One of my readers named Babe asked me: Why do some people keep on wasting their time criticizing the belief of others? Is this a Christian work? Or is it just you?
My answer: It’s not just me and my own; it is Christ’s way of liberating people from errors and fallacies! It is from Him we pattern our interactions, especially as he said in
MARK 7:7, Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Jesus Christ criticized the man-made doctrines of the Jews! So we also criticize the practices of some – not to waste our time – but for errors and fallacies to be highlighted – so that people will be liberated from their ignorance of Christ’s way.
MATTHEW 15:5-9
5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6 And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
The Catholic Mass is a man-made doctrine, and so I have compassion for the many millions who were made to believe that it is a commandment of God!
It is always an act of love to show people their errors that they may reform and be saved from shame! If criticizing the belief of others is a waste of time according to you, why are you criticizing our way which is the way of Christ? Aren’t you contradicting yourself? To disapprove of something rightfully being used by others and then approve of what you wrongfully use is utterly against the Bible.
THE ROMANS 14:22
Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Please note that I am not aware of you reading my blogs. I hope that in your doing so, your time is not being wasted!
Another comment from a certain Michael says, “In your church you do it another way, not similar to the Roman Catholic’s but it’s the same way actually.” [Laughter]
How can it be the same when, according to you, “In your church you do it another way….” Understand first the meaning of the simple word, “other” or another before you laugh!
“Other” or another means different, and in no way could they be the same. The intention is different; therefore, the spirit is different.
KU, my reader says: “All religions were invented by men. No one can say one is better than the other. No one religion can guarantee eternal salvation, if ever there is such a thing. Denigrating other religions, whether it’s Roman Catholic, Anglican, Islam, etc, so as to give the impression that yours is better, doesn’t work for me. It’s like when courting a girl. Telling the girl about the imperfections of your rivals only reflects on your own insecurities. Stand on your own. Highlight your good qualities but not on the expense of others.”
The work of preaching is not dictated by men, starting from topics to delivery. You do not compare it, for example, with worldly activities like courting. And there is no system that works for one and doesn’t in another. It is either it is according to God’s will or not.
It is not our principle to stand on “our own” as you said! And we do not “highlight our good qualities at the expense of others!” It is our principle to stand on the faith we learned from the Bible.
COLOSSIANS 1:23
If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
It is your own belief that all religions were invented by men! Where did you base that claim? The Bible teaches a religion established by God and not by men!
MATTHEW 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
JAMES 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
There are those who have established their own righteousness like you! It is obviously because of a different intention and therefore, a different spirit that works. The Bible says something about submitting to the righteousness of God. In ROMANS 10:3, For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
As to your charge that I criticize to my own advantage, it is not good for anybody to highlight his own qualities! Mali ka dyan pare! You don’t know me. PROVERBS 27:2 tells us, Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
Further, it is not true that we are “DENIGRATING” anybody or any religion! We are telling the truth! Telling the truth so that the people may know is not denigrating. You cannot blacken something already black; you cannot speak damagingly of something already damaged! On the other hand, you must tell the TRUTH! And telling the truth is telling it as it is.
Sometimes truth can hurt us and others, but telling the truth is a duty. That is just what I am doing here. I cannot, for example, greet Godspeed to those who practice their man-made inventions. The Bible says in PROVERBS 24:24,He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him:
Still another reader, Doug Lawrence says: “At Mass, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who IS the perfect and eternal sacrifice for the sins of the world, is NOT sacrificed again and again, but he most certainly is OFFERED UP to God the Father again and again, for the sins of the world … renewing the divine promise of salvation … every hour of every day … every day of every year … in virtually every nation on earth.”
My question is: Who gave you or your priests the right to offer again and again the Lord Jesus Christ at the altar of the Catholic Church? As you said, “but he most certainly is OFFERED UP to God the Father again and again, for the sins of the world….”
The truth is that it is Jesus Christ who offered Himself up according to the Bible! What right do human beings have in offering up Jesus Christ? Is that even commanded for believers to do? Would God accept a Christ being offered up by others? And would Christ allow human beings to offer him up to the Father? What ascendancy do Catholic priests have over having to offer up Christ to the Father – even just once?
Here’s what the Bible says in three references.
HEBREWS 7:27
Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
HEBREWS 9:14
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
HEBREWS 9:26
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Note in the preceding verses the following citations! The words “offer himself” and “sacrifice himself” point out that He did the act himself. The verb is reflexive.
…“Who needeth not daily”…
…“for this he did once, when he offered up himself”…
…“offered himself without spot to God”…
…“but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself”…
The offering of Christ gives sanctification or holiness, because of the sacrifice he had to undergo. Surely, it does not speak of his body and blood simply given on a platter by human beings in rituals, and then offered up to God. There is sacrifice involved.
…HEBREWS 10:10
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.
…HEBREWS 10:10(BIBLE IN BASIC ENGLISH)
By that pleasure we have been made holy, by the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once and for ever.
It will constitute an insult then to Christ if anybody will offer Him up again and again!
HEBREWS 6:6
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Partaking of the bread and cup as commanded to the 1st century Christians is not to offer again and again what Jesus Christ had offered “once for all” and “once forever”. It is proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes.
I CORINTHIANS 11:26(REVISED STANDARD VERSION)
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
I CORINTHIANS 11:26(KING JAMES VERSION)
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.
I CORINTHIANS 10:16-17
16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
We are 100% certain that “this bread” is not the “host” of the Catholic Church!
MATTHEW 15:17
Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
The host is fed through the mouth and will certainly be cast out into the draught! The bread Christians have to partake is not literal but spiritual!
JOHN 6:50, 63
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Being a part of the body “or the church” is the way to partake with the bread or flesh and the blood of the Lord Jesus!
I CORINTHIANS 10:17
For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
COLOSSIANS 1:18
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Bro. Eli Soriano