Scripture

Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and Thou art exalted as Head above all

1 Chronicles 29:11

The Sovereignty of God is an expression that once was generally understood. It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature. It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit. It was a truth which brought comfort to many hearts, and gave virility and stability to Christian character. But, today, to make mention of God’s Sovereignty is, in many quarters, to speak in an unknown tongue. Were we to announce from the average pulpit that the subject of our discourse would be the Sovereignty of God, it would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of the dead languages. Alas! that it should be so. Alas! that the doctrine which is the key to history, the interpreter of Providence, the warp and woof of Scripture, and the foundation of Christian theology should be so sadly neglected and so little understood.

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Mary was blessed, however, so is every Believer. To make the leap that because Mary was blessed she should receive the adoration/veneration/worship that she’s given is not Scripturally logical.

In fact, Scripture records the way Jesus handled the first attempt to elevate Mary’s status. In Luke 11:27-28 a woman in the crowd tried to draw attention away from Christ and to Mary (what the RCC has perfected) but Jesus corrected her saying, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:27-28).

Also, Mary wasn’t/isn’t the only person blessed. See the Sermon on the Mount for a list of others who are “blessed” (Matthew 5:3-11).

Argument #2: Mary is worthy of/deserves our adoration and veneration.
Status: FICTION.

No human is worthy of any amount of veneration or worship because we are all sinners (Psalm 14:3, Romans 3:23; we are to worship God and serve Him only (Matthew 4:10); and God will not give His Glory to another (Isaiah 42:8, Isaiah 48:11).

Read the rest of the points at DefCon.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.

Psalm 19:7-9

John MacArthur expands on our understanding of these three verses about Scripture (emphasis added and slightly edited to make it easier to read):

… But more importantly and savingly, God has revealed Himself in Scripture.  There is His unwritten revelation and His written revelation.  And when you come to verse 7, the transition is made from God revealing Himself in nature to God revealing Himself in Scripture… in Scripture.

The structure of these verses from verse 7 through 9, notice it there, is a series of parallel statements, verses 7, 8 and 9.  Here there are six titles for Scripture… the Law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord in verse 7.  In verse 8, the precepts of the Lord and the commandment of the Lord.  In verse 9, the fear of the Lord and the judgments of the Lord. 

Six titles for Scripture.  Scripture is Law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear and judgments.

There are also six characteristics of Scripture.  Notice, it is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean and true.

And there are six benefits of Scripture.  It restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever and a final one, produces comprehensive righteousness.  That’s what it means when it says righteous all together.  It converts, it makes wise, it brings joy, it enlightens, it purifies, it is relevant in every time, it endures forever and it produces comprehensive righteousness.

This is magnificent.  Here you have God in His inimitable way speaking the vast glories of Scripture in brief sentences.  In a few words He captures the magnitude of the full sufficiency of Scripture.

John MacArthur
God’s Own Defense of Scripture, Part 1

Amen!

You can read the entire transcript of the sermon, or purchase the DVD at Grace To You dot Org.

To many who are not well acquainted with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, it might seem that I am nitpicking on non-essential issues and intentionally picking a fight with Roman Catholics.

I assure you that my issue is not with Roman Catholics per se, but with the institution that has installed herself as the “one true Church of Christ” that has, among other things, perverted the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ so that she can have a stranglehold on believers and twisted Scripture such that doctrines not taught in the Bible have become a snare to those truly desiring to seek God.

Many Roman Catholics are nice people (I hesitate to say ‘good’ but no one is ‘good’ according to Scripture), and some of them do earnestly seek God from what I know. It therefore pains me that they are trapped by a man-made institution and her un-Biblical laws when God’s Truth has set us free.

In the minds of many, Roman Catholicism has become synonymous with Christianity, primarily because the most visible displays of Christianity have been linked to the Vatican, e.g. in movies, you usually see a Roman Catholic priest called in to perform exorcism or marry a couple, but seldom a Protestant minister.

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Surely, this is not the “true Church of God” as they proclaim themselves to be! If you’re Roman Catholic, I encourage you to read this and see for yourself how far removed from the true teachings of God these traditions of men are! Refutations to these man-made traditions follow immediately after each event, and are taken directly from Scripture.

300 A.D.: Practice of praying for the dead and “signing with the cross” introduced.

375 A.D.: Veneration of dead people and use of statues and images as part of worship introduced.

500 A.D.: Doctrine of purgatory first preached by the Roman Catholic Church.

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Goliath was a celebrity binge drinker, and Adam was obsessed with Eve’s naked body — according to a retelling of traditional Bible stories by an Anglican vicar.¹

The Must Know Stories, written by the Rev Robert Harrison, feature a reworking of the top ten Bible stories, which were chosen in a poll by the Christian charity Scripture Union.

In the book, the tale of David and Goliath is retold from the perspective of the giant, portrayed as a “depressed alcoholic” who is hung over on the day of his fateful encounter with David.

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