Well,
fellow Members, this has certainly been an interesting week. Here's
another article I received, just today, regarding a VERY significant
change in viewpoint. I think it is remarkable that we just read about
how we're going around ripping signs down and dragging people into court
on the one hand, but on the other hand we're making nice, lifting up,
and even promoting others. It's like we're cannibalizing ourselves,
self-destructing, it seems. I'm so thankful to God that He's not saving
us in groups. He is saving us INDIVIDUALLY. You can trust that you
will NOT get into Heaven based on the particular church roll your name
is on. You will only get there based on the character you've developed,
who rules your heart, and whether or not your name is listed in the
Lamb's book of Life. PERIOD. I am so thankful that I've never been one
to follow the crowd. I was always taught to know the Lord and His Word
for myself. So everyone is welcome to believe however they choose.
There is FREEDOM in serving the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:17). As for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord according to His Word, regardless
of what man has to say about it.
"Many
will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not
come to the point of yielding the will to God. They do not now choose to
be Christians. The Lord does not propose to save us in companies. Individually we are to make our choice (Faith I Live By 154.7).
God's
people (individuals) can and will be found all over the world,
regardless of group. So while the different groups are waffling back
and forth and running along after whatever the particular wind of
doctrine of the day is, God's people will be making their calling and
election sure. They will one day be part of the TRUE FOLD. Just so
we're clear. What we're witnessing is the Church Militant. May we ALL strive to be members of the Church Triumphant!
"I
lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not
of this fold; them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice; and
there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." John 10:15-16 Christ is not
only the propitiation for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole
world. {Signs of the Times, January 22, 1894}
Remember,
the "old" view that is being spoken against in the article below was
based STRICTLY off of the Bible and the Bible alone. So when we throw
that "old" view out, what are really saying? What do we do with Bible
Prophecy? And if the Bible is wrong, then what do we do about the rest
of what we believe?
Martin Luther (who's motto was also Sola Scriptura) identified the Antichrist over 500 years ago! (along with many others):
The quote copied below is from one of Martin Luther's last books. It was titled: "A Prelude by Martin Luther on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church," Page 536, chapter 3.
"Nevertheless, since few know this glory of baptism and the
blessedness of Christian liberty, and cannot know them because of the
tyranny of the pope, I for one will walk away from it all and redeem my
conscience by bringing this charge against the pope and all his papists:
Unless they will abolish their laws and traditions, and restore to
Christ's churches their liberty and have it taught among them, they are
guilty of all the souls that perish under this miserable captivity, and the papacy is truly the kingdom of Babylon, yes, the kingdom of the real Antichrist!
For who is " the man of sin" and "the son of perdition" but he that
with his doctrines and his laws increases sins and the perdition of
souls in the Church, while he sits in the Church as if he were God? All
this the papal tyranny has fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, these
many centuries. It has extinguished faith, obscured the sacraments and
oppressed the Gospel."
Keep in mind that it was NEVER the Roman Catholics who were on the
"Hook" in the first place. It was the Roman Catholic System. God has
precious souls in the Roman Catholic Church and in other denominations
all over the world. So even the topic of the article below is
deceptive.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one. Read it and weep
Adventist Today Magazine January 04, 2010
|
Letting Roman Catholics Off the Hook
Posted January 4th, 2010 by Loren Seibold
Editor's
Note: This is a preview article that appears on page 22 of our
brand-new winter 2010 print issue being delivered to our subscribers
this month.
By Loren Seibold
For over a century, even before the publication of The Great Controversy, we Adventists have regarded the Roman Catholic Church leadership, typified in the first beast of Revelation 13, as our arch-nemesis, our bĂȘte noire, the enemy that takes the evil part in the apocalyptic scenario against God's remnant.
Here are seven reasons why it may be time to question them in that role.
1. More than a hundred years have passed since our prophet approved these prophetic applications. Ellen White expected Jesus to return long before this.1We're
not sure why that hasn't happened. But isn't it possible that some
details of the apocalyptic scenario set out in the 1890s may have
changed by the 2010s? It happened to Israel. Not all of the original Old Testament prophecies about them and their role came to pass. We call it "conditional prophecy."
2. Principles might be more diagnostic than players. That we oppose those who would legislate matters
that should be left to an individual's conscience is a principle I
value, and I'm proud of Seventh-day Adventist efforts to protect
religious liberty. But if it should happen that someone other than the Roman Catholic Church begins to act like the beast of Revelation 13, we will be more ready to respond if we are watching for a violation of the principle than if waiting for one specific group to offend.
3. Ellen White fingered Catholicism in a very different world. Historians have shown that 19th-century American anti-Catholicism grew out of a general anti-immigrant nativism.2 In an era when we have had and could again have a liberty-loving Roman Catholic president, when Catholic immigrants have become our young work force, why can't we preach the gospel without identifying Roman Catholicism as Satan's exclusive tool?
4. The Roman Catholic Church of today is a much different institution than it was during Ellen White's time.The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-1965)
radically altered that denomination's theology and practices. Vatican
II declared the gospel central to church theology, made worship
accessible, denied that Roman Catholics only can be saved, encouraged
lay Bible study, and affirmed religious liberty. While not quite a Protestant Reformation, today's Catholic Church is not the same Catholic Church referenced in our 19th-century eschatological studies. Among other things, the Second Ecumenical Council weakened Vatican authority
over world Catholics-as evidenced by the 78 percent of American
Catholics who oppose their church's ban on contraception.3
5. By focusing on Roman Catholicism, we may miss more dangerous anti-Christian opponents. Far
more Christians have been killed, persecuted, or denied their religious
liberty by Communism, military Fascism, and Islamist extremism in the
past century than by Roman Catholics; we've let these pass with minimal
comment (in the case of Naziism, even
offering some pusillanimous cooperation) as we continued to warn against
the pope. Today religious liberty still has more dangerous enemies than
Catholicism–in the United States, perhaps even some of our fellow conservative Protestants.
6. God has given us time to become a world church, and that changes the cast of characters in our eschatology. The "antichrists"-opposers of Christ–to many of today's world Christians are radical imams or cruel dictators. One site of Christian persecution right now is northern Nigeria, where Muslims burn churches and killChristians.4 An eschatology that expects only Roman Catholics to initiate religious oppression, only in the United States, and only around the Sabbath question, may fail to speak prophetically should apocalyptic markers appear elsewhere.
7. Religious liberty has arguably improved in countries where Catholicism has influence. During my lifetime, the papacy has frequently been a force for peace and freedom. Pope John Paul II opened
the first breach in the Iron Curtain, and Catholics have been more
forthright in speaking against violence and oppression than many of our
fellow conservative Protestants. Consider the irony that our evangelists
are employing anti-Catholic teachings for soul winning in countries
where the papacy helped win them that freedom! (And the even greater irony that some of us still think that calling the Pope the Antichrist is necessary to win souls to Christ.)
Of
course, we don't give the Roman Catholic church a free pass; we subject
it to the same Biblical scrutiny we would any other influential world
power. (And while we're at it, we'd do well always to scrutinize
ourselves by the same metrics we use on others–which is Jesus' advice,
not mine.5)
But
perhaps we needn't single out Roman Catholicism any longer. Ellen
White, who was often more flexible than her followers, wrote: "God wants
us all to have common sense, and He wants us to reason from common
sense. Circumstances alter conditions. Circumstances change the relation
of things."6
Roman
Catholicism has served us well as an enemy: provocative enough to keep
us energized, yet doing minimal actual damage to us. Such an important
enemy made us feel significant, "in the know," and in control, while not
really disturbing our lives.
Opposing current enemies
might thrust us into prophetic roles that take more commitment and
action. My friend Bert B. Beach, speaking of Adventist eschatology, once
said to me: "I'm suspicious when people are constantly focused on
what's going to happen in the future. I think they're trying to avoid
dealing with what's going on right now."
I think Bert is on to something. Could we become as enthusiastic in taking on the religious persecution that's happening to Christians right now, in places like Nigeria, as we've been in accusing Roman Catholicism of planning to someday persecute us here? -Adventist today magazine Jan. 04, 2010
1 She wasn't alone; the apostles expected Jesus in their lifetimes, too (see Matt. 24:34, Heb. 1:1-2, 2 Thess. 1:6-10).
2 See Ernest Tuveson's Redeemer Nation and John Higham's Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925.
5 "For
in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the
measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Matt. 7:2, NIV).
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