Cautions against Romanism and how to put the priesthood in its proper place

While the late Bishop J.C. Ryle of Liverpool (died 1900) and I may not see exactly eye to eye on the Lord’s Supper, on most matters we are in very real agreement. Virtually all the following is worthy of consideration for all BibleCatholics. We have much to thank Ryle and others in the old Anglican Church and especially those of the so-called “low church” like Ryle, who are indeed a near dead breed in the days of the ecumenical Roman takeover. Here are some important thoughts Ryle had against Romanism and cautions to keep the priesthood in proper perspective.  

2. For another thing, I charge you to beware of Anglo-Romanism, and do all you can to resist it.

Resist it in little things. Resist strange dresses, sacrificial garments, the eastward position in consecrating the bread and wine, idolatrous reverence of the consecrated elements, processions, banners, incense, candles on the communion table, turning to the East, crosses and crucifixes in the chancels, and extravagant Church decorations.

Resist it in great things. Oppose with might and main the attempt to re-introduce the Mass and Auricular Confession in our parishes. Send your boy to no school where auricular confession is ever tolerated. Allow no clergymen to draw your wife and daughter to private confession. Oppose sternly, but firmly, the attempt to change the Lord’s Supper at your parish churches, into the Romish sacrifice of the mass. Draw back from the communion in such churches, and go elsewhere. The laity have a great deal of power in this matter, even without going to law. They should tell the clergy their minds. They cannot do without the laity any more than officers in a regiment can do without privates. Let the English laity all over England rise in their might, and say, “We will not have the mass and auricular confession.”

Resist it for Christ’s sake. His Priestly and Mediatorial offices are being injured and dishonoured. They are offices He has never deputed to any order of ordained men.

Resist it for the clergy’s sake. The worst and cruellest thing that can be done is to lift us out of our proper places, and make us lords over your consciences, and mediators between yourselves and God.

Resist it for the laity’s sake. The most degrading position in which laymen could be put, is that of being cringing slaves at the foot of a brother sinner.

Resist it, not least, for your children’s sake. Do what in you lies to provide that, when you are dead and gone, they shall not be left to the tender mercies of Popery. As ever you would meet your boys and girls in heaven, take care that the Church of England in your day is maintained a Protestant Church, and preserves her Articles and the principles of the Reformation wholly uninjured and undefiled.  --From "What do we owe the reformation" by J.C. Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool

 

ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY AND SACRAMENTS

(3) I go on to say that Evangelical Religion does not under value the Christian ministry. It is not true to say that we do. We regard it as an honourable office instituted by Christ Himself, and of general necessity for carrying on the work of the Gospel. We look on ministers as preachers of God’s Word, God’s ambassadors, God’s messengers, God’s servants, God’s shepherds, God’s stewards, God’s overseers, and labourers in God’s vineyard.

But we steadily refuse to admit that Christian ministers are in any sense sacrificing priests, mediators between God and man, lords of men’s consciences, or private confessors. We refuse it, not only because we cannot see it in the Bible, but also because we have read the lessons of Church history. We find that Sacerdotalism, or priestcraft, has frequently been the curse of Christianity, and the ruin of true religion. And we say boldly that the exaltation of the ministerial office to an unscriptural place and extravagant dignity in the Church of England in the present day, is likely to alienate the affections of the laity, to ruin the Church, and to be the source of every kind of error and superstition.

(4) I go on to say that Evangelical Religion does not undervalue the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is not true to say that we do. We honour them as holy ordinances appointed by Christ Himself, and as blessed means of grace, which in all who use them rightly, worthily, and with faith, “have a wholesome effect or operation.”

But we steadily refuse to admit that Christ’s Sacraments convey grace ex opere operato, and that in every case where they are administered, good must of necessity be done. We refuse to admit that they are the grand media between Christ and the soul,—above faith, above preaching, and above prayer. We protest against the idea that in baptism the use of water, in the name of the Trinity, is invariably and necessarily accompanied by regeneration. We protest against the practice of encouraging any one to come to the Lord’s Table unless he repents truly of sin, has a lively faith in Christ, and is in charity with all men. We protest against the theory that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrifice, as a theory alike contrary to the Bible, Articles, and Prayer-book. And above all, we protest against the notion of any corporal presence of Christ’s flesh and blood in the Lord’s Supper, under the forms of bread and wine, as an “idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians.”

(It's this last line that I disagree with since Luther himself plainly proved that Protestants can still very much believe in Christ's own promise that we recieve his body and blood at the supper he established. We can believe that without idolatry. It is the Roman Catholic practice of praying before the bread that is placed in a monstrance--special decorative holder-- that is idolatry to us, since neither Christ or his apostles taught such a thing. I believe Bishop Ryle goes too far in protesting the corporal presence of Christ since it certainly appears from scriptures to be something that Christ himself taught us, and according to Luther, something that was also quite Protestant.)

 

From “Evangelical Religion” by J.C. Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool

 

Why the New Evangelization of the Roman Catholic Church won't work

The New Evangelization of the Roman Catholic Church is based on a false gospel. That's why the New Evangelization won't work, because it is based on a false gospel. It is the false gospel that claims our works add to the work of Christ on the cross and that together they manage to save us. We are saved by Christ alone, through his grace alone, by his one work on the cross alone. Any other gospel is a false gospel and that's why simply calling it "new" will not work. The false gospel called "new" or the "new evangelization" is still the false gospel. When you preach a false gospel, you are condemned to hell unless you repent. Check St. Paul in Galatians. He'll tell you all you need to know.

The Roman Catholic Church needs to be called to repentence, and if it refuses to repent, it will remain the Whore spoken of in Revelations and not only it, but all Protestant churches who claim that freewill is the way to Christ will also be counted as the Whore and cast down. The true Gospel is that Christ alone has saved all who come to believe in him as God in the flesh, Lord and Savior as well as his promise to save us completely in John 10. Faith is a gift from God. Believe and rejoice in Christ alone for your salvation. -- Bro. Jim

Knowing Christ Jesus my Lord

Phillipians 3:8

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Peter the Roman is elected

And once again they cry "Holy Father" to someone other than God...and with great bravado the cult of personality is resurrected anew in the Roman Catholic Church. The new Pope Francis was born and raised in Argentina by his Italian parents. As a solid son of the Church, he will continue to preach the required for salvation Roman Catholic (false) gospel of Jesus plus our own good works getting us to heaven:

The required for salvation Roman Catholic belief (error) that "faith plus works" are necessary to attain eternal life and that those who believe that faith alone in Christ and what he has done for us is what is essential are doomed to hell, unless they repent (same goes for all the rest of the following bullet points in this article). Also go to Catechism paragraphs (CC# 1821 and 2010) to see that the church still teaches this.. No matter that Christ himself tells us: He who hears my word and believes in the One who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (hell): but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24). He who believes in me has everlasting life. (John 6:47) Yes, that is the same as "he who has faith" in me or "he who trusts me," will have everlasting life. But that was not good enough for the bishops at the Council of Trent, session six, as we read their "Decree on Justification”, canon 12: “If anyone says that the faith which justifies is nothing else but trust in the divine mercy (of God), which pardons sins because of Christ; or that it is that trust alone (faith alone) by which we are justified; let him be anathema (accursed, condemned to hell).” Also see several other decrees issued on Justification by the bishops at Trent.

The required for salvation Roman Catholic belief (error) that the pope is supreme over all Christianity on earth, also that he speaks infallibly—without the possibility of error—when he offers a teaching on matters of faith, morals, discipline, etc… (See the text from the First Vatican Council, which apparently overlooked Christ's statement about himself, just prior to his ascension, that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Christ)." Matthew 28:18) Also see, Col. 1:18, Eph. 1:22, 4:15 and 5:23 and Roman Catholic Catechism (CC #889-891)

 

For more, go to http://www.biblecatholics.com/dogma.htm  

Catholic annulments get satiric but truthful video

If you're one of the thousands involved in annulment actions with local Roman Catholic marriage tribunals, you now have a video cartoon to illustrate a common scenerio that has been splitting up families for years.

These easy annulments are all being done with the help of the local catholic panel, composed largely of clergy. The cartoon series would almost be funny except for the fact that it is so true to life in giving us a good look at the selfish attitudes and actions often involved.

Click the link at the bottom to view the videos. Then, contact the folks at www.saveoursacrament.org/ for some real help.

http://www.speroforum.com/a/REYFHIQYCK44/73462-Satirical-animation-slams-Catholic-marriage-tribunals

If you can lose your salvation, then what must you do to keep it?

Matt Slick has an interesting article that answers this question click at the link below...

http://carm.org/if-you-can-lose-your-salvation-then-what-must-you-do-keep-it

(an excerpt...)

.........All that I am and all I need is found in the work of Christ. Even my ability to believe is God's work (John 6:28-29). My believing has been granted to me by God (Phil. 1:29). And, I believe because I was appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48). Should I then stand before God and man and say that I am keeping my position with God by my own faithfulness? This is something I can never claim.
That is why I ask people who believe they can lose their salvation and are seeking to maintain it by being faithful, "Are you taking credit for your believing?" If they say yes, they are boasting. If they say no, then I ask them what makes them think that if God who granted that they believe (Phil. 1:29), appointed them to eternal life (Acts 13:48), chose them before the foundation of the world for salvation (Eph. 1:4-5; 2 Thess. 2:13), predestined them (Rom. 8:29-30), and said he will lose none (John 6:39), we'll let them slip through his fingers when he said it was his will that those who believe would not be lost and would be raised on the last day (John 6:37-40)?..........

The above are some good verses from Matt, and the point is that you cannot lose your salvation. That's a promise from Jesus, who tells us plainly in John 10:27-30 that he is holding onto us and will let no one snatch us from his hand! When Jesus says no one can take you from him, you can believe that he means no one (including yourself!--or do you think you're stronger than him?) :).

When Jesus says "He who believes in me has eternal life" (John 6:47) He means eternal --forever. May all of us believing sinners take comfort in his words...now and forever. Amen.

Are you my mother?

I can remember when I was growing up my mother taught me about marriage and I know the mother who taught me about marriage would have done everything she could to help me repair my marriage. She would have stood fast for what was right and called me and my wife to the reconciliation that Christians must seek if they are true believers. She probably would have cracked a Bible and told us that God hates divorce. Maybe she would have talked to my wife in private and asked if she could reconsider--perhaps relating times in her own life when she wanted to give up too, but is now glad she didn't. Even if none of that worked, I would sure appreciate knowing that the momma who taught me would have still fought for me...and my marriage. If you're a momma and that happens, you probably can't help. But it sure won't hurt to try.