Council Day 5 #Collaboration
Our position on the lapsed Christians was passed by a majority. A successful start to the cannons and a great way to come together on issues that matter to the council. The church is there to serve the Lord Himself and those who have fully declared their faith to the Catholic Church of God. Those apostates who succumbed to persecution during the Great Persecution cannot come back into the church without a true declaration of faith to God and the Church. There is a reason why they left and that reason was because they did not truly believe they will get saved by the God almighty. It is this kind of faithlessness and division we do not seek, therefore the decision to have the apostates baptized and declare their faith to God is the way we should approach it.
The biggest day of the year is by far the Resurrection day. This day is significant for more reasons than being a day in the year that we honor the sacrifices our Jesus has made for us. This day signifies a function and reminds the people of the sacrifices Jesus Himself made to go through the sentence of death placed on all children of Adam and Eve. This day would annually be in connection and celebration of the Resurrection with Passover. Simply having one random day in the year would lose Easter’s significant theological value, but more importantly it would lose meaning and importance causing it to fade away.
I believe the council was divided on the position of the lapsed Christians due to undefined circumstances of what a punishment should and should not be. The idea of baptizing the lapsed positions again was accepted widely by the council, because each side was able to get what they wanted to see in their church without condoning the acts of apostates, but also being forgiving like our Lord. I stood strongly on the side of baptism for the lapsed. I know we are not the ultimate judge for the Kingdom of God and it is for that reason we decided to bring the lapsed back into the church with a declaration of faith so that they assimilate back into the church well and can become a servant for the great Catholic Church of God. Let’s continue our force of collaboration and honor or Jesus by having the Resurrection of Jesus close to the Jewish Passover celebration.