Chili

To be a heretic one must hold a different belief from the accepted belief of the Church and this would include doubters as well as believers who cannot be conceived to exist without at least some doubt. This, then, would include all those who say Amen to the transubstantiation of bread and wine which is a truth beyond human comprehension and therefore a heresy without the sanctifying grace that transforms the believer for that moment, and only for that moment --which would be why our communion is for Catholics only.

So there is your definition of heretic and that makes every Catholic a heretic for the simple reason that the Church is way beyond human understanding and so the slippery slope puts the believer somewhere between these opposites.

It is only when we have 'a priory' knowledge of a concept that is not in agreement with the teachings of the Church that one is declared a heretic and it is when we convey that a priori knowledge unto others that we are declared a witch. Notice that the word convey here is a form of awakening to what they call the reign of God that exists in us (our soul) and is ours to explore in Gods time but not necessarily in our time and especially not if trickery is involved to achieve this end.

Now please don't play ignorant because it is common practice in summer camps and charismatic movements and if you do not know about these just read some deconversion stories around here. No, hell is no big thing for Catholics because it is not possible to go to hell as Catholic. Their caution was that witches will drag them into hell in effort to enrich their own life and maybe to sing "patient endurance" songs together.

This would be why Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped as the reborn Macbeth who wanted to be king hereafter also -- which gave him the headache that never left him until he ended it.

So the institution that hunted witches was preventing the agony of hell to befall on its own people and that is a heroic thing to do, I would say.

PhilosopherJay

Hi Chili,

Would you consider the Nazies heroic when they slaughtered millions of people for being Jews, Communists, Trade Unionists, Gays, and Slavics. After all, in their own ideology they weren't killing human beings, only defending their own people against subhumans; plague carrying rats really.

When you label completely harmless people as dangerous to your people and then mercilessly slaughter them, are you acting heroically? If you do think so, then how would you distinguish this from acting savagely?

Warmly,

Philosopher Jay

Chili

Hi Philosopher Jay (btw, I like philosophy).

Not at all. Hitler was a witch according to their idea of a witch. Hitler was empowered by 'his God' to do the things he did and that is what witchcraft is all about. You may be familiar with his conversion experience while he was in prison and that would be the kind of mental duress that the angel of light needs to empower otherwise decent people.

So no, Hitler was not harmless but was driven by the fire of hell (inner turmoil as in Rev.14:10-12) to change the world around himself since he was not able to change world inside himself. See the difference?

Typical of a witch when they "enter the race" (as Paul put it) is to try and change others into their idea of right and wrong instead of just completing what they started in their own mind. This would be why it is wrong to enter this race on our own as per Jn.1:13. I think that there is even a scripture on not starting something we can't finish.

You must remember here that this race can be completed in Catholicism which would put us in heaven while on earth. This being the case it is reasonable to call '40 years in the desert' without being able to complete this race the equivalent of hell on earth.

Chili

. . . only for witches and religious bleeders without victory who insisted that the crucifixion was a tragedy. Easter is a very important celebration that even today is not recognized in many religions.

But we can back up from there to the Annunciation which is the key to understanding and that still is for Catholics only.

Doug Shaver

If witch hunts are heroic, then I must consider cowardice a virtue.

Chili

That would be true in the eye of an Englishman, Dostoyevski would say, and I think that the Greeks would agree with this. This has nothing to do with the English, of course, but with the CoE wherein it is held that if you mess up your own life Jesus will bail you out and call you one of his own (as if cowardice is a be-attitude).