The Body...
...and blood of Jesus.
https://tomperna.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/jp-ii-raising-the-body-of-jesus.jpg
Posted on 05/12/2015 4:21:27 PM PDT by RnMomof7
Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.
How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?
Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”
A moment’s reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone — if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christ’s work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be “added” for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer.
No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!
This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christ’s work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like “therefore” (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to “draw near … in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his “therefore.” Christ is our High Priest; our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience just as our bodies have been washed with pure water (v.22).
Christ has once-for-all become the sacrifice for our sins, and has been raised and vindicated in the power of an indestructible life as our representative priest. By faith in Him, we are as righteous before the throne of God as He is righteous. For we are justified in His righteousness, His justification alone is ours! And we can no more lose this justification than He can fall from heaven. Thus our justification does not need to be completed any more than does Christ’s!
With this in view, the author says, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who come to God by him” (Heb. 10:14). The reason we can stand before God in full assurance is because we now experience our “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and … bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).
“Ah,” retorted Cardinal Bellarmine’s Rome, “teach this and those who believe it will live in license and antinomianism.” But listen instead to the logic of Hebrews. Enjoying this assurance leads to four things: First, an unwavering faithfulness to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our hope (v.23); second, a careful consideration of how we can encourage each other to “love and good works” (v.24); third, an ongoing communion with other Christians in worship and every aspect of our fellowship (v.25a); fourth, a life in which we exhort one another to keep looking to Christ and to be faithful to him, as the time of his return draws ever nearer (25b).
It is the good tree that produces good fruit, not the other way round. We are not saved by works; we are saved for works. In fact we are God’s workmanship at work (Eph. 2:9–10)! Thus, rather than lead to a life of moral and spiritual indifference, the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ and the full-assurance faith it produces, provides believers with the most powerful impetus to live for God’s glory and pleasure. Furthermore, this full assurance is rooted in the fact that God Himself has done all this for us. He has revealed His heart to us in Christ. The Father does not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent wishing He could do us ill — were it not for the sacrifice his Son had made! No, a thousand times no! — the Father Himself loves us in the love of the Son and the love of the Spirit.
Those who enjoy such assurance do not go to the saints or to Mary. Those who look only to Jesus need look nowhere else. In Him we enjoy full assurance of salvation. The greatest of all heresies? If heresy, let me enjoy this most blessed of “heresies”! For it is God’s own truth and grace!
I agree Hoss man. The Bible has nothing to say about brain surgery either, but wasn't Chinese grammar kind of settled at the Tower of Babel? 😂😆😃 I agree, however. The Bible is the only thing I use. I am not into that tradition thing. Hey look, if some don't want to accept it, that's on them. They may feel free to knock themselves out. 😇
BTW, the other Hoss man, is Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks. I hope they win another Stanley Cup. 😃
No, that was the porcelain convenience...that was when you were having so much fun sinning and thinking that weekly confession would absolve you......it wouldn't....and didn't
It was probably refuted more often than that in your first month with the heavenly navigators....remember that navigating without a rudder is VERY DANGEROUS....rocks, sandbars, FALSE PORTS...one never knows.
Sorry Charlie...Catholic facts are THE facts....you can't change them...Christ promised that...facts are facts....reforming them is IMPOSSIBLE
Good grief woman, what the hell did you expect the priest to say....she was a sinner and drank too much and was probably in HELL???????????If you believe in OSAS...then she was SAVED and in Heaven.....everyone in Heaven is a Saint.......therefore you can ask her....as a saint....to pray for you.........she is in Heaven and you still have a long way to go.
**Sorry Charlie...Catholic facts are THE facts....you can’t change them...Christ promised that...facts are facts....reforming them is IMPOSSIBLE**
So much proud bluster; claiming your facts are in agreement with the Lord and his apostles. Maybe you can tell me what other RCs can’t:
If the ‘eucharist’ is eaten for eternal life, why the repetition?
Does it wear off?
If so, why does it wear off?
If it wears off, does one know when it has worn off?
One time doesn’t have the power to get the job done?
Why is there no detailed written ‘eucharist’ instruction from Peter in his recorded instances of converting souls in Acts, or in his epistles? If it is for eternal life, it should be right smack in the middle of Acts 2:38.
I think it’s because that Peter knew that it was spiritual, not physical. You have to ‘eat’ that Spirit (Holy Ghost baptism) that was in every cell of Jesus Christ’s body.
Paul says that the Lord’s supper is done in remembrance of the Lord’s death. In the same passage where the Lord’s supper is taught, Jesus said that it is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. Paul taught that we are to be filled with the Spirit, so that we don’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
The same Lord that taught the ‘Lord’s supper’, also said: “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
It was a porcelain graven image, like the golden calf. You call it what you like. That's on you. You are right about going to confession to a priest. It didn't absolve anyone of anything, especially most of my catholic school classmates, who were worse sinners than me. It looked to me like some of them were real reprobates, and possibly still are. So, being as a priest was powerless to do anything for me, I got help navigating through all the false doctrines I encountered, and now I know the truth. You may not like it. Once again, that's on you. Our views on the truth are obviously light years apart. So be it. See you at the pearly gates, where I know I will be welcomed by those good Catholics that wrote the Old Testament, like Moses, David, Jeremiah. Thank God they were good Catholics. Not.
Nope. Just another example of the twisting of scripture by Rome to try to shoehorn it into its false doctrine.
Christ didn't found a cult. But sadly that's what Roman Catholicism is.
Hoss
It always amazes me: Christians identify as....Christians. Not Presbyterian or Baptist or Methodist. But Catholics always identify as that: Catholic.
Like it means something.
I belong to Christ, not some man-made cult.
Hoss
Of course they cannot contradict, being both scripture. So what is the resolution? Paul refers explicitly to “works of the law” not “faith and works”. Why is that? He is lecturing the Jews who would be christians not lazy christians who want to believe in one and done.
...and blood of Jesus.
https://tomperna.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/jp-ii-raising-the-body-of-jesus.jpg
I don't
I doubt any believer, who has the Holy Spirit living in him, can blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
One that’s taking off; or one that is landing?
Wait just a ding-dang MINUTE here!
Indeed!
The day Reagan got shot, my then midteen daughter and I had traveled from central Indiana on our way to Florida.
Somewhere in the Deep South, we stopped for lunch at a local MickeyD.
As we sat down at the table with our food, she softly said to me, "Dad; they sure talk funny down here!"
I replied, "No dear; WE are the ones who talk funny here."
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