Posted on 05/18/2015 6:05:47 PM PDT by Old Yeller
It reminds me of the preacher who told me that he keeps every day holy. BUT that is not what God told us to do. By doing a repetitive ritual daily, it becomes a chore, loses significance and hence profanes it under the pretense of a smug holier-than-them attitude. God has a plan. Man does not have a better plan. It is best to stick with Gods plan.
Absolutely...Without a doubt...
Good job bro. 😇
How ironic.....
Bible Christians are quite comfortable with “Christianity Lite.” No need for the Eucharist, no need for the Mass, no need for Marian dogmas, no need for the sacraments, and no need to venerate the saints.
That's right because Jesus did everything we need for us to be saved. He paid the penalty for our sin that we could not pay and then offers it to us as a gift, freely given just for the receiving.
John 1:10-13 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Colossians 2:16-23 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Phillippians 3:2-15 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
aMoreperfectunion was earlier reminded by me that Paul’s listeners, never had that blinding ignorance to inquire from him as to “what” those traditions were, or to demand of him that he provide them all a “list” of such traditions or insist that he “write” down these traditions.”
Failure to answer ampu's questiosn duly noted....
AGAIN......
So......
Just what are those traditions Paul was referring to that he handed down that we are to keep that were not included in Scripture?
How do you know?
How do you know they’re from the apostles, Paul in particular?
How do you know they’ve been passed down faithfully?
Show us where Paul says that tradition trumps Scripture.
What “oral tradition” do you keep that is not found in scripture but that you can prove the apostles taught?
What is your source for verifying all of the above?
Please provide the sources for verification purposes.
Here’s a link to Dominus Iesus. It would take a whole day of careful reading to appreciate its depth and brilliance. It is for good reason that Benedict has been called the theological Einstein of our times.
SPIRITUAL TRUTHS ARE SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-16 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Man's intellectual prowess is meaningless when he is wrong.
Knowledge is not power.
The TRUTH sets you free. And that is found in Scripture.
“My people perish, for lack of knowledge.”
Hosea 4: 6 (KJV) My people perish from a lack of knowledge.
Its one thing to know your Bible, but its an other thing to KNOW the God of the Bible.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, ”The scripture is our inexhaustible textbook, the Lord Jesus our boundless subject and the Holy Spirit our divine infinite helper“.
When Jesus had gone forty days in the desert fasting and praying. Jesus was hungry and at a weak point. One translation says, “he was faint with hunger “. The Devil, the tempter came to him. The question I put to you dear friends is this, when does the Devil tempts you the most ? Its at your weakest moment, its at your weakest point.
How did Jesus handle this moment? He brought God into it. He quoted the Bible, God’s word. Each time the Devil tried to trap Jesus, Jesus would respond, ”It is written!”
Many people are also robbed of blessings that the Bible tells us are ours in Christ Jesus. But because we don’t know it, we never truly live in them?
There was this man in the early 1900 who went on a cruise from England to America. He purchased the ticket. However every night when it was meal time he would stay in his cabin. Because he thought that his ticket only entitled to his travel on the ship, and the cost of the food was not included. So he brought his won food with him to last the whole journey, from England to America. On the last day before the ship reached America the Captain ask him why he had never seen him at meal time. The man explained his reason to the Captain. The Captain replied, ”Sir the ticket included every meal as well“. The man was robbed because of a lack of knowledge.
Charles Haddon Sprugeon tells the story so beautifully of the time he visited a old woman’s house. She was once a servant in the house of a very rich man. He had passed away, and as a gift gave her a piece of paper. The old woman could not read, but thought the design was so pretty that she framed it. When he visited the old woman he looked at the framed piece of paper, it was a cheque. The old woman never knew that she would never have to ask for another penny off anyone, or that her grandchildren would never go hunger again. But she was robbed because of a lack of knowledge.
My friend, don’t let the Devil rob you out of the riches of the Lord because of a lack of knowledge. Because of you not knowing, what is yours in Christ Jesus, by the riches of his grace.
When the devil tries to attack you at your weakest point, your weakest moment. Do what Jesus did, bring God into it. Know your Bible, quote it to him, say, ”It is written!”
The Bible says in Acts 19: 20 (KJV) ” So mighty grew that word of God that it prevailed.” God’s word is an over-coming word. When we get to know more of God’s words and His power we overcome, whatever is thrown at us. Because we know that God’s word will prevail, it will overcome.
Do not only know your Bible, but spend time getting to know the God of the Bible. That you may grow in the knowledge of knowing Jesus, and all that he has made available to you by his blessings and his grace. In doing so let the word of God dwell in your richly that you may know what Jesus Christ has divinely and most graciously given you through the blessings of His divine exchange, at the cross of Calvary. Know and live in the power of being a child of the living God.
-Matthew McDonald
https://peebles.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/my-people-perish-from-a-lack-of-knowledge/
Where is the POWER here?
Catholics like to point out when the CHURCH comes together and makes rules; but tend to ignore the early EVIDENCE of it doing just that...
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.
However; that very same church MUST have removed some things it did NOT like; for...
42 And it came to pass that I, GOD, realized that evil men have removed the PS from the 'letter', that states that you Gentiles MUST also read Matthew 24, Hebrews 6, 2 Peter 2 and Matthew 7 to REALLY understand what I, GOD, meant in the 'letter' that was sent to you Gentiles.
43 So it came to pass that I, GOD, caused my Chosen One, Joseph, to find my Reformed Eygptian words and translate them for you, so that you WILL understand by reading what was meant in Matthew 24, Hebrews 6, 2 Peter 2 and Matthew 7.
44 And it came to pass again that I, GOD, realized that evil men have removed 116 pages from my Chosen One, Joseph's, work causing the Letter to the Gentiles to lose it's PS.
45 Thank the other gods that it has now been restored!
46 And it has come to pass again that I, GOD, realized that men from my TRUE church have ADDED 'chapters' and 'verses' to mine Holy Writings, thus trying to HELP me by making it easier for you Gentiles to find the things that I, GOD, command you to do; thus Matthew 24, Hebrews 6, 2 Peter 2 and Matthew 7 may not have much meaning for you Gentiles.
47 I, GOD, suggest you just read the whole book(s) of Matthew, Hebrews, 2 Peter.
His people also perish from too much knowledge. Remember that tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden? There was knowledge there. Deadly knowledge. Just like water that is needed to sustain life, too much and you can drown. The Words of God hold the knowledge we need. Not some magisterium, rosary beads, repetitive prayers to dead people. There is no substitute for learning God through prayer and the Bible.
God is not encountered through the intellect but through spiritual discernment.
Love cannot be intellectually analyzed.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-16 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.
The Holy Spirit came on the disciples at Pentecost in POWER, not intellectual ability. When the people heard the message, they were cut to the heart, not the mind.
With the mind one can know about God.
With the heart, one can KNOW God.
All our love relationships are about the heart, not the mind. Love cannot be intellectually dissected and analyzed.
All this appeal to the intellect only feeds pride.
1 Corinthians 8:1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
1 Corinthians 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
It wasn’t knowledge that sent Christ to the cross, but love.
Without His love, we’d ALL have perished.
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>> “Reading the mind of another Freeper...” <<
.
The italicized text that you offered did no such thing.
His post clearly read from the posts, not the mind of the other freeper, and reached a logical conclusion therefrom.
He violated no rule, but offered clear insight, gleaned from what the other freeper had repeatedly screeched at us.
This kind of posting is vital to the function of this forum.
Apologies are in order.
.
***So when the Christ says: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church...” these Bible Christians would perhaps answer Him: “We need no church,” “We need no human institution,” “We need no Petrine authority.”***
For a group that detests the Doctrine of Sola Scriptura y'all sure like fragmenting Scripture and building an entire teaching on on that fragment.
Recently I have seen an increase in FRomanists trotting out the fragment "If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church" as some sort of foundation for the authority of Rome. A peek at the ENTIRE PASSAGE shows us something quite different.
Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
This passage is all about one believer sinning against another, and who the aggrieved should proceed. Nothing about a priesthood, a home office in The Vatican. Pure and simple it is about how we are to respond, one on one, to sin, elevating to the local church and how the local church is to respond.
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>> “My people perish, for lack of knowledge” <<
.
That knowledge was specifically “Torah.” the ancient teaching, the gospel, that had been protected in writing, not in the secret whispers of devious nicolaitans in private rooms.
.
Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
This passage is all about one believer sinning against another, and who the aggrieved should proceed. Nothing about a priesthood, a home office in The Vatican. Pure and simple it is about how we are to respond, one on one, to sin, elevating to the local church and how the local church is to respond.
These people can read...They know what it says...They are willfully corrupting the words of God and intentionally deceiving those Catholics who don't know any better; those who won't read the scriptures for themselves...Deceivers...
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