a fresh start

thank for you guys' encouragement so I can continue to do this.

I don't want to pretend to be a leader or something here, because I am not. (plus some people may ask "who makes him the boss?" later on), but after I talk to some of you, I think I need to do this, to get back to the basic, since some here are not clear.

Without going other advance areas, how about we christians to review what we believe? This is essential to make our faith, spiritual life more solid, to know what we believe in. There are some minor differences between different denominations and the independent churches, but the core of the gospel, I personally think the confession of faith, is the basic.

A good and fair idea, I think?

KM, Thank you for staying.

The whole basis of faith turns on who you say Jesus Christ is.

All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Therefore, if he is only a very wise man you and I are the biggest of fools and dead in our sins.

If Jesus Christ is the Son of God as he claims, and the reason the Hebrews tried to stone him to death, then he really did pay the full price to redeem us.

He also rose in body from the dead and is coming back and landing on the Mount of Olives. All of us who have put their trust in him will be there, too. We will see him enter Jerusalem through the East Gate. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

I want to find out the one paragraph confession of faith, you know, the "I believe...I believe...", but can't find it.  I even doubt if it is called confession of faith, since it is very long from my search result, not just one paragraph. In this case, I don't know what that "I believe..." is called, I saw it before though. Someone here know what it is called?

Nevertheless, I think that paragraph is the very basic of what christians believe. For the details, my church follows the Westminster Shorter Catechism (yes, I am presbyterian, PCA).

Are you referring to the Apostle's Creed?

 I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.  He descended into hell.  On the third day, He arose again from the dead.  He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.  From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.  Amen.

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oh, thanks, that's it

I think I remember somewhat the first half of it, but forget the second half.

Since it is from Catholicism, for the "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.", I myself would be easy on the "Holy Catholic Church", which should include other churches, like the orthodox and the protestants. I would also easy on the "communion of saints" since we don't really care much about the saints.

But overall, this creed pretty much sums up the basic christian belief.

of course the catechism mentioned got much more point to point details, and question and answer format.

I believe the difference is the Catholics use the capital C....other religions use catholic meaning universal.  All the versions are given here:

Apostles' Creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Patsy said:

I believe the difference is the Catholics use the capital C....other religions use catholic meaning universal.  All the versions are given here:

Apostles' Creed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

You are correct, Patsy. The Apostle's creed is used in other Denominations as well, Lutheran being one example.  The word catholic refers to the church universal, not Catholic Church.

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thanks for the correction

so I think we can kind a stupid this thing from time to time to remind ourselves what we believe in. 

I'm glad you stayed around.  I am interested in most of your posts although I usually don't have anything to say.

It's important to remind ourselves and each other what we believe in and why.

I'm currently involved in a battle of sorts on another site.  It's amazing to me that liberals who don't know or understand the Bible (even less than I do) will quote it in error to prove a point.  One of them even quoted the Bible to say that the Bible justifies abortion.  It's very scary.

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ConcernedMom said:

I'm glad you stayed around.  I am interested in most of your posts although I usually don't have anything to say.

It's important to remind ourselves and each other what we believe in and why.

I'm currently involved in a battle of sorts on another site.  It's amazing to me that liberals who don't know or understand the Bible (even less than I do) will quote it in error to prove a point.  One of them even quoted the Bible to say that the Bible justifies abortion.  It's very scary.

 

How can we help?

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If you're interested, the battle is going on at topix, where I love to go to stir up trouble.  It is under the Barack Obama topic and is called "Obama is an extremist when it comes to abortion"

Here's a link:

http://www.topix.com/forum/us-senate/barack-obama/TGDNGTOCN90R6OBFQ

It started out discussing how Obama views having a baby as punishment but has morphed into an argument between pro-choice and pro-life. 

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by the way, I just spoted an error, it is "study this thing", not "stupid this thing", silly typo :D

cmom, I think you can argument from two sides.

pro-choice - what about the baby's choice? s/he can't make one.

pro-life - I am pro-life, are you pro-death? 

I just posted.  Let my lynching begin.

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so I think we can kind a stupid this thing from time to time to remind ourselves what we believe in. 

Kind of hard to forget.  That's a prayer Catholics learn in about 3rd grade Sunday School and say probably once a day or more (for some) for the rest of their life...sort of like the Hail Mary, Lord's Prayer, Act of Contrition, etc.

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kmcheng,

When you find an error you made or want to modify your post, you can.  Look at the bar above your post that allows you to respond/print/link a specific post.  Your posts have a 4th icon that if you select, will allow you to edit your post.

Patsy,

When I grew up, we said the Apostle's Creed every church service, without fail.  It was as much a part of the ritual as passing the collection plate and singing the Doxology.  The churches I have attended since becoming an adult seem to favor varying the Apostles Creed, using a different version from time to time.  I never knew why or thought to ask.  I suspect that so many people just memorize and recite, that they don't really think about it.  When the words change from week to week, you sort of have to pay a bit more attention when you recite it.

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That's true FF.  Even something like the Act of Contrition....when I listen to the version my children learned I have to really question, "are we even saying the same prayer??"  Bah humbug....take me back to Mass in Latin.  I can't stand all this phony baloney hand shaking hugging and peace be with you crap, and that, "the mass is ended, go in peace" and the respondents saying, "Praise be to God."  Sounds more to me like they're saying, "Thank God it's over, let's get outta here!"

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I know I can edit the post, but just want to emphasize the mistake so people won't feel weird about it :)

Actually, to know what we believe, or even to recite or memorize the Apostle's Creed, or Lord's prayer, or the Ten Commendments, is just a "surface".

The important part is, to ask God to let to you understand what are these really mean. What is sin, what is the gospel, the cross, God's mercy mean to us.

From my experience, it is easy to know something in your mind, but it is very hard to understand something in your heart, sometimes it takes years. Many people know God, know the gospel, but it is up to God to let people really understand it.

I didn't really understand what sin is until a prayer few years ago. It is a good idea and smart to ask God for wisdom (since we are so lack of it) to understand His words, and the gospel, also the world. You know, it is His word and His creation, who can explain it better than God Himself?

We recite the Apostles' Creed almost every Sunday.  On some occassions we use the Nicene Creed instead.

Latter-day Saints believe in God the Father; his Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost. These three Gods form the Godhead, which holds the keys of power over the universe. Each member of the Godhead is an independent personage, separate and distinct from the other two, the three being in perfect unity and harmony with each other.

This knowledge concerning the Godhead derives primarily from the Bible..... For example, the three members of the Godhead were separately manifested at the baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:16-17) and at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:55-56).

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