'Earnestly contending for the faith,' (Jude 3 ) as well as sharing encouragement and hope through Scripture (Romans 15:4), and through the poems and posts that I write. One of many voices on the Internet warning Christians of the importance of testing the teachings of men (and women) against the unchanging truth of God's Word. (Acts 17:11) I 'warn you with tears' through much of what I write, to 'be on guard against the savage wolves that will come in among us who will distort the Word of God' as God's Word warns us about in Acts 20:26-31
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NOTE: The description under the above YouTube video reads as follows:
This Bible study examines the Mormons’ origins; the discrepancy between Mormon beliefs and orthodox Christian teaching; the meaning of its rituals; and the prominence of the temple. Former Mormons share how their decision to exit the group was a bewildering and disillusioning experience. Insider narratives and expert commentary add depth and authenticity to this revealing study. In Session 1 – The Mormons: Genesis, the distortions in the teachings of Joseph Smith Jr.–considered the Mormons’ prophet–are examined.
In the above video you will hear many former Mormons share their testimonies of how they came to realize that the Mormon church is not the “one true Church” as they had been taught and as all Mormons are taught (and Jehovah’s Witnesses and Catholics, as well). That is why it is so very important for all of us to test what we are being taught against the truth of God’s Word as Scripture clearly shows us to do (Acts 17:11, 1 Thessalonians 5:21,22) so that we are not deceived, and to follow Jesus Christ alone so that you do not accept “another Jesus” and “another gospel” as we are warned about in God’s Word! (2 Corinthians 11:2-4, Galatians 1:3-9)
I have met and interacted with Mormons — as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses — and have found them all to be very warm and loving people. As Christians we must care enough to reach out to them — and the many others who have been deceived by false teachings — and take the time to patiently and lovingly share the truly good news of the Biblical gospel with them!
RELATED SCRIPTURES
“And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:10,11)
“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4)
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9)
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
“And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” (Romans 11:6)
“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7)
Sadly, we live at a time when many of us are like sheep without a shepherd. Many once trusted pastors and teachers have forgotten their God-given role of protecting their sheep from ravenous wolves and have instead chosen to willingly join with them wholeheartedly. Therefore, many precious Christians are prey for the enemy as they attempt to seek a new church where God’s Word is being preached without compromise, and some end up getting involved with another church where yet another form of compromise or spiritual deception is taking place, which is what has happened to me many times now. With that in mind I will rarely be sharing any sermons from any pastors with you here any more, because the more I find out about them, the more I realize that the only one we can completely trust is Jesus Christ. So, I will mainly just be sharing videos like the one below that just have the audio of God’s Word accompanied with pictures highlighting some of the main verses from each particular book of the Bible.
When time allows, I hope that you will listen to a chapter or two each day of the two hour and fifteen minute audio of the Book of Acts that I have posted for you below, and allow God’s Word to speak truth to you, to encourage you, to inspire you, to comfort you, to free you from worry, doubt, and fear, to exhort and convict you of sin, and to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth.
For those of you who have yet to come to understand all that Jesus Christ accomplished for us when He willingly entered our sin-filled world wrapped in human flesh as an innocent baby, to one day become our Savior, I pray you will come to understand and believe and receive the good news of the Biblical gospel:
Still being God, the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ came into our world to rescue us from sin and hell; He grew and lived the perfect, sinless life that we could never live, to become the spotless, Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. He willingly hung on a cross and suffered the extremely brutal death of crucifixion in our place. God the Father, poured our His full wrath that we deserve for our sins upon His one and only Son — Jesus Christ, God in the flesh — who paid the debt in full for every one of our sins, no matter how heinous the sin may be! He died, was buried, and gloriously arose from the dead bodily on the third day for our justification. Salvation is a free gift; we are not saved by good works or by obeying the law, or Jesus Christ died in vain! (Galatians 2:21) If a person chooses to place their trust in the only provision that God has made for us to be forgiven and to be reconciled to Himself, (which is by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation), according to God’s very Word we will then have the assurance of eternal life with Him in heaven. (1 John 5:9-13) That, dear reader, is the good news of the Biblical gospel that is not being heard in many churches today! Please get yourself a Bible (preferably a King James version because many verses in newer translations have been either omitted or drastically changed in such a way that changes the meaning of the verses), and read the Gospel of John, the Books of Romans, Ephesians, Hebrews, and 1,2, and 3 John to begin with, so that you might come to know the joyously good news of all that Jesus Christ accomplished for us, and the depth of the love that God has for you. (Ephesians 3:17-19) (1 John 4:9,10)
“Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out. ” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” Acts 19:13-20
THE GOSPEL:
Thank you very much for stopping by today.
God Bless You
~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory
Photo ‘Spring Blue Sky Full Leafy Tree – Acts 17:24-28’ taken by Mary K Dalke – Reflections Of His Glory Photography – Scripture added by Mary K Dalke using Pixlr Free Editor
UPDATE:
Lord willing, the next installment in the series, ‘COMPARING SCRIPTURES IN THE CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE TO TEACHINGS FOUND IN THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’ will hopefully be completed by the end of this week. I will be working on it every day for at least three hours a day with that goal in mind.
Sadly, we live at a time when many of us are like sheep without a shepherd. Many once trusted pastors and teachers have forgotten their God-given role of protecting their sheep from ravenous wolves and have instead chosen to willingly join with them wholeheartedly. Therefore, many precious Christians are prey for the enemy as they attempt to seek a new church where God’s Word is being preached without compromise, and some end up getting involved with another church where yet another form of compromise or spiritual deception is taking place, which is what has happened to me many times now. With that in mind I will rarely be sharing any sermons from any pastors with you here, because the more I find out about them, the more I realize that the only one we can completely trust is Jesus Christ. So, for the time being, I will just be sharing videos like the one below that just have the audio of God’s Word accompanied with pictures highlighting some of the main verses from each particular book of the Bible.
When time allows, I hope that you will take six minutes out of your day to listen to the Book of 2 Thessalonians and allow God’s Word to comfort you, to free you from worry, doubt, and fear, exhort and convict you of sin, and to guide you into all truth.
For those of you who have yet to come to understand all that Jesus Christ accomplished for us when He willingly entered our sin-filled world wrapped in human flesh as an innocent baby, to one day become our Savior, I pray you will come to understand and believe and receive the good news of the Biblical gospel:
Still being God, the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ came into our world to rescue us from sin and hell; He grew and lived the perfect, sinless life that we could never live, to become the spotless, Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. He willingly hung on a cross and suffered the extremely brutal death of crucifixion in our place. God the Father, poured our His full wrath that we deserve for our sins upon His one and only Son — Jesus Christ, God in the flesh — who paid the debt in full for every one of our sins, no matter how heinous the sin may be! He died, was buried, and gloriously arose from the dead bodily on the third day for our justification. Salvation is a free gift; we are not saved by good works or by obeying the law, or Jesus Christ died in vain! (Galatians 2:21) If a person chooses to place their trust in the only provision that God has made for us to be forgiven and to be reconciled to Himself, (which is by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation), according to God’s very Word we will then have the assurance of eternal life with Him in heaven. (1 John 5:9-13) That, dear reader, is the good news of the Biblical gospel that is not being heard in many churches today! Please get yourself a Bible (preferably a King James version because many verses in newer translations have been either omitted or drastically changed in such a way that changes the meaning of the verses), and read the Gospel of John, the Books of Romans, Ephesians, Hebrews, and 1,2, and 3 John to begin with, so that you might come to know the joyously good news of all that Jesus Christ accomplished for us, and the depth of the love that God has for you. (Ephesians 3:17-19) (1 John 4:9,10)
Thank you very much for stopping by today.
God Bless You
~Mary Dalke/Living4HisGlory
UPDATE:
Lord willing, if all continues to go well, after two months of my sister being in the hospital she is scheduled to finally be released this coming Tuesday, after just having two weeks of therapy! Praise the Lord! \0/ She is a living miracle in that she survived all that she went through when it was discovered that her appendix had burst which caused many other serious, life threatening problems. The doctors weren’t sure that she was going to make it, so I praise God that He was gracious to bring healing to her. Losing our sweet Mom last year on Easter/Resurrection Sunday was devastating to all of us, and I just could not imagine the depth of our grief and sorrow if we would have lost our sister too!
Please treasure every moment that you have with your loved ones so that you will not have any regrets when the day comes and you will no longer have them in your life. The emptiness and void that one feels after losing a very special person, is a sorrow that truly grips your heart and fills your eyes with tears, daily. Even though I still have the joy of the Lord which can never be taken away from me, there is still a deep sorrow in my heart because my sweet Mom was the type of person that one can never forget. She was more than just my mother; she was also my friend.
I would have joy that would truly lessen the sorrow if I knew for sure that she chose to place her trust in Jesus Christ alone for her salvation instead of trusting in her good works or in the Catholic church to save her before she took her final breath, but I just have to rest in the Lord and in the fact that ‘He is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance.’ My precious Mom heard me share the gospel with her countless numbers of times when she would ask me questions about God, salvation, death, and different things concerning the Catholic church, and I tried so hard to explain the gospel to her, simply and in depth so that she would realize the importance of the decision that we all need to make before our life comes to an end. However, I need to give by burden to the Lord and spend the time I have remaining on this earth “earnestly contending for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3) by getting back to sharing the truth with those of you who need to hear it, whether you listen or fail to listen. I am already in the process of writing some posts and hope to have one finished for you in the near future –Lord willing.
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.
Here in the USA today we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day, so I just wanted to take a few minutes to express my thankfulness to God for His mercy and grace towards me and for His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, and to also express thanks to Him for my dear family and special friends.
I also wanted to thank all of you for taking time to read some of my posts and poems throughout this year, and for your words of encouragement, as well. I truly hope and pray that you have been blessed by the things that I have been sharing with you, as well as challenged by the things that you have been reading. Above all, I hope and pray that what you are learning through these posts is making you realize the extreme importance of looking to God and to Him alone and to His Word for the truth so that you will not be deceived by some of the many false teachings that are now being presented more and more by pastors and teachers that you have placed your trust in who are responsible for leading many Christians astray in these last days. Please keep in mind that you must not only be sure to ‘examine the Scriptures daily to see if what is being said (by the pastors and teachers that you listen to) is true,’ but also you must make sure that everything lines up with Scripture (Acts 17:11), and that you are not viewing God’s Word through the lens of the twisted teachings of men as I once did.
On this Thanksgiving day you may find yourself alone, or you may be struggling in the midst of a very difficult time in your life right now. I pray that you will draw near to God and read His Word for hope and comfort. I also pray that He will give you His grace and His strength that will carry you through this difficult time.
If you have never placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, I pray that you would buy a Bible — preferably a King James Bible — and read the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans to discover the depth of the love that God has for you, and the truth of the gospel that has the power to set you free — no matter how deep into sin you may be right now — and His Word has the power to also transform your minds and your lives! He alone can bring you the peace and the joy that you are searching for!
I hope the following songs will bless, encourage, and bring comfort to you.
God Bless You
~Mary/Living4HisGlory
UPDATE:I have been able to take care of many of the important issues that I have had to deal with lately, and was able to spend around four hours yesterday trying to finish writing the next post in the Catholicism series. Lord willing, I hope to be able to present it to you by this Sunday evening.
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)
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:
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:
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:
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.”
“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`:
“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)
There are two very important reasons why I felt compelled to write this series of posts, and I’d like to briefly share these reasons with you now before I go any further:
1) Since I am a former Catholic who is very aware of the teachings of the Catholic Church because I attended twelve years of Catholic school, attended Catechism classes, made my First Holy Communion, was Confirmed, and faithfully attended Mass not only every Sunday, but also before school began for three years (as required by the school that I attended at the time), and who came to the knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is and what He actually accomplished for us by reading a Catholic New Testament Bible exactly like the one pictured above, I decided to write this series with the hope of reaching Catholics so that they can not only come to an understanding of who Jesus Christ truly is as His Word, the Bible, declares Him to be, but also so they can see by reading God’s Word that they can have complete forgiveness, lasting joy, true peace, and the assurance of salvation if they choose to believe God’s Word and place their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Also, since many Catholics do not realize everything that the Catholic church actually teaches (as I once did not realize until after doing research and reading the CCC), I thought that it was extremely important to share this information to make Catholics aware of many things that are quite disturbing, as you will all soon become aware of as this series continues.
2) This series of posts is also being written with the intention of helping those of you who are born-again, Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ who have no idea of what the teachings of Catholicism are so that you can become aware of their teachings and be prepared to offer hope and assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ to Catholics based solely upon the truth that is recorded in God’s Word.
As we begin this series together comparing Scriptures in the Catholic New Testament to teachings found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we must keep these important thoughts in mind:
When it comes to our eternal destination — heaven or hell — we must be certain that we place our trust in solid truth and not in speculation or in the traditions of men. The Catholic church claims to be the “one true Church.” Therefore, it stands to reason that their teachings must line up with God’s Word and not contradict it since God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8), and His Word stands firm forever. (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24,25) If a contradiction is found it must be rejected because God’s Word is our plumb line by which we must measure (or test) the teachings of every religion to see if it lines up or not. If it is off in one point we can be certain that it will lead us further and further away from Biblical truth and lead us into spiritual deception.
This series will cover many different subjects ranging from what does the Catholic Church teach about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, priests, the pope, sin, forgiveness of sins, salvation, prayer, and what must a Catholic believe in order to receive eternal life. Some of these teachings will shock even many Catholics when they learn what their church actually teaches!
Lord willing, I hope to share at least one post every month with you in this new series until I have covered all the most important teachings that need to be brought to your attention. The main goal that I have in writing this series is to present the Word of God to Catholics — and to every person — in order to point everyone to Jesus Christ, who is our only hope and ‘the only name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)
Dear Catholic, please take a minute now to pray, asking God to open your mind to the Scriptures and to reveal the truth to you –whatever that may be.
Because only God can reveal the truth to you I will refrain from making any comments unless I find it completely necessary. Since God’s Word is truth I trust that He will not only give you eyes to see the truth, but also I trust that He will give you the courage to respond to His leading. However, each one of you will find yourself having to answer this question when you come to each point that I present to you in these posts after realizing that there are oftentimes extreme differences between what the Word of God says and what Catholicism teaches, and the question that you will have to answer is:
“Are you going to believe the Word of God, or the word of man?”
Let’s begin:
Please keep in mind, as you are carefully reading all of the statements made from the following Catholic sources, that every time you see the word “church” spelled with a capital c they are referring to the Catholic church, since they believe that the “Catholic Church” alone is the “one true Church.”
All of the information that I will be sharing with you I have obtained from the following sources:
1) CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (pictured above) – Imprimi Potest – Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict) – Interdicasterial Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Portion of statement made by Pope John Paul II – Page 6 – Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum:
“At the conclusion of this document presenting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Mother of the Church, to support with her powerful intercession the catechetical work of the entire church on every level at this time when she is called to a new effort of evangelization.”
“Given October 11, 1992, the thirteenth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in the fourteenth year of my Pontificate.” ~Joannes Paulus II(Signature in Latin)
2) THE WORD OF GOD – THE NEW TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR IN TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION – SACRED HEART LEAGUE EDITION – IMPRIMATUR JOHN FRANCIS WHEALON, ARCHBISHOP OF HARTFORD, APRIL 15, 1971 SIGNED AND SEALED BY BISHOP JOSEPH B. BRUNINI, DIOCESE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
3) Occasionally when I share a Scripture with you from the Sacred Heart League (SHL) Catholic New Testament and notice that it lacks depth and clarity, I will then follow it with the same verse but in the King James Version in order to give you a better understanding of what is being said, and so that you can see what is missing from the SHL translation.
4) Very briefly in this series, I will also be quoting from THE CATHOLIC DOUAY RHEIMS VERSION OF THE BIBLE – in which you will find the following statements:
“EXCERPT FROM ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE LEO XIII ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:
“The God of all Providence, Who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the participation of the Divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from the universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has in consequence bestowed upon man a splendid gift and safeguard–making known to him, by supernatural means, the hidden Mysteries of His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. For although in Divine revelations there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order “that all may come to know them with facility, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural Revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end.” This supernatural revelation according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten Tradition, and in written Books, which are therefore called sacred and canonical because, “being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been delivered to the Church.” (Page ix)
“Wherefore it must be recognised that the sacred writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His Word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher. St. Irenaeus long since laid down, that where the charismata of God were, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Holy Scripture was safely interpreted by those who had the Apostolic succession. His teaching, and that of other Holy Fathers, is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which, in the renewing of the decree of Trent, declares its “mind” to be this–that “in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against the unanimous agreement of the Fathers.” (Page xvii)
“Wherefore the first and dearest object of the Catholic commentator should be to interpret those passages which have received an authentic interpretation either by the sacred writers themselves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by her solemn judgment or her ordinary and universal magisterium –to interpret those passages in that identical sense, and to prove, by all the resources of science that sound hermeneutical laws admit of no other interpretation. In the other passages, the analogy of faith should be followed, and Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for seeing that the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is foolish and false which either makes the sacred writers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.” (Page xviii)
“For although the studies of non-Catholics, used with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic student, he should nevertheless, bear well in mind–as the Fathers also teach in numerous passages –that the sense of Holy Scripture can nowhere be found incorrupt outside of the Church, and cannot be expected to be found in writers who, being without the true faith, only gnaw the bark of the Sacred Scripture and never attain its pith.” (Page xix)
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: PART 1 – THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
1) SCRIPTURE OR THE TRADITIONS OF MEN – WHICH WILL YOU BELIEVE?
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:
“The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.” (Para 66)
“Throughout the ages, there have been so-called”private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church. Christian faith cannot accept “revelations” that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such “revelations.” (Para 67)
“Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.” (Para 82)
“It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.” (Para 95)
“The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope, and to the Bishops in communion with him.” (Para 100)
CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT:
“Jesus answered them, “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: ‘These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. It is no use for them to worship me because they teach man-made commandments as though they were God’s rules!’ “You put aside the commandment of God and obey the teachings of men.”
“In this way you disregard the word of God with the teachings you pass on to others.” (Mark 7:6-8,13)
“See to it, then, that no one makes a captive of you with the worthless deceit of human wisdom which comes from the teachings handed down by men, and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
“For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life you received from your ancestors. It was not something that loses its value, such as silver or gold; you were set free by the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18,19)
2) SALVATION THROUGH JESUS OR THE CHURCH? WHICH WILL YOU BELIEVE?
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:
“I believe” (Apostles’ Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each believer, principally during Baptism. “We believe” (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. “I believe” is also the Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both “I believe” and “We believe.” (Para 167)
“It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my faith. It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism.” Para 168)
“Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: “We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation.” Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.” (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519). (Para 169)
“Believing” is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports, and nourishes our faith. The Church is the Mother of all believers. “No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.” (Para 181)[NOTE: Ecclesial: Something related to a church or its function and teachings.]
CATHOLIC NEW TESTAMENT:
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its Judge, but to be its Savior. Whoever believes in the Son is not judged; whoever does not believe has already been judged because he has not believed in God’s only Son.” (John 3:16,17)
KJV says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
“If you declare with your lips, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.For we believe in our hearts and are put right with God; we declare with our lips and are saved.” (Romans 10:9,10)
“So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
KJV says: “So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
“I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ–in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake’s clever lies. For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us!” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4)
“I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are going to another gospel. Actually there is no “other gospel,” but I say it because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell! We have said it before, and now I say it again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, , may he be condemned to hell!” (Galatians 1:6-9)
“We believe the witness that men give; the witness that God gives is much stronger, and this is the witness that God has given about his Son. So whoever believes in the Son of God has this witness in his heart; but whoever does not believe God has made a liar out of him, because he has not believed what God has said as a witness about his Son. This, then, is the witness: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has this life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things so that you may know that you have eternal life–you that believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:9-13)
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.
This time of year is extra special to me because it was right before Easter in 1980 that I began to read the little Catholic New Testament Bible that was given to me. As I began to read it the truth of God’s Word began to strip away the man-made doctrines of Catholicism that obscured the truth of who Jesus truly is; He is not the victim as portrayed in every Sacrifice of the Mass, but rather the Victor over sin and death, because I discovered the joyous good news of the gospel –Jesus paid the debt of my sin in full! No longer was I in bondage to a religion that provided no assurance of salvation. I was free and had a peace that went beyond all human understanding because I saw my need for a Savior and placed my trust in Jesus Christ alone and in the truth of God’s Word, and not in my good works or the unreliable words of men!
Dear reader, is your trust in a false gospel made by man? Or is it founded upon the truth as revealed in Scripture? Are you accepting a man’s interpretation of Scripture? Or are you allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to you through the Living Word of God, by letting Scripture interpret other Scriptures? Are you attempting to earn your salvation? Or have you come to the point where you see yourself as a sinner in the sight of a thrice Holy God and realize that the only way you can be forgiven is to place your trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh as the one and only way that God provided for us to become righteous in His sight?
The good news of the gospel is that He died for my sins — and for yours — if you will only choose to place your trust in Him and Him alone for your salvation.
I hope and pray that you will take the time to reflect upon these Scriptures and to watch the sermon below. Pray and ask God to reveal the truth to you as He did for me as I read His Word. You too can have the assurance of salvation and a peace that goes beyond all human understanding if you will only turn to Him while there is still time!
SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO REFLECT ON
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9,10)
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this, not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:1-10)
“Then said they unto Him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” (John 6:28,29)
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.” (John 6:47)
“Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Jesus cried and said, “He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. And he that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.” (John 12:42-50)
“Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:5-13)
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth an renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope ofeternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7)
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16)
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:8,9)
“Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the Word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” (Matthew 15:1-9)
“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.” (Matthew 7:13,14)
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1Timothy 2:5,6 KJV)
“When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.” (Hebrews 9:11-14)
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death–that is the devil–and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14,15)
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21)
In the sermon that you will find further below, Pastor Randy White gives us an understanding of why Jesus was crucified, and does so from a Jewish perspective, a gentile perspective, and from a theological perspective, as well.
Here is the video description:
“Dr. Randy White preaches about the crucifixion from Mark 14 and 15. He looks at the Jewish rationale for putting Jesus on the cross, the gentile rationale, and the theological rationale.”
Here are the texts that he will be preaching from:
Mark 14:53-65 and Mark 15:1-39
53 “And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes.
54 And Peter followed Him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.
55 And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put Him to death; and found none.
56 For many bare false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together.
57 And there arose certain, and bare false witness against Him, saying,
58 We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’
59 But neither so did their witness agree together.
60 And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, “Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee?”
61 But He held His peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, and said unto Him, “Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
62 And Jesus said, “I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
63 Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, “What need we any further witnesses?
64 Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye?” And they all condemned Him to be guilty of death.
65 And some began to spit on Him, and to cover His face, and to buffet Him, and to say unto Him, “Prophesy.” And the servants did strike Him with the palms of their hands.
1And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried Him away, and delivered Him to Pilate.
2 And Pilate asked Him, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” And He answering said unto them, “Thou sayest it.”
3 And the chief priests accused Him of many things: but He answered nothing.
4 And Pilate asked Him again, saying, “Answerest thou nothing? Behold how many things they witness against thee.”
5 But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marvelled.
6 Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired.
7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.
8 And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them.
9 But Pilate answered them, saying, “Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?”
10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered Him for envy.
11 But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.
12 And Pilate answered and said again unto them, “What will ye then that I shall do unto Him whom ye call the King of the Jews?”
13 And they cried out again, “Crucify Him.”
14 Then Pilate said unto them, “Why, what evil hath He done?” And they cried out the more exceedingly, “Crucify Him.”
15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified.
16 And the soldiers led Him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.
17 And they clothed Him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about His head,
18 And began to salute Him, Hail, King of the Jews!
19 And they smote H im on the head with a reed, and did spit upon Him, and bowing their knees worshipped Him.
20 And when they had mocked Him, they took off the purple from Him, and put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.
21 And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His cross.
22 And they bring Him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull.
23 And they gave Him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but He received it not.
24 And when they had crucified Him, they parted His garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.
25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.
26 And the superscription of His accusation was written over, “The King Of The Jews.”
27 And with Him they crucify two thieves; the one on His right hand, and the other on His left.
28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, “And He was numbered with the transgressors.”
29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
30 Save thyself, and come down from the cross.”
31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; Himself He cannot save.
32 Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with Him reviled Him.
33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” Which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, “Behold, He calleth Elias.”
36 And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink, saying, “Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take Him down.”
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against Him, saw that He so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
Even though I have a lot of information that I want to share with you concerning what has been happening lately in the name of Christianity, I decided not to do a Mysticism Monday or a Warning You With Tears Wednesday post for you this week in order to keep the focus of this blog at this time completely on Jesus Christ alone and not on the many unbiblical things that are leading Christians astray, which is why I simply left the SERMON SUNDAY as the only post for this week, until now.
I also wanted some extra time during this season so that I would personally be able to reflect on the high price that Jesus Christ paid when He endured such torture and ultimately gave His life in my place to pay the debt for all of my sins and guilt.
As much as I enjoy writing and sharing things with you, I want you to know that I also take blogging very seriously knowing that I will stand before God one day and answer for all that I have shared with you and what my motives were for doing so. I share that with you because as I was putting this post together for you I realized just how careful we all have to be in choosing what pastors and teachers we listen to! Originally I had chosen a sermon by the late Adrian Rogers to share with you, and I also added many more of his sermons because I thought he was still considered to be among the few pastors and teachers left who are worthy of our trust. However, earlier today I discovered that he also slowly drifted from Biblical truth. Lord willing, I will share what I discovered with you next week in my Warning You With Tears Wednesday post.
Thank you very much for stopping by and taking time out of this special weekend to read some of my posts and poems. If you are a Christian then this weekend is indeed special to you. If you are not, I pray that you will consider reading the Bible for yourself and ask God to reveal the truth to you so that you too will discover the good news of the gospel! Then you will be able to rejoice in knowing that you can be released from all the sin and guilt that holds you in bondage if only you will believe and trust in what Jesus already did for you as being sufficient to pay for your sin and guilt –no matter what you may have done!
Keep in mind, though, that the Bible also says that the devil believes and he trembles! The devil knows who Jesus is, yet there must be a trust and reliance upon Jesus Christ and upon Him alone, which he will never have! He was filled with pride and chose to rebel against God. I pray that you will not choose to do the same. Humbly bow before Him and admit your sinfulness before a completely Holy God and receive the only provision that God made for you to be forgiven and to have a relationship with Him, which is through His one and only Son –Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.
Welcome to another post in a new category of posts entitled, TEACHING THURSDAY.’ Lord willing, at least once a month on Thursdays, 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:
Let me begin this post by saying that I stand with Israel and their right to defend their country and their people from any one or any country that may threaten their safety. (See the last video that I posted below). When one realizes the size of their country in comparison to the surrounding countries and all the countries of the world, and consider all of the attacks that Israel has endured over the many, many years that they have existed, it all serves as an amazing testimony to the fact that they have been preserved by the mighty hand of God alone! Before I get too carried away and drift even further from sharing the reason for this post, let me get right to the point. But first, a very brief explanation:
This post was not written with any intention to bash or to slander the Jewish people in any way. This post was written with the intention of making Christians aware of some of the dangerous teachings of the Hebrew Roots Movement (HRM), and they will be compared to the truth of God’s Word so that the truth can be revealed to all of you with the hope that no one will be deceived by the teachings in this movement. As you will soon see, the teachings of the HRM cause many Christians to slowly become ensnared once again by the law, and they no longer rest in the fact that it’s by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. I have seen that happen to a few of my friends on Facebook by observing the things that they have been posting, and realized the urgent need to be one among many other Christians who are warning about this movement. I trust that God will use the following teaching — and especially the truth of God’s Word — to open the eyes of many Christians who have been led astray and deceived by these teachings.
You will also learn through the following presentation in the videos below that the teachings of the (HRM) lead Christians to begin to focus more on the Old Testament than on the New Testament. That is only the beginning of where these teachings can mislead a Christian, as you will soon see.
Some, but not all of the people in this movement deny the Triune nature of God, and some even slowly come to have an unbiblical view of who Jesus Christ is! One of the teachings of the HRM also teach that the Jewish people can be saved through observing the law.
When time allows, please listen to this very important and informative teaching which will help you understand the Hebrew Roots Movement so that you will not be led astray by these teachings, and so that you can lovingly point your friends who have been caught up in this movement to the truth that is so clearly revealed in God’s word.
RELATED SCRIPTURES:
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith.For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.Or is God the God ofJews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Romans 3:21-31)
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21)
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3:1-14)
“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (Romans 3:19,20)
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at thepresent time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith.For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Romans 3:22-31)
“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.” (Romans 4:13-15)
Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your busy day to read some of my posts and poems.
Welcome to another post in a new category of posts entitled, ‘SERMON SUNDAY.’ Lord willing, at least a few times a month I will share a timely sermon with you by a well respected teacher or 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 also hope to share some expository preaching with you in the near future, 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. Then 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. I hope that everyone who somehow finds there way here 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:
In the following sermon, Pastor Chris Quintana, Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Cypress, preaches verse by verse through 1 Timothy Chapter 4, focusing on the qualifications of overseers, as well as the conduct of godly Christian leaders. Before he begins, he shares a very short review of his teaching on Chapter 3 from last week.
When time allows, grab yourself a refreshing bottle of water or a glass of cold lemonade, etc., sit down and get comfortable, and open your Bible to 1 Timothy 4, and follow along as you listen to his message. As you listen, see how your pastor compares to the qualifications that God has set forth in His Word concerning what the character and conduct of a godly leader should be like.
Here’s the portion of Scripture that Pastor Chris Quintana will be preaching on:
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4)
RELATED SCRIPTURES
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)
“Now I know that none of you among of whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 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 thatfor three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:25-31)
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
If you’d like to visit his Calvary Church Cypress website, you can do so by clickingHERE.
You can also connect with him on Facebook by clickingHERE.
I will be posting more of his sermons and teachings in the near future, so if you’re interested, you can check back here from time to time. Chris Quintana is one of few Pastors and teachers today who not only has a high view of Scripture, but also he is one among very few pastors today who exposes the many false teachings that are entering the church today and leading many Christian astray.
As I often say in my posts: Please make sure that you test his teachings — as well as the teachings of everyone that you listen to, no matter how long they have been in ministry — against the truth of God’s Word to see if what is being said is true (Acts 17:11), so that you will never be led astray.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time out of your relaxing weekend (at least I hope it was) to read some of my posts and poems.
Desiring for God to use all that I have been through in life, I decided to start my first blog, living4hisglory.wordpress.com, in order to write poems about some of those experiences to bring glory to God, as well as to share them with others with the hope of encouraging those of you who have been broken and shattered by life's circumstances and hurt by those who were supposed to have loved you rather than abuse you in some way.
Also, because of some pastors and teachers today who seem to be abandoning Biblical Christianity and instead seem to be either seeking to build their own empires and promoting their own agendas, and at times even leading the people in their churches into unbiblical, 'mystical practices' without some people even realizing it, I saw the importance and necessity to begin writing poems and posts in order to inform Christians, as well as to make Christians realize the extreme importance of testing what people say (who claim to speak for God) against the truth of God's Word, (Acts 17:11) so that they will not be deceived. It has never been -- nor shall it ever be -- my intention to bash any particular pastor or teacher; my sole purpose in bringing attention to false teachings is to make Christians realize that we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, and not to be followers of any man (or woman) and his (or her) ministry. I hope that you will be blessed -- as well as challenged -- by the things that I write.
NOTE: COMMENTS ON ALL POSTS CLOSE ONE MONTH AFTER THEY ARE PUBLISHED.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary - Living4HisGlory
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary K. Dalke and Living4HisGlory Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
NOTE: Any adds that may be displayed on my blog have not been chosen or approved by me; I can't even see any adds that WordPress chooses to post here.
Desiring for God to use all that I have been through in life, I decided to start my first blog, living4hisglory.wordpress.com, in order to write poems about some of those experiences to bring glory to God, as well as to share them with others with the hope of encouraging those of you who have been broken and shattered by life's circumstances and hurt by those who were supposed to have loved you rather than abuse you in some way.
Also, because of some pastors and teachers today who seem to be abandoning Biblical Christianity and instead seem to be either seeking to build their own empires and promoting their own agendas, and at times even leading the people in their churches into unbiblical, 'mystical practices' without some people even realizing it, I saw the importance and necessity to begin writing poems and posts in order to inform Christians, as well as to make Christians realize the extreme importance of testing what people say (who claim to speak for God) against the truth of God's Word, (Acts 17:11) so that they will not be deceived. It has never been -- nor shall it ever be -- my intention to bash any particular pastor or teacher; my sole purpose in bringing attention to false teachings is to make Christians realize that we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, and not to be followers of any man (or woman) and his (or her) ministry. I hope that you will be blessed -- as well as challenged -- by the things that I write.
NOTE: COMMENTS ON ALL POSTS CLOSE ONE MONTH AFTER THEY ARE PUBLISHED.
Thank you for stopping by and taking time to read some of my posts and poems.
God Bless You
~Mary - Living4HisGlory
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Mary K. Dalke and Living4HisGlory Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
NOTE: Any adds that may be displayed on my blog have not been chosen or approved by me; I can't even see any adds that WordPress chooses to post here.
Mary Dalke - Living4HisGlory
Living4HisGlory 