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.
Unless one understands that the Catholic Church is part of the overall problem.
God is the one that brings men to repentance.. He will bring His own to repent
Scripture on that ???
Even your church does not teach that
263. Q. What is the Mass?
A. The Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ.
Where is it wrong ??
I know Elsie told me not to exaggerate, but hasn't that been refuted about 43.76543 million times? 😇
Christ is the only solution to what we see around us..and He is only found in the gospel
An oxymoron.
an *unbloody sacrifice of the body and BLOOD??????*
Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. An unbloody sacrifice is a useless one.
Instead of winning Catholics could point out where it is in error ,instead of "throwing stones "at the author or poster.If it is wrong stand up and argue it
I am done. I have assiduously avoided RnMomof7 threads for good reason. Jesus prayed and wished that we would all be one, just as the Father was in Him and He in the Father.
That scripture in context was to the 12 apostles.. He was not asking those teaching another gospel be accepted into HIS church
As you know the catechism is not an infallible work ..it is subject to change and revision
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40)
And as you know ..this is as impossible to keep as are the 10 commandments that flow from it
What Catholics have is not a Savior.. they have a Probation officer
Amen
Had the earliest RCC known you would expose that inconsistency, perhaps they would have edited that out of the texts. You were never expected to notice their contradictions, particularly THAT ONE! Then again the real presences didn’t come up until around 800 years after John died, so it wouldn’t have had a magicsteeringthem contemplation it took on when Innocent III made it dogma, he of the Inquisition origins.
How is that a lie??
Look, y'all have made it clear, over and over again, what you believe in, because you keep saying it over and over and over again.
And we keep throwing the life-line out to you over and over and over again, through compassion for the lost.
Y'all keep throwing back your faith in your "church," the traditions of ante-Nicene "patristcs," and reliance on the literalness of the Eucharist, and how to earn enough penance-karma for Peter to give you a pass from Purgatory to Heaven.
Back in 1888, the preacher, evangelist, and song-writer Edward Ufford challenged those who would broadcast the True Gospel to misled and Hell-bent religionists:
=======
Throw out the Life-Line across the dark wave,
There is a brother whom some one should save;
Somebody's brother! oh, who then will dare
To throw out the Life-Line, his peril to share?
Throw out the Life-Line!
Throw out the Life-Line!
Some-one is drifting away;
Throw out the Life-Line!
Throw out the Life-Line!
Some one is sinking today.
Throw out the Life-Line with hand quick and strong:
Why do you tarry. why linger so long?
See! he is sinking; oh, hasten today--
And out with the Life-Boat! away, then, away!
Throw out the Life-Line to danger-fraught men,
Sinking in anguish where you've never been:
Winds of temptation and billows of woe
Will soon hurl them out where the dark waters flow.
Soon will the season of rescue be o'er
Soon will they drift to eternity's shore,
Haste then, my brother, no time for delay,
But throw out the Life-Line and save them today.
Jesus is able! To you who are driv’n
Farther and farther from God and from Heav’n,
Helpless and hopeless, o’erwhelmed by the wave,
We throw out the lifeline—’tis, "Jesus can save."
This is the lifeline, oh, grasp it today!
See, you are recklessly drifting away;
Voices in warning, shout over the wave,
Oh, grasp the strong lifeline, for Jesus can save.
" =======
Here's the Life-Line, as heralded by Peter, the spiritual failure in his own efforts no man to lead or save, when gotten right in his final grasp of his Master's simple doctrine:
"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."
After six denials of rejecting knowledge of, or fellowship with Jesus the Nazarene, Peter most certainly knew that only Jesus saves. And that is what we are trying to tell you; we, who now have utter confidence through personal experience in our places at the Remembrance Table, and in in our daily walk with the Lord, personally enjoying His voice teaching us from His Word, incomparably far above the voices of of men long dead who misunderstood the Macedonian jailer's call:
"Come Jesus, and save me, by your promise, both now and forever, from trying to earn my way into your favor!"
Or are you, like many of the vaunted patristics, too proud to respond so humbly and helpless?
The current pope in Rome wants desperately to bring all religions into the catholic eucharist. His legacy is intended to be ecumenism. Could Chrislam be up his sleeve? ‘Why can we all just get along?’ ‘Stop contending for the Faith and be neighborly.’ ‘Follow traditions not God’s Word.’ ‘Let the magicsteeringthem guide you to all things.’ ‘The force be with you.’ ‘These are not the droids you’re looking for.’
Protestantism falls into the same legalistic trap as the Pharisees. They view sin as merely an external violation of a legal precept given by God. For the Pharisee reparation is made by the Temple sacrifices. For the Protestant reparation is made by the penal substitution of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. Thus while man is still left with a corrupt soul God accepts the sacrifice of Jesus as the payment for the debt of sin. It is this legalistic view of salvation that causes Protestants to think that Catholics believe that there is something lacking in the merit of Jesus sacrifice when they do not hold to salvation by faith alone.
So much so wrong and so little time......
First off, born again Christians know they are saved not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin as well, because we DIED to sin in Christ Jesus. Since we are dead to sin, it no longer has nay power over us.
We are regenerated, given new life in Christ, being made NEW creatures in Christ, not merely reformed ones. Having a new nature given us by the Holy Spirit makes us free from sin. In every way.
Christians know that the heart is what God sees and that sin is conceived there before it ever shows in the actions.
That is the reason that we know it is impossible to attain the righteousness that God requires. The Beatitudes address that.
God cancels the sin debt we owe in a judicial act of forgiveness, and gives the believer a new heart and mind, gives him spiritual life, and adopts him permanently into His family, FOREVER.
We enter a personal relationship with God as our Father, not a servant relationship where payment is demanded for wrongs done, as Catholicism teaches. And it does teach that. The sacrament of confession demands penance, and Catholics believe that sin not forgiven by God can be burned off by suffering in purgatory. THAT is absolutely a works based system.
We are not merely open to the grace that God has available to us, we walk in it constantly as it is lavished on us by God through faith, not doles out in stingy little parcels through religious performances.
I was once in the presence of an RC that was going on and on about how she loved "Lillydale" (A spiritualist summer community..that does card /palm readings ..fortune telling and seances .. )
I said aren't you a christian? She snapped at me, "no I am a Catholic and that gives me peace"
So long answer short.. if you say they are not Christians they get all upset.. but if you ask them what faith they are..they will say Catholic
Works based religious system.
Jesus tells us that the work of God it to believe on Him, to have faith.
Catholics tell us it's something else, that faith isn't enough.
I'll go with Jesus over the corrupt and immoral Catholic church.
Funny how they can say that they’re not Christians yet when you give them their own words back to them, they get offended.
Golden Pelicans are crying
Excellent post.
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