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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 you have this leader who has total power over the entire church; not in their view just those who are faithful Catholics, but anybody else who claims to be a Christian and has wandered astray. He has total power to judge over all matters of faith -- that's doctrine -- and morals -- that's conduct; all matters of discipline, all adjudications in the life of the church. And when he makes any such judgment at any point, he is infallible and God Himself in heaven confirms the Pope's judgment, because he is "preserved from error." And therefore, whatever he says stands permanently as the truth of God and cannot be reformed or changed. Under him are the bishops, and they possess divine right. But theirs is called an ordinary power of government over their dioceses; an ordinary power, rather than an extraordinary power, such as the Pope has, of infallibility. "They have an ordinary power," as their dogma says it, "of government over their dioceses. Only Popes and bishops possess this power by divine right. All others possess it by the church's granting it. It is therefore that the Pope and the bishops are like the apostles, appointed personally by Christ, and the priests and deacons appointed by the church." Bishops are seen as successors of the apostles, who receive their power not from Christ directly, but from Christ mediated to them through the Pope, who once was one of them. The Pope then acts for Christ, infallibly in all matters of the church, including appointing and empowering the bishops. And the clergy, as they're called, the priests, come along to obey this hierarchical structure. The bishops do not determine the dogma. In the end, it is the Pope and the collective council affirmed by the Pope that determine the doctrine. So you get down to the priests. The dioceses are broken down into parishes. And you're familiar with that, I think. And in the parishes are the priests, and they have responsibility to conduct seven sacraments. This is basically what they do. By law, there are seven sacraments and only seven: Baptism; confirmation, which is something that happens around the age of 12 when your baptism into the kingdom of God, your baptism, which is an expression of divine empowering grace, is confirmed. Then Eucharist, which is the communion, the mass. Then penance, which is the process by which you atone for your sins by the payment of some price or some act; extreme unction, which is what you give somebody when they're dying, and you see the priest rushing in; holy order. And holy order, one of the seven sacraments, is that sacrament by which the priests and bishops are set apart. The other one is matrimony or marriage. |