These are the hallmarks of Christian love, the fruit of true belief, according to the reponses from my last question.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...
Worship refers to church attendance, righteousness refers to obediance to the commandments of God and Christ, charity refers to donations and self sacrifice refers to service.
If you make a claim, please back it up. If one church doesn't hold the title in every area, then feel free to show which churches do the best in each area. We don't have to define Christianity first. The answers to this question will define Christianity. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Is this like a contest, lol
worship- 3 hours on sunday along with various auxillary meetings (which can make for a very long sunday sometimes)
youth during high school attend a religious class before school during school days and there is an institute of religion that college kids are highly encouraged to go with a class about once a week
Adults have know your religion series.
There are always various special meetings, usually called firesides, that diff groups of people go to with special speakers
righteousness- I guess thats open to interpretation but mormons have a very strict moral code and value system they are suppose to adhere to
Premarital sex is not ok in any way shape or form. No alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc. You are suppose to hold yourself to a high standard of integrity in all your actions and your words, thoughts and deeds.
You will not be able to attend the temple or hold callings or take the sacrament if you are doing this specifically that you arent suppose to be doing until you repent and stop doing them
charity- the church has a pretty extensive welfare system
They have their own farms and those families in need can have access to free food, help with expenses, there is an education fund
however, also taught to be self sufficient and to use these resources as very last resort
The church also has a humanitarian fund and emergency prepardness ready to send aid immediately in cases of disasters like Katrina.
self sacrifice- all the callings are unpaid so members devote their time to church service, sometimes a lot of time
10 percent tithing should be paid along with any additional money you wish to donate to things like the humanitarian fund and the welfare system of the church (generally called fast offerings)
You are suppose to be there for the people that need you whenever there is true need.
Being an active mormon isnt just a sunday worship thing. It takes a lot of dedication and time and energy. But its worth it. Actually I've got news for you. Xian Sects do not have any exclusive claim on pefect love, worshifullness, moralities, righteousness, charity & sacrfice.
Just an example, I've found many Buddhist sects to regularly contribute to their local community without the burden/pressure of looking for converts.
& to the Thumb Downers you really show the what examples of righteousness, charity, and spiritual self sacrifice.
. My take on it is this. Sacrifice is necessary.
To have faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ motivates us to approach him, to become more like him, to sanctify ourselves. But to attain the faith necessary to sanctify ourselves for the presence of God the key is sacrifice. Joseph Smith said, "From the first existence of man, the fiath necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life, and it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has for the truth's sake, not even withoholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice because he seeks to do his will, he does know, most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not, nore will not seek his face in vain. Under these circumstances then, he can obain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life. (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith 6:58) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03592a.h...
This is the history of the charitable works of the Catholic Church, I think through out the world it is the number one church that has taken it upon themselves to help all others. This article is in depth right out of the Catholic encyclopedia.
The Catholic Church also has some of the most beautiful prayers of worship and the Rite of Norvus Ordo the Catholic Mass is when we truly have Christ present in our church, this occurs every day, we can receive Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in our bodies, His true presences is there. The Traditional Tridentine Mass is even more beautiful then the Norvus Ordo, done in Latin with the Priest back to the people facing the heavens. It is the most perfect form or praise and worship, only a very few churches have this Mass said on their Alter but to witness and participate in is truly beautiful. i believe every church has their own Good works and some are better than others.
the salvation army and Goodwill are better than beehive industry
LDS industries require people work, community service to get help. but at the same time they advertise how good they help people who are down.
the baptist church takes the saying of Jesus to Peter "feed my sheep" literally and have many missions that feed the poor. the salvation army has similar places but not as well funded. The Lds are supposed to have farms and canneries and food storage to rely upon. but when a lds person loses everything there are NO support plans other than food storage but such people cant fit 2 or 3 years of storage into their car or camper. So they each have to give away their storage to others. The Catholic church. Simple as that. Catholics go to church because they want to receive the Eucharist every Sunday. With Jesus inside of our bodies, it inspires us to bring forth fruits of the spirit (charity, selflessness) and inspires us to follow the Lord's commandments as closely as possible. These are the Catholic teachings;
VIRTUE
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" - Prov 1:7
Theological Virtues
Faith - Hope - Charity
The four Cardinal Virtues
Prudence - Justice - Fortitude -Temperance
VICE
"Flee from sins as from the face of a serpent: for if you come near them, they will take hold of You. The teeth thereof are the teeth of a lion, killing the souls of men." - Ecclesiasticus 21:2
Vice of Impurity
Vice of Anger
Vice of Vainglory and Pride Part of the reason Jesus ascended to the Father was for the Holy Spirit to come down to inhabit His people and guide them into all truth. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." The body of Christ is spread over the whole earth. But at any given moment in time, the Holy Spirit will show you what church group you should be yoked with. It will be far from perfect as there are no perfect gatherings. They most likely will have many problems compared with other gatherings. Be honest with your heart and let the Holy Spirit guide you on where He needs you to be. Go and serve the Lord in all you say and do. Unless a person visits every denomination, there's no way to really tell which one MIGHT have more righteousness, charity, etc. But we DO know that there are believers in EVERY denomination. And these believers are "The Church" and "The Body of Christ."
Gardenia Jesus Christ Himself, not a particular church, inspires all those things. Probably the Baptist Churches Jeremiah Wright's There is only one true Christian Church it is the Body of Jesus. You can not compare it to itself. What matters is "Which church was founded by Jesus Christ?"
Answer: The catholic church.
All the rest of it means nothing.
R Rosskopf: you're a good fundie. You start out with a point of view, select a line of scripture out of context to support your preselected point of view -- completely circular nonsense.
What on earth doe "by their fruits you shall know them" from the gosple from which it was taken have to do with jesus's church and it's genuiness. The authenticity of the church goes back to it's founder and the apostolic succesion that only one church has, this proclaims the genuiness of the church, as to fruits as defeined by you for your puposes (a good littel lucifer or I mean luther); some pairhes and individual memebrs display these in varuying degrees.
As to the "fruit" of the church as a whole, our doctrine has been around for over 2000 years, it is not open to intrepreation or dissent. We celbrate the eucharist and the oterh sacamants in the manner that our founder Jesus christ prescibed, we wort ethe Gosples which outline these for you any other intrperataion of them is absurd and heretical.
YOU ARE BORING AND YOU LEAD PEOPLE ASTRAY BRING ME YOUR PASTOR, AND REPENT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
You missunderstand that which you quote and then you proclaim WE SEE WE SEE WE SEE
Go get a copy of the marine corp manual, take it home study it. Don't forget to rip out the five chapters that contradict what you are doing. Get other people together to study it, implement it in your life, get the people who you study it with to implement it in there lives. Oh, don鈥檛 forget to get your official marine corps concordance, so you can look up words and phrases like 鈥渟imper fi鈥? Iwo Jima, Helmet, Grenade, and Honor, etc. Now does this make you guys marines -- no. You are missing pretty much everything that it means to be a marine. you haven't had the training that they have done for years you don't have the history -- the understanding of what it means to be a marine, you don't have the traditons -- the rituals that they have been doing for years. Nor do you have the true meaning of what the manual says. Because outside of the marine corp, the manual is MEANINGLESS.
People who belong to bible studying fellowships who believe in the doctrine of solely scripture scripture first scripture only sola scriptura are no more Christians than are the people who got together to study the marine manual are marines.
Now that you and your friends have studied the marine corp manual. Go out in front of a marine corp recuting station and as people walk in hand them a tract from the manual and get them to come join you. Go to a marine corp camp and do the same thing see if they will join you marine corp manual studying fellowship. But don't call yourselves that. Call yourselves, "marines". Go to the verterns day parade and hand out tracts from the manul there, and tell them to come to your marine barracks. Let people know that you have the way that all they have to do is study the manual with you and they too can be marines.
Then just like you've done with us with this question. Go up to a real marine tell them what you are doing, and ask them what is wrong with it? There aren't a lot of them out there I'm afraid. But there is and always will be a remnant. This is impossible to answer. I believe most people would answer their own church. It is difficult to answer the questions as well. How does one figure out church attendance stats? I have yet to see a church that doesn't have much higher attendance on the 'big' holidays (Easter/Christmas)
The best you could do would be to look at each groups' offical statements on what good members SHOULD be doing.
Ex: The Catholic church has the Catecism. It is a book that states what we, as catholics, believe and should do. It talks about regular attendance (missing church with no good reason is even a sin), tithing (10% I believe) and we are all called to service. Multiple papal documents have talked about the importance of Catholics serving our fellow man. I've always liked that quote (probably paraphrased here) 'Preach the gospel daily, use words when necessary.'
I BELIEVE that some churchs (Mormans, Jehova's W) require their members to do door to door work and the like as a requirement for membership. Perhaps that is a point in their favor. But I ahve to really wonder how many of them would do it if it wasn't a requirement.
I belong to a group called the Legion of Mary. We do much the same thing as Mormans and JWs do. I do not know much about their motives and how they do it, I can only talk about what my group does. We go door to door and talk to whoever about whatever they want. We visit shut ins, nursing homes, new families, bereavements, etc... I don't care if the people are Catholics or not. I am not there to convert. I am there to see if they need anything.
I am sure that many other churchs are the same. |
