Quote:
Originally Posted by tubaloth
[COLOR=black] ...One believed it was passed down over time, the other believed it was restored
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It comes down to the apostasy – was the apostasy total and complete? Or not?
Apostasy of the Early Christian Church
Isa. 60:2 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people
Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
2 Thes. 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first
Most Christian church’s believe there was an apostasy, that truth was lost. That was the big restoration movement, to try and restore lost truths…
There is a big difference between restore and reform. It was noble for people to fight false doctrines and false spiritual authority. Unfortunately, their honest and sincere efforts only resulted in the creation of more churches carrying their names and their protest and adding more confusion and more divisions. In reality, two major elements were missing in the reform: revelation and authority, the Lord’s only way to communicate divine truth to mankind.
There was a talk, can’t find it, that gave the example of making a shirt from a shirt from a shirt from a shirt without the original pattern. Mistakes made in the first copy are exaggerated in the next copy and so forth. By the time you get to the nth generation of shirts made from shirts, you have something very different from the original. What you need is the original pattern, not a bunch of replications. You can try and fix mistakes, but you can’t get back to the original without the original. They said it better, but you get the point.
Restore means that G-d Himself came down with Jesus and restored the priesthood, provided additional unpolluted scriptures, gave visions and revelations, and direct guidance for how to re-establish the church. No trying to piece together bits and pieces that had been scattered around, no interpretations, no speculating, no voting. Getting the original pattern back right from the source.
I have Catholics in my family, they are good people, but the church? To write scriptures in and talk in Latin specifically to keep people from understanding what is being said, to try and take away any personal relationship with G-d by saying you have to go through the church for everything.... infant baptism - that little babies go to hell unless they are baptized...There is just something so wrong with that... again, love the people, just not the church.
Interesting comparison though. I think it is true that LDS and Catholics are the only ones who claim to have the priesthood. Am I wrong on this?
Catholics can trace it back to Peter:
Matt 16:
13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Cęsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, aElias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the bSon of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
The rock the church is built on is direct
revelation from heaven... not any specific person... or I should say no person other than Jesus, Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit - the "Chruch of Jesus Christ" not the church of Peter, or the church of Bob or something...