However, we don’t hold to baptism as a eternal assurance of salvation, that’s called “presumption” in the Catholic Church. Certainly I like the idea of a guarantee (who wouldn’t?) but I reluctantly recognize that I function as a better Christian without it. The fear of the loss of grace forces me to re-examine my conduct and to submit more of my will and pride to Christ. I’d love to say I come to Christ wholly out of love for His righteousness but, if I’m honest, I recognize that I am also motivated by fear. I fear that my own weakness could lead me to sin again. This recognition keeps my head bowed and my knees bent. If I believe I had a “guarantee” I might be tempted to be lax. So I trust in Christ but not in my flawed self.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the origin of the “eternal assurance”? Is that a Calvinist doctrine?

Otherwise, well written.

Anyway, I’d like to suggest that “catholic” in the creed has the connotation of whole at least as much as the connotation of universal (and these two have different senses in modern English popular usage, I think). To give a non-Catholic citation for that, my concise Oxford dictionary has:

[ME, f OF catholique or f. LL f. Gk katholikos universal f. cath' holou in general (kata in respect of, holos whole)]

While no SBC church is going to say outloud that they are the “only church” the very sad fact is that most of them are THINKING it if they’re not downright saying it to your face.

We have since left the SBC and we are in the midst of wondering in the wilderness, not sure where we’ll end up. Personally, even though I’m a Christian and know the “forsake not the assembly of the saints” bit quite well, I could care less to ever step foot in a traditional church again. The backbiting and arguing about who we are and how we “do” church is sickening to me. Half the blogs I read are fighting with one another on the emergent church movement.

I wrote about something similar today on my blog. In a nutshell, when it comes to church and religion I don’t fit in anywhere nicely. I’m too liberal for the conservatives, and too conservative for the liberals.

I briefly dated a Church of Christ boy/man…briefly because I soon realized how restrictive they were in their views about others and where they stood with Christ(which was nowhere, in their view.)

I do wonder how mind-blowing it would be for some people to travel back in time to see the 1st and 2nd century churches and compare them with what we currently believe and practice today. I think most everyone who believes that their denomination is a “return” to the early church would be surprised and shocked.