Saturday, February 6, 2016

Stone and Bread, Water and Wine.

1Pe 2:3  If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1Pe 2:4  To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1Pe 2:6  Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
1Pe 2:7  Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
1Pe 2:8  And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1Pe 2:10  Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Isa 28:16  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone

Mat 16:18 …and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

1Co 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
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Christ- a living stone.
Christ- the chief corner stone.
Christ- the Rock.

Is Jesus, was Jesus before His resurrection a REAL rock, a REAL stone? Or were these symbolisms given to Him?  Seriously. Would ANYONE truly believe that Jesus before He took on flesh, or after He took on flesh was ever a rock?  No. However He is a Spiritual Rock.

Spiritual Rock. We can comprehend that, can't we? We know that song- 'The Solid Rock.'  With the lyrics-  'On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.'  We also know this parable of Christ's-

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

A house built upon solid rock- a surety from rain, flood, and wind, much more so than one who has a house built upon sand.  This is an example, this is an analogy, this is telling us something, giving us a message.  If you know someone who is like a fox- you might believe they are wily. If you know someone you might call a snake, you'd believe they were bad, cunning, hurtful.  If you hear someone is like a teddy bear, you'd believe they were sweet and cuddly. We give descriptions of people ALL the time and it's not hard to comprehend.

Christ was NEVER, and is NEVER, and will NEVER be a real rock in the sense of this…

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. For example, the common rock granite is a combination of the quartz, feldspar and biotite minerals. The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock.
Rocks have been used by mankind throughout history. From the Stone Age, rocks have been used for tools. The minerals and metals found in rocks have been essential to human civilization.[1]
Three major groups of rocks are defined: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, which is an essential component of geology.

And now that we've determined that even though our Savior has been called a rock, He was not a literal rock.  Just as our Savior is called the Bread of life, He is not and never will be literal bread in any way.  When I cling to the solid rock that is Christ, I'm clinging to Christ, not stone.  When I partake of the Lord's Supper, I am NOT eating Christ transformed into bread, that's LUDICROUS. I am eating bread that has taken on the SYMBOLISM, the SPIRITUAL SYMBOLISM of Christ's body that He gave for us to give us salvation.  Eating that symbolic bread and drinking symbolic wine because our Savior wants us to do this in REMBRANCE of Him this is  what it's all about.  When we take the symbolism away from the entire thing and begin to believe our Savior wants us to literally eat His literal flesh we have gone beyond reality into another realm of false belief. A god that calls on his people to eat literal flesh is monstrous.  Where is the difference in cannibalism and believing you are eating literal flesh?  There is none. You KNOW you are eating BREAD, and that bread is NOT transformed into flesh, it is SPIRITUALLY SYMBOLIC, the power is in the symbolism.  When we read into things that are not there we are twisting God's truths, and when we twist His truths we are on false ground and that ground belongs to Satan.

And while Christ is symbolically living water, and He wants us to drink His symbolic blood, it is NOT literal in either instance.  We are being TAUGHT something and that something is Christ is our Sustainer, Christ is our Sacrifice and we ACCEPT Him as such.  We are NOT being taught to eat literal flesh or drink literal blood and we will never be taught that, never. 

I know there are religions which believe the bread and wine are transformed by Christ so they are truly eating His flesh and drinking His blood, but this is a GREAT misconception, and truly there is NO reason to believe in the literal application of such, it does NOTHING to draw you closer to Christ, nothing.  In fact it is more injurious  to believe that Christ is being killed anew every time someone partakes of the Lord's Supper. To believe that ANY man has power to turn bread into Christ's flesh is completely and utterly ludicrous.

Read the following carefully- while it may seem boring perhaps or too doctrinal, or wordy, or whatever, please take the time to read it… you'll understand why I just said 'To believe that ANY man has power to turn bread into Christ's flesh is completely and utterly ludicrous.' When you read the following and comprehend what priest ACTUALLY and TRULY believe they are doing, you will be horrified to think that any man can believe this way. IT IS NOT Biblical, it is a tradition of man that it being taught to be a command of God when it is not- and Jesus had this to say about doing that - Mat_15:9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

(In another section on the "Importance of the Priestly Office," de Liguori writes:
The dignity of the priest is estimated from the exalted nature of his offices. Priests are chosen by God to manage on earth all his concerns and interests. "Divine," says St. Cyril of Alexandria, "are the offices confided to the priest." St. Ambrose has called the priestly office a divine profession. A priest is a minister destined by God to be a public ambassador of the whole Church, to honor him, and to obtain graces for all the faithful. The entire Church cannot give to God as much honor, nor obtain so many graces, as a single priest by celebrating a single Mass; for the greatest honor that the whole Church without priests could give to God would consist in offering to him in sacrifice the lives of all men. But of what value are the lives of all men compared with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is a sacrifice of infinite value? What are all men before God but a little dust? . . . Thus, by the celebration of a single Mass, in which he offers Jesus Christ in sacrifice, a priest gives greater honor to the Lord, than if all men by dying for God offered to him the sacrifice of their lives. By a single Mass, he gives greater honor to God than all the angels and saints, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary have given or shall give to him; for their worship cannot be of infinite value, like that which the priest celebrating on the altar offers to God. (pp. 24-25))
(WHG-In justification of the assumption that the sacrifice of the Mass is superior to the Virgin Mary, de Liguori quotes St. Bernadine of Sienna as addressing Mary: "Holy Virgin, excuse me, for I speak not against thee: for the Lord has raised the priesthood above thee." Then he summarizes Bernadine's reasoning:
(The saint assigns the reason of the superiority of the priesthood over Mary; she conceived Jesus Christ only once; but by consecrating the Eucharist, the priest, as it were, conceives him as often as he wishes, so that if the person of the Redeemer had not yet been in the world, the priest, by pronouncing the words of consecration, would produce this great person of a Man-God. "0 wonderful dignity of the priests," cries out St. Augustine, "in their hands, as in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, the Son of God becomes incarnate." Hence priests are called the parents of Jesus Christ: such is the title that St. Bernard gives them, for they are the active cause by which he is made to exist really in the consecrated Host.
Thus the priest may, in a certain manner, be called the creator of his Creator, since by saying the words of consecration, he creates, as it were, Jesus in the sacrament, by giving him a sacramental existence, and produces him as a victim to be offered to the eternal Father. As in creating the world it was sufficient for God to have said, Let it be made, and it was created - He spoke, and they were made, - so it is sufficient for the priest to say, "Hoc est corpus meum," and behold the bread is no longer bread, but the body of Jesus Christ. "The power of the priest," says St. Bernadine of Sienna, "is the power of the divine person; for the transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world." And St. Augustine has written, "0 venerable sanctity of the hands! 0 happy function of the priest! He that created (if I may say so) gave me the power to create him; and he that created me is himself created by me!" As the Word of God created heaven and earth, so, says St. Jerome, the words of the priest create Jesus Christ. (pp. 32-33).)
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Do you understand now? Do you see how insane it is to believe as they believe? Man believing they can CREATE GOD?! It's truly deluded thinking, deluded believing and so many believe this to be real! 
When I partake of the Lord's Supper- I know by the power of the Holy Spirit, my actions by eating the bread and drinking the wine, are symbolic IN REMEMBRANCE of Christ's ultimate sacrifice for me. I must seek forgiveness, repenting before I eat and drink in remembrance of Christ's sacrifice, comprehending that HE died to offer me SALVATION. His ministry was all about repenting, being baptized and living newly born spiritually unto Him. And we have to constantly seek to repent, to ask for forgiveness, to believe we are saved by the grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Jesus did NOT want us to forget, Jesus wanted to institute a new rite to commemorate His sacrifice and He did so very plainly telling us this--
Luk 22:17  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
Luk 22:18  For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
Luk 22:19  And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Luk 22:20  Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

This do in REMEMBRANCE of ME.
And by His own words He said- 'I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come.'  THE FRUIT OF THE VINE- Jesus comprehended it was WINE -NOT REAL BlOOD that they were drinking! He was giving them SPIRITUAL SYMBOLS, not making them drink real blood and eat real flesh.
The false doctrines of many churches, not just the Catholic, are numerous and by the grace of God may we NOT be caught up in their deception so that we think we are doing God's will, but we are really do the will of Satan.

Save us LORD, protect us, keep us from evil all by YOUR POWER!

In the name of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ, now and forever.

Amen.


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