PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD by Teresa Beem

It got to him. It got to him while he was laughing at some little vulgarity or wickedness. He did not know that his laughter benumbed him to the hideous shadow slipping into his thoughts.

It infected him…

Then he then became his own nightmare, in that he was willing to destroy himself that he may wound his enemy.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. This dark, suicidal presence that cannot yet be conceived of, is standing so close its breath is upon your neck. 

"Yes, laugh, mock. It feels good."

"It has no power. You have power."

Those calming whispers do not come from rational men, but from the very ghoul itself. It wants you to believe it is playing, teasing you. It wants you to believe it will have mercy upon the nice people. That it is forgiving and ….. likes you. That somehow you will be the exception when it begins to rule. You will be a favorite in its kingdom. Do not be that stupid.

This dark unstoppable force is very much like the zombies in the clip above. 

It is sin. 

If sin doesn't scare the hell out of you, then you do not know sin. Sin is your most frightening enemy. It doesn't just want you, it wants your siblings, your spouse, your children. 

Sin's obsession with you has nothing to do with hate, for it has no feelings towards humans--you mean nothing to it for it has no heart, no understanding. It is not rational and cannot be persuaded by the greatest human genius. It gives no thought to the innocent or the elderly or the kind-hearted or most sincere. It's goal is utter annihilation. And you cannot join its side and live through it.

Sin has declared war on you and your family whether or not you wish to fight. And it is unstoppable until you and the entire world is destroyed. 

You cannot become a conscientious objector in this battle against sin. You have no hiding place. Do you believe that if you are quiet and still, this evil will not see you?… It has eyes all around and while you cower in a dark corner an axe is poised above your head. It will win. Destruction will win at any cost and it is not playing.

While Christians are right in that Christ won the cosmic war with Satan, those of us on earth are still left vulnerable to sin's madness if we have not put on the whole armor of God. 

Look at what sin did to the Creator and He who is love itself. (Ephesians 6)

  

That day of evil is here. Will you be able to stand?

PETER'S FAITH OR PETER?

Seriously, I could do nothing here but link to the Shameless Popery website and be done with it. What a place to find brilliant sparkling theological gems! So, I am just going to repost parts of Joe Heschmeyer's answer to the Protestant's claim that Matthew 16:18 is about Peter's faith, rather than Peter himself. And to make things even more amazing, is that this guy is just a kid! A seminarian! I can't wait to read his wisdom when he gets a few years under his belt. 

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2013

Is "The Rock" of Matthew 16:18 St. Peter? Or His Confession of Faith?

One of the most hotly-contested passages in Catholic-Protestant dialogues is the “Upon This Rock” passage in Matthew 16:18. After the Apostle Simon confesses faith in Jesus as the Messiah (the Christ), Jesus says to him:

“And I tell you, you are Peter, [Petros] and on this rock [petra] I will build my church, and the powers of death [Hades] shall not prevail against it.” 

So is Jesus founding His Church upon Peter, the first pope, as Catholics say? Or is He just saying that the Church will be built off of those who confess faith in Jesus as the Christ, as many Protestants claim?

I’ve previously presented the case for the Catholic interpretation before, but that’s not what I’m going to do today. In this post, I want to show why the popular Protestant interpretation doesn't work.

First, let's examine the Scriptural passage in context (Matthew 16:13-19):

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesare′a Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli′jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In the span of just three of those verses, Jesus addresses Peter personally ten times. Yet under the Protestant interpretation, we’re supposed to believe that this passage wasn’t meant to apply to Peter personally. It’s allegedly addressed to any Christian making such a profession like the one that Peter makes: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

There are a couple glaring problems with this theory. First, we hear Martha making this exact declaration in John 11:27, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.” And you know what Christ doesn’t do? Change her name to Petra, and promise to build the Church upon her. Nor do we see any of the other Christians in the New Testament renamed Peter. The only person in Scripture ever referred to as “Peter” is the Apostle Simon. This looks a lot like Jesus meant to build the Church upon Peter, and not just anyone willing to declare Him the Messiah.

But okay, we don’t know whether Martha or Peter’s confession of faith came first. So maybe Jesus addresses Matthew 16:18 to Peter because Peter got there first?

Well, this raises the other, even more-glaring problem: Peter didn’t get there first. John 1:32-49 eliminates any room for the Protestant interpretation of the “Upon This Rock” passage. Here it is:

And John bore witness, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter) 

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Beth-sa′ida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathan′a-el, and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathan′a-el said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathan′a-el coming to him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” Nathan′a-el said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathan′a-el answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

This passage is fantastic. We hear a series of proclamations of the faith:

1. John the Baptist proclaims Jesus as the Son of God (John 1:34) and the Lamb of God (John 1:36). 
2. The Apostle Andrew, Simon’s brother, proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ (John 1:41). 

1. The Apostle Philip proclaims Jesus as “him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote,” which is to say, the Messiah (John 1:45). 

1. The Apostle Nathaniel proclaims Jesus as “the Son of God” and “the King of Israel” (John 1:49).

In fact, the only person named in this passage who doesn’t profess faith in Christ is Simon Peter. He’s not recorded as saying anything. And yet right in the midst of this flurry of Messianic proclamations, Jesus does something astounding. He turns to Simon, and as if He has been waiting for him, says “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas.” It’s remarkable that Jesus should do this: He calls Simon by name, including his family name (so to speak). He does the exact same thing in Matthew 16:18. This is as personal as it gets. And as St. John notes, Cephas is the Aramaic word for rock, and is translated into Greek as Petros, and into English as “Peter.”

So John 1 basically shows us that: (1) everyone but Simon proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah; (2) Jesus then announced that Simon, Son of John, was the one He would choose as the Rock; and (3) Protestants are left spending five hundred years trying to explain why this passage doesn't mean that Simon is really the Rock, or is personally the Rock, etc.

Bear in mind, this event happens at the very start of Jesus’ public ministry, long before the events of Matthew 16. This eliminates any chance that Simon is named Peter because he’s the first to declare Jesus the Christ. Jesus was being declared as Messiah before Peter had even met Him. Instead, Jesus has made it abundantly clear that He, the Sovereign God, specifically chose Peter as the Rock.

Peter is hand-picked from among the crowd, even when he is surrounded by men who seem like they would be better candidates. It is another reminder that “the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). And Peter alone is renamed. We may all be rocks (Peter calls us “living stones” in 1 Peter 2:5) but Jesus (the “Living Stone” in the fullest sense, 1 Peter 2:4) chose one from among of us, the Apostle Peter, to be the Rock upon which He built the Church.

Update: Two additional points, worth mentioning, were raised in the comments:

1. Many Protestants base their rejection of the Catholic view off of the supposed difference in meaning between Petros and Petra. That difference in meaning doesn’t really exist in the Greek spoken at the time of Christ. But in any case, as John 1:43 shows, Jesus named Peter “Cephas” in Aramaic, which is the exact same word as “Rock.” In Aramaic it’s Cephas and cephas; literally translating that to Greek would give you Petra and petra, which is a problem, since Petra is feminine, and can’t be used as a man’s name. So St. Matthew renders it as the male Petros instead.
2. Even if Protestants were right about the proper interpretation of “the Rock” in Matthew 16, the broader passage still supports the papacy, since it shows the foundation of an institutional Church, and the giving of specific powers (the Keys, and the powers of binding/loosening) to Peter individually. For this reason, you can have Fathers like St. Augustine, who aren’t sure on the proper interpretation of “the Rock,” but are steadfast in their belief in the papacy, based upon Petrine authority.
   
   In fact, even if Matthew 16 didn’t exist, there would still be abundant support for the papacy throughout the rest of Scripture and in the testimony of the early Christians.

Faith Alone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1vTqpZCIlc

Did You Receive John's Baptism or Jesus'?

   

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.…and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Mark 1: 4, 5, Matt. 3: 6, Luke 3:3 

Israel was expecting the long awaited Messiah. 

John, son of a the renown priest Zechariah threw off the royal priestly robes, rejected the choicest meats and first fruits set aside for his family, put on rugged clothing and fled to Jordan's wilderness to survive on what he could find to eat. 

John baptized with water those who confessed their sins. And this baptism for the forgiveness of sins was, in fact, itself declaring that the great and dreadful day of the Lord had come!

As wonderful as the Baptism of John was for Israel, this baptism was not required, nor could it bestow grace or confer the Holy Spirit upon the baptized. It was a symbol of the forgiveness that was to come. John's baptism did not give the Jew entrance into the New Covenant Kingdom of Heaven. This baptism was making straight the way of the Lord. It was a baptism of preparation. 

Then, one day, it happened. John cried out, "Behold! The Lamb of God!" The Anointed One came to him for baptism. John's baptism was coming to an end, as the Kingdom of God had arrived. Here was the King!

And a new baptism began. It was the baptism of Christ. 

Though Jesus' baptism was similar to John's in that, after repentance and confession, the water baptism gives us forgiveness of our sins. The Christian is require to be baptized with the Trinitarian formula, "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" and it is much much more than a symbol. As circumcision was the rite to enter the Hebraic covenant, baptism is the rite that brings one into the Kingdom of Heaven and the New Covenant. (Acts 1: 37-38, Col. 2:9-14)

This new one baptism unites us all in the one Spirit and one Body. In fact, it give us each the fire of the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4: 5, I Cor. 12: 13, Acts 2:38, Matt. 3:11)

When we are baptized into Christ, we are born again in newness of life, our sins are washed away, it gives  us a clear conscience and disarms the dark powers and principalities who have enslaved us in sin.  (Acts 22: 16, Col. 2: 15, Rom. 6: 6-12) 

With this baptism we die and are raised with Christ! 

[All] baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Rom. 6: 3-5 

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands….you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. Col. 2: 11-13

With baptism, we put on Christ and enter His Kingdom, for it is through baptism we are saved! Peter tells us this in his first letter. Paul tells us this in his letter to the Galatians. But most importantly Christ tells us this through the gospels:

 Baptism...now saves you. I Peter 3: 21 

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Galatians 3: 27

He who believes and is baptized will be saved. Mark 16: 16. 

John's baptism for the washing away of sins was a symbolic cleansing. If Christian baptism is also a symbol then John's baptism should have been sufficient. If one's sins were symbolically cleansed by John what would be the point of a second symbolic cleansing of sins? Yet, those who had been baptized in John had to be rebaptized as Christians. (Acts 11:16; 18:3-6) This is because we are truly reborn, transformed, regenerated when we are baptized into Christ, for it is much more than a  cleansing of sin.

Many Christian denominations today claim a person is saved, born-again, when he believes and asks Jesus to come into his heart. Some teach that baptism is an unnecessary, symbolic rite that does not give the transforming power of God. Yet this man-made tradition does not come from scripture. 

When these denominations claim that baptism only symbolically washes away our sins, they are, in effect, speaking of John's baptism, not Christ's. For it is only through the baptism that Christ required, that we are truly given grace and the Holy Spirit. It is not a symbol, scriptures record, but a rite of initiation that literally saves us and bring us into His kingdom. 

A miraculous experience of Christ coming into our hearts and believing in Him is a wonderful life-changing event, but it does not wash away our sins. An experience does not bury and raise us with Christ. Scripture confirms that only when we die with Christ, are buried and are raised with Him through the rite of baptism, that our sins are literally washed away and we walk in newness of life. It is through baptism that we are born-again.

Grace Helps Us Confront Pain, Not Ignore It

A couple of decades ago when I was attending a Christian Women's

Conference, a Jewish holocaust survivor spoke about facing life's pains. During WWII, the Nazis had kept her alive to entertain them because she was a great dancer. She watched her sister walk into the gas chambers. Both of her parents were gassed. Then she explained that it was only after the holocaust that the momentous task of facing what had happened to her began. It was then, a different and more arduous hell lay ahead. Dealing with it. She told us that no matter what you have been through it is harder to face your life than live it. 

Because of her experience, she warned us of the dangers of what she was witnessing in America. She said she was amazed at what we will do to  avoid the painful task of self-examination. Americans take legal (anti-depressants) and illegal drugs, alcohol, glut themselves with entertainment or distraction, all in an effort to keep from thinking seriously about our lives. 

She told us not to run from or ignore pain, regrets and the bad choices of our lives but to look at them and deal with them constructively. Let our life experience bring us wisdom instead of always trying to be happy and having fun. 

Afterward her speech, I was very vocal in protesting what I thought was a very anti-gospel, pagan, Socratic, "an unexamined life is not worth living" talk. I asked those who put the conference together, "Why ask a Jewish woman to speak to us? She obviously didn't understand grace and the importance of keeping our eyes upon Christ--not ourselves in a self-examination. We needed to hear that Christ will wipe away our tears and that we need to be filled with joy because our sins are washed away and cast into the depths of the sea never to be thought of again by us or anyone else!  We don't need to face it, Christ faced it for us. Christ takes away our pain, right?"

As I grew in Christ, I realized I was wrong and the Jewish woman was correct. Scripture doesn't say that God takes away the effects of sin--after all, we still die as punishment for Adam's sin. Although Jesus took away the eternal penalty of our sins, we still suffer for them here, now. And like the holocaust survivor, we not only suffer for our sins, but we suffer for the sins others do to us, the sins we personally were not responsible for.

There is some universal, unspoken understanding among Christians that we are not to think about nor feel our sins or deep wounds. We should always be feeling happy.

I know a lot of Christians who spend an enormous amount of time in religious escapism. They find a church whose main focus is on feeling good, with upbeat, loud and energetic praise songs with a captivating minister, where everyone is staying positive, with nary a word about the tragedy of sin. So, when the worship is over and they have to go home or to work and face a sinful world and a sinful them, the spiritual high leaves. 

We really do need to examine our life. That is not self-centered.  

God's grace pours out upon us not so that we can ignore pain in our life, but to give us the courage and strength to face it. For when we soberly, in the quiet of the morning or evening kneeling to God, mentally walk straight into the scary, dark and painful places in our hearts, we can then begin the healing process--both in repentance to God and forgiveness of ourselves and others. It is in these fires of self-examination that we are purged and healed from our deepest wounds.

Don't think if you have never really sat and looked at your life that it will be easy. You have to get past all the years of white noise.

Then when we finally start looking at our lives, we tend to excuse behavior or ignore it. It takes practice and determination to go through our cluttered mental attic. But most of all, it takes courage because you will desire to flee from pain. Stick with it. Find the source of your pain: cowardice, sexual immorality, covetousness, feeling anger towards some childhood injustice or wrong,  feeling loneliness, abandonment, a distrust of everyone that makes you a control freak. Perhaps you have drifted from God and you feel guilt, not at anything big, but the knowledge that He is no longer first in your life.

Then when you think you have found what has been keeping the volume of white noise so loud in your brain, give it to God through prayer. If you need to: repent. Then ask for the grace to forgive and heal. 

One great way of healing is to stop sinning! So do whatever it takes to stop doing whatever it is that is breaking your relationship with God. Above all else, pray and if you feel you need to, fast and find a good supportive church with faithful Catholics in attendance. Perhaps even start going to daily mass. 

Some of the pain in our lives is because of sin--something we did, are doing or some sin that someone did or is doing to us. We have to face it.

We want the process of healing and holiness to be easy. It is not. But it is the only path to true joy. And joy is there, along with peace. It's worth it. 

Michael Voris Speaks About His Program, "The Vortex"