Posted on 07/17/2017 8:08:32 AM PDT by ebb tide
“Francis is more interested in leftwing politics than in Catholic theology”, George Neumayr, contributing editor of The American Spectator, states talking to Tom Woods on July 14th on tomwoods.com. Woods describes Francis as a result of John Paul II who - as he puts it - appointed "absolutely terrible people" as bishops: "Catholics have suffered under Bergoglios for decades now”.
Neumayr agrees that a lot of the liberal bishops were appointed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI. He sees Francis as the “culmination of a century” of liberalism and modernism in the Church.
For him it is "highly unlikely" that Francis, who in his theology is “more a Protestant than a Catholic” will convert to Catholicism. Instead, the realistic scenario is that Francis will produce division and chaos, "Catholics will have to decide whether they guard the faith over papolatry.”
And: “The Cardinals have to declare that Francis is a bad pope who must be resisted.”
Now someone approached him and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matt. 19:16-17)We also have the following:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ (Matt. 7:21-23)To believe in Jesus Christ is also to believe in how he taught us to life, not just that he paid the price for our sins.
Who said that? Good works are by grace.
The difference between you and aMorePerfectUnion illustrate the difficulty of getting a straight answer to the question of whether good works must accompany faith or whether faith covers even those who persist in sin.
I understand.
It isn’t the words that are said that lead you to believe this. It is the blindness to the structure and context of the book itself.
“Paul does not exempt those who have faith from the immoral, impure or greedy who have no inheritance in the kingdom of God.”
Nor does he have to do so, in order for them to read the totality of the contrast between believers and unbelievers.
“Paul also warned them in Ephesians that: “no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” (Ephesians 5:5)”
Yes he does. The unrighteous will have no inheritance in the millennial kingdom.
“Faith without a conversion of life is useless. Or as James proclaims: “faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17)”
Which we agree upon in this context. Saving faith is followed by the life of Christ expressed in the believer. Works do not lead to salvation.
“If a person falls back into a carnal life without latter repentance then, as Paul states, he will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul gives no exemption for those who have faith.”
Paul never says this. In fact, upthread I quoted his exact words about this type of person, “he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved.”
best.
Let me make my statement little more blunt here, shall I?
I don’t care what you have to say, and the apparent attempt to foment discord is not appreciated. Butt out.
It seems that you have not given me a straight answer on why you interpret Paul to mean the exact opposite of his plain words.
It seems that you have not read the ‘straight answer’ that I posted to you.
It also seems that you don’t understand that non-Catholics don’t have one single theology, as unified as we are on justification by faith. (Then again, neither do Catholics. Cough Pope Frank cough.) On this thread, I vaguely seem to remember that you have severe disagreements with the Pope and disagreements with plenty of Catholics whose words were posted above who insist that you must obey the Pope to be Catholic.
Can’t give us the same courtesy to have our own conversations without trying to butt in?
Throughout history, the Church has gone through good times and bad. Things looked bad when Christ was crucified, no? Imagine how the Apostles must have felt then!
But the Church is still standing, even tho like a disease corruption has attacked the body, and we will get through this as we have all the other problems.
As to the choice of pope, the Holy Spirit guides the cardinals. How does that work out? Is that sometimes the cardinals do not listen? Is it that God planned for a certain person to be pope and he made himself into a bad-enough sinner to disturb rather than to uplift the people? I don’t know. I trust in God for all that.
I’m sorry, I really don’t see your point.
Now someone approached him and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matt. 19:16-17)
Let's put this in context for a proper understanding.
16And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” 17And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; 19HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
20The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?”
21Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
22But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.
23And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:16-26 NASB
If you believe this to be a literal statement....do you have to sell of your belongings to be saved?
#264 - I told you the Didache was latered and non-verifiable as a document to prove your point.
You replied that you couldn’t find anything about the Didache being altered.
I googled it for you and provided a link showing evidence that it was altered.
You told me it was too long to read.
I summarized that it was altered and could not be verified.
Here we are.
Best.
Isn't it strange how some DO freak out over anyone expressing assurance of their salvation? I mean, you would think that they would be happy to hear that a person has complete faith in Jesus Christ, follows Him and demonstrates with their lives that God is at work conforming us to the image of His dear son, right? But, how DARE we do that when we aren't Catholic! We're not supposed to be able to do that, therefore, it MUST be a false Jesus we follow or a false gospel we believe. They don't have that assurance and have been taught NO ONE can know they are going to heaven when they die.
That is why we face such resistance day after day here. To admit we are right would be admitting they are wrong - and some are simply incapable of doing that. Their pride keeps them from accepting the true gospel just as it prevents them from accepting the grace of God that brings salvation. It means humbling oneself and letting go of the false idea that we can become righteous through our actions and way of life. It means seeing those works as the filthy rags they are and trusting in Jesus Christ completely to redeem us. But you are right, there is a peace that passes all understanding when we KNOW we belong to Jesus - that HE is our shepherd and He has redeemed us and we will be with Him for eternity - an eternity where we can praise and glorify Him for His unspeakable gift!
You need to read more carefully if that's what you think because you are so wrong on that.
Good works always accompany salvation as the RESULT of becoming saved by faith but they do not contribute to it in the least.
They neither get you saved nor keep you saved.
And lack of them does not lose your salvation.
They are an indicator of genuine saving faith and lack of them would be a good indicator that something is wrong and the person who is not displaying them needs to consider if the lack of works is an indicator of lack of genuine saving faith.
But they in now way contribute to becoming or staying saved. The salvation is completely independent of works involved.
Exactly......
So God married His mother, eh?
I find it quite odd that you don't seem to comprehend the inherent contradiction in your statement! If good works MUST accompany faith (your words), then how can you say they do not earn us our salvation? If "faith alone" doesn't earn us our salvation but MUST be accompanied by good works, then how is salvation by grace alone? Grace MEANS unmerited, undeserved, unearned - do you not understand this salient point???
Does faith earn you your salvation or is it a free gift of God?
Yes, if someone could keep the Law perfectly, then they would be saved.
But the Law was not given to us to follow to become saved.
It was given so that we could see that we CAN’T meet His standard and then we would turn to Christ for salvation.
Not one peron on this planet that was ever born of a human father is capable of living a perfect, sinless life.
Everything we do is tainted by sin.
Our best efforts are as filthy rags in God’s sight which is why when we believe, God takes the righteousness of Christ and credits it to our account.
Then we are judicially declared righteouss, God sees us having been clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and He then is able to relate to us as if we had never sinned.
EVERYONE persists in sin.
Becoming saved does not mean we don’t sin any more.
It means the penalty has been paid for our sin and we are now in right relationship with God again.
“EVERYONE persists in sin.
As long as we have the life of Adam in us on earth, we will sin. Sometimes by omission sometimes by commission.
For believers, we have payment in full, guarantee of salvation, guaranteed forgiveness to restore fellowship, and Christ as our Advocate.
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift!”
Everyone sins but not everyone persists in sin. Sin is an act of the will. When we sin we turn our will away from God. This we all do from time to time. Afterwards, however, some repent and turn back to God. Others, however, never repent and continue to direct their will away from God. These are the ones that Paul said will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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