Tag: christianity

Importance of Sound Doctrine

~ Sherry ~ 2 Comments

Form the book, Bible Readings for the Home, 1943, a family devotional and study book:

Does it matter what one believes, so long as he is sincere?

God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. – 2 Thessalonians 2:13

“…and belief of the truth.”

Doctrine affects the life. Truth leads to life and to God; error to death and destruction. No one would think of saying it matters not what god one worships, so long as he is sincere, any more than he would think of saying it matters not what one eats and drinks, so long as he relishes what he eats and drinks; or what road he travels, so long as he thinks he is on the right road. Sincerity is a virtue; but it is not the test of sound doctrine. God wills that we shall know the truth, and He has made provision whereby we may know what is truth.

The influence of all idolatrous worship is degrading.

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It is idolatry, not only to worship a false god, but the true God in a false manner. – Thomas Watson

Overcome Paganism with Christianized Paganism? 🤨

~ Sherry ~ Leave a comment

I was listening to VCY and they defended the Christ Mass with the scripture verse: Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:21 Well, they almost had me there! It sure sounds like a good way to validate the Mass of Christ. Does it apply, though? Does it cancel out other scriptures that tell us not to worship God as the heathen do in worship of their gods? Does it override these scriptures? –

Deuteronomy 12:30-32 …and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

Jeremiah 10:1,2 Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles…”

Leviticus 10:10 “And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.”

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

Ephesians 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them.

That’s just a few scriptures that would have to be ignored for the Romans 12:21 verse to apply. Scripture never contradicts itself. There must be a rightly interpreted scripture verse, passage or teaching based on scripture (the whole of the Holy Bible), to show that Romans 12:21 can be used to validate the observance of the Mass of Christ. I haven’t found it yet..

The following quote, from Kevin Reed’s, The Canterbury Tales:

In a Lutheran/Anglican posture, Mr. Jordan is asserting that the church has been granted broad discretionary power to establish means of worship. This is similar to the Anabaptist notions, which allow the ‘moving of the Spirit’ to govern the present activities of the church, without any direct appeal to the law of God. In both cases, the church has the power to worship God according to the devices of men. However, the Anabaptist opts for subjectivism (due to an emphasis on individualism); the other opts for traditionalism (with an emphasis on the corporate consensus). Yet, the law of God rejects both a subjective appeal (Deut. 12:8), and an appeal to the consensus (Deut. 12:30-31). Rather, the biblical admonition directs men to the scriptural pattern of worship (Deut. 12:32).

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. – Job 14:4

Subtle Idolatry Practiced by Christians

~ Sherry ~ 11 Comments

Presentations that confuse the distinction between God and His created world

A picture or movie of Christ because of inherent limitations, resides in the world of created things. Whatever aspirations may be intended, it can rise no higher than that which it is. Hence it blurs the distinctness between God and man, confusing the Creator with the creation. The Apostle Paul reveals the cause of this confusion, “Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”[xvii] This digression, the Apostle tells us, continues because, “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man….”[xviii] The problem is this: “to whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?”[xix]. The Scriptural answer is unequivocal: “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”[xx]

Any attempted portrayal of Christ transforms the medium itself into a mediator between God and man. The viewer, restricted within the confines this humanistic plane, imagines that he knows the Lord, at least in some measure. With this inculcated image of Christ throbbing within his mind, the viewer is allowed to wander, silently thinking his own thoughts, constrained by an impression that is not Christ. Thus, the viewer’s mind continues to be conformed to the world by the created image and by his own subjectivity. Although such visual presentations appeal strongly to the sensual impulses, they do not present explicitly to any man the objective truth concerning the Lord.

Our knowledge of Jesus Christ must be formed from the truths in Scripture and not by subjective impressions of artistic interpretation. In the latter, the artist and the viewer coalesce God and His creation into a single entity within the picture, and this is the visible expression of idolatry. This spurious image lays the foundation for a pantheistic concept of God. Marvel not then that, “Soaring pagan numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on cult TV programs and films that celebrate sorcery like “Harry Potter,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”[xxi] The command given in Scripture is to choose God’s way so as to know and follow Christ in His Word! When obeyed, upon the pages of Scripture, in the words of the Law, in the grace of the Gospel, we know Him in spirit and truth.

We do not see Jesus Christ with the physical eye. This is the whole meaning of faith. The excellence of the object of faith is the unseen Jesus. While sense deals with things that are seen, reason is a higher plane. Faith however ascends further still and assures us of abundance of particulars that sense and reason could never have found. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” [xxii] Faith nourishes itself – “I had fainted unless I had believed to see” [xxiii]- upon the power and promises of the Unseen. We can understand, then, the logic and consistent purpose of why the Lord God forbids images.

Source

“You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:3

When you bow your head to pray, who is it you see? It’s near inescapable but not unforgiveable if you strive to walk in repentance of it.

The Priests Which God Abhors

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I can scarce imagine that any man in this world who takes to himself the title of a priest, except he take it in the sense in which all God’s people are priests—I cannot imagine that a priest can enter heaven. I would not say a thing too stern or too severe, but I do most thoroughly believe that an assumption of the office of priest is so base a usurpation of the priestly office of Christ, that I could as well conceive of a man being saved who called himself God, as conceive of a man being saved who called himself a priest. If he really means what he says, he has so trenched upon the priestly prerogative of Christ, that it seems to me he has touched the very crown jewels, and is guilty of a blasphemy, which, unless it be repented of, shall surely bring damnation on his head.

Shake your garments, you ministers of Christ, from all priestly assumption, come out from among them, touch not the unclean thing. There are no priests now specially to minister among men. Jesus Christ and He only is the priest of His Church, and He has made all of us priests and kings unto our God, and we shall reign forever and ever.

If I should have any person here so weak as to depend for his salvation upon the offerings of another man, I conjure him to forego his deception. I care not who your priest may be. He may belong to the Anglican or to the Romish church. Ay, and to any church under heaven. If he claims to be anything of a priest more than you can claim yourself—away with him—he imposes upon you.

He speaks to you that which God abhors, and that which the church of Christ should abhor and would detest, were she truly alive to her Master’s glory. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, all other priests and offerings we disdain. Cast dirt upon their garments, they are not and they cannot be priests, they usurp the special dignity of Jesus.

The High Priest Standing Between the Dead and the Living by C. H. Spurgeon

Spiritual Adultery

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http://www.angelfire.com/la2/prophet1/adultery101.html (bad gateway)*

FTA: Adultery is also defined in a scriptural sense as “idolatry, or apostasy from the true God. Jer. 3.” Idolatry is defined as “1. The worship of idols, images, or any thing made by hands, or which is not God. 2. Excessive attachment or veneration for any thing, or that which borders on adoration.” (An American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828, see Adultery and Idolatry). Adoration is “a feeling of profound love and admiration.” Idolatry can be a profound love or admiration for anything or anyone – an image, a statue, a living or deceased saint, a preacher, a prophet, a pope, etc. Ask a Roman Catholic to identify the Holy Father, and he will likely point to the Pope. Ask a twenty-first century Protestant to identify the Holy Father, and there is a good chance that he will point to the Pope. In contrast to modern-day Protestantism, Bible believing Protestants for the past five-hundred years not only identified God alone as the Holy Father, but they also exposed the papacy as antichrist. In less than on-hundred years Protestantism has come full-circle, from exposing and forsaking the false doctrines and beliefs of Roman Catholicism, to accepting and in some cases even promoting Catholic dogma. The title Holy Father is used only one time in all of scripture (John 17:11), and it refers not to any man, but to God the Father. The application of this title to anyone but God is a blasphemous antichrist usurpation (“so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” II Thess. 2:4; “and I saw a woman… full of names of blasphemy” Rev. 17:3). In the early nineteenth century Noah Webster rightly stated that “All worship of images and saints, is an abomination to God; it is idolatry, which is strictly forbidden in the Bible;” (History of the United States, 1832, p. 299). Adoration of the Roman Catholic “Eucharist,” or so called “Host”, is nothing short of idolatry (See False Gospel of Sacramental Works). In 1765 American patriot and Christian minister, Jonathan Mayhew, published a sermon entitled Popish Idolatry in which he addressed, among other idolatrous practices, the popish doctrine of transubstantiation. Mayhew stated,

“The Romanists do not pretend to deny, but that all the five senses bear testimony against it, as much as they possibly could if it were false, or if the bread and wine remained after the juggling, hocus-pocus trick, which they term consecration…. For the truth of the Christian revelation itself depends on the truth of certain facts, by which there was an appeal made to the senses of men; particularly the miracles and resurrection of our Saviour…. Thus does the church of Rome, by this doctrine, subvert the very foundations of Christianity…. transubstantiation is the grossest imposition and insult, that ever the priesthood itself put upon the superstitious credulity of mankind. This doctrine then, being plainly false, the church of Rome is certainly guilty of idolatry, in worshipping the eucharist as true God.” (Popish Idolatry, Jonathan Mayhew, 1765, pp. 11,12) (“God is love.” 1 John 4:8; “God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29)

*Posting this because it is a good assessment of today’s idolatry and Protestant/Roman Catholic dynamic.

Intercessory Prayer – Standing in the Gap

~ Sherry ~ 2 Comments

Based on Daniel’s prayer for his people as he stood in the gap for them:

Oh Lord, our great and awe-full God, who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love You and keep Your commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity and done wickedly with our Christo-paganism by rebelling against Your precepts and judgements; nor have we heeded Your servants, the watchmen, who spoke to us in Your name. Oh Lord Jesus, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face for our idolatrous ways of worshipping You. You have been distant from us because of our prideful rebellion and our love for the pagan/papist “holy” days full of men’s traditions, of which our devotion to them has blinded us to Your commandments against such worship of You. To us belongs shame of face, but to You belong mercy and forgiveness even though we have sinned against You. We have not sought Your Word nor repented that we may worship You in spirit and in truth; to obey Your voice and heed Your warnings, that these feast days are of a false gospel leading to the false messiah, the pagan god, Tammuz. But now, our Lord, our Savior from sin and God’s wrath, our Deliverer, turn away Your anger and deliver us from our prideful rebellion and convict us of our sins against You, that we may purge from our worship to You all vestiges of paganism and syncretism. Cleanse us with Your precious blood and, by the power of Your Holy Spirit and grace, lead us to walk on Your path of righteousness. Hear our prayer for the sake of Your erring children and, once again, cause Your face to shine upon us that we may be pure and true witnesses of Your salvation before a most dark world. O Lord! Hear us! O Lord! Forgive us! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, and for Your children who are called by Your name. Call them to come out of Babylon! In Your holy name we pray, amen.

Daniel’s prayer- Daniel 9:1-26