In response to the Prince Andrew case about child abuse and sex offences, him buying himself free from a court case: You can do anything with money
‘Quote of the day
“Prince Andrew’s behaviour is as abominable as it gets.”
– We’re getting to the point where we just don’t want the royal family any more,
Someone has said,
“I looked for the Church, and found it in the world. I look for the world, and found it in the Church.”
The word ICHABOD has been stamped on many a local church door, but only spiritual eyes can see that the glory of the Lord has departed. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}
That is the problem of our world or the problem of our nation … human beings always looking for other human beings and believing in human beings more than in the Word of the Highest all-knowing eternal God above all gods.
Mankind is afraid to come face to face with God. It is impossible for man to see God, though man wants to have something they can refer to, see and feel or touch. They also want to have a god who has similarities with them, and therefore they took themselves a godhead they can grab. Of that god they created for themselves, a male figure, they can take pictures and statues. Even when the Bible tells mankind that he may not make any graven image of God, man prefers to ignore such demands and has made himself many images of their god.
The Holy Scriptures or Infallible Word of God – Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com
Too many people do forget or do not want to see that God promises to work through His Word and that This Word of God gives all the knowledge that we need to come to find God and to come to know what God wants from us. God wants to have a relationship with His creatures. He did not create them to be against Him, in the same way, He did not give them commandments of which He knew man would be able not to keep them.
By the first sinful act of Adam and Eve, sin came into the world. All those coming after them were sinful people. Still today it is like that. It would be very difficult to find someone who is without something doing wrong or without having sinned. We are all taken up by sin.
“As by means of one man, sin entered into the world, and, by means of sin, death; and so death passed upon all the sons of men, inasmuch as they all have sinned: — ” (Ro 5:12 Murdock)
“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”” (Ge 4:7 KJ21)
“”If they sin against Thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and Thou be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;” (1Ki 8:46 KJ21)
It is that sinning that is standing in the way to have a good relationship with our heavenly Father. To come to a better relationship God provided means. One of those was by creating a possibility for man to show his submission to God and his desire to please God by offering sacrifices to God. Later in the history of mankind, there came special places to bring such offerings to God and as such temples came into existence, where also special people took care of the services for God. Those priests were at first anointed by God Himself, though later man took care of themselves to appoint priests and to decide for themselves how those services to God and sacrifices were to be carried out. In a way such services would later become churchservices.
At first Jesus and his apostles went to those houses of worship. In those temples, they praised not Jesus but the God of the Hebrews, the God of Adam and Eve, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who is the Only True God. Jesus and his apostle were very well aware of that Name of That God. They worshipped Jehovah as the Only One True God.
“that men may know that Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth.” (Ps 83:18 KJ21)
“2 And God spoke unto Moses and said unto him, “I am the LORD. 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” (Ex 6:2-3 KJ21)
When Jesus was gone the apostle did not change their mind about Whom they had to worship and about Whom they had to pray to and call His Name.
“For “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”” (Ro 10:13 KJ21)
“and in that day shall ye say: “Praise the LORD! Call upon His name! Declare His doings among the people; make mention that His name is exalted.” (Isa 12:4 KJ21)
The way of worshipping did not change in the first century. It was customary for them to continue to go to the temple and to praise and glorify God there, as well as to continue to study the Hebrew Scriptures. They were convinced that such worship of God should come from deep within the heart and not be a mere passing fancy.
“God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”” (Joh 4:24 KJ21)
“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)
Yes, not Jesus was their god, but the Divine Creator of heaven and earth was their God. To them, it was as pure as a lump of sugar or clear as water, that this God is only one.
“”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (De 6:4 KJ21)
They felt that they had become one in God by the sent one from God in whom they came to believe as that promised one from old times, who they now recognised as their saviour or that promised Messiah, by whom they now got the opportunity to get a new life.
“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)
It was several years after Jesus had died that certain people started taking Jesus as their god, forgetting the words Jesus himself had spoken.
“Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”” (Joh 20:17 KJ21)
Today there are still many people who do not hear or want to understand those words of that son of man, who gave his life for many, so that we can have hope for receiving a new life in the Kingdom of God.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1Pe 1:3 KJ21)
Those who claim that Jesus is God, should better think about the fact that Jesus more than once prayed to Whom he called God. He did not pray to himself, neither cried to himself, or did not ask himself why He had abandoned him. (How would a person abandon or forsake himself?)
“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”” (Mr 15:34 KJ21)
“1 These words spoke Jesus and lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, “Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, 2 as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. 3 And this is life eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” (Joh 17:1-3 KJ21)
The apostle Peter might be one of the first apostles who publicly professed who Jesus Christ was.
“16 And Simon Peter answered and said,
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him,
“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in Heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 KJ21)
It was such confession that the apostles required also from those who wanted to go in the footsteps of their master teacher. This way started of a group of followers of Christ. People who were convinced that Jesus was the way, like he more than once told others.
“Jesus said to him: I am the way, and truth, and life: no one cometh unto my Father, but by me.” (Joh 14:6 Murdock)
“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1Jo 4:15 KJ21)
The apostles also wrote down how they came to understand who Jesus Christ was and how the world had come to see that he is the son of man and son of God. By writing it all down, those writings should give a clear picture of Whom God is and about whom Jesus is.
“And the angel answered and said unto her,
“The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Being who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Lu 1:35 KJ21)
“And I saw and bore record that this is the Son of God.”” (Joh 1:34 KJ21)
“29 Jesus said unto him,
“Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through His name.” (Joh 20:29-31 KJ21)
That life which may come over us is by accepting who Jesus is, the son of God, and not by going all the fancies of the world. It are not the human doctrines we should take for the rules to follow, but the Biblical doctrines we should take for granted and to go by. It are those sacred writings that tell us that Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of God, being a mediator between God and us.
“5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 KJ21)
For those who continued to follow the apostles of Jesus it is clear that there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and that newt to This God there is the one Who God Himself declared to be His only beloved son, Jesus Christ the Messiah. (1Co 8:6)
Up to today there are people who want to follow the teachings of those false teachers who claimed that Jesus would be an incarnated God. Some of the present teachers or pastors even want to twist the historical truth and come to say that it were the non-trinitarian preachers who would have followed Greco-Roman philosophy, though it are the Trinitarians who took all sorts of believes of those philosophers in their teaching, like incarnation, separate souls who would leave the body after death, hell as a burning place of eternal torture, etc. . Instead of bringing people on the right path to God, they mislead their churchgoers and having them worship a false god.
Already in the first century, the apostles warned against such false teachers who violated the Word of God and often came to deceive people with things they liked to hear. Such a God made flesh appealed to many, and still does. Hereby lots of people forget how often in the Bible is told that Jesus is the son of God (something totally different as “god the son”) and how Jesus himself spoke about his heavenly Father, from Whom he came and to Whom he went again.
“Jesus said to her:
Touch me not; for not yet have I ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” (Joh 20:17 Murdock)
Those teachers claiming that Jesus would be God destroy the value of Jesus’ act of sacrifice and make God a great comedian who repeatedly told lies to deceive people, let alone called Himself a “God of no lies” when He did see mankind as lying creatures. Those Trinitarian preachers seem to neglect that The God of no lies said Himself that Jesus is His beloved son.
“And lo, a voice came from Heaven, saying,
“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.”” (Mt 3:17 KJ21)
“God forbid! Yea, let God be true, though every man a liar. As it is written:
“That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.”” (Ro 3:4 KJ21)
Not only minimalise those preachers the self-sacrifice of Jesus the also make the resurrection of Jesus as a joke, because God can not die (Him being an eternal Spirit) and when Jesus is God we are still left with no proof at all that man would be able to step out of the dead. As such those trinitarian churches take away our hope for a resurrection, because we can not become God and do like Him, but are then still bounded to the grave (sheol or hell). The real followers of Christ continued teaching the Gospel or Good News of the coming Kingdom of God, by which there is the hope in the resurrection of the man Jesus Christ, as an example of what can happen to us.
“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, who in his great mercy hath begotten us anew, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, to the hope of life,” (1Pe 1:3 Murdock)
Jesus was or is not a schizophrenic God Who came to pray and cry to himself. Jesus prayed sincerely to his heavenly Father, Whom he considered to be the Only One True God.
“And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said: [Il, Il, lemono shebakthone;]that is: My God, my God; why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mr 15:34 Murdock)
“1 These things spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said: My Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. 2 As thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he might give life eternal to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, that thou art the only true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Messiah.” (Joh 17:1-3 Murdock)
It might have taken some time before the apostles really came to see who their master-teacher really was and how they should behave and go into the world as his disciples and workers for God. It can well be that the apostle Peter was the first one to recognise for the first time in public Jesus real position.
“16 Simon Cephas {Greek: Simon Peter} answered and said:
Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
17 Jesus answered, and said to him:
Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonas; for flesh and blood have not revealed [it] to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 Murdock)
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com
After that Jesus was taken into heaven by his heavenly Father and after Jesus promised helper came over the apostles they dared to come out in public again and started off their great preaching work.
Those who heard and/or saw Jesus preach and/or heard the apostles, could not believe that the religion of the Old Testament, revealed by God Himself, should pass away. They indeed regarded Jesus as the Saviour of Gentiles as well as Jews. We could say that Judaism was for them considered the necessary introduction to their group (which we call today Christianity). Several people from all sorts of rang came to join the apostles. Their Jewish movement was called “The Way“.
But by joining more non-Jews the matter of circumcision and the observance of the whole Mosaic law came under discussion. The question was the sole condition of an interest in the Messianic salvation. And, offensive as Judaism was, rather than attractive, to the heathen, this principle would have utterly precluded the conversion of the mass of the Gentile world. The apostles themselves were at first trammelled by this Judaistic prejudice, till taught better by the special revelation to Peter before the conversion of Cornelius.
But even after the baptism of the uncircumcised centurion, and Peter’s defence of it before the church of Jerusalem, the old leaven still wrought in some Jewish Christians who had formerly belonged to the rigid and exclusive sect of the Pharisees, to which the apostle Paul also belonged to.
The churches of Jerusalem and Antioch resolved to hold a private and a public conference at Jerusalem. Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas as commissioners to represent the Gentile converts. Paul, fully aware of the gravity of the crisis, obeyed at the same time an inner and higher impulse. He also took with him Titus, a native Greek, as a living specimen of what the Spirit of God could accomplish without circumcision. The conference was held C.E. 50 or 51 (fourteen years after Paul’s conversion). It was the first and in some respects the most important council or synod held in the history of Christendom, though differing widely from the councils of later times. It is placed in the middle of the book of Acts as the connecting link between the two sections of the apostolic church and the two epochs of its missionary history.
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In the beginning, the people from The Way, like all the Jews, went on the Sabbath to the gathering in the temple. But after more goyim or non-Jews had joined that movement which confessed that Jesus is the son of God (Lu 1:35 ), and as such also came to abide in God (1Jo 4:15), they were not so welcome anymore in the temples and synagogues. Those non-Jews by their baptism in Christ being taken up in the group, which grew fairly quickly, and made others look jealous at them but also did not want those non-Jews in their prayer houses. Therefore The Way started also to come together in private houses and as such creating the first house churches.
The apostles had after some years got a very clear picture of Jesus and with them many others had seen this man of flesh and blood (remember that God can not be seen by man). They testified that their master is the Son of God (Joh 1:34) and never said that Jesus would have claimed such a position, to be God. The amount of false teachers grew and began to argue with the true followers of Jesus who held to the sonship of Christ Jesus and did not wish to enter into the false teaching of Jesus’ Godhead.
In ancient time people could see and hear Jesus. We do not have such an opportunity anymore, though we should go by the material which is handed over to us in the Books of the New Testament. They provide enough information to learn about the man Jesus from Nazareth and his disciples. In connection with the Books of the Old Testament one should clearly come to see what Jesus role is in the history of mankind. Not having seen Jesus Christ, there were loads of people who came to believe in the son of God, that man of flesh and blood. Not having been able to see Christ we have to believe in him and accept him as the mediator for us by his heavenly Father the Only One True God.
“29 Jesus said to him: Now, when thou hast seen me, thou believest: blessed are they, who have not seen me, yet believe. — 30 And many other signs did Jesus before his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that when ye believe, ye may have life eternal by his name.” (Joh 20:29-31 Murdock)
“5 For God is one; and the mediator between God and men is one, [namely] the man Jesus the Messiah; 6 who gave himself a ransom for every man; — testimony that arrived in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 Murdock)
The object of the Jerusalem consultation was twofold: first, to settle the personal relation between the Jewish and Gentile apostles, disciples and preachers, and to divide their field of labour; secondly, to decide the question of circumcision, and to define the relation between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. On the first point (as we learn from Paul) it effected a complete and final, on the second point (as we learn from Luke) a partial and temporary settlement. In the nature of the case the public conference in which the whole church took part, was preceded and accompanied by private consultations of the apostles.
In the fourth century the division between the real followers of Christ and the followers of those false teachers who mixed those teachings of Christ with other human teachings, had become so big that they called for a council to decide how the church would continue.
Constantine I (the Great) the founder of Constantinople and the Byzantine empire, and for someone of the most gifted, energetic, and successful of the Roman emperors, was the first representative of the imposing idea of a Christian theocracy, or of that system of policy which assumes all subjects to be Christians, connects civil and religious rights, and regards church and state as the two arms of one and the same divine government on earth. This idea was more fully developed by his successors, it animated the whole middle age, and is yet working under various forms in these latest times; though it has never been fully realised, whether in the Byzantine, the German, or the Russian empire, the Roman church-state, the Calvinistic republic of Geneva, or the early Puritanic colonies of New England. At the same time, however, Constantine stands also as the type of undiscriminating and harmful conjunction of Christianity with politics, of the holy symbol of peace with the horrors of war, of the spiritual interests of the kingdom of heaven with the earthly interests of the state.
He was the man who gave those preachers the choice to come with the world or to stay by their ideas of not being part of the world. The majority choose to be befriended and to walk in fellowship with the world.
Unquestionably every age produces and shapes its own organs, as its own purposes require and as such the Jewish movement of The Way had seen many people going astray and going their own way. Constantine I did put himself at the head of the age, and was annoyed by the differences and discussions there were by those who claimed to be the followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua ben Josef, Jesus Christ. He also clearly saw that idolatry had outlived itself in the Roman empire, and that Christianity alone could breathe new vigour into it and furnish its moral support.
From the year 313 he placed himself in close connection with the ‘bishops’, made peace and harmony his first object in the Donatist and Arian controversies and applied the predicate “catholic” to the church in all official documents. The Donatists argueing that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to the non-Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists; Constantine was apparently not fully aware of the seriousness of the dispute, which his gift exacerbated. The Donatists appealed to Rome for equal treatment; Constantine tasked Miltiades with resolving the issue, which led to the 313 commission.
Many non-trinitarians are often called Arians by Trinitarians, though often those Christians do not follow Arius his teachings but simply the Biblical teachings. The Christian priest Arius, whose teachings gave rise to a theological doctrine known as Arianism, also followed the apostolic teaching that God is One and that Jesus is His son and not God Himself. What makes Arainism so different with what many non-trinitarians are still following today, is that those real followers of Christ (including us) do not integrate Neoplatonism, nor are we inspired by Plato’s ideas or by pre-Socratics (who interpreted the world monistically in terms of nature as such), from the relativism of the Sophists, and from the correction of Platonism in a this-worldly direction carried out by Plato’s greatest pupil, Aristotle.
It is a very big misconception of Trinitarians that nonTrinitarians, or those who do not wish to accept Jesus as God, would be Arians, whereas they do not follow the teachings of Arius at all. The teaching those present non-Trinitarians follow is simply the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.
The only similarity in Arius and the present non-trinitarian denominations is Arius’s basic premise of the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything else) and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot therefore be the self-existent and immutable God.
“”There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun [a poetic name for the people of Israel, meaning ‘upright people’], who rideth upon the heaven to thy help and in His excellency on the sky.” (De 33:26 KJ21)
“33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?” 35 Or, “who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” 36 For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Ro 11:33-36 KJ21)
Because the Godhead is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated according to Arius. Because the Godhead is immutable, the Son, who is mutable, must, therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence out of nothing and has had a beginning. Moreover, according to Arius the Son can have no direct knowledge of the Father, since the Son is finite and of a different order of existence. For the real followers of Christ there is the knowledge that Jesus was placed in the womb of that young girl and as such coming directly from God must have some DNA from God. Jesus was born in that very devout Essene family of the tribe of King David and had got a very thorough religious upbringing with the Word of God as an inspirational source.
Badly enough, most of the clergy wanted to come to an agreement with Constantine the Great in order to keep the peace and not to be persecuted anymore. This was done by the clergy to bring their religion more in line with the Greek Roman religion and their triple deity Zeus who was then the main deity worshipped by Constantine and his followers. In order to equate Jeshua (Yeshua) with that deity Zeus, his name was transformed from Jeshua to Issou or Yai_Zeus > Je-Zeus which means Hail Zeus. Since then, the false name (Jezus – Jesus – Chesu) has become fully accepted and in time it was also used by the non-trinitarians to make clear that they were talking about one and the same person as the Trinitarians.
Constantine was praised and censured in turn by the Christians and Pagans, the Orthodox and the Arians, as they successively experienced his favour or dislike, but the real followers of Christ saw in him a very dangerous despot who could easily subdue the false teachers and in unity oppose the true followers of Christ.
The ones coming under agreement with each other about the deity of Jesus and the wishes of Constantine, became the Roman Catholics, who claimed to be the only true church and continued to grow by making sure people from all sorts of tribes could find themselves at home, because many of their traditions were taken in or integrated into that religion.
The real followers of Christ Jesus did not like the name change but had to do with it. for many centuries they tried those who worshipped Jesus as their god to come to know the real Jesus from the Bible.
The groups which accented the absolute oneness of the Divinity as the highest perfection, with a literal, rationalist approach to the New Testament texts sought their way in the world. That point of view was publicized about 323 through the poetic verse of his major work, Thalia (“Banquet”), and was widely spread by popular songs written for labourers and travellers.
The non-Trinitarian aspect and the other Arian teachings (of Arius) and papal positions (Ursinus) brought forth further disputes and conferences, synods or councils. The Ursinians became established in Milan and rekindled their opposition to Damasus.
Damasus I presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He encouraged the production of the Latin Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome.
He spoke out against other groups of Christians that had grown in popularity and denounced several major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism). In two synods (368 and 369) the unorthodox teachings of Bishop Macedonius of Constantinople and of Bishop Apollinaris (the Younger) of Laodicea were condemned. Among Damasus’s literary remains are 24 anathemas against various 4th-century heresies. Apollinaris The Younger and his father (Apollinaris the Elder) had reproduced the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry and the New Testament in the style of Platonic dialogues after the Roman emperor Julian had forbidden Christians to teach the classics.
Apollinaris the younger denied the existence in Christ of a rational human soul, a position he took to combat Arianism. Skilled in logic and Hebrew and a teacher of rhetoric, Apollinaris also lectured at Antioch c. 374. Their different ideas also brought forth several schisms.
It would not remain at all with these few schisms in the church community; in each century several schisms occurred. Today, many even regard certain breakaway groups as churches of the commons, such as the Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican Churches. They now belong to the generally accepted Protestant churches.
Lots of churches sought ways to get as many followers as they could, claiming that they are the only church by which people can be saved. They forget that it are no other human beings, than Christ Jesus who saves people of all races and people of all persuasions or from all walks of life. They claimed and still claim that their sacraments, religious signs or symbols, are the way to be saved. Many of those churches are convinced that their liturgy is the best one to prepare people to receive those sacraments, as visible symbols of the reality of God, as well as a channel for God’s grace and helps to understand what they are doing. Their liturgy is used to give the sacraments context and is there to allow folks to see them in action. Outside of the liturgy, the sacraments lose direction and application. For some that is the reason why a private baptism or communion is a sacrament without purpose or meaning.
It is a sacrament that is cut off from its intended goal. {The Role of the Church}
For non-Trinitarians, like the Christadelphians, there does not have to be a set of liturgical rules and order. Each church service can be done in a different order or different way. but what is most important is that the service is built upon the Word of God, and as such most time of the service should be spent on that Word, or readings from the Holy Scriptures and not on readings from human beings. Next to that Word of God people should be able to find, feel and see, that love of God and love of Christ present and shown by those people of that church.
The church is tasked with loving the Lord and loving its neighbor. The church takes what it receives from God and shares it with the world. Taken together, this means God acts through even-broadening layers to bring His grace into the world. {The Role of the Church}
But to receive God and to be united with God and His holy son, people have to do away with pagan or heathen teachings and traditions. In the Church of God, there can be no place for pagan rituals and false worship, like praying in front of pictures or sculptures. So, there has to be no place for crosses, paintings or portraits and statues of gods and saints, no idolisation taking place in the liturgy. Done away with a “Hail Zeus” or calling unto “YaiZeus” or JeZeus – Jezus or Jesus as a figure that would be three in one, a God the Father, a god the son and a God the Holy Spirit.
In case we want to hold on to that changed name of Jeshua, namely Jesus, that hopefully would be not too bad and shall be accepted by the Elohim Hashem Jehovah (That we can only hope and pray for – that he forgives us to use that name so that we shall be able to get others to get to know the Name of Jesus his God.) Better would naturally be that by the years coming closer to the end-times, people shall come to use more the real names of the Biblical characters and especially of Jehovah God, Whose Name is holy, and of the son of God, Jeshua ben Josef.
Sin is the opposite of God’s will, so to be a sinner means to be one who is opposed to God, who is an offense to everything God is. Sin is intolerable to God and so God destroys it, even if that means destroying the one who commits it. {Face to Face with God}
Having idols and false gods is “sin” because it goes in against the Will and Commandments of God. Real lovers of God have to keep tp those Commandments of God and not to the commandments, human doctrines or will of human beings.
In this picture, from a Lutheran pastor his site, you might see how far the church is gone away from God’s Word that forbids such pictures or reflections of people they call their god.
It is true that the Church or the community of believers has to be active in both worship and in the world so that God’s grace can reach those who need it.
This becomes the central work of the church and everything God does for His people is designed to facilitate that work. {The Role of the Church}
Though that does not mean the church has to think and act like the world! It is totally wrong to think you should be part of the Church of the world, because people have to be part of the Church of God of which Jesus is the foundation. Jesus should be the man whom we follow and whom we take as the cornerstone of our community.
“Jesus saith unto them,
Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes?” (Mt 21:42 ASV)
“being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;” (Eph 2:20 ASV)
Loving Christ is not only loving his word, it is living by his word that one fully accepts as a truthful word. And as such that one does not think when Jesus says God is greater than him that he (Jesus) is the greatest and that he can do everything because he would be God. all the thing Jesus did, we should appreciate and understand why he did it and how he wanted to be a faithful servant for God the same as he requires from his followers to be servants for man and for God.
Those who call themselves servants of God have to do their best to live according to the Will of God. In the last few decades, people should have had enough opportunities to see how many in those so-called churches of God have gone astray. In several Trinitarian denominations, being them Catholic or Protestant, we have seen that there were priests who used little children (boys and girls) to have sex with. Some churches thought that they could cover those paedophile acts by transferring those paedophiles to another church in another village. For centuries the Catholic Church has been a male bastion where male domination and tyranny were giving opportunities to defile the Name of God.
They thought to clean up the cesspool of sin in that religious structure, but the roots have gone very deep.
Furthermore many churches do not dare to speak out about certain Rules of God.
Sung Mass with the ordinations of two deacons and seven priests by the Bishop of Stockholm, in St Nicholas’s Cathedral (Storkyrkan)
In Europe’s largest Lutheran denomination, hundreds of clergies, staff, and congregates of the Church of Sweden, have declared, in an open letter that it is now a trans-inclusive institution.
While the hearts of the faithful Christians are broken, while heaven weeps, while the demons of hell dance in delight, the modern-day church is changed. Why? Because it is easier to change the local assembly than the eternal Word of God, which lives and abides forever. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}After all those centuries the Catholic church did not change one hair.
In Rome, the Vatican is now home to a woke Pope, who allowed South American animistic religious rituals in the opening of the recent pan-Amazon Synod. Kathy Clubb writes in the conservative Catholic publication, The Remnant:
“Idol worship was on full display in preparation for the Pan-Amazon synod, with the tacit approval of Pope Francis. Although the Synod hadn’t yet started, the celebration of pagan ceremonies added weight to the concerns being voiced by prominent prelates and laymen that the Synod will be a vehicle for apostasy.”
Strangely enough, when the Pope says something which comes closer to the Biblical truth, all the hairs of Catholic and Protestant (Trinitarian) priests raise up to heaven.
To embracing idol worship, Pope Francis is said not to believe in the eternal divinity of Jesus as the Son of God. Instead,
“Pope Francis conceives the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, a man, not God incarnate. Once he took flesh, Jesus ceased to be a God and became a man until his death on the cross… {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}
Pope Francis has said to Eugenio Scalfari: ‘There is proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even a man of exceptional virtue, was in no way a God’.” (Mark Powell, CALDR@N POOL on the web; see also, Fatima Perspectives #1343) {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}
Several priest think wrongly that it would be changing Catholic dogma because the non-Trinitarians are gaining field in this world.
Why is the woke Pope Francis (b. Dec. 17, 1936), head of the Catholic Church, and sovereign of Vatican City, changing Catholic dogma?
Because it is easier to influence and change a vast religious institution than to change the Word of God, which says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}
Yes, the Bible is very clear about That! One may not have other gods before the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.
Lots of those learned people do not want to see how a person can be divine but not God. (Perhaps you might have a divine wife, though we hope you would not worship her as a god.)
There is no such verse in the letter of Paul to Timothy that would say
Concerning the eternal divinity of Christ, the Bible says, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:18). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}
The Bible words are as follows in the last verses of that letter:
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” (1Ti 3:16 ASV)
giving an indication that Jesus is one way to come to “see and understand God“. Him being manifested in the flesh is the son of God who “gave himself for us.” Truly they are in harmony. The love of the infinite God could neither be created nor purchased but it could be and is been shown through the work of His son. The Spirit of the Father was manifest in Jesus and by the inspiration and power given by God, Jesus was able to speak wise words and to do many miracles.
All those things which are clearly notated in Scriptures are not to confuse us, but to bring us light. Jesus should be such a light for us, a beacon or a lighthouse in the surf.
When looking at churches we should check how those who call themselves leaders of that church, behave. We should check in which way a church has its teachings in accordance with the Bible and how the leaders of that church live according to those Bible Words.
For sure we should not choose for the church that wants to be fully in line with the world and its traditions. From the Bible, we can learn that most of those traditions are not in line with God’s commandments and as lovers of God we should want to go fully doing the will of God in the same way Jesus put his own will aside to do the will of God. (Naturally, in case Jesus would have been God he would never have put his own will aside. … Is it not?)
“And he went forward a little, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying,
My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Mt 26:39 ASV)
“And again he went away, and prayed, saying the same words.” (Mr 14:39 ASV)
It is not Christ his will that shall be done on earth as in heaven. Also, Jesus prayed and learned others to pray that this Will of his heavenly Father would be fulfilled.
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” (Mt 6:10 ASV)
Even in difficult times, Jesus asked his God that not his will was going to be fulfilled, but God His Will
“And he said,
Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mr 14:36 ASV)
We should know that like Jesus could not do anything without God, we too cannot do the important thing without our heavenly Father. (Though in fact even the little things we are only able to do because God allows them to happen.) Let us therefore not do our will, but have the courage to do like Jesus, going for the One Who had sent him, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, God His Word, God His Will and for God His Chuch, doing God His Will.
“I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 5:30 ASV)
“For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 6:38 ASV)
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Preceding
A vital question for believers
As near to God as you want Him to be
Religion and the essence of devotion – Necessary parts in the daily walk with God + Christians, Lutherans, Wesleyans, and other followers
Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation
After darkness a moment of life renewal
Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?
Christians saying Jesus is God giving food for atheists to prove there exist no God
Responsibility bigger than those who talk about worldly matters
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Too many people forget in what for a difficult situation a female person may be placed when she has to choose what to do with what is growing inside her body.
Previously, before the moment the where confronted with something coming in them, they perhaps had to undergo already a lot of suffering which caused them to close their heart,
for the fear that they live in, and for all of things that they are missing out on because their hearts are hurting so much that they cannot accept the love that they are offered. {Though the words were not written about this subject, we have taken the liberty to use this beautiful phrase from the nice writing: The Sound of a Breaking Heart}
Human fetus at eight weeks. According to Catholics, the debates on abortion make the human embryo and fetus signs of contradiction (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The person involved in a tragedy may well realise that the answer to her questions about the horrific slaughter of innocent people is linked to hardened hearts, but she does not want to harden her heart, because it is hurt. In herself her heart is crying, crying out loud; But not many do seem to understand her crying.
She feels the reality that
the ones who need love most are the ones who ask for it in the least loving ways, {The Sound of a Breaking Heart}
But love is often broken by heartless people, who do not mind to show their ‘higher power’.
Having been hurt ones or even more than one time, now she would get her feelings hurt a lot. And it is not that she would know better and know that while some people still aren’t aware of the love that they are capable of, she does know that we should all be capable of loving to great measures. But then why does not show the world that comprehension and love?
Though she might understand that every human heart is prone to corruption – her own included, she does not understand why so many point a finger at her, wishing to condemn her to hell.
Have those who criticise the made decision having thought what they themselves would do if they were raped or would be a victim of incest, or would be confronted with congenital malformation of the foetus?
It is so easy to condemn but so the more difficult to understand.
44years old gravid female with previous 6 children, was diagnosed with carcinoma in situ of cervix (early stage cancer of womb). So total removal of uterus( woomb) considered with fetus in situ, for long life of the female. So abortion was inevitable for future health of the lady. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do those who are against abortion also think about certain cases where other matters have to be taken in account? Do they know about the many critical situations there exist for women like Ana and Aurora, two Costa Rican women who were carrying foetuses that would not survive, but which doctors did not allow them to abort.
In late 2006, a medical exam when Ana was six weeks pregnant showed that the foetus suffered from encephalocele, a malformation of the brain and skull incompatible with life outside the womb.
Ana, 26 years old at the time, requested a therapeutic abortion, arguing that carrying to term a fetus that could not survive was causing her psychological problems like depression. But the medical authorities and the Supreme Court did not authorise an abortion. In the end, her daughter was born dead after seven hours of labour.
The Collective for the Right to Decide and the Washington-based Center for Reproductive Rights brought Ana’s case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), as well as that of Aurora, who was also denied the right to a therapeutic abortion.
Her case is similar to Ana’s. In 2012, it was discovered that her fetus had an abdominal wall defect, a kind of birth defect that allows the stomach, intestines, or other organs to protrude through an opening that forms on the abdomen. Her son, whose legs had never developed, and who had severe scoliosis, died shortly after birth. {Costa Rican Women Try to Pull Legal Therapeutic Abortion Out of Limbo}
In public hospitals in Costa Rica, like the Rafael Ángel Calderón hospital in San José, there is no protocol regulating legal therapeutic abortion, for doctors to follow. As a result, physicians restrict the practice to a minimum, leaving women without their right to terminate a pregnancy when their health is at risk. Credit: Diego Arguedas Ortiz/IPS
The world has to be aware that there are different sorts of abortions. Though none would be preferable, sometimes animal man has to use their brains and has to understand that the Creator has given them brains and medical specialists to help them in their life. Everywhere in the world women should have access to medical help and in case the medics do find that a choice has to be made to safe the mother they should be able to propose a legal abortion. In such instances there may be no lack of clear medical guidelines outlining when and how a legal abortion can be conducted.
It urged the Costa Rican state to draw up clear medical guidelines, to “widely disseminate them among health professionals and the public at large,” and to consider reviewing other circumstances under which abortion could be permitted, such as rape or incest.
The international pressure has grown. Costa Rican Judge Elizabeth Odio, recently named to the San José-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights, said in a Jun. 20 interview with the local newspaper La Nación that “it is obvious that therapeutic abortion, which already exists in our legislation, should be enforced.”
“There are doctors who believe therapeutic abortion is a crime, and they put women’s lives at risk,” said Odio. {Costa Rican Women Try to Pull Legal Therapeutic Abortion Out of Limbo}
Who wants to put the woman her life at risk for trying to bring something in the light of the day which has no life chances?
The one who was raped may cry out in the dark. The one who was tortured and pressed to do something which she hated, who is going to understand and help her? In this world there are so many women who need to find a place where they can find a listening ear, a helping hand and yes sometimes people who help her to take away the spots of ‘contagion’.
For many it may be oh so easy, oh so logic, but is it really?
– a crying woman
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Preceding articles:
Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion
“They Told Me What I Wanted To Hear” – Real Abortion Stories
Hillary Clinton Says Religious Beliefs About Abortion Have to be Changed
Freedom and amendments, firearms and abortions
If the baby is part of the woman’s body…
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Further readings:
Being in the teens and having to been confronted with such ‘abhorrence’ should be avoided.
That is why such a prayer shall need to be held in our minds still for years to come, until we may see an end on this present world-system.At the moment many shall still have to be patient and should have the courage to come out the darkness covering this sun not letting them bring it in blindness. We all should help others to see light in the dark and bring faith in their souls.
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Preceding articles:
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Find articles:
- about Blindness
- End of the Bottom Line
- Walking alone?
- Stand Alone
- What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
- Companionship
- Determine the drive
- Running away from the past
- Doubting the reality, genuineness and effectiveness of God’s love
- God’s Comfort
- Pain and Suffering is inevitable but Misery is optional
- Your struggles develop your strengths
- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
- Aligned
- Shelter in the morning
- Emotional pain and emotional deadness
- Meaning of life
- Suffering
- Offer in our suffering
- God helper and deliverer
- God’s instruction about joy and suffering
- God’s promises to us in our suffering
- Suffering – through the apparent silence of God
- Suffering continues
- Suffering leading to joy
- Surprised by time in joys & sufferings
- From pain to purpose
- Fragments from the Book of Job #4: chapters 27-31
- Luck
- 1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action
- Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #16 Benefits of praying
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Related articles
- A Screwtape Letter on Prayer (concordiakoinonia.com)
Whenever they are attending to the Enemy Himself we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing. When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment.- The Light of Christ Breaks Through the Darkness When we Pray. (csahm.com)
Sometimes it takes darkness to realize how much we need prayer in our lives. I learned this lesson during the lowest of lows in my own life. It was springtime in 1997. It should’ve been a happy season for me as I had recently given birth to my second child, a son. But instead of feeling joy, I had an overwhelming sense of despair that I couldn’t shake off without a true, divine intervention.- Little Springtime Prayer by Helen Rice (snowwhitedove.wordpress.com)
For how can man feel any fear or doubt
When on every side all around and about
The March winds blow across a man’s face
And whisper of God’s power and grace?
Oh, give us faith to believe again
That peace on earth, good will to men
Will follow this winter of man’s mind
And awaken his heart and make him kind…- A Prayer A Day – 4/10/2014 It’s All His and He’s Got You! (dailyprayerprayertogod.wordpress.com)
When we pray and ask the Lord to give us His kind of faith. When we pray and ask the Lord to give us determination to live a life that is pleasing and holy to Him. When we pray and ask the Lord to keep us on the path of righteousness and holiness. When we pray and say to the Lord, “Lord I want to fulfill my purpose and my destiny in you”. We better get ourselves prepared for the shaking that will take place to remove all the dead things from our lives. We better get ourselves prepared for the shaking that will take place to cause us to stand upright. We better get ourselves prepared for the shaking that will take place to get everything lined up in our lives to do the will of the Father.- On Soft, Tender Knees: A-to-Z Blog Challenge (gurrlontherise.wordpress.com)
I cast my eyes downward,
unwilling to see Your magnificent
presence,
for shame riddles my body,
and the devil
whispers his wants to me,
taunts my weaknesses,
tells me You could never love me
now that I’m
stained.- Prayer (barelyherenorthere.wordpress.com)
Grant me the patience to see things through, to wait it out, to count to ten.- Italy’s bishops pass Vatican-backed rule that child molestation does not have to be reported (sott.net)
Grant me the courage to say no, to say yes and follow through ’til the end.
Grant me love so that I may care and so that I may see and that I may do.
Grant me sleep, deep and joyful, and honest, with dreams that may come true.
- A Prayer A Day – 4/13/2014 Oh, How I Love Jesus! (dailyprayerprayertogod.wordpress.com)
- Concessions Which Excuse The Muslim Male From Attending Salaah In Congregation (uzairibnnasser.wordpress.com)
- Hadith on Jummah Day (yaallah.in)
Italy’s bishops have adopted a policy, with backing from the Vatican, that states they are not obliged to inform police officers if they suspect a child has been molested. The Italian Bishops’ Conference said the guidelines published on Friday reflected suggestions from the Vatican’s office that handles sex abuse investigations.
(I wrote this when I was in my teens)
Dear God…
Please help this wretched soul. She feels so empty, so sad…
She things she is worthless being, who only has the power to hurt the people she loves.
She is so afraid and lonely.
She has no one to turn to because she chooses to distance herself from people.
She is afraid to let anyone get too close, because then she’ll care,
And soon or later she’ll hurt the person, or she’ll get hurt…
And soon or later they all leave…
She cannot stand the pain.
The pain comes suddenly to her heart, stabbing, twisting, digging in deeper.
Such pain… such misery…
The pain won’t let her breathe. The pain stops her heart from beating.
She struggles in the blackest sea, to keep her head above water.
She screams for help but nothing but the freezing water answer…
View original post 171 more words
No pope has ever taken personal responsibility for the tens of thousands of children who were molested by priests over decades, as bishops moved them from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police
Pope Benedict XVI (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Since being elected last year it is the first time the head of the Catholic Church has made an apology for the thousands of cases of abuse by priests and bishops which had to come to public light before the church was going to do something against it. The church has came to embarrassment with several stories in many countries of the “evil” of priests and bishops who raped and molested children. Already some years the church leaders were noticed by people and by their own clergy, but did not do much. It took a lot of media attention before something came off the ground. Many times the leaders said they did not know about such cases, but when others came with proof they should have known they tried an other whistle. Pope Benedict XVI was not the brightest example in trying to escape the accusations.
At a conference to combat human trafficking and child exploitation, called ‘Church and Law Enforcement in Partnership’, survivors of sex-trafficking from Hungary, Chile and the Czech Republic, were also greeted by the Pope.
Hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and organized by organized by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales the Vatican event brought sex-trafficking global police watch-dogs INTERPOL together with other police forces around the world. It also brought discussion between active members of the Catholic church, with members of foreign governments who are working today to slow the rising tide of crime in the worldwide human sex-trafficking industry.
“It is a crime against humanity,”
said Pope Francis on Thursday on the last day of the event that ran for two days on April 2 and 10.
“Our meeting today includes law enforcement authorities, who are primarily responsible for combating this tragic reality by a vigorous application of the law. It also includes humanitarian and social workers, whose task it is to provide victims with welcome, human warmth and the possibility of building a new life,”
continued the Pope.
“These are two different approaches, but they can and must go together. To dialogue and exchange views on the basis of these two complementary approaches is quite important. Conferences such as this are extremely helpful, and, I would say, much needed,”
Pope Francis added.
General Audience with Pope Francis (Photo credit: Catholic Church (England and Wales))
Today we may find a total different pope than the previous ones, who takes this matter very serious. By giving attention to what happened to all those youngsters in the past, he is giving forgiveness and forgetfulness a chance. On Friday he was asking forgiveness from victims and saying the church must be even bolder in its efforts to protect the young. It was the first time a pope has taken personal responsibility for the sex crimes of his priests and begged forgiveness.
The Catholic Church has faced numerous allegations of child sex abuse by priests around the world and criticism over inadequate responses by bishops. Earlier this year Pope Francis strengthened Vatican laws on child abuse, broadening the definition of crimes against minors to include sexual abuse of children.
While in office, predecessor Pope Benedict XVI apologised to victims of child sex abuse, saying he was “truly sorry” for the “sinful and criminal actions” committed by priests.
Francis’ off-the-cuff remarks were the latest sign that he has become sensitized to the gravity of the abuse scandal after coming under criticism from victims’ advocacy groups for a perceived lack of attention to, and understanding of, the toll it has taken on the church and its members.
The main U.S. victim’s group, SNAP, said it was waiting for more.
“We beg the world’s Catholics: Be impressed by deeds, not words,”
said SNAP’s outreach director Barbara Dorris in a statement.
“Until the pope takes decisive action that protects kids, be skeptical and vigilant.”
Vatican Radio, and Vatican Television gave screening material wich we also could watch on the Belgian Newschannels. We could see the Argentine-born pontiff talking very very slowly, saying he had formed a high-level group on the scandal including an abuse victim to probe the allegations and come clean on this matter which is haunting the Vatican for quite some time.
“I feel compelled to personally take on all the evil that some priests – quite a few in number, (although) obviously not compared to the number of all priests – to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage they have done for having sexually abused children,”
he told members of the International Catholic Child Bureau.
Many adults who remember their childhood, where they got slapped in their face when they told their parents what had happened in the parsonage or presbytery, shall perhaps find some peace now. For many it is unbelievable that the abuse could go on for so many years. And that even after the Dutroux rage still nothing was done again what had happened and still happened in many Catholic presbyteries. they are convinced that the ‘church’ should have been aware of what was happening. Many might have lost their faith in church and religion and can not understand how such an institute which preaches love and peace, and say we all do have to be honest could itself be constructed so much on loads of lies.
Those damaged people can only hope the Catholic Church shall try to soothe this personal, moral damage carried out by men of the church. Lots of men and women (because they also may not be forgotten) shall be looking at the Catholic Church under its new leader to see if it will not take one step backward with regards to how they will deal with this abuse problem. Many people are also curious about the sanctions which shall be taken.
Are we going to see serious sanctions that must be imposed? the pope himself promisses:
On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children.”
“It is personal, moral damage carried out by men of the church and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem and the sanctions that must be imposed” the Pope Francis I called for zero tolerance. – Copyright © 2014 Fairfax Media
In a response, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP, issued a statement calling on the Pontiff to take decisive action against abusive clergy.
These steps include defrocking all known child abusers; handing enforcement over to secular authorities; punishing officials who failed to report instances of abuse; and ensuring the protection of whistleblowers.
“Actions speak louder than words,”
the statement reads in part.
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The Pope set up a committee last year to organise help for victims of clerical sexual abuse but has been accused by some Catholics of dragging his feet in acknowledging the extent of the moral and mental damage caused by paedophile priests, the BBC’s David Willey reports from Rome.
The apology was a first for Francis since he was elected last year and he was quoted as saying there were “quite a few” guilty priests, although “obviously not compared to the number of all the priests”.
Although he has taken some steps to address the scandal, and the calls for church reform that it created, Francis has faced criticism from victim advocates for failing to fully address the child abuse epidemic in his first year as pope. Today’s remarks could be, in part, an attempt to convince advocates that he takes the spiritual aspect of the abuse scandal seriously.
Children were molested by priests over decades as bishops moved them from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police. Pope John Paul II denounced the abusers, saying there was no place for them in the priesthood. Pope Benedict XVI expressed sorrow and regret to victims, met with them and even wept with them.
The main American victim’s group, SNAP, said it was waiting for more.
“We beg the world’s Catholics: Be impressed by deeds, not words,” said SNAP’s outreach director Barbara Dorris in a statement. “Until the pope takes decisive action that protects kids, be skeptical and vigilant.”
Francis delivered the comments to members of the International Catholic Child Bureau, a French Catholic network of organizations that protects children’s rights. Sitting with them in his library Friday, Francis spoke slowly, deliberately and softly in his native Spanish, deviating from his text.
“I feel compelled to take personal responsibility for all the evil that some priests, many — many in number, (although) not in comparison with the totality — to assume personal responsibility and to ask forgiveness for the damage caused by the sexual abuse of the children,” he said.
“This may be the first time a Pope has talked of sanctions against complicit bishops. But that is all it is: talk. (and if this ever happens, many, many tangible steps to safeguard children in the church must be taken),” Dorris continued.
In February 2014 a United States Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles, California closed what has been described as a decade of priest molestations lawsuit cases under what advocates called “wrenching” courtroom litigation. The combined court cases cost the Catholic Church more than $740 million.
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Hamas accepted a ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar, but Israel did not want to know about it and continued its genocide plan..
For months now, we have seen the rise of far-right thinking in several countries in Europe. Several politicians are also trying to make people believe that Europe is a bad thing for their countries. The future of the EU is being jeopardised by people stirring up social tensions for short-term political gain, Spain’s environment minister […]
The past 12 months have been extremely dangerous for journalists, from those on the ground in Gaza and Ukraine to others risking everything to share stories of environmental destruction. Last week the Guardian has been marking World Press Freedom Day with a series of reports about journalists working in the face of immense danger. They […]
The Israeli military has established a new mountaineer unit tasked with carrying out operations across the country’s hostile borders with Lebanon and Syria amid worsening tensions over the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. “We are in a multi-front war—Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza, and also farther away,” IDF Chief of the General […]
The Times, January 24, 2024 Event Two cargo ships sailing close to the Gulf of Aden came under attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday night, the White House said — forcing the US navy to intervene as the Iran-backed militia intensified its maritime assault on commercial shipping. Houthi forces fired three anti-ship ballistic […]
The Independent, January 19, 2024 Event It is hard to escape the impression of a theatre of military conflict that is inexorably growing – to the east and the south, if not yet to the north and the west. And if you look backwards, rather than forwards, the Hamas massacres of Israelis on 7 October, and Israel’s all-out […]
VOA, January 12, 2024 Event Thursday’s retaliatory attacks by U.S. and British forces on Iranian-backed Houthis inside Yemen have prompted support and condemnation from the international community. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani “strongly slammed the military strikes by the U.S. and Britain,” in a statement, calling it “an arbitrary move” that “clearly breached Yemen’s […]
The Times, January 12, 2024 Event Explosions were heard across Yemen late on Thursday night as British and US forces launched strikes on Houthi targets, after the Iranian-backed group ignored warnings to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea. Rishi Sunak, who had authorised the military action hours earlier and briefed ministers in an emergency […]
Event Guardian, October 20, 2023 Joe Biden has drawn a direct, provocative link between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Hamas’s attack on Israel as he urged Americans not to walk away from their role as “a beacon to the world”. In only the second Oval Office address of his presidency, Biden said he would ask […]
Hamas launched a surprise attack Saturday morning unprecedented in its scope and deadly impact. The phrase “It’s chaos” was heard repeatedly, from newsreaders, from families and occasionally from people caught in the raids, whispering desperately into their phones. Event The Times of Israel, October 7, 2023 Hezbollah praises the massive Hamas operation against Israel, and […]
Roselis Von Sass (The Great Pyramid Reveals Its Secret) drawing inspiration from The Grail Message (In the Light of Truth) by Abdruschin
One can never reach true self-knowledge without having come to a knowledge of the world. We cannot come to a knowledge of the world without self-knowledge. Neither can we attain self-knowledge without a knowledge of the world. It is like the beating of a pendulum which must swing back and forth. […]
* “Praying together:Two peoples, one land,Three faiths, one root,One earth, one mother,One sky, one beginning, one future, one destiny,One broken heart,One God.We pray to You:Grant us a vision of unity.May we see the many in the one and the one in the many.May you, Life of All the Worlds,Source of All Amazing DifferencesHelp us to […]
The Times, April 15, 2024 Event Russia’s navy has shipped thousands of tonnes of weaponry to Libya, using ties with a local warlord to create a bridgehead through which it can bolster its military presence in Africa. The vessel, escorted by a navy frigate, entered the port of Tobruk in eastern Libya on April 8 […]
The Times, April 9, 2024 Event President Putin has compared himself to Jesus Christ as he quoted the Bible to explain his divine mission schooling Russia’s youth in “traditional” values. The Russian president has frequently portrayed himself as a stalwart defender of the Christian faith against the “Satanic” West. But in a revealing insight into […]
Last Sunday we were happy to meet three new brethren who got walking with us on the water laid in front of us. They with us can sing “Teach my your way”. In Newbury, they saw a sort of likeness between brother Marcus and Elija and were pleased to have new brethren and sisters join […]
So that Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; in love being rendered firm, and the foundation laid, (Eph 3:17) Paul restates the prayer’s central appeal, identifying the presence of Christ with the empowerment of the Spirit (Eph 3:16). Just as the Church is becoming a holy temple for God (2:21–22), so the individual […]
Whaw! What a nice swimming pool! Not for swimming, though, but for the first baptisms in the very young ecclesia in Anderlecht. Before the start of the ceremony, overlooking the program. We were delighted to find those who started to train with members of the Brussels-Leuven ecclesia to become the first members of the recently […]
Reuters, April 16, 2024 Event Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged all sides in the Middle East to refrain from action that would trigger a new confrontation which he warned would be fraught with catastrophic consequences for the region, the Kremlin said. Putin, who has forged much closer ties with the Islamic Republic since […]
Reuters, April 4, 2024 Event Russia and NATO are now in “direct confrontation”, the Kremlin said as the U.S.-led alliance marked its 75th anniversary on Thursday. NATO‘s successive waves of eastern enlargement are a fixation of President Vladimir Putin, who went to war in Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of preventing the […]
The Times, February 23 , 2024 Event Israel wants operational freedom throughout Gaza “without a time limit” as part of its postwar plan for the territory, Binyamin Netanyahu has told his war cabinet. In his long-awaited “day after” plan outlining Israel’s post-war intentions for Gaza, the Israeli prime minister also called for a “demilitarised, deradicalised” […]
Jerusalem Post, February 19, 2024 Event Russia has invited Palestinian groups to Moscow, which could bring together Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and other terrorist groups*. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said over the weekend that Russia invited Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow at some point in late February, the latest Russian move to […]
Arab News, February 15, 2024 Event Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has spilled over into neighboring countries and sent shockwaves across the wider region, transforming Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen into battlefields in an escalating proxy war between the US and Iran. This mounting instability has wrought havoc on the economies of the […]
What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world? Looking at the world, being sad, noticing that so many people are misled by big institutions that claim to be the only right church, whilst they do not follow at all the Bible teachings, nor Christ his teachings and do […]
Bible prophecies do not deal only with the ancient past. They also accurately foretell events that are taking place in our day. But at the moment we focus at numerous prophecies preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures (commonly called the Old Testament) which long before the man was born told about events which would happen in his time and around him, his betrayal, humiliation, torture, execution, death, and burial. From those writings of the Old and New Testament nobody should have doubts who that man is who is called Immanuel, the son of man and Messiah, born out of the root of Jess in the tribe of king David.
In Scripture, all things are directed towards a man who was a servant of servants, in whom people should come to have faith. First we saw the connection with Eve and her seed, and in this article you may see the connection with Abraham.
Already in the Old Testament we find the focus on a son of man who is called the son of God, who shall be the most pure set apart (holy) servant of God who was been told about in the Garden of Eden, to be the one bruised.
Many Old Testament writers wrote about the prophet to come, about whom is spoke in the book of Moses and who shall be the special “Seed of a woman” given by God and who will bruise Satan’s head whilst his heel would be bruised with nails on the wooden stake.
Beth Snider on the Odd News Show writes about a mysterious large green stone discovered at the Temple complex in Hattusa, the capital of the ancient Hittite Empire, standing on a raised platform and measures 215 by 140 feet (65 by 42 metres). The Hattusa Green Stone is a roughly cubic block of nephrite standing […]
Did Lamech kill Cain? What happened to Cain in the Bible? In the Book of Genesis, we are told about Cain’s birth, his violent act of fratricide and his subsequent exile. We learn that he married and had descendants, but the Bible is strangely mute about his death. How did Cain die? If he did […]
Read Elie Wiesel’s essay on Cain and Abel in the Bible as it originally appeared in Bible Review, February 1998. First republished in BHD June 1, 2015. Cain and Abel: The first two brothers of the first family in history. The only brothers in the world. The saddest, the most tragic. Why do they hold […]
Op maandag 22 april zal onze broeder, Marcus Ampe ter operatie in het ziekenhuis Gasthuisberg te Leuven verblijven. Hierdoor zal hij in de ecclesiae van Brussel-Leuven, Anderlecht, Mons-Lille de avonddienst voor 14 Nisan niet kunnen voorgaan. Wij hopen dat onze leden in hun kleine kringen het vergaderen niet zullen nalaten en Jezus laatste avondmaal in […]
“In vain do they worship Me, teaching as teachings the commands of men.” (Matthew 15:9) SPECIALS SPECIALS SPECIALS SPECIALS Every 10 You Order You Will Get 5 Extra Free Copies. Greetings Supporters, If you are not aware of the existence of this book, it would do you service, to all those who sense something not […]
Financial Times, April 18, 2024 Event The US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Thursday that would have granted a Palestinian state full UN membership, killing a move proposed by Algeria. Twelve of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, including Russia, China and France, voted in favour of the measure. The UK […]
Over the last six months, the Israeli war against Hamas has escalated significantly. In May 2021, violence erupted between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem, leading to a series of rocket attacks from Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip. This led to an 11-day conflict in which Israel launched a series […]
Israel News, February 29, 2024 Event The Iranian regime has given Hezbollah the go-ahead to launch a large-scale attack against Israel within certain parameters, fearing that Israel plans to attack Lebanon in the near future, the Arabic Post reported on Wednesday. The Lebanese terror militia and Israel have traded blows since Hezbollah began its daily attacks against […]
Reuters, February 18, 2024 Event Israel on Sunday formalised its opposition to what it called the “unilateral recognition” of Palestinian statehood, and said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought the “declaratory decision” to a vote in cabinet, which unanimously approved the measure, according to a statement. Netanyahu […]
The Telegraph, February 14, 2024 Event Israeli fighter jets launched the deepest airstrikes yet on Lebanon, reigniting fears of regional war. The series of deadly strikes, amid months of cross-border violence, came after rockets from Hezbollah killed a woman in a town in northern Israel not previously affected by daily border clashes. One woman was killed and eight […]
The Telegraph, April 19, 2024 Event The message sent by Israel’s limited military strike on Iran depends entirely on where you sit – and that “ambiguity” is very much intentional. The good news is that both sides appear to have stepped back from the brink. The bad news is that the ongoing fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and […]
The Times, March 21, 2024 Event Binyamin Netanyahu has told senior US Republicans that Israel “won’t stop” its planned Rafah offensive, even if it lacks American support. The Israeli prime minister spoke to senators at a lunch in Washington via videolink, after earlier admitting “disagreements” with President Biden over the potential military operation in the […]
Daily Telegraph, February 23, 2024 Event A Hezbollah “military compound” in Lebanon has been hit by an Israeli strike amid ongoing cross-border fire as tensions intensify in the Middle East. Hezbollah claimed that two paramedics affiliated with the group and one of their fighters were killed in a “direct” attack on a civil defence centre […]
From older news, which should not have been missed: The Telegraph, January 29, 2024 Event Are we on the brink of a third world war? In the age of “peak apocalypse”, it is easy to laugh off such a question. After all, we already find ourselves on permanent pandemic-watch, are besieged daily by predictions of ecological […]
Israel World News, January 21, 2024 Event Israel is giving Hezbollah ten more days to move away from its border and then its military will significantly escalate its reactions to the terrorists’ rain of rockets on northern Israel, The Washington Post reported Friday. Although the end-of-January deadline isn’t absolute, according to officials cited by the paper, the Israelis […]
Bij de Parasja Nitsawiem 5782 kijken wij uit naar een sjana tova oemetoeka voor ons allen.
Dit jaar zijn er nog 2 sjabbatot tot Soekot en is er voor elke sjabbat een parasja en de sjabbat voorafgaande aan Rosj Hasjana lezen wij nu de de parasja Nitsawiem.
Verwonderlijk kreeg ik vandaag het bericht van WordPress dat ik tegen een jubileum mag aankijken. Gefeliciteerd met je jubileum bij WordPress.com! Je hebt je 5 jaar geleden geregistreerd op WordPress.com.Bedankt voor het gebruiken van onze service! Ga zo door met bloggen. Wat zijn die vijf jaren voorbij gevlogen. Voordat mijn pen al mijn gedachten kon […]
Kijkend naar de geschiedenis van het Joodse Volk in Oekraïne staan zij nu weer op het punt dat er vele doden onder hen kunnen vallen.
Met Rosj Hasjana denken wij aan de wondere scheppingsdaad van de Allerhoogste. Spijtig genoeg moeten wij toegeven dat de mensheid van die schepping een janboel heeft gemaakt.
What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world? In Christendom there are lots of denominations but oh such a few, keep really to the biblical teachings. A lot of churches claim they are the only right church. In case they would follow all the teachings of Christ Jesus, […]
The apostle Paul wrote about the dispersion, the dispersed House of Israel. They had been “without covenant“, but Paul was sent out to recover them. So they were “grafted in again“ (Romans 11/23). Or, Grafted back in“. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been […]
Rob Mac wonders when the door to door will return? He wrote this a while back, and went sharing it again. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses hate the door to door ministry, although they won’t readily admit it. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses have developed ‘creative’ ways of counting their time doing this work, and many strategies for avoiding actually […]
Constantine wanted unity in his realm, and his call in 325 C.E. for a council of his bishops at Nicaea, located in the Eastern, Greek-speaking domain of his empire, across the Bosporus from the new city of Constantinople was in a certain way his goal to achieve some agreement by which many could live. Constantine […]
Superstition, misunderstanding and hatred caused the Christians trouble for many generations, and governmental repression they had to suffer occasionally, as a result of popular disturbances. No systematic effort was made by the imperial authorities to put an end to the movement until the reign of the Roman emperor (249–251) who fought the Gothic invasion of […]
From guestwriters 