Posted on 07/01/2015 7:13:05 AM PDT by RnMomof7
Recently there has been a surge in prominent Evangelicals calling for unity with Roman Catholicism. In one sense there seems to be strong foundational similarities that would justify these calls to unity. Catholics are baptized in the name of the Trinity. God’s revealed word in the Bible -- setting aside their addition of the Apocryphal books, for argument’s sake -- is foundational to their worldview. Catholics love Christ and believe that he died on the cross and rose again to provide grace for sinners.
Obviously there are theological differences associated with the specific teachings of each one of these perceived similarities, and I do not want to minimize the importance of these differences. But for argument‘s sake, at least on the surface, there is some common ground.
There is also a strong agreement in ethical standards. Both Roman Catholics and Evangelicals ground morality on God’s holy nature as revealed in the law of God. This means that on the hot button moral issues of the day; the murder of the unborn, human sexuality, the sanctity of marriage there is solidarity between Roman Catholic and Evangelical ethics because they are coming from the same source. Again, this seems to justify a call to some sense of unity.
Are these good enough reasons to publically stump for visible unity with Roman Catholics? That question is beyond the scope of this post. But there is a more fundamental question that must be answered first. That question serves as the dividing line between followers of Christ and the world, which separates biblical Christianity from every other worldview; does Rome possess and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
The author of the book of Hebrews in chapter 10 contrasts the gospel with that which is but a shadow of the gospel. He argues:
"And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." -- Heb 10:11–14
The argument being presented here makes it clear that Christ’s singular sacrifice, his death on the cross, perfects those for whom it is made for. This is the gospel. It is contrasted with the shadow of the gospel in which sacrifices were repeatedly made year after year because though they symbolized the atoning and perfecting sacrifice of Christ, they never themselves perfected those for whom they were made. The gospel of Jesus Christ perfects and any other religious strategies cannot.
This principle is directly applicable to the question of Roman Catholicism and the gospel of God. Roman Catholic worship centers on the mass. The mass is a series of liturgical practices that culminates in the Eucharist which according to paragraph 1068 of the Catholic of the Catholic Church (hereafter CCC) is a divine sacrifice. Paragraph 1367 of CCC calls the Eucharist a “truly propitiatory” sacrifice. This sacrifice is performed repeatedly in the life of a Catholic.
The reason the Eucharist is performed repeatedly is because even though it is claimed to be a propitiatory sacrifice that can make reparation for sins (CCC, 1414), it is a sacrifice that never perfects anyone. According to the Catholic message grace is something that you get from God by performing certain acts. First, God gives you the grace for faith in Jesus (CCC, 2000). Second, when you are baptized God graciously erases the sin of Adam from your record (CCC 1257). From that point on you get more grace by doing things like participating in the sacraments, including the Eucharist. The problem is that when you commit sins, you lose some of the grace you have gained and now need more lest your grace be found wanting at final judgment. This forces the Catholic into a position where they need to return day after day, week after week, and year after year to a priest who serves to repeatedly re-present the same sacrifice which never perfects those for whom it is made, since it only offers grace to cover some sin.
This is not the gospel.
Roman Catholics need the gospel for the same reason we all need it. We are all sinners with such a messed up and low view of how holy holiness really is that we think somehow through our own efforts we can attain it. If we just had enough time and willpower we could somehow have our good deeds outweigh our bad, and this will please God just enough for me to be acceptable to him. This is a satanic lie. A satanic lie that to some degree or another we have all bought into at some point in our life.
But the truth is glorious. God is good and God is holy. He is more good and more holy than we can possibly imagine. God is so good and so holy that anything less than absolute perfection is unacceptable in his presence. It is because of God’s awesome goodness and awesome holiness that in his wisdom he has offered us grace, through faith in Christ. A good and holy sacrifice that absolutely without question completely perfects everyone for whom it is made.
The Nephilim ate creatures while they were still alive, including humans. It is why God told Joshua to slaughter every living thing in some villages, because they were so tainted by perversion that nothing was still clean. Some of the Giants described in Indian lore could run alongside a buffalo and grab one up and rip off a leg and begin dining on it before the animal could do the service of dying. The Aztecs cut the hearts out of living sacrifices and held up the still beating heart, to serve their gods. Catholics have just refined the cannibalism to suit ‘modern sensibilities’.
Didn't the pagans commonly accuse the early Christians of cannibalism because the pagans couldn't get beyond a carnal understanding of the Eucharist?
*Squirrel*
" And yet, you carry tons of heavy and needless luggage with you as you worship God day by day."
He ain't heavy. He's my Lord.
If they they come here, pushing blasphemy, I would certainly attack their blasphemous beliefs, but they don't. If the Muzzies came here and started pushing Islam, I would attack their blasphemous beliefs, but they don't. BTW, I am an ex catholic. Have a nice eternity. I plan to. 😇
Exactly, maryz. Exactly.
Here you are portraying a misunderstanding of Catholic teaching. Justification includes the process of sanctification, it is not dependent on it. It is not a question that we need to achieve a certain level of sanctification in order to be justified. As the Catechism states: "Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith." Justification opens us up to the grace of God which truly sanctifies us. Whatever is lacking in this process of sanctification God will complete after death. Through justification we become sanctified; it is not through sanctification that we become justified.
I know that Protestants like to throw around the charge that Catholics believe in works salvation but this is not true. Again from the Catechism: "Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ [emphasis in the original] who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men." No one earns his salvation, it is a pure gift from God.
Just some you say? I would say it is just a little bit more than "some"
John 3: 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to him by night, and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can't see the Kingdom of God."4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God! 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don't marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew.' 8 The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
9 Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?" 10 Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and don't understand these things? 11 Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don't receive our witness. 12 If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God So Loved
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn't believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn't come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God."<.blockquote>
A Brass snake lifted up in the desert, to focus the faith of Israelites, not eat the brass snakes. In a few generations the Israelites would be making little snake idols to empower themselves, worshipping the earthy thing which was used to focus their Faith, as if making an idol of it could force God's response.
Next we will look at the Upper Room Seder.
With ISIS killing Christians, wouldn’t one think that Christians could stop attacking other Christians? This boggles the mind. What a waste.
I wonder if the Nephilim were the first cannibals that came along? They were infernal creatures for sure. My opinion is, they were the reason for the Flood.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the perishable.
The Body that the risen and glorifed Jesus has is NOT a human body as we understand it.
The body of flesh and blood cannot walk through walls nor can it disappear or rise into heaven and survive.
The argument that, Well, God can do anything He wants so we can presume He did, is one of the most desperate grasping at straws that I’ve seen.
Jesus blood was poured out for our sin. The CCC states that the sacrifice of the mass is a bloodless sacrifice, which makes it in effect, totally useless.
And yet Catholics will go through amazing mental gymnastics to rationalize how there could be blood for them to drink, when His blood is gone, and why they can eat it when it’s been forbidden as a perpetual decree to be eaten anyway.
Such desperation in trying to rationalize a cherished belief rather than examinging it in light of Scripture to see if it’s correct or not, is a sign of spiritual deception.
Luke 22:14 When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles. 15 He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, 16 for I tell you, I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." 17 He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, "Take this, and share it among yourselves, 18 for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God comes." 19 He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me." 20 Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.
Jesus called what was in the cup 'fruit of the vine', WINE! Jesus said after the meal that the cup of the new covenant was POURED OUT FOR THEM. This was the last cup of four, and Jesus POURED IT OUT showing He would not drink again until in the Kingdom with them, a future event soon to be realize in our epoch. Jesus poured out the fourth cup signifying He was about to pour out His perfect sinless blood for them in just a few hours.
Levitical Law forbade the drinking of blood. Jesus said plainly that He came to fulfill the law not to cancel it. He was sitting at Passover, the Commemoration of the Time God's death Angel passed over the first born of Israel because of the blood of the sacrifice spread upon the doorpost and Lintel. The Passover Seder has more than just the flight out of Egypt in the ceremony. Catholics won't want you to know about those other aspects because it will further expose the heresies they teach as sacred in their pagan blood on the altar for the worshippers to consume.
It is noteworthy fro readers to see what these apologists for this blasphemy use when they are cornered. 'God can change the laws, he is god. Or the one most shocking 'Catholics eat His body and blood to get His Life in them.' Such foolishness belies the reality that they have not a clue how to be born from above and Have God Put His Holy Spirit Life in Them.
Read the Catholic Catechism and see that they are teaching the people their priests 'bring the Christ down from Heaven' to be truly, really, and substantially present in body, blood, soul and divinity' in the Catholic wafer! Then they will try to tell US that this is not cannibalizing because it is not a real finger or a toe in the wafer, just 'the real and truly substantial body. blood, soul, and divinity' of the Christ in the catholic magic wqafer of pagan worship, placed upon a Catholic altar then fed to the poor duped followers of this pagan ritual.
If someone is pretending to eat the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of The Christ brought down from Heaven onto a catholic altar, then it is not likely they are ‘fellow Christians’. But I have to admit, I have seen similar chicanery from someone I truly believe died a Christian though trapped in Mormonism.
Yes, God decided to wipe them out and restart with the only untainted ones, those in Noah’s family. But the Bible tells us that these filthy creature were also around AFTER the flood, and they occupied the lands God sent the Israelites to occupy. God Promised those lands to Abram’s seed forever, and satan had tried to occupy it with his filth.
...because you’ve posted so here on FR.
The implication being, the entire human race was somehow tainted by the Nephilim. You are right, I know they were around later. I think Goliath was a descendant of them. He had 6 fingers. My opinion is, the Nephilim were Satan's attempt at corrupting the royal bloodline, through which Jesus would be born. Check your freep mail.
Do you believe and consent the assertion #1376 of the Catholic Catechism?
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