Posted on 12/14/2014 11:57:21 AM PST by ealgeone
The reason for this article is to determine if the worship/veneration given to Mary by the catholic church is justified from a Biblical perspective. This will be evaluated using the Biblical standard and not man’s standard.
Indeed we die and receive our judgment immediately. Then we go to Heaven, -- if we are lucky enough, -- and to those still living we appear "asleep in the Lord". The general judgment will occur at some point, but the saints are in heaven as soon as they die, and their eternal life and communion with God continues and is more intense than when they were alive.
this day thou shalt be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)
You did not know that?
Oh it most certainly does. Actions truly do speak louder than words.
>>We hold them to the meaning of the word ‘venerate’.<<
The word comes from the original Latin veneratus, past participle of venerari "to reverence, worship". The Latin lexicon has to reverence with religious awe, to worship, adore, revere, venerate.
You are right in that words mean something. But not as much as the actions one witnesses. I would be hard pressed to agree with a man who says he loves his wife but the beatings she endures by his hand says otherwise.
Yes.
The Bible calls Christ the sole mediator between us and the Father. Mary leads us to Christ and intercedes for us, in the same way your pastor is probably trying to, except she succeeds and he fails. Consider this:
I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men: For kings, and for all that are in high station: that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all piety and chastity. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a redemption for all, a testimony in due times (1 Timothy 2:1-6)
Observe: prayers of intercession are urged in the same paragraph as the statement that Christ is "one mediator".
And by all accounts nothing was ever recorded or written of her whereabouts after Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost. They don't even know where she spent her last days. Certainly she was not given the level of importance the Catholic Church and her followers give her today.
LOL Yeah, I have to say that didn't resonate as a good example for me either.
That can be said of many theological facts. The Holy Scripture is the written testimony of things that Christ and the apostles said and did, as remembered 10-30 years later by the disciples. It is also a collection of letters written when the apostle writing them could not travel and teach in person; the letters give encouragement and correct errors that occurred in the Church at the time. The Holy Scripture is not, was not intended as, and cannot be a complete theological manual.
It is a gross error of the Protestant to treat the Scripture as a complete rule of faith, the role that Christ intended for the Catholic Church:
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to [Peter] the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. (Matthew 16:18-19)
Deuteronomy 12:23 Only, be sure not to eat the blood,
>>I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father (Matthew 26:29)<<
Wait....I thought Catholics say they were drinking blood.
And we see the root problem with the catholic church.
Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven (ouranois). And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Is there some slight of hand Catholics use to make them both the same?
So then you are praising Mary and the Saints. Only God is praised in such a manner.
Indeed we are all to pray for one another and for those who are lost. But we are not to pray to someone to guide us to the fount of Holiness which is Christ Jesus. That is the Work of the Holy Spirit not Mary or the saints. The life of Mary and other godly Christians are great examples of people walking in faith and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why what is penned, written is Scriptures was left for us by God's Divine Grace and Love. If you can produce something God Breathed in Scriptures pointing out fellow 'call out ones' are to be prayed to please share with me.
CCC 2679 Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus' mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.
2 Timothy 3:New King James Version (NKJV)
10 But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 4 New King James Version (NKJV)
4 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The apostle Paul was clearly convinced of Scriptures.
Please note that it is Esau the person that Paul is speaking of, not Edom, his descent.
Hebrews is 100% about individuals, and their personal spiritual state. He notes that Esau tried tearfully to repent of his error. Esau had the same spiritual upbringing as his brother, but a far different final outcome.
>> “What does it have to do with the fact that after the people “well drunk” Jesus gave them more wine?” <<
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This kind of confusion is the result of not reading for understanding.
The sole purpose for this miracle of turning the water into wine was not to provide more wine; it was to denounce the Pharisees’ false law of the washing of hands. He used their ceremonial water pots to make the wine, thus deliberately defiling them.
Each and every one of Yeshua’s miracles was designed around defying one of the false laws of the Pharisees that burdened his people.
This is how he “hung them on the cross.”
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So then Paul lied to his Corinthian sheep?
1Corinthians 15:
[50] Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
[51] Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
[52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
[53] For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
[54] So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Or did John misquote Yeshua's answer to Nicodemus?
John 3:13
"And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.".
Of course it was but with Esau selling his inheritance his entire progeny was affected. But your initial comment that I responded to was "backsliding". Backsliding does not equate to "selling ones inheritance". In other words completely and irrevocably putting this worlds wants or needs ahead of our eternal inheritance.
Here is the key phrase "Thus Esau despised his birthright". Esau didn't just "backslide" from a commitment to his inheritance. He outright rejected it for a momentary need. To equate Esau selling his birthright to simple backsliding presents the wrong picture I believe.
Notice Paul is writing to a church of live people!
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