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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: So what happened was this mandate tempted all kinds of immorality. Now remember: These people aren't converted, right? They can't be, because they have an aberrant theology. So they have no power to restrain the flesh, right? The abodes of priests then at this period of time and throughout the middle ages became dens of corruption. It was common to see the worst and grossest kinds of sin carried on by priests. There were some who took a vow of chastity and made an effort to be pure. But a vow of celibacy was not a vow of chastity. And, by the way, according to canon law -- this is Roman church law -- a vow of celibacy is broken if the priest marries. But it's not broken if he engages in sexual relationships. You don't break the vow of celibacy, says canon law, by sexual relationships. You have to marry to break the law of celibacy. So a celibate priesthood has nothing to say about the conduct. And further, and I'm reading from dogma: "Pardon for sexual relations comes by confession to a fellow priest." Hmm. That's all you have to do. You tell me yours; I'll tell you mine, right? That's all you have to do to get it expunged. You know, that's just as an aside, but that whole confessional thing: You take men with normal sexual passions; you put them in a situation where that is restrained and they have to restrain it without any divine power, which is impossible to do, driven by lust, the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life." That's what makes people tick. You put them like that, put them in monasteries, put them in seminaries, put them in enclaves with other men with the same kind of pent-up sexual frustrations. And then all day, every day, stick them in a confessional booth in anonymity where they sit and listen to everybody parade all their iniquities by. And you tell me that's a healthy environment, and that an unconverted man is going to sit in that environment and think holy thoughts? That's a compounding of the curse. It produces a level of hypocrisy that's staggering. By the way, you get absolution from sexual sin by confession to a fellow priest. Absolution for any priest who marries, you only get one way, from the Pope. From the Pope. You've got to go all the way to the Pope to get absolution. And then it comes with severe penalty. Why? Because they care more about a priest who marries and the impact that will have on the power of the system, than they do about a priest who commits sexual sin. Marriage is far worse to them than sexual sin, because it threatens the church's power and property. And yet, isn't it bizarre that the Roman Catholic church holds that marriage is a sacrament, the sacrament of matrimony? And yet, it's a sacrament of matrimony that the "most holy" quote people, priests and nuns, are denied. And by the way, the Council of Trent pronounced anathema against all who teach that the marriage state is preferable to celibacy. So they damned anybody who thinks that marriage is preferable. You know, Jesus even said not all men can bear that. Paul said: "It is better to marry than to burn." Let me tell you: That's true even for non-priest single people who prolong their singleness. You know, just give you a little advice? Find somebody. Don't wait for the Messiah; just find somebody. String yourself out, and compound your temptation. And in the eyes of the priesthood, there is an inherent uncleanness in marriage. And it's a hang-over from that sort of Manichean-Gnostic idea of the evil of the flesh. There's an uncleanness in romantic desire; there's an uncleanness in normal love; there's something shameful in that. And that the desire for procreation is somehow the enemy of spiritual devotion. You know, I really -- my heart goes out to priests. They are literally -- I think they are literally in many cases sexual time bombs. It's only a question of when it's going to go. That group of people in themselves has such a warped view of marriage, because they are so fixated on the sexual aspect of it. They think marriage is all about sex and procreating little Catholics, and that's all it is. |