It would be SO much easier to be a blogger and I would be SO much more popular if I simply taught about love and grace, not about the tougher things God commands of us as His children. I read these blogs that don't want to teach Truth since "it is within everybody to know what is right and what to do" and "homosexuality in the Bible isn't the same as homosexuality is today since the homosexuals that I know are so nice and loving." They teach that marriage shouldn't be until death do you part but each person should do "what is right for them." Women shouldn't just be "keepers at home" since keeper at home doesn't mean to just be at home keeping it but going out for hours a day and getting a job. Women shouldn't be submissive to their husbands but submit to each other for this is the "new and improved way." Yes, if I were to teach these things, many would enjoy my teachings so much more.
However, I can't. I can't water down God's Word to us and try to squeeze it into the mold that society wants; what's popular and comfortable and what the majority of people believe since it's not what the Bible teaches. God's Truth is unchanging from generation to generation. When we think we're alone with what we believe, we are not. There will always be a remnant; "I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal" {Romans 11:4}. We are not alone in our beliefs. The God of the Universe believes the same! We must continue to teach and live Truth even as it gets more and more uncomfortable to do for God is with us and on our side. He is fighting our battle and His ways are unchanging!
Be not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of salvation to all those who believe! {Romans 1:16}. His Word has the power to convict and change people. Yes, we are called to love others but part of loving others is speaking Truth into their lives; God's Truth. We have come to a time where people are finding teachers who tickle their ears; For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires {2 Timothy 4:3} and that time is NOW.
Get a good study Bible and begin studying it daily so you know Truth clearly. Know the Truth for it is what sets you free from sin and damnation. Don't look for teachers who will tickle your ears but find teachers who speak Truth boldly and unashamedly! God doesn't want lukewarm Christians {Revelation 3:15}, He wants those who believe in what He clearly says and obeys it. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him {1 John 2:5}.
Logging you in...
Guest · 484 weeks ago
Lori Alexander 122p · 484 weeks ago
Dave · 484 weeks ago
Lori Alexander 122p · 484 weeks ago
Thank you, Dave. Blessings to you as well!
Dave · 484 weeks ago
Lori Alexander 122p · 484 weeks ago
Becky · 484 weeks ago
helen · 484 weeks ago
God bless you Lori
Helen UK
Lori Alexander 122p · 484 weeks ago
Amy · 484 weeks ago
Diana · 484 weeks ago
kinzie · 484 weeks ago
Ken · 484 weeks ago
The entire concept of the Papacy is a man made construct not found in God's Word.
Purgatory... absent... indulgences even more absent.
Pastors (priests) are not to marry... not in God's Word.
Exultation of Mary and Saints... man made.
Venial and mortal sins, unheard of in the Bible. Only unbelief is unforgivable.
The over-emphasis on Works instead of Faith Alone, although works is a proof of salvation.
Child baptism saves
The need for Last Rights and somehow sins are not forgiven a part from confession. Is the work of the cross dependent upon my works, or does Christ die over and over again to obtain forgiveness? Hardly! All sins are forgiven for the true believer, past, present and future.
That communion can only come from the hands of a priest.
That Confession must be given to a Priest and absolution comes through a Priest.
The cry by Martin Luther for Sola Scriptura was no accident as the Catholic Church was way off the mark when it comes to the Word of God with rampant abuses in the Church. It was a necessary break from the church to bring some sanity back to Christianity. But yes, the Catholic church, the roots of the church, is our church too. We just disagree fundamentally on many things that are not in keeping with the Word of God, but are constructs of a church based on an OT model of priests, and a high priest, instead of one body of Christ with Elders and members as taught by the apostles who fought to throw off the OT model of the priesthood as animal sacrifice was no longer necessary. The book of Hebrews says "no" to the Papacy and need for a High Priest and "no" to the priestly construct.
I will say that even though the CC emphasizes works as part of salvation, having grown up in a Catholic country, and having many Catholic friends, I find that most do not know the Word well at all, and are depending on the Church to save them. Their focus on the poor and doing good outside their homes is usually very good, but in their own homes, personal life and business life they often rarely speak of their faith, nor do a good job of showing it. There is often a disconnect between what they say their believe and doing much more than attending Mass regularly. Sin is often wide open to them so log as they get to confession and Mass for communion. I find the Protestant church has similar issues, but the faith of those within the Evangelical church far more vibrant and real, barring a few Catholic friends who could fit right into my church with what they believe and how they live.
Mrs. G. · 484 weeks ago
Ken · 484 weeks ago
We accept with open arms all who claim Jesus as Savior and Lord and hope and pray they will open the Word to find God where He can be found. In His Word and His Spirit inside of you and me, even if we go to different churches and have varying beliefs. So long as we both cling to the most important beliefs of one triune God, and His Son is Jesus.
Ken · 484 weeks ago
I can't chase down all the wrong doctrines I see in the Catholic Church, and that is not my purpose here. It is your responsibility to match up God's Word with your doctrine. My doctrinal beliefs are matched up with the Word.
I will take just one important area of disagreement with the Catholic church and that is the need to confess one's sins to a Priest who in turn may grant Christ's forgiveness.
The Catholic Dictionary Reads:
Penance is a sacrament of the New Law instituted by Christ in which forgiveness of sins committed after baptism is granted through the priest's absolution to those who with true sorrow confess their sins and promise to satisfy for the same. It is called a "sacrament" not simply a function or ceremony, because it is an outward sign instituted by Christ to impart grace to the soul. As an outward sign it comprises the actions of the penitent in presenting himself to the priest and accusing himself of his sins, and the actions of the priest in pronouncing absolution and imposing satisfaction. This whole procedure is usually called, from one of its parts, "confession", and it is said to take place in the "tribunal of penance", because it is a judicial process in which the penitent is at once the accuser, the person accused, and the witness, while the priest pronounces judgment and sentence. The grace conferred is deliverance from the guilt of sin and, in the case of mortal sin, from its eternal punishment; hence also reconciliation with God, justification. Finally, the confession is made not in the secrecy of the penitent's heart nor to a layman as friend and advocate, nor to a representative of human authority, but to a duly ordained priest with requisite jurisdiction and with the " power of the keys ", i.e., the power to forgive sins which Christ granted to His Church. http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=...
All this doctrine built upon what? There is no clear teaching on this matter in the New Testament. But what the RCC has done is made certain assumptions. 1) That the Keys to forgiveness were granted ONLY to the apostles and somehow the Believer does not have direct access to forgiveness and to the High Priest Jesus Christ. What does it mean:
"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)
The book of Hebrews is all about the doing away with the old and the Priestly intervention on man's behalf, and instead the Spirit of God comes and resides inside each one who Believes so that we have direct and constant contact, not simply with a holy God, but with out Abba Father.
Tell me why the apostle Paul completely neglects such an important doctrine of the necessity of a Priesthood for receiving absolution of sins?
Why are we admonished to "confess your sins to one another" (James 5:16) and again "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9) and not one mention of the need for a priest. Do you not find it so out of this world that every place the apostles mention confession NOT ONCE do they mention the need to confess to a priest?
The concept of confession to a priest is a man made construct beginning with the wrong belief that the Apostles passed on the Keys of the Kingdom to a Pope. Not a mention of it in God's Word, no reference by the apostle Paul that this was coming as he describes how the structure of the church is put together with Elders, deacons and members. Not even the mention of a priest.
The CC church is wrong in having priests as demonstrated clearly in the book of Hebrews, and at a minimum they should be called Elders and not priests, should they not?
To come up with the construct of confession, penance and forgiveness as taught by the RCC one must grab a few proof texts and then trust not in God's Word but in the given history of the RCC. We much prefer to base all we believe ONLY upon God's Word and with a strong preference to weight what is written in the New Testament over the old, precisely because the Old Covenant was replaced by the New. And everything in the New points to a doing away of the priestly office, sacrifices, confession, penance, as we have been given direct access to the throne of God through the One and Only remaining High Priest, Christ Jesus.
Ken · 484 weeks ago
What is the meaning of the veil torn in two at the death of Christ if direct access is not granted? "And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split" (Matt 27:51).
Peter is not talking to a bunch of RCC priests when he writes: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, ca holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (I Peter 2:9).
One misses out on some of the best parts of the story of Christianity when we do not recognize that we all are now priests of God. There is no separate class or group pf persons necessary to go directly into the Holy of Holies and confess our sins and receive the forgiveness that was already granted to all who believe at the cross.
Thanks for the discussion, but I will need to leave it at this for now. I love my Catholic friends and all who proclaim the name of Jesus, even if I might fundamentally disagree with theology and doctrine that is so contrary to the clear teaching of God's Word. Man made constructs are what religion is all about, not Christianity which is based only upon God's Word.
Lady Virtue · 484 weeks ago
Lori Alexander 122p · 484 weeks ago
Desiree · 483 weeks ago