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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: Brian: While I grieve with you over the recent events, I do not think that the blaming of society and the state for the sins of certain church leaders is a biblical way of addressing the issue. You wrote: "Society cannot have morally strong adults (including religious leaders) if they are not given proper guidance from childhood on." And it is the parents in the church who are raising these future leaders, for the most part. No matter what the state or society does, it is the covenantal responsability of parents to educate their children in the things of God (Deuteronomy 6). The early church faced a pagan culture that perhaps even makes ours somewhat pale in comparison. Christianity transformed the culture not by being "a mirror reflecting the image of today's society," but by standing apart as salt and light in the midst of moral decay. The events of recent days have been tragic and reflect poorly on the name of Christ, and for that everyone who bears his name should be in fervent prayer. However, when a body that claims to be the church of Jesus Christ is caught publicly in sin, the course of action is not to pass blame on society and the libraries or minimize its own guilt in not only the perpetrating but in the covering-up of sin, but to confess its sin and repent before almighty God and the watching world. --Joe! |