Before I get into the authority details, I believe that I
should share a little from personal experience.
I grew up in a Christian home. We attended the Vroom Street
Evangelical Free Church from my earliest memories. My father
had perfect attendance for literally decades.
I actually did some witnessing while in school. I carried a
Bible to school for a while and had a “Jesus Saves” sticker on
my bicycle. There were other times however when I used quite
foul language.
Peg and I were married in the late 1960′s in the Southern
Baptist Church that Peg grew up attending. We moved to
Northern New Jersey and started a family.
Our first daughter was born with a cleft lip and cleft pallet
and had a number of corrective surgeries. Peg’s second
pregnancy ended with a early delivery of a boy who died the
day he was born. Apparently his lungs were still not
developed enough at 7 months.
About this time we became involved with the “Jesus Movement”
of the early 1970′s. It started for us with the Maranatha
Coffee House ministry at the Nazarene Church in New Milford,
NJ. We helped sponsor a “Jesus Meeting” at our American
Baptist Church in Oakland, NJ. We had about 300 attend and
about 75 responded for a call to “come to Jesus” and filled
out a card. These were all high school kids.
This “Jesus Movement” was definitely “full gospel” and through
it Peg and I became associated with the Full Gospel
Businessmen’s Fellowship International. We attended many
FGBMFI meetings and conventions.
During this time we became familiar with the “Faith Teaching”
of Kenneth Hagin, Norvel Hayes, and Kenneth Copeland. I was a
real stickler for checking things out with Scripture so I
really studied what was taught. Some of the information
seemed “far out” but the more I studied the Scriptures
presented, the more I came to see the Scriptural truth.
During one of the FGBMFI conventions I met a Catholic
Charismatic and talked briefly with him. One thing I remember
was that his use of the word “grace” was quite different from
my understanding of that word. I was surprised how the
Catholic Charismatic individuals could be “right on”
doctrinally and yet still stay with the Catholic Church. From
my earliest memories I understood that the Catholics were not
really Christians because of all the other things that were
added to their Christian faith.
(continued in part 2 of 5)
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Consistent with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which
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The document does not speak for the Catholic Church but the
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Doug Johnson has been writing and online publishing Christian and Social Conservative articles since the 1990′s on http://www.IndependentChristian.org/
Doug has been a Bible believing Evangelical Christian since childhood. He has been received into fellowship with the Evangelical Free Church, the Plymouth Brethern, the Assembly of God, the American Baptist, and the Southern Baptist.
In the early 2000′s, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church after careful study of the Catholic Catechism and the Bible. He believes Catholics and Bible believing Protestants should build on what they have in common rather than looking at what is different.
He is presently helping to establish the Independent Christian On-Line Academy at: http://www.ICOLA.us
Doug has an online retail wallpaper business at: http://www.TheWallpaperPirate.com/
Doug is available as a consultant and or speaker. To reach him, use the Contact Us page at any of the above websites.
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