THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
In June of this year, an independent tribunal based in London came to a chilling conclusion: detainees in China are being killed, their organs are being harvested and some victims find themselves falsely accused of committing crimes that never occurred.
The China Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who was a prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, determined that:
forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale, [and] the tribunal has had no evidence that the significant infrastructure associated with China’s transplantation industry has been dismantled and absent a satisfactory explanation as to the source of readily available organs concludes that forced organ harvesting continues till today.
Before coming to their damning conclusion, the tribunal members spoke with medical experts and human rights investigators. According to the committee, thousands of people “have died indescribably hideous deaths for no reason.” The committee members warn “that more may suffer in similar ways and that all of us live on a planet where extreme wickedness may be found in the power of those, for the time being, running a country with one of the oldest civilizations known to modern man.”
China, it seems, is a place where “extreme wickedness” reigns supreme. After all, it is not uncommon for individuals who speak out against the government to disappear. However, the scope of the “disappeared” has expanded since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2013. Over the past six years, from prominent celebrities to brave journalists, hundreds of people in China have seemingly vanished into thin air — and yet the international community has remained largely silent. Almost immediately after election, Chinese President Xi introduced new laws that essentially made arbitrary and secret detentions legal under Chinese law. Many of those arrested were never seen again. Were their organs harvested? Sadly, it’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask.
After all, in the words of the aforementioned Geoffrey Nice, “There is no evidence of the practice having been stopped and the tribunal is satisfied that it is continuing.”
Among those killed, according to the committee, are members of religious minorities such as Falun Gong, a religious and spiritual practice that combines meditation and qigong exercises. Members are encouraged to adopt a moral philosophy centered on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. In China, a country known for silencing “unorthodox” views, truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance are at a premium.
Of course, China’s organ bazaar has been in operation for years. Recently, however, knowledge of the gruesome practice has led to the retraction of fifteen science papers discussing organ transplantation. The retractors fear that the organs were inhumanely and unethically obtained. As the New Scientist’s Clare Wilson writes:
Fifteen studies about transplanted organs by researchers in China have been retracted this month due to concerns the work may have used organs from executed prisoners. Three other papers have been the subject of expressions of concern for the same reason, according to the website Retraction Watch which monitors questions raised over published research.
China’s government said in 2015 that the nation had stopped using organs from executed prisoners, which is illegal according to international conventions. But it is suspected that the practice continues in the country, particularly involving prisoners of conscience.
The retraction of papers is at least a step in the right direction, but obviously more action is needed.
Retracting papers should just be the beginning. Chinese organ-transplant doctors should be barred from international symposia and such events in China should be boycotted, as well as refusing or retracting other honors until the country proves that it no longer countenances kill-and-harvest, whether for sale, research, or otherwise
Investigations have found that British women regularly (and unknowingly) apply the collagen of executed prisoners to their faces . Worryingly, according to Ethan Gutmann, a longtime China analyst and author of the deeply disturbing book, The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China’s Secret Solution to its Dissident Problem, the realities of the practice are "far more awful” than one can ever imagine. As Gutmann, a human rights activist, affirms, authorities sometimes take the organs from prisoners while they are still alive. Yes, alive.
Though the Chinese government has recently made it illegal to provide transplant organs from executed prisoners to foreign, transplant tourists, there is little reason to believe that this law is in full effect. Moreover, the extremeshortage of transplant organs in the U.S. continues to make organ transplantation in China an appealing option for some patients with life threatening diseases, so desperate Americans still travel to China for surgery.
Although China has emerged as a genuine global power, with a rising and increasingly sophisticated middle class, its wicked practices must be addressed. Haile Selassie, the famous Ethiopian emperor, once said, “it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
The international community must respond. Because, as the situation stands now, the world's silence is deafening. _____________________________________________________________ SEE ALSO: https://christiannews.net/2019/10/09/china-harvesting-organs-from-prisoners-of-conscience-and-religious-minorities-tribunal-tells-u-n/
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
“A Swedish municipality that took in one of the highest numbers of asylum seekers per population faces a crisis as natives move out and decimate the local tax base.” That municipality is Filipstad, and as they drive out locals, migrants have no interest in making up the shortfall in taxes. According to the local municipal manager,Claes Hultgren:
Around 750 adults from Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Iraq live in Filipstad…. In this group, unemployment and dependency are very high, while education levels are very low. This group runs the risk of eternal alienation that is already heavily burdening the municipal economy.
Urban Pettersson, a Sweden Democrat and member of the local council in Filipstad, also stated:
Ninety percent of the refugees don’t contribute to society. These people are going to have a lifelong dependence on social welfare. This is a huge problem.
And beyond welfare, Pettersson addressed the general issue of integration that has been a major cause of the exodus of locals out of Filipstad:
These immigrants don’t speak the same language…..They have different religions, different ways of life. If there are too many differences, it’s harder to get along. It’s interesting to meet someone from another country for maybe half an hour, but if you’re going to live together, it’s tough.
The situation in Filipstad is mirrored in other localities that have seen a high Muslim migrant influx. This is happening in the city of Gothenberg, too. The crisis is reminiscent of the situation in France. Due to the Muslim migrant influx there, Jews have been fleeing France in drove. The alarming rise of antisemitism prompted Ricard Abitbol, President of the Confederation of Jews in France, to declare last year that “in a few decades, there will be no Jews in France.”
“Every day we have people who are hurt, every day we have people who are insulted,” Ricard Abitbol, President of The Confederation of Jews in France and Friends of Israel told RT. “We can be hurt by words, but we don’t mind, but when we are hurt by a knife, a gun, you can’t say I don’t mind.”
The safety of native citizens has been threatened, and the quality of life has become intolerable for many locals. The crisis doesn’t look as if it will improve. It is likely to worsen: for example, in mosques across Sweden, Muslim leaders are telling the media that mosques are teaching Swedish values — which is a requirement to receive state funding — but the leaders are mostly lying.
Uppdrag granskning (Assignment Investigate), the investigative current affairs program of Swedish television (SVT) , went undercover with hidden camera to the most influential mosques around the country to find out what the real situation was.
Here is some of what the investigations turned up:
One of Sweden’s most respected, and well-frequented, mosques is located at the heart of Stockholm, at Medborgarplatsen. The government turns to the religious leaders there as beingrepresentative of the Muslim community in Sweden. As recently as February, Minister for Public Administration, Stefan Attefall, attended a Friday prayer service there. The Family Counsellor at this particular mosque replied to the questions presented by Assignment: Investigate undercover associate as follows: Men are allowed to take four wives, as long as he treats them fairly. He went on to say that a wife should never deny her husband sex, not even if he has beaten her, or has taken another wife. In addition to this, he discourages women from contacting the police: “If you do call the police that could cause trouble. Do you know why? Because the police will take him into custody,” the Imam admonished. Only two of the ten religious representatives felt women should go to the police. Two left the decision up to the woman herself…..In Malmö, the beating was even made light of. The man our associates spoke to used his own arm to demonstrate how hard it is okay to hit. “Never, ever even consider going to the police,” was his advice……..At nine of the Muslim congregations, Uppdrag gransknings associates were informed that the Koran, in certain circumstances, gives men the right to take several wives. Six of the representatives were taped as they explained how according to the Koran, a Muslim woman is not allowed to deny her husband sex – it is his right, even against her will.
As a result of the hijrah, it isn’t only Sweden that faces a grim future, economically and otherwise, but other EU countries as well, thanks globalist leaders who abandoned their responsibility to exercise due diligence in screening refugees, and instead welcomed in massive numbers of Muslim migrants. Authorities have lost track of many, and a significant percentage of these migrants have no intention to integrate. Germany recently admitted to losing track of 13,000 migrants.
These migrants have brought no-go zones, sharia patrols, sex attacks, a surge in violent antisemitism, the radicalization of prisons and mosques, threats of jihad attacks, and more to Europe.
“Sweden: Municipality Inundated with Migrants Faces Tax Crisis as Native Swedes Flee,” by Chris Tomlinson, Breitbart, September 1, 2019:
A Swedish municipality that took in one of the highest numbers of asylum seekers per population faces a crisis as natives move out and decimate the local tax base.
The municipality of Filipstad took in many asylum seekers during the migrant crisis of 2015 and now are facing increasing costs as unemployment among migrants has surged and financial assistance rates have tripled, broadcaster SVT reports.
Claes Hultgren, the local municipal manager, described the situation, saying of the migrant population: “In this group, unemployment and dependency are very high, while education levels are very low. This group runs the risk of ending in an eternal alienation that is already heavily burdening the municipal economy.”
“They are too old maybe and are illiterate, or have a very low educational level. We must then accept that there will be some people who will need the support of society for their livelihood,” Hultgren added.
Adding to the burden has been the exodus of native Swedes, with hundreds of natives leaving between 2012 and 2018 and an even higher number of foreigners arriving during the same period. Statistics show the vast majority of natives who left were of working age.
While job vacancies still do exist in the municipality, the jobs require skills in language and training that few of the migrants possess.
According to another report from SVT, the city of Gothenberg is undergoing a similar problem, with working-age native Swedes moving out of the city to nearby municipalities, often to buy a home, and taking their tax money with them…..
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
LewRockwell.com
Recently, the news and opinion site HuffPost removed an article that had been up for more than six years. The piece, titled “Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court – Now What?” was published in January of 2013, and dealt with a case in which the US government’s Court of Federal Claims conceded that routine vaccination had aggravated a child’s underlying condition and led to that child developing “features of autism spectrum disorder.”
A previous blog post published on this site has been removed in the interest of public health. The article expressed the sole opinion of its author, who retains the rights to publish it elsewhere. Multiple studies have demonstrated that vaccines are safe and effective. Our letter from the editor has more on this decision.
This retraction did not occur in a vacuum. The first half of 2019 has seen a coordinated effort to scrub the Internet of any information that is critical of the claim that “vaccines are safe and effective.” The push began last fall, but gained momentum in January when the World Health Organization declared “vaccine hesitancy” to be a “global health threat,” placing it alongside Ebola, cancer, war zones, and drug-resistant pathogens.
On March 1st, US Congressman Adam Schiff wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and, after stating that “there is no evidence to suggest that vaccines cause life-threatening or disabling diseases,” expressed his concern that Amazon might be allowing content with “medically inaccurate information.” He asked what action Amazon was taking to address “misinformation about vaccines.”
Later that day, Amazon pulled from its streaming service the documentary “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” along with other “anti-vaccine” documentaries including “Man Made Epidemic“ and “The Greater Good,” a film that “…weaves together the stories of families whose lives have been forever changed by vaccination.”
Schiff had written similar letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Not long after Amazon pulled the documentaries from its streaming service, other platforms began to follow suit. On March 7, Facebook announced that it would reduce the visibility of groups and pages that “spread misinformation about vaccinations,” and would no longer accept advertisements containing what it deemed to be “misinformation” about vaccines.
Back in August of 2018, Pinterest had already begun removing content (later accounts, and then search results) that it said contained “medical misinformation,” and in February, YouTube demonetized all videos that “promoted anti-vaccination content.” Etsy, Vimeo, MailChimp, and GoFundMe have all joined these other platforms in pledging to either prohibit or demote content deemed to contain “misinformation” about vaccines.
“MISINFORMATION”
So what is the “misinformation” that the WHO, Congressman Schiff, and these social-media giants are so determined to remove from public view? Let’s start with the article mentioned above that was pulled from HuffPost:
The piece—which you can now read here—deals with the case of Hannah Poling, whose family was awarded more than $1.5 million by the US Court of Federal Claims after it acknowledged that her “regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder…” was the result of vaccinations she received at 18 months that aggravated an underlying mitochondrial condition. The article is a fairly straightforward accounting of the case, followed by questions it raises about such issues as research, public health, and the vaccine-autism debate.
HuffPost’s letter from the editor, explaining its reasoning for removing articles like this one, states:
HuffPost has decided to remove dozens of blogs that perpetuate the unfounded opinion that vaccines pose a health risk to the public. Allowing these blogs to remain on our platform does a disservice to our readers that outweighs any ostensible value as part of the public record.
HuffPost’s editors also chose to remove the Federal Claims Court document itself, which had been posted separately. Where that document was once found, there is now the same statement that replaced the above article, along with the assertion that it “…expressed the sole opinion of its author.”
But that is complete nonsense. There is no “author” of this piece (other than for the very brief introduction to the document), and it does not represent anyone’s “opinion.” It is an official record of a concession made by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, submitted to a Federal court. It is indeed a part of the public record—a part that HuffPost’s editorial team doesn’t believe its readers should be able to see.
Other “misinformation” that has been removed from major platforms include this fully referenced article by Anne Mason, on the scare tactics being used to incite fear of measles, taken down by Medium in February, and the Pinterest accounts of both GreenMedInfo and the National Vaccine Information Center, both of which provide well-referenced information on vaccine safety and efficacy.
In June, the email marketing service provider MailChimp announced that it would prohibit “anti-vaccination content.” However, even before announcing this policy change, it had already removed several accounts without warning, according to their owners. Some of these included organizations simply opposed to vaccine mandates, such as Health Choice Vermont, and Colorado Health Choice Alliance, both of which had their accounts closed suddenly in June.
And in May, GoFundMe took down the fundraising campaign for Dr. Kenneth Stoller. Dr. Stoller had been raising money for his legal defense fund after having been served with a subpoena to turn over patient health records by the San Francisco City Attorney as part of a public nuisance investigation regarding his writing of medical exemptions to vaccines.
As these last two examples reveal, this effort aims to suppress not only voices that question the official line on vaccines, but also those that are opposed simply to mandated vaccines, as well as a doctor raising money to defend himself from the threat of state action against himself and his patients.
AND MISINFORMATION
Given the deep concern felt by these media giants for accuracy in coverage of the controversy over vaccines, it is surprising to find that so much misinformation on the topic remains in place on their platforms.
Contrary to the oft-repeated mantra in the mainstream press, the science about vaccines is far from “settled.” There is much that is a fair topic for debate, and there is much research that simply has not been done. There are, however, some easily refuted falsehoods, several of which feature prominently in nearly every story on vaccines that appears in a major media outlet.
Here are a few samples:
“Vaccines are safe and effective.”
How “safe”? How “effective”? Nothing is completely safe, and no medical treatment is completely effective all the time for every person. The only meaningful interpretation of “safe” in this context is that “vaccines are safer than the diseases they prevent.” But that has not been established.
To take just one example, the MMR vaccine, the Cochrane Review found, in its meta-analysis in 2012, that:
The design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate. The evidence of adverse events following immunisation with the MMR vaccine cannot be separated from its role in preventing the target diseases.
I have written elsewhere about the fact that there is no solid data available to tell us how many vaccinations result in serious injury or death, that vaccineinjuries are badly underreported, and that those who claim that the rate of vaccine injury is “one in a million” are referring only to severe anaphylactic shock, ignoring the multitude of otherpossible injuries. Without this information, there is no way to know whether the risk from vaccines (specific vaccines or all vaccines) is greater or lesser than the risks of contracting and being harmed by the diseases they are meant to prevent.
Likewise, “effective.” The fact that vaccines are not 100% effective is not even remotely controversial. And the degree of effectiveness can vary widely from one vaccine to another. The question is: Given the expected efficacy of a given vaccine, is the protection it offers worth the risk of the harm it may create. We simply do not have the information needed to make that assessment with any certainty.
“Vaccines do not cause autism.”
No matter how many times major media outlets repeat this phrase, it has not been established that vaccines do not cause autism. Indeed, there is evidence that they can, including, but not limited to, the Federal Claims Court’s decision in the case of Hannah Poling that HuffPost is so determined that you not know about.
Those who insist that any connection between vaccines and autism has been discredited like to point to studies like this meta-analysis, or to this more recent Danish studylooking at more than 600,000 children, both of which are used by defenders of vaccines to refute any association between vaccines and autism. However, a closer look reveals not only that these studies fail to do this, but that neither even addresses the question.
As with most studies purporting to refute an association with autism, those in the meta-analysis (all ten of them) look only at a single vaccine (the MMR and/or the monovalent measles vaccine) and/or specific ingredients (cumulative Hg dosage and/or thimerosal exposure), comparing those who have received it/them to those who are otherwise fully or partially vaccinated.
They are also observational studies, which means that they are subject to selection bias, including the risk of “healthy user bias,” which is especially relevant when looking at possible injury from vaccines. This is because families who have experienced a possible injury with one child might be less likely to give that vaccine to their other children. By thus excluding some of those who might be most at risk of vaccine injury, this can artificially skew the results of the vaccinated group toward better health outcomes.
As CDC researchers Dr. Paul Fine and Dr. Robert Chen wrote in their 1992 paper looking at confounding factors in studies of adverse reactions to vaccines:
…individuals predisposed to either SIDS or encephalopathy are relatively unlikely to receive DPT vaccination. Studies that do not control adequately for this form of “confounding by indication” will tend to underestimate any real risks associated with vaccination.
The Danish study by Hviid et al likewise only examines the possible impact of the MMR vaccine. It does also compare rates of autism diagnosis across sub groups, including those who have had some or all of their first-year vaccines and those who have not. However there is no true unvaccinated group (the closest being the group of those who had received no first-year vaccines—a whopping 0.7% of the total cohort). And the authors themselves acknowledge that the study suffers from the risk of healthy user bias.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of studies that do show a possible relationship between autism and vaccines. You just won’t see them splashed across the front pages of major newspapers and magazines.
Moreover, one of the world’s leading experts on vaccines, and former government witness in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVIC)’s “vaccine court”, pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, has famously stated that:
…in a subset of children, vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation did cause regressive brain disease with features of autism spectrum disorder.
Others, including former director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Bernadine Healyand former CDC director Julie Gerberding, have also acknowledged that some children—particularly those with a mitochondrial disorder—can suffer damage from vaccines that leads to the symptoms associated with autism. In 2008, Gerberding told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta:
…if a child was immunized, got a fever, had other complications from the vaccines. And if you’re predisposed with the mitochondrial disorder, it can certainly set off some damage. Some of the symptoms can be symptoms that have characteristics of autism.
For the population as a whole, the bottom line is that there are no conclusive studies on either side of the autism-vaccine debate. Having media outlets endlessly repeat the claim that there are, and that the debate is “settled,” doesn’t make that claim any less false.
A DANGEROUS CONVERSATION
Let’s be absolutely clear: The position of the people who pressured Amazon, Facebook, Pinterest, GoFundMe, and other platforms to shut down content critical of vaccines is that ordinary people should not be free to discuss, debate, nor share information about, the safety of vaccines.
The question is: Why?
Those who make and promote vaccines are right to worry about a free and open conversation about the safety of their products. Their strategy to date has been to insist that “there is no debate” about vaccine safety, that “the science is settled.” And for a very long time they have gotten away with simply repeating these mantras. But the more they engage in what can only be described as Orwellian suppression of information, the more people start to wonder what they are afraid we might find out.
Once anyone starts looking closely, it becomes very clear just how mendacious both the industry and the media have been. It quickly becomes apparent that the WHO declaration is a truckload of nonsense; that vaccines have not, in fact, been proven to be “safe and effective”; that the science is not settled with regard to the vaccine-autism connection; and that the illnesses the vaccine proponents want us to be afraid of are in fact, not all that scary—certainly not as scary as a government with the power to force people to inject substances into their bodies against their will.
For those whose livelihoods are tied to an ever-increasing vaccine schedule, and ever-increasing sales of vaccines, this is a very dangerous conversation indeed.
With his Russia-gate conspiracy theory debunked, House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff has turned his attention to demanding that Google, Facebook and Amazon stop carrying certain educational vaccine-related materials. People are now even being banned from “public places” for refusing vaccinations. Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center responds to this “Dark Night of Oppression” that includes “The New Internet Police,” the banning of books and films, and the prospect of a mandatory HIV/AIDS vaccine. Subscribe to the free newsletter at www.nvic.org
Robert F Kennedy Jr REACTS to Adam Schiff’s CENSORSHIP Demand Letter
Satan's Soldiers - Mark Zuckerberg And Adam Schiff - Evil Censorship of Anti-Vaccination Supporters
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
A Sida spokesman said: “Swedish Development Cooperation does not support the promotion of violence or terrorism, neither in Palestine [sic] nor elsewhere. Furthermore, we have absolutely no indication that the activities that Save the Children carries out in Palestine [sic] with Sida support (approximately $2m over three years) promote violence or terrorism, and we are convinced that this is not the case.”
Yet here is the evidence, right in front of their faces. There is never any shortage of Useful Idiots, and nowadays, of Useful Idiots who buy into “Palestinian” propaganda and therefore hate Israel and wish to see it destroyed.
“Palestinian children dress as terrorists and put on a play about attacking Israelis – complete with weapons, a drone and body cameras – as proud parents watch at graduation ceremony,” by Chris Pleasance, MailOnline, August 29, 2019:
Video has emerged showing Palestinian children staging a mock terrorist raid on an Israeli military outpost as part of a kindergarten graduation ceremony.
The footage was filmed at Dar al Huda school in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in March last year, and shows five youngsters wearing uniforms of terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad staging the raid.
In the video – which includes footage shot by a drone and bodycamera – the children can be seen carrying replica sniper rifles and assault weapons as they perform sophisticated military manoeuvres in order to ‘capture’ the building.
Inside are two children – one dressed as an Israeli civilian and another as an Israeli soldier – both of whom are shown being captured.
The video was posted to Facebook and uncovered by research organisation NGO Monitor, which passed the footage to Mail Online.
The group also uncovered an image of a training guide the school uploaded to its Facebook page in the same year which shows the Save the Children and Swedish Government logo at the top.
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) website shows that the country was giving aid money to schools in the West Bank and Gaza that year as part of a programme running from 2017 until 2019.
In total, the agency gave almost $20million to fund school projects, including $6.6million in the year the video was filmed.
Among the aims of the project was to ‘prevent and raise awareness at a societal and community level that all forms of violence are not to be tolerated and that the government is responsible for ensuring child rights and protection.’
A Sida spokesman said: ‘Swedish Development Cooperation does not support the promotion of violence or terrorism, neither in Palestine nor elsewhere.
‘Furthermore, we have absolutely no indication that the activities that Save the Children carries out in Palestine with Sida support (approximately $2m over three years) promote violence or terrorism, and we are convinced that this is not the case.
‘As far as we can judge the only connection between this video clip and Swedish support via Save the Children is the possibility that some teacher from this school may have participated in a workshop organized by Save the Children that promotes non-violent forms of discipline in schools.’…
In March 2017, The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center published video and images which depicted a similar ceremony at the same school.
In the footage, four children wearing uniforms of the Jerusalem Battalions – PIJ’s military wing – are seen shooting and killing two children dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jews at a mock roadblock….
JUSTIN PETERS: CLOUDS WITHOUT WATER-DANGEROUS DOCTRINES
DEADLY DOCTRINES: CATHOLICISM IS A THEOLOGICAL CULT
What do Catholics actually believe, is it really all that different from Protestants? This week, we look at the Roman Catholic understanding of justification, or, how a person is made righteous before God. As we compare it to Scripture, we will see just how different, even deadly, it is.
CATHOLICISM PERVERTS THE BIBLE'S "GRACE ALONE" INTO A FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER
OF SACRAMENTAL WORKS
Former Catholic Rob Zins, Th.M, Dallas Theological Seminary (website: http://www.CWRC-RZ.ORG). Rob Zins has authored the books, "On the Edge of Apostasy," "Romanism: The Relentless Roman Catholic Assault on the Gospel of Jesus Christ" & materials. Part 4.
“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”
- Ephesians 2:8. Understanding that sin makes us thick-headed, unwilling to accept certain truths when they receive minimal emphasis, the biblical authors repeat foundational doctrines so that they might penetrate our hearts and minds. The man-made religions of this world prove that without the work of the Holy Spirit, people think that they are basically good and can contribute something to their salvation. This strips glory from God and gives it to us, for if we can do even one thing to merit salvation, then we deserve some credit. All belief systems except biblical Christianity encourage us to believe that we contribute to our salvation, even if they deceitfully assert otherwise.
Larry Wessels, director of Christian Answers of Austin, Texas/ Christian Debater (YouTube channel CANSWERSTV at https://www.youtube.com/user/CAnswersTV; see our other 187 videos on Romanism at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=... websites: http://www.BIBLEQUERY.ORG, http://www.HISTORYCART.COM & https://www.muslimhope.com/ ) presents part 2 of the "Former Catholics for Christ Conference in Springfield, Illinois - May 17-19, 2019" by former Catholic Rob Zins, Th.M, Dallas Theological Seminary (website: http://www.CWRC-RZ.ORG). Rob Zins has authored the books, "On the Edge of Apostasy," "Romanism: The Relentless Roman Catholic Assault on the Gospel of Jesus Christ" & materials. Part 4.
It should have been clear from reading Ephesians 2:1–7 that the Lord owes us nothing but justice and wrath. (Moreover, this is taught throughout the Bible: Gen. 6:5–7; Deut. 7:6–11; Ps. 51:4; Rom. 1:18–3:20; James 2:10–11). But in case we missed it, Paul in Ephesians 2:8–10 tells us one more time that we bring nothing with us to our redemption, and that any good works we perform are not the ground of our status before God but result from us having been chosen and gifted with salvation: “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). Grace, by definition, excludes the slightest hint that human merit contributes to our righteous standing before the most holy and perfect Creator, and faith, which admits our inability to help ourselves and rests wholly on another for salvation, confirms that our works have no power to atone for our wickedness. If, on the part of God, it is grace alone, and if we bring nothing but faith, which strips us of all commendations, it follows that salvation does not come from us.
Of course, faith is something that we exercise, and so some Christians think we bring this to the table when we are saved. They think we work faith up in ourselves and that all people are born with the ability to do so. Ephesians 2:8 makes this view impossible. The grammatical gender of the demonstrative this in “this is not your own doing” must refer back to the entire complex of things Paul mentions in the verse — salvation, grace, and faith. It is true that we are the ones who put our faith in Christ, but God gives us this faith and guarantees that we will exercise it unto salvation. If the Holy Spirit changes our hearts, we will not refuse the call to trust in Christ.
The doctrine of irresistible grace is quite simple — if God wants us, then He will get us. Though He may allow us to resist His call for a time, if He has chosen to set His grace on us, then we will certainly believe and persevere, for all whom the Father has given to Jesus must come to the Savior (John 6:37). We cannot even give ourselves credit for our faith, so let us be thankful for His grace and live in the way that He commands.
The Catholic Church claims to have the same authority of Christ as the apostles (CCC 77, 85, 88, 895, 1495, 888). But, can the Pope and the Bishops do what Jesus and the apostles did? Jesus said his authority to forgive sins was demonstrated by his miracles which he exercised on command (Matt. 9:6; Luke 5:24; John 5:8). He gave this authority to the disciples to pronounce forgiveness of sins (John 20:23), heal all disease and sickness (Matt. 10:1), as well as raise the dead (Matt. 10:8). Jesus healed paralytics on command (Luke 5:24; Matt. 9:6; Mark 2:10-12). Peter also healed the paralytic on command (Acts 9:34). Jesus raised the dead with a command (Mark 5:38-42; Luke 7:14-15; John 11:43-44). Peter raised the dead by command (Acts 9:40-41). So, apostolic authority was clearly demonstrated by the apostles uttering commands of healing and raising the dead. Since Jesus gave the apostles the authority to do the miraculous on command (Matt. 10:1, 8), then those with the apostle’s authority (the Pope and the Bishops) should be able to do the same thing since they claim to have the same apostolic authority. Since the Pope and Bishops do not do the miraculous on command (otherwise it would be known to all), then they do not have apostolic authority.
Matthew 7:15
