"Catholicism's Abuse of Scripture"
I
am speaking as a Biblical Born-Again Evangelical
Christian.
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Catholicism says
that the bible is not the final authority on the things of God and that the
bible is not without error. Instead Catholicism claims to be the final authority
and claims the Catholic Church teachings are without error.
What is
interesting about this is that the Catholic Church falsely claims to have
written the bible. So while the Catholic Church is saying that their church is
without error, it is also saying that it wrote a bible that is with error. I suppose
technically their Catholic bible does have extra books that do not belong in the
real bible. But I don't think that is what they are referring to. Clearly they
do not see the contradiction.
True Christianity takes the bible on a
whole and does not see anything in scripture as contradicting, but rather can
show by scripture how it all works together.
The way to spot a cult, is
that a cult takes scripture out of context and gives the scripture their
"private" interpretations that contradict with the overall message of salvation
in the bible. This is why cults always believe that the leaders of their cult
have the final authority over the bible. To them the bible has to be in error,
in order for their cult to be right.
A good example is the Catholic
Church's false claim of Peter being the first pope, along with its false claim
of Jesus building His church on Peter, claiming that Peter is the "rock" that
Jesus was saying He would build His church on, instead of the "rock" being the truth (The Christ) that Peter said Jesus is.
Throughout the Psalms we see David refer to the Lord as his "rock."
And we also see in the New Testament that it is all about who Jesus is, the
truth of who He is. But the Catholic church needs Peter to be the first pope, or
their entire religion crumbles to the ground because it has no connection to
Jesus. So they ignore other scripture and give a false interpretation to the
scripture where Jesus is speaking to Peter about who Peter says Jesus is.
Another example is where Catholicism claims that scripture is speaking
of the Catholic Church at a time that the universal church (which is the meaning
for the word "catholic") is being spoken of in scripture. This would be like
saying the Unitarian Universalists can claim that it is a true church and the
only church, because the word "universal" is used in the title of their church.
It is just crazy talk.
One more example is where they take scripture that
speaks to those who Jesus sends out to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said that those who He sends out (all true biblical born again believers)
with the truth of His word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of being
saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, are sent by Him. And He
says that people who hear, who He sends out, hear Him. This is because those who
He sends out, speak His message, His word. He is also saying that people who
despise who He sends, despise Him and therefore despise He who sent Him (the
Father in Heaven.) --Catholicism claims that this is the Catholic Church, the
leaders of the Catholic Church. Catholicism falsely claims that born again
believers were not around back then in the bible days. This is even though it is
right in scripture that a person must be born again to enter the kingdom of
God.
Some Catholics even go as far as saying that because Jesus spoke of sending out people, that the people sent out can trump the contents of the bible. And of course those people
must be leaders of the Catholic Church. They just don't get it. It is the word of God, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ that people sent out by Jesus were and are to speak. It is the
word of God that makes what they say matter so much. But the fact is, the
Catholic Church needs to raise itself above the word of God. And this is one way
they attempt to do so.
But what does the bible say:
"Thy
word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments
endureth for ever." Psalm 119: 160
"The
words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt
preserve them from this generation for ever." Psalm
12:6-7
"Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John
17:17
"All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness:" 2 Timothy 3:16
"For
ever,
O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Psalm 119:89
"But
the word of the Lord endureth for ever..." 1 Peter 1:25
"...
the word of our God shall stand for ever." Isaiah
40:8
That's
just some of the scriptures that show the bible to be the final authority and to
be without error. But Catholicism does not believe the bible to be without
error, so they dismiss these scriptures. Some Catholics will even go as far as
claiming that it is circular reasoning to claim that the bible is the perfect
word of God, because the bible claims to be. They do this while using that exact
reasoning for why they believe the Catholic Church to be without error in its
teachings, because the Catholic Church claims to be. That or they say that the very
bible that they claim to be with error supports their claim of the Catholic Church being without error in a couple spots in scripture that they
twist the meaning of. If this sounds wild, it is because it is wild.
But the fact is, born again believers believe the bible to be perfect (meaning complete and without
error) because the Holy Spirit
has opened our eyes to believe it is the perfect word of God. And once our eyes
were opened, we could see the prophecy that is in the bible and see that
everything that was prophesied in scripture that should have come to pass has
already come to pass. And we can see that scripture tells things that no man
could have known back when it was written. But all in all, we believe the word
of God to be the perfect word of God, because the Holy Spirit opened our
eyes. By faith, we believe.
The eyes of those who reject Jesus Christ are closed. They don't
have the Spirit of God in them. And true devout Catholics reject Jesus Christ,
because they add to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They add the Catholic
Church itself, along with man's works, and a false belief that Mary is a
co-redeemer. --They do try to split hairs over just
how much they believe Mary has to do with their salvation. I don't care if they
think she has only one percent to do with it. God says He will share His glory
with no other, and that is all there is to it.
Bottom
line, cults don't believe that the bible is without error because they realize
that much of what they believe contradicts the over-all biblical message of
salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. This totally negates what they are trying to prove with
it.
It is baffling that a religion that does not believe the bible to be without
error, nor to be the final authority picks out parts of the bible to attempt to
prove that they are right on certain things. It is utter foolishness that a
religion that claims the bible is not without error and not the final authority
uses it to attempt to prove anything.
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