Pastor’s Pen 03/20/2022

Pastor’s Pen 03/20/2022

A Jealous Husband!

For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that I might present     you as a pure virgin to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2

There has been a push within some evangelical circles to try   to mend the rift between Roman Catholics and Protestants that occurred in 1517  when Martin Luther, a teacher, and a monk, published a document he called Disputation on the Power of Indulgences or 95 Theses. The document was a series of 95 ideas about Christianity that he invited people to debate. These ideas were controversial because they directly contradicted the Catholic Church’s teachings.

Martin Luther would eventually be excommunicated by Pope Leo X on 3 January 1521. Three months later, Luther was called to defend his beliefs before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms, where he was famously defiant. For his    refusal to recant his writings, the emperor declared him an  outlaw and a heretic. Excommunication meant banishment from the church. An individual who was excommunicated was effectively barred from achieving salvation. It is interesting      to note that the Catholic Church has never removed his excommunication.

2019 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of a symbolic yet significant initiative — the 1994 agreement, Evangelicals and Catholics Together: “The Christian Mission in the Third  Millennium.” It was the brainchild of the American Catholic intellectual Richard John Neuhaus and the Southern Baptist Evangelical author and Prison Fellowship founder Chuck     Colson. The Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) represented a heretical movement by so-called evangelicals. Their statement contains the following:

“Affirming a common Christ as Lord and Saviour, ECT declared that “Evangelicals and Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ.” Recognising the saving power of the cross and the authority of a divinely-inspired Bible, ECT affirmed “together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ,” and that “Christians are to teach and live in obedience to the divinely inspired Scriptures, which are the infallible Word of God.”

The Roman Catholic Church is not a Christian Church. A Christian Church will plant its flag on the hill of Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone. We have nothing in common with any other church that does not believe, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boas t      (Eph.2:8-9).”  The Roman Catholic Church believes salvation comes from faith in Jesus AND good works. The following was taken from a G3 post written by Josh Buice

“According to official Catholic doctrine, in order for a person to be saved, it’s quite a tedious task. It involves steps such as actual grace, faith, good works, baptism,  participation in the sacraments, penance, indulgences,  and keeping the commandments. In short, the doctrine of soteriology taught by the Roman Catholic Church is a works based system where a person must work their way to God.”

Charles Spurgeon said this about the Roman Catholic Church, “Any church which puts in the place of justification by faith in Christ   another method of salvation is a harlot church.” The Roman Catholic Church is not a Christian Church, and I agree with Spurgeon it is a harlot church. Let us be ever vigilant against those that would dare turn His bride away to become a harlot.

“I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed!  For am I now seeking   the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave of Christ. For I make known to you, brothers, that the gospel which I am proclaiming as good news is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1: 6-12

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark

 

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