True godliness is a sincere feeling which loves God as Father as much as it fears and reverences Him as Lord, embraces His righteousness, and dreads offending Him worse than death~ Calvin
Why do you say that the Christ of Christmas is not the true Christ?<br><br>Don't get me wrong, Christmas has become secularized in many ways. But please don't condemn those Christians who see Christmas as a time to think upon Immanuel, God with us, the sinless Savior sent to take away the sins of many, the radiance of God's glory, the long-awaited Messiah who took on human flesh and dwelt among us.
True godliness is a sincere feeling which loves God as Father as much as it fears and reverences Him as Lord, embraces His righteousness, and dreads offending Him worse than death~ Calvin
Howard<br><br>[img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/scratch.gif" alt="scratch" title="scratch[/img] and how does that answer my question?<br><br>Tom
Marie,<br><br>Here are a few snippits from "The Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America" which might help you.<br><br>" One futher example of Reformed Spirituality and application of the regulative principle was sabbath observance. Presbyterians and Reformed have been rigourous in observing the fourth commandment ..........<br><br> The practise of sabbath observance also meant abolition of the Church calander. Whereas roman catholics instituted a series of holy days throughout the Church year modeled on the life of Christ or general Christian teaching. the Reformed objected that after the ressurection of Christ the only day that Scripture commanded to be a different or sanctified day was the Lords Day, when believers celebrated Christs triumph over sin and death in the resurrection. Thus, Presbyterians and Reformed in their desire to follow Scripture carefully have generally marked the Christian life by observing the weekly sabbath and by refusing to require the human practice of setting appart the holy days of the Church year.<br><br> .......... Hence, the word Reformed itself has always been shorthand for the phrase that the Church must "Always be reforming itself according to the Word of God." If a practice inheritted from roman catholicism could not be justified according to biblical teaching, then it had to be abandoned."<br><br><br>Christmas , Easter, Lent, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday , Whit Sunday etc,etc ,etc are all Popery Marie. <br>There is NOTHING reformed about them. <br><br>Always reforming or always deforming [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/shrug.gif" alt="shrug" title="shrug[/img]
Howard:<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>[color:"blue"]I meant not that the baubles on my pc or any of the post refered to Jeremiah <br><br>Christmass trees, lights, garlands, baubles etc,etc, all stem from pagan roots ...........<br><br>They are vain customs of men .</font><hr></blockquote><p>If these "vain customs of men" bother you so much, can you explain why some of the "music" (I use that term loosely) you have told us you listen to, which does not honor God, either in content or origin, is not like wise a "vain custom of men"?<br><br>In Him,<br><br>Gerry<br>
I dont make music into christian doctrine Gerry. Some try to make pagan practise christian doctrine.<br><br>You'd better start a new thread about it.........................[img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile[/img]
Tom , the Roman Catholic Church is a COUNTEREIT CHURCH ![img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/confused.gif" alt="confused" title="confused[/img]<br><br><br>There is nothing Christian about it . The R C trinity is NO TRINITY
Howard<br><br>Unless I am mistaken the RC Church holds to the Apostles Creed and a few other Trinitarian Creeds.<br><br>I see no evidence that the RC Church does not believe in the same Trinity that we do. They have a lot of heretical doctrines, but the Trinity is not one of them.<br><br>I have been on other Christian ( I use that term loosely) boards in the past, where people like Oneness Pentecostals attacked the Trinity and among the people who were very pro Trinity who defended the doctrine of the Trinity were Catholics.<br>I didn't see anything that these particular Catholics said about the Trinity that wouldn't have been said by people on this board.<br><br>Just because I believe that RCs are heretical in many of their beliefs, doesn’t mean that I don’t agree with them on other doctrines.<br><br>So unless you have some information about how the RC Church teaches the Trinity that I am unaware of, I believe you are mistaken.<br>I have also never seen (or heard) a Reformed Christian (other than yourself) attack or debate RCs on the subject of the Trinity and I have both listened to and read quite a few debates against RCs.<br>Remember I am not talking about soteriology or other doctrines of the faith; I am talking about the doctrine of the Trinity itself.<br><br>If I am correct about this, the question comes to mind. Would you abandon the doctrine of the Trinity, because it is (as you call it) popery?<br>
While not wanting to disagree with your dictionary I would challenge its findings that the "roman" catholics created the Church Year. In fact I would suggest to you that the church year was begun as a method of teaching the entire bible to believers. As well as focusing them on the ministry of our Lord.
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