Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
In direct and complete contradiction of 1 Timothy 2:5...
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
God is the focus of our prayers
Obviously not, as you just told us.
“Do you know of any “cast out angels” who believe Christ is their Lord and Saviour? I don’t.”
Let’s rephrase that.
Do you know of any “cast out angels” who believe Christ is their Lord?
Even the demons know Christ is Lord.
And they entered Capernaum. And on the Sabbath he went into the synagogue and immediately began to teach. [22]And the people were amazed at the teaching; for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not in the way the scribes did. [23]And immediately in their synagogue there was a man in an unclean spirit, and he cried out, [24]saying, What do we have to do with you, Jesus the Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the holy one of God!” [25]And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Shut up and come out of him.” [26]And the unclean spirit came out of him after convulsing him and uttering a loud cry. [27]And they were all awestruck, so that they asked one another saying, “What is this? a new teaching with authority! He even gives order to the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” [28] And immediately his fame spread everywhere, into all the regions of Galilee.
The demons certainly know Christ is Lord.
Just knowing and believing doesn’t mean salvation.
They certainly knew and feared the Lord.
The Bible is proclaimed despite Rome's ages-old attempts to silence it as some of us have even experienced on this very forum.
If Rome had its way, there would be no Bibles written in English, or German, or French, or Swahili. And most likely they'd still be chaining the Bible to the altar.
But God will not be mocked, and His word accomplishes exactly what He intends...
"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." -- Isaiah 55:11
However, again I'll ask you for evidence that any demon or fallen angel believes Christ to be their Saviour, which, of course, was the original question.
“The Bible is proclaimed despite Rome’s ages-old attempts to silence it as some of us have even experienced on this very forum.”
Tell us. How has Rome attempted to silence you on Free Republic?
“However, again I’ll ask you for evidence that any demon or fallen angel believes Christ to be their Saviour, which, of course, was the original question.”
That’s not my original question.
Later.
Asia is a big place. You know nothing of the streets I do along nor the buildings and shrines that line them. Where there are outposts of the RCC, they tend to be an amalgamation of Catholicism and pagan culture. The RCC almost acts like the Borg, assimilating the cultures it interacts with.
Besides, what does a RCC look like? Aside from the men who think they are priests and so forth.
Sis,
Most excellent post! One other things that I’ve come across: RCC folk seem to not be able to comprehend that saints in heaven (aside from Enoch & Elijah) have died the first death. Hence, their obsessions about insisting Mary isn’t dead, etc.
I thank the Lord for others getting involved in defending the Lord’s Truth on this thread. RCC folks get spun up quickly whenever there’s a hint of exposure of the dark under belly of their mother organization.
“Asia is a big place. You know nothing of the streets I do along nor the buildings and shrines that line them. Where there are outposts of the RCC, they tend to be an amalgamation of Catholicism and pagan culture. The RCC almost acts like the Borg, assimilating the cultures it interacts with.
Besides, what does a RCC look like? Aside from the men who think they are priests and so forth.”
What a farcical post!
Go find someone else to engage your junk.
Soooo, what Romanist Council did Jesus and the Apostles fall back on to know what was Scripture?
What’s farcical about those statements? Do RCC people have a certain look about them? Has the RCC not coupled itself with myriad cultures around the World? Do the voo-doo services held in RCCs in many countries comport with RCC doctrine? If that is true, why do so many RCC outposts get so intertwined with pagan cultures? Of course, many churches fall prey to this - no only RCC.
Tsk, tsk. So the scriptures boils down to just "love one another"? Anything other than this is "medieval claptrap"? You may like to know that according to Vatican 1, the proclaimation does not consider you a Christian and states there is no salvation outside the Church. I would also suggest the Reformers who came out of the Catholic Church probably had a better understanding of the issues than you. So I would give them a little bit more respect than calling their work "medieval claptrap".
Lots of "religious" people today would claim to "love their brothers". Heck, Hindus even claim to love cows. I would suggest you're forgetting the FIRST commandment to love God with all your heart. If you see a brother in sin you are suppose to warn him; not given him a hug and say, "That's OK, God loves you just the way you are."
Catholics don't have any problem standing up for Catholic values including praying to tiny little stautes. I've traveled a fair bit in my days and I believe some of our FReeper Catholics would probably be quite surprise at the idolatous nature of the Church in third world countries. One has to wonder why they don't condemn the Church or bishops for allowing this. Instead they argue with Protestants about it. Shame on them.
This email message doesn't surprise me in the least; instead it's typical. Unfortunately, most Protestants today are simply of the milk-toast variety, unable or unwilling to take a stand against such behavior. Shame on us.
It boils down to love God OR love your neighbor. People can't always have it both ways.
Of course not. On the other hand, we are most certainly specifically commanded by Jesus Himself to "love one another."
This peristent need for certain religious elements to denounce Catholic practice as "demonic" is a particularly noxious violation of that commandment.
The only practice labeled as demonic - on this thread - to the best of my knowledge, is the that of people worshiping idols, as was described by Randall as taking place in various public areas in Mexico City during his recent visit.
Are you saying such practices are “Catholic”?
Oh no, not these word games again.
You said: "Just knowing and believing doesn't mean salvation."
To which I replied that while demons "know" Christ is Lord, they do not "believe" He is their Saviour.
Thus we see Jesus and Paul and Peter telling those with ears to hear that to believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour is evidence of your salvation since it is God who has given you faith in Christ in the first place.
But don't take my word for it.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." -- Acts 16:30-31 "...Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
I assume the RC Bible also has Acts 16 in it. And John and Romans and 1 Peter?
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." -- Romans 10:9-13"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Note that in Romans 10 Paul felt so strongly about this he repeated the verse twice within the same chapter.
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." -- 1 Peter 1:18-25 "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
Interestingly, Christ spoke the word "tradition" dozens of times, but always with scorn.
"Be not afraid; only believe." -- Mark 5:36"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." -- John 14:1
Worse than thinking themselves to be a priest is their believing themselves to be "another Christ."
"The Catholic faith teaches that the priest is another Christ, an alter Christus...
Sadly, the RCC Bible must not contain Hebrews or Matthew 24:5...
"For many shall come in my name, saying 'I am Christ', and shall deceive many."
Wow - that link to the RCC teaching about their “priesthood” is sad.
Interesting that you quote that verse Matt 24:5, I have bought and given away many copies of this book http://www.lighthousetrails.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LTP&Product_Code=FMSC&Category_Code=NA
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