kirindor wrote:But over the years, I have run up on some pretty oddball and heretical (or at least in error) protestants.1. Oneness pentecostals2. Charismatics and their continuing revelations.3. Christian Reconstructionists4. Open Theists5. Theonomists6. The New Perspective on Paul7. The Toronto Blessing8. Name-it Claim-it9. Give me $6 million or God is going to take me away (Oral Roberts).10. Carnal Christians11. etc.There are a lot of heresies in that group. The Protestants are a huge group with a lot of variety - we are not homogeneous.The Catholics are a huge group with a lot of variety. Dig a little deeper and you will be surprised at what you find.I just read this properly, and realised I read the last post I responded too wrong.Notice that most of the groups that you have referred to are of the "pentacostal/charismatic" camp? I have a little theory, that this group is rapidly becoming the "Catholic Church" equivelent of the modern church era. The particularly dangerous part of this, is the they give verbal assent to the doctrines of the faith (read through their statement of beliefs, and you'll rarely read "We believe that God wants to make you a millionaire" or the like), but display a total contradiction by their conduct and preaching. At least the Roman Catholics had the backbone to formalise their beliefs on paper.Considering the widespread acceptability of the Pentacostal/Charimatic (P/C) denominations by the world, they are rapidly becoming (f not already), a "state religion", in similar ways to the Roman Catholic church did in the Dark Ages. Instead of one Pope, the P/C movment has a pethora of leaders that are given "papal credibility", with even the ability to overide scripture.As with the first reformation, the P/C denominations have their "protestants" who are branded as "heretics" for opposing church doctrine (in spite of biblical commands to "descern"). They have their "Martin Luthers" who seem to take forever commiting to rejecting the movements they are involved with, and then "wake up and smell the coffee", only to persecute their "Anabaptists" for being more radical than them. Their reformers even break into camps of "holiness" and "grace" movements, which are akin to Arimianism and Calvanism.Can't speak for the other Protestant movements, but being an above mentioned "Martin Luther" in a charismatic movement (call me a sucker, but I still think there's hope for them), I can write volumes on what I see there. Lord give us the mrecy to continue to "examine ourselves to see if we're in the faith.." and the courage to protest when necessary, and the wisdom to recognise when we're throwing "pearls before swine".
