Posted on 06/09/2017 3:42:27 AM PDT by JosephJames
That pretty much sums it up for the RCC when they had everyone under their thumb and full control of the Bible. Thank God for Luther! We are now free from the yoke of Rome. We can worship God in our own way. Just like Abraham, Moses and the prophets. Let God judge us and not (inquisition) Rome. God left us His Word not a denomination.
I guess you must have missed this one.
The point of the "few Bible verses" as you called them is to point out that we have the Holy Spirit and Jesus interceding on our behalf.
I guess somehow in Roman Catholicism that is insufficient.
Why do you ask others to pray for you? Who would have the most influence before God, to pray and intercede for us, the Mother of God or who?
The Bible teaches otherwise.
5But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-7 NASB
26In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27
34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:34
We can approach the throne of Grace and fellowship with and ask God for our requests. In His sovereign will He will answer.
But if it will make you happy I'll answer your other question in your original post.
Why do you ask others to pray for you?
We have the NT examples of believers praying FOR each other...not TO each other as the Catholic does with Mary.
When Paul prays or he tells us to pray it is always directed TO GOD...not created beings.
Further what we do not see in the NT are the disciples making idols of Mary or praying to those who've died before them.
In fact, after Acts 1 Mary pretty much drops out of the picture.
Christ could have founded the Church with 12 perfect angels from heaven instead of 12 apostle who were sinners. Did Christ make a mistake?
Nope. He never makes mistakes.
Or are you suggesting that Christ should have founded the Church with 12 men as yourself?
Actually, the disciples were all flawed individuals. They were sinners. They were selfish. They were by no means perfect.
If you are a follower of Christ today....you are one of His disciples upon whom He continues to build His ekklesia.
I am a disciple of Christ. I follow Him and believe His promises. Do you?
There are very numerous examples in the whole Bible how God uses human instruments to accomplish His will and holy designs, even though God could have done it Himself. It takes humility to submit to God’s designs in which God chose to use men as instruments of salvation, instead of bypassing this humiliation and going straight to God. After all, I am worthy to go straight to God, and I do not need anyone to pray for me or intercede for me or anything else. Because I am I!
11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 3:11-12 NASB
For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Ephesians 2:18 NASB
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16 NASB
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2 NASB
19Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:19-25 NASB
13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5:13-15 NASB
The same Creator Who gave His only begotten Son as a one-time sacrifice for our sins has promised us He will listen to our prayer requests and He will answer in accordance with His will.
The Christian can approach the Creator with confidence.
Nonsense.
Mary is not capable of saving anyone.
She is not God and she does not have the power to infuse life into the dead soul and regenerate it.
Which is what Peter stated.
Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Actually, it must be more what the Catholic ignores because Scripture is so clear on it.
The verse didn't say we have to BECOME little children.
We must become LIKE little children.
Your question fails.
God is not influenced by people and positions or status.
James tells us that being a respecter of persons is a sin.
If God were influenced by one person over against another, He would be being a respecter of persons and thus sinning.
Any believer can come before God in the name of Jesus and expect to have his prayers answered as Jesus promised he would.
False premise.
NOBODY is "worthy" to come before God.
We come to Him because He called us and wants us to come to Him.
We come to Him because He invites us to.
Being "worthy" to come before God is a Catholic construct because it is NEVER mentioned in Scripture anywhere.
Teaching that someone can make themselves worthy or become worthy is a false teaching.
Patter of fact, the persons who realized they were NOT worthy were the ones God listened to.
He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Oh wow, this should be a nice quiet thread full of congeniality. Yes yes.
Catholicism must cannot stand the light of scrutiny.
A good post, funny I was thinking of the same fact myself today while praying (the Rosary even, {gasp}) : that God has chosen and continues to choose constantly, throughout history, men as instruments. Period.
Men (and women too of course, before I’m mistaken for a misogynist), not some thing, not angles or even signs or miracles by themselves, but all wonderful things done through men not in spite of them, this is always God’s choice. Again throughout all of history.
Why some doubt even today that this is the case is beyond my understanding anymore. One can’t have God using men, who are by their nature “visible”, that is “carnal” or “in the world” as a “light”, and at the same time believe in some “invisible church”. It makes no sense.
But to each his own I guess. Good luck though, should you (Joseph James, and anyone else really) wish to try to convince the rebellious of this obvious fact. It is a rebellion to deny this obvious plan of God; He Himself chose to become Incarnate. That alone should be enough to settle all of this.
But some still seek a “sign”, rather than look for God in reality.
Those seeking a sign would be the Catholic with the apparitions they call Mary.
You write “Thank God for Luther!”. Then it is Luther who is infallible? You did not touch the fundamental question here: How can I be sure that I am interpreting a particular passage of the Bible according to God and not according to my own subjectivism or according to someone else’s subjectivism or opinion?
You did not offer a solution to the problem that I wrote below:
“There are thousands of independent protestants groups in the USA. Just about all of them claim to have the same God, the same Jesus and the same Bible, but they end up interpreting many fundamental passages in very contradictory ways. Did Jesus, the Son of God, not know that this would happen? Did Jesus not offer a solution to this confusion before He ascended into heaven? Is every Christian an infallible interpreter of the Bible and infallibly led by the Holy Spirit? If that is true, why are there these fundamental differences?”
BEFORE 1930 ALL MAINLINE PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS WERE IN ACCORD WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH that the use of artificial birth control was a grave evil and a serious sin. When the Anglican Church changed its stance in 1930 (Lambeth Conference) the other protestants churches quickly followed suit while Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the Church’s constant teaching on this grave evil in his encyclical Casti Cannubii (1930). When the Anglican Church first approved the use of contraception in 1930 it was only for serious reasons and only for married people who have been generous for life. However, by providing an opening for contraception, the qualifying phrase “for serious reason” was quickly ignored. Subsequently the use of contraception was viewed as virtuous behavior, and even the silent holocaust of abortion has become a private ethical choice of birth control. The unborn, unwanted babies no longer have any legal protection; they are now ripped to pieces after they are brutally murdered. BABIES DO NOT CHOOSE TO DIE! Is this not a good example of the slippery slope? The former Hippocratic oath for health care workers read: “I will administer no abortafacient to a pregnant woman.” The original Hippocratic oath acknowledged that abortion was a form of doing violence not only to the child but to the woman as well.
Thus, regarding the use of contraception, if I am a sincere Christian and I want to discover the will of God, am I to follow the followers of Luther according to you?
I truly believe that if a person is sincere and lives the Our Father, “THY will be done”, and not “MY will be done”, God will not deceive this person and this person will find the true will of God even if this person discovers that he has to change his life and thus carry the cross of Christ. But if a person does not have this humility of sincerity, he will end up deceiving himself, taking the easy way, and interpreting the Sacred Scriptures while eliminating the cross. Such a person who has willing deceived himself by not seeking the Truth outside of his own head, does not want to be with the Truth outside of his head and will associate himself only with those in agreement with himself. Thus when this person dies, he will willing throw himself in the eternal place where there is not the Eternal Immutable Truth. No one is forced to seek the Truth Who is God (Jn 14:6), and God will not force anyone to be with Him here on earth nor for all eternity.
As I wrote below: “In heaven there is room for one God not two!” Someone once said that above the gates of hell is written the title of the song (Frank Sinatra): “I Did It My Way”!
They are made using the lessor sign < followed by p, then the greater than sign >.
Just as Christ was crucified and buried 2000 years ago, so too His Body, the Church, will be crucified and buried in this period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21). Only after this, when it seems that the Church is totally dead and buried, when Satan and his very numerous followers seem to have total victory, then the “Woman clothed with the sun” (Rev 12:1) will crush the head of the “great red dragon” (Rev 12:3), the ancient serpent (Gen 3:15), and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph (Fatima, 1917) and there will be the Resurrection of Jesus with His Body, the purified Church!
You do realize you have serious doctrinal problems in your post as I've already noted.
Will you admit this and remove these?
Further, will you accept the challenge I've put before other Roman Catholics none of whom have accepted thus far.
Will you:
Throw away your scapular and/or miraculous medal?
Will you throw away your "statues" of Mary?
Will you cease kneeling before these "statues" of Mary and praying before these and lighting candles to these "statues"?
One does not have to be infallible to discern evil. The evil that had crept into the RCC was appalling to Luther. At one time he loved the Roman church until he saw its sordid side. God spoke to him. God called him. The Church was in serious error.
How can I be sure that I am interpreting a particular passage of the Bible according to God ?
#1 It is MY soul at risk and God gave me a brain to think and a heart to be moved by the Holy Spirit.
#2 I would NOT trust a church whose history is bloodstained with martyrs they tortured and burned.
#3 God left us an Example in the life of Jesus Christ. Live as He lived. Follow His example.
#4 Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Nothing in the Gospel about praying to Mary (Mariology), rosaries, Popes, indulgences or statues. Jesus alone is our intercessor.
#5 The Gospel is simple. And I don't worry about thousands of independent churchs preaching something different about minor issues and I don't see why that would bother you. It sure doesn't bother me.
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