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.
Hi TN,
Thanks for your input.. ..Evangelical tends to be a term use to those who want to free off of the gospel .. I too am a Calvinist, but would call myself evangelical.
When ever you see a letter addressed to the BELOVED..it is to the saved,,
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
When you see the word "brother" it is about another saved member of the church
Through catholic belief that they eat the real body, blood, soul and divinity of The Christ at Mass in the wafer held up by the Priest, the demons continue the victim sacrifice in their hearts at every catholic Mass, mocking the Once For All Forever Supreme sacrifice done on the Cross once by The Great High Priest, Jesus the Christ, who is seated at the Right Hand of The Father waiting until His enemies be made His footstool. He is not being brought down from Heaven at every Mass, to continue the victim sacrifice the catholic church teaches. But the demons attend these Masses, grinning in their evil hearts at the shear blasphemy they are witnessing.
<<<< Crickets >>>
One needs to define"Christian"
One can be a professing "Christian " ...That is intellectually accepting the creeds of the church ... or one could consider themselves a Christian because they were baptized...or because they were raised in the church ... But the question is are they relying on Christ alone for their salvation ...not their own morality, or membership in a certain church, .... Christ alone ... Christ alone..
The problem is RC's can not read the scriptures with understanding ..
"From this time we hear no more (in this discourse) of "Bread"; this figure is dropped, and the reality takes its place" [STIER].
Jhn 6:60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard [this], said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
Jhn 6:61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
If they were offended at that, he was saying wait until you hear the rest
Jhn 6:62 [What] and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
Jhn 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life
.
Jhn 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
Jhn 6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
Jhn 6:66 From that [time] many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
What caused them to leave was Jesus claim of divinity.. that was a crime worth of death ... (remember the cross?)
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Did Peter ask for that bread? ...Nope he understood the metaphor.. He knew Jesus had the WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE...NOT THE BREAD
False; bold emphasis below mine Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor ? And Jesus answering said, A c ertain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
Leviticus, Catholic chapter nineteen, Protestant verses sixteen to eighteen,
Luke, Catholic chapter ten, Protestant verses twenty five to thirty seven,
Romans, Catholic chapter eleven, Protestant verses twenty five to twenty nine
First John, Catholic chapter two, Protestant verse seven,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James
Thanks for sending this, R2Z
Do Rcs understand the difference between the Ot and the new??Paul’s letters were to the New Covenant church
The correct phrasing is redefine terms to match the non-Catholic view.
That is a ritual of the most egregious pagan origins. Catholics are being taught the blasphemy that you must eat the Christ into your digestive tract to have God's Life in you. That is not only heretical and violates the commandment in Leviticus 3:17, it is a blasphemy against the Christ Who is Seated in Heaven and will not BY HIS OWN TEACHING return to be ON THE EARTH until He comes to set foot on the wrath cleansed planet.
No catholic priest has the authority FROM GOD to bring God's Son down from Heaven to be continuously sacrificed on a catholic altar for eating in a wafer. ONLY God has the authority and He hasn't given catholics that authority to violate what He established FOR ALL THEIR GENERATIONS.
The demonic error in Catholicism is that they teach their adherents the priestly class of that religion hold the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus in a wafer for eating, in order to have the catholic religion place God's Life in the catholic.
That is a direct contradiction to what God teaches in His Word, that salvation, being born from above, is by Faith in Jesus Alone (never manipulated by some priest on a pagan altar) and that God puts His Life in the believer at that Salvation moment.
This is attested to by the passages in the Bible where God's Spirit came into believers even while the sermon was being preached, at Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius, displaying Peter using the Keys to the Gospel Truth of Jesus The Christ 'borning'/birthing people from above and sending God's Life into them. This is not accomplished at a catholic altar of continuous victim sacrifice as claimed by the pagan religion known as Catholicism.
Catholicism has repeated the error the Israelites committed, when they took the sacred and turned it into a sacrilege, by making for themselves little brass idols of snakes, to empower them, forgetting that the brass snake in the wilderness was a focal point of faith for the deliverance God Promised. The brass snake did not save them from the poison, the faith in the focal point saved them. Jesus said to repeat the ritual of bread and wine IN REMEBRANCE of His Sacrifice about to happen. He said through Paul: 1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. That is a repetition, not a continuous pagan victim sacrifice as the catholic catechism teaches.
The catholic altar blasphemy does not save catholics. If they would instead focus their faith upon Jesus The Christ as Savior right then and there wherever they are (not at that pagan altar) instead of pretending they eat his body, blood, soul, and divinity, they would be saved immediately and God will put His Life in them, to raise them up in the Way that they should go as members in His family.
God does it ALL. The disguised works of the adherent, in trudging the salvation trail of installment sacraments that empower the catholic church not the spirit of the follower, save no one.
GOD does it all. He calls you, He washes you in the cleansing of regeneration, and He seals you by His presence in you, and He then raises you up in His family ways. If you are in His family, you will be about the family business. You will share the True Gospel of God's Grace by Faith, never works. Jesus gave two commandments of the New Covenant, commandments which contain the essence of all the commandments of Moses: Love the Lord they God with all they heart and mind, and love thy neighbor as thy self. Love allows someone to be about The Father's family business, despite being called a hater, a heretic, and --how was it put, that so carefully crafted insult-- 'captured by the purveyors of these lies.'
Nice try, but no cigar. The truth about Catholicism is not hard to discover, when the teachings from the catholic catechisms are held up to the Real Truth in the Word of God.
Such things as the demi-goddesshood of the Mother of Jesus is found no where in the Word of God. No where does the Bible teach that Mary is a mediatrix helping Jesus get His Priestly duties carried out. That had to come from the 'traditions of men', the fabrication by the catholic religion turned from Christianity into the servant of demons.
The wafer transubstantiated into the real and truly present body, blood, soul, and divinity of The Christ is found no where in the Bible. That had to be fabricated by the 'traditions of catholic men.'
Nowhere in the Bible is the praying to Mary via a string of beads found. That had to be fabricated by the 'traditions of catholic mena nd women'.
Nowhere in the Bible is the sin cleansing in purgatory found. Jesus paid for ALL the sins of any who come to Him, so there are not sins which must be 'purged in purgatory' by the suffering there or through the penance of the living for the one trapped in catholic purgatory. That had to be fabricated by the 'traditions of men'.
Nowhere does the Bible teach the fabrication of statuary for focus of worship. Remember the error of the Israelites regarding the brass snake raised on a pole in the wilderness and the subsequent twisting of this sacred moment into the servant of idolatry. That is the work of Traditions from men.
The Bible DOES teach that We have a Great High Priest who is in Heaven on our behalf, meaning we do not need a repetition of the priestly class found in the old covenant offering daily sacrifices. Our Great High Priest says Come unto Me'. He is not in need of a mediatrix or a priestly army. He is sufficient for those who faithe in Him.
If you will apply that simple tool I wrote to you about, you will see that the passages spoken before the New Covenant was sealed with His blood shed at Calvary and the passages spoken after the New Covenant is in force do in fact line up with what the Lady posted to you all. The meaning of ‘brethren’ and neighbor and brother is to be understood according to what covenant was in force when spoken. The New Testament epistles were addressed to the brethren. And that is what she wrote.
+1
I said don’t write to me. Go -— you and your blasphemies.
At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.
Time grows short. The Lord is returning soon to snatch away His Real Church/ The Bride of Christ/ The Body of Christ. If you don't want to read what I post, don't click on the entries. But I will try to avoid posting a link in the "to" you and leave you to His continuing efforts on your behalf. I will not however refrain from posting in opposition to subtle service to cahtolicism's errors.
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