Posted on 04/25/2015 10:33:08 AM PDT by RnMomof7
It goes back to their propensity to incorporate pagan beliefs and practices to attract them into the "church". They replaced the pagan "queen of heaven" with Mary and all the gods of the pagans with "saints".
Well done! The Catholic pagan marriage is obvious to anyone who studies.
That believers regularly gather together under a pastor is basically commanded, unless health, logistics or certain other issues issues prevent it.
The Lord said to follow Him, and established a church (body of Christ) and churches with pastors, (Mt. 16:18; Eph. 4:4,11) which presumes they have a flock to pastor, and commanded believers not to forsake the assembly of themselves together, and to obey those who are over them who watch for their souls, (Heb. 10:25; 13:17) which presumes believers have pastors to obey.
The first believers were baptized and were part of an organic community, which continued in the Word of God, and prayed as a community, and showed the love of Christ toward each other thereby, (Acts 2,4) Moreover, almost all of Scripture after that was written to local churches, or to pastors.
The visible church is the primary means of exercising discipline toward impenitent believers, and for healing. (Mt. 18:15-20; Ja. 5:14-18) In fact, to be outside the church was to be a matter of discipline. (1Co. 5)
And in so doing the above, the church is to be the closest thing to the incarnation of Christ, as it is His body, and as the invisible has visible manifestation, so the body of Christ is formally manifest in Scripture as being that of pastored organic assemblies. And in which believers worship the Lord together, and pray for each other, and engage in other communal activities.
Certainly a prime reason for the practice of communal meetings is due to the need to hear the preaching of the word of God, which before was harder to read or hear, while today access to Scripture and preaching is far easier to be had. And we have personal electronic communication btwn each other as well. However, these are insufficient substitutes for actual organic meetings.
We can certainly grow in grace by ourselves, though not without benefiting from others in the body, but there are aspects of character formation that require community, and in fact God will being souls into our life that both help us and hurt or challenge us, as Christ dealt with both.
In addition to personal growth, there is the effectual witness of the body corporate. The devil himself must obey Bible principles in order to achieve his selfish, sinful ends, including corporate discipleship and witness, and none of his deceiving cults ever grew much by holding to the idea that it is not necessary for adherent to come together under pastored assemblies. Of course, if cults like the Mormons did what even most "evangelical" churches do - have church and go home until the next service - then they would be a tiny cult in Utah!
However, I myself know that there can be times in which the Lord separates us for spiritual reasons, and that for this or other reasons one cannot get to meetings, or as often as one would, yet one of the marks of a true believer is that of a strong desire to come together with believers, to worship the Lord and hear His word, and interact with the body, and thus to give as well as to receive grace to help. Thank God for what liberty we have to do so, as the times are coming when that can become increasingly as a cost.
As it does me. Just asking the question speaks volumns.
I agree but the other poster was bragging about the number of Catholics and the same is true of Muslims. Numbers really do not matter if they are following a fake religion.
Catholics have replaced Christ and the Holy Spirit with Mary in many instances.
Perhaps you do not notice. I see it quite often which is why I think it means what I wrote it means.
Here is the first example, on this thread in but the fourth post
We know after the account in John 6 that the twelve remained. We also know in this account that Jesus said one was a devil and this was Judas hence the eleven.
Luke records that Satan entered into Judas.
At this point he was not saved as Satan cannot enter what the Holy Spirit occupies.
Was Judas saved later. I don't know.
You are correct. I need to stop making too generalized statements about other posters. Perhaps you do too?
ROFLOL!!! A spoof is “bringing up Luther”?
BTW I think that was posted as a joke about how important Luther's actions are to Catholics rather than Protestants.
Excellent! let me know when you get it done and I'll buy it. Not only is this sort of thing right up my alley, but I have always found you to be well reasoned and a good read. It will be interesting to see how you do in a larger format (albeit that I have every confidence!).
There are lots of things going on in Roman culture that revolved around the goddess religions.
Oh, but it goes SO much deeper than that... You've bit off a really big chunk... I would recommend a wider scope as quite a bit was traded back and forth with Alexandria particularly, with more to be found in northern Anatolia. Soon people will be accusing you of being an Alexander Hislop acolyte - I was so accused for years here before I got curious and read his work.
The parallels seem endless.
Indeed, they are.
The later developed lists purporting to show a continuity of popes during that early period has proved to be impossible to support from primary sources.
True. Not that it will matter to anyone...
[...] we all have a tendency to see divine truth through our own culturally tainted lenses.
As I like to say, take off the Rome-colored glasses and wipe the Greece from your eyes... ; )
Best of luck in your endeavor.
We know after the account in John 6 that the twelve remained.
Yes, we do know the twelve remained and that Jesus spoke to them. We also know from the previous verse that many no longer followed Him. It doesn’t say that all except the twelve left Him. That may have happened.
I don’t remember where I heard this, but someone mentioned that the two disciples mentioned in Luke 24 had been with Jesus from the beginning of His public ministry up to His crucifixion. Maybe not, but that’s what prompted my question.
I agree with what you said about Judas. We do not know. Only God knows what was in his heart at the moment he breathed his last.
“about a billion and a quarter Catholics think otherwise”
About a billion and a quarter Catholics think in error...You included.
“Yes, just how many Muslims are there?”
We are curious, Mama, what does this have to do with anything being discussed here?
I’ll remember to consult you next time on what I should believe.
I’ll do it ...
for the children...
and the Greater Glory of God
I’ve read that a number of times here, including the first time very closely. Have you read it? It talks about what John 6 means but then says it will only look at the last half of the chapter.
“This is seen in their interpretation of the key biblical passage, chapter six of John’s Gospel, in which Christ speaks about the sacrament that will be instituted at the Last Supper. This tract examines the last half of that chapter.”
As I said, I posted an article that went through and looked at every line of John 6. My study, which was actually begun in reply to this Catholic tract, is here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3273628/posts
All of John 6 goes together. What happens at the end develops out of the beginning. By only looking at the last half of the chapter, the Catholic tract takes things out of context. So I wonder if you are willing to read over, study, and discuss ALL of John 6, not just the last half.
The Protestant reformers never claimed that. The availability of the Bible to more people is one thing that changed. And something else was that it became apparent that the clergy at the top, the Vatican above all, had a lock on power and many were motivated by worldly interests and self-interest. They had great reason to be. They lived like princes in a time not like today, where in Europe the common man also has a pretty royal lifestyle, but at a time where the common man lived a hard life in many ways, including a life of a hard work.
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