RESURRECTION SUNDAY – EASTER – IS JUST FOUR WEEKS AWAY. DO YOU REALLY UNDERSTAND ALL THAT JESUS CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED BY HIS ‘ONCE FOR ALL SACRIFICE’ ON OUR BEHALF?

Today is Sunday, March 27, 22, and many of us will be celebrating the glorious bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead in just four weeks from today! Many sermons will be preached up to that day regarding all the horrendous pain and suffering that Jesus Christ endured on the cross as He willingly hung there in our place, taking upon Himself the full wrath of God, His Father, for our sins, guilt, and shame. Some pastors will even (wrongly) suggest to you that God the Father turned His back on His Son, saying that Jesus became sin, and that God cannot look upon sin, therefore He abandoned His Son as He hung there in unimaginable agony!

Some pastors will even go as far as teaching that Jesus had to die spiritually; that it wasn’t His physical death that saved us. This is completely unbiblical, and that is the main purpose for this post today. I pray that this Playlist of many Biblically solid teachings presented by Jim Floyd and Pastor Tyler Leigeb of Billings Bible Church in Billings, Montana, that are based on many, many Scriptures, will inspire, encourage, and reveal truth to you regarding just how perfect the once for all physical sacrifice of Jesus Christ was to pay the debt for all of our sins –in full! [NOTE: As new messages are presented at Billings Bible Church, I will continue to add them to the Playlist below.]

For those of you who have never really heard about Jesus Christ and all that He accomplished on your behalf out of obedience to His Father and out of His deep love for you — yes, you, no matter what you may have done — this series is also for you. I pray that you will also take time to listen to this series so that you too can discover the love and forgiveness that God offers to you that can only be found through placing your full trust in Jesus Christ’s once for all sacrifice on the cross in your place, His death, His burial, and His glorious bodily resurrection from the dead three days later.

RELATED POSTS

HOW DISCERNING ARE YOU? REFUTING THE HERETICAL TEACHING THAT ‘JESUS DIED SPIRITUALLY’

RELATED SCRIPTURES

Isaiah 53

“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

PSALM 22

{To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.} My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.

I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.

Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.

The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations.

All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.

A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

1 John 3:5

“And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”

1 Peter 1:18,19

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

Hebrews 9:12

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”

Hebrews 10:8-14

“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;

From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”

Hebrews 10:19-22

“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.”

Romans 8:33,34

“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

Hebrews 7:22-28

“By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:

But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.”

SOURCE FOR SCRIPTURES – BIBLE HUB

Thank you very much for stopping by today.

God Bless You

~Mary Dalke – Living4HisGlory

A JOYOUS AND BLESSED NEW YEAR FROM LIVING4HISGLORY

Since I started this blog back in 2009, I have written many, many posts to show you the extreme importance of reading your Bible and testing the teachings of professing Christian pastors and teachers in light of Scripture. I will not be writing as much during this new year because I need to focus on my photography and making many acrylic art paintings with the hope of selling them at art and craft fairs throughout this new year. However, Lord willing, later on towards the end of this year, I do hope to begin writing a series regarding Calvinism and Reformed Theology in light of Scripture.

For those of you who have come to realize the unbiblical nature of Calvinism and Reformed Theology after testing these teachings against Scripture and have rejected them, please consider writing your testimony of how God opened your eyes to see the truth and send it to me via this CONTACT FORM, and I will consider sharing your story here on my blog in order to help other see how these teachings distort not only the very character and nature of God, but also the good news of the Biblical gospel!

Thank you very much for stopping by today and for taking time out of your busy days to stop by  to read my posts! I appreciate every one of you who have subscribed and those of you who occasionally stop by!

A Joyous And Blessed New Year to those of you who have already placed your full faith and trust only in all that Jesus Christ already did for you by living a sinless life that we could never live, by willingly dying on the cross in our place for our sins, and by rising from the dead three days later in bodily form, showing that His once for all sacrifice was sufficient to pay the debt for all of our sins and guilt in full!

For those of you who have never heard this good news of the Biblical gospel, I pray that you will get a Bible and start reading through the Gospel of John, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Hebrews (especially Chapters 7-10), 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John and ask God to reveal His love and truth to you!

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God Bless You

~Mary Dalke – Living4HisGlory – Reflecting His Glory Photography And Acrylic Art

Consider connecting with me on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/reflectinghisglory/

Photo – ‘Painted Lady Butterfly Philippians 3:13b,14…’ ©Mary K Dalke Reflecting His Glory Photography And Acrylic Art

LORD WILLING, NEW POST COMING SOON!

Once again I need to apologize to all of you for not having posted anything recently, but I had some important things that I needed to attend to. Over the past couple of weeks I have been continuing on with my search for a new job, and I also spent a lot of time helping my family prepare for a garage sale that we just had over this past weekend. So now that things have settled down a little bit I will be typing as quickly as possible over the rest of this week in order to finish my next post in the series on the ALLEGED APPARITIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY. The title of this post will be:

BEYOND FATIMA – THE ALLEGED APPARITIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY TO LUCIA SANTOS  BEYOND OCTOBER 13, 1917 – LEARN TO DISCERN

Once this short series on the ALLEGED APPARITIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY is completed, Lord willing, I will then go back to writing more installments in the series in which I have been sharing the teachings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church with you, and comparing them to Scriptures that can be found in the Catholic New Testament Bible.

As always, it is my prayer that God will use the truth of His Word to reveal to precious Catholics (and to every person) all that Jesus Christ has already accomplished for us through: His sinless life, His death on the cross in our place for all of our sin and guilt, and, above all, through His resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead not only shows us that He was triumphant over sin and death, but also it shows us that His once for all sacrifice was accepted by God the Father as being completely sufficient to satisfy the wrath that He has towards us because of all of our sins.

The truly good news of the Biblical gospel is that for all those who will choose to place their trust only in what Jesus Christ has already done for us instead of trying to earn their salvation through their good works, they will then have the assurance that their debt of sin has been paid in full, and their sins — no matter how horrendous — will never be remembered again!

“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” (Romans 4:7,8)

In other words, dear reader, what you need to realize is that it is Jesus Christ — not the Virgin Mary — whom God has provided for us as our only Savior, our only Mediator, and our only hope!

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

TEACHING THURSDAY – ROBERT CONGDON ADDRESSING CALVINISM/REFORMED THEOLOGY IN LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE

Welcome to another post in the category of posts entitled, TEACHING THURSDAY.’ Lord willing, every month or so on a Thursday, I will be posting either a video, an article, or some form of teaching  in which a *Biblically sound teacher *(Biblically sound because what they say and teach lines up with the truth of God’s Word,  Acts 17:11) will either expose an unbiblical movement, teaching, or a practice that is leading many Christians astray, or present some type of Biblical teaching to help you grow in a deeper understanding of God’s Word on different topics. Some of these teachings may be essentials of the Christian faith, and others may be things that we can debate but not divide over.

It is my hope and prayer that by presenting these teachings to you, many more Christians will not only come to realize the importance of testing the words of men (and women) against the truth of God Word so they will not be deceived, but also it is my hope and prayer that many Christians will come to know the joy of learning God’s Word.

Now on with today’s TEACHING THURSDAY:

As I had mentioned to you in the very beginning of the year, Lord willing, next year I will be presenting you with an in depth series in which we will be comparing the teachings of Calvinism (also known as Reformed Theology) to Scripture. This series will begin after I complete the Catholicism series that I am presently writing; a series in which we are comparing the teachings from the Catechism of the Catholic Church to Scriptures that can be found in the Catholic Bible. Just as I am trusting that God will open the eyes of many Catholics so that they will begin to question all that they have been taught as they see what God’s Word actually says, I will also be trusting that God will open the eyes of many who have embraced the teachings of Calvinism so that they will come to realize that the teachings of Calvinism do not line up with Scripture, distort the very nature and character of God, and — if I may be so bold as to say — that the teachings of Calvinism even present another Jesus and another gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:2-4, Galatians 1:6-9) Yes, I realize that is a very shocking statement to make, but if you will choose to pray for discernment and examine the teachings of Calvinism through the lens of Scripture instead of accepting the interpretations of what Bible teachers of Reformed Theology/Calvinism say concerning God and a certain passage of Scripture, your eyes will be opened to the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit to see how God’s Word and His very nature are being twisted and changed into something that is clearly not Biblical Christianity.

Since watching some of the presentations by speakers at the Pastor’s Conference that took place at the end of April 2017 at Calvary Chapel Appleton, in Appleton, Wisconsin, in which the the focus was on the book of Galatians, I decided to share these teachings with you today concerning Calvinism as an example of what you can expect next year in my series concerning Calvinism/Reformed Theology: teachings based on Scripture, truth spoken in love, and the words of men being tested against the truth of God’s Word to see if what is being said is true (Acts 17:11), or not.

Please prayerfully consider listening to these teachings by former Calvinist, Robert Congdon, whether you are someone who has no idea what Calvinism/Reformed Theology actually is, whether you are someone who has heard of it and knows a little about it, or even if you are someone who has actually embraced any or all of the five points of  TULIP, which are:

• Total Depravity
  

• Unconditional Election

• Limited Atonement

• Irresistible Grace

• Perseverance of the Saints

 

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

UPDATE:

Over the past week I have been trying to finish writing Part 2 of May 13th Marks The 100 Year Anniversary Of The Alleged Apparitions Of The Virgin Mary At Fatima – Learn To Discern Do Not Be Deceived and hope to have it finished by Sunday 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 3

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).

If you have already read PART 2 in this series, then you now realize that some of the teachings in Catholicism are rooted in mysticism. This fact will become even clearer as we continue going through more of the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic church –especially one particular teaching that I am about to share with you in this particular post.

My prayer is that God, by His Holy Spirit, will open the eyes of many Catholics so that they will be able to see the serious problems in some of their teachings, and that they will begin seeking God in His Word — the Bible — for the truth.

In this installment we will cover a few more of the main teachings of Catholicism. You will find that many of their teachings line up completely with Scripture. However, you will soon discover that some of their teachings either conflict with Biblical truth, or that they shockingly and totally oppose Biblical truth.

Dear Catholic, just as I presented some serious concerns to you in  PART 1  in this series, I will also be doing the same thing for you in this post. Once again, there will be times when you will be brought to the point of having to make a choice and to answer this very important question:

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

All of the Scriptures that I will be sharing with you in this post, unless otherwise noted, will all be taken from the Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament Bible.

With all of those things in mind, let’s begin:

 

CHAPTER 2

I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD

“Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the Father, we believe in Jesus and confess: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” On the rock of this faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ built his Church.” (CCC Para 424)

By reading the statement above it may almost appear as if the Catholic church has a Biblical view and is stating that Christ built His Church upon what Peter declared concerning Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16:15-19) However, as we continue to go through the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) you will see that the Catholic church claims that Jesus Christ built His church upon the apostle Peter, and that Peter was the “rock” that Jesus was referring to, and they also claim that by saying these things, Jesus declared Peter as the first pope:

“What about you?” he asked them. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” “Good for you, Simon, son of John!” answered Jesus. “Because this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven. And so I tell you: you are a rock, Peter, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, which not even death will ever be able to overcome. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven; what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven; what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.” (Matthew 16:15-19)

Who better to share what God’s Word has to say about this passage of Scripture, than Richard Bennett, who was once a devout Catholic Dominican priest for 22 years, until he began to read the Bible and discovered the glorious good news of the true gospel:

I’d like to take a few moments now to share some Scriptures with you in order to help you see these things from a Biblical perspective before we move on:

1. “There is none holy as the Lord is: for there is no other beside thee, and there is none strong like our God.” (1 Samuel 2:2) (DRV)

“There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside you: neither is there any rock like our God.” (1 Samuel 2:2) (KJV)

2. “The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector and the horn of my salvation, and my support.” (Psalm 18:2)

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” (Psalm 18:2)(KJV)

3. “For who is God but the LORD? Or who is God but our God?” (Psalm 18:31) DRV)

“For who is God save the LORD? Or who is a rock save our God?” (Psalm 18:31) (KJV)

4. “Unto the end, a psalm for David, in an ecstasy. In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, Iet me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice. Bow down thy ear to me: make haste to deliver me. Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a house of refuge, to save me. For thou art my strength and my refuge; and for thy name’s sake thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.” (Psalm 31:1-3)

“In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.” (Psalm 31:1-3)(KJV)

It is clear by these verses (at least in the King James Version) that God alone is the Rock! And, in fact, God’s Word clearly shows us that Jesus Christ — who was revealed to us as God in the flesh in the New Testament — is our Rock:

 “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: And did all eat the same spiritual food, And all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-4) (SHLCNT)

For more verses on God being our Rock, please consider reading this:

KNOWING JESUS – GOD OUR ROCK

“Now let’s continue on:

“At the heart of catechesis we find, in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son from the Father…who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever.” To catechize is “to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God’s eternal design reaching fulfillment in that Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ’s actions and words and of the signs worked by him.” Catechesis aims at putting “people…in communion…with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.” (Para 426)

“The name “Jesus” signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son, made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke his name, for Jesus united himself to all men through his Incarnation, so that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Para 432)

While most of the above two teachings are quite Biblical because they are based on Scripture (John 14:6, Acts 4:12)  I’d like to take a moment to point out that although the Catholic Church may proclaim “only he [Jesus Christ] can lead us to the love of the Father…,” you will soon see in upcoming installments of this series how their teachings not only make it rather impossible to actually get to Jesus Christ, but also you will sadly see how Catholics are presented with alternative unbiblical ways in an attempt to gain access to the Father, namely through petitioning “the Virgin Mary” and “the saints.”

As I mentioned to you in the previous post in this series, you will soon discover that some of the teachings of Catholicism are rooted in mysticism. Well, the time is now. You are about to see (IMO) the most shocking and disturbing teaching that can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church! However, before I share it with you, I’d like to share something else with you first:

If any of you listened to Warren B Smith’s message at the recent Berean Call Conference,  you may remember that he mentioned the book entitled, “Called To Be The Children Of God: The Catholic Theology Of Human Deification.” Here are just a few excerpts from a preview of that book that I found on AMAZON.COM:

Although in the last paragraph in the capture of the portion above, the author is quick to state, “We are not God,” in his next statement he quotes Jesus as saying, “[Y]ou are gods,” (John 10:34) as describing our sonship. This is why reading a verse in context and testing things that are said in light of Scripture are so extremely important! Let’s look at John 10:34 in context:

“Jesus was walking in Solomon’s porch in the temple, when the Jews gathered around him and said, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?” Jesus answered, “I have already told you, but you would not believe me. The works I do by my Father’s authority speak on my behalf; but you will not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never die; and no one can snatch them away from me. What my Father has given me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them away from the Father’s care. The Father and I are one.” Then the Jews once more picked up stones to throw at him. Jesus said to them, “I have done many good works before you which the Father gave me to do; for which one of these do you want to stone me?” The Jews answered back, “We do not want to stone you because of any good works, but because of the way in which you insult God! You are only a man, but you are trying to make yourself God!” (34)Jesus answered, “It is written in your own Law that God said, ‘You are gods.’ We know that what the scripture says is true forever, and God called them gods, those people to whom his message was given. As for me, the Father chose me and sent me into the world. How, then, can you say that I insult God because I said that I am the Son of God? Do not believe me, then, if I am not doing my Father’s works. But if I do them, even thought you do not believe me, you should at least believe my works, in order that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” Once more they tried to arrest him, but he slipped out of their hands.” (John 10:23-39)

When Jesus said in verse 34, “It is written in your own Law that God said, ‘You are gods,’ ” He was quoting from Psalm 82:6 which says:

“I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”

However, by reading the very next verse, Psalm 82:7, we come to clearly understand the intended meaning of verse 6:

“But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

In context you can now see that Jesus is not telling them that they are gods.

Here is Matthew Henry’s Commentary on that passage of Scripture:

“It is hard for men to have honour put upon them, and not to be proud of it. But all the rulers of the earth shall die, and all their honour shall be laid in the dust. God governs the world. There is a righteous God to whom we may go, and on whom we may depend. This also has respect to the kingdom of the Messiah. Considering the state of affairs in the world, we have need to pray that the Lord Jesus would speedily rule over all nations, in truth, righteousness, and peace.”

In the quick capture below you will see the terms “deification,” “deifying union,” and “union with God” mentioned, and in the last paragraph you will see how an attempt is made to elevate Moses to be seen in a higher position than God’s Word intends us to see him in:

On biblestudies.org the Commentary on Exodus Chapter 7 states the following that I quick captured below for you concerning verse 1:

“A god to Pharaoh”: Moses, as the spokesman and ambassador for God, would speak with authority and power. “Thy prophet”: Aaron, as the divinely appointed spokesman for Moses, would forthrightly deliver the message given to him. Acts 14:11-13, where Barnabas and Paul were so perceived in a similar situation. This simply means that Moses would represent the One who sent him to Pharaoh, not that Moses would be God to him.”

(SOURCE)

Some Catholic writers and theologians are quick to deny that they are saying that man can actually become God. However, what you are now about to see that is stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly says otherwise:

“The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature.” For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” The only begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.” (Para 460)

This sounds eerily similar to a teaching that can be found in the cult of Mormonism which states the following:

“As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become.” (Please also consider watching the video below under Related Videos).

 

Let’s look at what God’s Word has to say about why Jesus became flesh, and why He came into our world:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

“Before the world was created, the Word already existed; he was with God, and he was the same as God. From the very beginning, the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out. God sent his messenger, a man named John, who came to tell the people about the light. He came to tell them, so that all should hear the message and believe. He himself was not the light; he came to tell about the light. This was the real  light, the light that comes into the world and shines on all men. The Word, then, was in the world. God made the world through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him. Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God’s children. They did not become God’s children by natural means, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father. The Word became a human being and lived among us. We saw his glory, full of grace and truth. This was the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son. John told about him. He cried out, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘He comes after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.” (John 1:1-15)

“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 do, 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 with 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. The 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 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 10:1b-10)

“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! But that is not all; we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has now made us God’s friends.” (Romans 5:6-11)

“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)

“This is how God showed his love for us: he sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.”       (1 John 4:9,10)

Were you moved to tears of joy and gratitude as you read those passages of Scripture? If not, I pray that God will open your mind to the truth of His Word so that you can grasp the depth of the love that God has for you as He did for me when I first read through the book of Hebrews and Romans and came to realize all that Jesus Christ did for me when He died in my place (and yours) on the cross and took the full wrath that God intended for me (and you) upon Himself for all of my sins (and yours). Such amazing love! To think that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, would be willing to leave the glories of heaven to come to this earth in order to live a sinless life that we could never live, to become the perfect sacrifice for our sins! To think that He endured the excruciating pain of crucifixion because of our sins, and that He willingly gave His life for us! And to know that His once for all sacrifice was sufficient to satisfy God’s wrath that He has towards us because of our sins, and that Jesus Christ paid the debt for all of our sins in full! Now we can come directly to God through Jesus Christ –if we believe and receive what He did for us and place our trust in Him alone to save us! That is the good news of the true gospel!

Dear Catholic, it is at this point that I must stop and ask you this question as I did in Part 1 of this series:

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

Many Catholic priests and nuns promote the practice of Contemplative Prayer and speak and write about mystics of the past such as Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and others, who go into great detail about their alleged mystical experiences with Jesus Christ. They also speak highly about some of what can only be described as very disturbing messages that they supposedly received from Him. These mystical practices are the very same practices that we are presently seeing coming into Bible believing churches through Spiritual Formation classes! Therefore, Lord willing, in the near future I hope to be able to find enough time to write a post in order to document some of the things that I have just shared with you so that you can see for yourselves how these practices are rooted in Catholicism, but ultimately they are rooted in Hinduism and the occult.

Here is just one example on an Order of Carmelites Catholic Nuns website. Note the list of Carmelite Saints On Prayer and how Teresa of Avila, Brother Lawrence, and others who are known to have practiced these mystical forms of prayer are mentioned. In the last paragraph of the second quick capture below you will see the following words that will show you it’s no longer about having faith in God and having knowledge of Him through reading and studying His Word; it’s all about bypassing the mind in order to have an experience with God:

“It is not enough to know that God loves us; we’ve got to feel that God loves us. Feelings are deeper than knowing –much deeper. The heart is much deeper than the head. And Saint Teresa of Avila tells us that ‘The Great King’ (aka God) is found in the center of one’s heart. That’s what Theresa’s description of prayer is telling us, and that is why it is truly amazing; this description comes straight from the center of her heart.”

Can someone really trust what comes straight from the center of her heart, or from anyone’s heart? Take a moment to read what God’s Word has to say about our hearts:

“The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) (DRV)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) (KJV)

No matter how sincere someone may be when they may share with us about an experience they may supposedly have had with Jesus Christ, or an angel, etc., if what they share with us doesn’t line up with the truth presented in God’s Word, we are to reject it and to exhort them to test the spirits, as well as their experiences, against Biblical truth.

(SOURCE)

 

I shared this video that a dear Sister-in-Christ (YouTube Channel Psalm86) put together at least once with all of you before, but it’s important at this point to share it with you again…starting at the 24:55 minute mark until the 34:14 minute mark in the following video, you will hear vivid and very disturbing accounts of some of Teresa of Avila’s alleged experiences with Jesus Christ. When time allows, I encourage you to pray for discernment, and then watch the whole video:

Let’s continue on now through the Catechism where we will sadly find another teaching that contradicts Scripture, even though an attempt is made to try and justify this teaching:

“Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ’s body was finite. Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the seventh ecumenical council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its representation in holy images to be legitimate.”(Para 476) 

“At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus “we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see.” The individual characteristics of Christ’s body express the divine person of God’s Son. He has made the features of his human body his own, to the point that they can be venerated when portrayed in a holy image, for the believer “who venerates the icon is venerating in it the person of the one depicted.” (Para 477)

In spite of what was decided at the seventh ecumenical council, here is what God’s Word has to say about images:

“Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4) (Catholic Douay-Rheims Version)

“Turn ye not to idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:4) (CDRV)

“I  am the Lord your God: you shall not make to yourselves any idol or graven thing, neither shall you erect pillars, nor set up a remarkable stone in your land, to adore it: for I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 26:1) (CDRV)

“Their graven things thou shalt burn with fire: thou shalt not covet the silver and gold of which they are made, neither shalt thou take to thee any thing thereof, lest thou offend, because it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.” (Deuteronomy 7:5)(CDRV)

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory. For thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake: lest the gentiles should say: Where is their God? But our God is in heaven: he hath done all things whatsoever he would. The idols of the gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men. They have mouths and speak not: they have eyes and see not. They have ears and hear not: they have noses and smell not. They have hands and feel not: they have feet and walk not: neither shall they cry out through their throat. Let them that make them become like unto them: and all such as trust in them.” (Psalm 115:1-8) (CDRV)

“For the Lord will judge his people, and will be entreated in favour of his servants. The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands. They have a mouth, but they speak not: they have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not: neither is there any breath in their mouths. Let them that make them be like to them: and every one that trusteth in them.” (Psalm 135:14-18) (CDRV)

“They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded, that trust in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our god.” (Isaiah 42:17) (CDRV)

“Since we are God’s children, we should not suppose that his nature is anything like an image of gold or silver or stone,shaped by the art and skill of man. God has overlooked the times when men did not know, but now he commands all men everywhere to turn away from these evil ways. For he has fixed a day in which he will judge the whole world with justice, by means of a man he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising that man from death!” (Acts 17:29-31)

Dear Catholic, once again I must stop and ask you:

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

 

Here is a teaching in the CCC that is very Biblical:

“Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine person; for this reason he is the one and only mediator between God and men.” (Para 480)

Many of us will say, “Amen,” to that particular teaching because it lines up with 1 Timothy 2:5 which says,

“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.”

However, please keep the above Scripture in mind, because as we continue going through the Catechism of the Catholic Church we will see another teaching that attempts to add to — and even pervert — the clear finality of the solid truth presented in that verse, and it ultimately robs Jesus Christ of the glory that belongs to Him alone. Actually, Lord willing, we will be addressing some of those teachings in the next installment of this series which, Lord willing, I hope to be able to write and to share with you either by the end of September, or most likely it will be early to mid October.

IN CLOSING:

I pray for those of you who will take the time to read these posts, that you will not only come to realize the extreme importance of testing the teachings of every pastor, teacher, — and priest — against the truth of God’s Word so that you can know if it is true or not, but also, and equally as important, I pray that you will come to realize the extreme importance of thinking for yourselves instead of placing your trust in men by just simply accepting your favorite pastor’s, teacher’s, and priest’s interpretations of Scripture, because where you will spend eternity depends completely upon what you choose to believe, and who you place your trust in.

Only Jesus Christ and the gospel — as revealed in God’s Word — has the power to save you, not any religious system or church. We must be like the Bereans and examine the Scriptures daily to see if what is being said is true or not so that we will not be deceived and end up accepting “another Jesus” and “another gospel.”(Acts 17:11, 2 Corinthians 11:3,4, Galatians 1:6-9)

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

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles.  For the gospel reveals how God puts men right with himself: it is through faith, from beginning to end. As the Scripture says,”He who is put right with God through faith shall live.” (Romans 1:16,17) (SHLCNT)

“For 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. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16,17) (KJV)

“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)

“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)

“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)

“Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God–Jesus, the Son of God. Our high priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy with our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a high priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. Let us be brave, then, and come forward to God’s throne, where there is grace. There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.” (Hebrews 4:14-16) (SHLCNT)

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) (KJV)

 

FURTHER READING

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

WEBSITE – KNOWING JESUS – 59 BIBLE VERSES ABOUT GOD, THE ROCK

RELATED VIDEOS

 

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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

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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)

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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)

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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

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SERMON SUNDAY

“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 people 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)

Welcome to another post in the category of posts entitled, ‘SERMON SUNDAY.’ Lord willing, at least a few times a month I will share a sermon with you by a well respected preacher who focuses on an important truth in Scripture in order to awaken the slumbering church, and also to alert Christians to the importance of reading and studying God’s Word. It may be a short sermon in written form, or I may present something to you in video form. I pray that when time allows, you will take the time to read or to listen to what I will be sharing with you.

I will also be sharing some expository preaching with you, but sadly, that is a very rare thing to find these days. I’m sure that many of you can attest to that undeniable fact. Sadly, many pastors today who seek to grow their churches oftentimes resort to distorting God’s Word either by taking a verse out of context, or by interjecting their own ideas into the text to make it say what they want a verse of Scripture to say (eisegesis). Sometimes a pastor will even go as far as to manipulate Scriptures in such a way so that they can preach about themselves (narcissistic eisegesis).

Then there are some pastors who just present watered down messages with very little Biblical content, and others who ‘preach’ controversial messages that will appeal to today’s culture in order to attract more people. Sadly they will continue ‘preaching’ these types of messages in order to entertain the crowd to keep them coming, rather than preaching God’s Word as they are instructed to do in order to feed and equip the sheep/saints and to expose the sin in men’s hearts so that God will grant them repentance and lead them to a knowledge of the truth.

My main goal in presenting these sermons to you is to point you to Jesus Christ and to make you realize the extreme importance of studying God’s Word and testing the teachings of everyone you listen to in light of Scripture.

Maybe you are one of those people who faithfully stand for Biblical truth and you recently had to leave your church because of what has been taking place as you have witnessed your pastor slowly drift from Biblical truth. Or maybe you left your church many years ago and you still haven’t found a church where the pastor preaches from God’s Word. If so, I have all of you in mind when posting these teachings and videos, as well.

For those who somehow find there way here, I hope and pray that you will be blessed and encouraged by the many Biblical teachings that I will be sharing with you in the weeks and months ahead –Lord willing.

Now for today’s SERMON SUNDAY:

Upon searching for a good sermon to share with you today, I found this one by Pastor Marc Monte of Faith Baptist Church in Avon, Indiana that was posted on Facebook, entitled, ‘Equal With God.’ When time allows, I hope that you will consider listening to it by clicking on the link below:

PASTOR MARC MONTE – EQUAL WITH GOD

Here is the sermon description that was also posted on Facebook:

“You cannot love God if you don’t love Jesus!!!”

John 5:18-29

18 “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
★23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

This morning’s sermon:

“Equal With God” by Pastor Marc Monte”

 

UPDATE:

Lord willing, later on this evening I will be posting Part 1 in the new series in which we will begin comparing the teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church with Scriptures found in the Sacred Heart League Catholic New Testament Bible. I hope that you will consider joining me for this series so that you can become aware of what the Catholic Church actually teaches concerning many important topics, many of them being essential for salvation.

It is my hope and prayer that through this series many Catholics will come to discover the truly good news of the gospel that they are not fully aware of because many of the teachings in Catholicism continues to hide the truth from them, as you will soon see.

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

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory

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MYSTICISM MONDAY – THE FINALE

As you can see from the title of this post, this will be the last in the series of posts for Mysticism Monday. Lord willing, I will be explaining why in an upcoming post later on this month.

The information that you will see and hear in the following videos sums up perfectly the many things that I have tried to warn you about in these Mysticism Monday posts. When time allows, I hope that you will watch these videos and pray for discernment so that you will not be deceived by the many ways that spiritually deceptive teachings and practices are infiltrating many churches today, because some of these things may very well be happening in your church!

If you are new to this blog, I hope that you will consider clicking on the Mysticism Monday Category and read some of the previous posts so that you can be aware of the many other things that I have warned about over the past year or so.

The main thing that I try to stress in the things that I write here on my blog is the importance of reading and studying God’s Word so that you will be able to discern a counterfeit form of spirituality from genuine Christianity.

The following videos will show you how the teachings of the New Age — which are now referred to as the New Spirituality — are merging with Christianity and seducing Christians into the world of the occult because of so-called Christian leaders who are encouraging Christians to have experiences with God instead of telling them that the only way to come to know God is by the truth of His Word –the Bible. Please don’t allow yourself to become one of the many Christians who have been deceived and led astray by teachers who claim to be Christian and yet promote these unbiblical spiritual practices!

Here are the video descriptions:

VIDEO 1

A look into the Invasion of the old New Age Movement in today’s Post Modern Church.

VOLUME 1 OF A MULTI-PART SERIES

COVERS THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

The Counterfeit Church
Biblical Christianity
The Evolving New Age
Christianized New Age Spiritually
The New Age in Media 

5 PARTS | 40 MINS EACH | 3 HRS TOTAL

also available in the Europe Shop

VOLUMES 2&3 ALSO AVAILABLE AT WWW.CARYL.TV

 

VIDEO 2

Continuing from VOLUME 1: A look into the Invasion of the old New Age Movement in today’s Post Modern Church.

VOLUME 3 OF A MULTI-PART SERIES

COVERS THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

The Holy Spirit Gifts of The Holy Spirit
Five Fold Ministry
Music
God Chasers and Mystery Schools
Mystical Divine Within
Little Gods in the End-Times Battle

7 EPISODES | 2 DISC SET | OVER 5 HRS TOTAL

also available in the Europe Shop

WIDE IS THE GATE VOLUME 1 & 3 ALSO AVAILABLE AT WWW.CARYL.TV

And now for the final Mysticism Monday:

 

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:13-23)

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

“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.”          (1 Timothy 4:1)

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11,12)

 

 

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

HE IS RISEN JUST AS HE SAID! A BLESSED RESURRECTION SUNDAY TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY FROM LIVING4HISGLORY’S BLOG

The Resurrection of Christ

1″Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”

3″For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. 9For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.”

The Resurrection of the Dead

12 “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

The Order of Resurrection

20 “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.”                                       (1 Corinthians 15:1-28)

 

 

Thank you very much for taking time out of this special weekend to read some of my posts and poems.

God Bless You

~Mary/Living4HisGlory