Posted on 07/03/2014 4:10:21 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "We are not isolated and we are not Christians individually, each on his or her own". Instead, we are all part of the Church, "a large family, where one is welcomed," where "one learns to live as believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus," Pope Francis said.
Speaking in the last general audience before the July break, the Holy Father devoted his catechesis to the Church before a crowd of 35,000 in St Peter's Square. Despite a few drops of rain, he walked extensively among the assembled faithful.
In his address, he warned against those who "think they can have a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ outside of the communion and the mediation of the Church."
In the Church, he noted, there is no "do it yourself", no "free agents." For him, "Our Christian identity is belonging! We are Christians because we belong to the Church. It is like a surname. If the name is 'I am a Christian', the surname is 'I belong to the Church'." Such sense of belonging was born from the alliance between God and Abraham, to whom he donated a great people for his loyalty.
"God's relationship to his people comes before all of us, it comes from that time," and thus, "in this sense, our thoughts go first, with gratitude, to those who have gone before us and who welcomed us into the Church. No one becomes a Christian by himself! Is this clear? Nobody becomes a Christian by himself. Christians are not made in a lab.
(Excerpt) Read more at asianews.it ...
“I have never separated myself from Jesus.”
You have if you have separated yourself from His Body - the Church.
True.
“That’s a fact. And a pagan one at that.”
Name for me all the pagan cults you know who believe in the following:
The Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all Divine Persons. These divine Persons are the only deity in the universe. There are no other gods. Second Person of the Trinity took on flesh and walked the earth as a man, born of virgin Jewish girl named Mary, just so He could suffer, die on a cross, and be resurrected for our salvation.
Put up or shut up.
Do you know how Charlie Manson you all sound?
The people who believe in HIM are the church.
“Do you know how Charlie Manson you all sound?”
Do you know how Harry Reid you sound?
If the Holy Father said what is being reported, then he is in error if he is saying the Church is Only the Roman Church he heads.
“The people who believe in HIM are the church.”
Not necessarily. Don’t assume. Matthew 7:21
Deuteronomy 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God
But the Catholic Church says.
“We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and the rites paid to the dead. But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendor of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments etc. were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; but they were common to almost all cults” (Catholic Encyclopedia, III, 246.)
“When we give or receive Christmas gifts; or hang green wreaths in our homes and churches, how many of us know that we are probably observing pagan customs...the god, Woden, in Norse Mythology, descends upon the earth yearly between December 25th and January 6th to bless mankind...But pagan though they be, they are beautiful customs. They help inspire us with the spirit of 'good will to men', even as the sublime service of our Church reminds us of the ‘peace on earth’ which the babe of Bethlehem came to bestow” (Externals of the Catholic Church, 140).
Catholics can’t deny that the RCC has incorporated pagan practices into its practices. The RCC itself admits that it does. The RCC refuses to hear the words of the Lord.
Jer.44:16-17 “As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.”
The RCC will, just as Israel did, experience the wrath of God for disobeying His word. The admonition in Revelation to “come out of her my people” is for those who truly want to listen to God.
Then one only needs to see the list designating a cult and compare it to the claims by the Catholic Church to see it’s a cult.
The Catholic Church admits that it incorporates pagan practices and one only needs look at the lists that make an organization a cult to see they apply to the Catholic Church.
Sad, isn’t it?
He has spent so much time kissing up to Muslims he wouldn’t dare wreck it now by standing up for a fellow Christian.
To Catholics scripture is trumped by their “traditions”. The apostles said that anyone who teaches something they didn’t should be considered “accursed”. The Catholic Church teaches many things the apostles didn’t.
All we can do is pray for Catholics. They are completely lost.
All baptized Christians belong to the ‘church’, the ‘mystical body of Christ.’
I believe in this context he is referring to the entire Christian population.
I'm willing to bet eternity that you're wrong.
I feel genuinely sorry for those who have been duped by the Catholic Church. God will call those He chooses out of that organization. I agree, we must pray for those.
They don’t see that and they don’t want to see that. That’s why they dance around God’s scriptures here.
If you are a Catholic you already did.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.