Posted on 07/01/2015 7:13:05 AM PDT by RnMomof7
Recently there has been a surge in prominent Evangelicals calling for unity with Roman Catholicism. In one sense there seems to be strong foundational similarities that would justify these calls to unity. Catholics are baptized in the name of the Trinity. God’s revealed word in the Bible -- setting aside their addition of the Apocryphal books, for argument’s sake -- is foundational to their worldview. Catholics love Christ and believe that he died on the cross and rose again to provide grace for sinners.
Obviously there are theological differences associated with the specific teachings of each one of these perceived similarities, and I do not want to minimize the importance of these differences. But for argument‘s sake, at least on the surface, there is some common ground.
There is also a strong agreement in ethical standards. Both Roman Catholics and Evangelicals ground morality on God’s holy nature as revealed in the law of God. This means that on the hot button moral issues of the day; the murder of the unborn, human sexuality, the sanctity of marriage there is solidarity between Roman Catholic and Evangelical ethics because they are coming from the same source. Again, this seems to justify a call to some sense of unity.
Are these good enough reasons to publically stump for visible unity with Roman Catholics? That question is beyond the scope of this post. But there is a more fundamental question that must be answered first. That question serves as the dividing line between followers of Christ and the world, which separates biblical Christianity from every other worldview; does Rome possess and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
The author of the book of Hebrews in chapter 10 contrasts the gospel with that which is but a shadow of the gospel. He argues:
"And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." -- Heb 10:11–14
The argument being presented here makes it clear that Christ’s singular sacrifice, his death on the cross, perfects those for whom it is made for. This is the gospel. It is contrasted with the shadow of the gospel in which sacrifices were repeatedly made year after year because though they symbolized the atoning and perfecting sacrifice of Christ, they never themselves perfected those for whom they were made. The gospel of Jesus Christ perfects and any other religious strategies cannot.
This principle is directly applicable to the question of Roman Catholicism and the gospel of God. Roman Catholic worship centers on the mass. The mass is a series of liturgical practices that culminates in the Eucharist which according to paragraph 1068 of the Catholic of the Catholic Church (hereafter CCC) is a divine sacrifice. Paragraph 1367 of CCC calls the Eucharist a “truly propitiatory” sacrifice. This sacrifice is performed repeatedly in the life of a Catholic.
The reason the Eucharist is performed repeatedly is because even though it is claimed to be a propitiatory sacrifice that can make reparation for sins (CCC, 1414), it is a sacrifice that never perfects anyone. According to the Catholic message grace is something that you get from God by performing certain acts. First, God gives you the grace for faith in Jesus (CCC, 2000). Second, when you are baptized God graciously erases the sin of Adam from your record (CCC 1257). From that point on you get more grace by doing things like participating in the sacraments, including the Eucharist. The problem is that when you commit sins, you lose some of the grace you have gained and now need more lest your grace be found wanting at final judgment. This forces the Catholic into a position where they need to return day after day, week after week, and year after year to a priest who serves to repeatedly re-present the same sacrifice which never perfects those for whom it is made, since it only offers grace to cover some sin.
This is not the gospel.
Roman Catholics need the gospel for the same reason we all need it. We are all sinners with such a messed up and low view of how holy holiness really is that we think somehow through our own efforts we can attain it. If we just had enough time and willpower we could somehow have our good deeds outweigh our bad, and this will please God just enough for me to be acceptable to him. This is a satanic lie. A satanic lie that to some degree or another we have all bought into at some point in our life.
But the truth is glorious. God is good and God is holy. He is more good and more holy than we can possibly imagine. God is so good and so holy that anything less than absolute perfection is unacceptable in his presence. It is because of God’s awesome goodness and awesome holiness that in his wisdom he has offered us grace, through faith in Christ. A good and holy sacrifice that absolutely without question completely perfects everyone for whom it is made.
John 17:9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;
The assumption of Mary as well.
Would you please show the scripture that says its "the same crowd'?
It's impossible for anyone who denies the rapture to understand that statement.
It’s the Jerusalem crowd. I did not say there was a one-to-one individual correspondence.
Please remove me from all your ping lists. Thank you.
Resettozero
It’s the inhabitants of Jerusalem-— the Jerusalem crowd. I did not say there was a one-to-one individual correspondence.
Genesis 15:12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
The entire covenant with Abraham was after he was put to sleep. God enacted both sides of the covenant.
What???? Acts 15:28 says nothing "about the babies killed in Bethlehem" or that "they are considered saints in heaven".
Correct! There is no way we can have "common ground" as long as you ascribe to the apostasy of Catholicism.
NO, as instead I encourage it, if you look to the sinless bodily resurrected Lord Jesus to save you on His account as a damned and destitute sinner, and then follow Him.
The problem is that for every RC who only talks about praying to the sinless Lord Jesus as their Savior there are a thousand more who talk about praying to the sinless bodily resurrected Mary of Catholicism to rescue/help them due to her merits.
Here is your comment to which I was responding.
>>It's troubling, though, that the same crowd that cried out Hosanna to Jesus on Palm Sunday, five days later was yelling "Crucify him!" A person must persevere in the faith.<<
Are you now claiming that the part "A person must perservere" didn't mean that that "same crowd" had changed there response to Christ? Was in fact a different crowd?
Prove it.
Those of whom Paul wrote had already received and were possessing Their Salvation. The sanctification process is to what Paul referred, not their salvation to be obtained.
False! First of all the ekklesia Christ was talking about is NOT the Catholic Church. Second, the ekklesia was to support and uphold truth and NOT create new supposed truth like the Catholic Church does. It's telling that you have no support from scripture for your comment about the babies in Bethlehem yet you make it as if it's fact. Not good.
My dear, this is not the same as the Divine Savior "knocking us out cold and dragging us by the hair into Heaven to be loved."
Genesis 15 says that Abraham brought the heifer, the she-goat, the ram, the turle-dove and the pigeon for sacrifice and split them in two, fulfilling the commandment of the Lord. (He did this willingly, not after being hypnotized, lobotomized or knocked out cold.)
Then, it says God put him in a "deep sleep" --- again, not that he was unconscious or bereft of his mind, his intelligence and will. Quite the opposite, Abraham can remember every part of what happened: this is not sleep in the sense of "unconscious," but sleep in the sense of a trance state in which he is fully aware.
You can hardly say that God makes covenants with no participation on the part of the covenant-partner, because this is disproved right in the text.
Chapter 17 describes the covenant of Circumcision, in which Abraham's obedient compliance is signified by his circumcising himself and all of the males of his progeny forever. As always, there is the requirement that he "keep" the covenant.
There's no proof that God is indifferent as to whether we "keep" the covenant or "keep" the commandments.
2 John 1:6
This is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.
Since your "ekklesia" has totally lost the thread of history and exists without continuity, without visible succession, without recognized spokesmen, without authority, without a body of evidence, without a person or an organ or a body of members within it which can bind and loose, lock and unlock, render judgments, teach, govern, sanctify, or, frankly, do anything, I can't take it quite seriously.
Christ's Church exists in history, which means "stuff that actually happened."
Man doesn't even seek after God until God puts a new heart in them. It's Christ who gives us understanding.
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
It's God who puts a new heart in us and gives us the ability to Ezekiel 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
It's God who does it all. Stop trying to give credit to man.
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