The bishops – successors of the apostles
Friends, if you wanted to have a stranglehold on your fellow man so that they never felt liberated enough to venture outside what you told them, for fear that they would suffer the tortures of eternal damnation; what kind of tactics might you employ? How about making a list of restricted reading/ viewing material so that you could limit the amount of information that your believers could consult? Would you lie to them about the path to salvation? Would elevate your status to be infallible and give yourself abominable names like the Vicar of Christ (a title that belongs only to the Holy Spirit)? Would you teach that the Savior of mankind can only be accessed through you? That anyone that denies you, denies Christ?
Of course you wouldn’t. Because you love your fellow man and you know that everyone is a sinner and needs immediate access to the same Lord that saved your own soul, despite the fact that you are a wretch and hell bound by your very nature. As a believer in Christ you want your fellow man to know that through faith that he can receive the gift of grace from God, and that it is not enigmatic or complicated. You probably abhor the ideas stated above and wonder why anyone would want to control the eternal spiritual residence of their brethren. If that is so, then we have common ground, and we should take a moment to be thankful to the loving God that we serve, who offered a straightforward plan of salvation to all of mankind.
Despite that, however, there are millions upon millions of people on this earth that will try to convince you salvation is not achieved without the complicated, heretical doctrines of men that have been haphazardly strewn about by “religious leaders” over the centuries. Possibly the most despicable and responsible orator of “Christian” falsehoods over the last millennia has been the Roman Catholic Church. With her many idols and claims of infallibility, she has led many away from the path of salvation pointed out to us by Jesus Christ; and instead builds a path of gold, silver, purple and scarlet that leads to the distraction from simplicity into a complete submissiveness to Rome and her own plan for man’s eternity.
Romish claims to exclusivity in Jesus have been promulgated for centuries and accepted and adhered to worldwide for just as long, as the Catholic Church is required to believe without a doubt, whatever they are instructed to by the popery. Therefore, in our continuing effort to educate our brothers and sisters of false doctrine, the following is submitted. From the Roman Catholic Catechism:
The bishops – successors of the apostles
861 “In order that the mission entrusted to them might be continued after their death, [the apostles] consigned, by will and testament, as it were, to their immediate collaborators the duty of completing and consolidating the work they had begun, urging them to tend to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit had appointed them to shepherd the Church of God. They accordingly designated such men and then made the ruling that likewise on their death other proven men should take over their ministry.” 374
862 “Just as the office which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as first of the apostles, destined to be transmitted to his successors, is a permanent one, so also endures the office, which the apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a charge destined to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of bishops.” 375 Hence the Church teaches that “the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ.
I’ll not spend too much time commenting on the audacity of these statements. While the apostles of Jesus and the bishopric of the Catholic Church fall on opposites sides of the spectrum of truth in Christ, with many opposing characteristics, I believe it is almost better to just let this one speak for itself. It should suffice to close with this:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me: and no man cometh to me but by a Catholic bishop….?
Anyone with even the most sophomoric knowledge of biblical text would know that the above is an incorrect adulteration of John 14:6. But, it sure seems that if the Catholic Church would have just written that in their catechism it would have saved a lot of the lawyeresque rambling and accomplished the same end.
Please friends, do not be duped. Love your neighbors, but don’t follow what is not given of God. Never reject Christ. But, steadfastly reject those that bring you false doctrine in the name of Christ, but which was not of Him. Remember that you and I can “…come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) Boldly, meaning that we do not need a bishop escorting us to that throne.
1But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (2 Peter 2:1)
And these are the Signs of the Times……
—-Anthony Dentler (a 27 year veteran of the Roman Catholic Church…..now a Born Again Believer Saved by the Grace of God )
Quoted Roman Catholic Catechism is credited to and can be found at the following link: www.kofc.org
