Peter not the rock nor the first Pope

[Walpole]

We do have a direct line to God. What in the world are you saying? We need to go to other people to get to God? That thought is anathema.

If you have a direct line, do you therefore...

Baptize yourself?
Marry yourself?
Preach your own sermons?
Formulate your own creeds?
Pen your own Scripture?
Anoint yourself?
Confess to yourself and forgive your own sins?
Offer your own Eucharist?

 

[JLB]

Do you not know that under the new covenant we don't need human intermediaries?

No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. (Je 31:34)

Amen.

I have been trying to get that point across to this community for ten years.

The Rock that Jesus builds His Church on is that God reveals to us directly who His Son is and teaches us directly all things.


But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 1 John 2:27

 

[JLB]

Confess to yourself and forgive your own sins?

Confess your sins to God God directly and be forgiven by Him directly.

 

[JLB]

If you have a direct line, do you therefore...

Baptize yourself?
Marry yourself?
Preach your own sermons?
Formulate your own creeds?
Pen your own Scripture?
Anoint yourself?
Confess to yourself and forgive your own sins?
Offer your own Eucharist?

Creeds are man made.

 

[JLB]

Preach your own sermons?

Absolutely. Preach the WORD.

 

[JLB]

Baptize yourself?
Marry yourself?

What does this have to do with the Lord teaching us Himself ?

You are desperately grasping at straws.

 

[Walpole]

Confess your sins to God God directly and be forgiven by Him directly.

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another..." - James 5:16

 

[Walpole]

Creeds are man made.

The scriptures too were penned...by men.

Again, salvation history is all about God using man.

 

[Walpole]

Absolutely. Preach the WORD.

So your church allows anyone to get up and preach? You do not have designator people who doing the preaching? If I showed up one Sunday, I would be allowed to get up and preach because I too have a direct line to God and therefore am able to preach?

 

[Walpole]

What does this have to do with the Lord teaching us Himself ?

You are desperately grasping at straws.

I'll take your avoidance to answering my question as a no, you do not baptize or marry yourself.

Why is that if you have a direct line to God? After all, no intermediaries are needed according to this direct line to God theology.

 

[JLB]

Yes, of course. All saints (i.e., all true Christians) are in the royal priesthood. In that sense there are NT priests.

 

[JLB]

So your church allows anyone to get up and preach? You do not have designator people who doing the preaching? If I showed up one Sunday, I would be allowed to get up and preach because I too have a direct line to God and therefore am able to preach?

Of course. If they approach the Pastor and tell him they have a word to share.

Everything done decently and in order.

Of course this applies to a Church where the Holy Spirit is.


How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33

 

[for_his_glory]

Your post perfectly demonstrates why you do not have priests: because your sect is not incarnational. Thus, you subscribe to this "I have a direct line to God" concept, which of course is a completely foreign concept to those of us who profess Christ. For Christianity (Catholicism) is a religion of revelation, whereby in the beginning God uses man to convey His message. This act of using man to convey His message culminates when God entered into His creation by becoming Man. By virtue of the Incarnation, God now continues to use man to convey not only His message, but now His grace.

The logical end of this "I have a direct line to God" idea would thus lead to the belief that...

- One can formulate one's own credal statements about Who God Is
- One can pen one's own Scripture
- One can preach one's own sermons
- One can baptize himself
- One can marry himself
- One can ordain himself
- One can anoint himself
- One can forgive his own sins by confessing them to himself
- One can confect one's own Eucharistic sacrifice


The reality is the Church is an extension of the Incarnation. As such, it is at the altar where man has true communion with Him, present among His people. This is something you will never find in any Protestant service and explains the reason why you do not have priests. You have yourself (the ego).

According to these scriptures we do have a direct line to God without going through anyone except Christ Jesus in whom is the only one that can build upon His Church being the assembling together of the body of Christ with He being the head of the body, not the Priest, the Pastor, the Elder or the Deacon as they all need to be under the authority of Christ Jesus in whom He calls and anoints with the Holy Spirit teaching them all things first before they are sent out into the world. But, many take it upon themselves and are not called of God.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

1John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

 

[for_his_glory]

The reason Protestant sects do not have priests is because they do not have the Eucharist.

Since you insist on the division of the Catholic and Protestant you need to know that both take communion.

Paul gives directions regarding the Lord’s Supper in 1Corinthians 11:23-29. Some have misunderstood verse 26, which says: "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup," and interpret it to say "take it as often as you please" But it does not say that!

It says "as often" as we observe it, "ye do show the LORD’S DEATH till He come." And Jesus commanded, "This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." (Verse 25.) We do it in remembrance of THE LORD’S DEATH - a memorial of His death. And memorials of momentous occasions always are observed annually, once a year, on the ANNIVERSARY of the event they commemorate.

 

[jasonc]

I have doubts everyone is apt to teach .a requirement to be an elder .

If everyone could then no other offices are needed .all are elders ,teachers and pastors .

 

[NewLifeInChrist]

Your post perfectly demonstrates why you do not have priests: because your sect is not incarnational. Thus, you subscribe to this "I have a direct line to God" concept, which of course is a completely foreign concept to those of us who profess Christ. For Christianity (Catholicism) is a religion of revelation, whereby in the beginning God uses man to convey His message. This act of using man to convey His message culminates when God entered into His creation by becoming Man. By virtue of the Incarnation, God now continues to use man to convey not only His message, but now His grace.

The logical end of this "I have a direct line to God" idea would thus lead to the belief that...

- One can formulate one's own credal statements about Who God Is
- One can pen one's own Scripture
- One can preach one's own sermons
- One can baptize himself
- One can marry himself
- One can ordain himself
- One can anoint himself
- One can forgive his own sins by confessing them to himself
- One can confect one's own Eucharistic sacrifice


The reality is the Church is an extension of the Incarnation. As such, it is at the altar where man has true communion with Him, present among His people. This is something you will never find in any Protestant service and explains the reason why you do not have priests. You have yourself (the ego).

There are many things wrong with this post. I'll just pick five things to refute.

First, Christianity is bigger than the ritualistic catholic sect. Everyone knows you all think that almost everyone outside your church is lost. But you must know that many people outside catholicism think the same thing about you.

Second, it is not possible to be saved without "a direct line to God". He is directly involved in every salvation experience because no one can go to Jesus and get salvation from Him without the Father personally drawing him. And Jesus Himself said, "Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." (Jn 6:45)

Third, you are greatly mistaken that man has taken God's place to convey His message and His grace. It is true that we are ambassadors for Christ. But that only means we are working alongside Him. He has not stopped drawing all people to Himself.

Fourth, your list of logical ends is absurd. The fact that the creator of the universe lives in our hearts... leading, guiding, directing, teaching, correcting, and comforting us... has nothing to do with anything on your list. Most absurd is the idea that we don't all go to God directly for forgiveness. People don't get God's forgiveness from themselves nor do they get it from other people. No one can forgive sins on God's behalf but God alone.

And finally, taking communion can't save you because partaking of it does not convey life. No ritual conveyes life. "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 Jn 5:11–12) If you don't have a personal connection with the Lord by virtue of Him living in your heart, then you need to get it.

 

[NewLifeInChrist]

If you have a direct line, do you therefore...

Baptize yourself?

No, but any believer can baptize other believers.

Marry yourself?

No, but a non-believer can marry people if they are licensed.

Preach your own sermons?

Absolutely!

Formulate your own creeds?

Why not?

Pen your own Scripture?

No, I think that one is closed. Your boys aren't doing that either, are they?

Anoint yourself?

I don't know what purpose that would serve.

Confess to yourself and forgive your own sins?

God is the only one who can forgive sins.

Offer your own Eucharist?

This sounds too techical. You mean lead a Lord's Supper rememberance? Sure, why not.

 

[for_his_glory]

Jesus didn’t know each church’s angel’s faith, theology, denomination, political affiliation or mission statement

Why would God who created all the angels not know whether they had faith in Him or not. God has never been about man's theology, denomination, political affiliation or mission statement as God is all about our faith in Him and His son Christ Jesus.

In Revelation 2-3 when Jesus sent the angels to the seven churches in Asia Minor that John wrote of his visions he was given by the angel of the Lord was for to edify and also for correction as many were falling away from their first love going after strange doctrines.

Take a look at what Jesus spoke to the three church's of those things He had against them. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Smyrna, I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Pergamum, I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel and so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Thyatira, Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

There is a powerful evil principality infiltration running through many churches today causing a stumblingblock, especially to those who believe everything that comes from the pulpit because they do not allow the Holy Spirit teach them. A carnal mind that draws on carnal rationalizations is enmity against God.

Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

 

[NewLifeInChrist]

Amen.

I have been trying to get that point across to this community for ten years.

The Rock that Jesus builds His Church on is that God reveals to us directly who His Son is and teaches us directly all things.

But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. 1 John 2:27

You and I see that these verses are pointing to a real thing that is going on inside our hearts. And we revel over the fact that the God of the universe, our creator and redeemer, lives in our hearts. But to many, these things are not real, but just words on a page to be parsed. We need to help them. So keep up the good work.

 

[for_his_glory]

What're you suggesting? "Solo christianity", through your "direct line to God"? That line is the body of Christ, which is the church. Without the church there's no "direct line". Jesus said when "two or three gather together, I'm in your midst", don't you think that require the presence of "others"?

We absolutely have our own direct line to God as we walk with Him and talk to Him, especially in prayer as each one of us came before Him in various situations in our life and humbled our self before before His throne of grace surrendering our will to be in God's will beginning that personal relationship with Christ Jesus when we repented and confessed Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, Romans 10:9-10.

1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Psalms 55:16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Psalms 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

Psalms 62:1 To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
Psalms 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

Has nothing to do with any denomination/non-denomination. but only through our own personal relationship with Christ Jesus.