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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: The reformers rejected that in favor of the general priesthood of all believers. And the Council of Trent said that anybody who rejects the special priesthood, "let him be anathema," and pronounced the curse of damnation on that. They had to preserve their hierarchical structure. That was critical to them in order to preserve the power. Their view is that Christ, of course, is ultimately the divine head of the church, but he mediates his real authority through one man, who is the Pope, who then disseminates that down through the bishops, and the priests carry out the functions determined by that hierarchy. The Pope is where you start in the Catholic hierarchy, and the Pope is supposed to be the direct successor to the apostle Peter. Christ appointed the apostle Peter to be the visible head of the church, and then determined that that succession would pass down through Peter to a line of apostles, if you will, who would bear that same authority. Council of Trent said: "If anyone says the blessed apostle Peter was not constituted by Christ our Lord prince of all apostles and visible head of the church, a primacy of honor and true jurisdiction, let him be anathema." So you're damned if you assault the priesthood, and you're damned if you assault the papacy of Peter. According to Christ's law in their dogma -- and I'm drawing most of this from a book by Ludwig Ott. It's called Catholic Dogma. It is one of their own systematic theology books which I have read through the years. But according to Christ's law, Peter is to have successors in his primacy over the whole church for all time. And the Council of Trent says if anyone denies that, "let him be anathema." If anyone says that the Roman pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter in the primacy, "let him be anathema." So the Council of Trent pronounced a hundred or more damnations on anybody who questioned anything about the Catholic church. And they were particularly concerned about anybody questioning the hierarchy, because if you question the hierarchy, you can -- you could literally bring down the system. |