Every day we stray further from god’s light.
(media.greatawakening.win)
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Only God is perfect. The Church is made up of the imperfect followers of Jesus. We are sinful and we make mistakes and mess up, but God loves us anyway. All through Scripture, God uses imperfect people. David committed adultery and murdered Bathsheba's husband so he could marry her, and God called him a man after His own heart. That being said, there are people and groups that claim to follow Jesus, but we all have to use our own discernment about that.
We read our Bibles and pray and ask God to help us to make wise decisions. And I never take a human's word over what God says in the Bible. This is why I don't agree with Catholicism, specifically. Soooo much of what Catholicism teaches directly contradicts the Bible. But there are plenty of great churches out there that follow and teach God's word. You just have to really do your homework and make sure what they are teaching lines up with the Bible.
I like what you said about none of us being perfect, only God is perfect. You give some good encouragement here.
That being said, God called David a man after his own heart long before he went and committed murder then adultery. He paid a heavy price for his disobedience to the most serious commandments of God; David himself suffered from the consequences of his sins...constant family feuds, which, in the case of Absalom and Adonijah, ended in open rebellion. These incidents are a fulfillment of the pronouncement of Nathan the prophet upon David because of his sin and plagued him for the last 20 years of his life(2 Sam. 12:7–13).
Oh I completely agree that he suffered greatly, and I was definitely not meaning to imply God condoned that sin in any way, but God is outside of time so He knew David was going to do that when he said David was a man after his own heart. I have always taken that to mean even the most faithful can still royally mess up, but God's love will always remain and he will still use us. That was the point I was trying to make. That we are all imperfect and all mess up, but God can and does choose to use each of us. But we are definitely not immune from the earthly consequences of those sins.
Well put I would just add earthly or eternal consequences which apply to sins like murder, hurting children, chronic adultery(unrepented adultery)etc and I think he was speaking to David about his righteousness before he changed. God doesn't have a heart like David did when he devised those things. I hear you and appreciate your thoughts. Thanks for sharing, God bless
Serious question: what do we make of Trump, then? This has long been a sore point and something that people bring up all the time. There’s no question the man is a serial adulterer and he’s on his third wife. I don’t know how to account for that.
I was raised Catholic, what beliefs do they hold that contradict the bible?
The Pope... he's treated like a king/royalty. So much corruption.
Also all of the middle men. Having to go to a priest to confess and then getting penance. None of that has any Biblical basis. We can confess our sins and repent to God directly. There is no need for a middle man. And penance is saying that Jesus dying on the cross for our sins wasn't enough. We now have to say so many prayers in order for the slate to be wiped clean. Doesn't make sense.
Mary being perfect. She was not perfect. Only Jesus lived a perfect life. If a human being was capable of living a perfect life, there would have been no need for Jesus.
The Saints.... we are all Saints. Singling people out and praying to them doesn't make any sense. Praying to Mary as well..... like why all the middle men? It just seems to create more separation between an individual believer and God.
The Eucharist actually turning into the body and blood of Christ instead of just being a SYMBOL. The Bible speaks against cannibalism and the Old Testament forbids the drinking of blood..... so why would God have people become cannibals and actually ingest the body and blood of Christ? It was a symbol. We are to remember Jesus and what He did for us when we take communion. Doesn't mean it actually becomes His body.
Infant baptism. Baptism is an outward public declaration of an inward decision to accept Jesus Christ. And while doing it as an infant doesn't hurt anything.... that does not count as a true baptism because it is to be done AFTER accepting Christ.
Purgatory. Needing a stopover place to be "cleansed" doesn't make sense and is not talked about once in scripture. Jesus cleansed us by dying on the cross. By accepting Him, that's it. Saying we need to go to purgatory to be cleansed before going to heaven is like saying Jesus dying on the cross wasn't enough.
These are just the things I know about off the top of my head. My mom was raised Catholic and very much disagreed with a lot of things the church taught. My best friend in high school was also Catholic, so we used to talk about theological differences. I was just surprised by how little she knew about the Bible, and she always gave me the impression that she wasn't encouraged to read it on her own. Basically, she was told she needed other people to interpret Scripture for her. And nothing against individual Catholic people, and I'm open to discussing things, but there is a lot of teachings that I disagree with.
I like that, that makes more sense to me
Asking the Saints for their intercessions is the same as asking your friend to pray for you, the hagiograph about St. Mary describes her life and how she was very merciful always asking her Son for the forgiveness of those who wronged her or to help those in need because she learned this from Him.
As for "accepting Christ" this is strictly a Protestant idea and no where in the Bible will you find the words to accept Christ it teaches us about a life with Christ which is also why we baptize infants we are bringing them into that life, unlike the Catholics we also Chrismation right after baptism which is the laying on of hands to give the Holy Spirit, this is biblical as it's found in Acts of the Apostles as it's what they did.
Purgatory is a heresy and I have no idea where the Catholics came up with that nonsense.
Going to a priest to confess your sins isn't a middle man, before you go to Confession your are to confess to God (pray ask for forgiveness) because if you don't and you talk about these things you have done before your priest you are just bragging about your sin, we do and don't have penance there's penance like you can't take communion for so long (i think you get barred from it if you have an abortion because that is murder and not just breaking the 10 commandments but are you even a Christian?) but it's extremely rare. As for why a priest, why do you see a therapist if your struggling with mental health? Why do you see a Dr if your physically sick? Why a physical therapist if you're arm was broken and now you need to get it moving again? Our spiritual life needs help just as much.
Also the Pope is a great guy, H.H. Pope Tawadros II, I am Oriental Orthodox we are the true Church while the Eastern Orthodox schisimed from us and the Catholics from them but we always pray for God to mend the schisim and bring them back home.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. -John 3:16.
Whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Period. The thief on the cross is an excellent example of this seen laid out. He was at the end of his life, and accepted Jesus and Jesus told him he would go to heaven. He wasn't baptized and he did nothing except accept Jesus as His savior. So yes it is very Biblical that all we have to do for eternal life is to believe and accept Jesus. And of course we are supposed to live our lives with Jesus and follow him, but that's what the Holy Spirit is there for. Now I don't believe laying hands is necessary for the Holy Spirit to come. I think that happens instantaneously as you accept Jesus. I felt it happen when I accepted Christ, but I was baptized several years later.
I'm not saying it's wrong to go to a priest or a minister or another person for advice or help. And my pastor counsels people regularly, but what I have a problem with is that people are told they HAVE to do this to be forgiven. I don't get the extra step. Once you have confessed to God and repented, that's it. It's the works-based part I have an issue with... like you have to do something (say this many hail Mary's or this many Our Fathers) to earn God's forgiveness when Jesus already did the work for us on the Cross. We just have to accept the gift of salvation and repent from our sin. We don't need to go to any priest or pastor to be forgiven... God can do it without them. So it's not so much that it's "wrong" to go to someone and talk about it. I think that can be very beneficial especially if you're really struggling with something, but I think it's telling people they HAVE to do it when I don't see any Biblical backing for that. I hope that was clear.
And as for the Pope, I have heard of the "good" Pope. And I don't have a problem with him as a person, just the whole idea of a Pope controlling all the churches. I haven't seen any Biblical backing for it, and it's not like how the Apostles set up individual churches during Acts. The Bible is very clear about having elders in authority over each individual church, but to my knowledge they never set one person up as being in charge of all the churches. I know the Apostles traveled around and helped them and supported them, but they weren't in charge of the churches. They were just there to assist and encourage them. This is why I do not go to churches that are affiliated with any one denomination Protestant or otherwise. I don't like or agree with large organizations running multitudes of churches. I think it breeds corruption, and I've seen it first hand. And I am very hesitant for anyone saying they belong to the "one true church." Any follower of Christ is part of the Church. We may differ on theology, but The Church is the bride of Christ and it is all who believe in and follow Jesus.
And I hope no one takes any offense to this. I'm just going with what the Bible says, but of course you are free to disagree <3
https://youtu.be/7F8ZRfUpcJU