Posted on 07/13/2018 5:17:22 PM PDT by metmom
"For those who disbelieve, 'the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,' and, 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense'; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed" (1 Pet. 2:7-8).
Rejecting Christ leads to spiritual damnation.
Israel was a unique nation, chosen by God to be the guardian of His Word and proclaimer of His kingdom. The Old Testament records His miraculous and providential care for her throughout the centuries, and the prophets told of One who would come as her great Deliverer. Israel eagerly awaited the promised Messiah.
But the story has a surprise ending. In the Person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah finally came and presented Himself to Israel. The religious leaders examined Him carefully, measuring Him in every way they could. But He didn't fit their blueprint. They expected a reigning political Messiah who would instantly deliver them from Roman oppression. They felt no need for a spiritual deliverer, so they rejected Him and tossed Him aside like a worthless rock.
That rejected cornerstone is precious to believers but remains a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to unbelievers. A "stone of stumbling" was a stone on which someone tripped while walking along the road. A "rock of offense" was a rock large enough to crush a person. The point: rejecting Christ brings spiritual devastation of enormous proportions.
All who reject Christ do so because they are disobedient to the Word. Rebellion against the written Word inevitably leads to rejection of the living Word. Of such people Peter said, "To this doom they were also appointed" (v. 8). They weren't appointed to reject Christ, but to receive the judgment that their rejection demands. That's a frightening reality that should motivate you to take every opportunity to evangelize the lost.
Suggestions for Prayer
If you have family or friends who are rejecting Christ, pray for them often, asking God to grant them saving faith.
For Further Study
Read Romans 9:30-10:17, noting Israel's false standard of righteousness and Paul's prayer for her salvation.
Studying God’s Word ping
You see it all over the place, people rejecting Jesus because he doesn’t fit the mold that they want.
Worse are the people who pay lip service to Christ while picking and choosing only what they want to believe.
Some just believe in God. But for the gentile....
Yup.
People want God on THEIR terms, not HIS.
I thought he taught it the other way.
Many reject Christ by:
Rejecting His Church;
Rejecting His Word and teachings;
Rejecting His Mass and Sacraments;
Rejecting His Commandments;
Rejecting His love and His gifts.
May the Holy spirit inspire us to accept God’s love and His gifts to us and live according to God’s will.
Provided that those are supported by the actual words of Jesus and the Apostles, and not some ‘Church’ that’s not really the Body of Christ, and not some ‘sacraments’ that have no foundation in what the Apostles taught, and that the Word is what the Word actually says and not what our own biases want it to say.
It’s difficult for some who think salvation is about being religious. I have two family members very hard to reach because though they have no problem with others who believe they just think it’s not for them.
And no, that’s not Catholic bashing in case it seemed like that; it is generally referring to people who want God to be ‘MY god’ and not ‘my God!’ If that makes sense.
“Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian’s life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1210).
Please explain that some sacraments have no foundation?
So who is the arbiter of what the Word actually says?
Rejecting Catholicism does not mean rejecting Christ.
Those who accept Christ ARE His church.
There is no *new law*.
The Law cannot save.
There is only the new covenant, which is based on faith, not Law.
You err because you depend on the teachings of man and not Scripture.
Nope. You need to explain the foundation, from Scripture, that you claim they DO have.
So who is the arbiter of what the Word actually says?
well, it isn't Catholicism, that's for sure cause they've had some 2,000 years to inform the world officially what Scripture means and they have not as yet produced an official, Vatican approved interpretation of every verse of the Bible.
And it isn't like they haven't had the time or resources.
Scripture interprets Scripture. Any interpretation must be consistent with the entire body of reveal Truth. IOW, Any interpretation of Scripture must not contradict other passages of it.
Also, the Holy Spirit enlighten one's mind to understand what Scripture is saying, when the plain meaning isn't clear enough.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” Be we have the mind of Christ.
Please explain that some sacraments have no foundation?
So who is the arbiter of what the Word actually says?
***
1: Imagine some cultist out there claiming to follow Jesus but coming up with a ‘sacrament’ that involves, say, doing the Hammerdance while dressed up as Freddy Fazbear and chugging pina coladas and claiming that it gives salvation. That would be a sacrament that has no foundation.
2: The Lord, and the words are pretty darn simple to understand too, especially the New Testament, considering that it was meant to be read to believers of all levels of social class and education.
Did you have to get so defensive?
I had similar leanings. I was involved in a false religion, but instead of thinking it was ok for them, I thought of the true Christians, as being “those religious fanatics over there.”
Deep in my heart, I just knew, however, that Christianity was not for me, nor did I have any assurance of salvation. I wanted it, and maybe that is why Jesus found me. 😁👍 People involved in false religions, have false hopes of salvation. It just won’t cut the mustard.
Rejecting the Catholic church is rejecting Christ’s church.
When the crowd sees the cure that testifies to the authority of Jesus, the Son of Man, to forgive sins (Mt 9:6), they glorify God “who had given such authority to human beings” (Mt 9:8). The forgiveness of sins is now not the prerogative of Jesus alone but of “human beings,” that is, of the disciples who constitute the community of Jesus, the church. The ecclesial character of this narrative section could hardly be more plainly indicated.
The end of the section prepares for the discourse on the church’s mission (Mt 10:5–42). Jesus is moved to pity at the sight of the crowds who are like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 9:36), and he sends out the twelve disciples to make the proclamation with which his own ministry began, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 10:7; cf. Mt 4:17), and to drive out demons and cure the sick as he has done (Mt 10:1). Their mission is limited to Israel (Mt 10:5–6) as Jesus’ own was (Mt 15:24), yet in Mt 15:16 that perspective broadens and the discourse begins to speak of the mission that the disciples will have after the resurrection and of the severe persecution that will attend it (Mt 10:18). Again, the discourse moves on two levels: that of the time of Jesus and that of the time of the church.
The narrative of rejection leads up to the parable discourse (Mt 13:3–52). The reason given for Jesus’ speaking to the crowds in parables is that they have hardened themselves against his clear teaching, unlike the disciples to whom knowledge of “the mysteries of the kingdom has been granted” (Mt 13:10–16). In Mt 13:36 he dismisses the crowds and continues the discourse to his disciples alone, who claim, at the end, to have understood all that he has said (Mt 13:51). But, lest the impression be given that the church of Jesus is made up only of true disciples, the explanation of the parable of the weeds among the wheat (Mt 13:37–43), as well as the parable of the net thrown into the sea “which collects fish of every kind” (Mt 13:47–49), shows that it is composed of both the righteous and the wicked, and that separation between the two will be made only at the time of the final judgment.
Jesus is shown preparing for the establishment of his church with its teaching authority that will supplant the blind guidance of the Pharisees (Mt 15:13–14), whose teaching, curiously said to be that of the Sadducees also, is repudiated by Jesus as the norm for his disciples (Mt 16:6, 11–12). The church of Jesus will be built on Peter (Mt 16:18), who will be given authority to bind and loose on earth, an authority whose exercise will be confirmed in heaven (Mt 16:19). The metaphor of binding and loosing has a variety of meanings, among them that of giving authoritative teaching. This promise is made to Peter directly after he has confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Mt 16:16), a confession that he has made as the result of revelation given to him by the heavenly Father (Mt 16:17); Matthew’s ecclesiology is based on his high christology.
Directly after that confession Jesus begins to instruct his disciples about how he must go the way of suffering and death (Mt 16:21). Peter, who has been praised for his confession, protests against this and receives from Jesus the sharpest of rebukes for attempting to deflect Jesus from his God-appointed destiny. The future rock upon whom the church will be built is still a man of “little faith” (see Mt 14:31). Both he and the other disciples must know not only that Jesus will have to suffer and die but that they too will have to follow him on the way of the cross if they are truly to be his disciples (Mt 16:24–25).
The discourse following this narrative (Mt 18:1–35) is often called the “church order” discourse, although that title is perhaps misleading since the emphasis is not on the structure of the church but on the care that the disciples must have for one another in respect to guarding each other’s faith in Jesus (Mt 18:6–7), to seeking out those who have wandered from the fold (Mt 18:10–14), and to repeated forgiving of their fellow disciples who have offended them (Mt 18:21–35). But there is also the obligation to correct the sinful fellow Christian and, should one refuse to be corrected, separation from the community is demanded (Mt 18:15–18).
http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/0
Your question: “Did you have to get so defensive?”
How is it defensive to ask simple questions that you do not answer and then degrade the teaching of Jesus and His Church?
Christ told us we would suffer defending His Church.
Apparently, you can not find the sources in the Bible where Christ established His sacraments. As opposed to providing them to you, perhaps you should carefully look them up and then you can disagree.
So you feel that “the words are pretty darn simple to understand too”, then why are there so many different protestant churches and different interpretations of the Word and the teachings of Jesus?
For example, John 6, many do not accept or believe that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ and necessary for our salvation.
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 54Whoever eats* my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. 55For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.b 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 59These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Are some really Christians if they pick and choose what teachings of Jesus that they accept or believe? Are many similar to the Pharisees? The Pharisees are portrayed as a negative example for his disciples, and his condemnation of those who claim to belong to him while disobeying his word is no less severe (Mt 7:21–23, 26–27).
Well this just proves that it is the Holy Spirits work to prepare people for the Salvation message. ..God whispers his message but if it goes unheard it’s known he can shout through suffering when all other means of resolving an event are exhausted. This is currently where this couple is as they attempt to deal with health issues they cannot control nor find solutions to.....they’re finally reaching out to family for support and hopefully in time they will reach out to God.
.....”Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony.”....
The thief on the cross had none of that and yet Jesus said he would be with Him in paradise. The thief only acknowleged he was guilty of his sin and that Jesus was not, then asked he be remembered when he entered his kingdom. Jesus responded with ‘the assurance’ the thief would be with Him.
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