Uncle Abee:
This is the problem with anyone that follows a “works” based religion. They find Christ through or in a ritual or in the bread or the juice of communion. This is clearly against scriptural teaching.
Where is Christ? In Acts 2:38 Peter said “repent and be baptized and you will receive the gift of the HG.” Paul said in 1 Cor 3:16 that “you are the temple of God and His Spirit dwells in you.” Christ is not in the bread, the juice, the rituals, the crucifix statue, the pews, the communion table, pictures on the wall, etc… Christ is in YOU.
Taking the Eucharist doesn’t give you Christ. When you obey Christ, realize you need Him, repent of your sins, and get baptized you get Christ.
Works based religions get the “expression of Christ” and “Christ” confused. Pentecostals say if you ain’t jumped and shouted you don’t have Christ. The jumping and shouting is the “expression of Christ.” Catholics say if you don’t have solemn reverence you don’t have Christ. The solemn reverence is an “expression of Christ.”
Rituals provoke feelings. We get these feelings and Christ confused. Then we run around talking about how folks ain’t in the right church.
I don’t know what works based religion you are talking about unless you mean faith
and works.
As scripture says:
James 2:14-20 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Do you think that Catholics believe that Christ is
in the crucifix,statues, the pews, the alter,or the pictures on the wall? That is very insulting.
Taking the Eucharist doesn’t give you Christ Really? That’s not what the Bible says
John 6:48-57 I am that bread of life.Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
Jesus gave us the means:
Luke 22:17-19 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 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.
You need to study all of scripture not just the parts that suit your purpose.
<I’m actually a pretty recent convert – I’ll have been Catholic 2 years this coming Easter. I was raised Southern Baptist; the church slowly morphed into a very Pentacostal-holy roller kind of place … Yep, all the laughing, tongues, rolling down the aisles stuff – the thing is it seemed normal to me at the time and yet I was embarassed to take friends to church with me as a teen – worried that something strange would happen and I simply wasn’t prepared to explain any of it …
