To: t&t@jesus-is-lord.com Subject: Re: (no subject) Date: Friday, February 01, 2002 1:01 AM Dear Tracy, I am encouraged in Christ by your response, to know there is someone else who perceives the dangers of Roamnism, etc, and the trends in the church today. i too need to have the Lord Jesus more exalted in my heart at all times, and pray for the same in others. "For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet" (1Cor.15:25). ...Here is a my small testimony that does not tell the whole story about me, as He is still working on me. I was raised in a strict RC family, 2 of my uncles were priests, my Dad taught CCD., my Mom was the church secretary, and my 2 brothers + i were altar boys. But in all my years growing up as a Catholic never heard the Gospel of the Grace of GOD (Acts 20:24), which brings a soul to realize his desperate need for salvation in the light of a completely Holy and perfectly Just GOD, and our utter inability to either merit Eternal Life with GOD in His Holy Heaven, nor escape the just punishment due for our sins (and sin of rejecting the Light of CHRIST), and thus can only look to the Son sent from the Father to be.(1Jn.4:10,14); Who is set forth as the Direct object of faith for the helpless and destitute sinner, for the immediate forgiveness of sins and regeneration by the Holy Ghost, all on GOD's expense and credit. Instead, i was in essence taught to believe that i was in good hands with the Catholic system. Though i am thankful to the Biblical things that i did learn, which lead to my being born again at age 25 by faith in the Gospel of Grace, Romanism effectively made such truth of none effect by promoting faith more in herself and personal merit than directly in Christ and His precious blood. The Lord has used me, in His mercy + by His grace to door knock thousands of doors and stand before many more (though i was not naturally able to do such) with the saving Gospel in a predominately RC area... The indifferent or even antagonistic response to the evangelical Gospel is an effect that made me search for a cause. I have also tried to reason with Catholic street evangelists And while there are other factors, as far as the cultural religion is concerned, I belive that the evident scriptural illiteracy and general spiritual deadness (in the light of the NT) has its foundation in Roman Catholisim's completely unwaranted and autocratic interpretation of Mt 16:13-19, by which they postulate an ultimately infallible Pope Peter and Church, to whom all must submit, and whose position and power and is to be perpetuated via Papal Progression and eccleciastical linkage. Though a doctrine so critical to the eternal welfare of souls (such as the death and resurrection of CHRIST, or the great commission) must have fairly abundant Biblical support, in vain do we search the scripture to find at least one command by the Holy Spirit to the church to submit to Peter as its universal Head, or one clear instance wherein the church did so (especially as Rome manifests it), or in which Peter claims such an office for himself (rather than being "an apostle," and "an elder:" 1Pt.1:1; 2Pt.1:1). A careful examination of the entire body of the NT. (esp. in the "church epistles" in which such a doctrine would be most expected to be found), invalidates Romaism's papal premise. Nonetheless, Rome's circular reasoning (according our interpretation, only our interpretation can be correct) allows her to rather blithely dismiss scriptural reproofs to her arrogance, the result being the propagation of a plethora of pronouncements that either have no Biblical warrant or contradict what the Bible clearly, and contextually, declares. The practical effect of such has been to produce multitudes down thru the centuries that have no Biblical testimony of regeneration, nor evident love for the Word of Truth that begets such, and for those who have received and testify of it in love. And though I seem somewhat contemptuous of the institutional gospel (which includes many "protestant" churches), it is only because having received the love of the Truth (and I have far to go) and tasted of the Living Water of Christ, one will disdain a counterfeit, at the same time calling the lost to, as Paul said, "turn from these vanities unto the living and true GOD" and His gospel (Acts 14:15; 2:38; 3:19; 10:34-47). That is my prayer for all those who from Christ are yet apart. "Preaching peace thru Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:36). Dan