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NASB | Jude 1:4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed [just as if they were sneaking in by a side door]. They are ungodly persons whose condemnation was predicted long ago, for they distort the grace of our God into decadence and immoral freedom [viewing it as an opportunity to do whatever they want], and deny and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. |
Subject: Scandal of the Catholic Priesthood |
Bible Note: If you did a poll in America, how many Roman Catholics believe in only using the rhythm method to prevent birth or conception? You would find that it's a very small percentage. They don't abide by Catholic dogma or Catholic law. The priests don't live by Catholic law or certainly biblical law. But those laws never change. They just keep absorbing the dissidents, so there's never a fracture. That's is why the Reformation was such an unbelievable assault on the church, because it was a true fracture. You couldn't even estimate the power that God unleashed through the reformers to deal a devastating blow to the system in the Reformation. In a new catechism, Catechism of the Catholic church, to show you where the emphasis lies, there are nine paragraphs dedicated to the subject of justification. There are 84 paragraphs dedicated to the mass. That's what it's all about, and that's what the priest does. Now, now you understand the position of the priest. He's -- operates in the area of the sacraments; primarily, the mass. As we think about that, let's go behind the priesthood and talk about the issue of celibacy, because this has been debated. I think the latest statistics I've seen in America would be something like 80 percent or 70-some percent of Roman Catholics thinks -- think the priests should be able to be married. So they have a hard time swallowing the celibate issue in this country, whereas those statistics might not be the same in other parts of the world. But let me talk about celibacy a little bit. Celibacy has become an obligatory law of the Roman church imposed on all priests. And they -- they try to build that on Matthew 19, where Jesus said: "There are eunuchs for the kingdom" of God. Remember that? Some men are eunuchs from birth; some are made eunuchs and some are eunuchs for the kingdom of God. There are people who are unable to procreate physiologically because of some malformation. There are people who are unable to procreate because they have been wounded, harmed through some violence. And there are some people who choose not to marry. In fact, the apostle Paul says that in some ways being single is better, right? 1st Corinthians 7. Because you don't have to worry about a wife and the family, and you can devote yourself to the Lord. But he also says in 1st Corinthians 7: "It is better to marry than to" -- what? "Than to burn." "Better to marry than to burn" with passion. And certainly, 1st Corinthians 7 makes it very clear that singleness is not preferable to marriage. To make celibacy mandatory is utterly unbiblical. They try to show that Paul taught celibacy. They try to twist the scripture to make Peter into an unmarried man, so that in 1 Corinthians 9 Verse 5 where he says he has the right to "lead about a wife," the confraternity version of the Bible, the Catholic Bible, says he has the right to lead about a sister. But it's not the word "adelphe," sister. It is the word "gunaikas," which is wife. Now what I've been saying is that celibacy is not mandated by the scripture whatsoever. In fact, there is a reference to celibacy in the Bible, and I want to read it to you. 1st Timothy Chapter 4, listen to what the apostle Paul wrote: "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, both of which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer." |