Posted with permission.
DAILY DEVOTIONAL THURSDAY APRIL 6, 2006
( John 17:21, 2 Timothy 3:16, Ephesians 2:8,9, 1 Corinthians 1:10 )
Is Pope Paul II in Heaven? Without a doubt one of the things I am most
grateful for is how God has used Liveprayer to bring unity to the badly
divided Body of Christ. Over 1/3 of those who receive the Daily Devotional
each day are not Christians. Of the 2/3 who are, they are equally divided
among those who go to Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Pentecostal,
Independent, and Catholic Churches. Ever since I started this ministry in
1992, one of my greatest "big picture" goals was to help bring the Body of
Christ together as one as our Lord prayed in John 17 just hours before going
to the cross. Dividing the Body is something satan has been doing since the
first church in the Book of Acts and what Paul warned about quite often in
his letters to the churches.
I purposely stayed away from any denominational affiliation, having my
ministry credentials with an independent group of ministers. I also kept
this ministry from any denominational affiliations so that nobody could try
and label it as "Baptist," even though I got my formal theological training
at a Baptist Seminary, or "Methodist," even though I was raised and saved in
the United Methodist Church, or "Pentecostal," even though I believe in the
gifts of the Spirit. Without having a "label," during my first three years
I was able to preach in over 500 churches of every denomination, racial and
ethnic makeup, all over the country.
You see, my message then and my message now has really never changed. It is
a universal message that plays to people in and out of the church. "If you
don't know Jesus by faith you need to make the decision for Him today. If
you do know the Lord, you need to fully surrender your life and allow Him to
use you. No matter what problems you may be facing in your life today,
Jesus is the answer!" As I have shared with you often, when you die, there
will be only two lines in Heaven, There won't be a line for Whites and one
for Blacks. There won't be a line for Catholics and one for Protestants.
There will be one line for those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior by
faith, and one for those who do not!
In dealing with a worldwide audience of over 2.2 million people every day, I
am VERY well aware of the incredible divisions there are in Christ's Body.
Perhaps no division is as great as the one between Catholics and
non-Catholics. I deal with this issue daily in individual cases but have
never addressed it in the Daily Devotional. I want you to pray, open your
heart to the words I am going to share with you, and hear the voice of God
speaking to you today as I do my best to bring balance and clarity to this
area of division within the Body of Christ.
Let me start right away and say that those non-Catholics who think the Roman
Catholic Church is a cult and anyone who is part of that church is going to
hell, could not be more wrong. I am very aware of those who teach this
message of hate and division, and they should be ashamed of themselves and
will one day answer to God. On the other side, however, those Catholics who
think that any non-Catholic has denied the faith and will go to hell for not
being part of the Roman Catholic Church is just as wrong. Please, I am NOT
interested in receiving your dissertations, your cut and paste emails from
websites that try and support EITHER of these extreme positions so don't
send them!
The fact is, the Roman Catholic Church has a long and well-documented
history. However, the reality is, it is simply a denomination or group of
churches, no different than a group of Southern Baptist, United Methodist,
or Assemblies of God Churches. Each group of churches or denomination has
their own rich heritage, traditions, and leaders. The critical point is
that while each group of churches or denominations have their own unique
differences in regard to different doctrinal issues, what makes them
CHRISTIAN churches is the foundational element of the Christian faith. Who
Jesus Christ is, that salvation is through faith in Christ alone, and the
authority of God's inspired, inerrant Word.
THE ONE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS NOT A GROUP OF CHURCHES OR A
DENOMINATION OR A BUILDING, IT IS MADE UP OF EVERY PERSON WHO HAS ACCEPTED
JESUS CHRIST INTO THEIR HEARTS AND LIVES BY FAITH.
Is the Pope in Heaven? There is only ONE WAY to get to Heaven and that is
by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. My personal opinion is
that he is. Not because he was the Pope, but because of His faith in Jesus
Christ. You see, the moment you die, who you were in this life isn't
important. As the old adage goes, it is Who you know! The only thing that
matters the moment you die is, DO YOU KNOW JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR BY FAITH.
God will reward us for our faithfulness in serving Him during our life, but
what we do during our life can't get us to Heaven, only faith in Jesus
Christ will get us into Heaven!
Now, let me address some of the issues about the Roman Catholic Church that
have led many who know the Lord to leave that church and has caused much of
the division with non-Catholics. 3 of the 700+ retired ministers who serve
the Lord by helping me each day respond to the over 40,000 emails that we
receive are Roman Catholic Priests. Over my years of ministry, I have
personally preached in over 1/2 dozen Catholic Churches (and I can assure
you that I shared the unadulterated truth of the Gospel and gave an altar
call as I do whenever I preach in public), and the best we can tell, approx.
200,000 of the 2.2 million plus subscribers to the Daily Devotional are
Catholics. I have read and studied the Catechism of the Roman Catholic
Church and as a student of church history am very well aware of what the
Catholic Church teaches.
The problem most non-Catholics have with the Catholic Church is what I call
their non-Biblical traditions, which by the way, ALL groups of churches or
denominations have. I don't have the time to go through a complete list but
the main ones are how they deal with the mother of Jesus, Mary. She was a
virgin when she was immaculately conceived by the Holy Spirit, however, she
was a person of flesh and blood like you and I and was born with sin just
like you and I were. She also had other children as we know from the
Scriptures. There is nothing wrong with honoring her for the incredible
role God chose her to play in her life, but she is NOT a deity and praying
to her is as meaningless as it is to pray to any other person who is dead
(including those the Catholic Church has deemed to be "saints") or alive.
There is only ONE person we pray to and that is Jesus.
Another big issue in the Catholic Church is Communion. The tradition of the
Catholic Church is that the wafer representing the body of our Lord and the
wine representing His blood literally becomes the body and blood of Christ.
That is a very real theological argument that Scripture does not support,
but I don't see that as an area for major contention. The Bible exhorts us
to take Communion often in remembrance of the sacrifice of our Lord and
there are those who believe based on certain verses it becomes the literal
body and blood of Christ. Another issue that I don't think is that
important is confessing your sins to a Priest. The Bible tells us to
confess our sins one to another, so there is nothing wrong if it is your
Priest you choose to do that with. However, please understand that NO MAN,
only Jesus can forgive you of your sins since it was only Jesus who died for
your sins.
Another issue that is critical to talk about is salvation. The teaching of
the Catholic Church clearly is that salvation is through faith in Jesus
Christ alone. However, there are some who teach in error (just like some
non-Catholic churches do) that you can do enough good works to earn your way
into Heaven which is clearly refuted by Ephesians 2:8,9. Those who teach
this point to the passage in James that "faith without works is dead." The
fact is that passage was written to people who were already saved. The
Bible clearly teaches that a person who is truly saved will have "fruit" or
good works follow them. These good works do not save them but flow from
their salvation.
Also, it needs to be addressed that many Catholics think that they were the
"first church." Actually, the first church is well documented in the Book
of Acts and was in Jerusalem, not Rome. There was quite a network of
churches in that part of the world before there was any church at Rome, and
those early churches in the city of Rome were offshoots of those other
various churches who came to plant churches there. It was several hundred
years later, with many well established churches all over that part of the
world before what we know as the Romans Catholic Church really emerged.
continued in post after Tonio's
The Hospital listing is much like the phone book. Some people do get private unlisted numbers but hiding or withholding the Hospital list is not customary nor traditional. Now-a-days many people are paranoid (some rightly paranoid) but we surely do not want our societal Institutions to start acting paranoid and the Hospitals are a big American Institution.
In the USA the Courts uphold the right to visitation. As in the door-to-door sales persons do have a right to sell door to door (visit). Telephone solicitors do have a right to phone call visits. Also do the police, the Electric company, Jehovah's Witnesses do have a right to visit. We can order them to leave but they can each come back and visit again.
or you'll be burning in the lake.
I say again that if any of us or if the President or Congress person or Britney Spears or anyone else goes into a public place (such as a Hospital) then we do not have any "right" to keep it secret. We can try to keep it secret but no right. After inside they can close the door for privacy but it is no secret.
The child support goes to the custodial only and never received by the child. Then the custodial only has a claim to the child support but no real right to it, so long as we use such references as the Bill of Rights or the Bible. I think it is best to try to be accurate.