Hello
| Welcome Guest Messages 5.0.0 © 2010 IBMafia | |
Welcome to Christianity Board Christian Forum
![]() |
If you're still not sure about signing up with Christianity Board, check out these features only available to registered members:
|
| Guest Message © 2010 DevFuse | |
Parable of the Tares
#31
Posted 01 November 2008 - 08:56 PM
#32
Posted 07 December 2008 - 06:17 AM
#33
Posted 07 December 2008 - 02:19 PM
#34
Posted 08 December 2008 - 04:01 PM
#35
Posted 08 December 2008 - 04:46 PM
#36
Posted 08 December 2008 - 05:23 PM
#37
Posted 08 December 2008 - 05:29 PM
#38
Posted 08 December 2008 - 06:20 PM
#39
Posted 09 December 2008 - 06:10 PM
#40
Posted 09 December 2008 - 07:45 PM
#41
Posted 10 December 2008 - 08:51 AM
#42
Posted 10 December 2008 - 09:00 AM
#43
Posted 10 December 2008 - 11:30 AM
#44
Posted 10 December 2008 - 11:34 AM
#45
Posted 10 December 2008 - 12:16 PM
#46
Posted 10 December 2008 - 12:22 PM
#47
Posted 10 December 2008 - 12:24 PM
#48
Posted 10 December 2008 - 02:00 PM
#49
Posted 10 December 2008 - 02:04 PM
#50
Posted 10 December 2008 - 02:11 PM
#51
Posted 10 December 2008 - 02:16 PM
#52
Posted 10 December 2008 - 03:53 PM
#53
Posted 10 December 2008 - 03:59 PM
#54
Posted 10 December 2008 - 04:00 PM
#55
Posted 10 December 2008 - 04:32 PM
#56
Posted 10 December 2008 - 04:38 PM
#57
Posted 07 January 2010 - 03:07 PM
In this illustration about wheat and weeds, at Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus foretold that true religion would be virtually obscured for a time. Jesus sowed a field with wheat, “the fine seed,” which pictured his faithful disciples who would make up the original Christian congregation. He warned that “an enemy,” Satan the Devil, would in time oversow the wheat field with “weeds”—people who professed to follow Jesus Christ but who in fact rejected his teachings.
Very soon after the death of Jesus’ apostles, individuals appeared who proved to be “weeds,” favoring twisted human teachings over “the very word of Jehovah.” (Jeremiah 8:8, 9; Acts 20:29, 30) As a consequence, a perverted, counterfeit Christianity appeared on the world stage. It was dominated by what the Bible calls “the lawless one”—a corrupt clergy class that was itself steeped in “every unrighteous deception.” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-10) Jesus foretold that this situation would change “in the conclusion of the system of things.” The wheatlike Christians would be collected together in unity and “the weeds” would eventually be destroyed.(Matt 13:40)
It is this counterfeit Christianity that bears responsibility for the “centuries of unredeemed barbarism” and spiritual darkness that enveloped Christendom in the centuries that followed. Foreseeing this and all the other depraved and violent acts done since then in the name of religion, the apostle Peter rightly predicted that “on account of these [professed Christians] the way of the truth [would] be spoken of abusively.” (2 Peter 2:1, 2)
Soon after the death of the apostles, apostate teachers from within the congregation began to take control of it. They spoke “twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts 20:29, 30) As a result, many Christians ‘fell away from the faith.’ They were “turned aside to false stories.” (1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4)
By the fourth century C.E., says The New Dictionary of Theology, “Catholic Christianity had become the official . . . religion of the Roman Empire.” There was a “coalescence of ecclesial and civil society”—a merging of Church and State that was diametrically opposed to the beliefs of the early Christians. (John 17:16; James 4:4) The same source states that in time, the whole structure and nature of the church, as well as many of its fundamental beliefs, was changed radically “under the influence of a curious and thoroughly unhealthy combination of O[ld] T[estament] and neoplatonic models.” As predicted by Jesus Christ, his genuine disciples were hidden from sight as counterfeit Christians flourished, being deeply influenced by Greek philosophy and other pagan teachings.
The apostle Paul foretold something else that would mark this counterfeit religious system. He wrote: “Let no one seduce you in any manner, because [Jehovah’s day] will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed.” (2 Thessalonians 2:2-4) This “man of lawlessness” is none other than the clergy class that exalted itself into a ruling position over the “Christian” congregation.
The apostasy started in the apostle Paul’s day. It accelerated once the apostles died and their restraining influence disappeared. It would be marked, said Paul, by “the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and portents and with every unrighteous deception.” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-12) How accurately that describes the activities of so many religious leaders throughout history !
Augustine (354 C.E.-430 C.E.), to whom the Catholic church has made a "saint" and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order, "was heavily influenced by the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus (205 C.E.- 270 C.E.)".(Wikipedia, Encarta Encyclopedia) He therefore based his "concepts" on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, who taught that the soul is immortal and separate from the body, and not on the "healthful" teachings of the Bible.(1 Tim 6:3) Is this "hellenized" (Greek) form of "truth" acceptable to God ? To the contrary, it fulfills what Jesus said at Matthew 13:24-30 in the illustration of the "wheat and weeds", that the Christianity that Jesus established would be corrupted and Augustine was just one of a long list of so-called "Christians" or "Church Fathers" that corrupted the pure teachings of the Christ.
In support of their claim that Roman Catholicism is the one true church, Catholic leaders say that their bishops have “a life-giving contact with the original apostles by a current of succession which goes back to the beginning.” In truth, this claim of apostolic succession has no historical or Scriptural basis. There is no credible evidence that the church system that arose following the death of Jesus’ apostles was ever directed by God’s holy spirit.(Romans 8:9; Galatians 5:19-21)
And what of the other churches that sprang up following the so-called Reformation? Did they return to the model of the early Christian congregation? Did they restore the purity of the original Christian congregation? It is true that following the Reformation, the Bible became available to many of the common people in their own language. Yet, history shows that these churches continued to teach erroneous doctrines, such as immortality of the soul, hellfire, the trinity, the use of icons in worship.(Matthew 15:7-9)


Help
Sign In »
Register Now!
Bookmark
Del.icio.us
Digg
Email
Facebook
Google
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon


Back to top
MultiQuote








