Define EVANGELISM

[Eutychus]

Short sweet and pointed.

Define what EVANGELISM means.

[cmotherofpirl]

preaching the Gospel

[OLAM Dad]

According to www.dictionary.com...

e·van·gel·ism Audio pronunciation of "evangelism" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-vnj-lzm)
n.

1. Zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel, as through missionary work.
2. Militant zeal for a cause.



Eutychus, you should check out a site called www.dictionary.com. It can give you definitions to most any word.

[XIX]

You forgot the punctuation

[OLAM Dad]

Why is this on the debate table?

[Eutychus]

We will get there....give it time.

[cmotherofpirl]

get there real quick or it gets moved...

[Eutychus]

Is that the new gameplan here?

Move the threads so the non-catholic gets frustrated and leaves? If so, tell me now, and I will make my goodbye's and be on my way....

{ I notice that you moved two yesterday....}

Edited August 20, 2006 by Eutychus

[cmotherofpirl]

This is the debate board, generally definitions and general discussion go elsewhere. You are not confined to this board, and can post anywhere you want. So if you started a debate somewhere else it ends up. But general stuff usually gets moved.

[Justified Saint]

[quote name='Eutychus' post='1046595' date='Aug 20 2006, 06:07 AM']
Is that the new gameplan here?

Move the threads so the non-catholic gets frustrated and leaves? If so, tell me now, and I will make my goodbye's and be on my way....

{ I notice that you moved two yesterday....}
[/quote]

I only speak for myself, but I for one wouldn't lose sleep over your departure (or Budge's). Nobody likes spammers.

[Eutychus]

[quote] I only speak for myself, but I for one wouldn't lose sleep over your departure (or Budge's). Nobody likes spammers.[/quote]

TRANSLATION: -> SPAM: -> Disagreeing with Lemmingspeak.

[Mateo el Feo]

OK, I counted two direct responses to the request to define evangelism.

Now, can someone define DEBATE?

[Socrates]

Bringing others to the truth of Christ.

[jswranch]

Will you accept:
EVANGELIZATION. Zealous proclamation of the Gospel in order to bring others to Christ and his Church. In the words of Pope Paul VI, “Evangelizing means to bring the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new, ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new’ (Revelation 21:5). But there is no new humanity if there are not first of all new persons renewed by baptism, and by lives lived according to the Gospel” (Evangelic Nuntiandi, 18). Evangelization, therefore, includes three distinctive elements: 1. interior conversion to Christ and his Church; 2. affecting not only the individual person but the whole culture; and 3. as a result, changing this culture and its institutions to make them Christian and Catholic.

or

announcing of Christ by a living testimony as well as by the spoken word

[Eutychus]

[quote]1. interior conversion to Christ and his Church; 2. affecting not only the individual person but the whole culture; and 3. as a result, changing this culture and its institutions to make them Christian and Catholic. [/quote]

OK, I'm chiming in now.

I asked "What is Evangelism" expecting that the Roman Catholic would be unable to define it without HIS CHURCH being part of the equation, and you did not dissapoint on that belief.

The two classical examples are Nicodemus and the Phillipine jailer. Both asked the question, "What must a man do to be saved { get to heaven }" And in neither was joining a church given as part of the requirements.

Actually, internally, nowadays the Catholic Church is all over the map on this question. While still teaching that the church is a necessary part of the salvation process

[quote]Catechism of the Catholic Church

169 Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation." [u]Because she is our mother,[/u] she is also our teacher in the faith.[/quote]

Which errors on several levels. Was Nicodemus instructed to go to a church for his salvation? No. Was the Philipian jailer instructed to go to a church in order to be saved? No.

And as for the Roman Catholic church being the "mother" { I will avoid the great opportunity for a smarmy pun here...} we only have to look into the scriptures in the New Testatment to verify that phrase is inappropriately applied too.

[quote]Ga 4:26

[u]But Jerusalem[/u] which is above is free, which [u]is the mother of us all[/u].[/quote]

The "Ekklesia/Church" is over and over referred to as the "Bride of Christ" and NEVER the mother of the Ekklesia { and ekklesia does NOT mean a denomination }

So, wrapping this up for now. Roman Catholics are brought into mental and physical bondage at every opportunity by the leadership of that denomination. The "church" is inserted improperly into the salvation mix, the sacerdotal system { controlled by, and originating with } the professional Nicolatian class { whom Jesus hated, stated twice in Revelation } is inserted as part and parcel of salvation.

The confusion is intentional.

[curtins]

Again here you go--> Christ never intended the church to be like this or for there to even be a church? So thats saying Christ has no idea what he's doing and has 0 control over what he set up. Really sounds like a God I want to worship. But we're in luck cause the protestant reformers came around 1500 years after this Jesus guy died to save everyone from the evil church that Jesus tried to set up but failed at and is running away. But it looks to me like whats running away is protestantism because it, by deffinition, is a contradiction. You've got how many thousands of protestant denominations? You've got anglicans branching all sorts of ways cause some want women bishops and some don't. If Christ is the truth, as he said, and he gives us the truth, then how is it still the truth when its up to everyone's own interpritation as they see fit? The truth cannot change or its not the truth. If one protestant looks at 'Eat my body, Drink my blood...' and says its just a symbol, and then another says no its really his body and blood... whos right? They can't both be right. The truth is NOT the truth as each person sees fit. Hence why we have the church- which Christ established and continues to guide to interpert scripture and to teach the truth with ONE voice of authority, guided by the Holy Spirit.

Protestantism is a contradiction of itself, on many levels.

[God Conquers]

I think you're a little confused in your questioning.

You ask a question about EVANGELIZATION, and then started posting quotes in the catechism from a section on the nature and purpose of the Church.

No one here mentioned the Catholic Church in their answers.

Evangelization is helping someone to know and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior.

And here is where the Catechism talks about it - under "Faith"

CCC 161
Believing in Jesus Christ and in the one who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.

- and under "evangelization"

CCC 425
The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in him.

It goes on to quote 1 John: 1-4, it doesn't get more explicitly Christocentric.

So...

I'm not sure where you're going with this.

Talk about Evanelization and what it is to you in this thread... if you stopped and read other's posts in this area, you'll find it very hard to disagree with us "misguided" Catholics.

If you're talking about what it means to be a Church, or what "mother" really means in Revelations start a new thread.

You started this thread then took it off-track when you saw our answers weren't what you expected.

[Aloysius]

Eutychus, what does the woman in revelations represent? She represents the Church by almost all accounts across denominations. She is described as the mother of Christians.

In the debate table it is customary to make a debateable point in your first post. It's etiquette... something like this is referred to as "baiting". Only honest dialogue is allowed here; baiting us hoping we'll come up with the answer you want so you can make the point is not proper online etiquette, this is why we move threads that do not contain a debateable point. This point of etiquette shows respect for one another as equal partners in a discussion.

Asking a question out of legitimate curiosity is fine, even in the debate table when you think it will produce debate. Baiting is not.

As to why, in your examples, they are not instructed to go to a church for their salvation: they are instructed to go to Christ. The Church (whether you define it as we do and include a magisterium as part of your ecclesiastical model or just define it as the people of God <which we also do> ) is the Body of Christ in the world. So when one says: "go to Christ for salvation" it is one in the same as "go to Christ's Body for salvation" or "go to Christ's Church for salvation". The Church is where one encounters Christ. The Church is how Christ acts in the world. Even if you define church as the invisible connection of believers, it is still Christ's body according to St. Paul. And it is still the woman in revelations who is referred to as the mother of all Christians.

[curtins]

Owned

[God Conquers]

I guess when baiting doesn't work out the way you want you should just abandon the thread...