Posted on 12/12/2017 5:34:21 PM PST by marshmallow
This is certainly surprising!
During a recent Friday night service, a pastor at New Life Church, an evangelical Protestant megachurch in Colorado Springs, CO, reportedly led the congregation in something you wouldn’t normally expect: the Sign of the Cross and a prayer of a consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Redditer /u/MarvelDCgoodwithme, who is Catholic, explained on the /r/Catholicism subreddit that his Protestant mother attends the church and thought the prayer sounded Catholic. So she took pictures of a few of the slides with the prayer, which you can see at the bottom of this article.
And sure enough, it’s a prayer for consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus composed by Pope Leo XIII in 1899! The slides also have a picture of the statue of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
“She said it happened after the sermon,” the redditer explained in a private message, “the pastor presented the slides and asked the congregation to read the prayer and if they agreed with it to pray it with him. The pastor also closed his prayers with the sign of the cross.”
We’ve reached out to New Life Church to learn more about their thinking in using the prayer but haven’t yet received a response.
New Life Church was founded in 1984 and has about 10,000 members. It was in the news in the early 2000s when its founding pastor Ted Haggard admitted to using drugs and regularly visiting a male escort. He was also later accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a young man in his 20s at the church. After Haggard was dismissed from his position, the church appointed a new pastor Brady Boyd who has since greatly expand the church’s reach.
(Excerpt) Read more at churchpop.com ...
Are you talking to yourself as a recourse in the absence of any actual response?
I think Christianity, the Muslim, also some Jews, and maybe some other religions will be united thinking that the anti Christ is the real Christ come back. I think that is how he (the evil one) will promote himself. All of these religions have a form of a messiah that they are waiting for.
Babylon is going to be a real city that has been rebuilt. It will utterly be destroyed at the end of the tribulation period. People who do make a choice to believe in the true God and Jesus Christ had better get out or be blown away. Babylon is going down in flames. True believers will understand and believe this and get out.
[for context I provide the passages just before and after 1 Cor 9:21. Paragraph break mine for clarity lest I be accused of manipulating Staples. 19For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. 20To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; 21to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. 22To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. 23I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.]
but we must understand that we are saved by grace through the instruments of faith and obedience. That obedience includes keeping the Ten Commandments, but the keeping of the commandments is an instrument—a necessary instrument—through which the grace of God flows and keeps us in Christ, the principle of reward for us. Thus, we have to keep the commandments to be saved, but we understand it is only through grace that we can do so.
Now, contrast with what Paul has written in Ephesians 2:8-10
8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
No created being has ever been able to keep the Ten Commandments. Not one.
I dare say if we are honest with ourselves we would have to admit breaking most if not all of the Ten Commandments.
Keep in mind the bar Christ established for this. The mere thought of adultery or murder is sufficient to break the Ten Commandment.
Have you stolen anything? Maybe a pen from your employer? A sheet of paper from your employer?
Have you dishonored your parents in some way? Even in the slightest?
Ever bore false witness against a neighbor? Even just a tiny little bit?
Ever coveted? Ever?
It shows how impossible it is to keep the Commandments.
Hence the need for a perfect sacrifice was needed in Christ. His one time sacrifice on the Cross forgives us for all of those and much, much more.
The RCC teaches mortal sins....yet I don't think they do an adequate enough job of explaining what a mortal sin is. If it causes you to lose your salvation then the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is no longer dependent upon faith...it's upon us to keep the Law! Which would be in contradiction to Scripture!
Staples' has returned to the OT in trying to keep the Law for salvation. Yet if he's appealing to the 10Cs, he has to appeal to the entire OT Law for perfection...all 614 laws...and I've just illustrated we can't even keep six of the commandments.
I tell you...if Rome is correct on the mortal sins and the need to repent before a priest, I'd never let the guy out of my site. Nor should any Roman Catholic. It wouldn't be a daily confession...it'd be an hourly confession if not by the minute...if we're honest with ourselves.
This is why Paul wrote we were dead in our sins and trespasses.
In essence, he's abandoned the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and the FREE gift of salvation He offers for those who will believe. To it Staples has added works...specifically the Ten Commandments, plus whatever else Rome has decreed one must do for salvation and to keep salvation.
And as has been shown in numerous other threads our Roman Catholic friends break the commandment against having idols and serving them every time they kneel before their "statues" of Mary.
Hence the need for the sacrifice of Christ which covers all of our sins for those who believe in Him.< In other words, it is faith alone that saves us while our works or fruit justifies us. And if we are His, we are to produce fruit. That is not optional.
Now the Roman Catholic will quickly run to James to quote the passage 24You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.James 2:24 NASB.
However, based on the context of James, he is not referring to keeping the Ten Commandments.
In this context James is referring to the Golden Rule..."In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matt 7:12 NASB
The believer in Christ will exhibit a change in their behavior. This is the justification of their faith. Paul and James are in agreement on this if we understand their arguments in the proper context.
As James rightly notes...even the demons believe. But their belief is not the belief that leads to salvation as they do not follow nor obey Christ.
The true believer comes to Christ through faith, trusting Him at His word that "whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
The true believer in Christ, as a result of his/her faith in Christ will produce fruit as per His instructions. "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples." John 15:8 NASB
p>Now this is where it gets really, really good.
Our salvation is secure.
It is not dependent upon us...praise God for that!
Some context from Ephesians 1 to help understand that our security is from God. The Greek behind this passage is just amazing. It brings the point to clarity there is nothing we can do to keep or earn our salvation.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
13In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:3-14 NASB
We serve and awesome God indeed!
Yes it is the same.
Just what do you think sin is?
And there’s only one way to be sinless.
And only One Who has been sinless!
Seems there is a rule in there... hmmmmm
........................
Not so fast Prot! You're forgetting about Mary, who was sinless!!
- Catholic Dude (borrowed from Elsie)
It appears that Catholics think that one can be sinless and not obey God.
IOW, one can do something that is neither sin nor obedient to God, that somehow there are neutral things that fall between that. Like they are saying *True, Jesus didn’t sin but that doesn’t mean He obeyed God*.
Pick one....you won’t go wrong!
LOL. I have never heard it out quite like that, but I guess that’s about as good a description as any. I was always taught that if I committed a mortal sin, it drained ALL the grace out of my soul tank, and I became lost again, until my next confession. Kind of like one gee whiz wipes out all attaboys. The problem I had, was that no one could define for me, what was a mortal sin and what was a venial sin. I didn’t want to sin till I went blind. I just wanted to sin till I needed glasses. 😆
By the way, Sky, I agree, pilots and controllers have a bond that anyone who is not an expert in aviation, like we are, can scarcely understand. On course, on glide path, 2 miles from touchdown. 👍
The Lutherans that are being brought into communion with the Roman Catholic Church are the apostate Lutherans that have abandoned biblical truth. Do not mistake them for confessional Lutherans ( holding to the Augsburg confession) and the Truth as revealed in Scripture.
“Yes it is the same.”
No, it isn’t. I bet you’re often obedient to God. Does that mean you’re sinless?
“Just what do you think sin is?”
Violating the laws of God.
“And there’s only one way to be sinless.”
Hebrews: “Although he was a Son, he LEARNED OBEDIENCE through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.”
Jesus “being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by BECOMING OBEDIENT to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8)
Jesus was sinless by His nature. Jesus was obedient by His choice. Now, someone who is sinless will be obedient to His Father, but that doesn’t mean sinlessness is obedience. And Scripture says it is His obedience that was key.
You, of course, presented not a single verse to back up your erroneous claim. That apparently isn’t going to change either.
I don’t mind teaching you Scripture. Somebody has to. It’s pretty apparent you’re not going to be making a case actually based on Scripture.
I SEE YOU ARE STILL PROTECTED WHILE FEVERISHLY MAKING IT PERSONAL.
So tell me, do you think it’s possible to be sinless and not be obedient?
To do something that is neither sin nor obedient?
Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate you being here on Free Republic.
One thing I encourage every truly saved freeper to do is to remember to pray for all freepers who are not saved and/or are caught up in false doctrine. I do wonder how many of us remember to pray for other freepers? We can share truth with people, but only The Holy Spirit can get it into their hearts and minds, breaking the shackles of their souls delivering them the truth, the eternal salvation that they so desperately need.
“I SEE YOU ARE STILL PROTECTED WHILE FEVERISHLY MAKING IT PERSONAL.”
SkyPilot asked for a list of his errors. I am proving him with one. Why is that a problem for you? I am not violating board rules here.
“So tell me, do you think it’s possible to be sinless and not be obedient?”
So tell me, do you think any answer to that question will change the fact that Scripture said one thing and you said another?
“To do something that is neither sin nor obedient?”
You made a claim. It was false. It was not the only one. You also erroneously said: “Christ did not merit grace for us.” And I pointed out to you: These Protestants say otherwise. Argue with them:
https://www.monergism.com/christ-rightly-and-properly-said-have-merited-grace-and-salvation-us
Of course, once you saw Protestants don’t agree with you, you completely dropped the issue. Why is that?
You didn’t answer the question.
“You didn’t answer the question.”
You still didn’t respond to the fact that Protestants disagree with you. And?
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