While according to the Bible
"The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking"
Rom 14:17, according to Catholicism the kingdom of God is a
matter of eating and drinking. For under Catholicism salvation is
contingent upon taking "communion" and intentional failure to do so is a
mortal sin.
While the Bible instructs us,
"Do
not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for
our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which
are of no value to those who eat them." Heb 13:9,
Catholicism carries away people with all kinds of strange doctrine,
including the idea that grace is imparted through ceremonial food.
Catholicism is a Sacramental Theology. That is that salvation is
contingent upon one's participation in their religious rituals. This in
contrast to what the Bible teaches that
"we maintain that a man
is justified by faith apart from observing the law." Rom 3:27,28 Faith is the sole requirement for salvation according to the Bible.
"What must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." Acts 16:30,31 "Know that a man is not justified by observing the
law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in
Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by
observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be
justified." Gal 2:16 "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, bu
as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God
who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David
says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom
God credits righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are they whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." Rom 4:4-8
This in contrast to Catholicism in which CANON IV of their "Council of Trent" states,
"If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law are no
necessary unto salvation, but superfluous; and that, without them, or
without the desire thereof, men obtain of God, through faith alone, the
grace of justification;-though all (the sacraments) are not indeed necessary
for every individual; let him be anathema." Apparently the apostle
Paul is anathema to the Catholic Church since he preaches salvation by
faith alone. For when he is asked to list the requirements for salvation
and when he speaks of the requirements for salvation, only faith is
mentioned. And he explicitly excludes salvation being contingent upon
any kind of work.
Concerning observing Holy days, the Apostle Paul writes,
"One
man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers
every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He
who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat,
eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does
so to the Lord and gives thanks to God." Rom 14:5,6 Yet among the "mortal" sins (a category of sins fabricated by Catholicism) are "
Missing Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day of Obligation without a
serious
reason". Another, "
Intentional failure to fast or abstain on
appointed
days." And how about this one, "
Requiring employees to work on
Sunday
in non-essential occupations" And ironically while the 4th of the 10 commandments insists one rests on the Sabbath, here is Catholic law: Canon XXIX.
CHRISTIANS must not judaize by resting on the
Sabbath,
but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if
they
can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be
judaizers,
let them be anathema from Christ.
So while the Bible commands,
"Do not le
anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious
festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day." Col 2:16, Catholicism violates this very command.
Among all their religious ceremonies is their "Sacrifice of the Mass" as
they refer to it, which contains among a multitude of heretical ideas
and practices, the idea of "transsubstantiating" Christ into a piece of
bread they refer to as the Eucharist, which is their object of worship.
They then eat the bread in a particular ceremonial manner along with
drinking from the cup which the priest has allegedly
"transsubstantiated" from Christ's blood.
This practice they allege to have derived from what Jesus said in John 6
and during the Last Supper. What they have done is so misconstrue the
interpretation of scripture as to contradict what it explicitly,
emphatically, and comprehensively states that the kingdom of God is not a
matter of eating and drinking in order to make it a matter of eating
and drinking. They have made salvation contingent upon religious
ceremonies rather than by faith.
Now in
John 6:54 Jesus does say,
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." This
Catholics take in a material sense, as if Jesus were talking about a
material substance. But when questioned on this matter Jesus said,
"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." John 6:63
So in the first case Jesus says that eternal life is contingent upon
eating his flesh, but in the second case he says the flesh counts for
nothing. So which is it? Obviously Jesus is saying that he was no
speaking literally. Nor was he speaking about a material substance like
physical bread. For what gives life according to John 6:63? Is it eating
a material substance? No, it is the Spirit working through his words.
Drinking of his blood is to put faith solely upon his blood to atone for sin.
"God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood." Rom 3:25 and
"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Rom 5:9
Eating of his flesh means to abide in his word. In that same section in John Peter says,
"You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68 But while Peter also says,
"You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." 1Peter 1:23 and
"as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" 1Peter 2:2
Catholics do not characteristically feed on the Word. Rather they have
replaced the Word of God with a religious ceremony involved eating their
"Eucharist". While Jesus said,
"Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." Mt 4:4, Catholicism has turned this into the idea that life is attained by eating their eucharist.
It's words that save. God has implemented salvation in such a way that people are saved by
words.
The angel told Cornelius ‘Send men to Joppa, and
call for Simon whose surname is Peter, ‘who will tell you words by
which you and all your household will be saved.’ Acts 11:13,14 Jesus
said,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes
in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into
judgment, but has passed from death into life." John 5:24 The Apostle
Paul stated,
"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God to salvation for everyone who believes" Rom 1:17 "God was
well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save
those who believe." 1Cor 1:21 Salvation comes through faith in Christ.
And
"faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard
through the word of Christ." Rom 10:17
Jesus said,
"If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." John 8:31 But Catholics are largely Biblically illiterate. As such Jesus would say to Catholics,
"You do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe." John 5:38
If Catholics actually believed in Jesus they would abide in the Word of
God. While claiming to "believe", their belief is vain, for they do no
show their faith in Jesus (as he is defined in the Bible) by their
works. Rather they demonstrate that their faith is in a different Jesus
and in a different gospel, as Paul said to the Galatians,
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called
you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which
is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into
confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ." Gal 1:6,7 and to the Corinthians he says
"For
if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if
you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a
different gospel which you have not accepted——you may well put up with
it!" 2Cor 11:4
And just as Jesus associates his bread as his words, so also he
associates the false teachings of heretics with a different kind of
bread. Jesus offers unleavened bread, which is to say that which is
true, sincere and without hypocrisy.
"For indeed
Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the
feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 1Cor 5:7,8 In contrast he speaks of the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees as leavened bread.
"'How
is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning
bread? ——but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'
Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven
of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Mt 6:11,12 and
"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." Lk 12:1 Beware
of the leaven of Catholicism. Leavened bread is artificially inflated,
full of hot air. While it attracts a lot of people, its doctrines are
largely in conflict with the Word of God.
Jesus said,
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." John 10:27 but
"they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice." John 10:5
Those who are attracted to the voice of Catholicism are not Jesus'
sheep. And if a Catholic comes to genuine faith in Christ they would run
away from Catholicism. That is the kind of outworking of one's faith I
would expect to see. For faith without any application of that faith is
vain.