?
Setanta wrote:Just what the enquiring student needs--a loony fanatic to muddy the waters.
Don't feel bad about yourself. I thought your post was well done.
Scott777ab wrote:Setanta wrote:You will need to explain yourself better than you have. Christianity comes in many, many forms. .
Christianity has one form, and that form is Chirst.
Any relgion not based on Christ is of Satan.
One Way.
One Truth.
One God.
One Lord.
You are right about Christianity being about Christ. However, you cannot logically assert that all religion has to be about Christ.
He cannot even logically assert that his doctrinal bigotry applies to all Christians. Not all Christians believe the Jesus was divine. Not all Christians believe that Jesus was the son of god. Not all Christians believe in predestination. Not all Christians believe in free will. Not all Christians believe in a trinity. Not all Christians believe that salvation can be achieved from faith alone--although i think one could reasonably assert that no Christians believe that salvation can be attained through works alone.
What Scott displays is a bigotted assertion that only he can define what Christianity is.
joefromchicago wrote:Setanta wrote:Not all Christians believe the Jesus was divine.
Like who, for instance?
The Arians, of course--to which one can object that their doctrine does not survive. The Jehovah's Witnesses hold that Jesus was the "first creation" of God, and that all other creations derives from God through Jesus. There is, apparently, no attempt to reconcile such a statement with the belief the profess that Mary was the mother of Jesus, and of other children, as well.
The Catholic Encyclopedia wrote:A heresy [Ariansism] which arose in the fourth century, and denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
And . . .
Quote:Its developments among the barbarians were political rather than doctrinal. Ulphilas (311-388), who translated the Scriptures into Maeso-Gothic, taught the Goths across the Danube an Homoean theology; Arian kingdoms arose in Spain, Africa, Italy. The Gepidae, Heruli, Vandals, Alans, and Lombards received a system which they were as little capable of understanding as they were of defending, and the Catholic bishops, the monks, the sword of Clovis, the action of the Papacy, made an end of it before the eighth century. In the form which it took under Arius, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Eunomius, it has never been revived. Individuals, among them are Milton and Sir Isasc Newton, were perhaps tainted with it. But the Socinian tendency out of which Unitarian doctrines have grown owes nothing to the school of Antioch or the councils which opposed Nicaea. Neither has any Arian leader stood forth in history with a character of heroic proportions. In the whole story there is but one single hero -- the undaunted Athanasius -- whose mind was equal to the problems, as his great spirit to the vicissitudes, a question on which the future of Christianity depended.
It is ironic that they mention Eusebius. I have read elsewhere that Eusebius was considered an Arian heretic by many of his contemporaries. Nevertheless, Eusebius was chosen to articulate the orthodox creed at the Nicean Council.
Of equal interest is the doctrine of the Socinians:
The Catholic Encyclopedia wrote:Christology (a heading in the below linked article)
This point was particularly interesting, as on it the whole of Socinianism turns. God, the Socinians maintained, and rightly, is absolutely simple; but distinction of persons is destructive of such simplicity; therefore, they concluded the doctrine of the Trinity is unsound. Further, there can be no proportion between the finite and the infinite, hence there can be no incarnation, of the Deity, since that would demand some such proportion. But if, by an impossibility, there were distinction of persons in the Deity, no Divine person could be united to a human person, since there can by no unity between two individualities. These arguments are of course puerile and nothing but ignorance of Catholic teaching can explain the hold which such views obtained in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The Catholic Encyclopedia article on Socinianism.
I wish to state at this point that i have little interest in arguing or attempting to reconcile the intersectarian or internal doctrinal contoversies or contradictions of varous versions of Christianity. My object is only to point out, despite the claims of Scott, that there are many different types of Christians, and many different types of Christian belief.
Well done, Set. It's just like being in Sister Julie Phillips' Theology and Practice 203 class.
Just for a moment I was back in school
and felt that old familiar pain.
Joe( with apologies to Dan Fogelberg)Nation
Through the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, may you be protected from all afflictions of cognition . . .
Setanta wrote:joefromchicago wrote:Setanta wrote:Not all Christians believe the Jesus was divine.
Like who, for instance?
The Arians, of course--to which one can object that their doctrine does not survive.
The Arians did believe that Christ was divine. They just held that Christ was created (i.e. not cosubstantial with god in a trinitarian unity). Christ, therefore, was the son of god, but he was not "one with god."
You may be confusing the Arians with the Gnostics, who held some rather confused beliefs regarding Christ's divinity, but who, on the whole, also believed that Christ was divine.
Setanta wrote:The Jehovah's Witnesses hold that Jesus was the "first creation" of God, and that all other creations derives from God through Jesus. There is, apparently, no attempt to reconcile such a statement with the belief the profess that Mary was the mother of Jesus, and of other children, as well.
I'm not well-versed in the theology of the JWs, but if they deny the divinity of Christ, then they can't very well call themselves "Christians." I would hasten to add that those Unitarians who do not believe in the divinity of Christ are also no more Christians than Muslims who believe that Christ was a prophet but was not divine.
joefromchicago makes some valid points. Also, from what little I know of Jehovah Witnesses, I have never heard that they think Jesus was the first creation of God. They believe that he was born two thousand years ago just as most people do. They do not believe that Jesus is equal to God as those who belief in the trinity do.
If it gratifies you to quibble on such a basis, far be it from me to rain on your parade. However, rather than turning on the sprinklers, allow me to point out that you are peddling a particularist point of view. The first is that a "Christian" is one who must believe that Jesus is/was divine. The source word, usually rendered in Roman characters as
khristos, simply means "the annointed one." Even extended to mean a savior, or messiah, that does no violence, necessarily, to the JW's position that salvation can only be attained through the intercession of Jesus. The Socinians, who claimed to base all of their theology and exegesis on an appeal to reason, held a similar view that Jesus was the "ur-creation" of God, and that a "creature" could not also be god. It appears to be the same position that the JW's take--that Jesus was the first creation of the deity, and not an aspect of the deity.
Your source on the Arians states:
Quote:Arianism was a 4th-century Christian heresy named for Arius (c.250-c.336), a priest in Alexandria. Arius denied the full deity of the preexistent Son of God who became incarnate in Jesus Christ. He held that the Son, while divine and like God ("of like substance"), was created by God as the agent through whom he created the universe. Arius said of the Son, "there was a time when he was not." Arianism became so widespread in the Christian church and resulted in such disunity that the emperor Constantine convoked a church council at Nicaea in 325 (see Councils of Nicaea).
This is neither dissimilar to the Socinian position nor the JW position. It looks a lot to me like counting dancing angels on pin heads. I will simply refer again to:
The Catholic Encyclopedia wrote:A heresy [Ariansism] which arose in the fourth century, and denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
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