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To: CynicalBear; EagleOne
Paul said to the elders at Ephesus:

    But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:24-32)

These elders, leaders within the local churches, were given the responsibility to proclaim the gospel and to pass on the "whole counsel of God" just as Paul gave to them. Paul never mentioned a papacy nor did he say a word about the claims Catholics make about Mary insisting that these dogmas could be traced back to the early church. If, indeed, these doctrines were essential to our salvation, Paul would have taught it. He didn't and neither did Peter or John or James or Jude. The whole counsel of God doesn't include these invented doctrines, therefore they are not part of the Christian faith.

253 posted on 01/19/2015 6:59:33 PM PST by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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To: boatbums; EagleOne
>>Paul never mentioned a papacy nor did he say a word about the claims Catholics make about Mary insisting that these dogmas could be traced back to the early church.<<

What Catholics don't seem to understand is that the "early church" was the apostles. They and they alone are the group that Christ taught and who the Holy Spirit guided to record what was to be conveyed to subsequent generations. We see already in Acts 15 that there were those trying to add to what the apostles taught. It was the apostles and Paul alone who were taught by Christ yet we have Catholics and others trying to claim it's not good enough to rely on them alone.

People laugh at how a story told orally from person to person after time isn't even the same story but has changed and can't be trusted yet Catholics trust their eternal future on such story telling.

Catholics scoff at the idea of putting faith in Christ alone but put their faith in mere mortal men trusting that somehow that oral story telling didn't change. It makes no sense yet they trust those men with their eternal future.

283 posted on 01/20/2015 5:31:26 AM PST by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
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