Posted on 07/09/2009 6:03:13 AM PDT by IbJensen
ANAHEIM, CA - Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says it's "heresy" to believe that an individual can be saved through a sinner's prayer of repentance.
In her opening address to the church's General Conference in California, Jefferts Schori called that "the great Western heresy: that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God."
The presiding bishop said that view is "caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus."
According to Schori, it is heresy to believe that an individual's prayer can achieve a saving relationship with God. "That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy."
At any rate, the Episcopal Church and Priestess Shori are toast.
God to bishop you are fired
Paul told one church to get rid of a “Jezebel” that had arisen to lead many astray!
spirit of Jezebel
Those who recite a "specific verbal formula" handed down to them through the centuries are far less likely to be off in the weeds like this bishop.
Sounds a lot like the new Dean of the Harvard Divinity School (which is essentially an Episcopalian entity) publicly declaring that abortion is “a blessing”.
I think the problem here is that we are hearing it from someone in the Anglican tradition and they rarely talk about "group guilt", or even "individual guilt" ~ my goodness, they'd lose ALL their wealthier members you know ~ pews would be emptier than usual.
Episcopal Church Bureaucracy Support Act.
No getting to the Father without the official priest class getting a big, fat cut of the action.
1 Timothy 2:
11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
In all actuality, it is not the prayer that saves you, it is the substitutionary death of Christ and his resurrection. The prayer just acknowledges what He has already done, but it’s not heresy or idolatry by a longshot.
This is a trend not only in the Episcopal church, but in evangelical ones as well. Believe it or not. I haven’t heard anyone go this far, that individual salvation is heresy, but I’m not surprised.
Sounds like this Bishop needs to read the Bible a bit more.
That’s what astounds me about all these religions. The answers are right there in front of them. All they have to do is look ‘em up.
Whole lot of people are going to be surprised come judgment day.
So that means we can only be saved as a group like in a class where everyone working on a project gets the same grade? I sure hope my group doesn't include any pastors promoting buggery in opposition to explicit instructions in the Bible.
This the same woman (I refuse to call her Bishop) who referred to Tiller as a saint and a martyr. How proud members of the Episcopal Church must be, having this person as head of their church. Almost as proud as they much have been when their gay bishop in NH announced that he’d always wanted to be “June bride”.
I’m glad this bishop knows exactly how God judges our souls...now He can take the day off...
The very definition of evil if you ask me.
Which is more important? A personal relationship with God through his Son, Jesus? Or reciting some mantra created out of whole cloth by a religious group? Jesus said, no one comes to the Father but through me. He didn’t say, through some priest or religious ceremony.
This is why so many “religions” are suffering a loss of members. A severe disconnect between the Bible and the teachings; and it’s across the board, from Baptist to Catholic.
She’s right on one point. A prayer of repentance and submission ALONE won’t save UNLESS it reflects one’s heartfelt faith.
Romans 10:8-10 (New International Version)
8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[a] that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Footnotes:
1. Romans 10:8 Deut. 30:14
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
There it is, I really don’t need to see anything else.
Another thought. This Bishop is getting fairly close to unforgivable sin.
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