Now that it is clear that there is no one accusing me (because no one has condemned me), I wish to make clear what sins Jesus is not guilty of (in that He would have to take the punishment for my sins here if they were indeed committed).
I have been accused of three lies:
1) I said, "Perhaps Diotrephes was the first Pope";
2) I said that Constantine was the first Pope; and,
3) I said that it is the teaching of the Catholic Church that salvation is by works.
The first, technically, was not a lie; because I spoke it as a suggestion and not as an absolute statement. If I had said, "Diotrephes
was the first Pope" it could have been counted as a lie. But I used the word "Perhaps" qualifying my statement as, "it may or may not be" and therefore my statement cannot be counted as an out-and-out lie.
The second statement, that Constantine was the first Pope, I will admit was "calumny" as
@BreadOfLife has spoken; and I have repented of saying this. I will never say it again. I believed it because it was what I was told. If someone ignorantly repeats something that turns out to be false in the end, it can only be determined to be a deliberate lie if the person telling it knows it to be a lie. If they believe it to be the truth, then from their perspective they are telling the truth; until they are corrected. And this sin, whatever it was, is now underneath the blood.
The third statement really does have a basis in history for my continuing to believe that it is true; even though it is being denied by certain proponents of Catholicism here.
First, Catholic teachers on here have stated that there is efficacy in works for salvation; and this indicates salvation by works, no matter how you slice it.
Secondly, it was the contention of Martin Luther in church history that salvation is by grace through faith apart from works; and this was opposed by some in the Catholic Church in his day. So then, at the very least, the Catholic Church taught salvation by works in Martin Luther's day; in that they opposed the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith apart from works. So, if they do not still teach it today, is it not because they have changed their position in order to fit the Protestant view more closely? This would indicate that they were wrong before and that the Protestants were right. If Catholics can be wrong and Protestants right on this isssue, what other issues might the Protestants be right about, and the Catholics wrong? But if they did not change their position, then it is a lie to say that the Catholics don't preach salvation by works; which lie has been told by
@BreadOfLife.
(two other lies that he has told have been that he never lies and then, later, he said that he always tells the truth; and there are more; which I will not mention here).
Therefore, from what I can see, two of the three lies that I supposedly told were not lies at all; and the other, being not a deliberate lie but an unwitting repeating of misinformation, can not be held against me on my day of judgment as Revelation 21:8 condemnation; as it is also confessed, repented of, and under the blood.
