Posted on 07/12/2020 5:39:35 AM PDT by metmom
"This precious value, then, is for you who believe" (1 Pet. 2:7).
Love for Christ is the primary characteristic of a true believer.
First Peter 2:7 speaks of the believer's affection for Christ as contrasted to an unbeliever's rejection of Him. The first part of that verse could be translated, "To you who believe, He is precious." "Precious" means "valuable," "costly," "without equal," or "irreplaceable." Christ is all that, but only believers recognize His supreme value and regard Him with affection.
Affection for Christ is the bottom-line characteristic of true believers. Believing in Him and loving Him are inseparable. In John 16:27 Jesus says, "The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed." In Matthew 10:37 He says, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." Believers have a compelling and surpassing love for Christ.
To His antagonists Jesus declared, "If God were your Father, you would love Me" (John 8:42). Anyone who truly loves God will love Christ. Those antagonists claimed to be children of God, but their deception was revealed when they tried to kill Jesus for preaching God's truth. They were in fact children of the devil (v. 44).
In John 14 Jesus adds, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. . . . He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him. . . . If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words" (vv. 15, 21, 23- 24).
Many people are confused about what it means to be a Christian. But you have the privilege of clarifying the issue as you esteem Christ highly, love Him deeply, and demonstrate your love by obeying His Word. May God bless you richly as you pursue that goal today.
Suggestions for Prayer
Ask God to give you opportunities to demonstrate Christ's love in specific ways to those around you.
For Further Study
Read 1 John 4:7-5:3.
How did John characterize God? What affect should your love for God have on your relationships with others? How did John define love?
Studying God’s Word ping
Jesus said...I am the Way, & the Truth, & the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.............Matt. 14:6. For those who say there is another way to God.
Jesus said...I am the Way, & the Truth, & the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.............Matt. 14:6. For those who say there is another way to God.
Sorry for the double post, it was unintended.
“He who does not love Me does not keep My words” (vv. 15, 21, 23- 24).
How does one who claims faith and love but does not believe in the Word of God reconcile with God?
Are there Truths in the Bible that we are required to believe to have faith in God?
Why do some christian religions have many doctrines that disagree with each other and God’s Word?
Are there false prophets and false teachers in the christian religions as warned by Jesus?
Are Protestant doctrines false teachings?
Sola Scritptura? Appears as a new doctrine in 16th century
Sola Fides? (James 2;24; Matt 12:36-37 and Romans 2:6)
Once save always saved (Mt 10:22)
Body and Blood of Jesus is symbolic and not Real Presence of Jesus Christ (John 6:53) “no life in you”
Why do many christian believers fail to accept the true teachings of Jesus and fail to acknowledge the authority of the Catholic Church he founded?
Because Jesus did not found the corrupt and immoral organization known as the Catholic church.
His commands about how to organize and run a church are found throughout Paul's epistles and when Roman Catholicism starts to work according to that, then it might have the right to call itself a church.
Until then, it's nothing more than than a homosexual infiltrated pedo rig that fails to obey the very Scripture it claims to have written.
Hence, it has no authority ov3er the lives of any believer in Christ. That claim is just a power grab by Catholicism.
The Body of Christ is composed of ALL THOSE who have done as God demands, they have believed in their heart that Jesus is The Redeemer, that they must have a Redeemer to see Heaven, and have trusted Him to be their Redeemer.
God's response to their believing in Jesus is to separate the soul and spirit:
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit ...
God then cleanses the spirit and thereafter ABIDES in that born again spirit (1 John 3:9) with no mention of rituals or dogma in order to keep God in the born again spirit.
I am sure there will be Catholics going up into the clouds to meet the Lord Christ in the air at the Rapture Departure of the Body of Christ, but it will be a huge surprise to them to be among so many Baptists, and Methodists, and Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, and non-denominational believers. We will seek to explain it to you then, if you are now born again. If you are not yet born again ... bye, see ya, wouldn't want to be ya.
Your comment: “Because Jesus did not found the corrupt and immoral organization known as the Catholic church.”
Shows a lack of knowledge of history and non belief in the Truth of Jesus.
The Catholic Church welcomes all sinners as the father (god) welcomed the prodigal son. The Church recognizes the difference from the sin and person made in the image of God that has the opportunity to repent.
The Catholic Church and Jesus call us to change away from sin and confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Your spittlegeist is roaring today! Your org is identified by Paul when he warned about the ‘other religions’. Present day Catholicism is the largest cult going. There are so many bold heresies and blasphemies hallmarking your religion, but your dead soul mind is closed to seeing them when revealed to you. May the Lord rebuke you for leading souls astray in Catholicism.
Why doesn't the Vatican follow Paul's instructions for elders and deacons and church discipline?
1 Timothy 3:1-13 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Titus 1:5-16 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
That precludes taking communion with someone like that.
2 John 1:4-11 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
When Catholicism starts living like the church is supposed to according to Scripture, then maybe you can convince people to start calling it one and submitting to its self-proclaimed authority.
But as long as Frank is the pope and there are cocaine fueled homosexual orgies hosted by the Vatican, and pedo priests are protected, then any Catholic's claim to moral authority or superiority falls flat.
Go fix your own church's problems before telling others they are wrong and need to submit to that immoral, corrupt organization that fancies itself God's representative on earth.
There's only one god they are representing at this time and it isn't part of the Trinity.
Those that don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.
Yes, The Catholic Church has dealt with heresies including the protestant heresy.
The Catholic Church can defend the teachings of Jesus - the Catholic faith as they were given the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Can You defend the protestant doctrines? I challenge you to have an open mind to seek God’s Truth.
I challenge you to answer questions intelligently (if you can) instead of your normal spittle. You like to make false statements about the Catholic faith without reason or understanding or verification.
Your comment: that we may meet in Heaven “so many Baptists, and Methodists, and Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, and non-denominational believers. “
I hope you are ready for the warning from God when he will show us our souls.
For your information the Rapture is just another protestant false doctrine, as those living will face the trials of religious deception or apostasy with the anti-Christ. Perhaps it has already started.
I hope to meet all in Heaven including many protestants that truly believe in Our Lord Jesus instead of false teachers.
The Departure has been preached all the way back to Paul and his letters to the Body of Believers at Thessalonika and in Corinth, by inspiration from God's Holy Spirit. The Departure has been preached and debated ever since. [HINT: lo0ok up the PseudoEphraim].
The Lord Christ will remove His Body of Believers BEFORE the opening of the seals found in chapter six of the Revelation of John. At the end of the third chapter it is no less than Jesus who bids John to come up. It is to the Body of Believers of the Phiadelphian grouping of Believers that Jesus Promises to keep them from even the hour of the testing under the AntiChrist.
The Departure has been preached all the way back to Paul and his letters to the Body of Believers at Thessalonika and in Corinth, by inspiration from God's Holy Spirit. The Departure has been preached and debated ever since. [HINT: lo0ok up the Pseudo-Ephraim].
My final warning to you is, Do Not Take The Mark when commanded tyo you, even if a demonic image of the virgin' is urging you to do so. Just do not take the Mark of the Best you are looking forward to arising.
misreads the text as only a partial coming and return back to heaven. Verse 15 reads that the Lord will “descend from heaven with a cry of command.” But nowhere does Paul say that Jesus returns to heaven. If Jesus’s descent is definitive, it’s not a partial coming as the pre-tribulation view requires it to be.
how the details of the passage reveal that Paul is talking about the final coming of Jesus at the end of time.
Notice that it’s not just the living who are caught up with the Lord, but also the dead in Christ: “And the dead in Christ will rise first” (v.16). That Paul speaks of the resurrection of the dead tells us that he’s referring to the end of time.
We know this because Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15 that the end happens in tandem with the resurrection of the dead.
Paul is talking about the end of time is because when he speaks about the “coming of the Lord” in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, he says that the Antichrist and his reign of evil must precede it
The rest of the story
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/answering-the-rapture-challenge
Your question;”Why doesn’t the Vatican follow Paul’s instructions for elders and deacons and church discipline?”
Yes, We try our best. The Catholic Church has high standards for entry into Holy Orders and keeps trying to improve those procedures.
The great majority of priests are good and holy persons and yes they are humans and like all of us are sinners.
A very small percentage of priests have been identified and removed from the priesthood and will suffer the consequences including judgment from Jesus. Yes it is a significant problem for the Catholic Church and we will suffer the consequence of people leaving the Catholic faith and suffer from our sins. Not to minimize our problem, every large organization has similar problems and the Church needs to deal with it. As with human nature, we are not perfect, but striving for it with the help of Jesus.
However, there is a difference in teaching the Catholic Faith so that the Church can lead us to eternal life with God and the sins of church personnel. Individuals including priests are sinners, but their sins do not invalidate the Sacraments. Yes, some parishioners may leave the church but the faith and teaching remain and they may jeopardize their salvation.
Yes, I understand your concerns for sins of the leadership. Jesus reminds us that those without sin could cast the first stone against a woman found in adultery. We hate the sin and the individual should face the consequences, but the Church wants the sinner to change, repent and lead a christian life.
You have not disclosed the brand of Protestantism that you believe, but is your religion free of all sin and corruption? I also sense a strong anti-Catholic bias and you may be using the sexual sins of a few to vent your views against the Catholic faith.
Ignoring the sexual sins of many including Catholic priests, the important part for us is to follow the teachings of Jesus and not commit sins ourselves.
My point is that the Catholic Church can defend its teachings as the Truth of God.
I don’t believe that Protestantism can defend its doctrines as God’s Truth. I have asked several basic questions that have not been answered.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The corruption within Catholicism has been going on for virtually all of its history. The Catholic *church* does not try its best. It doesn't even try.
St. Peter Damian's Book of Gomorrah: Homosexual Situation Graver than Damian's Time
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/929551/posts
Jesus would never condone or tolerate the sin that runs rampant throughout the Catholic clergy that they not only turned a blind eye to but actively protected for over a thousand years.
All your excuses and rationalizations do NOT exempt the organization that calls itself the way to Jesus from the accountability that is coming to it from Jesus Himself.
I believe the Bible, not some *brand of Protestantism* because I follow Jesus, not men or religious organizations, no matter how holy they claim or appear to be.
Sign me up please- Thank you. Peace.
John 14:1-41 Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God: believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house there are many mansions (the Greek word is denoting temporary dwelling rooms.). If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you (NOTE: JESUS IS preparing a place for each of His Body opf Believers). 3 And if I shall go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself(NOTE: He is going to TAKE us to Himself, as in gather us unto Himself in the clouds): that where I am (Where do you think He IS?), you also may be. 4And whither I go you know: and the way you know.
You offer your opinion that Paul is writing of the end times at the end of the Tribulation (but you do not say of what passage from Paul you refer). But you reveal that you lack understanding of for whom the seven years of Tribulation are designed. (HINT: The prophets referred to the time of JACOB's Troubles; the Tribulation is not designed for the Body of Believers to suffer the Wrath of God revealed in the Rev Chapter six seals JESUS opens.
Perhaps it is because you do not know what is common to the dead in Christ and the alive in Christ that you cannot fathom the combining of these two groups in the Departure event. What is common to both categories is the ABIDING PRESENCE of God in the born again spirit of each Believer. Those who have died in Christ are brought with Jesus when He descends to the Air (the first Heaven) and their spirit is given a new body and behavior mechanism in which their alive forever more spirit will endure. Then, we who are alive at this moment will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye, our born again spirits no longer trapped in a sinful flesh but given new bodies and behavior mechanisms which are eteranal, for our spirit which has GOD abiding in it.
BTW, we will disappear in an instant from your ability to see us, since their new body will be like Jesus's body now, in a completely different spacetime coordinate system which allows Him to appear in a six sided room without opening a door or window (read His appearance to the gathering when He spoke with Thomas). The common trait for the dead and alive Believers is the ABIDING PRESENCE of God in their born again spirits.
Your Catholic understanding of 1 Cor 15:51-54 prevents you from seeing what Paul is actually writing to the Body of Believers. Let's take a closer look:
1 Cor 15:50-5450 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.)
51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,(Your Catholic DR Bible butchers the Greek to say we shall not all be changed, sadly)
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (These are not the trumpets revealed in The Revelation; Paul taught and wrote of this trumpet more than forty years before John was given the Revelation, so the Believers would not have knowledge of the Trumpet Judgments found in The Revelation): for the trumpet shall sound (Scholars tend to agree that this trumpet blast is related to the last trumpet blast which set the tribes in motion while camped in the wildernessThis sentence proves the error of the DR translation; it also connects to the fourth chapter of First Thessalonians. If you miss the connections you are open to gross errors.)
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (An entire generation of alive members of The Body of Christ Believrs will not die! They will be changed into incorruptible beings like Jesus physically is (See 1 John 3:2, to see Him as He IS is impossible in our present spacetime dimensional reality. BUT we shall see Him as we are caught up to Him because we shall have been changed to be like Him, physically.
You have read that the Body of Believers is 'the salt of the earth'. It is the ABIDING PRESENCE (1 john 3:9) of God in the born agains which restrains the evil one from being in charge. When the Body of B3lievers is removed, we are no longer an restraining with His Presence in our spirits. (2 Thess 2:3) Once GOD gathers us to Himself at the Great Departure, THEN the antichrist is unrestrained and eventually makes a pact with Isrel and the seven years of Jacob's Troubles begin, the seven years of the Tribulation.
Perhaps you fail to realize that as The Body of Believers (the Ekklesia, not the org called the Catholic Church) is tasked with evangelizing the world now, after He removes us it is the Jews who will be tasked with evangelizing the stricken world during the seven years of Jacob's Troubles.
You have been and are being deceived with 'the rest of the story' Catholiciism deception.
Sure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.