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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: You wrote: "By the way, I am not grieving for my Church." I didn't say that we should be grieving for your Chruch, Brian. We should be grieving the the name of Christ has been maligned by those who are called to glorify it. And as always, we should be grieving over sin in all its forms, both our personal ones as well as those we see in the world as a result of the Fall. You wrote: "It's not perfect, and it never will be." The church of Jesus Christ will one day be perfect, and for that I rejoice. "This is not the first time the Catholic Church has had any issues and it won't be the last." You seem to want to make this a Catholic/Protestant issue. I will readily acknowledge that Protestants have committed grievous sins, even sins identical to the ones being thrown around in the press today. In those cases, repentance and removal from ministry is called for, and if the superiors of such individuals covered up those sins, they should be called into account as well. God established church discipline in order to keep Christ's bride pure in doctrine and in practice. In my estimation, biblical church discipline ranks up there with the ministry of the word and the sacraments as marks of a true, functioning church. As I have said before, I am saddened by the treatment of the RCC in the media. It angers me that Jay Leno has to make his nightly joke about priests and pedophilia. But while the RCC is a victim of the persecution of the press, it is by no means an innocent victim. To point fingers and say that the world is just as guilty of the same sins is no defense of the actions of priests who have committed these crimes and the bishops who have covered up and defended them or excused them. Such iniquity is to be expected of the unregenerate, but not of the household of God. We who are Christians are indeed not perfect, but we have been called to a higher standard than the perishing world. --Joe! |