Entries Tagged 'Catholic' ↓

I attended my first session of Sunstone today.  I have to say it was really nice to be around people who wanted to talk about some things where I really respected the opinions of the speakers.  It was energizing.  I was able to meet some of my favorite mormons, such as John Dehlin, and D Michael Quinn (a former mormon.)  It was refreshing to be in an environment where intellectualism is embraced, not shunned.

My favorite session was on “ARE WE STILL GODS IN EMBRYO? THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF HUMAN DEIFICATION” by HUGO OLAIZ (probably because I just blogged about it.)  One of the most interesting points to me that Hugo made was Lorenzo Snow’s couplet  “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.”

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I’ve learned some interesting concepts from class #23: Eastern Orthodoxy.  The podcast is one from the Ancient and Medieval Church History class from Covenant Theological Seminary.  First, let’s have a little background.  (Incidentally, the seminary is a Presbyterian seminary.)

The Eastern Orthodox Church officially split with the Catholic Church in 1054.  The Pope excommunicated the Patriarch in Constantinople, so the Patriarch did the same to the Pope.  There had been some different emphasis on theology for quite some time.  For example, while the Catholic Church claimed that the Pope held all the leadership, the Orthodox Church held a much less central authority.  The Orthodox belief of revelation is that God speaks through these councils, not one central person.

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As I mentioned before, I have been learning about Ancient and Medieval Church history from the Covenant Theological Seminary.  What has been so interesting to me is that Turkey is a real center for Christianity.

Paul spoke to the Ephesians in Ephesus (and his letter is in our bible now.)  He also travelled to many other cities such as Perge, Derbe, Lystra, Antioch. John died in Ephesus.  Peter built the first Christian church there in Antioch.  Philip lived in Heirapolis, and was killed with him family there.

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This is part 3 of Heresy and Orthodoxy. I’ve been listening to class 5 from the Covenant Theological Seminary on Ancient and Medieval Church History. They have talked about Gnosticism and Marcionism. I’d like to talk about a little known movement in early church history called Montanism and compare this to Mormonism.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been listening to the Covenant Theological Seminary class called “Ancient and Medieval Church History.”  Class 5 deals with Heresy and Orthodoxy, and they discuss 3 of the largest early heresies:  Gnosticism, Marcionsim, and Montanism.  I’d like to discuss Marcionism a bit.

Marcion lived 110 - 160 AD in Sinope, Turkey.  He is probably the first person who tried to establish a Christian canon.  His New Testament was much smaller than ours today.  It included an edited version of the Gospel of Luke, and 10 of Paul’s letters.  He was the son of a bishop, and originally embraced by the orthdox church, but due to his embracing of Gnostic doctrines, he was excommunicated.  However, his movement became so large that it rivaled the orthodox church in size for about a century.

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I looked up “Infallibility”, and according to encyclopedia.com, “Roman Catholics hold that the infallibility of the church is vested in the pope…on matters of faith and morals. Definitive pronouncements resulting from an ecumenical council, when ratified by the pope, are also held to be infallible.”

In Official Declaration 1:12, Wilford Woodruff writes, “The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty.”

Is there a fundamental difference between these? Continue reading →