By 1579, there were about 130,000 converts, with Japanese Catholics in nearly every social class, and there were hundreds of Catholic churches throughout the country. In 1614, the Tokugawa government banned Catholicism in an effort to expunge foreign influences. All foreign missionaries were ousted and Japanese Catholics directed to apostatize or face torture and execution.What is obvious is that there are no scripture in the New Testament that places such honor and practice IN worship to the New Testament churches.
If you wish to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in testifying of Him in seeking His honor & His glory, you cannot testify of another. As it is, many believers of other denomenations are being disciples of their denomenational church rather than being a disciple of Jesus Christ. If you miss my point, you cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ by being a disciple of the Catholic Church. Either you stick with His words and the NT teachings to the churches or you are sticking to the words of the Catholic Catechism and the added errant extrabiblical teachings given to the churches after the days of the NT churches.
Anyone can see that the Catholic catechism is hardly the simplicity of the gospel any more, and for all that emphasis within it, you can hardly find it in the N.T. scripture, thus accusing Peter, the Catholic chosen and professed "rock" of their church ( which Peter really wasn't ) of being so negligent.
I have seen the movie "Silence" about two Jesuits priests in early Japan during the time that christianity was outlawed and christians ( meaning Catholics) were being persecuted and put to death. The one Jesuit testify of the suffering of Catholics there, having no priest for confessions and the Mass and infant water baptism. Imagine if there was no catholicism where it is out of the way so they can go directly to Jesus Christ. They would not be suffering. They would have no need of "holy relics" that if found, they would be arrested and put to trial by trampling on a stone carving of Jesus or else, be put to death. The Jesuit would not be defending Catholicism in vague generality as being the truth against Buddhism, but defending Jesus Christ and His words in how Jesus Christ is the Truth. So that one missing priest was correct when he said that the Japanese Catholics were dying for him ( the priest played by Andrew Garfield ) because of what he does for them that they so desperately need and were suffering for.
So catholicism does not bring any peace; it robs them of coming to Jesus Christ directly for forgiveness & that peace which can only comes from God. That is what I had seen in that movie titled "Silence" which is now out on DVD. I shall not share how it ended to spoil it, but I point out the spoiling of the Japanese christians under the weight of the works of catholicism.
Jesus is the door. Not the Catholic church. It is in Jesus we have life; not the Catholic church. Salvation is found in Jesus Christ. Not in the Catholic Church.
So a disciple is one that raises another up for all that hear him to go to. His disciple raises up Jesus Christ. Errant believers raises up a church.
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It is in this historical setting that Silence begins. Based on a 1966 book by Japanese author Shusaku Endo, it tells the story of two young Jesuit priests who go to Japan to find their former superior, whom they heard had left the Catholic faith.
The priests become troubled at the horrific torture and gruesome deaths some Japanese martyrs faced rather than renounce their faith by trampling on an image of Jesus Christ or the Blessed Virgin Mary. One of the priests encourages them to apostatize in order to avoid torture, until he himself is faced with the choice to abandon the Catholic faith in the final scene.
A group of Japanese Catholics are tortured, and he is told it will end if he steps on the holy image as a denial of the Faith. It is at that point the priest hears the voice of Christ saying, "You may trample. You may trample. I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. You may trample. It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men's pain that I carried My Cross."
Earlier, the Jesuit superior says to the young priest, "If Christ were here, He would apostatize for their sake," reasoning that [t]o give up your faith is the most painful act of love."
The struggling Jesuit gives in to the alleged voice of Christ, tramples on the image of Christ, thereby making a public renunciation of the Faith. It is on this note that the film ends.
Scorsese's 'Silence' Pushes Apostasy