No kidding. But, just what the heck does that have to do with an obelisk?
Give me a break.
Posted on 08/12/2006 7:45:47 AM PDT by DouglasKC
Jesus Christ proclaimed, almost 2,000 years ago, "I will build My church." He declared that His Church would never die out, promising that "the gates of Hades [the grave] shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). He assured His disciples that He would guide and preserve His Church until His return, promising them, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
What happened to the Church Jesus built? An eyewitness tells us that, immediately after Christ ascended into heaven after His resurrection, His apostles "went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs" (Mark 16:20). The Church had a powerful beginning.
Millions of people profess Christianity; they claim to be members of the Church Jesus founded. But Christianity is a divided religion, composed of hundreds of denominations and schisms. Through the centuries, most of Christianity's branches have assimilated many nonbiblical traditions—philosophical, cultural and religious—into their teachings and practices, spawning even more variations.
How can we account for the explosion of contradictory practices and conflicting factions in the world of Christianity? Is it possible to reconcile competing denominational groups with the standards and objectives Christ established for His Church? Can we know whether Christianity's bewildering variety of customs and teachings faithfully represents those of Jesus Christ?
Remember, Jesus not only promised He would build His Church, but He assured His disciples that His Church would not perish. Is the divided Christianity we see around us that Church? Only the Holy Scriptures can provide a reliable answer to this question.
If Christ's promise that "the gates of Hades shall not prevail" against His Church should be considered a guarantee that those who believe on His name could never be misled or corrupted, then we would have every reason to accept the collective sum of the various divisions of Christianity as the Church that Jesus built.
But He guaranteed no such thing. Instead, He warned His disciples that "false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect" (Mark 13:22, emphasis added throughout). Later the apostle Paul expressed his concern to Christians in his day that their minds could be "corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" by the preaching of "false apostles" (2 Corinthians 11:3, 13).
Jesus spoke even more plainly, explaining that "narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:14-16).
In these pages we examine the fruits Jesus and His apostles said would identify His Church. We look at the contrasting fruits that identify those who are influenced by a different spirit and preach a different gospel. We will learn, not from human tradition or opinion but directly from God's Word, how we can distinguish "the church of the living God" (1 Timothy 3:15) from those who follow "false prophets" in sheep's clothing.
For clarity throughout this booklet, the word Church (with a capital C) refers to the faithful Church that Jesus Christ founded. The word church (with a small c) refers to local groups of believers or other physical organizations. Since church is not capitalized in the Bible translations quoted, all scriptural quotations—whether referring to the Body of Christ or a local congregation—use church with a small c.
I caught a part of it. That was pretty amazing.
My thought process on the whole "rock" thing is that the "rock" is the Holy Spirit. Peter was called "Rock" because he was the first disciple to receive such a blessing.
I saw that, too. The technique they used in Egypt to put the thing up with the sand was really cool. I thought it was rich how they made a point to use Egyptian laborers and to mention that they weren't slaves. Bizarre revisionism.
You mean Catholics?? They were the only Christians around until Martin Luther split the Catholic church about 400 years ago. There WERE no "Protestants" until that time.
"They were the only Christians around..."
I don't remember those who had an eye witness account calling themselves Catholics that wasn't until 400 years AD.
This picture screams, "I am the antichrist!"
Thank you for your excellent post, the fact that any Catholic would be proud of that obelisk is astounding.
Pointless trying to reason with the Catholic defenders on FR, they don't accept scripture as an autoritative source, any time they get cornered they claim that the Church almighty is the final authority.
Well to be fair there are a number of scriptures that enjoin God's people NOT to mix the worship of the one, true God with pagan worship. For example:
Deu 18:9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
Paul's statement is stronger still:
2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
To me, this makes a pretty strong statement that the people who worship the one true God should not attempt to synthesize pagan worship symbols into Christianity no matter the intention.
The best illustration of this is the golden calf. Aaron attempted to incorporate pagan Egyptian symbols with worship of the one, true, God. For example:
Exo 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.
Note that Aaron said "the Lord"...which is translation of the word always used to denote the one, true God's name. In a way, Aaron was attempting to "Israelize" the egyptian pagan symbols. God didn't take kindly to that.
No kidding. But, just what the heck does that have to do with an obelisk?
Give me a break.
Actually Norm, there is a rumor going around here that you are the Antichrist.
That particular obelsik was originally from Egypt. From Wikipedia:
"The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra and during the brief religious reformation of Akhenaten was said to be a petrified ray of the aten, the sundisk. It was also thought that the god existed within the structure."
Pagan symbolism being incorporated into non-Christian objects isn't an issue. It's when it's mixed with the worship of the one, true God that it starts treading into dangerous territory.
When I hear of Catholics incorporating an obelisk into worship, I'll be sure to let you know.
You need to spend a bit of time reading the early Fathers and disabuse yourself of this notion.
Vatican Obelisk Hey....if they want an Egyptian Phallus symbol with a Babylonian Tammuz cross on top, sitting in their front yard....who am I to object.
It just shows to me the utter deception of these folks and their lack of scriptural guidance. False tradition has always been their forte'. Makes you wonder why Pope Sixtus put the thing back up?????
Yeah, the Obelisk is common knowledge and to me, a blatent clue about what the RCC is all about.
Hocus Pocus!
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