United in Christ

All Christian Brothers and Sisters are united in Christ!

Jesus himself prayed for unity.  We should all be united in Christ.  The Anglican Ordinariate is a huge step in that direction!  Anglican and Episcopal Churches maintain their Anglican patronage and join the Catholic Church after a process of discernment and sorting through their Church Doctrines.  The Lutheran and Methodist churches have taken a huge step as well:

JOINT DECLARATION
ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

by the Lutheran World Federation
and the Catholic Church

This was the main protest by Luther – that the Catholic Church based salvation on “Works”.  Take a look for yourself.  This joint declaration simply states that Christians are justified by the merit of Jesus alone, to do good works.  And it says this directly in Sacred Scripture.  Luther maintained that we are justified through Faith Alone, however the Book of James and many others, state that we are set aside to do good works.  And that is now the Doctrine of the Catholic AND Lutheran churches.  The Methodist Church has since signed the declaration as well!

“Now the Protest is over!” says Anglican Bishop Tony Palmer.  “There should be no Protestant Churches, we are all Catholic now.”  he argues.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Bishop Tony Palmer, and Pope Francis have also joined forces for a Spiritual Journey toward visible unity and invite all Christian faiths to do the same.  The transcript from a video message given from Pope Francis to that Pentecostal Conference is below.

He is absolutely right – Christian Brothers and Sisters have to love one another if the world is to see Christ in us.  With now, more than 40,000 Christian denominations, these divisions are tearing Christianity apart from the inside.  How are we to convince, let’s say, a Buddhist, that Christianity is the path to Heaven, when the world sees that we cannot agree on which way that path goes!

One thing I would like readers to note is that all Catholic Doctrines are supported by the Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Church Fathers.  There is absolutely no way that any Pope could ever change Church Doctrine.  That doesn’t mean that the Catholic Church has never been marred by sinners!  Most complaints about the Catholic Faith are purely propaganda and unsupported.  The few others are simply misunderstood.  Perhaps, the main reason for all of this confusion is the enormous amount of information in the Bible, and a lack of informed Christians.  It is very hard for ANY Christian to understand the entire Bible when there are so many contradictions.  And for most, all we know is what we hear on Sundays.  This is true of all religions – lack of interest in religion.  Sadly, most people consider anything else more important than learning the Faith.

Once again, we are all to blame!  Catholics need to be more like Protestants and show some true Zeal for the Gospel while Protestants need to be more like Catholics to get back to the roots of Church Doctrine.  Surely, if Jesus spoke out against something, every Christian church should as well, right?  And how about the Apostles in the New Testament letters?  If they gave a rule, it should be every Christian church’s rule, right?
In today’s age, there is no excuse to be uninformed about the Faith, that is, if you reside in a civilized society.  And with so much immorality and terror plaguing this world, there will be no excuse for not spreading the GOOD NEWS!  Let’s all start working together in the Love of Jesus and journey together toward visible Christian unity.  There is a lot of ground to be covered on both sides!

Transcript form Pope Francis and Bishop Tony Palmer to a Pentecostal Conference:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, excuse me, because I speak in Italian.  But I am not speaking English.  But I will speak no Italian, No English, but ‘Heartfully’.  It’s a language more simple and more authentic.  It is a simple language.  A simple grammar.  Two rules: Love God above all, and love the Other [neighbor], because he is your Brother and Sister.

I am here with my Brother, my Bishop Brother, Tony Palmer.  We have been friends for years.  He told me about your conference, about your meeting.  And it’s my pleasure to greet you.  A greeting both joyful and nostalgic [yearning].  Joyful because it gives me joy that you have come together to worship Jesus Christ the only Lord.  And to pray to the Father and to receive the Spirit.  Nostalgic [Yearning] because but… it happens, as within our suburbs.  In the suburbs there are families that love each other and families that don’t love each other.  Families who come together and families who separate themselves.   We are kind of … permit me to say, separated.  Separated because it’s sin that has separated us.  All our sins.    The misunderstandings throughout history.  It has been a long road of sins that we all shared in.  Who is to blame?  We all share the blame.  We have all sinned.  There is only one blameless, the Lord.  I am [yearning] that this separation comes to an end and gives us communion.  I am [yearning] of that embrace.   That when the Holy Scripture speaks of when Joseph’s Brothers began to starve from hunger, they went to Egypt, to buy, so that they could eat.  They wanted to buy, they had money.  But they couldn’t eat the money.  But there they found something more than food, they found their Brother.

All of us have this currency.  The currency of our culture.  The currency of our history.  We have lot cultural riches and religious riches.  And we have diverse traditions.

But we have to encounter one another as Brothers.  We must cry together like Joseph did.  These tears will unite us.  The tears of love.  I am speaking to you as a Brother.  I speak to you in a simple way, because this will propel us to find each other, to embrace one another.  And together to worship Jesus Christ as the only Lord of History.

I thank you profoundly for listening to me.  I thank you profoundly for allowing me to speak the language of the heart.  And I also ask you a favor.  Please pray for me, because I need your prayers.  And I will pray for you, I will do it, but I need your prayers.  And let’s pray to the Lord that He unites us all.  Come on, we are Brothers, let’s give each other a spiritual hug and let God complete the work that He has begun.  And this is a miracle; the miracle of unity has begun.  A famous Italian author named Manzoni once wrote in his novel of a simple man amongst the people who once said this… “I’ve never see God begin a miracle without Him finishing it well. ‘ He will complete this miracle of unity.  I ask you to bless me, and I bless you.  From Brother to Brother, I embrace you.  Thank you.

Transcript form Pope Francis and Bishop Tony Palmer to a Pentecostal Conference.

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