Declaring someone righteous who is not righteous is lying and God does not lie.
You are right that God does not lie but maybe you need to take this up with the Apostle Paul:
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith inChrist—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
No, it's completely effective but will not benefit a person who chooses sin over God and refuses to repent according to the clear teaching of scripture. If believers who commit adultery, fornication, and drunkenness still go to heaven then scripture would not repeatedly warn them they need to repent or perish.
"For you, brethren... Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders," drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19-21, NKJV)"
That is right, The Kingdom is engaged in an ongoing struggle against sin in this world, and a person who has an allegiance to the Kingdom will continue to repent away from these acts. A continued and un-repentant practice of these things reveals the truth about a persons heart. The Spirit is not with them and those who do not have the Spirit of Christ do not belong to Christ.
Nevertheless for one who is guilty of these acts who, because of the Spirit within them, wishes to repent, there is always forgiveness and Love.
It depends. If a bishop or even the pope teaches something opposed to Christian teaching (even popes have been condemned as heretics by the Catholic Church), then believers should not submit to it. However, if it's an ex cathedra statement of the pope or an ecumenical council, it can't be in error (because Christ promised the gates of Hell won't prevail against the Church it has never happened) and the believer should humbly submit to their authority, trusting in Christ instead of relying on him own wisdom and understanding or whatever feels right to him.
As an example; the Dogma of Immaculate conception (Given Ex-Cathedra) is unscriptural and completely unnecessary for faith in Christ Jesus. The medical reasoning behind it is also incorrect.
Then why does scripture tell the laity to submit to the bishops?
There is no laity in Christ the NT does not instruct any laity. In fact the practice of the Nicolaitans (from whence we get the word) is specifically condemned. There are appointed Bishops and we are told to submit ourselves in humility because that is what one does to a person in leadership. We are also told to submit to one another in humility.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
An analogy would be a ship owner that promoted us all to Captain with all that entails (responsibility and authority) but then appoints the most experienced Captain to be a Commodore Captain among Captains. This would not work in the sinful world, but it would work in a world where all of these people submitted to each other in Love, as is the way of Christ.
The authority structure is a lot flatter than you think.
All of the religious groups that have come out of the Way of Christ with vertical authority structures have lost faith in His example and are following the ways of evil men.
The reason is because the bible was never intended to be the source of the Christian faith. The gospels were written to tell us the life of Jesus, Acts to give a history of the early church, and the other epistles to address problems and clarify issues that arose in the early churches. If God wanted us to rely upon a bible, Jesus would have wrote it himself or instructed his apostles to get together and write one book that clearly stated it was the sole and complete source of the Christian faith.
Instead, there were many separate writings and the church waited almost 400 years before they assembled in a council to determine which books should be accepted as scripture. The earliest Christians during those first few centuries didn't have a complete bible to rely upon. All they had was the church.
So now we are left with the subjective memories and opinions of men?
I trust Christ and I trust the written record of the Apostles, but I do not trust these men.
When the Jesuit priest showed me the reasoning behind trinity, I did not simply accept it but examined it in the light of scripture, not trusting his teaching but trusting the scripture.
“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
If a man is unable to manage his household the additional burden of being in charge of the church would be too much but if he has is unmarried with no children, scripture says he can focus on God. That's why being unmarried is preferred. RC doctrine does not prohibit anyone from having a wife, that's a Protestant misconception. Part of the RC priesthood is married. In the Roman rite (one of the many rites in Catholicism), the Church currently only chooses unmarried men to join the priesthood so although anyone is allowed to marry, those who are married won't be selected to join the priesthood (which isn't the same as prohibiting marriage).
This teaching flys directly in the face of the Apostle who wrote: If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?
It is quite simply not an apostolic teaching.
If the Bishop sees his family as an additional burden then he is not fit to be Bishop.
Furthermore this practice has been recognised for over 500 years as a major cause of the sexual perversion that plagues the RC denomination.
As explained above, the New Testament was never intended to include everything. Jesus founded a church to preserve the faith which isn't possible with the bible alone because everyone interprets it differently.
Perhaps it wasn’t intended to include everything (I don’t buy that though) but these teachings were obviously not important enough to write about in comparison to the teachings that we have objectively in writing.
I’m sorry but I don’t buy the interpretation excuse when it comes to Christ Jesus crucified, dead and resurrected, and His status as Lord. It is repeated so often so clearly and in so man y different ways throughout the whole the Letters and Gospels of the Apostles, as well as the Revelation it would take particularly perverse person to genuinely misinterpret the message that is first given.
If by blooId shed and mayhem you're referring to killing heretics, the Protestants condemned and killed each other as heretics over differing interpretations of scripture
Yes they did. And they were very evil men, psychopaths and murders, not followers of Christ clearly and not to be trusted at all. The difference is though, that nobody claims that we should bind ourselves to the sort of Protestant hierarchy that authorised these things.
But having read what you say below, I’m a little surprised that you consider the evidence for historical Protestant religious murder and evil valid when there is far more evidence for that carried out with the authority of various Popes.
What is the source of that quote? I've seen similar quotes before and they all turned out to be false quotes from anti-christian websites that apparently lied to slander the Catholic Church out of hatred for Christ. I will only consider quotes that can be verified as authentic.
This quote did not originate on the web, it comes from a much earlier source. The source is Pope Innocent the 3rd Papal Bull, 1198 where he sayse: "Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with Church dogma must be burned without pity." The same lovely man also said: “Kill them all, for God knows His own.”
I question the authenticity of that document because I've never been able to confirm the Roman Catholic Heirachy ever executed anyone.
I suspect the people on that list were executed by the state (not the Church) for heresy. Publically teaching heretical views is a very serious sin because it can lead to many people going to hell which makes heretical teachers worse than serial killer because they kill their souls instead of just their bodies.
Hilarious! If it wasn’t so downright delusional.
What on earth is the Inquisition for if it isn’t for stamping out so called heresy, and what do you think they used all of those instruments of torture for, playing tiddly winks? The Papacy cannot claim absolute authority over Europe and the world and then just side step the issue of millions of murders under its rule by saying “the state did it”. Even if you could argue that the Papcy didn’t do it the first rule of authority is responsibility and the Papacy at the very least allowed millions of people to be slaughtered at the hands of vicious perverted psychopaths without so much as lifting a finger. The Vatican record itself shows the truth of the matter in that the so called Vicar of Christ in fact often chose to serve the evil one in some of the most despicable ways of man.
I guess in a few years we should all join the Holocaust deniers club as well. Oh, hang on that another thing that the RC hierarchy has been known to promote.
Good thing the catholic church doesn't believe that. In the catholic church, the pope is subjected to God's Word (which the catholic church considers to be the highest authority) and can't teach anything that disagrees with the faith once delivered to the saints.
Oh dear:"The Pope cannot make a mistake." Pope Gregory VII, (quoted by The Benedictine Network in a listing of notable items by the various popes throughout history)
“Every cleric must obey the Pope, even if he commands what is evil; for no one may judge the Pope. “ Innocent III
"I alone...am the successor of the apostles, the vicar of Jesus Christ..I am the way, the truth, and the life..." Pope Pius IV
Unity requires everyone be in agreement on the teachings of the Christian faith
I agree. Unity can be achieved when everyone is humbly willing to submit to Christ out of love for God and the body of believers despite having differing opinions on some issues. The catholic church agrees with that.
Unity come through humility and gentleness, bearing with one another in Love. I know this because I have experienced it on a number of occasions.
Religious establishments I have observed that concern themselves with what everybody believes more than these things are not unified in the Spirit. They are the social clubs that people turn up to for a service or 2 every week and then go home having nothing to do with one another.
There's only an issue when a person, due to a proud and stubborn heart, begins to elevate himself above Christ and proclaim false opinions to lead others away from Christ.
So what then do we do with this ...? “The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.” Pope Pius V
I think it would be wise to simply walk away from such a dangerous lunatic before he starts threatening burnings and torture.
Simply looking to Jesus is not enough. A person must be willing to submit to Christ and what God has revealed.
He has revealed this: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Following the New Testament alone has lead to disunity. Most Protestants don't even believe the teachings of the original Protestants.
Proud men who do not know the God of Love have lead to disunity.
The core teaching of the original Protestants is salvation by faith alone as is most clearly outlined in the letters to the Roman church and the letter to the Galatian church.
But this is irrelevant anyway, who are the original Protestants? We live by the Spirit of Christ, not the Protestant tradition.
Certainly the documentation that we have that supports the writings of the Apostles and provide cultural context to hermeneutics has lead to changes in the understanding of many, but the clear message and example of Christ Jesus has not changed one iota from the day that Paul penned his letter to the Corinthians. This is the message that was first received and God forbid that we should accept anything else. Certainly the Spirit makes my heart jangle harshly when I hear anything contrary to the Gospel message, even if it is wrapped up in the sweetest of sentiments and I can’t see what’s wrong with it.
Yes, Christ gave us pastors and teachers, not the bible alone. It's be following the hierarchy established by Jesus that Christians will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves blown here and there by every wind of teaching.
But the mature one that this passage refers to has been brought up to stand firm in the Spirit first so that he in turn can provide support to those who are learning to hear his voice.
The fruit of the Spirit is obvious.
You can't have a relationship with someone if the only thing you know about them is based on subjective feelings that are impossible to verify. Without scripture or the church, you'd just be guessing who God is and want he wants.
In the first instance your are correct. But as we grow in maturity and in Love there is little guessing. If we are following Him daily He will eventually become the hand in the glove as we observed in Christ Jesus.
The fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness and Self control.
Scripture says Jesus only founded ONE church (which has one baptism and teaches one faith). Those churches are individual parishes of that one church.
This is not the teaching of Christ. The letters to the seven churches identify them as seven manifestations of the church in 7 different locations. Not once does Christ Jesus even hint at the idea that they should be subject to anybody other than Him.
Further to this the Roman church is clearly not of consequence enough for Christ to even mention it as one of his seven significant churches.
If you believe Jesus when he said he founded one church but understand that church to be a confederation of churches that teach a variety of doctrines which sometimes contradict each other, then you have a church with many faiths (not the one faith of scripture) and make God the author of confusion.
There is no confusion about the one thing that matters ergo Christ crucified and risen from the dead for the salvation of all who believe. Certainly we may have different understandings, after all each and every individual has had God meet him or her in a different imperfect state, but this should never be a justification for division of the body.
What Paul wrote is this: “For in Christ Jesus....
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through
love.”
