It's noteworthy to point out that the history of mankind is void of the concept of an individual citizen's right to exercise freedom of choice in religion. Religion was viewed as a tribal ... a cultural ... a national identifier, much like an official national language. None the less, the early Protestants saw the Catholic Church as the competition ... and the repressor of their newly proposed thesis statement. The new thesis was that they could commit any sin they wanted and still go to Heaven.
Martin Luther stated, "Sin boldly, and then believe in God's mercy all the more boldly."
Well, in the official religion of the empire that dated back to
Charlemagne, such an attitude was known as the Sin of Presumption ... of
presuming God's mercy, while refusing to cease and desist from a life
of mortal sin. There used to be the concept of government guiding
people into virtue, where good works, instead of military conquest, was
the esteemed goal. That was short-lived.
Concerning the Speyer Protestation of 1529, Emperor Charles V would capitulate to the Protestants for a decade and a half, due to the amount of effort he had to dedicate in defending the eastern part of the empire against aggressive Turks, as well as defending Western sectors against the French. Then, 1546 began a longer series of Protestant-Catholic wars, starting with the Schmalkadic War which involved ten jurisdictions of the Holy Roman Empire who "adopted the new confession" and rebelled against Charles. That is when the Catholic Church was seen as the complete competition of Protestants. Even at that, Catholics had to budget their wars with Protestants, being that the Ottoman Empire and the newly formed French empire kept a coming, in very unfriendly terms.
Ironically, 1546 was the year
of Martin Luther's death. None the less, the attempt to win over the
Holy Roman Empire was an undertaking done by the sword, and not by
preachers walking through towns, persuading people to attend their
church services. Their churches services were conductd in stolen
churches.
It was never a matter of Protestants separating themselves from the Catholic Church and going their separate ways. It was always a matter of taking over Roman Catholic real estate and infrastructure.
Do you see how ungrateful the anti-Catholic TV
Protestants of today are, in their obsession to identify as the Whore of
Babylon the Catholic Church which saved them from the invading
Muslims? This includes the biggest of the big mouths to ever stand in
front of television cameras on a Sunday morning.
Malign the Competition. Malign Your Political Opponent. It's the American Way
Today, we live in the era of TV evangelism and "megachurches." And of course, the Evangelicals, the Pentecostals, and the Baptists definitely treat Catholicism as the competition which must be put out of business. This includes backwoods preachers in the sticks, as much as TV preachers on air. After all, many a TV evangelist and Protestant preacher wear business suits at the pulpit. They're businessmen, and one goal is to get more customers, while keeping the present customers. In America, the way of doing this is to bad-mouth the competition.
These businessmen at the pulpit can financially fare well, if they can convince enough Catholics to leave the Church and join their sect. So, they are motivated to commit a lot of defamation against Catholicism in every way imaginable. They are basically advertisers, telling Catholics that they are using the wrong product and should switch. At the same time, they are assuring that disenchanted Protestants will refrain from looking into Catholicism, simply by telling horrifying stories about Catholicism.
It's like an American politician in a campaign. Mud-slinging until election day. For Protestants, it would be "mudslinging until Judgment Day." Therefore, those TV preachers, internet preachers, radio preachers, and backwoods preachers are nothing more than Satan tempting you to leave the true Church. They run the Fake Church.
With Satan, there is always multiplicity and division, as in, "I am Legion, for we are many." Mark 5:9. The preachers who attack Christ's only Church are nothing more than the Great Dividers who think that they can own God and dictate terms to God, if they can find the pertinent scriptural passage to hold against God.
They believe that all power is in the Bible. They state that faith alone suffices for salvation, apparently clueless to the fact that Martin Luther added the word ALONE. Yet, the same Bible states that good works are absolutely essential for salvation. This is because good works are acts of mercy, and unless you extend mercy in one way or another, you will eternally be in the realm of the merciless. The merciless are never granted mercy. So, in response to all the Evangelical "Bible-only" & "Faith-alone-suffices" preachers, God stated the following, through the Epistle of James:
"For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." James 2:26.
Salvation by means of rattling off a ten second sound byte
The
Anabaptist denomination is the Baptist religion
is the Mennonite religion is the "Born-again" Christian religion. The
Anabaptists of the 16th
Century believed that infant baptism was invalid and that you have to be
baptized as an adult. Today, the "Born-again" Christians regard
Baptism by water as irrelevant. According to them, you are in need to
rattle off a very short
ten second sound byte, in order to be guaranteed life everlasting.
Their doctrine is that, without you parroting that one line, you are not saved. Thus, even if you get baptized, you're still not "saved," until you do that one-liner. It's instant salvation to them, and it doesn't even require you to add water; not even baptismal water. It's a lot shorter than the Nicene Creed, too. So, what is that sound byte?
ANS: "I accept you Lord (insert the name of the Nazarene who was born in Bethlehem) as my Lord and Personal Savior."
Of course, you must emphasize "personal savior," as if Christ never
founded the Catholic Church, and as if he's gonna love you more than
today's population of one billion Catholics combined.
That's
it. You do not have need to show any sign of commitment ... any sign
of
understanding who the Nazarene really is ... any sign of being resolved
to avoid
mortal sin ... any sign of charity toward fellow believers ... any sign
of being willing to have at least a minimal prayer life ... etc. And
you are expected to not attend the Rite of Christian Initiation
classes. All that you have to do is endlessly call the Roman Catholic
Church the Whore of Babylon ... and the Pope the Antichrist ... while
throwing your available dollars into the nearest tax-free Pentecostal
and/or Baptist and/or Evangelical collection basket, all the while
saying, "Praise the Lord" a few times.
Oh, and there's one more thing: You've got to have a seething hatred for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Only then are you saved. Only then are good to go . . . to Hell, that is . . . for the Sins of Presumption, Heresy, Blasphemy, that seething sin of anti-Catholic Anger, and whatever carnal sin or sin against justice that you think Martin Luther allows you to commit, as if Luther replaced Christ and the Celestial Court of angels and saints.
 |
| Hey!!!! Who's that guy sitting in Martin Luther's seat? Jimmy Swaggart will not tolerate this. |
Now, the Pentecostal and Baptist churches which have higher maintenance costs will put water baptism and the Personal Savior Acceptance Incantation together, in baptisms of immersion. They will make that "Lord & Personal Savior" thing look more elaborate and more official. However, they will make it silently implied. Shhhhhh. In that way, more money ends up in the tax-free collection baskets of the high maintenance churches.
Then come the churches which are more three-ring circuses than places of worship. Their central goal is performing miracles, speaking in tongues, something that they call "binding demons," and prophesying. Their goal is sensationalism. They seek to be "baptized in the Spirit," so that they can turn their congregational meeting places into a circus. Apparently, it brings in money ... to the tax-free collection baskets.
The circus atmosphere brings with itself an aura of carnality, as if one is attending a circus in ancient Rome. It breeds arrogance, instead of any type of gratitude, humility, or appreciation. In fact, it causes Pentecostal people to arrogantly strut through life, as in being far too above you.
In
response, the fact that John the Baptist was rendered into the State of
Grace in his mother's womb at the Visitation proves Biblically that
infant baptism in 100% valid. Therefore, this undoes the purpose of
Anabaptists, Baptists, Bapticostals, Mennonites, Born-again Christians,
etc.
Plus,
Jeremiah seems to have been "sanctified" in his mother's womb. This
would also support infant baptism. The conclusion as to Jeremiah's
state of soul before his birth is not definite, at least when reading the Book of Jeremiah.
None the less, the only Church ever founded by Christ green-lights
infant baptism and requires no "rebaptism of adults." For those
reaching adulthood, the Catholic Church has the Sacrament of
Confirmation ... after baptism.
In some Protestant sects, there is something called, "Baptism of Believers" which is contrasted to "Baptism of Children." The bottom line is this: What about all those people who die as children and never reach adulthood? Denying child baptism doesn't sound very fair.
The
de facto Anabaptist doctrine is that God withholds his grace and Spirit
from children, since God doesn't recognize child baptism. That would
mean that God is the God of no child. But, God is everywhere, involved
in all things. This is one of the reasons why there were a string of
Protestant-Catholic wars.
Protestantism lead to Nihilism
Let's absorb the understanding of how a 500 year old heresy leads to nihilism. The Anabaptists of the 16th Century claimed that infant baptism was invalid. Today, their spiritual descendants claim that all baptism is invalid, unless you do that silly 10 second incantation which makes you sound like a little kid playing it-taggers, all the while trying to be immune from being "it." To them, salvation is speaking as if you are a politician on the 6 O'clock news, being given 15 seconds of airtime.
And then there was the endless use of the phrase, "Praise the Lord," amongst those who arrogantly called themselves "saved." No matter what happened that wasn't tragic, someone would call out, "Praise the Lord." It was sooo annoying to hear this over and over, again and again. You felt like shouting, "Would you please shut the @#$% up." It sounded like a cross between superstition and neurosis.
So, what did Christ say about this endless repetition of, "Praise the Lord"? In fact, what did Christ say about those who claim to be "baptized in the Spirit"
and perform miracles ... or speak in tongues ... or have prophecies to
share ... or who perform a layman's version of exorcism? The answer to
both questions comes from the Gospel of Matthew, at Ch 7 v 21 to 23:
Thus, the Bible expressly testifies that, simply because you speak in tongues, it doesn't mean that you're going to Heaven, after you die. It doesn't mean that you're a saint. This assertion is 100% Biblical.
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