Grant Swart
Roman Catholic doctrine steeped in pagan tradition, and the Roman Catholic Pope, also known as the Bishop of Rome, should present every Christian saved by the grace of God with good reason to get angry. Angry? Really, should a Christian get angry over this?
Certainly, very angry indeed, as our Lord instructs. The three articles which follow below will explain. In the light of the fact that tolerance of all religious systems is taking precedence over truth, millions, if not billions of people are being duped into believing that there are many roads which lead to God, and that all religions worship the same God. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When it comes to defending the truth of the Gospel, Christians should stop being such limp-wristed, quivering, overly cautious, meek little men, uttering politically correct complaints. We have the protection of the One Almighty Omnipotent Father God, we partake in the nature of the bravest of Sons ever to walk the earth, we have the examples set by those early saints who stood immovably for the Faith and who were martyred in the most gruesome ways imaginable, so why are we so sickeningly tolerant of the world which is clearly in opposition to our Faith? Speak up man, get angry, be a courageous Follower of Christ, not an Arminian will-worshipper, use the Scripture which is your sword, stand squarely and immovable.
The “human right” to worship all forms of false gods, has become globally regarded as an essential element in most of society. This is known as interfaith pluralism and it is from the depths of hell itself.
As a matter of fact, equality of religions is written into most constitutions today, and there are man-made laws which enforce this delusion of “equal human rights”. All men should certainly enjoy equal rights among men, but to believe that the same rights apply to all men before a sovereign God, is a lie from the pit of hell. Of course, once one capitulates to the secular pressure of accepting that approach as being correct, one is stripped of the singular possibility of ever entering God’s presence. In essence, one would have been better off never having been born.
Christians need to get angry, because the only way to salvation, the only way to life, the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work on the Cross is being destroyed by that most evil of deceptions. Closer to home, it is known as ecumenism which promotes a closer unity between different belief systems within what is regarded as greater Christianity. In an attempt to remove Christ from Christianity, a marriage between Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity and other splinter groups is proposed by ecumenism.
Throughout the largely secular world, Roman Catholicism is perceived to be representative of Christianity, and has the largest number of adherents in that religious category. Popery and Romanism does not represent Christianity, it never has. Roman Catholicism is opposed to Christianity to an even larger degree than Islam, Hinduism or Bhuddism is opposed to Christianity, because Roman Catholicism actually claims to be Christianity. Most other major religions clearly do not, neither do they misrepresent Christ, the simply deny Christ, as Christ is absent from their faith. Roman Catholicism, the Pope or the Bishop of Rome at the head of that group, and Roman Catholic doctrine, is not Christianity.
I have adapted this article by Miles McKee, which explains why Christ alone is the only True High Priest, into three parts, to make for easier blog reading. If, after reading all three, you are not angry about the blasphemous deception posed by the Bishop of Rome, his silly little red shoes and magic biscuits, you should certainly take another look at the directions to eternal salvation. And, don’t bother checking your embarrassing little GPS for those directions, they are not on there. Directions are in the Word of God.
At the time of the writing of these articles, Pope Benedict XVI, was still in charge of the Roman Catholic church. He has since stepped down and has been succeeded by Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, who chose to be known by the name of Pope Francis.
Parts 1 and 2 of this article have been published earlier on this blog.
Christ the True High Priest
By Miles McKee, from a sermon preached on July 31st 2008 at the AFEC conference on Roman Catholic Evangelism
3 We only need ONE high priest, Jesus the Christ.
Christ is the Only High Priest that we need! Why? Because every blessing we have is because of the person and work of our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ!
He has made a perfect sacrifice
He has offered perfect blood
He is the perfect redeemer
And He is our perfect High Priest—we need no other priest.
Did you know, if Christ were not ascended and seated on His throne we would receive none of the benefits of redemption? It is because He lives that we live! It is because He is our Priest and King that He is applying all the benefits that he obtained for us at the cross. He is our living, ruling and reigning High Priest and He needs no help from pretended human priests to apply His redemption to His people.
Because of the work of our high priest we are already complete in Him! Now that Christ alone is our High Priest, we do not have to put up with the delusional, fictitious so-called priests of Rome who would try to place themselves and their ministrations between God and us.
Why would we possibly need another priest other than Jesus?
The High Priest of Heaven
We need no other high priest in heaven for Jesus has entered into “heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us”, Heb 9: 24-so heaven is covered! Jesus is now in Heaven, in the presence of God, and there He is enthroned as our perfect High Priest. He put away sin forever when He offered Himself and He has now sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High!
The High Priest on Earth
Just as we need no other High priest in Heaven so we need no other High Priest on earth. Why? Because the Old Testament sacrifices have been done away with; and since there are no more sacrifices to be made for sin, it means, therefore, that all earthly priests and priesthoods have been made redundant! Redemption has been accomplished! Sacrificing priests have been outmoded and rendered obsolete. It is finished! Calvary cannot be repeated, nor does it need to be.
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION
The Roman Church makes much of Apostolic Succession. It is one of the pillars of their Church. But the Apostles did not
become the successors of the priestly ministry of Christ! There is no record of them, any of them, ever offering a Mass for the sins of the people. And there’s a reason for that. In Hebrews 7:24 we read, “But this man (Jesus), because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.” The Greek word ( ‘aparabatos’) from which we get the English word “unchangeable” also means “intransferable”or “non-transferable”. This means that the priesthood of Christ cannot be transfered ! —not even to the Apostles. This is one of the many verses that sounds out the death knell to Rome with its fantasies about them having a priesthood which can get you into heaven. Christ will not change or transfer his priesthood to another!
Mark it down; no Pope, no Cardinal, no cleric nor any dignitary from any ecclesiastical organisation is the successor to Christ’s priesthood. Christ’s priesthood is non- transferable! Those, therefore, who say they are Christ’s successors are impostors and should be diligently avoided in all ecclesiastical matters!
Jesus claimed the exclusive skill to, in Himself, have the ability to bring us to God. He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” – John 14: 6.
From this verse we learn how the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself, and in Himself alone, the ONLY Way to the Father in heaven. So perfect a Way is He that all true believers are carried IN HIM right up to the very throne of God.
Notwithstanding man’s ruin through the ‘Fall’, there is access to the throne of God by the blood of Christ. All this is contrary to the teaching of Rome. When you accept the ministrations of the Roman priests in the sacraments it is a confession, whether conscious or not, that Christ alone is not the only way to the Father.
In Conclusion.
One of the most glorious doctrines of the gospel is that we have a Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus. In the Old Testament, coming before a priest was similar to coming before a judge… and the phrase sympathetic judge is almost an oxymoron! But now through the gospel, we discover we have a Great High Priest who has bought and paid for us. We can now run boldly to the throne of grace and always find our sympathetic high priest! What wonderful encouragement there is in this truth.
On the other hand, one of the most appalling doctrines of Roman Catholicism is the doctrine of their priesthood. It teaches that all men may not come freely to God, but that God has appointed a special class of officers in His Church to act as mediators between Him and men, and to be channels through which He conveys the blessings of salvation. This is anti- gospel and anti -Christ!
We must never forget that there is no place in Christianity for any sacrificing priesthood-An ongoing sacrificing priesthood is an affront to the full and final priesthood of Jesus Christ Himself. The presence of any sacrificing priesthood on earth implies that atonement for sin has not yet been made. Any sacrificing priesthood on earth, calling itself Christian, therefore, makes a mockery of the Gospel.
So, which would you rather have, Christ Jesus our great high priest that is passed into the heavens or the Bishop of Rome? “Well can I have both?” No! By his claim to be the Pontifex Maximus, the Bishop of Rome has attempted to usurp the exclusive position of the Lord Jesus. By his performing the Mass and teaching his minions to do the same, he is denying the gospel and refuting the clear teaching of the Bible that Christ alone has finished the sacrifice for sins and that no other sacrifice for sins is needed.
Our high priest to Heaven Ascended
Lo the Lamb, as it were slain
Our high priest to Heaven Ascended
On God’s throne He lives again
Pleads the sacrifice of wonder
Claims the fruit of all his pain
Our high priest to Heaven Ascended
Peace on Earth, good will to men
Parts 1 and 2 of this article can be read elsewhere on this blog.
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For the Love of His Truth 
This lesson by Miles McGee is very valuable in that it brings clear focus on an issue that does concern every true believer: What to think, what to feel and what to do concerning apostasy.. And clear focus is what is sorely needed. Rome has many known wilful sins against God, and with nearly 1,2 billion adherents to its pernicious doctrines, is today the singularly most serious threat to the truth on the entire planet where God chose to make a home for His Beloved, the Church. The fact that so many people ignorantly follow the utterly false doctrines of the cult that us Rome – for it is no church in any manner of the true definition of church – is an indication of how easily non-born-again mankind is misled after a really deadly spiritual apostasy that leads only one way: to eternal damnation. It fits the old nature of unregenerated man.
What bothers me nowadays are the Christians who profess Christ as only High Priest, but tell you “.. There are some wonderful children of God in the Catholic Church” and “There is revival in the Catholic church – many are speaking in tongues”. I might sound arrogant, but my question invariably is and would be, “What are they doing there?”. How could a child of God willingly worship in this ungodly institution, this devil’s nest, when the Scripture calls upon us not to “.. have anything to do with the unfruitful works of darkness”?
Does speaking in tongues indicate truth? Is that the new standard for measuring the existence of truth? It sometimes is as if these people have been mesmerised with an uncaring neutrality concerning essential doctrines for salvation. It is as if they think that some in the institution of Rome are merely walking on the perimeter of truth, whilst the truth really is that you cannot merely be on the perimeter of truth, you have to be in it, to be saved.
And if saved, you cannot stay and worship in Satan’s temple, as it is an abomination to the most holy God. The words of God are” .. Come out of her, my children.. “. (Meaning, coming out of harlotry of the spirit). There is no neutrality there. There is no lingering there (such as Lot, who lingered when called out of Sodom). People who make statements like that “there are wonderful children of God in the Roman C” institution are not only undiscerning, but should examine their commitment to proclaiming the true gospel.. They should measure their own spiritual temperature whether they are not tepid towards the proclamation of the Kingdom of Christ Jesus, and whether they are in fact not aiding and abetting the kingdom of the prince of darkness..
It does make me angry when I hear these naive people proclaim such nonsense, contrary to God’s clear instructions on this matter. Anger, when directed in a holy manner, takes on the dimension of a fire that cannot be extinguished, nor can be stood against. It burns like phosphorous that is fed by a strong dose of oxygen. It is like Jesus before and during the time He cleansed the temple. He silently sat at first, weaving a whip Himself. It took Him some time, but when he got up and went in there, he was a man full of the holy anger of God against severe apostasy – the most serious apostasy: where people said they were worshipping God in His temple, but in fact they had wrought it to become a den of thieves, meaning not only money and goods, but that peoples’ souls were stolen for and on behalf of the evil one.
That holy anger is what we need to have in our hearts today when we contemplate how spiritually soiled the church has become that thinks it should walk with Rome to a common future in ecumenism. The Scripture is clear: As our One True High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ has said Himself: How can one have fellowship with darkness? It becomes inevitable that any positive attitude towards the elements of darkness leads to the fall into the pit, for that is where darkness leads.
These Romanists are sincere, you say? Yes, they are.. They are sincerely and seriously wrong, and they are heading for the abyss. And you, who think you can leave them there, should sincerely and seriously and urgently think and ponder your own spiritual condition, whether you are not in that area of neutrality – neither cold nor warm – where God will spew you out of His mouth because He hates it more than those who are clear about the fact that they are not with Him.
The test for neutrality is simple: If you do not become really angry and upset when seeing this devilishly obstinate apostateness of Vatican Rome, you are indeed in dangerous territory.. You are holding hands with darkness, and you are bound to fall. Wake up, look up – and see that your salvation is in One High Priest alone, and that there is no replacement for Him anywhere to be found. If He, poor sinner, would alone not be your Mediator, accursed will be your soul, forever..
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somersetmorkel
Thank you for taking such a firm stance in this contribution, for standing immovable in the face of the onslaught of the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, deceptions of the RC and its undiscerning sympathizers.
It is alarming to see how people are instantaneously thrown off course by the claims of professing Christians; how easily they are moved to make compromise to the Truth in order not to offend others. Tolerance of inaccuracies and falsehoods is promoted by the world, by proffering the false belief that it will lure unbelievers into “making a decision to accept Christ”.
Never has there been a more damning lie uttered than that which says that unbelievers can make decisions on behalf of a Sovereign God, and Rome cottoned onto that lie centuries ago. Never has there been a more unloving approach than that which implies that the Truth is too offensive and that by preaching Truth, it will scare those who are outside of the faith, from coming to Christ. The free-willers of the world have simply built on those filthy foundations of Rome, which as you say, are sinking into the abyss.
Your comment is indicative of the attitude which Christians should take toward the opponents of Christ, it is what I meant when I called for anger in this regard. Much appreciated, brother.
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Thanks, Grant. Soli Deo Gloria.. The time of ‘blood & guts’ is coming, and the time to be angry is now..
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I am glad I am not the only one who gets fired about about the lies and deception in the ‘church visible’. With all the self-appointed ‘apostles’ and ‘prophets’ within the evangelical church, the false revivals spreading false spirits across the world, business-modelled church growth movements creating monstrously huge churches, emergent church Bible-deconstructing, indiscriminate ecumenism, and the interfaith apostasy, many Christians are falsely led to believe that the world is being ‘Christianised’ and that world peace and social justice for all is soon to arrive. The RC church is capitalising on all of this, with its own brand of mysticism blending well with new age/eastern mysticism and seeping steadily into many previously solid churches. I agree that a healthy level of holy anger is an appropriate response at times! I have recently said on more than one occasion that the new mission field is your local church…pick a denomination, it doesn’t matter. Christians are being led astray and need to be guided back to the Word of God as their only source of truth (I too was one of those who needed correction). Catholics are certainly in need of our love and Gospel witness. Looks like I won’t have to follow in my parents footsteps and head overseas to be a missionary after all!!
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thenarrowingpath
Thank you for a great comment.
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The call to emotional anger, the stirring up of passions of the flesh, the appeal to worldly stereotypes of what it means to be a “man,” mocking those who don’t share your call to arms as “limp-wristed, quivering, overly cautious, meek little men” — all of this marks you out by your fruit as not of God.
Some of the longest, bloodiest, and most intractable armed conflicts in history were between Catholics and Protestants, and that issue has never been settled by a call to anger and hatred, and nor will it ever be. Those who fought those battles were “manly” men, and God never gave them victory over Catholicism.
For anger and fierce passions are not our weapons in this world, though we may by permission attempt to use them. And it is by permission (God’s merciful tolerance of our foolishness) that Catholicism remains at large in the world. For when it pleases God to bring it down, it will cease to be.
For the present, inasmuch as there are important issues in the world in which Catholics do not oppose us, and in fact are our allies against wicked and oppressive policies and regimes, it should not surprise us if it pleases God for reasons sufficient to His understanding to allow the Catholic church to prosper for a time, and nor should we provoke other Protestants to wrath over the modern incarnation of this ancient apostasy. We should also pray to God that Catholics retain this exact same manifestation of merciful tolerance towards us! It has not always been so in the history of our two faiths, and we should be vigilant to prevent those dark days from ever returning.
I firmly believe Catholicism in the present age is an ally against the evils of abortion and other abominations over which God desires victory. It’s a matter of “he that is not against us is for us,” at least insofar as this is true between Catholics and Protestants.
By prayer and fasting we may hasten God’s disposition and His judgment toward false doctrines, but we must be content to accept the possibility that it may please Him for reasons we can’t comprehend to allow them to continue even to the end of the age. Such is His sovereignty over our will, and so high are His ways above our ways!
Do you not know that is is written:
2 Corinthians 10: ³ “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; ⁵ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
We are called to engage the enemy (the Deceiver) through prayer and fasting, and our fellow man through the testimony of our lives and by loving persuasion. When we have dialog with Catholics, whenever popish superstitions and false doctrines emerge, we may hold fast to our convictions, and attempt to persuade by the power of the Word, but the battle is not ours, and any result of our efforts is not our business. This battle belongs only to God, and if victory over the Romish doctrines occurs in our lifetimes, then that victory with be His alone. If there is not to be victory in our lifetimes, we must be content to live at peace with all men of goodwill, even those whose doctrines are abominations to God.
1 Corinthians 10: ³¹ So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. ³² Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,
I believe it would not be stretching matters to add “Catholics” to that list, since Jewish law and Greek idolatry are not better or worse than Catholic apostasy. Also, dare I say it, there are a great many people in our own churches claiming to be Christian, but whose lives are far from it! Shall we stir up the passions of “manly men” to tar and feather hypocrisy and false belief in our own churches? This is just what the evil one would love for us to do! He would love for us to be a house divided.
Finally, let me end my appeal to your conscience with these words from the apostle Paul, and I simply ask, if these words apply to enemies who persecute and seek to destroy us, how much more so might they apply to those who merely differ from us but who don’t persecute us.
Romans 12: ¹⁷ “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. ¹⁸ If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. ¹⁹ Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. ²°Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. ²¹Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
With all love and all due respect…
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Steven
I could have thanked you for pointing me to my eternal abode, but after very little consideration, my decision was to ignore that part of your misinformed comment, based on the fact that you do not seem to know any better.
I find it quite hypocritical that in your critique of the article, you accuse the author of appealing to worldly stereotypes, when your entire counter-argument is firmly rooted in humanism and ecumenical thought. In your attempt to justify or downplay sin and some of the most grotesque errors, you appeal to tolerance above truth. You would rather have men deceived by a lie, rather than stand up for what is Biblical. If anything, that certainly IS limp-wristed, in complete contradiction to the strongest actions taken against similar error by our Lord Jesus Christ and it hints strongly at your allegiance with darkness. By opposing the Truth, you stand outside of the body of Christ and you are by no means equipped to recognize or judge the fruit of a true believer.
God is no respecter of men, although you seem to believe that we can influence God’s will. The Lord Jesus Christ has won the victory over Catholicism and all other forms of evil, on behalf of those who are in Him. In response to your seeming fascination with gender distinction based on the physical prowess of the male, would you rather I called for a more feminine and sensitive approach toward evil by the men of the church? Possibly you would prefer a more metro-sexual attitude in keeping with the rest of your secularly humanist persuasions?
God is certainly merciful, and God will just as surely bring Catholicism and its sympathizers, to an abrupt and fiery end in a terrible judgment. You are advocating that, for the sake of tolerance we turn a blind eye to the evil which Catholicism represents, for the while that God permits them to dwell to among us. Again that seems astoundingly hypocritical when, at the same time, you are concerned with “important worldly issues such as oppressive policies and regimes”.
Utter tom-foolery you speak of. Foolish, foolish words. Catholics have never manifested “merciful tolerance” towards Christians. All that Catholicism stands for is opposed to the Christians and they have maintained their apostate position toward Christ throughout the centuries! What we should pray for is the mercy of God be shown toward us as sinners, when we all deserve to be eternally burned along with the unrepentant Catholics!
You may hold those beliefs, but they are by no means Biblical. There cannot be any allegiance between Christianity and the Catholic religion – they are diametrically opposed belief systems, they do not worship the same God. God does not “desire” victory over the evils such as abortion, God most certainly does not require the assistance of the Catholics or any other men to gain victory over that which He has already triumphed.
You quote from 2 Corinthians 10 and Ephesians 6:12 and I thank you for that. However, those Scriptures apply equally to the spiritual warfare which must exist between Christians and the evil stronghold of Catholicism, which exalts itself most visibly and to the greatest degree, against the knowledge of God. The Roman church is part of that which Paul speaks of being foremost among the principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, issuing forth spiritual wickedness in the high places.
Of course, our battle is not one which is to be fought with axes, arrows, guns and intercontinental missiles, and I most certainly did not allude to such a battle being in the flesh. You are misappropriating my words and making them say what they do not. It would be absurd to presume that I advocate a modern day armed conflict against the Vatican, even though it is deeply offensive to Christianity. Although this offensiveness should move us to anger, expressing that anger should not be done in the flesh, but with the spiritual weapons at our disposal.
I am in agreement with that which you have said in the above paragraph, with the exception of your statement that the battle is not ours, also. Every person called by God to faith in His Son, is embroiled in a perpetual battle against human nature, his own and that of others whom Satan uses to oppose God, which includes the Catholic pope.
You may, erroneously, believe that the Catholic church is not an integral part of the enemy which persecutes and seeks to destroy the church, and you would be deceived. They do not merely differ from us in terms of non-essentials, they actively oppose and persecute Jesus Christ and His followers. You may persist in your error, at your peril. It is also not the concern of my articles that the Catholics seek to destroy us, rather that they seek to destroy the Truth.
You quote also from Romans 12, and once again I thank you. However, your hermeneutics have once again let you down. By directing our anger against that which is evil, by way of the Truth in the Word, is by no means recompensing evil for evil, for that would make the Truth evil! Christians do not avenge themselves by applying the Word against evil, they act in love by doing so! If the Truth is correctly appropriated, vengeance IS the Lord’s, for He is the Truth and the Word.
By applying the Word in the face of an evil enemy of God, we are feeding that enemy from the Truth, we are making it possible for that enemy to drink of the Living water, which we avail to him who is dying. By giving the truth of the Gospel to those who are offensive to God, we are applying good against evil. As we are instructed to do, in Romans 12.
Thank you for your considered comment, although the conclusions which it draws are not in agreement with Scripture, and therefore I cannot agree with it. The conclusion which I draw from your comment is that you are likely an advocate of the Emergent or Interfaith movement, or a follower of the Eastern Orthodox church, either of which would explain your embracing the Roman Catholic deception.
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COMMENT NOT APPROVED
Francois
Surely you don’t expect me to approve on this forum, a comment such as this one of yours. Your comment is misleading, uninformed, offensive, pointless and immaturely contentious. You are wasting your energy in trying to defend your indefensible position. I will not be drawn on this. I pray the Truth becomes known to you.
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Sir, when you sent me your proposed reply to my comment, rather than become engaged in disputing the irrational, I asked you to remove my comment from your blog. Your assured me by reply email that you would do so, and yet after almost a year, I see that you have not complied with that request.
Nowhere in my comment did I say anything about accommodation. I have done and will continue to oppose by all means necessary (including implementing church disciplinary measures against apostate preachers and teachers) apostasy in my own church. We have no such earthly authority over Catholicism. We have ALL spiritual authority, and may by all spiritual means oppose it, and should do so invoking God’s intervention. How is that weak? Is God weak?
Do you propose that prayer, fasting, preaching and teaching His Truth, casting out demons in His name, healing and bearing witness to His truth in our lives and in our words (the weapons by which Christianity has evangelized the world during Christ’s own ministry and in all the centuries since) are weak, limp-wristed and ineffectual?
Your argument then is with our Lord and Savior, and with His Word, and not with me.
Proverbs 29:11
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.
James 1:20
For man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
Ephesians 4:31
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Christ patiently rebuked His opponents, quoting scripture to show them their error. He in His authority was uniquely entitled to express the wrath of God, but it is noteworthy how seldom He did so, and how specific were the objects of His anger. A fig tree. The tables of the money changers. He did not call his disciples to emotional anger against pagan Rome. He rebuked Paul for cutting off the right ear of Malchus, and He frequently cautioned against returning evil for evil. If Christ in all His glory eschewed emotional anger in the heart of the pagan world and at its very height on the world stage, how ought we to comport ourselves? Why would we diametrically oppose our own Lord?
What does the Bible say about emotional anger?
Psalm 37:8-9
Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret–it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
Matthew 5:22
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca, ‘ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Colossians 3:8
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Proverbs 16:32
Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.
By all means, hold up to the light of day the abominations of Catholic doctrine. But to stir up the passions of the flesh against abhorrent doctrine is to compound error with error.
We know that in the latter days the Lord will allow evil men to triumph over His servants, but that will be for a finite period of history, and then His return. I see no evidence in His prophecy that the remnant is called upon to war in the flesh against apostasy.
You may show as many sickening examples of apostasy by the church of Rome as you may like, but show me scripture, show me Christ’s mandate, to war against such things in the flesh. I challenge you, and I say if you cannot do so, you must logically contemplate the possibility of your own error. If you cannot do that, then you are not even an honest man.
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Stephen Smith
A year has passed, virtually unnoticed would you believe, yet I see that you continue to willfully pervert the truth. Why do you bother to contact this blog if your intention is not to uphold Scriptural truth? The blog is entitled: For the Love of His Truth. I have no doubt that you are sincere in your intent, I am not questioning your sincerity, yet you seem thoroughly convinced that your understanding of these matters is complete and superior to that of others. You are however, being deceived.
I still do not know you, sir, just as I didn’t when you first commented on this blog. You chose to oppose the my writings at the time, as you continue to do, and you loudly and publicly proclaimed that what I had written was in error, due to the fact that it was not in accordance with your version of Christian truth. You chose to misrepresent my words, and now, a year after I responded in detail to your comment, you continue to subtly ignore what I wrote in response.
You tried to justify having us remove your comment from the blog, by stating that you were unaware that some of your personal details would be visible to others once your comment appeared on the blog. I can understand how you could have been unaware of these things, as I am also a technical novice when it comes to the virtual world of internet media. However, that in itself has nothing at all to do with what you wrote.
Notwithstanding the above, why did you wish to retract that which you wrote and why do you not rather stand by what you wrote, with your name attached your own work? If you had a change of heart and mind about what you wrote, it would have been quite understandable, we all make mistakes and we are expected to forgive brothers and sisters in Christ, yet you did not withdraw or alter your words, you simply requested that your identity be disguised.
If you need to maintain anonymity because of security issues, why did you comment on the blog? The internet is the last place you should be active, if your security is threatened. You obviously still have the same concerns, so why did you once again comment on the blog via the internet, with your personal details still visible?
If you have Christ as your Lord and Saviour and you are positive that your exegesis is correct, why are you afraid of what others might say or do? Would it have made any difference to the intention and meaning of your words, had your personal details not appeared along with the comment which you chose to place? No, it would not.
You seem to take it for granted that you should be able to make public statements which are contrary to Biblical truth, yet simultaneously you expect to be protected from the reaction of those whom you oppose with your beliefs. The Word of God is not a malleable thing which can be interpreted in such a way that it takes on a customized meaning to accommodate personal or religious beliefs.
In your latest comment, you continue to proffer a strange gospel:
* You advocate, what I can only assume to be, a form of public or collaborative fasting.
* You propose that men, and in this instance I assume you mean “qualified” spiritual specialists, attempt to exorcise demons.
* You advocate “healing” by the hands of men.
* You propose that Christians form allegiances, rely on or pursue an ecumenical relationship with those who continue to follow false religions.
* You believe that you have the right to impose church discipline on other members. Neither you, sir, nor any other man, has such a right. You wrote: “I have done and will continue to oppose by all means necessary (including implementing church disciplinary measures against apostate preachers and teachers) apostasy in my own church”. Yet, in earlier correspondence, you expressly stated that you were not a theologian, a seminarian, or a preacher. How do you marry these two opposing approaches and do you occupy an official position in the church?
* You misappropriate certain Scriptures in an attempt to bolster a deceitful argument.
* You seem to offer as Biblical fact, a form of pre-millenialism or dispensationalism, which would be unscriptural.
In your latest comment, you wrote: “You may show as many sickening examples of apostasy by the church of Rome as you may like, but show me scripture, show me Christ’s mandate, to war against such things in the flesh.” A year ago I wrote the following to you: “Of course, our battle is not one which is to be fought with axes, arrows, guns and intercontinental missiles, and I most certainly did not allude to such a battle being in the flesh. You are misappropriating my words and making them say what they do not. It would be absurd to presume that I advocate a modern day armed conflict against the Vatican, even though [popery] is deeply offensive to Christianity. Although this offense should move us to anger, expressing that anger should not be done in the flesh, but with the spiritual weapons at our disposal.”
You further wrote, with reference to my removing your identity from your comment: “Your assured me by reply email that you would do so, and yet after almost a year, I see that you have not complied with that request.” I do not recall ever assuring you that I would remove your comment from the blog. If I gave you that assurance, please forward to me the correspondence in which I said that I would, and I will most certainly comply with my undertaking of that time.
You continued: “I challenge you, and I say if you cannot do so, you must logically contemplate the possibility of your own error. If you cannot do that, then you are not even an honest man.” Of course the possibility exists that what I have written contains error, I am merely a man, and therefore sinful and imperfect. I have previously addressed your challenge in at least three articles and in numerous comments on this blog, not least of all, the one which I addressed to you. If you cannot acknowledge this, and you continue to uphold the unbiblical practices I have noted above, then sir, you are rather the dishonest and hypocritical man.
Additionally, you recently wrote:“Sir, when you sent me your proposed reply to my comment, rather than become engaged in disputing the irrational, I asked you to remove my comment from your blog.” You, sir, chose to register a dispute with my writing. Whether you regard my words as irrational, or not, is completely irrelevant to the matter. That is solely your opinion and of little, if any significance, to anyone else. After you had already engaged yourself in creating a dispute, you asked me to remove your comment. An irrational request.
You ask: “What does the Bible say about emotional anger?”
Anger is by nature and necessity, an emotion. There can be no anger without emotion, therefore your question is meaningless. So, let us rather see what the Bible says about permissible anger:
Eph 4:26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
There is anger which is not sinful; for anger is fouled in God himself, in Jesus Christ, in the holy angels, and in God’s people; and a man may be said to be angry and not sin, when his anger arises from a true zeal for God and religion; when it is kindled not against persons, but sins; when a man is displeased with his own sins, and with the sins of others: with vice and immorality of every kind; with idolatry and idolatrous worship, and with all false doctrine; and also when it is carried on to answer good ends, as the good of those with whom we are angry, the glory of God, and the promoting of the interest of Christ.
Scripture allows us to get angry, and even calls for us to get angry under certain circumstances. What the Roman Catholic religion and it’s affiliates do with the Word of God, is just cause for Christians to get angry. Hence the title of my series of articles.
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