[Vision2020] A Christian Excommunicated? Is that possible?

[J Ford]

Well, he's not INTENDING to confirm anything to us, but he does a right fine 
job of doing so, anyway.  A non-ordained preacher excommunicating a member 
whose only "sin" (the means by which a person can be excommunicated) was to 
question this non-ordained preacher's authority and word.  Again, Dougie 
proves he knows not of which he does.

According to the Catholic Church:

Excommunication (Lat. ex, out of, and communio or communicatio, communion -- 
exclusion from the communion), the principal and severest censure, is a 
medicinal, spiritual penalty that deprives the guilty Christian of all 
participation in the common blessings of ecclesiastical society. Being a 
penalty, it supposes guilt; and being the most serious penalty that the 
Church can inflict, it naturally supposes a very grave offence.

Unless the local ordinary or an ecclesiastical court finds that the offense 
in question occurred, the obligation to observe an automatic excommunication 
lies solely on the excommunicated (Can. 1331 §1). Thus, even though an 
automatic excommunicant is forbidden to exercise any ecclesiastical offices, 
the excommunicant still retains the offices and all such acts are still 
valid acts under the law unless there has been a trial and finding of fact. 
Once this occurs, all subsequent acts become void and all offices lost (Can. 
1331 §2).

In general, the effects of excommunication affect the person's right to 
receive the sacraments, or Christian burial, until the individual repents 
and is reconciled with the Church. In order for an excommunication to take 
effect, the person must have been objectively guilty of the crime charged.

Anyone who lays violent hands on the Pope is automatically <vitandus>.

In John Calvin's Institutes of The Christian Religion, he said (4.12.10):

    For when our Saviour promises that what his servants bound on earth 
should be bound in heaven, (Matthew 18: 18), he confines the power of 
binding to the censure of the Church, which does not consign those who are 
excommunicated to perpetual ruin and damnation, but assures them, when they 
hear their life and manners condemned, that perpetual damnation will follow 
if they do not repent. [Excommunication] rebukes and animadverts upon his 
manners; and although it ... punishes, it is to bring him to salvation, by 
forewarning him of his future doom. If it succeeds, reconciliation and 
restoration to communion are ready to be given. ... Hence, though 
ecclesiastical discipline does not allow us to be on familiar and intimate 
terms with excommunicated persons, still we ought to strive by all possible 
means to bring them to a better mind, and recover them to the fellowship and 
unity of the Church: as the apostle also says, "Yet count him not as an 
enemy, but admonish him as a brother" (2 Thessalonians 3: 15). If this 
humanity be not observed in private as well as public, the danger is, that 
our discipline shall degenerate into destruction.

Excommunication was commonly referred to in the Torah as herem. The biblical 
form of excommunicating indicates any person or thing that was removed from 
the community, because it was made sacred by God or perceived as a disgrace 
before God. Herem in the Bible predominantly concerns the act of an 
individual devoting goods to God, which was regarded as a sacred act. 
However, once something had been dedicated, neither the sanctuary could sell 
the item nor could the contributor retrieve it.  Some examples include:

    • uttering the name of God in vain
    • luring another person to sin
    • refusing to testify before a court at the allotted time
    • selling nonkosher meat as kosher meat
    • marrying a non-Jewish individual

Michael has done NONE of these things!!!  Is Dougie saying that Michael laid 
violent hands on him and therefore qualifies for excommunication?  Proof, 
man, proof!!!

Michael is being shunned and or shut out just like Mrs. Dickison, Duck, etc. 
for one reason only - Dougie said so.

Man, I don't want to be there when HIS (Dougie's) judgement is handed 
out!!!!


J  :]




>From: Corbin Bellona <corbinbellona at yahoo.com>
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] A Christian Excommunicated?  Is that possible?
>Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 10:22:25 -0700 (PDT)
>
>How can a Protestant church excommunicate a Christian man whose only sin 
>is--not
>   upholding "their" membership vows?  I thought that Christ said you 
>weren't to take
>   vows.  Let your yes be a yes and your no be a no.  It's not Kirker-ish, 
>but it is biblical.
>   Shouldn't they stick to the Bible?
>
>   So, Mr. Metzler, what are they going to do to you if you still want to 
>go to church?
>   Have two NSA boys bounce you out?  And will they expect money from you, 
>or will
>   you be excluded from tithing?
>
>   What is this Mother Kirk their letter states?  I swear to goodness I 
>thought I was
>   reading a Star Trek fanfiction piece for a minute.
>
>   As a Christian belief, other Christians are to try and restore the 
>brethren, not place the
>    responsibility to formulate accusations on the person who's "confused." 
>  If you know
>    there is discord, fix it.  Don't excommunicate the person before he has 
>a chance to
>   come to you.  Be a man, people!  Don't hide behind the skirts of your 
>friends, Mr.
>   Doug Wilson.
>
>   "We're, now, merely freeing you from our supposed "tyranny.""  That's 
>appropriate.
>   Sarcasm in an excommunication letter.
>
>   What is a member in good standing to them?  Would they really be writing 
>a letter
>   of "excommunication" to someone who was in "good standing" with them?
>
>   And I thought the Catholic Pope was the one who excommunicated.  Just 
>what are
>   you trying to confirm to us, Doug?
>
>   --Corbin
>
>
>---------------------------------
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