Posted on 05/26/2015 1:05:01 PM PDT by piusv
"I feel like saying something that may sound controversial or even heretical. But there is someone who knows that despite our differences we are one. It is he who is persecuting us. It is he that is persecuting Christians today; he who is anointing us with the blood of martyrdom, knows that Christians are disciples of Christ. That we are one, that we are brothers! He doesn't care if they are Evangelicals, Orthodox, Lutherans, Catholics or Apostolic. He doesn't care! They are Christians."
continued.....
The Roman Church intended to rule the secular and sacred world. In order to accomplish that goal, Rome had to consolidate her power. Since knowledge is the vital element of power, the control of knowledge was paramount. Knowledge of the Word of God, leads to freedom. Our Lord said, “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32. Therefore, the Bible had to be taken away from the people, if they were to be controlled.
So, instead of Gods Word, mans word was set up. Instead of Christs Testament, the popes testament, that is, Canon law was ‘substituted’ .....(The Ecclesiastical History: Containing The Acts and Monuments 1641 Edition; by John Foxe, Volume 2, Book 7, p.56).
Gradually, access to biblical knowledge (and secular knowledge for that matter) was withdrawn from the people and wholly held in the greedy, bloody hands of the Roman Catholic establishment..... Slowly but surely the Bible, in the language of the people, was taken away..... The light of the Word of God was virtually extinguished all over the Roman dominated world, including Britain.
Here is but one example of the distressing state of biblical knowledge..... In 1353, three or four young Irish priests came over to England to study divinity; but were obligated to return home because not a copy of the Bible was to be found at Oxford. .....(The English Bible: History of the Translation of the Holy Scriptures Into The English Tongue; by H. C. Conant; 1856; p.45).
So, how did the Catholic ecclesiastical establishment view this sad state of affairs? It has frequently been made the subject of praise to the papal clergy, that they alone were the depositaries of learning, at a period when all other classes of society were sunk into ignorance and barbarism. (Ibid. p.15)
That is a travesty!.... If the Roman priesthood would have encouraged and facilitated the spreading of Bible and secular knowledge it would have been an age of light! But, instead they hid the light of knowledge within their cloisters, and history now records this period as The Dark Ages.
When the Bible was taken away from the common people, they lost the charter of their rights as men.. As time went on the people became the mere tools and bond-slaves of the priesthood...... They became the rabble, the vulgar herd, the mob, to be used or abused without limits or mercy, for the benefit of their masters.
http://logosresourcepages.org/Articles/bible_history.htm
Show me where Jesus used the word *Catholic* anywhere and said that the Catholic religion was how people were saved and came to know Him, IOW, that it was a true religion.
IOW, *I’m right because I said so.*
Sure.......
Cause God told me so.
Don't you know that is a sin?
Believing what God tells me in Scripture is a sin?
Trusting Him to do what He says is a sin?
Taking Him at His word is a sin?
Who knew?
Silly me. I thought that was what people called *faith*. You know, the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
If you happen to decide that it's not possible to be certain, does not mean it is nor is everyone else required to join you in your uncertainty.
The only reason for uncertainty concerning God's promises is that someone does not really believe God and that He will do what He says He will
IOW, they do not trust God. Therefore, they do NOT have saving faith and have no reason to be certain.
1 John 5:13-15 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Aside from Luke, the writers of the NT were ALL Jews.
And that does not address the claim that the Catholic church gave us the Bible, as if they are responsible for giving us SCRIPTURE.
God's word, SCRIPTURE, came primarily, aside from Luke, through the JEWS.
Sure, yeah, stick with that story, then let us know how that works out for you.
Yeah, well, when Catholics assume that Christians think that way, then is still sounds like the sin of assumption to me.
mm (post 647) Not one person who is saved thinks that they don't need God any more because they are secure in the promises that God made to them.
And I still stand by that.
If one can't presume on God's mercy then nothing is is a given. If you can't count on God's mercy, then you can't count on anything.
If God isn't always merciful, then He isn't the God portrayed to us in Scripture. There's simply no way that anyone who knows how dependent on God's mercy they are is going to be proud of it because the very thing that makes us depend on His mercy is nothing to be proud over.
Prots love to make up their won meaning for words, it is part of the whole protesting thing. I will continue to pray that God truly does enter your heart.
If you happen to decide that it's not possible to be certain, does not mean it is nor is everyone else required to join you in your uncertainty.
You are correct MM. We can indeed, know for sure we are going to Heaven when we die. God is faithful, even when we fail Him. If some people don't have it, they are missing out on the joy God has most assuredly given to us. I am sorry if others have no assurance, but I promise you MM, I won't let it get me down. I have my assurance, others can have theirs. If you tell people about assurance 5,000 times, and they reject it, then it's on them.
TC.....the Jews had nothing to do with the NT????? Last time I checked all the writers of the NT were Jewish save Luke. You kill your credibility when you make such statements.
Rome knows EXACTLY what happened to Mary!
How did you gain access to these FACTS that you KNOW?
Ah! the missing ....os fooled me.
I miss the ol’ cereal boxes from narses...
Yeah; but are you going to be with GOD the FATHER???
85% or so of Mormons are NOT!!
They'll be stuck on Level Two with us Prots and Catholics!
AFTERLIFE: The Mormon afterlife is divided up into four levels. From the lowest to the highest they are: hell, and then three levels of heaven: the telestial, the terrestrial, and the place where God dwells, the celestial (also called the kingdom of God). The celestial is also divided, the highest level being "exaltation," or becoming a God.
HEAVEN-The Mormon church teaches there are three levels of heaven (three "degrees of glory"):
HELL: A place of torment from which the worst of sinners are resurrected (if they repent) into the Telestial kingdom; only a limited number remain in hell forever, - the devil and the demons and apostates who consciously reject and work against Mormonism.
Mormonism has taught that those in the Telestial kingdom will have paid for their own sins in spirit prison, a temporary hell which serves as a place of purging before entrance into heaven (cf. D&C 138: 58-59).
Orson F. Whitney preached:
"But those who reject the Gospel altogether and are besotted and crimestained---what of them? It is written that they will be thrust down to hell; even the murderer, the liar, the sorcerer, and the whoremonger. They will, in short, be damned. But they will only be damned to the extent justified by their sins. Even for them there is hope, after they have 'paid the uttermost farthing.' They will be punished, as all men must be, for neglect of duty, for transgression of the laws of God; but after they have been punished sufficiently, they will be brought forth and saved in a glory of which the stars in heaven are typical." ("The Three Great Teachers", May 8, 1898; Brian H. Stuy, ed., Collected Discourses 1886-1898, v. 5)
Chapter 41 of the 2009 Gospel Principles manual quotes D&C 19 and concurs the same:
"Also in the spirit prison are those who rejected the gospel after it was preached to them on earth or in the spirit prison. These spirits suffer in a condition known as hell. They have removed themselves from the mercy of Jesus Christ, who said, 'Behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit' (D&C 19:16-18). After suffering in full for their sins, they will be allowed, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, to inherit the lowest degree of glory, which is the telestial kingdom" (Gospel Principles, 2009, p. 244).
HMMMmmm...
Have you ever heard the phrase:
Why the qualifier?
Does CONTEXT confuse you?
WHY are you (and others) so HARD on your beloved new pope?
Sounds almost mutinous!
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