Posted on 09/25/2013 8:27:57 PM PDT by WXRGina
The church is always referred to in feminine terms. It’s the “bride of Christ”. Even in Revelation the term is “come out of her”. I don’t believe it can be the church.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Abide with those in the “church”. It doesn’t say He will be on the earth forever.
Acts 2:16-21 He did that in the Old Testament also but there was no indwelling.
Revelation 12:17 is talking about Israel and the keeping of the commandments. There is no indwelling but only the external law keeping.
Revelation 19:10 That is taking place in heaven and there is no indication of the Holy Spirit being present on earth as He is today during the church age.
Revelation 7: 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
There robes were washed after they were killed. Unlike today when we have been washed already. During the tribulation the Holy Spirit functions on earth as He did before the ascension of Jesus. He is no longer the restrainer as He is now during this age.
>>One more thing, because I know it will come up: calling the Church "he". It is called the "one new man", masculine.
No it isn’t. Ephesians 2:15 is not talking about the church. It’s talking about the two distinct personages of Jesus while He was on earth. He was fully man and fully God. When He “abolished in His flesh” He was making “of twain” one new man.
Ephesians 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.
Ephesians 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Is talking about Christ being the perfect man. I know that one can be confusing but if you read it in the Greek the word order is different. We will mature to the same level of knowledge as Christ when He was a perfect man.
1 Corinthians 12 When a man and a woman get married they become one. That doesn’t mean the woman becomes male.
other Christian.....if you’re not Catholic nor protestant, what “other Christians are there???
of course being used by God to accomplish a goal does not save anyone....but it certainly points to a head start!!! without the early Christians, becoming known as Catholoics, you would have no idea whatsoever, of who Jesus was.....yes, it was God who used the Catholics to preserve His message...nevertheless they did it and you should be thankful
do you even own a bible????does it have the old and new testament in it??? Of course Jesus read in the synagogues, but He read from the old testament. We, however, need both the old and new testaments to have a bible....(the old testament, alone, is not a bible...) it is through the efforts of the Catholic church that we do, indeed have both. Without them you'd read ONLY the old testament.....there was no one else to carry it to us...
Wow! Are you clairvoyant as well? Or puporting to read their mind? Telling someone what they know! I thought Catholics didn't like when people do that.
Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Hmmm, they must of only done that when the apostles were with them. Oh wait, they did that even when the apostles weren’t there! And now you say the apostles “were the only ones in possession of the scriptures”? The Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write that they had the scriptures and you say they didn’t. Who to believe?
please
We need no earthly bureaucracy to be followers of Jesus. Being saved is between me and HIM, I do not need a Priest, a Bishop or Pope.. none of which are biblical.
As soon as you give thanks to and venerate Judas. I’ll continue to give the glory and credit to God.
..is that so repugnant to you that you can’t grasp reality?????
The Gospel was preached to the world in the same manner.
well, let's see, we can either go back to follow the Jewish teachings or we might observe that they missed the coming of Christ as the messiah that they had been waiting for...The Jews were adequately forewarned of the coming of the Messiah, and through the pride and arrogance of the Jewish rulers, they missed the boat....too bad, so sad.
You seem to be missing the point:
The Pharisees believed in TWO Torahs delivered on Sinai: One written (the Books of Moses), and one oral (The Jewish tradition... Talmud and Mishna, etc).
They held their oral tradition and authority to be equal to, or above the written Word.
They claimed their oral tradition and authority was verified only by way of succession.
They claimed the sole authority to determine and interpret Scripture.
They claimed infallibility.
They claimed to call down YHWH by means of their rites and utterances.
They claimed the right to change the law by way of their tradition.
They claimed the right to lord over the laity, and dressed in opulence, while claiming poverty and servitude.
They claimed to be 'God on earth' vicariously.
The comparison goes on and on...
But moreover, they claimed they would never ever fail, because YHWH said He was with them forever (in the Torah, no less)...
Any of that sounding vaguely familiar?
How did all that turn out? I will tell you: They were stone_dead_wrong.
What is it that makes y'all think it will be any different for you?
Y'all have been adequately warned of the coming of Messiah too. Will you listen?
Yet you very matter of factly stated a number as if it were the number. Now you backtrack.
I care not of denominatons, nor does God.
It's been explained to you many times what makes up the church that Jesus started, and it most certainly isn't Catholics except for the few (realitively) that are born again, or "from above" as Catholics prefer to say.
All who have decided to repent and follow Jesus are Christians, and the sum of those make up the church. Period. Same as it was in the first century.
Catholicism is no more important than any of the other denominations.
Terycarl, you are misinterpreting what Jesus said. As the column above points out, and as all of Scripture makes plain, Jesus is the Rock, the Foundation, of His church, certainly not Peter.
"Protestant" is a false label. Bible-believing Christians are not protesting anything, but whatever. As I have already said, you--a catholic--and I will never agree, only reach impasse after impasse. It is futile to argue, and I will only do it for a short time before bidding you good day.
Mercifully so, we must think. Thank you for the sage thoughts. You are an unfailing blessing.
I understand where you’re coming from. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I think this might be a FIRST, CB! You make good points, but for now, and until I study this more thoroughly, I have to stay in this position. Not to say it won’t change, but for now...And you WILL be the first to know if my mind is changed :)
smvoice
LOL I had the same struggle as you are going through. Just remember that the “church” which is us, couldn’t restrain the adversary without the Holy Spirit. So who is it exactly who is doing the restraining? Man or the Holy Spirit?
I don’t know for sure, but one thing I DO know for sure: we are doing exactly as the Bereans did. I searched the Scriptures and gave you my reading, you searched the Scriptures and gave me your reading, and I’m going back to the Scriptures to go over your reading. THIS is what constructive and thorough Bible study is all about! Thanks for your hard work, your dedication to the Scriptures and your knowledge of God’s Word of Truth!
So thankful to be IN CHRIST,
smvoice
Amen, Amen, and Amen!
just a thought...salt is used to slow the decay of ‘meat’
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