COMPARING SCRIPTURES IN THE CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE TO TEACHINGS FOUND IN THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH – DEAR CATHOLIC, ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD, OR THE WORD OF MAN? PART 9

INTRODUCTION

There are two very important reasons why I felt compelled to write this series of posts, and I’d like to briefly share these reasons with you now before I go any further:

1) Since I am a former Catholic who is very aware of the teachings of the Catholic Church because I attended twelve years of Catholic school, attended Catechism classes, made my First Holy Communion, was Confirmed, and faithfully attended Mass not only every Sunday for many years, but also before school began for three years (as required by the school that I attended at the time), and who came to the knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is and what He actually accomplished for us by reading a Catholic New Testament Bible exactly like the one pictured above, I decided to write this series with the hope of reaching precious Catholics so that they can not only come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is as His Word, the Bible, declares Him to be, but also so they can see by reading God’s Word that they can have complete forgiveness, lasting joy, true peace, and the assurance of salvation if they choose to believe God’s Word and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Also, since many Catholics do not realize everything that the Catholic church actually teaches (as I once did not realize until after doing research and reading the CCC), I thought that it was extremely important to share this information to make Catholics aware of many things that are quite disturbing, as you will all soon become aware of as this series continues.

2) This series of posts is also being written with the intention of helping those of you who are born-again, Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ who have no idea of what the teachings of Catholicism are so that you can become aware of their teachings and be prepared to offer hope and assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ to Catholics based solely upon the truth that is recorded in God’s Word.

As we continue on in this series together comparing Scriptures in the Catholic New Testament to teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we must keep these important thoughts in mind:

When it comes to our eternal destination — heaven or hell — we must be certain that we place our trust in solid truth and not in speculation or in the traditions of men. The Catholic church claims to be the “one true Church.” Therefore, it stands to reason that their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not contradict it since God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8), and His Word stands firm forever. (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24,25) If a contradiction is found it must be rejected because God’s Word is our plumb line by which we must measure (or test) the teachings of every religion to see if it lines up or not. If it is off in one point we can be certain that it will lead us further and further away from Biblical truth and lead us into spiritual deception.

This series will cover many different subjects ranging from what does the Catholic Church teach about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, priests, the pope, sin, forgiveness of sins, salvation, prayer, and what must a Catholic believe in order to receive eternal life. Some of these teachings will shock even many Catholics when they learn what their church actually teaches!
Lord willing, I hope to share at least one post every month with you in this new series until I have covered all the most important teachings that need to be brought to your attention. The main goal that I have in writing this series is to present the Word of God to Catholics — and to every person — in order to point everyone to Jesus Christ, who is our only hope and ‘the only name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)

Dear Catholic, please take a minute now to sincerely pray; ask God to open your mind to the Scriptures and to reveal the truth to you –whatever that may be.

Because only God can reveal the truth to you, I will refrain from making any comments unless I find it completely necessary. Since God’s Word is truth I trust that He will not only give you eyes to see the truth, but also I trust that He will give you the courage to respond to His leading. However, each one of you will find yourself having to answer this question when you come to many points that I present to you in these posts after realizing that there are oftentimes extreme differences between what the Word of God says and what Catholicism teaches, and the question that you will have to answer is:

“Are you going to believe the Word of God, or the word of man?”

Please keep in mind, as you are carefully reading all of the statements made from the following Catholic sources, that every time you see the word “church” spelled with a capital c they are referring to the Catholic church, since they believe that the “Catholic Church” alone is the “one true Church.”All of the information that I will be sharing with you I have obtained from the following sources:

1) CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (pictured above) – Imprimi Potest – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) – Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

2) THE WORD OF GOD – THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR IN TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION – SACRED HEART LEAGUE EDITION – IMPRIMATUR JOHN FRANCIS WHEALON, ARCHBISHOP OF HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1971 SIGNED AND SEALED BY BISHOP JOSEPH B. BRUNINI, DIOCESE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

3) Occasionally when I share a Scripture with you from the Sacred Heart League (SHL) Catholic New Testament and notice that it lacks depth and clarity, I will then follow it with the same verse but in the King James Version in order to give you a better understanding of what is being said, and so that you can see what is missing from the SHL translation.

4) Very briefly in this series, I will also be quoting from THE CATHOLIC DOUAY RHEIMS VERSION OF THE BIBLE – in which you will find the following statements:

“EXCERPT FROM ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:

“The God of all Providence, Who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the participation of the Divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from the universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has in consequence bestowed upon man a splendid gift and safeguard–making known to him, by supernatural means, the hidden Mysteries of His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. For although in Divine revelations there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order “that all may come to know them with facility, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural Revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end.” This supernatural revelation according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten Tradition, and in written Books, which are therefore called sacred and canonical because, “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been delivered to the Church.” (Page ix)

“Wherefore it must be recognised that the sacred writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His Word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher. St. Irenaeus long since laid down, that where the charismata of God were, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Holy Scripture was safely interpreted by those who had the Apostolic succession. His teaching, and that of other Holy Fathers, is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which, in the renewing of the decree of Trent, declares its “mind” to be this–that “in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against the unanimous agreement of the Fathers.” (Page xvii)

“Wherefore the first and dearest object of the Catholic commentator should be to interpret those passages which have received an authentic interpretation either by the sacred writers themselves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by her solemn judgment or her ordinary and universal magisterium –to interpret those passages in that identical sense, and to prove, by all the resources of science that sound hermeneutical laws admit of no other interpretation. In the other passages, the analogy of faith should be followed, and Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for seeing that the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is foolish and false which either makes the sacred writers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.” (Page xviii)

“For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic student, he should nevertheless, bear well in mind–as the Fathers also teach in numerous passages –that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside of the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only gnaw the bark of the Sacred Scripture and never attain its pith.” (Page xix)

To read PART 1 click HERE

For PART 2 click HERE

For PART 3 click HERE

For PART 4 click HERE

For PART 5 click HERE

For PART 6 click HERE

For PART 7 click HERE

For PART 8 click HERE

INTRODUCTION TO PART 9

In Part 9 we will be covering the very end of page 276 and going through to the end of page 299 which will finally bring us to the end of PART 1 of the Catechism Of The Catholic Church’s 756 pages. The topics that are covered in this section will be baptism, forgiveness of sins, purgatory, death, judgment, and resurrection.

Let’s begin:

ARTICLE 10:

“I BELIEVE IN THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS”

(Part Two of the Catechism will deal explicitly with the forgiveness of sins through Baptism, the sacrament of Penance, and the other sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Here it will suffice to suggest some basic facts briefly.)

Para 980

It is through the sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God and with the Church:

Penance has rightly been called by the holy Fathers “a laborious kind of baptism.” This sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have not yet been reborn.

II. THE POWER OF THE KEYS

Para 981

[The Church] has received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven so that, in her, sins may be forgiven through Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit’s action. In this Church, the soul dead through sin comes back to life in order to live with Christ, whose grace has saved us.

Para 982 There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. “There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness provided his repentance is honest.” Christ who died for all men desires that in his Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin.

Para 983

Catechesis strives to awaken and nourish in the faithful faith in the incomparable greatness of the risen Christ’s gift to his Church: the mission and the power to forgive sins through the ministry of the apostles and their successors:

Priests have received from God a power that he has given neither to angels nor to archangels…God above confirms what priests do here below.

Were there no forgiveness in the Church, there would be no hope of life to come or eternal liberation. Let us thank God who has given his Church such a gift.

Para 987

“In the forgiveness of sins, both priests and sacraments are instruments which our Lord Jesus Christ, the only author and liberal giver of salvation, wills to use in order to efface our sins and give us the grace of justification.” Roman Catechism, 1, 11, 6).

I. CHRIST’S RESURRECTION AND OURS

Para 993

The Pharisees and many of the Lord’s contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, “Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?” Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in God who “is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (541 – Mark 12:27)

Para 994

But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: “I am the Resurrection and the life.” (542 – John 11:25) It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. (543 – Cf. John 5:24-25; 6:40,54)

How do the dead rise?

Para 997

What is “rising”? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty  power, will definitely grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the  power of Jesus’ Resurrection.

Para 1000

This “how” exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ’s transfiguration of our bodies: Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God’s blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly; so to our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection. (554 – St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres, 4, 18, 4-5 PG 7/1, 1028,1029)

Para 1003

United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains “hidden with Christ in God.” (558 – Colossians 3:3) The Father has already “raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (559 – Eph. 2:6) Nourished with his body in the Eucharist, we already belong to the Body of Christ. When we rise on the last day we “also will appear with him in glory.” (560 – Colossians 3:4)

Para 1014

The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our  death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: “From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord”; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us “at the hour of our death” in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.

Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe on those who will die in mortal sin! Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy will, for the second death will not harm them. (588 – St. Francis of Assisi, Canticles of the Creatures).

I. THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT

Para 1022

Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven–through a purification or immediately, –or immediate and everlasting damnation. (592) (Cf. Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 857-858; Council of Florence (1439): DS 1304-1306; Council of Trent (1563): DS 1820. (593) Cf. Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000-1001; John XXII, Ne super his (1334): DS 990. (594) Cf. Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336). DS 1002.

II. HEAVEN

Para 1023

Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they “see him as he is,” face to face. (596 – 1 Jn. 3:2; cf. 1 Cor 13:12; Rev. 22:4)

III. THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR PURGATORY

Para 1030

All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

Para 1031

The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The Tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire: (605) (Cf. 1 Corin. 3:15, 1 Peter 1:7)

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come. (606) (St. Gregory the Great, Dial. 4, 39; PL 77, 396)

My Note: There is no purifying fire after death and there is no need for it. According to God’s Word Jesus Christ’s once for all sacrifice was sufficient to purify us from all sin. If we choose to place our trust completely in all that Jesus Christ accomplished for us and not in our own efforts/good works to try and earn God’s forgiveness, we will then be covered in His righteous and stand before Him blameless. Consider these Scriptures:

“He [Jesus Christ] shines with the brightness of God’s glory; he is the exact likeness of God’s own being, and sustains the universe with his powerful word. After he had made men clean from their sins he sat down in heaven at the right side of God, the Supreme Power.” (Hebrews 1:3 – Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament)

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3 – Douay Rheims)

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3 – King James Version)

“God’s divine power has given us everything we need to live a godly life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share his own glory  and goodness. In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and come to share the divine nature. For this very reason do your very best to add goodness to your faith; to your goodness add knowledge; to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add endurance; to your endurance add godliness; to your godliness add brotherly love; and to your brotherly love add love. These are the qualities you need, and if you have them in abundance they will make you active and effective in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is so shortsighted that he cannot see, and has forgotten that his past sins have been washed away.” (2 Peter 1:3-9 – Sacred Heart League)

“As all things of his divine power which appertain to life and godliness are given us through the knowledge of him who hath called us by his own proper glory and virtue. By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world. And you, employing all care, minister in your faith, virtue: And in virtue, knowledge: And in knowledge, abstinence: and in abstinence, patience: and in patience, godliness: And in godliness, love of brotherhood: and in love of brotherhood, charity. For if these things be with you and abound, they will make you to be neither empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he that hath not these things with him is blind and groping, having forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. (2 Peter 1:3-9 – Douay Rheims)

“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” (2 Peter 1:3-9 King James Version)

“The Jewish Law is not a full and faithful model of the real things. It is only a faint outline of the good things to come. The same sacrifices are offered forever, year after year. How can the Law, then, by means of these sacrifices, make perfect the people who come to God? If the people worshiping God had been made really clean from their sins, they would not feel guilty of sin any more, and all sacrifices would stop. As it is, however, the sacrifices serve to remind people  of their sins year after year. For the blood of bulls and goats can never take sins away. For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, he said to God: “You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but you have prepared a body for me. You are not pleased with animals burned whole on the altar, or with sacrifices to take away sins. Then I said, ‘Here I am, God, to do what you want me to, just as it is written of me in the book of the Law.'” First he said, “You neither want nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings, or animals burned on the altar and the sacrifices to take away sins.” He said this even though all these sacrifices are offered according to the Law. Then he said, “Here I am, God, to do what you want me to do.” So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place. Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted me to do, we are all made clean from sin by the offering that he made of his own body, once and for all. Every Jewish priest stands and performs his services every day and offers the same sacrifices many times. But these sacrifices can never take away sins. Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is good forever, and then sat down at the right side of God.” (Sacred Heart League – Hebrews 10:1-12)

“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, by the selfsame sacrifices which they offer continually every year, can never make the comers thereunto perfect. For then they would have ceased to be offered: because the worshippers once cleansed should have no conscience of sin any longer. But in them there is made a commemoration of sins every year: For it is impossible that with the blood of oxen and goats sin should be taken away. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world he saith: Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest not: but a body thou hast fitted to me. Holocausts for sin did not please thee. Then said I: Behold I come: in the head of the book it is written of me: that I should do thy will, O God. In saying before, Sacrifices, and oblations, and holocausts for sin thou wouldest not, neither are they pleasing to thee, which are offered according to the law. ‘Then said I: Behold, I come to do thy will, O God: He taketh away the first, that he may establish that which followeth. In the which will, we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ once. And every priest indeed standeth daily ministering and often offering the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, offering one sacrifice for sins, for ever sitteth on the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:1-12 – Douay Rheims)”

“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;” (Hebrews 10:1-12 – KJV)

[Note: Emphasis on portions of Scripture using bold print and italics are mine.]

---

Para 1032

This teaching is also based on the practice of prayers for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” (607) (2 Macc. 12:46) From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. (608) (Cf. Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 856. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them. (609) St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in 1 Cor. 41, 5: PG 61, 361; cf. Job 1:5.

[My Note: So here you see that Catholicism’s teaching on purgatory is based — in part — on verses from 2 Maccabees which is a book regarding the history of the Jews in the first century. 2 Maccabees was not deemed fit to be included in the Canon of Scripture.]

IV. HELL

Para 1033

To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”

My Note: I must stop at this point and bring your attention to what God’s Word has to say about sin. All sin separates us from God who is completely holy. The Catholic church teaches that there are two types of sins –mortal and venial. Catholicism classifies mortal sins as being horrific things such as murder, and venial sins are considered lesser sins, which they say are sins such as telling lies. However, look at what God’s Word has to say about sin and those who tell lies:

“But the cowards, the traitors, and the perverts, the murderers and the immoral, those who practice magic and those who worship idols, and all liars–the place for them is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8 – Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament)

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, they shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8 – Douay Rheims Bible)

My Note: Sin — no matter how seemingly harmless or unspeakably horrific it may be — separates us from a completely holy God. If a person dies trusting in their own attempts at trying to be “good enough” to be accepted by God into heaven and chooses not to place their complete trust in Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death in our place on the cross, His burial, and His glorious bodily resurrection from the dead as being sufficient to pay the debt for all of our sins and guilt in full, we will be eternally separated from Him and cast into the lake of fire that was not created for man, but for the devil and his angels, according to God’s Holy Word. (Matthew 25:41) (See directly below).

Para 1034

Jesus often speaks of “Ghenna,” of the “unquenchable fire” reserved for those  who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. (612 – Cf. Matt. 5:22,29; 10:28; 13:42, 50; Mk. 9:43-48) Jesus solemnly proclaims that “he will send his angels, and they will gather…all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,” (613 – Matt. 13:41-42) and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!” (614 – Matt. 25:41)

[My Note: Sadly, the rest of verse 41 of Matthew 25 has been left out; Matthew 25:41 in the Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament reads as follows: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!’

Para 1053

“We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in Paradise forms the Church of heaven, where in eternal blessedness they see God as he is and where they are also, to various degrees, associated with the holy angels in the divine governance exercised by Christ in glory, by interceding for us and helping our weakness by their fraternal concern.” (Pope Paul VI, CPG 29)

---

IN CLOSING:

Sadly, many of the teachings in Catholicism focus on death and induce fear and dependency on the Catholic church for salvation in their people. Being a former Catholic I can honestly say that since I was filled with a lot of fear and had no joy or peace through what I learned. Their is no hope or assurance of salvation that can be found in what Catholicism teaches. If a Catholic would dare to say that they are sure that they will be going to heaven after they die it is actually considered to be a sin of presumption.

So many more thoughts could be added to this post, but I have already exceeded five thousand words, so I must focus on trying to finally bring this post to an end.

Dear Catholic, I pray that you will begin to see the errors in what Catholicism teaches as the truth of God’s Word reveals the glorious good news of the Biblical gospel to you.

To those of you who are Bible believing Christians by choosing to place your trust only in all that Jesus Christ has already accomplished for us, I pray that you will have compassion and love for the precious Catholics in your lives. I pray that you will take time and patience with them as you pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you seek to share the glorious good news of the Biblical gospel with them, focusing on Jesus Christ and not on the errors in their teachings –unless the Holy Spirit leads you to do so with certain people. Many teachings in Catholicism hold precious Catholics in bondage by making them think that they need to depend on the Catholic church, priests, the pope, the sacraments, the Virgin Mary, and the “Eucharist” for their salvation. Many do not yet realize the simplicity and the truly good news of the Biblical gospel that proclaims all the glory and splendor of all that Jesus Christ truly accomplished by His “once for all” sacrifice that need never be repeated again!

Lord willing, at some point I hope to write separate posts regarding the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Eucharist as well as one that will focus on the virgin Mary, and another one that will focus on the pope. I was going to add in depth information about these topics in this post, but it will take much more time in order to do that and this post is already quite lengthy!

Thank you very much for stopping by today.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“Happy are those whose wrongs God has forgiven, whose sins he has covered over! Happy is the man whose sins the Lord will not keep account of!” (Romans 4:7,8)

“He [Jesus Christ] was given over to die because of our sins, and was raised to life to put us right with God.” (Romans 4:25) (Insertion done by me).

“In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. At that time you followed the world’s evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God. Actually all of us were like them, and lived according to our natural desires and did whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. Like everyone else, we too were naturally bound to suffer God’s wrath. But God’s mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that why we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved. In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus. For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved, through faith. It is not your own doing, but God’s gift. There is nothing here to boast of, since it is not the result of your own efforts. God is our Maker, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good works which he has already prepared for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:1-10)

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. It was not because of any good works that we ourselves have done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us through the washing by which the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and new life. God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us, through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that by his grace we might be put right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for. This is a true saying.” (Titus 3:4-7)

“We believe the witness that men give; the witness that God gives is much stronger, and this is the witness that God has given about his Son. So whoever believes in the Son of God has this witness in his heart; but whoever does not believe God has made a liar out of him, because he has not believed what God has said  as a witness about his Son. This, then, is the witness: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:9-12)

[Note: Emphasis on portions of certain Scriptures in this post using bold print and italics, are mine.]

 

 

LEARN TO DISCERN – ARE YOU ATTENDING A TOXIC CHURCH? ‘TOXIC CHURCHES AND MINISTRIES – THE VICTIMS MATTER’

In light of all that has been happening regarding Harvest Bible Chapel lately, I’d like to share the following videos and Scriptures with you as a way to help you learn to discern, and to offer hope and encouragement to you, as well. Even though these videos were made in 2012, you will hear many things that clearly apply to this tragic and shameful situation.

Here are just a few of many eye opening things that you will hear Ingrid Schlueter say:

“A toxic church is any church or ministry leadership structure where maintaining an exterior image of a church or leader is more important than any single soul in the congregation.”

“A toxic church is any church or leadership ministry structure where truth tellers who raise honest questions, heart-felt questions, are shut down, demonized, and made to feel that they are the spiritually defective ones.”

“If you are in a situation that is toxic and abusive, don’t waste time. Don’t let the locust eat any more time, any more years of your life. Get out. Get your kids away from a place like that because they can become cynical. They can become disillusioned very quickly when they hear Mom and Dad discussing all of this stuff. It’s very harmful  and Satan uses it in a thousand different ways to cause destruction. Leave. If they will not listen, if they will not hear you out, then go and let God deal with it.”

 

 SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO REFLECT UPON

“He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young.” (Isaiah 40:11)

“As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.” (Ezekiel 34:12)

“When He saw the crowds He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)

“To the elders among you I appeal as a fellow elder, witness of Christ’ sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers–not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” (1 Peter 5:1-4 )

“Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (James 3:1)

“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17)

 

I hope that you are praying along with me for all involved in this matter.

Thank you very much for stopping by today.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

UPDATE: Lord willing, new post coming soon.

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN READING:

WARNING YOU WITH TEARS

HARVEST BIBLE CHAPEL LEADERSHIP, CHRISTIAN LEADERS, AND THE LACK OF BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT

BETH MOORE LIVE SIMULCAST; WILL YOUR CHURCH BE BRINGING BETH MOORE TO YOUR COMMUNITY?

WOE TO THE SHEPHERDS

WHOM DO YOU FOLLOW?

LIKE SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD

 

BEYOND FATIMA – THE ALLEGED APPARITIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY TO LUCIA SANTOS BEYOND 1917 – LEARN TO DISCERN

After the alleged miracle of the sun took place at the Cova de Iria in Fatima, Portugal on October 13, 1917, it caused many people to come to the conclusion that the little shepherd children were not lying about the visions they had claimed to have seen of the Virgin Mary. At this point even more people began to flock to the homes of the children: Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta. The disturbing details concerning what happened in the years that followed were revealed on the final pages in the little book about the apparitions of Fatima that I received back in the 1980s from my Aunt Lee who was a nun for many years. Most people (including myself), who are familiar with the apparitions of the Virgin Mary that took place at Fatima, are unaware of the fact that Lucia allegedly continued to see visions of the Virgin Mary after 1917. Before we look into these events, here is a very brief summary of what happened a few years after that last apparition took place at Fatima based upon the information that I learned from reading my little book:

Francisco and Jacinta, the two little shepherd children and cousins of Lucia, died as a result of the 1918 influenza epidemic that broke out in Europe; Francisco died on April 4, 1919, and Jacinta died on February 20, 1920. Because of the constant intrusions in the lives of Lucia and her family, it got to the point where the local Bishop thought it best to have her sent away to a convent school where no one would know her. She was given a new name and was told not reveal her true identity or to ever mention anything about Fatima.

Here are a few more brief excerpts from my book concerning the apparitions at Fatima. The pictures that you will see below are examples of the illustrations that were included in this little book and should cause those of you who are truly born-again, Bible believing, discerning Christians, to shudder at what they are clearly conveying!

The main thing I would like to draw your attention to concerning the first vision is the fact that Jesus Christ is revealed as a mere child. Thus the focus, once again, is placed upon Mary as the one who is presented as having the more dominant position of power.

“In the convent, Our Lady did not leave Lucia alone. She came to visit her many times. At the Cova da Iria , Our Lady had already told Lucia of the bitter sorrow of her heart over the ingratitude and sinfulness of mankind. She asked that the first Saturday of each month be set aside by all as a day of reparation to her Immaculate Heart. Our Lady again appeared  to Lucia on December 10, 1025, while she was in her room at the convent. The Child Jesus was at Our Lady’s side, elevated upon a cloud of light.”

“Our Lady resting one hand upon Lucia’s shoulder, held in her other hand a heart surrounded with sharp thorns. The Child Jesus spoke first to Lucia:

“Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.”

Then Our Lady said to Lucia:

“My daughter, look at my Heart encircled with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you at least try to console me and announce in my name that I promise to assist  at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to Confession and receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to me.”

“Lucia could never forget this vision of Mary’s bleeding heart. She informed her confessor and her superior of this apparition but they felt unable of themselves to spread this devotion. A year passed and on the 15th of December, 1926, the Child Jesus again appeared to Lucia, inquiring if she had spread this devotion of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother. She told Our Lord how her confessor had pointed out to her so many difficulties, and thought the Mother Superior ardently desired to propagate the devotion, her confessor also warned her that she could do nothing by herself.”

“It is true that your Superior alone can do nothing, but with My grace she can do all,” Our Lord answered.

---

“Lucia had not yet been given permission to reveal all that Our Lady had spoken to her at the Cova da Iria. She did, however, had permission to reveal the need of reparation and the devotion of the First Saturdays. It was in 1927, while she was praying in the convent chapel at Tuy, Spain, where she was then stationed, that she received permission from Heaven to reveal the first two parts of the secret, the vision of Hell and the urgent need for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wants to establish throughout the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. …I shall come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart.”

“Two years later, in 1929, Our Lady again appeared to Lucia while she was praying in the chapel at Tuy. This was the time chosen by Our Lady  to ask the fulfillment of her previous request: “I shall come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart… If they heed my request, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.” Our Lady explained that this consecration should be made by the Holy Father in unison with all the bishops of the world.”

In the picture above that depicts the vision that Lucia allegedly saw as she prayed in the chapel, you will notice that God the Father is revealed as having a body, which reflects the teachings of Mormonism, not Biblical Christianity!

“God the Father is the Supreme Being in whom we believe and whom we worship. He is the ultimate Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of all things. He is perfect, has all power, and knows all things, He has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.” (Mormonism – Doctrines and Covenants 130:22) (See videos below under Related Videos to become aware of the unbiblical nature of Mormonism).

God’s Word says the following:

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)

Also in the illustration above of the alleged vision, you will notice that instead of  Jesus Christ being revealed as our Risen, Glorified Savior, He is revealed as the crucified Christ, which is how Jesus is mainly presented to Catholics through their teachings, especially during the Sacrifice of the Mass when it is said that the bread and the wine become the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ through the process of what’s called transubstantiation. This also is symbolized in the illustration of the vision by the host and the chalice representing the body and blood of Christ being offered again and again during every Mass for the sins of the living and the dead. Once again, this vision does not present Biblical truth since God’s Word clearly says:

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,  looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1,2)

“If God is for us who can be against us, He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, –how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died –more than that, who was raised to life —is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”             (Romans 8:31b-34)

“When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.  He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.  The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:11-14)

“For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.  Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.  Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.  But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.  Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” (Hebrews 9:24-28)

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear you.” (Isaiah 59:1,2)

“In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16,17)

“The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:35,36)

“You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.” (Acts 10:36)

“Against all hope Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead –since he was about a hundred years old –and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness. The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness –for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to live for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 4:18-25-5:1)

^“Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he [Jesus Christ], Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) (Hebrews 10:8-23) (Insertion [Jesus Christ] added).

Dear Catholic — and each and every one of you — did you grasp the good news of the Biblical gospel after reading God’s life-giving truth in all of those verses? For those who choose to place their trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ as our sin offering — our substitute who bore our sins and took upon Himself the full wrath of God that was intended for us because of all of our sins — and believe that Jesus Christ arose from the dead for our justification, we are then covered with His righteousness, and we can then draw near to God in full assurance of faith. That truly is good news!

Jesus Christ is our only Mediator! (1 Timothy 2:5) We cannot come to God through the saints or through Mary, even though you are being taught that. God did everything necessary to remove the barrier of sin that separates us from Himself, a God who is thrice Holy. Peace can only be found though Jesus Christ.

There is no need for God to send Mary with messages for us. His Word is filled with all of the truth and hope that we need to help us find peace and forgiveness for our sins through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

God’s Word is also filled with many prophecies that have already come to pass which shows the accuracy of His Word. Many prophecies in God’s Word reveal the condition that our world will be in shortly before the return of Jesus Christ. The things that we are presently witnessing in our world signifies that we are indeed living in the last of the last days!

“People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” (Luke 17:23-36)

NOTE: I would like to point out here that many wrongly teach that this passage presents an example to support the pretribulation rapture view, a position that I hold to because it teaches the only position that lines up with Scripture by having us look for the imminent return of Jesus Christ. I always accepted that interpretation of this passage, until one day as I was reading it again, the next verse caught my attention and my eyes were opened to see the truth! As I read the reply Jesus gave when He was asked where these people were taken to, it clearly shows they were not taken to a glorious place like heaven, as you will also see!

“Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:37)

Continuing on with a few more Scriptures to show how God’s Word shows us how the condition of our world will be like in the last days before Jesus Christ returns:

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”                            (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

The return of Jesus Christ could be much sooner than any of us could ever imagine! Look to Jesus, not to Mary!

Some of the messages given in these many different apparitions (which I will share with you in the next post –Lord willing) make it appear as if Mary is the one who is accurately predicting the condition of our world, when in fact it is God who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, moved upon those holy men in times past to record His Words to us concerning what the condition our world would be like when the time was drawing near for the return of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Bible prophecy is being fulfilled right before our very eyes!

Please do not be deceived by thinking that these apparitions are of the virgin Mary when so many of the messages given contradict God’s Word!

---

For those of you who read Glenn Chatfield’s blog, THE WATCHMAN’S BAGPIPES, you may have seen one of his recent posts in which he shared how he found some cards at a Catholic church with some artwork. These cards were to be given to those who would be attending Mass. Notice how the depiction of the Trinity looks very similar to the illustration of Lucia’s vision:

(SOURCE)

---

Let’s continue on with a few more disturbing excerpts from the book on the apparitions that continued after 1917 before we bring this post to an end:

“Lucia asked for the consecration of the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart with a special mention of Russia. The Pope deliberated long and prayerfully upon this request of Mary. In 1942, the clergy and people of Portugal celebrated the silver anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima. On the last day of October of the same year, the Bishops gathered at the Cathedral of Lisbon to join with the Holy Father in fulfilling the request of Our Lady. The Pope at that time consecrated the Church and the world to her Immaculate Heart, including the people of Russia by these words:

“Give peace to the peoples separated from us by error or by schism and especially to the one who professes such singular devotion to thee and in whose homes an honored place was ever accorded thy venerable icon (today perhaps often kept hidden to await better days); bring them back to the one fold of Christ under the one true Shepherd…” Six weeks later, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, in the presence of 40,000 people, the Holy Father repeated this consecration at St. Peter’s in Rome. This consecration was a decisive event in the history of the world; it marks the beginning of a new era, the Age of Mary.” (Emphasis added)

“The following spring, Our Blessed Lord appeared to Lucia to express the joy of His Heart over this consecration.”

“Last Thursday at midnight, while I was in chapel with my superior’s permission, Our Lord said to me, “The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My law. This is the penance that I now seek and require.”

---

Below you will see one of the very last statements in this little book concerning Mary that clearly reveals how Catholicism attributes to Mary the power to do what only Jesus Christ alone has already accomplished and will ultimately bring to fulfillment at the very end of time:

“Also, the Rosary gives Mary new power to crush the head of the Serpent and to destroy his evil power over the world.” (Emphasis added).

No, dear reader — Catholic or otherwise — Jesus Christ alone defeated the Serpent known as Satan at the cross! The final words that He uttered from the cross, “It is finished,” (John 19:30) made that abundantly clear!

Here are some more Scriptures that show Jesus Christ destroyed Satan’s power at the cross, and will ultimately be the one to send him to the bottomless pit for all eternity!

“He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”(Colossians 2:13b-15)

“Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.” (John 12:23-33)

“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” (John 16:7-11)

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” (Romans 16:20)

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil–and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”              (Hebrews 2:14,15)

Dear Catholic, though Mary was humble and obedient, and had a deep love for God, she played no part in bringing  about our actual salvation no matter what you have been taught. Out of her love for God she put aside all of the concerns that she must have had and willingly submitted to God and became the virgin mother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the second Person in the Trinity. Jesus took upon Himself human flesh and willingly came into our world to live the perfect, sinless  life that you and I could never live, to become the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God –He became our substitute and died in our place for all of our sins, guilt, and shame.

In the following video you will discover that after the death of the two little shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco, it has been said that “they were in constant communication with her [Lucia] until the very end of her life.” 

Communicating with the dead is referred to as “necromancy,” and is forbidden by God according to His Word! (Leviticus 19:31, 20:27) (Isaiah 8:19)

To accept the many teachings of the Catholic church concerning Mary — or anything that cannot be found anywhere in Scripture — is to go beyond what has been written, which is something that we are commanded not to do. (1 Corinthians 4:6) It is also adding to Scripture, as well as taking away from Scripture, which is something that God clearly forbids! (See Deut. 4:2, 12:32, Rev. 22:18)

When Mary is exalted to a position of power that is equal to or that surpasses that of Jesus Christ’s, (which sadly is often the case if one takes the time to compare the teachings of the Catholic church to Scripture, as I have been trying to do for you in these recent series that focuses on Catholicism), or when Jesus is presented to you as a baby, a child, or still on the cross, then you, dear Catholic, are being prevented from seeing the greatness of all that Jesus Christ alone has accomplished for you out of His love for you and out of His obedience to God the Father!

The foundation for our faith must be built upon Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, and it is not to be built upon any particular church or denomination.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:22)

“So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.” (Isaiah 28:16)

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”               (1 Corinthians 3:11)

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”                  (Ephesians 2:19,20)

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:2-8)

IN CLOSING:

While it is true that the Catholic church does not demand Catholics to accept these apparitions (that are classified as private revelations) in order to be Catholic, the fact that some of these apparitions have been fully approved by the Catholic church (some of which we will examine in an upcoming post) is enough to cause many Catholics to fall prey to the clearly unbiblical and spiritually deceptive messages that are given during these apparitions.

Dear Catholic, (and those of you who may be seeking after signs and wonders), please do not allow yourselves to be led astray from the simplicity of the Biblical gospel by  apparitions and by Catholic traditions that are not based on Scripture, and yet are put on the same level as Scripture, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.” Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own *”always, to the close of the age.” *(Matthew 28:20)

“Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit” “And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching.”

“As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”

(Para 80, 81, 82 Catechism of the Catholic Church) (Emphasis added to point out serious concerns).

Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father (John 14:6), His name is the only name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), He is the only Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), and He is the door (John 10:7-10) that leads to eternal life. And yet below you will read a quote that was taken from an interview with Lucia in Fatima in 1957 in which she stated that Mary is to be considered “as the certain door by which we are to enter heaven.”

Dear Catholic, and those of you who may have become captivated by these apparitions. Will you continue to believe the messages given during these apparitions that appeal to your emotions? Or after examining the evidence in light of Scripture will you make the decision to reject these apparitions and place your trust in Jesus Christ alone, who is the only Savior that God has provided for you? The choice is yours. I am praying for all of you.

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.” (Matthew 12:38-42)

“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” (John 4:48)

“The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there. and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:22-40)

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them…” (Exodus 20:3-5)

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false  prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

 

RELATED VIDEOS

In spite of the fact that the following apparitions received full approval by the Catholic church because nothing contradicts their teachings, if tested against Scripture each one fails to line up with the truth of God’s Word:

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I added this video to show you what some of the teachings of Mormonism are because of the fact that Lucia claimed to have seen a vision in which God the Father had a body, which is one of the many unbiblical teachings of Mormonism.

 

RELATED ARTICLES

THE EXPOSITORY FILES – DO NOT EXCEED THAT WHICH IS WRITTEN – 1 CORINTHIANS 4:6

TESTIMONY TUESDAY – EXPOSING SPIRITUAL DECEPTION IN THE CHURCH

I am sure that many of you can remember at least one time in your life when out of a deep desire to seek after God, you somehow became captivated by some pastor, teacher, or speaker who ended up leading you astray. At the time you truly believed that the person  you placed yourself under in order to come to know God’s Word in a deeper way was a Biblically sound teacher. Then over time red flags began to pop up and then the warnings given to you by the Holy Spirit within you (if you are indeed a genuine follower of the true Jesus Christ of the Bible) made you realize that something was very wrong!

Now to get to my point:

A few of you may remember that back in February of 2016 I shared the testimony of Mishel McCumber of DECEPTION BYTES with you on this→ MYSTICISM MONDAY post. Well, back in October of 2016 Mishel stopped by LIVING4HISGLORY’S FACEBOOK PAGE to let me know: 

“…that the full book based on Adrift in the River  of God is now available on Amazon and on Kindle.” 

I promised her that I would let those who read my blog from time to time know about her new book, and I have been meaning to do so for quite some time now. So today I finally  decided that a Testimony Tuesday post would be the perfect way to do so!

Please pray for Mishel because it must have been extremely difficult to write a book like ‘The View Beneath’ and to relive the spiritual abuse and deception and heartache that she most certainly went through! However, all of us who have been through similar circumstances can attest to the fact that God always uses  what we have been through to help others who are still trapped in the web of deceit and manipulation. We can also say that God’s grace has been sufficient and His strength is always made perfect in our weakness, for when we are weak, then we are strong. May God use Mishel’s book for His glory to open the eyes of many who have been deceived by false teachers!

Truly we must finally come to  the point of realizing the extreme importance of being a follower of Jesus Christ alone, and to read and study His Word so that we will come to know it so well that we will immediately be able to discern truth from error; we must always test the teachings of every man and woman who claims to speak for God against the truth of God’s Word to see if what is being said (and done) is true or not.  (Acts 17:11)

And now, I present to you the testimony of Mishel McCumber, who is a former  member of Rick Joyner’s Morningstar church:

(SOURCE)

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” (2 Peter 2:1)

“Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”         (Acts 20:26-31)

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 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. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9)

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (2 Timothy 4:1)

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

 

 

RELATED VIDEOS

UPDATE:

I am very sorry that I am still not finished writing my post that will be focusing on the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. There is so much information that I need to share with you that I finally realized the only way I can present it to you without it being extremely long is to make it into another series. Lord willing, I am truly hoping to have Part 1  finished for you by this Sunday evening  as long as I am able to gather up all the information that I will need in order to have my taxes done by Friday evening.

COMPARING SCRIPTURES IN THE CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE TO TEACHINGS FOUND IN THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH – DEAR CATHOLIC, ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD, OR THE WORD OF MAN? PART 5

 

SERIES INTRODUCTION

There are two very important reasons why I felt compelled to write this series of posts, and I’d like to briefly share these reasons with you now before I go any further:

1) Since I am a former Catholic who is very aware of the teachings of the Catholic Church because I attended twelve years of Catholic school, attended Catechism classes, made my First Holy Communion, was Confirmed, and faithfully attended Mass not only every Sunday for many years, but also before school began for three years (as required by the school that I attended at the time),  and who came to the knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is and what He actually accomplished for us by reading a Catholic New Testament Bible exactly like the one pictured above, I decided to write this series with the hope of reaching Catholics so that they can not only come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is as His Word, the Bible, declares Him to be, but also so they can see by reading God’s Word that they can have complete forgiveness, lasting joy, true peace, and the assurance of salvation if they choose to believe God’s Word and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Also, since many Catholics do not realize everything that the Catholic church actually teaches (as I once did not realize until after doing research and reading the CCC), I thought that it was extremely important to share this information to make Catholics aware of many things that are quite disturbing, as you will all soon become aware of as this series continues.

2) This series of posts is also being written with the intention of helping those of you who are born-again, Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ who have no idea of what the teachings of Catholicism are so that you can become aware of their teachings and be prepared to offer hope and assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ to Catholics based solely upon the truth that is recorded in God’s Word.

As we continue on in this series together comparing Scriptures in the Catholic New Testament to teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we must keep these important thoughts in mind:

When it comes to our eternal destination — heaven or hell — we must be certain that we place our trust in solid truth and not in speculation or in the traditions of men. The Catholic church claims to be the “one true Church.” Therefore, it stands to reason that their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not contradict it since God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8), and His Word stands firm forever. (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24,25) If a contradiction is found it must be rejected because God’s Word is our plumb line by which we must measure (or test) the teachings of every religion to see if it lines up or not. If it is off in one point we can be certain that it will lead us further and further away from Biblical truth and lead us into spiritual deception.

This series will cover many different subjects ranging from what does the Catholic Church teach about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, priests, the pope, sin, forgiveness of sins, salvation, prayer, and what must a Catholic believe in order to receive eternal life. Some of these teachings will shock even many Catholics when they learn what their church actually teaches!

Lord willing, I hope to share at least one post every month with you in this new series until I have covered all the most important teachings that need to be brought to your attention. The main goal that I have in writing this series is to present the Word of God to Catholics — and to every person — in order to point everyone to Jesus Christ, who is our only hope and ‘the only name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)

Dear Catholic, please take a minute now to pray, asking God to open your mind to the Scriptures and to reveal the truth to you –whatever that may be.

Because only God can reveal the truth to you, I will refrain from making any comments unless I find it completely necessary. Since God’s Word is truth I trust that He will not only give you eyes to see the truth, but also I trust that He will give you the courage to respond to His leading. However, each one of you will find yourself having to answer this question when you come to many points that I present to you in these posts after realizing that there are oftentimes extreme differences between what the Word of God says and what Catholicism teaches, and the question that you will have to answer is:

“Are you going to believe the Word of God, or the word of man?”

Please keep in mind, as you are carefully reading all of the statements made from the following Catholic sources, that every time you see the word “church” spelled with a capital c they are referring to the Catholic church, since they believe that the “Catholic Church” alone is the “one true Church.”All of the information that I will be sharing with you I have obtained from the following sources:

1) CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (pictured above) – Imprimi Potest – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) – Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

2) THE WORD OF GOD – THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR  IN TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION – SACRED HEART LEAGUE EDITION – IMPRIMATUR JOHN FRANCIS WHEALON, ARCHBISHOP OF HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1971 SIGNED AND SEALED BY BISHOP JOSEPH B. BRUNINI, DIOCESE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

3) Occasionally when I share a Scripture with you from the Sacred Heart League (SHL) Catholic New Testament and notice that it lacks depth and clarity, I will then follow it with the same verse but in the King James Version in order to give you a better understanding of what is being said, and so that you can see what is missing from the SHL translation.

4) Very briefly in this series, I will also be quoting from THE CATHOLIC DOUAY RHEIMS VERSION OF THE BIBLE – in which you will find the following statements:

“EXCERPT FROM ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:

“The God of all Providence, Who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the participation of the Divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from the universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has in consequence bestowed upon man a splendid gift and safeguard–making known to him, by supernatural means, the hidden Mysteries of His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. For although in Divine revelations there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order “that all may come to know them with facility, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural Revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end.” This supernatural revelation according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten Tradition, and in written Books, which are therefore called sacred and canonical because, “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been delivered to the Church.” (Page ix)

“Wherefore it must be recognised that the sacred writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His Word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher.  St. Irenaeus long since laid down, that where the charismata of God were, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Holy Scripture was safely interpreted by those who had the Apostolic succession.  His teaching, and that of other Holy Fathers, is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which, in the renewing of the decree of Trent, declares its “mind” to be this–that “in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against the unanimous agreement  of the Fathers.” (Page xvii)

“Wherefore the first and dearest object of the Catholic commentator  should be to interpret those passages which have received an authentic interpretation either by the sacred writers themselves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by her solemn judgment or her ordinary and universal magisterium –to interpret those passages in that identical sense, and to prove, by all the resources of science that sound hermeneutical laws admit of no other interpretation. In the other passages, the analogy of faith should be followed, and Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for seeing that the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is foolish and false which either makes the sacred writers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.” (Page xviii)

“For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic student, he should nevertheless, bear well in mind–as the Fathers also teach in numerous passages –that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside of the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only gnaw the bark of the Sacred Scripture and never attain its pith.” (Page xix)

(To read PART 1 click HERE).

(For PART 2 click HERE).

(For PART 3 click HERE).

(For PART 4 click HERE).

INTRODUCTION TO PART 5

As I have tried to point out to you through the information that I  have shared with you in each post in this series, Catholicism presents some extremely troubling and unbiblical teachings to their people, which also includes those who take part in their Catechism classes.  In this post, however, as we begin going through the next section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we will be looking at some of their teachings  that clearly line up with Scripture.

At some point in this series (probably closer to the end) I will be presenting you with a post in which I will be comparing some of Catholicism’s teachings with some of their other teachings in order to point out their inconsistencies, as well as the contradictions and the unbiblical nature of some of their teachings. I was considering doing that every time that a problematic teaching came up as I am continuing to go through the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) with you, but I decided that doing it that way may be too disruptive for you, the reader. What I will do from now on is put a bright pink asterisk (*) next to not only a problematic teaching, but also next to one that is clearly Biblical, and yet as you will soon see as we continue in this series, sadly, many of the teachings of the Catholic Church end up nullifying the Word of God. It will be these teachings that I will emphasize and bring to your attention at a later time, backing up everything with Scripture so that you can clearly see the truth with your own eyes. Towards the end of this post I will, however, be bringing your attention to two teachings that veer Catholics away from solid Biblical truth.

Dear Catholic, please take a moment to pray now and ask God to show you the truth according to what His Word says.

Now lets begin PART 5 of this series:

THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

ARTICLE 4

“JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DIED, AND WAS BURIED”

“The Paschal mystery of Christ’s cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. *God’s saving plan was accomplished “once for all” by the redemptive death of his Son, Jesus Christ.” (Para 571)

“In Jesus, the same Word of God, that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old…But I say to you…” *With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were making “void the word of God.” (Para 581)

PARAGRAPH 2. JESUS DIED CRUCIFIED

Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus’ death

“The historical complexity of  Jesus’ trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. The personal sins of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God  alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained in the apostles’ calls to conversion after Pentecost. Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept “the ignorance” of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places, based merely on the crowds cry: “His blood be on us and on our children!” a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the Church declared at the Second Vatican Council: …[N]either all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion…[T]he Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture.” (Para 597)

All sinners were the authors of Christ’s Passion

“In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that “sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured.” Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone.” (Para 598)

II. CHRIST’S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN GOD’S PLAN OF SALVATION

“Jesus handed over according to the definitive plan of God”

“Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: “This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.” (Para 599)

“To God all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination,” he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace. “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted  the acts that flowed from their blindness.” (Para 600)

“He died for our sins according to the Scriptures”

“The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of “the righteous one, my servant” as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin. Citing a confession of faith that he himself had “received,” St. Paul professes that “Christ died for our sins according with the scriptures.” In particular Jesus’ redemptive death fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God’s suffering Servant. After his resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.” (Para 601)

“Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned. But in the redeeming love that always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,” so that we might be “reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” (Para 603)

God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love

“By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior to any merit on our part: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) God “shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) (Para 604)

“At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God’s love excludes no one: “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” He affirms that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.” The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.” (Para 605)

CHRIST OFFERED HIMSELF TO HIS FATHER FOR OUR SINS

Christ’s whole life is an offering to the Father

“The Son of God who came down “from heaven, not to do [his] own will, but the will  of him who sent [him],” said on coming into the world, “Lo, I have come to do your will, O God.”  *And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” (Hebrews 10:5-10) From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father’s plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.” The sacrifice of Jesus “for the sins of the whole world” expresses his loving communion with the Father. “The Father loves me, because I lay down my life,” says the Lord, “[for] I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” (John 10:17) (Para 606)

“The desire to embrace his Father’s plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he asked, “And what shall I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour.” And again, “Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?” From the cross, just before “It is finished,” he said, “I thirst.” (Para 607)

“The Lamb who takes away the sins of the world”

“After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel’s redemption at the first Passover. Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: “to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)(Para 608)

Jesus freely embraces the Father’s redeeming love

“In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: *“No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (John 10:18) Hence the sovereign freedom of God’s Son as he went out to his death.” (Para 609)

NOTE: Up to this point many of you will probably agree that for the most part, these teachings in this section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church line up with Scripture by stating that:

Jesus’ sacrifice is a “once for all” sacrifice

Jesus’ redemptive death fulfills the prophecy in Isaiah 53

As sinners, we are all responsible for Jesus Christ’s death

Jesus willingly gave His life for us

However, in this next section in Para 611 this is where some serious problems begin to emerge:

“At the Last Supper Jesus anticipated the free offering of his life”

“Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared with the twelve Apostles “on the night he was betrayed.” On the eve of his Passion, while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: “This is my body which is given for you.” This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:20) (Para 610)

*“The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his sacrifice. Jesus includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it. By doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant. “For their sakes  I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”  (John 17:19) (Para 611)

NOTE: We will be taking a thorough look into Catholicism’s teachings concerning the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Mass at a later time in this series, but I would just like to stop for a moment to ask any Catholic who may be reading this just one question:

Dear Catholic, since Catholicism teaches that the apostles were commanded to perpetuate the Sacrifice of the Mass, will you prayerfully consider taking some time to read through the Book of Acts in the Bible which records the beginning of the church? Look to see if you can find at least one time in which the apostles declare this time of reflecting on the Lord’s death as being a time of sacrifice “in reparation for sins of the living and the dead…” as the Catholic Church teaches in Para 1414, instead of  it being just a time of “proclaiming His death until He comes again,” as it says in 1 Corinthians 11:26.

This is what Para 1414 in the CCC says which, by doing so, renders Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as being insufficient to pay the debt for our sins in full:

“As sacrifice, the Eucharist is offered in reparation for the sins of the living and the dead and to obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God.”

God’s Word clearly says otherwise:

“God offered him so that by his death  he should become the means by which men’s sins are forgiven, through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In the past, he was patient and overlooked men’s sins; but now in the present time he deals with men’s sins, to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25,26) (SHLCNT)

“He was given over to die because of our sins, and was raised to life to put us right with God.” (Romans 4:25) SHLCNT

“You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins, and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ; God forgave us all our sins. He cancelled the unfavorable record of our debts, with its binding rules, and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. And on that cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession.” (Colossians 2:13-15) SHLCNT

Now let’s continue on with some more teachings that can be found in this section of the CCC that are Biblical because they line up with Scripture:

Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who “makes himself an offering for sin” when “he bore the sins of many,” and who “shall make many to be accounted righteous,” for “he shall bear their iniquities.” Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father.”

Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the Cross

“It is love “to the end” that confers on Christ’s sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life. Now “the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.” (2 Corin. 5:14) No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.” (Para 616)

These next two teachings are rather troubling:

Teaching #1

“The Council of Trent emphasizes the unique character of Christ’s sacrifice as “the source of eternal salvation” and teaches that “his most holy Passion on the wood of the cross merited justification for us.” And the Church venerates his cross as it sings: “Hail, O Cross, our only hope.” (Para 617)

On September 14th the Catholic Church has a feast day set aside to venerate the cross. In the following video starting at the 26:55 minute mark, Catholic priest, John Corapi closes this video by saying many unbiblical things concerning human suffering:

“Listen, we’re baptized, we’re in Christ. And so through Him, with Him, and in Him, every beat of our heart, every word we speak, every step we walk through life has redemptive signification. Every little pain…all the physical problems…all the emotional distress you can have throughout the course of a life walking through this valley of tears, all that’s powerful in union with Jesus. Now apart from Jesus, it’s not valuable. Apart from Jesus it’s just evil. But through Jesus, and with Jesus, and in Jesus, it’s powerful. We, as it were, participate in redemption…we  participate in the paschal mystery. We contribute to the salvation of our brothers and sisters through this redemptive love.”

“It’s kind of a divine alchemy. That base metal of evil — human suffering — is transformed through the power of love into the pure gold of redemptive suffering. Now think about this…this is huge…especially for those of us who are getting older…we may be saddened by the fact that we can’t do things like we used to…we can’t see or hear like we used to. Our human powers are diminishing as it were. Well, remember this in the face of all of that…you are becoming more and more conformed to Jesus, and Him crucified, and thus bringing down grace on your brothers and sisters; you’re contributing to their salvation through this redemptive sacrifice.”

Teaching #2

Our participation in Christ’s sacrifice

“The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the “one mediator between God and men.” (1 Tim. 2:5) But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery” is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to take up [their] cross and follow [him],” for “Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps.” In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. *This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.” (Para 618)

Catholicism does have many teachings that line up with Scripture. However, as you have seen from the two teachings directly above, sadly, many of them — in one way or another — directs every precious Catholic’s attention away from the finished work of Jesus Christ’s once for all sacrifice on the cross either to something that must be added to what Jesus Christ has already fully accomplished for us, as if what He did wasn’t enough, or the attention of precious Catholics is somehow directed away from Jesus Christ and on to Mary. As we continue through this series, these sad truths will become very clear to you.

Let’s continue:

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.” (1 Corinthians  15:3) (Para 619)

“Our salvation flows from God’s initiative of love for us, because “he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). (Para 620)

*“Jesus freely offered himself for our salvation. Beforehand, during the Last Supper, he both symbolized this offering and *made it really present: “This is my body which is given for you” (Luke 22:19). (Para 621) NOTE: Lord willing, I will be going into great detail concerning this very troubling teaching when we get further into this series.

Paragraph 3. Jesus Christ Was Buried

“By the grace of God” Jesus tasted death “for every one.” In his plan of salvation, God ordained that his Son should not only “die for our sins” (1 Corin. 15:3) but should also “taste death,” experience the condition of death, the separation of his soul from his body, between the time he expired on the cross and the time he was raised from the dead. The state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ, lying in the tomb, reveals God’s great sabbath rest after the fulfillment of man’s salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe.” (Para 624)

“You will not let your Holy One see corruption”

“Christ’s death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence. But because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body, his was not a mortal corpse like others, for “it was not possible for death to hold him” and therefore “divine powers preserved Christ’s body from corruption.” Both of these statements can be said of Christ: “He was cut off out of the land of the living,” and “My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption.” Jesus’ Resurrection “on the third day” was the sign of this, also because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death.” (Para 627)

Article 5

*“HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN”

Paragraph 1. Christ Descended into Hell

“This was the first meaning given to the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there. (1 Peter 3:18,19) (Para 632)

“Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.” (Para 633)

Paragraph 2. On the Third Day He Rose from the Dead

“We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this day he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.” (Acts 13:32,33) The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross: Christ is risen from the dead! Dying he conquered death; to the dead he has given life.” (Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion of Easter) (Para 638)

I. THE HISTORICAL AND TRANSCENDENT EVENT

The empty tomb

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ’s body from the tomb could be explained otherwise. Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step towards recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter. The disciple “whom Jesus loved” affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered “the linen cloths lying there,” he saw and believed.” This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb’s condition that the absence of Jesus’ body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.” (Para 640)

The condition of Christ’s risen humanity

“By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ’s humanity can no longer be confined to earth and belongs henceforth only to the Father’s divine realm.” (Matt. 28:9, 16,17, Luke 24:15,36, Jn. 20:14,17,19,26; 21:4) (Para 645)

II. THE RESURRECTION — A WORK OF THE HOLY TRINITY

“Christ’s Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. The Father’s power “raised up” Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son’s humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as “Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead.” St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God’s power through the working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’ dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.” (Para 648)

“As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power. Jesus announces that the Son of man will have to suffer much, die, and then rise. Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: “I lay down my life, that I may take it again…I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” “We believe that Jesus died and rose again.” (Para 649)

III. THE MEANING AND SAVING SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESURRECTION

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (1 Corin. 15:14) The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ’s works and teachings. All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ by his Resurrection has given the definitive proof of his divine authority, which he had promised. (651)

“Christ’s Resurrection is the fulfillment of the promises both of the Old Testament and of Jesus himself during his earthly life. The phrase “in accordance with the Scriptures” indicates that Christ’s Resurrection fulfilled these predictions.” (Para 652)

“The truth of Jesus’ divinity is confirmed by his Resurrection. He had said: “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he.” The Resurrection of the crucified one shows that he was truly “I Am,” the Son of God and God himself. So St. Paul could declare to the Jews: “What God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ Christ’s Resurrection is closely linked to the Incarnation of God’s Son and is its fulfillment in accordance with God’s eternal plan.” (John 8:28) (Para 653)

“Finally, Christ’s Resurrection–and the risen Christ himself–is the principle and source of our future resurrection: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep…For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)(Para 655)

SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS:

As you have seen throughout most of this post, there are many teachings in Catholicism that absolutely do line up with Biblical Christianity. However, as we continue on in this series you will come to realize even more just what happens to Biblical truth when it becomes mixed with the “Traditions of men.” I capitalized “traditions” intentionally, because as I have shared with you in the first post in this series, the Catholic Church puts their traditions on the same level of authority as the Word of God:

“Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other.”(Para 80)

“Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.” (Para 82)

And as you will see by reading the Scriptures further below, God is very clear in His Word about what He thinks concerning the mixing of His truth with the traditions of men.

Dear Catholic, maybe at this point you still do not see anything to be concerned about in the information that I have shared with you. But if you will please consider checking back here from time to time, I will be sharing some more teachings of the Catholic church in upcoming posts concerning things that you are probably not even aware of…teachings that you may find very disturbing and hard to believe at first. Until then, please prayerfully consider reading through the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans in the Bible, and ask God to open your mind to the truth of His Word so that you will see what the real truth is for yourself. Your eternal destiny is truly at stake.

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“This is how you disregard God’s word to follow your own teaching. You hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! ‘These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach man-made commandments as though they were God’s rules!’ ” (Matthew 15:6-9) Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament (SHLCNT)

“Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:6-9) (KJV)

“See to it, then, that no one makes a captive of you with the worthless deceit of human wisdom, which comes from the teachings handed down by men, and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ.” (Colossians 2:8) (SHLCNT)

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)(KJV)

“Preach the message, insist upon telling it, whether the time is right or not; to convince, reproach, and encourage, teaching with all patience. The time will come when men will not listen to the true teaching, but will follow their own desires, and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4) (SHLCNT)

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4) (KJV)

 

RELATED VIDEOS

FORMER CATHOLIC PRIEST OF 22 YEARS, RICHARD BENNETT

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

COMPARING SCRIPTURES IN THE CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE TO TEACHINGS FOUND IN THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH – DEAR CATHOLIC, ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD, OR THE WORD OF MAN? PART 2

SERIES INTRODUCTION

There are two very important reasons why I felt compelled to write this series of posts, and I’d like to briefly share these reasons with you now before I go any further:

1) Since I am a former Catholic who is very aware of the teachings of the Catholic Church because I attended twelve years of Catholic school, attended Catechism classes, made my First Holy Communion, was Confirmed, and faithfully attended Mass not only every Sunday for many years, but also before school began for three years (as required by the school that I attended at the time),  and who came to the knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is and what He actually accomplished for us by reading a Catholic New Testament Bible exactly like the one pictured above, I decided to write this series with the hope of reaching Catholics so that they can not only come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is as His Word, the Bible, declares Him to be, but also so they can see by reading God’s Word that they can have complete forgiveness, lasting joy, true peace, and the assurance of salvation if they choose to believe God’s Word and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Also, since many Catholics do not realize everything that the Catholic church actually teaches (as I once did not realize until after doing research and reading the CCC), I thought that it was extremely important to share this information to make Catholics aware of many things that are quite disturbing, as you will all soon become aware of as this series continues.

2) This series of posts is also being written with the intention of helping those of you who are born-again, Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ who have no idea of what the teachings of Catholicism are so that you can become aware of their teachings and be prepared to offer hope and assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ to Catholics based solely upon the truth that is recorded in God’s Word.

As we continue on in this series together comparing Scriptures in the Catholic New Testament to teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we must keep these important thoughts in mind:

When it comes to our eternal destination — heaven or hell — we must be certain that we place our trust in solid truth and not in speculation or in the traditions of men. The Catholic church claims to be the “one true Church.” Therefore, it stands to reason that their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not contradict it since God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8), and His Word stands firm forever. (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24,25) If a contradiction is found it must be rejected because God’s Word is our plumb line by which we must measure (or test) the teachings of every religion to see if it lines up or not. If it is off in one point we can be certain that it will lead us further and further away from Biblical truth and lead us into spiritual deception.

This series will cover many different subjects ranging from what does the Catholic Church teach about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, priests, the pope, sin, forgiveness of sins, salvation, prayer, and what must a Catholic believe in order to receive eternal life. Some of these teachings will shock even many Catholics when they learn what their church actually teaches!

Lord willing, I hope to share at least one post every month with you in this new series until I have covered all the most important teachings that need to be brought to your attention. The main goal that I have in writing this series is to present the Word of God to Catholics — and to every person — in order to point everyone to Jesus Christ, who is our only hope and ‘the only name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)

Dear Catholic, please take a minute now to pray, asking God to open your mind to the Scriptures and to reveal the truth to you –whatever that may be.

Because only God can reveal the truth to you, I will refrain from making any comments unless I find it completely necessary. Since God’s Word is truth I trust that He will not only give you eyes to see the truth, but also I trust that He will give you the courage to respond to His leading. However, each one of you will find yourself having to answer this question when you come to each point that I present to you in these posts after realizing that there are oftentimes extreme differences between what the Word of God says and what Catholicism teaches, and the question that you will have to answer is:

“Are you going to believe the Word of God, or the word of man?”

 Please keep in mind, as you are carefully reading all of the statements made from the following Catholic sources, that every time you see the word “church” spelled with a capital c they are referring to the Catholic church, since they believe that the “Catholic Church” alone is the “one true Church.”All of the information that I will be sharing with you I have obtained from the following sources:

1) CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (pictured above) – Imprimi Potest – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) – Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

2) THE WORD OF GOD – THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR  IN TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION – SACRED HEART LEAGUE EDITION – IMPRIMATUR JOHN FRANCIS WHEALON, ARCHBISHOP OF HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1971 SIGNED AND SEALED BY BISHOP JOSEPH B. BRUNINI, DIOCESE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

3) Occasionally when I share a Scripture with you from the Sacred Heart League (SHL) Catholic New Testament and notice that it lacks depth and clarity, I will then follow it with the same verse but in the King James Version in order to give you a better understanding of what is being said, and so that you can see what is missing from the SHL translation.

4) Very briefly in this series, I will also be quoting from THE CATHOLIC DOUAY RHEIMS VERSION OF THE BIBLE – in which you will find the following statements:

“EXCERPT FROM ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:

“The God of all Providence, Who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the participation of the Divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from the universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has in consequence bestowed upon man a splendid gift and safeguard–making known to him, by supernatural means, the hidden Mysteries of His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. For although in Divine revelations there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order “that all may come to know them with facility, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural Revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end.” This supernatural revelation according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten Tradition, and in written Books, which are therefore called sacred and canonical because, “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been delivered to the Church.” (Page ix)

“Wherefore it must be recognised that the sacred writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His Word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher.  St. Irenaeus long since laid down, that where the charismata of God were, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Holy Scripture was safely interpreted by those who had the Apostolic succession.  His teaching, and that of other Holy Fathers, is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which, in the renewing of the decree of Trent, declares its “mind” to be this–that “in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against the unanimous agreement  of the Fathers.” (Page xvii)

“Wherefore the first and dearest object of the Catholic commentator  should be to interpret those passages which have received an authentic interpretation either by the sacred writers themselves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by her solemn judgment or her ordinary and universal magisterium –to interpret those passages in that identical sense, and to prove, by all the resources of science that sound hermeneutical laws admit of no other interpretation. In the other passages, the analogy of faith should be followed, and Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for seeing that the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is foolish and false which either makes the sacred writers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.” (Page xviii)

“For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic student, he should nevertheless, bear well in mind–as the Fathers also teach in numerous passages –that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside of the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only gnaw the bark of the Sacred Scripture and never attain its pith.” (Page xix)

(If you’d like to read PART 1 first, click HERE).

In PART 1 of this new series I shared the most concerning information with you that can be found in the first fifty five pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). To those of you who are Catholic, you were also presented with the question of making the decision to choose between believing what God’s Word has to say, or what Catholicism teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The format in this particular post will be a little different due to the fact that the information in this next section of the CCC I will be sharing with you in this particular post requires me to address some serious concerns

Now, please take a minute to pray for discernment again, and then we will continue on in this series comparing the teachings from the CCC to the Scriptures in the Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament.

In this installment you will begin to see a few glimpses of how some of the teachings presented in Catholicism are rooted in mysticism which is what made me realize that I needed to change my original plans concerning how I was going to present these posts to you. When I first began writing this series I just wanted the content of each post to simply be the teachings that can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and on  God’s Word as presented in the Catholic New Testament Bible, and I was going to address any concerns that came up in these teachings in separate posts after I was finished going  through the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church. However, realizing that not everyone who reads one post in this series is going to read every post in this series, I prayerfully came to the decision to begin sharing important information with you when these issues pertaining to mysticism come up to keep things as orderly as possible in this series. That means that I will be going back to PART 1 in this series in order to add something that I intentionally left out concerning mysticism which I was going to address at a later time.

As this series progresses, I will be presenting you with at least two posts devoted to showing you just how steeped in mysticism some of the teachings of Catholicism truly are, which will shock many of you –especially some of you who are Catholic. Once again I will be refraining from making any additional comments at this time, except for adding a few  ‘notes’ and some important information in order to point some things out to you in order to help you learn to discern. It is my prayer that God, by His Holy Spirit, will open your eyes to see the serious problems in some of these teachings. With all of that in mind, let’s begin:

CHAPTER 1 – PART 2

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH (CONT).

SECTION TWO – THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH – THE CREEDS

“Our presentation of the faith will follow the Apostles’ Creed, which constitutes, as it were, “the oldest Roman catechism.” The presentation will be completed however by constant references to the Nicene Creed which is often more explicit and more detailed.” (Para 196)

“As on the day  of our Baptism, when our whole life was entrusted to the “standard of teaching,” let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving faith. To say the Credo with faith is to enter into communion with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and also with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and whose midst we believe: This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart’s meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is unquestionably, the treasure of our soul.” (Para 197)

“Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of “another Paraclete” (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously “spoken through the prophets,” the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them “into all the truth.” The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the Father.” (Para 243) (NOTE: I will be referring back to some of these statements concerning the Holy Spirit when we get to another related topic further along in this series, so please keep the above thoughts in the back of your mind. I will share those certain statements above with you again later, as well).

Now please carefully read the following Canticle of the Creatures which was written by St. Francis, and ask yourself if the terminology used lines up with Biblical Christianity, or if it more closely resembles New Age mysticism/paganism:

“There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his glory:

“May you be praised, O Lord, in all your creatures, especially brother sun, by whom you give us light for the day; he is beautiful, radiating great splendor, and offering us a symbol of you, the Most High…”

“May you be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste… “May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses…Praise and bless my Lord, give thanks and serve him in all humility…” (Para 344) (St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures)

Thoughts for you to consider:

Is the sun our brother? Is water our sister? Is the earth really to be considered as our sister, and our mother? Is the earth responsible for bearing and feeding us? Or is it God who created us and who provides for us? Yes, Francis clearly gives praise to God in his Canticle of the Creatures, but by presenting his readers with imagery that attempts to establish some sort of a relationship or a unity/oneness that we have with creation, he seems to be painting a pagan or pantheistic world view instead of a Biblical world view in the minds of those who read his Canticle.

Here is a Scripture that came to mind as I was reading the Canticle of the Creatures:

“God’s wrath is revealed coming down from heaven upon all the sin and evil of men whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known. God punishes them, because what men can know about God is plain to them. Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen. Men can perceive them in the things that God has made. So they have no excuse at all! They know God, but they do not give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, their thoughts have become complete nonsense and their empty minds are filled with darkness. They say they are wise but they are fools; instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Because men are such fools, God has given them over to do the filthy things their hearts desire and they do shameful things with each other. They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator Himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen.” (Romans 1:18-25) Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament (SHLCNT)

At this point I now find it necessary to share some further information with you concerning St. Francis of Assisi:

The only thing that I remember learning about St. Francis as I attended Catholic school as a child is that he was a kind and gentle Roman Catholic friar. Due to the fact that he is considered to be the patron saint of Italy and of animals and the environment, he was and is often pictured in the scenic outdoors with little animals:

However, after doing research for this post, I discovered that he was a mystic as well as “the first recorded *stigmatic *(a person who claims to manifest the wounds of the crucified Christ in their hands, and sometimes in their feet and side,  from which blood oftentimes flows from these wounds) in Christian history,” according to the following information on Wikipedia:

(SOURCE)

For those of you who have never heard about those who have claimed to have borne the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, below you will find some information to test in light of Scripture. I would like to draw your attention to the following paragraph that you will find in the second quick capture below to point out the unbiblical nature of these manifestations:

Facts concerning the wounds of the stigmata

The purpose of the wounds is to draw and unite the chosen individual into a special union with Jesus in his passion for the conversion of sinners and to make reparation for sins. Thus, individuals who are given the grace of the stigmata are always considered “victim souls” because they suffer in union with Jesus for the conversion of sinners.

To claim that those who suffer with the wounds of Christ have “a special union with Jesus in His passion” in order “to make reparation for sins” is clearly denying the sufficiency of Jesus’ “once for all” sacrifice for our sins when He willingly died in our place on the cross, and it is also adding to Scripture. Yet many Catholics will choose to believe this because it is accepted and taught by the Catholic Church as part of Tradition which is  put on the same level of importance and authenticity as the Bible, but, once again, one must make the choice to believe God’s Word over the words of men when they come in conflict with one another, and especially when a teaching somehow clearly denies the sufficiency of Jesus Christ’s “once for all” sacrifice.

“For those of you who are Catholic, here is a quick capture of a portion of a similar article from a Catholic source that you might prefer:

(SOURCE)

As you can see from the quick capture below of some rather revealing information, mediums and Buddhists have also been stigmatics which should add to one’s concern about the source of these manifestations:

(SOURCE)

 

 ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD? OR THE WORD OF MAN?

So, dear Catholic, are you going to believe the Word of God and place your trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross in your place as full payment for your sins? Or will you instead choose to believe that more suffering needs to be added to the sufferings of Jesus Christ in order for you to receive God’s forgiveness?

Rejoice in what Jesus Christ has already done for you and place your trust in Him alone! In John 6:28,29 we see a crowd of people asking Jesus a question that is in the hearts of many people even today, because accepting the free gift of salvation that was paid with the high price of the blood of Jesus seems to be too simple and too good to be true:

“So they asked him, “What can we do in order to do God’s works?” Jesus answered, “This is the work God wants you to do: believe in the one he sent.”

A similar account is recorded in Acts 16 after Paul and Silas had been severely beaten and thrown in jail, and the jailer was given strict orders to lock them up tight:

“Upon receiving this order the jailer threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet between heavy blocks of wood. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake which shook the prison to its foundations. At once all the doors opened, and the chains fell off all the prisoners. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open he thought that all the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. Then he led them out and asked, “What must I do, sirs, to be saved?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus,” they said, “and you will be saved–you and your family.” Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.”

One must keep in mind though, that in James 2:19 it says that “the demons also believe [in God]–and tremble with fear.”  And Scripture also records that the demons know exactly who Jesus Christ is (Matthew 8:28-32, Mark 1:23-27, Luke 4:3-35,41, 8:26-29), and yet they will not be saved; their fate was already sealed after they chose to rebel against God.

Here are a few of the above cited Scriptures:

“Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, on the other side of the lake, and was met by two men who came out of the burial caves. These men had demons in them and were so fierce that no one dared travel on that road. At once they screamed, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come to punish us before the right time?” (Matthew 8:28-30)

“They came to the town of Capernaum, and on the next Sabbath Day Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people who heard him were amazed at the way he taught. He wasn’t like the teachers of the law; instead he taught with authority. Just then a man with an evil spirit in him came into the synagogue and screamed, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Are you here to destroy us? I know who you are: you are God’s holy messenger!” Jesus commanded the spirit, “Be quiet, and come out of the man!” The evil spirit shook the man hard, gave a loud scream, and came out of him. The people were all so amazed that they started saying to each other, “What is this? Some kind of new teaching? This man has authority to give orders to the evil spirits, and they obey him!” (Mark 1:21-27)

Hell – Created for the devil and his angels:

“Then he [Jesus] will say to those on his left, “Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!” (Matthew 25:41)(SHLCNT) (Note: I inserted “Jesus” in this verse).

 

True belief unto salvation means that we must rely fully upon and place our complete trust in Jesus Christ’s sinless life, His death in our place upon the cross for our sin and guilt, and in His glorious bodily resurrection from the dead as our only means of forgiveness from sin and guilt and the only way to be able to have a relationship with God; there is only (1) one way to God, (2) one Mediator between God and men, and (3) one name given among men by which we must be saved –Jesus Christ.

(1) “Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6) (SHLCNT)

(2) “For there is one God, and there is one who brings God and men together, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself to redeem all men.” (1 Timothy 2:5) (SHLCNT)

(3) “Salvation is to be found through him alone; for there is no one else in all the world, whose name God has given to men, by whom we can be saved.” (Acts 4:12) (SHLCNT)

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO REFLECT UPON

“For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked, at the time that God chose. It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may be that someone might dare to die for a good person. But God has shown us how much he loves us; it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! By his death we are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by him from God’s wrath. We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life!” (Romans 5:6-10) SHLCNT

“So then, as the one sin condemned all men, in the same way the one righteous act sets all men free and gives them life. And just as many men were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way many will be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man.” (Romans 5:18,19) SHLCNT

“The Jewish High Priest goes into The Holy Place every year with the blood of an animal. But Christ did not go in to offer himself many times; for then he would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. Instead, he has now appeared once and for all, when all ages of time are nearing the end, to remove sin through the sacrifice of himself. Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God. In the same manner, Christ also was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:24-28) SHLCNT

“Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all made clean from sin by the offering that he made of his  own body, once and for all.” (Hebrews 10:10) SHLCNT

“For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life you received from your ancestors. It was not something that loses its value, such as silver or gold; you were set free by the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or spot. He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world, and was revealed in these last days for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.”    (1 Peter 1:18-21) SHLCNT

“For Christ himself died for you; once and for all he died for sins, a good  man for bad men in order to lead you to God. He was put to death physically, but made alive spiritually.” (1 Peter 3:18) SHLCNT 

^“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) (KJV)

In the Book of Revelation God’s Word is clear about the fate of those who add to or who take away from what His Word has to say. Although this verse is specifically referring to the prophecies in the Book of Revelation, this should produce fear in the heart of anyone who dares to tamper with God’s Word!

“I, John, solemnly warn everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to his punishment the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away anything from the prophetic words of this book, God will take away from his share of the fruit of the tree of life, and his share of the Holy City, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18,19) (SHLCNT)

If you choose to listen to the following poem by Saint Francis, please pray for  discernment so that you will not be misled by your emotions, and be sure to test his words against Scripture:

Eckhart Tolle is often seen with Oprah, and he promotes New Age mysticism as you will see in the following video:

When you have someone who is a New Age leader promoting Saint Francis, this should be a clear indication to you that the spirituality of Saint Francis was not quite Christian!

Now back to sharing a few more teachings with you from the CCC before I end this particular post:

“After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a  mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall. This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between a serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. (Para 410)

“The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the “New Adam” who, “because he became obedient unto death, even death on a cross,” makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience of Adam. Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium, as Mary, the mother of Christ, the “new Eve.” Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.” (Para 411)

At this point I find it necessary to pause once again in order to share some important information with you concerning the Protoevangelium before addressing another concern in the above paragraph:

As you can see from the quick capture below, “…the Protevangelium is God’s statement to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden about how the Seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.”

(SOURCE)

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Genesis 3:15) (Douay-Rheims Version)

If you click HERE, you will discover that the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible version is the only one that translated the second half of Genesis 3:15 as “…she shall crush thy head…”

In a video that I will be sharing with you at a later time in this series, Rob Zins of ‘A Christian Witness to Roman Catholicism,’ (CWRC) says the following concerning Genesis 3:15: 

“Now this “she shall crush thy head” is interpreted by Roman Catholic scholars to be a reference to Mary. This is the beginning. Now we object to this right at the start of it. The Douay Rheims version of the Roman Catholic Bible has a footnote under verse 15 which says, “she shall crush; ipsa; the woman.” The ipsa here is a mistake. The Latin Vulgate translated this with an ipsa –she. It should have been ipse –masculine; he.  Every Protestant Bible and every other version of the Bible written has “he” in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ; He shall crush thy head.” It is not she, it is he. The Latin Vulgate mistranslated this, and as a result it was carried through. The original Hebrew text has masculine pronoun. Even the Greek Septuagint is masculine in this case. Why do the Catholics continue to say, “She, she, she.” The answer is at the Council of Trent the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible was declared to be the one and only translation acceptable to the Roman Catholic religion, so they are stuck with “she” here, even though their own theologians will admit it’s a mistake; it should be he. But the greater mistake, other than the language mistake, is the idea that this she here is in reference to Mary, and they begin with a tiny ice particle at the top of the hill and they say, “Well if it’s a she it must begin with  Mary,” and they begin building a doctrine of Mary right from this point. It’s a little ice particle that rolls down the hill, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger until at the bottom it’s a giant, thundering, bulldozing boulder of Marian theology, but it begins right here in Genesis 3:15.”

Here is a Commentary by Matthew Henry followed by a portion of Barnes’ Notes on the Bible concerning Genesis 3:14,15 that you might be interested in reading`:

(SOURCE)

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” (Romans 16:20)

The other concern from Para 411 of the CCC that I would also like to bring to your attention is the following statement:

“Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.” (Para 411)

God’s Word reveals to us that all of us are sinners — and oh so much more — in these passages of Scripture:

“As the Scriptures say: “There is no one who is righteous, no one who understands, or who seeks for God. All men have turned away from God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is good, not even one.”(Romans 3:10-12)

“Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God’s judgment. Because no man is put right in God’s sight by doing what the Law requires; what the Law does is to make man know that he has sinned. But now God’s way of putting men right with himself has been revealed, and it has nothing to do with the Law. The Law and the prophets gave their witness to it:  God puts men right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all; all men have sinned and are far away from God’s saving presence. But by the free gift of God’s grace they are all put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. God offered him so that by his death he should become the means by which men’s sins are forgiven, through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In the past, he was patient and overlooked men’s sins; but now in the present time he deals with men’s sins, to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.” (Romans 3:19-26)

“So then, as the one sin condemned all men, in the same way the one righteous act sets all men free and gives them life.” (Romans 5:18)

 

END OF CHAPTER 1 OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS:

In MY TESTIMONY : FROM FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY TO PEACE AND ASSURANCE – HOW GOD REVEALED THE TRUTH TO ME AS I WAS READING A CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE (PART 2), I shared a lot of disturbing information with you concerning the Virgin Mary in regards to much of what Catholicism teaches about her, as well as the  information that I discovered after doing many hours of research on the Virgin Mary and the many Feast Days set aside to honor her. As this series continues I will be sharing more information with you concerning Mary and what the Catholic Church teaches about her, and I will continue sharing many Scriptures with you, as well.

For those of you who are Catholic, all that I ask you to do is to please pray for God to reveal His truth to you if you decide to read that portion of my testimony and if you choose to read the rest of the posts that I (Lord willing) will be sharing with you in this series.

Lord willing, in the next post in this series (that I am hoping to have completed in August) we will begin going through many of the teachings in Chapter 2 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and continue comparing them to Scripture. In the mean time I hope and pray that many of you — those of you who are Catholic and those of you who have placed your complete trust only in the finished work of Jesus Christ as full payment for your sins — are coming to realize the importance of testing the teachings of every pastor, teacher — and priest — against Scripture, as God’s Word clearly shows us that we are to do:

“As soon as night came, the brothers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. They listened to the message with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true.” (Acts 17:11) (SHLCNT)

“Put all things to the test: keep what is good, and avoid every kind of evil.”                    (1 Thessalonians 5:21,22) (SHLCNT)

 

Dear Catholic, when I was still a Catholic I believed with all of my heart that the Catholic Church was the “one true church” as we were taught. However, after reading God’s Word in that little Catholic New Testament I discovered too much evidence that proved many of their teachings not only contradicted Scripture, but also their teachings did not give Jesus Christ the honor and praise that was due to Him for all that He did for us by paying the debt for our sins and guilt in full!  As hard as it was at first, the moment God opened my eyes to see the truth of the glorious good news of the gospel — that Jesus Christ’s death was enough to satisfy God’s wrath that He has towards us because of our sins — I finally came to realize that I must choose to believe God’s Word over the words of men. When it was Jesus Christ whom I chose to believe and to follow, true joy and peace filled my heart. It then became easy to leave the false teachings of Catholicism behind, and all fear of death and doubt of where I would spend eternity vanished.

The Virgin Mary was a humble, obedient woman who chose to obey God and who willingly gave her consent to God to carry Jesus within her womb, but it is Jesus Christ who willingly came to lay His life down by dying a horrendously painful death in our place on the cross and who paid the price for our sins and therefore deserves all of our praise and attention –not Mary. When it comes to our eternal destination we must be certain about where we should place our trust. Our trust must not be in a church, in creeds, in deeds, or in anything or in anyone else, other than in the truth revealed in God’s Word, and in Jesus Christ alone! 

 

Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of your relaxing weekend (at least I hope that it has been) to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

MORE SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO REFLECT ON:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:6-9)

“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” (2 Peter 2:1)

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7: 13-15)

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men. after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

“Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:26-31)

 

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN READING:

TO JESUS THROUGH MARY – ANOTHER UNBIBLICAL TEACHING OF CATHOLICISM KEEPING PRECIOUS CATHOLICS FROM THE TRUTH

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

COMPARING SCRIPTURES IN THE CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE TO TEACHINGS FOUND IN THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH – DEAR CATHOLIC, ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE THE WORD OF GOD, OR THE WORD OF MAN? PART 1

There are two very important reasons why I felt compelled to write this series of posts, and I’d like to briefly share these reasons with you now before I go any further:

1) Since I am a former Catholic who is very aware of the teachings of the Catholic Church because I attended twelve years of Catholic school, attended Catechism classes, made my First Holy Communion, was Confirmed, and faithfully attended Mass not only every Sunday, but also before school began for three years (as required by the school that I attended at the time),  and who came to the knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is and what He actually accomplished for us by reading a Catholic New Testament Bible exactly like the one pictured above, I decided to write this series with the hope of reaching Catholics so that they can not only come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is as His Word, the Bible, declares Him to be, but also so they can see by reading God’s Word that they can have complete forgiveness, lasting joy, true peace, and the assurance of salvation if they choose to believe God’s Word and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Also, since many Catholics do not realize everything that the Catholic church actually teaches (as I once did not realize until after doing research and reading the CCC), I thought that it was extremely important to share this information to make Catholics aware of many things that are quite disturbing, as you will all soon become aware of as this series continues.

2) This series of posts is also being written with the intention of helping those of you who are born-again, Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ who have no idea of what the teachings of Catholicism are so that you can become aware of their teachings and be prepared to offer hope and assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ to Catholics based solely upon the truth that is recorded in God’s Word.

As we begin this series together comparing Scriptures in the Catholic New Testament to teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we must keep these important thoughts in mind:

When it comes to our eternal destination — heaven or hell — we must be certain that we place our trust in solid truth and not in speculation or in the traditions of men. The Catholic church claims to be the “one true Church.” Therefore, it stands to reason that their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not contradict it since God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8), and His Word stands firm forever. (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24,25) If a contradiction is found it must be rejected because God’s Word is our plumb line by which we must measure (or test) the teachings of every religion to see if it lines up or not. If it is off in one point we can be certain that it will lead us further and further away from Biblical truth and lead us into spiritual deception.

This series will cover many different subjects ranging from what does the Catholic Church teach about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, priests, the pope, sin, forgiveness of sins, salvation, prayer, and what must a Catholic believe in order to receive eternal life. Some of these teachings will shock even many Catholics when they learn what their church actually teaches!

Lord willing, I hope to share at least one post every month with you in this new series until I have covered all the most important teachings that need to be brought to your attention. The main goal that I have in writing this series is to present the Word of God to Catholics — and to every person — in order to point everyone to Jesus Christ, who is our only hope and ‘the only name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)

Dear Catholic, please take a minute now to pray, asking God to open your mind to the Scriptures and to reveal the truth to you –whatever that may be.

Because only God can reveal the truth to you I will refrain from making any comments unless I find it completely necessary. Since God’s Word is truth I trust that He will not only give you eyes to see the truth, but also I trust that He will give you the courage to respond to His leading. However, each one of you will find yourself having to answer this question when you come to each point that I present to you in these posts after realizing that there are oftentimes extreme differences between what the Word of God says and what Catholicism teaches, and the question that you will have to answer is:

“Are you going to believe the Word of God, or the word of man?”

Let’s begin:

Please keep in mind, as you are carefully reading all of the statements made from the following Catholic sources, that every time you see the word “church” spelled with a capital c they are referring to the Catholic church, since they believe that the “Catholic Church” alone is the “one true Church.”

All of the information that I will be sharing with you I have obtained from the following sources:

1) CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (pictured above) – Imprimi Potest – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) – Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Portion of statement made by Pope John Paul II – Page 6 – Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum:

“At the conclusion of this document presenting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Mother of the Church, to support with her powerful intercession the catechetical work of the entire church on every level at this time when she is called to a new effort of evangelization.”

“Given October 11, 1992, the thirteenth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the fourteenth year of my Pontificate.” ~Joannes Paulus II(Signature in Latin)

2) THE WORD OF GOD – THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR  IN TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION – SACRED HEART LEAGUE EDITION – IMPRIMATUR JOHN FRANCIS WHEALON, ARCHBISHOP OF HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1971 SIGNED AND SEALED BY BISHOP JOSEPH B. BRUNINI, DIOCESE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

3) Occasionally when I share a Scripture with you from the Sacred Heart League (SHL) Catholic New Testament and notice that it lacks depth and clarity, I will then follow it with the same verse but in the King James Version in order to give you a better understanding of what is being said, and so that you can see what is missing from the SHL translation.

4) Very briefly in this series, I will also be quoting from THE CATHOLIC DOUAY RHEIMS VERSION OF THE BIBLE – in which you will find the following statements:

“EXCERPT FROM ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:

“The God of all Providence, Who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the participation of the Divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from the universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has in consequence bestowed upon man a splendid gift and safeguard–making known to him, by supernatural means, the hidden Mysteries of His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. For although in Divine revelations there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order “that all may come to know them with facility, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural Revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end.” This supernatural revelation according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten Tradition, and in written Books, which are therefore called sacred and canonical because, “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been delivered to the Church.” (Page ix)

“Wherefore it must be recognised that the sacred writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His Word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher.  St. Irenaeus long since laid down, that where the charismata of God were, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Holy Scripture was safely interpreted by those who had the Apostolic succession.  His teaching, and that of other Holy Fathers, is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which, in the renewing of the decree of Trent, declares its “mind” to be this–that “in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against the unanimous agreement  of the Fathers.” (Page xvii)

“Wherefore the first and dearest object  of the Catholic commentator  should be to interpret those passages which have received an authentic interpretation either by the sacred writers themselves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by her solemn judgment or her ordinary and universal magisterium –to interpret those passages in that identical sense, and to prove, by all the resources of science that sound hermeneutical laws admit of no other interpretation. In the other passages, the analogy of faith should be followed, and Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for seeing that the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is foolish and false which either makes the sacred writers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.” (Page xviii)

“For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic student, he should nevertheless, bear well in mind–as the Fathers also teach in numerous passages –that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside of the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only gnaw the bark of the Sacred Scripture and never attain its pith.” (Page xix)

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: PART 1 – THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

1) SCRIPTURE OR THE TRADITIONS OF MEN – WHICH WILL YOU BELIEVE?

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

“The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.” (Para 66)

“Throughout the ages, there have been so-called”private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church. Christian faith cannot accept “revelations” that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such “revelations.” (Para 67)

“Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.” (Para 82)

“It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”  (Para 95)

“The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope, and to the Bishops in communion with him.” (Para 100)

CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT:

“Jesus answered them,  “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you!  You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: ‘These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me.  It is no use for them to worship me because they teach man-made commandments as though they were God’s rules!’  “You put aside the commandment of God and obey the teachings of men.” 

“In this way you disregard the word of God with the teachings you pass on to others.” (Mark 7:6-8,13)

“See to it, then, that no one makes a captive of you with the worthless deceit of human wisdom which comes from the teachings handed down by men, and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

“For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life you received from your ancestors.  It was not something that loses its value, such as silver or gold; you were set free by the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18,19)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

2) SALVATION THROUGH JESUS OR THE CHURCH? WHICH WILL YOU BELIEVE?

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

“I believe” (Apostles’ Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. “We believe” (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. “I believe” is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both “I believe” and “We believe.” (Para 167)

“It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my faith. It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism.” Para 168)

“Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: “We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation.” Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.” (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519). (Para 169)

“Believing” is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports, and nourishes our faith. The Church is the Mother of all believers. “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.” (Para 181) [NOTE: Ecclesial: Something related to a church or its function and teachings.]

CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its Judge, but to be its Savior. Whoever believes in the Son is not judged; whoever does not believe has already been judged because he has not believed in God’s only Son.” (John 3:16,17)

KJV says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

“If you declare with your lips, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.For we believe in our hearts and are put right with  God; we declare with our lips and are saved.” (Romans 10:9,10)

“So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

KJV says: “So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

“I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ–in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake’s clever lies. For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us!” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)

“I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are going to another gospel. Actually there is no “other gospel,” but I say it because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell! We have said it before, and now I say it again:  if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, , may he be condemned to hell!” (Galatians 1:6-9)

“We believe  the witness that men give; the witness that God gives is much stronger, and this is the witness that God has given about his Son. So whoever believes in the Son of God has this witness in his heart; but whoever does not believe God has made a liar out of him, because he has not believed what God has said as a witness about his Son. This, then, is the witness: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things so that you may know that you have eternal life–you that believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:9-13)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

IN CONCLUSION:

I truly hope and  pray that many Catholics will take the time to read this first post and continue reading this new series. It is also my prayer that God’s Holy Spirit will begin a work in their hearts, open their minds to the Scriptures, and give them eyes to at least be able to get a glimpse into the truly good news of the Biblical gospel that is there for them to discover if they will only read God’s Word and choose to believe it!

More good news coming soon –Lord willing!

Dear Catholic, your salvation truly does depend on Jesus Christ alone and not on the “Church,” the Sacraments, or upon obeying the ten commandments. For God’s Word says the following:

“I do not reject the grace of God. If a man is put right with God through the law, it means that Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21)

“What was the purpose of the law, then? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and was meant to last until the coming of Abraham’s descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between. But a go-between is not needed when there is only one person; and God is one. Does this mean that the Law is against God’s promises? No, not at all! For if a law had been given that could bring life to men, then man could be put right with God through law. But the Scripture has said that the whole world is under the power of sin, so that the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (Galatians 3:19-22)

“Salvation is to be found through him alone; for there is no one else in all the world, whose name God has given to men, by whom we can be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Another post in this new series will be coming next month (Lord willing), and we will look further into what the Catholic Church actually teaches on other important issues. We will also continue to  compare everything against the truth of God’s Word because, when it comes to knowing the truth, the only one we can truly trust to reveal the truth to us is God, and God alone.

This post already has over 3,500 words, so I will end now to prevent my computer from crashing as it has done many times before when my posts began to get quite lengthy.

Thank you very much for stopping by and for taking time out of your relaxing Father’s Day weekend to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

WARNING YOU WITH TEARS WEDNESDAY

Welcome to another post in the series of posts that I have entitled, Warning You With Tears Wednesdays. Lord willing, at least once a month on Wednesdays I will be writing and sharing one of these posts with you so that I can make you all aware of some important information that I come across on the Internet that you may not have heard about.

Since I knew that I would soon be starting a new part-time job (and I did in June) and that my free time would then be somewhat limited, I was trying to think of something that I could write on a regular basis that would be short and to the point (at least that was my intention). And since I am a detective-at-heart and desire to make you all aware of the importance of testing things that pastors and teachers say (and do) in light of Scripture (Acts 17:11), the idea to do these posts — as well as the name — came to my mind in November of 2014, based on Acts 20:26-31:

“For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”

So with all of that in mind, here is what I’d like to share with you in today’s WARNING YOU WITH TEARS WEDNESDAY:

1) As always, Lighthouse Trails Research has posted more good articles to warn all followers of Jesus Christ about spiritual mystical practices — which are completely unbiblical — and how they are coming into many churches these days. Here are two of their latest articles that I urge you to read when time allows, so that you will not be deceived by the many Christian  leaders today who are promoting these practices:

Many Christians are excited about seeing the latest movie by the Kendrick Brothers —War Room. However, you need to be aware of a few things before you decide if this is truly a movie that you want to go and see based on the fact that Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore are in this movie, and because of what they personally promote in their ministries. When time allows, please read this very important information:

NEW BOOKLET TRACT: BETH MOORE AND PRISCILLA SHIRER – THEIR HISTORY OF CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER AND WHY ‘WAR ROOM’ SHOULD NOT HAVE USED THEM  – TRACT WRITTEN BY JOHN LANAGAN WHO WRITES AT MY WORD LIKE FIRE

Below is another article concerning spiritual mysticism and Richard Foster who is highly endorsed by many pastors today. If your church has a book store, sadly, there’s a very strong chance that you will find the following book, Celebration Of Discipline on one of their shelves. If so, that is a huge red flag!

NEW BOOKLET TRACT PROVIDES IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE: A SERIOUS LOOK AT RICHARD FOSTER’S “SCHOOL” OF CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER – TRACT  WRITTEN BY RAY YUNGEN

 

2) Many of you know Glenn Chatfield, who does a great job of earnestly contending for the faith at  THE WATCHMAN’S BAGPIPES. But are you also aware of the fact that he is a former Mormon? So if you’re trying to witness to a Mormon and have been searching for some helpful information to assist you in your desire to reach them with the gospel, consider checking out Glenn’s other website, THE ANTI-MORMON BLOG.

Whether you are trying to share the Biblical Jesus Christ and the Biblical gospel with a Mormon, a Jehovah’s Witness, someone involved in the occult, or whatever form of spiritual deception that someone has been taken captive by, remember that you are fighting a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12). They have been deceived and we must try to be patient, speak the truth in love to them, and try to keep them on the topic that is being discussed, because they are well trained on what to say to you, and they also like to move quickly on to another topic.

Above all, pray for wisdom and know your Bible very well before you try to witness to them, or you may end up getting quite confused like I did when I was a brand new Christian and invited a Jehovah’s Witness man and his wife in to share the true Jesus Christ and Biblical gospel with them. If you truly are busy when they come to your door, or if you still don’t feel like you know God’s Word well enough in order to help them see the truth, please at least  just take a few minutes of your time to share your testimony with them. God will use the truth of His Word that you share with them to plant a seed in their heart. Rest in the fact that He is the One who gives the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:6-9)

3) As many of you probably know by now, Pope Francis is in the United States. But here is some information that you might not be aware of concerning what he has done:

NOW THE END BEGINS – POPE FRANCIS SIGNS TREATY FROM THE VATICAN OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZING THE STATE OF PALESTINE

 4) During the time I was a Catholic, I was bound by the fear of death because of the teaching of Catholicism –especially their teaching about Purgatory. However, after reading the book of Romans and Hebrews in the Bible for the first time, my eyes were opened to the good news of the true gospel — Jesus died in my place and paid the debt for my sins in full — and after I placed my trust in Jesus Christ alone for my salvation and not in my good works or in a false hope of another chance after death, I was filled with joy and true peace!  Many precious Catholics believe they have a second chance after death to enter heaven. This article by Compelling Truth gives you the compelling truth about Purgatory:

IS THE CONCEPT OF PURGATORY BIBLICAL?

5) Mike Gendron of Proclaiming The Gospel has many videos and has written many articles in which he always presents the truth in love to Catholics in order to point them to the Biblical Jesus Christ and the Biblical gospel. You can read many of his articles and learn to share the gospel with Catholics  HERE.

Here is an example of one of the many videos in which you will hear him present the teachings of the Catholic Church and compare them to Scripture, and help you learn how to present Biblical truth to Catholics.

You can also find many more of his videos on MY PREVIOUS POST in which I wrote about Pope Francis and his visit to the United States, and you can also search YouTube where you will find many more of Mike Gendron’s videos.

 

 6) In spite of the fact that William Paul Young stresses that his writings are fiction, if you listen to the very beginning of the following video until the 1 minute and 29 second mark, you will hear comments from a few people who have read THE SHACK that reveal the true spiritual damage that can occur to a person’s faith because of the messages that are contained in his books; they become more open-minded about their view of who God is. A true Christian will test things in light of Scripture. Otherwise spiritual deception will most likely occur!

7) And now William Paul Young has written ‘EVE‘

 

8) If you’d like to hear Maria Shriver’s interview with William Paul Young as he talks about his newly released book ‘EVE,’ click on the link below. Listen carefully to what he says:

THE NOVEL ‘EVE’ IS A NEW TAKE ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN

9) I’ll end this edition of Warning You With Tears Wednesday with this article to give God the praise and glory that He is so deserving of:

CRITICS OF BIBLE SILENCED ONCE AGAIN: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES PROVE OLD TESTAMENT TO BE ACCURATE

Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

UPDATE:

LORD WILLING, NEW POST CONCERNING HARVEST BIBLE CHAPEL COMING BY FRIDAY EVENING

WARNING YOU WITH TEARS WEDNESDAY

Welcome to another post in the series of posts that I have entitled, Warning You With Tears Wednesdays. Lord willing, at least once a month on Wednesdays I will be writing and sharing one of these posts with you so that I can make you all aware of some important information that I come across on the Internet that you may not have heard about.

Since I knew that I would soon be starting a new job (and I did last month)  and that my free time will then be somewhat limited, I was trying to think of something that I could write on a regular basis that would be short and to the point (at least that was my intention). And since I am a detective-at-heart and desire to make you all aware of the importance of testing things that pastors and teachers say (and do) in light of Scripture (Acts 17:11), the idea to do these posts — as well as the name — came to my mind in November of 2014, based on Acts 20:26-31:

“For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”

So with all of that in mind, here is what I’d like to share with you in today’s WARNING YOU WITH TEARS WEDNESDAY:

Here’s some extremely important information by Sarah Leslie from the Herescope blog that you definitely need to be aware of whether your church presently has “cell groups,“ or may possibly be forming them in the near future. When time allows, I urge you to read >THIS ARTICLE<  entitled, THE CELL CHURCH. Please be sure to listen to Part 1 and 2 of Sarah Leslie’s very well researched presentation as she lays out a frightening scenario of what could happen, and what may be the ultimate reason behind these cell groups being formed. (Hint: Unity = 1 world religion).

If you are among the many voices trying to warn other Christians of false teachers and false teachings and are labeled ‘divisive’ among other things, here’s a very good article by Warren B. Smith entitled >DISCERNMENT DETRACTORS: CALLING GOOD EVIL< posted at Lighthouse Trails. (Lord willing, I’ll be doing book reviews on some of his excellent books later on this year for those of you who have requested to see book reviews on this blog).

Here’s a good article to read by Ray Yungen that will reveal to you just how New Age Spirituality is merging with Christianity and deceiving many:  >CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER OR THE HOLY SPIRIT- POSTED AT LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS< Would you be able to tell the difference? It’s happening in many churches through Spiritual Formation classes and in other ways at many churches, as well. (Lord willing, I will be writing on this very important topic in the near future, and will also be doing a review on one of Ray Yungen’s books later on this year).

And speaking of Contemplative Prayer, here’s a very good article by Roger Oakland of UNDERSTAND THE TIMES, entitled, >SEEKER FRIENDLY TO CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY< (Lord willing, I will also be doing a review on one of his many very good books that he writes in which he exposes the Emerging/Emergent Church, as well as the Eucharistic Christ, of Catholicism, later on this year).

Read the following article and you will begin to realize why many Christians are warning about the dangers of Contemplative Prayer: New Age mystic Thomas Keating, who is considered to be the father of centering/contemplative prayer, claims that >KUNDALINI ENERGY (SERPENT POWER) IS THE SAME AS CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER<  Is that a good enough reason for you to beware of Contemplative Prayer?

 As I watched the following very disturbing video, two Scriptures came to mind when I saw the hardness of this  woman’s heart that was made obvious because she could enjoy eating a meal while talking about such evil and  horrible things such as selling baby body parts after partial birth abortions!

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless…” (2 Timothy 3:1-3a)

Please pray for God to open the eyes of this woman, and the eyes of many others involved in the abortion industry, that they will be able to clearly see the evil and brutality of abortion, and that God will draw them to Himself and grant them repentance, and save them by His grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Here’s the very verbally graphic and disturbing video:

 

If you have watched Justin Peter’s excellent series exposing the Word of Faith Movement, then you will truly appreciate the following video presentation, as well! If, on the other hand, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, and others who teach that you can speak things into existence are the teachers you listen to, then I urge you to please pray for discernment and watch the following video, as well! And please start testing their teachings in light of Scripture. (Acts 17:11)

 

I’ll end this post now with something that will bring God the praise and glory that He is so deserving of:

What could bring more glory to God than to post information with solid  evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Here’s an article by Tim Chaffey that was posted on Answers in Genesis>RESURRECTION — NO DOUBT ABOUT IT<

In the following videos, as well as the article below, you will learn about Simon Greenleaf. He was a Royal Professor of Law at Harvard and was not a Christian. When challenged to examine the evidence concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ by looking at Scripture, he simply shared the most basic facts, and yet he gave extremely compelling testimony by presenting  legal evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was Jewish, but after careful examination of the Scriptures he also became a believer in Jesus Christ.

 

 

For anyone interested in purchasing this book, you can purchase it >HERE< on AMAZON.

Here’s another article concerning Simon Greenleaf:

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST – FACT OR FICTION

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” (Proverbs31:8)

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, and yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.” (John 5:39,40)

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)

“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt with heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:9-13)

Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

UPDATE:

Lord willing, another new post concerning spiritual deception, mysticism, and the lack of spiritual discernment coming soon!

TESTIMONY TUESDAY

Welcome to another ‘TESTIMONY TUESDAY.’ Lord willing, at least once a month on Tuesdays, whenever I come across a video or an article that either presents a Biblical testimony of someone coming to the understanding  of the true  gospel, or a testimony of someone who was set free from a cult or some form of spiritual deception, etc., I will post it for you with the hope that it will bless and encourage you, and, above all, so that God would receive glory and honor for setting these people free.

It is also my hope and prayer that when I share these testimonies with you on Tuesdays, God will use His Word, and the Biblical truth presented in these testimonies to set many other people free from the same bondage and spiritual deception that the people in the videos and articles I choose to share with you have been set free from.

And now for today’s TESTIMONY TUESDAY:

In last week’s TEACHING THURSDAY, I shared many good instructional videos to help equip those of you who are Christians so that you will be able to effectively and lovingly share Biblical truth with Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come to your door. So for today’s Testimony Tuesday I thought it would be fitting to share this amazing and very moving testimony with you of a former Jehovah’s Witness, Brian Garcia, and how he came to the understanding of who Jesus truly is! Except for the fact that he mentioned that he was listening to Hillsong music, (something that, Lord willing, I may write about in the future), and another minor thing that he said that escapes me at the moment, everything else he said was very Biblical and very moving. This is a testimony to the power of God and to His Word to be able to open the eyes of someone so blinded to the truth because he was so deceived by the teachings of men.

It is also my hope and prayer that God will lead many Jehovah’s Witnesses to this post. In spite of the fact that they are told not to view ‘apostate literature,’ I pray they will choose to listen to his testimony, even if it’s only out of curiosity. I pray that many Jehovah’s Witnesses will begin to question what theu have been taught and come to discover the joy that filled Brian Garcia’s heart when he realized that Jesus indeed is God in the flesh.

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“Now Thomas (called Didymus) one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.”  A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to Him, “My Lord  and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:24-29)

“He is the image of the invisible God, the *firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him t0 reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20) *firstborn – unique in rank and privilege

^“And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.” (Acts 8:26-38) (Verse 37 — Words in red — are missing from the Jehovah’s Witness New World Translation. I must admit that verse 37 is also missing from the NIV translation, as well! The translation that I have mainly used since becoming a Christian. Time to switch to the reliable King James).

Thank you for stopping by. And thank you very much for taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory

INFORMATION FOR JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES SEEKING TRUTH: (Will be adding more information in the near future –Lord willing).

4WITNESS