yet he left the Nazis and Commies alone

Have you ever read the entirety of the Old Testament? There were times when God allowed the Jews to be conquered to teach them a lesson. Have you considered the possibility that the American GI was doing God's Will when stomping the Nazi's? (Well, stomping them enough that they went underground and re-emerged as "Progressives" or "liberals".)

God does exist, and he does loves us, but not in the way most people think... or find comfortable.

Telling us that we're incapable of getting to Heaven on our own and sending His only begotten Son to die in our place seems like just the thing an infinite Love would do.

What a bizarre view of theology you have.

Except there is no evidence in the fossil record to support this, either.
In your example, divergent populations B and C are still fertile with each other.

A great example is the artificial construct of race in humanity. Groups that diverged based on isolation and adapted based on climate, yet any fertile male and any fertile female can still produce offspring.

Microevolution, as in, the adaptation of the species, happens all the time.
Macroevolution, as in, an offspring is mutated into a species that is unique and cannot reproduce fertile offspring with members of the prior species happens never.

There is no evidence of Macroevolution in the fossil record.

My /. account still works. Havent' used it in ...err... a few years.

Just here to bump this article for my friend Mike and his fantastic work on RC.

Where the books aren't licensed?! I didn't know there was such a thing.

Too bad on the subscriptions. :( I'd be happy to give you a page view--if it were possible--for you to never use, and thus enjoy the subscription.

It's also neat that you just let them have the address. Let's hope they remember you when they become world famous. :)

I also have a few names that i want to use but am too lazy to. Maybe we can get another site: LDNHA (Lazy Domain Name Holders Anonymous). Um, and is HTM really a tag?

Simple -- they're at a MegaChurch near you.

But what they do, when, say, Ted Haggard gets high and engages in gay sex, is say... well, he wasn't really saved before. But this time (after the whole rededication / rebaptism) it'll stick -- pinky swear.

And that's really where I think a lot of my Protestant brothers are incorrect -- they focus too much on whether a person is "saved" and not what happens afterward. What MUST happen afterwards that the faith should bear fruit, otherwise, the faith is dead. (Those who keep the faith to the end...)

So what is that fruit? Corporal works of Mercy, becoming more Christ-like, always continuing to refine one's self, abandoning venial sin habits, etc. Those are the fruits of a faith that is alive and well.

tl;dr: Don't just be a pew sitter on Sunday morning because you like the coffee or the praise band (Prayer Bolt.. ) or want to feel like you're part of the club. "Oh hey, we're part of Faith Grace Meadow Church -- yeah, the one the size of a Wal-Mart superstore. Yeah, the praise band makes me feel happy, and the pastor just talks about what's in the Bible."

"Oh, I was thinking about trying Grace Faith Meadow, they say they teach just what's in the bible too"

"NO THEY ARE DIRTY HEATHENS!"

And so on, and so forth. The riff on the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front from Life of Brian was intentional.

And while I'm wound up...

The segregation I see in the Protestant Community really bothers me. "Oh, we only send our kids to christian school (or homeschool)" -- meaning that there are fewer points of light in the public schools.

Or, "We only buy Christian media" -- fine, but then without Christian influence the culture rots faster.

It's time for Christians to stop segregating ourselves, and START FIGHTING THE CULTURE WAR. Start throwing some (metaphorical) punches at the culture.

There is a misconception that the Catholic Church has a "point system" -- it doesn't.

What the Church encourages is to live out your faith -- and, as James eloquently points out -- a faith without works is a dead faith.

Logically, this makes sense. If you've truly accepted Christ, and His commandments to be more like Him, then your life *should* be different from what it was before.

You are correct that none of us can get to Heaven on our own. We need Christ's grace and mercy -- my point is simply, we can turn back on that journey of ours at anytime.

This is what "those who have faith at the end" means -- those of us who have the faith at the end of our lives enter in to Glory.

Many Christians mistakenly believe that once "saved", always "saved", therefore they can do as they please because grace covers it. So it's OK to cheat on their spouse, steal, murder, etc, because after all, well, they just love Jesus enough and He died on the cross for it, so no worries, let's party!

This line of thinking is folly.

I'm not persuaded that, once properly accepted, salvation can be relinquished

That flies against free will. One could, theoretically, at some future date, reject Christianity and lose their salvation.

The Protestant argument is that they never had Salvation to begin with... so when they rededicate their life (again), are they truly saved that second / third / fourth time?

For some of us -- because I've experienced Christ present in the Eucharist, I could never turn away from my faith. But the choice remains mine.

This is probably the wrong venue for this discussion though. If you would like to continue, shoot me an email.

As for faith bearing fruit: what specific fruit did the saved thief on the cross beside Christ bear?

Acceptance that he was a sinner who deserved his fate, and earnestly asking Christ to deliver him.

I disagree with that a little; Salvation is a gift that must be accepted. You have free will, you can choose to accept -- or even later, abandon that gift -- however you wish.

But you have to make that choice if you are able to.

And... your faith must bear fruit.

(Children and the severely mentally impaired are not able to make that choice.)

there is nothing under the sun we can do, individually, or collectively, to be redeemed.
Of course there is: "Repent, and sin no more". (And since you're fallen... repeat as necessary).