Posted on 10/05/2013 10:09:16 PM PDT by jodyel
God is so STINGY with His forgiveness, He won't forgive anybody who doesn't get it JUST RIGHT!
However, it didn't take long for God's complete and perfect Gospel message to be corrupted by religious leaders. These men, who say they speak for God, have distorted and perverted this good news of God's mercy and grace.
Jesus was so stupid, He didn't make provision to protect billions and billions of people from getting His message ALL WRONG and therefore going to HELL!
Reaching those who are being held captive by religious indoctrination must always begin by establishing the Bible as the supreme authority for knowing God's Gospel.
Which is why Jesus never once mentioned to any of his disciples that they should WRITE? Not once. He instructed them to teach and to baptize, but never mentioned writing anything. That's peculiar, if their WRITINGS are the ONLY way for people to know the gospel.
If it is true that ONLY Scripture is the source of truth about God, then necessarily that doctrine must be found in Scripture. (If it's not in Scripture, then it's a human tradition.)
It is not in Scripture. Therefore, it's an extra-biblical tradition. Which means that the doctrine of sola scriptura, not being in Scripture, is self-contradictory.
Each Catholic is taught that their [sic] salvation is utterly dependent upon the ministry of their priests.
False.
Sorry.
No sale.
Bible is a book by men. Some of the Bible contains some hard core propaganda. The Devil quotes the Bible.
Know the Bible but listen to your heart.
Maybe we can generally agree that the man has a valid point in this: We need to sup on God’s Word, mainly, as opposed to being blown and tossed by every wind of doctrine. His conclusions after having thus supped are, as anyone else’s, up for debate.
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
(e-Sword:KJV)
Jesus was so stupid, He didn't make provision to protect billions and billions of people from getting His message ALL WRONG and therefore going to HELL!
Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
If it is true that ONLY Scripture is the source of truth about God [...]
The OP did not say 'ONLY', nor does sola-scriptura. 'Supreme authority' is not 'only'. Try again.
I think you cavil a bit finely when you complain that Jesus “never told a disciple to write.” And so? Jesus also never told a disciple not to engage in buggery, either. What we see in our modern bible is a small but adequate sample of a biography which could easily fill an encyclopedia. In general, “Go and make disciples” would entail writing when that was the medium that made sense. And it turns out that some of those disciples are made through the writings, centuries after the writings. The writings fulfill their purpose.
One ought to look at the context of the verses. The gospel went over like a lead balloon among the Jews. That could possibly be “the few” being referred to. The gospel later got a much heartier reception among the gentiles, who didn’t have a long religious tradition to be proud of and be a stumbling block. At any rate it is the Shepherd who can (and will, if believed upon) get you through the narrow gate. And no matter what other things you also mistakenly believe, if you’ve come to the Shepherd and the Shepherd has you, you’ll get through the gate — maybe it will be a painful journey as he yanks you out of the waters, but you’ll get through it. That has nothing to do with a sign over a worship building. (Sometimes I have to chide Protestants that they aren’t being Protestant enough, that they dip into Catholic beliefs that the doctrine saves you... nope it’s the Person of Christ. Protestant doesn’t mean being a better flavor of Catholic.)
Of course the gospels do not contain every word Jesus ever spoke. And, of course, Jesus did not repeat EVERY teaching of the Jewish faith when those would never be questioned by his audience, such as the Old Testament’s moral teachings.
My point was that it seems improbable that, if God willed that ONLY writings were to be the source of our belief, that those writings themselves would make no mention of that fact.
The Scriptures themselves (the NT) do not contain any statement of the doctrine of sola scriptura.
http://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2011/a-divine-swagger/
What is it that so disturbs unbelievers about some Christians? Why are the nations in an uproar and why are people devising vain things? (Psa. 2:1-2). It happened with Jesus. Repeatedly the Pharisees were enraged at his words and actions (Mark 2:16, 3:6, 12:13; John 8:59, 10:31). It happened with Stephen as he made his defence before the Sanhedrin. They stoned him to death (Acts 7:54-60). It happened repeatedly to Paul. Everywhere he went, especially on his first missionary journey, he was beaten and jailed (Acts 13, 14). Jesus told us to expect it (John 15:19). So did Paul (2 Tim. 3:12).
Thanks for posting anyway.
http://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2011/a-divine-swagger/
What is it that so disturbs unbelievers about some Christians? Why are the nations in an uproar and why are people devising vain things? (Psa. 2:1-2). It happened with Jesus. Repeatedly the Pharisees were enraged at his words and actions (Mark 2:16, 3:6, 12:13; John 8:59, 10:31). It happened with Stephen as he made his defence before the Sanhedrin. They stoned him to death (Acts 7:54-60). It happened repeatedly to Paul. Everywhere he went, especially on his first missionary journey, he was beaten and jailed (Acts 13, 14). Jesus told us to expect it (John 15:19). So did Paul (2 Tim. 3:12).
http://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2011/a-divine-swagger/
What is it that so disturbs unbelievers about some Christians? Why are the nations in an uproar and why are people devising vain things? (Psa. 2:1-2). It happened with Jesus. Repeatedly the Pharisees were enraged at his words and actions (Mark 2:16, 3:6, 12:13; John 8:59, 10:31). It happened with Stephen as he made his defence before the Sanhedrin. They stoned him to death (Acts 7:54-60). It happened repeatedly to Paul. Everywhere he went, especially on his first missionary journey, he was beaten and jailed (Acts 13, 14). Jesus told us to expect it (John 15:19). So did Paul (2 Tim. 3:12).
The Protestant claim (which I have found empirically true) is that the biblical writings are enough to be a spiritual salvational witness link from the 1st century church that wrote them, to modern disciples. Of course there is work of the Holy Spirit being performed here too. Protestants hold that you don’t need to have a physical organizational link to that early church to be brought into the universal church. In fact the way John the Baptist warned the Jews that God could raise sons of Abraham out of the stones, so that basically the physical sons of Abraham shouldn’t get haughty about their lineage, seems to warn against trusting in physical organizational links.
However it remains true that Christ’s audacious promise that the church would not become extinct, kept saving faith alive in the Catholic/Orthodox complex when it was the only game in town.
I am a kind of a weird Protestant, a Crazy Evangelical, who acknowledges genuine saving faith in Christ in all the three branches of modern Christendom. Because it is the Person who saves. I regard the places that Christian worship communities fall down as tragic and sad, but they do not snuff out Christ’s promise.
“Know the Bible but listen to your heart.”
Listen to the bible and engrave it in your heart.
James 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
I've wondered for some time how it's possible, as some people seem to think, to use "religion" as sort of a Bad Word while taking these scriptures seriously.
To me, it's like reading "Rescuing Precious Souls from the Bondage of Hope" or "Rescuing Precious Souls from the Bondage of Humility." Of course, not everything labeled with a Good Word is a good thing. As the example of "hope" well illustrates, an abusive twist on a good thing may be sadly easy and even popular. In such a case, though, why throw out the good thing in response?
“Protestant doesn’t mean being a better flavor of Catholic”
Agreed, HTR!
A crazy Evangelical???
Do tell! lol
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