One-sided polemics from JWs and "Jesus Only" Pentecostals won't convince me. The Bible is the foundation of Christianity, not its sum total. Or do you believe that the Holy Ghost guided the church councils in determining the canon of the Bible only to take a nap when they were discussing...
Hmm, MV, do you count Satanists in that as well ? :)
I hope this doesn't seem uncharitable, but although I know you're proceeding from the best intentions, your point of view seems to reduce important differences to trivialities. I don't think it's trivial that I believe in Jesus as opposed...
O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus...
I dunno, hebrew--it seems to me that interpretation is one which didn't exist in the Christian faith until within the last 200 years or so. Don't you think it's possible that the "dozen of a dozen thousand" number was just a figure speech to indicate "lots more than I could count"?
Similar to...
It troubles me a bit that this was not proclaimed as dogma until 1854. I really don't have any problem with the IC as a pious opinion, but am not sure why it needs to be a point of dogma (of course, I'm leery of Vatican I to begin with...).
I'd be wary of using words such as "necessary" because I believe that God's mercy and grace will often suffice where human beings fail. I believe baptism is a sacrament, and therefore an agent of grace, and that it is a normative component of salvation. But as another forum member mentioned...
I believe in the Real Presence, but don't think it's profitable to define it in terms of transubstantiation, consubstantiation, etc etc etc. It's enough to know that Christ Himself is physically present in the elements without figuring out exactly how.