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.
*******
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).)
*******
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.
