Posted on 01/29/2005 6:12:28 AM PST by NYer
We progress. What makes your Bishop an authority?
uhhhh....What planet are you from?
John 8:54- "Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
“You are not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
A man does not exist until He is created. Abraham, body and soul, was created by his mother and father. That ability to create life was given to men, male and female, as a gift from God according to Gen 1:26-27
"Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Just as man exists as body, soul and spirit(intellect and it's holdings), so too does God. That is the Trinity. A man's entire existence begins when he is created. God always was, hence Jesus is I Am, the one who was, before Abraham was born. He is the Son of God, because God is the creator that extended His own existence to that of a man.
"Powerful are the hands which hold the keys to Heaven."
Matt 12:31-32
"And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
< The power over one's individual destiny has been given to that individual alone. The decision where one spends eternal life is up to them. God gave the condition. To be born again means only that one welcomes the Holy Spirit, regardless of imperfection. That means it is part of their own intellectual holdings. As with the thief that died along side Him and those He forgave for being utterly dense, there are some that will reside in Heaven, because that is what is really in their hearts.
Some men say they have the keys, citing this passage: Matt 16:15-20,
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied,“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter,[rock] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
It is what is in Simon's heart and firmness of belief that Jesus is building His Church on. The rock is the faith whose foundation is what is in the man's heart. What is loosed and bound here and in Heaven, is done by every individual. No one looses and binds others.
The Roman Catholic Church from Apostolic times has literally followed the Bible in the establishment of good order in the Church. According to Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus there are three orders to the organization and leadership of the Church (sometimes known as ecclesiastical order or hierarchy): episcopos or bishops, presbyteros or elders, commonly translated priests, and diaconos or deacons.
The first in order and the greatest in authority is the episcopos, the bishop.
Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, distinguishes the shepherding role of the episcopos/bishop.
The shepherding role of the apostle Peter as episcopos was related by John.
The Roman Catholic Church believes that the twelve apostles were the first episcopes, receiving at the Last Supper their leadership order to serve when Jesus told them "Do this in remembrance of Me."
Peter, as demonstrated in the biblical portrait of him, exercised a leadership role first among the other apostles and early Christians, and then later in Rome before his martyrdom there in 67/68 AD.
Peter's presence in Rome in indicated in his first letter. The name "Babylon" is used here as a cryptic name for the city of Rome, a characteristic of writings done during times of persecution. During Peter's time (witnessed by his own martyrdom) and most New Testament times (witness the Book of Revelation--classic persecution literature), Rome took on the characteristics of the most outstanding example of a world power hostile to God--ancient Babylon.
Clement of Rome (I Clement) and Irenaeus (To the Romans) both attest to Peter's presence and death in Rome.
Paul makes mention of Linus, a Christian at Rome. Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses, 3, 3, 3) tells us that the same Linus was Peter's first successor as bishop of Rome.
Two great historians of the Church, Eusebius of Caesarea, a bishop and historian of the Council of Nicaea, and Augustine, bishop and theologian, preserve for us the list of successors of the bishop of Rome to their own time. They attest to the sense and realization the Church had to the need for historic succession to the Bishop of Rome.
On the following pages is a list the bishops of Rome from Peter to John Paul II. Historians both secular and ecclesiastical concur with a final list published by the Vatican Library.
The only biblical "claim to fame" of these men is that they are episcopoi, bishops. There is no greater "order" according to the Bible. The Catholic Church teaches this. Other titles are only honorary and organizational.
The Catholic Church has also taken Paul at his word.
The faithful of the Church has always called their ordered leadership "father." In Greek, the language of the early Church, the word for father was pappas; in Latin, the language of the later Church, the word for father was papa.
By the 300's, bishops were sometimes called "pope" a corruption of the word for father. By the 700's the title for affection and respect for the Bishop of Rome exclusively was Pope.
It is not uncommon for enemies and non-believers of Roman Catholicism to create an argument against the succession and therefore validity of the Bishops of Rome as true successors to Peter by proffering the history of the "bad Popes." That argument arises from a basic misunderstanding of Sacred Scripture.
The first response to be made to the so-called argument from the "bad Popes" is admission that many men who held the position of Bishop of Rome were not holy men. Perhaps Peter was the best model for human failure in such a leadership role. He denied Jesus three times after being told he would do so. Some (e.g., Peter, Judas) who are called stumble and fall.
Some (Peter) repent and are saved. Others (Judas) reject that grace. It behooves us to remember that Jesus does not call saints, but sinners.
The moral miracle of the "bad Popes" is that they were worldly men, public sinners, and never functioned as spiritual leaders nor touched or changed the deposit of faith of Christianity.
We are reminded by the Lord even to the present day that the lifestyle of the messenger does not alter the validity of the message. Recall the American TeleEvangelists' scandals in 1987 and 1988.
He is only an authority when he rightly proclaims the gospel.
Can there be no overseers, teachers, etc apart from the Episcopate ?
ummm....Do you know anything about those who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Since when have us "good" Protestants come out with a movie as realistic as "The Passion"?
Dod you believe Jesus died and rose from the dead ?
Yes, I do but believe rising from the dead is something any God is able to do.
Do you believe scripture is true ?
Whoa, I almost missed what you said ? Do you believe in more than one all powerful God ?
If, as you say, you were baptized and 'communioned' into the Catholic Church, where does your heretical thinking come from? Is this something you were taught or something you 'developed' on your own?
Do you believe that some of scripture is false ?
No, I only believe in one BUT I would imagine if there were more than one it would pretty much be a prerequisite for deityhood.
No scripture is false. It's not divinely inspired, it is the actual Word of God.
Even this ?
6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
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