"He paid it all and will not accept the merit of any person." --DHK
Hebrews 9:28 So
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Hebrews 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
1 Peter 3:18 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:
Let us Catholics claim credit for salvation first instead of you doing it for us and then accusing us not crediting God.
Read the above scripture. No one can take credit for salvation; no one.
Jesus paid it all. The very statement you made: "Let us take credit for salvation," is the very indication and reason why I say Catholics are on their way to hell. Christ is the only way to heaven. No Catholic or any other person can get their any other way but through Christ and Him alone.
If some guy claims I worship Mary, what I can do after the 50th time being accused so? I say no.
I know. I used to stand there, in your shoes. I denied it too, until I saw it from the point of view of the Bible. Of course I would never admit to it. But you must come and look at it from the pages of the Bible, not from the eyes of the Catholic.
Tell me, when a Hindu worships at the altar of one of its gods (like Vishnu), is he worshiping the actual wooden idol, or the spirit (the god) that the idol represents? He is not praying to the wooden idol. He knows better than that. He is praying to the god that it represents, just as you would pray to the spirit of Mary that the image represents. It is the same thing. It is a transgression of the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
--Mary is a god. You pray to her. You treat her like a god.
Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
--You make graven images of Mary and other "saints." They are likenesses of her and of others, and of Christ Himself. That is idolatry.
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
--And like the Hindu you bow down and worship before them, especially during "the stations of the cross."
If you were to tell me everything the Catholic Church is, I wouldn't agree with THAT Catholic Church either.
You guys make wonderful points against the STRAWMAN-catholic church.
I can quote the Catechism to you. Isn't that authoritative enough?
But I don't have to LIE about others peoples position of putting the idolatry SALVATION FIRST above God.
IMO, that is an admission that you are not saved. Biblical Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship with Jesus Christ. He died for you, made you the object of his love, paid the penalty of your sin with his blood, and desires you to make Him, Christ, as the Lord of your life.
Without salvation, one is condemned to an eternity in Hell forever. That being the case, God is not interested in his love, for you have already spurned the love of God. You have insulted him, rejected him, etc. The person that has so rejected Christ's offer of love does not love God and cannot even pretend to love God. He does it out of his own selfishness, perhaps to make him look good in his community, or for some other reason. But God won't accept that kind of love for that person has rejected God's love.
Love God is the commandment, #1 good work. And the first thing on SELFISH minded person , Loving God isn't going to do anything for me, its not going to give me salvation.
If you don't know God you can't love God.
We prioritize God first. I see folks here going through all this scripture using the bible as a protection against God.
I find that insulting. You check the bible to make sure you got God right. When you should have checked with GOD to make sure you got the bible right.
The only way you can know "if you got God right" is through the Scriptures. God has revealed himself to us through the Scriptures. It is our only authority and guide during this time.
In the first century Christ lived, and the Apostles lived. By the end of the first century, the Bible was completed, and we have had the Bible since then for our authority.
If not for the Bible:
The Mormons have their Book of Mormon.
The Catholics have their Catechism.
The J.W.'s have the writings of Charles Taze Russell.
The SDA have the writings of Ellen G. White. and so on.
--We go by the Bible alone. It alone is our only authority. It alone is inspired. Other works are not.
Let me give you example of this glaring flaw:
When God communicates his choice method regardless of what it is has no place being judged by human sense of reliability.
If God wants to talk to me via smoke signals, telephone call, E-mail, that's his prerogative I got no place to say well the E-mail is more important the phone call or the phone call is more reliable then smoke signals.
But he doesn't. He communicates to us through His Word. That is what he has promised. He is not a liar. He keeps His Word.
I can have two shacks outside one made of IRON and other of GLASS. A hail storm is coming. God tells us get in the glass shack. What do we do? Does my sense of reliability override God, my sense of qualifications? I get in the glass shack.
You no doubt use your common sense. God doesn't speak to you audibly any longer.
Hebrews 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Hebrews 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
--According to verse one, God spoke in various ways in OT times through the prophets. If you were a prophet of the OT, then perhaps I could believe you.
But according to verse two, "in these last days (now), he speaks to us through His Son (which is through the Bible alone.
-quote]Or if God wants to slay a giant with a child, Lord a machine gun is better.....
I'm not going to question God's choice.
Jesus sends an E-mail sometimes these things have attachments and videos. In the E-mail he commands me to forward it to others. A NEWSPAPER decides to record the event.
And now some guy who never got the email says "I Got the email right here in the newspaper" He doesn't have the Email at best he has the words. Same fellah gets upset I forward the Email as I was commanded by Jesus and then he tells me he has to check the NEWSPAPER to verify the E-mail.[/quote]
With all the unsaved:
Jesus has no internet, he doesn't use the print media, he doesn't send emails, his phone is always busy.
Sin separates the sinner from God. He will not listen to you as long as you are not reconciled to Him via His Son Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Isaiah 59:2 But
your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Jesus PERSONALLY wrote scripture. But his grammar was humble. His ink was wine, his paper was bread, his grammar was PEOPLE. Its not the IRON SHACK, machine gun, ink and paper YOU CHOSE. Its the GLASS SHACK, CHILD, HE CHOSE.
Was it? He also wrote:
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
--Because one who is born into this world has the devil as his father, Jesus said to Nicodemus: "You must be born again." You need to be born into God's family.
What I'm talking about is COMMUNION, the EUCHARIST. Which is done for no biblical reason but by the on going command direct from Jesus Christ.
It does no good for those who know not Christ.
And the RCC view of transubstantiation is pure superstition.
The minute you have to crack open a bible to go over GOD's head your already outside the bounds of his command of "DO THIS". You guys are tying to get the E-MAIL from the newspaper and its not working.
This SCRIPTURE which Jesus personally wrote can teach you more Christianity then every bible put together. But you are too PROUD to accept God's choice over your sense of reliability.
I have given you scripture. I trust you will carefully consider it. The RCC trusts in its Catechism, not in the scriptures at all. It has fallible documents written by fallible men. I stand on an infallible book, a book inspired by God.
