I agree that we have bigger problems, but this is one of the reasons I switched to a nondenominational church that uses the Bible as it's basis for the teachings that go on. Our pastor makes no bones about anything the Bible says and will unashamedly teach it "as is" no matter how many might take offense. Faith in God and the Gospel of the New Testament and it's message of Grace through Jesus' supreme sacrifice of Love are the foundations of Christianity; the elevating of mortals, by other mortals seems to be putting the wrong sort of emphasis out there. I prefer that our spiritual leaders ask for God's blessings rather than thinking they can confer them.
God Bless.
I prefer that our spiritual leaders ask for God's blessings rather than thinking they can confer them. Sure about that?
Matthew 18:18
"Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven."
"...I switched to a nondenominational church that uses the Bible as it's basis for the teachings that go on."
Did you know that the Catholic Church decided which books would form the New Testament that you use today? You can thank the Catholic Church for the Bible you use today. Are you not relying on the authority of the Church every time you pick up your Bible?
EXCERPT from Rev. Henry Graham's "Where We Got the Bible":
Now we know that the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament were read aloud to the congregations of Christians that met on the first day of the week for Holy Mass (just as they are still among ourselves), one Gospel here, another there; one Epistle of St Paul in one place, another in another; all scattered about in various parts of the world where there were bodies of Christians. And the next question that naturally occurs to us is, when were these separate works gathered together so as to form a volume and added to the Old Testament to make up what we now call the Bible? Well, they were not collected for the best part of three hundred years. So that here again I am afraid is a hard nut for Protestants to crack, viz. — That though we admit that the separate works composing the New Testament were now in existence, yet they were for centuries not to be found altogether in one volume, were not obtainable by multitudes of Christians, and even were altogether unknown to many in different parts of the world. How then, could they possibly form a guide to Heaven and the chart of salvation for those who had never seen or read or known about them? It is a fact of history that the Council of Carthage, which was held in 397 A.D., mainly through the influence of St Augustine, settled the Canon or Collection of New Testament Scriptures as Catholics have them now and decreed that its decision should be sent on to Rome for confirmation. No Council (that is, no gathering of the Bishops of the Catholic Church for the settlement of some point of doctrine) was ever considered to be authoritative or binding unless it was approved and confirmed by the Roman Pontiff, while the decisions of every General Council that has received the approval of Rome are binding on the consciences of all Catholics. The Council of Carthage, then, is the first known to us in which we find a clear and undisputed catalogue of all the New Testament books as we have them in Bibles now.
http://catholicity.elcore.net/GrahamOnNewTestamentCanon.html