There is no difference between a Pope or murderer or any man for that matter, we all fall short of the glory of God and are called to repent. I've seen some quotes from the Pope that is direct heresy but I cant condemn them just as much as they can condemn me, they have no right for man is in error and anything man made will have mad man error in it.
The pope is not our topic. So I'll pass on that for now. But if you worry about men judging you on the basis of the doctrines that you teach and the things that you say then you ought to worry because the scriptures advise you to. These passages teach that men do in fact exercise judgement in matters of words and conduct. What you teach matters and may well have eternal consequences. That is not a threat. It is a witness to what Jesus said and what the holy scriptures teach.
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.' John 20:19-23
'Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:9-15
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.' Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Matthew 16:13-20
'If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.' Matthew 18:15-20
For the sake of when I go into a Catholic church I will make the sign of the cross and pray In the name of the Father Son and Holy spirit because its not "names" its a singular "name". I just dont follow the man made creeds because it states that any person out side the Catholic church is condemned to Eternal hell, that is scare tactics and not the word of God.
The Creeds state that anybody who denies the truth taught in the creeds is in danger of hell and that is true. Any one who hears the truth and rejects it rejects the one who taught it and when their teaching is the teaching of Christ rejecting it means rejecting Christ. That is what Jesus said when he sent his disciples out to preach.
'Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. 'Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.' Luke 10:13-16
The creeds say nothing about joining the Catholic Church (though I most heartily recommend that course of action to you). The words in the creeds are about what one believes and confesses and teaches. If you teach error and reject the truth then you are in danger and the creeds are right to inform you of that danger so that you can avoid it by believing what is true.
Can I agree that trinity is unity? Of course, but when I say that its heresy why? They are one. Would you say that for my sake of peace of mind that I should accept the trinity? Because I will adopt it but outside the creed, is a protestant who accept the trinity an imposter because he is not a Catholic? Answer me that and I will reconsider the trinity as mans "description" of how we could explain God.
When you say that "they are one" you use language very poorly because "they" can be one only in agreement and one in purpose and so forth but never one in person because "they" means several persons. It is wrong to use "they" as you have when writing about the persons of the Blessed Trinity. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one but not only in a kind of union of purpose and thinking and so forth. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in being, one in power, one in every attribute that belongs to God because there is in truth only one God and he is God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and the Father is not the Son, nor is the Son the Holy Spirit, nor is the Holy Spirit the Father. There is one person of the Father and another person of the Son and another person of the Holy Spirit. You have read the Athanasian Creed I think because I posted it for you before so I will not post it again here. The doctrine taught in it is easy to read and easy to understand even though it is difficult to grasp the words are not difficult it is the concepts that are hard and likely to stump a person who wants to know by experience or analogy or visually how these things can be so.
I will still call on God singular when I praise but I wont argue with trinitarians about that, is that fair?
No one can control what you think and no one wants to. Our purpose is to urge you to consider the truth and accept it if you want to. And to say that the UPCI teaches errors that endanger all who accept them.
In other words when someone asks me "do you believe in the trinity?" I can say "I believe whether Trinity or Singular they are God"
Although I would rather say yay yay or nah nah...
I wish you would say, and mean it, that you believe what the creeds teach because what the creeds teach is what Jesus teaches and what the holy scriptures teach.
