I aimed for making these short enough where you can post them into social media comments. Social media is a great missionary field, and you can make an impact by speaking truth into the life of an individual.
- The Apocrypha
- Is Purgatory Biblical?
- Is The Eucharist Symbolic?
- Is Asking Mary to Pray for Us Idolatry?
- Was Mary Always a Virgin?
- Did Jesus Make Peter the Head of the Church?
- Did The Catholic Church Give Us the Bible?
- Why are There so Many Protestant Denominations?
The Apocrypha
The Jewish people never considered the Apocrypha to be Divinely inspired. They are the ones to whom God entrusted with his Word (Romans 3:2).
All of the Old Testament writers were called prophets (Luke 1:70, Luke 24:27, Romans 16:26). The writers of the apocrypha do not claim to be prophets, in fact they say that the prophets have ceased to appear (1 Maccabees 9:27 & 1 Maccabees 4:46).
The Bible says we are saved by grace and the apocrypha says we are saved by works (Tobit 12:9 vs Romans 11:6).
Is Purgatory Biblical?
Psalm 103:10, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities”. If there is a place called purgatory, why would the Bible say that? Per the Catholic church, purgatory is a place specifically designed to repay (punish) us, according to our iniquities?
Isaiah 53:11, “After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities”. It sounds like we won’t have to bear them.
Hebrews 1:3, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” If he provided purification for our sin, then why do we still need to be purified?
The Catholic church believes we are imperfectly purified, and so purgatory is necessary, but the Bible says we are purified with blood. Hebrews 9:22, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
The Bible tells us what purifies us from our sins. 1 John 1:7, …”The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from ALL sin.”
Titus 2:14, “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from ALL iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” This says he redeemed us and purified us from all iniquity, not just mortal sins, all sins! Ephesians 1:7 says it’s by grace.
Revelation 1:5, says Jesus “washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
We have redemption and forgiveness through the blood of Jesus. A purification through purgatory does not allow us to enter into the presence of God, it’s by Jesus’ blood, alone.
Hebrews 10:19, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since WE have confidence to ENTER the Most Holy Place BY the blood of Jesus.” See also Hebrews 9:12.
Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought NEAR BY the blood of Christ.”
We accept this purification through faith in Jesus. Acts 15:9, …”purifying their hearts by faith.”
1 Corinthians 6:11, …”you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
If we have been reconciled by Jesus’ death. If we have purified our hearts through faith. If we were washed, sanctified, justified and cleansed of our sins, by his blood, with our sins far removed, (all past tense words). Having the confidence to be brought near and enter the most holy place. How can a believer who has placed their faith in Jesus, go to purgatory? If someone ends up in this place, it would mean, they haven’t been cleansed by his blood, or purified their hearts through faith. There is one place for a person whose sins still remain, and it's not purgatory.
Acts 11:19, “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’”
Is The Eucharist Symbolic?
Wouldn’t
it be logical to conclude that if some were getting drunk at communion, it would
indicate it was not physical blood but remained the fruit of the vine (1 Corinthians 11:21)?
Jesus preformed his first recorded miracle at the wedding
in Cana of Galilee (John 2). He turned the water into wine. The guests said
that it tasted like good wine. There was a change in substance and in taste. If
the eucharist the priest blesses actually changes to the body and blood of
Jesus, there should be a change in taste. If there’s not, it’s a symbolic
representation.
Jesus used another analogy regarding bread. The disciples
thought he was talking about literal bread and Jesus rebuked them in Matthew 16:8 and
said they had little faith because they did not understand it was symbolic.
Matthew
16:11-12,
How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that
He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of
the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Similar to Jesus, believers are also called unleavened
bread. The reason for that is the church is the body of Christ (Romans, 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 & 12:27). Leaven
is yeast and it’s symbolic of sin. Unbelievers are the leavened bread (Mark 8:15, Luke 12:1, & Galatians 5:9) who are still in their sins.
It’s clear the
unleavened bread we all partake in is spiritual in nature. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, Get
rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch as you really
are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep
the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The eucharist is gathering believers together to share in
the same loaf of bread. It’s to remind us that we are all partakers of the body
of Christ. 1
Corinthians 10:17, For we, though many, are one bread and one
body; for we all partake of that one bread.
John
6:35, Jesus
answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and
whoever believes in Me will never thirst. If Jesus was talking about physical bread,
then we would eventually get hungry after eating it. Jesus is using a physical
metaphor for a spiritual reality.
Not only do I see scriptural evidence the body and blood
are symbolic but, it’s against Jewish law to consume blood. Deuteronomy 12:16, But you must not consume
the blood….
Leviticus
17:10,
‘And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among
you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood,
and will cut him off from among his people.
Jesus kept the law down to the last letter (Matthew 5:17-19). We now
have a conundrum if the eucharist is the literal body and blood of Jesus. Don’t
consume blood is part of the Jewish law. Jesus being God, fulfilled the entire
law down to the letter, and God can’t tempt his disciples to break the law and
sin. James
1:13, Let
no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted
by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
Abstaining
from blood is still given as New Testament command (Acts
15:20 & 28-29).
Why in John 6:63 does Jesus say the flesh profits nothing and it's the
Spirit that gives life, if it's the flesh that gives life? Wine is called the
blood of grapes (Genesis 49:11), and is used to symbolically represent the
blood of Christ.
When a human dies, they do not become Omnipresent like God. The saints, Mary or any person who has died, cannot hear your prayers. Only God is Omniscient and Omnipresent. When you attempt to speak to Mary you are giving her God-like qualities. You are only to pray to the Lord your God! You are playing with fire when you do this because God calls it spiritual prostitution. Leviticus 20:6, “I will also turn against those who commit spiritual prostitution by putting their trust in mediums or in those who consult the spirits of the dead. I will cut them off from the community.
God killed King Saul and his sons because he did not turn to God for guidance but sought guidance from the dead spirit of Samuel (1 Chronicles 10:13 & 1 Samuel 28). Isaiah 8:19, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Mary herself stated she needed a savior in Luke 1:46-47. The golden calf has been replaced with a statue of Mary. Deuteronomy 4:16, Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female. People have made statues in her image in direct disobedience to commandment #2. They will bow to and kneel in-front of her statue at weddings and on other occasions. Most will say they don’t worship Mary when asked but, they are doing exactly what the definition of worship says. Mary was definitely blessed but some churches have made her like God by saying she is sinless co-redeemer with Christ, which is contrary to the word of God. Romans 1:25, Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.
The Bible says the queen of heaven is an idol in Jeremiah 7:18. God said he divorced Israel because of her adultery with idols. Ezekiel 23:37, They committed adultery with their idols. Jeremiah 3:8, backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce. If we want Jesus to bear the penalty for our sins then we need to make sure idolatry is not in our life. Ezekiel 23:49, you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry. See also Jonah 2:8.
Was Mary Always a Virgin?
Joseph was supposed to hold off consummating his relationship until after Mary gave birth, not forever. Matthew 1:25, But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Jesus had brothers and sisters, per the Bible. Mark 6:3, Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” Matthew 12:46, While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. See also John 2:12.
There are 33 Churches mentioned in the Bible. I don’t see anything that said those churches were not valid because they were not Catholic. In fact, the Roman Empire banned Christianity until the year 313. It wasn’t until the Roman Emperor Constantine, that Christianity was allowed. Constantine mixed paganism with Christianity to try and keep the peace. Many of the New Testament books were letters to different churches (Corinthians, Thessalonians, Ephesians, etc.).
Did The Catholic Church Give Us the Bible?
The majority of the Bible is the Old Testament and that was given by God to the Jewish people. The Old Testament was well established and acknowledged prior to Jesus and the formation of the Catholic church. The New Testament, like the OT, was written by Jewish people. Romans 3:2, …First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. See also Psalm 147:19.
Peter considers Paul’s writings to be as inspired as scripture is, in 2 Peter 3:15-16.
Paul acknowledges that the Gospel of Luke is scripture. In 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul said “scripture says” and then proceeds to quote Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7.
Paul is writing letters to churches and he asked the churches to share his letters with each other in Colossians 4:16. Paul is also telling the members of the church in Thessalonica to pass his letters around in 1 Thessalonians 5:27. Scripture was clearly circulating around the early churches.
Acts 13:49, And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
The Roman Empire banned Christianity until the year 313. Churches in other parts of the world were more established prior to the emergence of Catholicism. A copy of the oldest, New Testament, was found dating back to the year 170, well before the Catholic church established its cannon. It consisted of 22 books and called the Muratorian Canon.
The most the Catholic church can say is, that they acknowledged and gave their stamp of approval on what was already considered to be the inspired Word of God. To say the world should be grateful to the Catholic church for giving us the Bible, is wrong.
God is the one who watches over his Word (Jeremiah 1:12).
Most of the Protestant denominations are similar. We don't differ very much in doctrine. We don't compete with each other or think our church is the only way to salvation. The churches just emphasize different aspects of the faith. Some churches focus more on the gifts of the Spirit, others focus more on mission work, some emphasize Bible prophecy, while other churches promote evangelism, etc.
I have attended a number of different denominations. The majority hold the same tenets of Christianity and salvation, with the exception of Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons (LDS). They have a different Jesus than the one of the Bible. When Jesus says the church is the body of Christ, not every church is the hand; some are legs (missions), some are the mouth (evangelism). We are one church equipping different parts of the body.
Yes, some denominations may vary on different doctrines, but as long as the core Gospel message is preached, then those inconsistencies could be used positively to sharpen each other. Proverbs 27:17, As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Another reason scripture is concealed and not obvious is to hide things from unbelievers. Matthew 13:10-11, The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
One way to recognize if a church or a preacher is false is to listen to what they preach. Does it align with the scriptures? When they claim to receive a word from God that doesn’t align with the Bible (Galatians 1:6-8 & 1 Timothy 6:3-5) then you don't want to accept that message. If they claim to receive a prophecy from the Lord that doesn’t come true (Deuteronomy 18:20-22), then you know they are not speaking for God. This would be a good time to leave that church.
