Worship in Spirit And Truth Having several family members that have been or are currently practicing the Catholic religion, the past couple of blog posts have been of particular interest to me. Yes I will get back to the Trinity but stuff…..keeps…..coming….up…. 
Practically all of the Roman Catholic religious stuff contradicts the Bible repeatedly. For Catholics who read this, please remember this: the person that tells you the truth is the one that cares, and I am not one to back away from a topic because of numbers, or lack thereof.
Ok, so let’s look at some of the Catholic ideas, and what the Bible has to say about it. Not believing that God’s Word is infallible will of course be the way around these, but for those of who do believe His Word to be infallible, there is no way around it.
Forbidding the priesthood to marry.
1 Timothy 4:1-3 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” Nuff said? No….
The pope is supposedly continuing the apostolic line through Peter. Yet in Matthew 8:14, we find “And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.” Sounds like he was married….
Paul, a great apostle, remained single; however he made it very clear that he could marry if he wanted to.
1 Corinthians 9:3-5 “This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas.
Catholics believe Mary never had other children after the Lord Jesus. A perpetual virgin.
Mary and Joseph indeed had children. They were the Lord’s half brothers and sisters, their father was Joseph and mother was Mary.
Matthew 13:55-56 “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these thing?”
Mark 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.”
Catholics believe Mary is the queen of heaven….wow. When I first read about this I thought it was a fairy tale….but….no. Turns out the “Queen of Heaven” is not even the Mary of the Bible. Is is actually the Moon…..worship of the Moon. But it is clear how the Lord felt about it…..
Jeremiah 7:17-19 “Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle fire, and the women knewad dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? Declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame?”
The last one for today is, although it has been extensively covered in the previous blog, being saved, in part, by good works. Good works are the fruits that grow out of being saved. They do not make you saved. An apple does not make its tree an apple tree, it was already an apple tree before any apples appeared. When you see the apples; however, you know what kind of tree it is. If a person is saved, he will show good works because he has the spirit of Christ in him. The good works don’t make him saved only the blood of Jesus can do that.
I John 1:7b “ …. And the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Acts 16:31 And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You and your household.”
Again, what about James 2:20 “faith without works is dead?”
The kind of faith that saves is a faith that shows the works of God. Even devils believe in Jesus and tremble (James 2:19). Many people believe in Jesus but they won’t follow Him. They have a faith, but not the kind that saves. If a person has true faith in Jesus, the Holy Ghost dwells in him and will cause good works will show in his life. The good works confirm the faith by which the person was saved. James 2:21-23 uses Abraham as an example. Abraham believed God so when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham, out of his faith in God, offered up Isaac.
Ya, Robert, I’m getting there 
It’s so important to understand even the smallest discrepancies in God’s Word, otherwise, you have Religion without relationship….you may belong to “the crowd”, but as a believer I am called to stand for the One True God, and His Word…more tomorrow.
      
In recent blogdom, I have a Catholic friend who is having a discussion about being saved by faith and works. My Mom and her family were raised Catholic, and I know that Roman Catholics often mention that the Bible never says we are saved by faith alone. The phrase “faith alone” occurs only once in James where it says that we are not saved by faith alone. Then there are the Protestants who say we are justified by faith alone, not works…
There are some scriptures about being saved by faith. Faith and works are contrasted….and to me there are only two options. We are saved by faith alone, or we are not. We do have faith and works in scripture, yet the only options are to be saved by faith alone, or faith and works. If scriptures exclude works as a means of our salvation, the we have to conclude we are saved by faith alone. SO….
Romans 3:28-30 “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.”
Romans 5:1 “therefore having be justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Romans 4:5 “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,”
Romans 9:30 “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith.”
Romans 11:6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no loner grace.”
Galatians 2:16 “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus….”
Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly.”
Several more as well show that works/law is contrasted with faith repeatedly and we are told that we are NOT justified by works in anyway. Then there is James 2:24. “You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.”
If you look at the context, you see there is no contradiction. James 2 is 26 verses. 1-7 are instructing not to show favoritism. 8-13 are comments on the Law. 14-26 are about the relationship between faith and works. James begins this section by using the example of someone who SAYS he has faith but no works, “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”
James is addressing an issue of a dead faith. This is nothing more than a verbal pronouncement, not something heartfelt. He is beginning with the negative and demonstrates in verses 15-17 what empty faith is. Then he goes on to show that that type of faith isn’t any different from the faith of demons. (verse 19)
Finally, he gives examples of living faith that has words followed by action. Works follow true faith.
James, is examining two kinds of faith: one that leads to godly works and one that doesn’t. One is true, the other is false. One is dead, the other alive…”Faith without works is dead” What he is NOT doing is contradicting other verses above that say salvation/justification is by faith alone.
     
While I’m working on the “Father” part of the trinity, I thought this was an interesting article by John MacArthur concerning altar calls. These are just some excerpts, you can read the full article here.
“A number of years ago, a man named Duane Lifton (sp.) who is now pastoring back in Tennessee, wrote a very interesting article called “The Perils of Persuasive Preaching.” There are a number of things in that article that are worth understanding. I share them with you because I want you to be alert to what some people endeavor to do, and what you can see them endeavoring to do with crowds of people. They claim to be preachers, and in fact are not preaching the Word of God, but are manipulating the people.
In this particular book, that Lifton and his article quotes, called “Hypnotism–Fact and Fiction,” Frederick Marcuse (sp.) reports a research study conducted at a large eastern university,
The researchers attempted, through hypnotic suggestion, to induce a convinced and vocal atheist to become religious. The attempt was so successful that it had to be halted and all suggestion removed from the subject’s mind. When his entire attitude towards religious faith changed, after only three sessions, and for the first time in his life he began to attend church, the investigators decided that the ethics of the situation prevented them from pursuing their research any further.
They could literally make atheists religious by manipulating their minds. While the example is admittedly a dramatic one, it serves to raise a monstrous question, “Would it be possible through hypnotic suggestion to create a believer–quite apart from any work of the Holy Spirit? And would such a person really be a child of God?” Such questions, he writes, “are not simply academic.”
Probably, you have experienced that, there was attention–the preacher got your attention. Then their was certain amount of comprehension, and then they started talking about you need to surrender, you need to yield. They started to play the organ, the mood music began. Maybe you have been in a meeting where they “played and they played” and they kept telling people to raise their hands, “come down the aisle,” and they tried to force or manipulate the YIELDING, and not with clarifying truth, but with sounds and sights. They will even tell you, “We have all of these people that we start down the aisles, just to prime the pump, because it gets a flow going and people get caught in the flow.” That is sheer manipulation!
I am not saying that people can’t be converted in a situation like that, but I am saying that people who aren’t being converted get swept up in it. The people who are converted, are converted because they comprehend the truth, and because the Spirit of God effects the transformation.
It is not my task to manipulate you to do something emotionally. All the slick techniques, all the gospel marketing packages, all the pulpit histrionics of jumping and stomping and flailing around and beating the organ, and doing whatever they do to create the mood. All the sad stories, the mood music, the endless invitations, the hand raising, the walking, all of that kind of pressure is not preaching the Word. It has nothing to do with COMPREHENSION.
The decision of yielding, surrendering and then retaining and acting, is between the hearer and God, and not the hearer and the preacher. It is the Holy Spirit’s work.
Preaching is proclaiming saving truth, sanctifying truth, and strengthening truth from Scripture, the rest is up to the Holy Spirit. So Paul says, I was entrusted with the proclamation. That’s all that I can do. All I can do is to get their ATTENTION and bring COMPREHENSION. The message is the Scripture, and since the message is the Scripture, beloved, it should be patently obvious to everyone that the proper kind of preaching should be “expository preaching.” That is the only legitimate way to be true to the divine message.
The preacher’s job is not to force his people, by some manipulative process, to YIELD. His job is to make them comprehend the Word of God, which will save them, sanctify them, and strengthen them.
We have got to get back to preaching the Word of God. What a calling. What a calling. That’s our calling. That’s what God has commanded us to do. Just so you cannot get off the hook by saying, “Well, I am glad that you were talking to yourself–I’m not a preacher!” Listen to Mark 16:15, “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” You may not have a pulpit like I do, but you have a mandate from God, don’t you? To preach the truth, to proclaim it wherever you can.”
     
I do not believe it is ever wise to make God fit into an understandable mold in our minds. When we study what God reveals about Himself, we can seek Him out and understand more about Him, but He will always be far above anything we can comprehend. I think it is very important to as best as we can discern the relationship of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is far from simplistic, and as much as we try, God will never follow our logic, we have to be humble enough to follow His. I believe the New Testament teaches the trinitarian God, three distinct Persons, One essence.
Yes I am fully aware that the word trinity is not in the Bible. And if you like simple math, we can say He’s “three in one,”…but He is way more than a simple equation, and it’s important that we gather our understanding from the Bible itself. It really doesn’t matter if we can wrap our minds around the concept of the trinity. I doubt that few of us understand how a light comes on beyond flipping a switch. Over the next few posts we’ll look at what the Bible teaches on the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit…but today I just want to look at the Trinity itself.
First, Trinity refers to the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit….it is formed obviously from the words tri and unity, and describes “the state of being threefold.” I have read about Theologians that discuss complex concepts such as “one substance” or the Greek homoousios to make important distinctions…but I’m going to stick to Scripture.
The following are a few Scriptures that put the Trinity on the same level…
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14
“…Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood….” 1 Peter 1:2
It is also clear in God’s Word that it teaches Monotheism….there is but ONE God. Both the OT and NT teach this.
Mark 12:29 “Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
among others….
Each part of the Trinity has a will, intellect and emotions and different titles and names to describe functions of their positions. These distinctions do not take away from their unity as one God. While each have a different position and function, none act on their own, but in unity. The view that God is numerically one person undermines the doctrine of the Triune God. Seems harmless enough, but it really cuts at the core of the very nature of God. These people have just not taken the time to understand the biblical conclusion on the Trinity.
The Trinity is the same scriptural interpretation and traditional orthodox belief that was delivered in the early church from the Apostles. These same men that preserved and protected the Bible, sometimes giving their lives, also defended the triune nature of God. I’m thinking they would be a pretty good model to follow….
     
I was asked (in a round about way) recently, why only use the Bible when distinguishing truth? Why not other “books of wisdom” or philosophy? On the other hand, terms such as Sola Scriptura, have not been common place to me….which means, learn, study, find out….
For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church put their tradition as superior to the authority of the Bible. The result were practices contradictory to the Bible, praying to saints/Mary, infant baptism…..etc. Sola Scriptura is from the Latin: Sola, alone, base, ground….and scriptura “writings”…referring to scripture. It means the Scripture alone is complete, authoritative, and true. The Catholic argument against sola scriptura is that the Bible does not teach sola scriptura, true, yet the Bible declares itself to be God-breathed, inerrant, and authoritative. God does not change His mind or contradict Himself. So, while the Bible doesn’t specifically argue for “sola scriptura,” it definately does not allow for traditions that contradict its message.
The only way to know for sure what God expects of us is to stay true to what we know He has revealed…the Bible.
Things can get pretty warped when we do not stick to God’s Word. I was reading an article about a woman named Phyllis Tickle, who authored “The Great Emergence.” Her book contains this quote. “The new Christianity of the Great Emergence must discover some authority base or delivery system and/or governing agency of its own. It must formulate-and soon-something other than Luthers sola scriptura which, although used so well by the Great Reformation originally, is now seen as hopelessly outmoded or insufficient.”
Ummmmm…Let’s see what Jesus said, in John 8:31 “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
What other source of spiritual information can make this claim? NONE. Scripture and scripture alone gives us the revealed words of God and the only true Words of Jesus Christ. There is only one reason I can think of that anyone would rebel against Sola Scriptura, and that is simply a refusal to bend their knee to God, and believe what He said.
     
Ok, first go here, and read this gals story……then read this:
An article by Michael McKinley:
“My thoughts:
– It’s a good reminder to teach clearly on church discipline. It’s something that seems bizarre and laughable to our culture, and the people in our pews won’t understand it unless we teach it.
– It’s also a good reminder that gossip is a real danger in these situations.
– It seems to me that the letter from the elders of the church is kind and biblical.
– Darrell Bock’s comments toward the end of the article seem so strange that I wonder if the reporter didn’t misunderstand him. Three things about what Dr. Bock (allegedly) said:
1. It seems like the church leaders did approach her on a private basis, though obviously any gossip is wrong. Church discipline ala Matthew 18 is ultimately a public matter if there is no repentance.
2. Church discipline is not meant to be applied only to leaders. That doesn’t make any sense.
3. A church should most definitely not allow someone to avoid church discipline simply by resigning their membership. Part of the purpose of church discipline is to warn the sinner so that they might repent.
It’s funny to be reminded of how counter-intuitive a Biblical church is to the world. Things that seem normal to you (like church discipline) seem like insanity to the eyes of the world. Oh well, I think Jesus said that would happen.”
So what do you think about discipline in the church?
     
The Lord has the last couple of days had me in John 15….Abide in Him. I’ve read through it several times now, each time getting more renewed and focused. I pulled out one of my all time favorite books by Andrew Murray, Abide In Christ, and began to read. The following is an excerpt:
“ In the whole plant world there is not a tree to be found so specially suited to the image of man in his relation to God, as the vine. There is none of which the fruit and its juice are so full of spirit, so quickening and stimulating. But there is also none of which the natural tendency is so entirely evil — none where the growth is so ready to run into wood that is utterly worthless except for the fire. Of all plants, not one needs the pruning knife so unsparingly and so unceasingly. None is so dependent on cultivation and training, but with this none yields a richer reward to the husbandman. In His wonderful parable, the Saviour, with a single word, refers to this need of pruning in the vine, and the blessing it brings. But from that single word what streams of light pour in upon this dark world, so full of suffering and of sorrow to believers! What treasures of teaching and comfort to the bleeding branch in its hour of trial:“Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” And so He has prepared His people, who are so ready when trial comes to be shaken in their confidence, and to be moved from their abiding in Christ, to hear in each affliction the voice of a messenger that comes to call them to abide still more closely. Yes, believer, most specially in times of trial, abide in Christ.
Abide in Christ! This is indeed the Father’s object in sending the trial. In the storm the tree strikes deeper roots in the soil; in the hurricane the inhabitants of the house abide within, and rejoice in its shelter. So by suffering the Father would lead us to enter more deeply into the love of Christ. Our hearts are continually prone to wander from Him; prosperity and enjoyment all too easily satisfy us, dull our spiritual perception, and unfit us for full communion with Himself. It is an unspeakable mercy that the Father comes with His chastisement, makes the world round us all dark and unattractive, leads us to feel more deeply our sinfulness, and for a time lose our joy in what was becoming so dangerous. He does it in the hope that, when we have found our rest in Christ in time of trouble, we shall learn to choose abiding in Him as our only portion; and when the affliction is removed, have so grown more firmly into Him, that in prosperity He still shall be our only joy. So much has He set His heart on this, that though He has indeed no pleasure in afflicting us, He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home and abide in the beloved Son. Christian! pray for grace to see in every trouble, small or great, the Father’s finger pointing to Jesus, and saying, Abide in Him.”
How quickly I forget, how eternally grateful I am to serve a God who is quick to restore, and loves me enough to allow me to be pruned.
     
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