Posted on 01/04/2011 4:22:02 AM PST by NYer
Well at least, you agreed I had a point. ;)
Copied and saved!
Even MORE scripture!
It is not just an empty ritual.
You have proven it is a well-scripted empty ritual.
Including the expected responses from the attendees.
Isn't Scripture just supposed to be bound in a book that you have to carry to an alleluiah service? I think that requirement must be in Scripture somewhere.
I understand the point of your post and that a "big picture explanation" in life "according to the whole" is certainly the way to go.
However, to believe that Rome embraces "the big picture" is somewhat misleading. It's like saying Stalin "saw the big picture."
He did. But of what?
After all this time on FR I've come to the conclusion that while dispensationalism is a mischaracterization of Christian expectations and actually works against the Holy Spirit's positive influence in men's lives and the world around us, it pales in comparison to the 24% of the American population who believe in "another Christ" and "a co-redeemer" and a works-based salvation and the alchemy of the mass and the necessity of a recurring sacrifice and confessions made to a hierarchical priesthood of elevated human beings and mystical relics and empty rituals and an infallible bunch of old guys dressed in long robes and funny hats who presume to be the sole conduit for the Holy Spirit while actually possessing a seat at the UN (thank you, Ronald Reagan,) all the while dismissing, denying and deflecting the holy Scriptures and their clear teaching of salvation by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for God's glory alone, made known to us by His holy, perfect word, our only rule of faith and practice.
In fact, as is so often the case, the roots of dispensationalism flow from the counter Reformation. Up until then, Luther, Calvin and all the reformers taught that the antiChrist was the papacy as depicted in Revelation. Then along comes a Jesuit priest, Francisco Rivera, who writes that while the first three books of Revelation had already occurred, the rest of Revelations had yet to happen, thereby giving a convenient pass to the papacy as the beast of prophecy.
For anyone interested, here's an interesting site...
And in conclusion...from Topcat54's excellent homepage...
"Rome has not essentially changed. Rome declared that what it said at the time of the Reformation was infallible and could not change. Declared it to be irreformible truth. Rome has not changed and precious truths of God's word are still worth upholding even at the cost of unity even at the cost of being considered "troublemakers" in the religious world. We need to guard the antithesis against the destructive error of Rome." -- Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen "The Reformation is dying daily in our day when the Ecumenical Movement, and other forces like unto it, wish to soften the antithesis with Rome, today. I want to assure you that it's not my pugnacious debating nature that makes me say we must exalt that antithesis and guard it. It's my love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the purity of His word.
Reformed theology also addresses all of life, and challenges us to bring all we have to the game. Including our minds. My life, family, and vocation were transformed when a guy I'd evangelized ten years earlier turned me on to "Calvinism on steroids." There is a God, and I'm not Him.
Amen, brother!
All for the glory of Christ alone. I once was blind, but now I see, all by grace and none of me.
More often I hear non-Catholics who want to be known by others by their associations call themselves Christian, which seems to have replaced the term Protestant in this era of relativism.
It is still grievous to the heart to see people isolate themselves from the One True Hope, and continually live ‘in the moment’ without giving any thought to eternity. Regardless of the name of their church.
Love them, because they show how God is always at work in our lives, and has this funny way of taking the things we're most sure about and standing them on their heads.
And hate them, because He's stood me on my head more than a few times, and it's rarely fun at the time.
(As it happens, my Sunday School lesson next week is on how God doesn't do things the way we expect Him to do them...)
I'm glad we both agree that "once saved, always saved" is a false doctrine.
Be careful, son. Keep on making comments like that and folks might think you're my paid shill ...
Show me in Scripture where it says worshipping God for even just a moment is a bad thing.
Or are you referring to confessing your sins to a man?
James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective". Do you confess your sins to another person as instructed by Scripture?
Or maybe praying to some other intercessory other than Jesus like Mary, the saints, etc.?
1 Tim 2:1 "I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people?" Pray tell, there is nothing wrong with asking others who are in Christ to pray for you, is there?
Relationship with God? More like relationship with the church.
Yes a relationship with God and His Church.
My main concern and prayer is for the Church to be ONE. The Church has been the one thing that has held back the hand of evil in our world in the manifestation of Communism. Our culture and Faith has been under attack for generations by the disciples of Marx.
The Italian marxist, Antonio Gramsci, understood that it was the Catholic Church (also all of Christianity, but he specified the Catholic Church) that was standing in the way of marxism taking hold in the hearts of men. He realized that to win the hearts of men, a cultural war had to be declared on Christianity. Communists shifted their focus on culture from economics. Political Correctness is the result of this.
To win back our culture and our nation the Church must be united so that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
My main concern and prayer is for the Church to be ONE. The Church has been the one thing that has held back the hand of evil in our world in the manifestation of Communism. Our culture and Faith has been under attack for generations by the disciples of Marx.
The Italian marxist, Antonio Gramsci, understood that it was the Catholic Church (also all of Christianity, but he specified the Catholic Church) that was standing in the way of marxism taking hold in the hearts of men. He realized that to win the hearts of men, a cultural war had to be declared on Christianity. Communists shifted their focus on culture from economics. Political Correctness is the result of this.
To win back our culture and our nation the Church must be united so that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
yes, I agree you had a point :) God Bless you and Praise Jesus
Thanks to OpusatFr for this #57 — I’m going to post it on my homepage so the next time anyone asks us for the scriptural basis for the mass, it’s there for ready reference!
And it's simply not true either!
This is truly a remarkable and excellent example of how any old ignorant falsehood is marshalled against us and glommed onto to those who are not so much looking for the truth as they are looking for a reason to "refudiate" the Catholic Church.
FYI: At the prayer of consecration in my parish ONLY on special days when we're putting on the dog, a kind of handbell thing is rung at the epiclesis and several times during the "Words of Institution" which we think are when God graciously fulfills his promise with respect to the transubstantiation of the element in question.
In the Latin Rite churches, the prayer of consecration has a prescribed form. At the beginning everyone able to stand is standing. There's a dialogue between the celebrant and the congregation. That leads into the Sanctus, which is said or sung while all stand.
THEN everyone kneels except the celebrant. He praises God and asks the Holy Spirit to bless the 'gifts'. That's the "epiclesis." One ringing.
Then there is the narrative of the Institution almost word-for-word as Paul gives it. The bells are rung at various points in that part.
The prayer continues. Then we all stand for the Lord's prayer.
Note that we were all on our knees before any bell-ringing happened and remained on our knees after the bell ringing stopped, and no one but sick people was sitting at all.
I recommend taking what your cousin says as less than 100% reliable.
And if anyone thinks himself to be religious, not restraining his tongue but deceiving his own heart, that man's religion is vain. Religion pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to give aid to orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from this world.
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