Posted on 02/07/2015 8:21:40 AM PST by RnMomof7
Last installment ...how Rome lost the gospel
Yet we will be judged according to our works...
There’s “works”...and then there’s “works”. :-)
In other words, the term is used differently by different speakers/writers in the Bible. We have to understand how each is using it, otherwise we won’t understand what he’s saying.
I look at what was said about separating the sheep from the goat...” When did we see you hungry., naked, poor? What you did for the least of these , you did to me. Accounts if the judgement make no references to faith alone. But I am no exegete...I would presume that loving Jesus would translate into the desire to do well by the most vulnerable in society. To me, having faith and doing nothing...would be reprehensible. I would not want to stand before my judge and say yea, well, I didn’t do any of that...but hey I believed in you...ain’t that enough?
Godly sorrow which leads to repentance: the most significant component of salvation which has been lost by the “church” as it has softened the Gospel message, and which has led to apostasy at best and, more likely, countless false conversions.
Even if we are, since the believer who has been born again by faith in Jesus Christ, is good to go because the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to him, credited to his account.
When God looks at that believer, He sees the righteous life of Christ.
The Official Adoption of an Apostate GospelThough the Councils of Orange (in 441 and 529) condemned the synergism of semi-Pelagianism, the medieval Catholic church eventually came to define justification in synergistic terms (meaning that the church presented salvation as a cooperative effort between God and man).
In the thirteenth century, at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the Roman Catholic church officially made salvation contingent on good works by establishing the seven sacraments as the means by which sinners are justified.
As Norm Geisler [full disclosure: I had Norm Geisler as a prof. Brilliant] and Josh Betancourt explain in their book, Is Rome the True Church?:
Roman Catholicism as it is known today is not the same as the Catholic Church before 1215. Even though the split between East and West occurred in 1054, most non-Catholics today would have been able to belong to the Catholic Church before the thirteenth century. Regardless of certain things the church permitted, none of its official doctrinal proclamations regarding essential salvation doctrines were contrary to orthodoxy.
While the development of Roman Catholicism from the original church was gradual, beginning in early centuries, one of the most significant turning points came in 1215, when one can see the beginning of Roman Catholicism as it is subsequently known. It is here that the seeds of what distinguishes Roman Catholicism were first pronounced as dogma. It is here that they pronounced the doctrine of transubstantiation, the primacy of the bishop of Rome, and seven sacraments.
Many consider this a key turning point in the development of Roman Catholicism in distinction from non-Catholic forms of Christianity.vi
There, fixed that statement.
>>The indulgence system allowed corrupt popes to use their religious position to extort money from spiritually desperate people on the false notion that sinners can purchase God’s grace for a price.<<
They only scaled that back. Today they still have to "merit" grace through some sort of ritual or another which of course can only be gotten through the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
Lot of words to once again bash Catholicism. The whole article is based on the false premise that “sinners are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.”
False, because it can not be reconciled with James 2: 17 “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”.
While Catholicism has had its problems over the years, don’t use that as justification to preach a false gospel. “And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18
The subversion of Christianity through its merger with the Roman state of Constantine; saddling the teaching and propagation of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ with the trappings of a secular empire, the invention of a “Christian” Prince (aka Pope) and surrounding him with a panoply of dukes, earls, etc, etc, etc, a putative “Christian” equivalent of the secular kingdoms of Europe, absent any model prescribed by the Bible of Christendom. And to what end; a response to which of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth or of the disciples whom he chose and charged with a preaching, teaching mission?
“False, because it can not be reconciled with James 2: 17 “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”.
The Gospel of Grace is EASILY reconciled with James!
Saving faith always produces the life of Christ living inside us, demonstrated by good works.
Claiming to have faith, yet failing to have the life of Christ resulting in works, is not saving faith.
Come out from among them and be holy.
The sheep were separated from the goats before they stood before the throne. Amongst those goats there will be people who do good deeds civilly but have no time for God, why will they be with the goats?
I hear all the time from Baptists, Evangelicals, etc. that God does 99% of what we need for salvation but we have to exert that 1% - that faith is mostly a gift from God but there is part of it we must do, out of our own willpower and goodness and strength. You realy have to “mean business” enough, you have to be sincere enough, you have to be strong enough, you have to make yourself pure enough. But somehow a soul dead in trespasses and sins must first start to quicken itself out of its own power and God will see that and finish the job.
I just HATE when that happens!!
Really, really, REALLY hate it!!
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon[a] has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16 “‘After this I will return
and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
and I will restore it,
17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’[b]—
18 things known from long ago.[c]
19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
The apostles and elders, your brothers,
To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.
24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
Farewell.
30 So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. 33 After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. [34] [d] 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.
“In contrast, the Reformers insisted that Christ alone is the head of the church. Any other self- proclaimed “head” constituted an imposter and a fraud. “
can’t disagree with that. thanks for posting. interesting article
Man’s way of righteousness is impossible, whereas God’s way is possible.
Ever driven up a mountain? If you just point your car at the top and hit the gas, you’ll find it’s impossible. But if there’s a road that switchbacks and curves around, you can drive up it. (Not the best analogy, I’m sure, but I hope it makes the point.)
Man’s only way of righteousness is perfection in law-keeping - being able to enter a “not guilty” plea before the Judge. God’s way of righteousness is forgiveness - entering a plea of “guilty as charged” and throwing ourselves on the mercy of the Court. And if the Judge sets out conditions for our acquittal, we jump at them with eagerness and gratitude.
Does that help any?
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
I guess that to me...if one has belief...the one will want to do what he commands...takes both
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