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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: Wow...a rant befitting the "Caps Lock" key! Okay, I know you have the word "freak" in your name, but let's take a deep breath and discuss like reasoning people. I agree that the work of Christ alone is the grounds for our justification. I am about as much of a classical Protestant as one can be. However, I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement you made: "The church cannot do a thing for you. It's full of hard hearted, spiritually blind, legalistic, religious, arogant and prideful individuals." Let's see what the Bible says about the ministry of the church: "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love." --Ephesians 4:11-16 We are differently gifted and called together to minister to one another. That is what God does for the believer through the ministry of the church. And it is also the context in which the individual believer ministers to her brothers and sisters in Christ. "For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." --Romans 12:4-5 Christians do not only belong to Christ, but to each other as well. That is the church, the household of God. We are ONE BODY (excuse the caps). We may be saved as individuals, but the Christian life is not exclusively an individual one. The New Testament makes that quite clear. We as believers derive benefits and have responsibilities to the church. Just out of curiosity, assuming you do fellowship with other believers, do you walk in the door on Sundays and greet your brothers and sisters in Christ by referring to them as "hard hearted, spiritually blind, legalistic, religious, arogant and prideful individuals"? There is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to be sure, but there is also a corporate one as well. To deny that is to deny the Bible and God's means of grace. Things like the Lord's Supper make absolutely no sense outside of the COMMUNION of the saints (sorry about the caps). Let's take a look at the earliest example of the new Testament church to see how God worked: "Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." --Acts 2:46-47 Seems like the church was busy, and God was busy saving people and adding them to the CHURCH (those caps again!). There is no question that God's church is a work in progress, and no stranger to sin. However, if you completely reject the church, I would have serious doubts as to whether you truly understand the gospel at all. The work of God's kingdom is a corporate work shared by all who are called according to His purpose. We are a covenant community just as the nation of Israel was, and Jesus makes it quite clear in the opening chapters of Revelation that he will remove His lampstand from among entire congregations for not dealing with the sins of individual believers within the body. Like it or not, all of us who possess saving faith in Jesus Christ are in this together, and we would best heed the words of the apostle Paul: "Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in ONE SPIRIT, with ONE MIND striving together for the faith of the gospel" --Philippians 1:27 --Joe! |