Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Episode 7: The Authority of the Church, part 2

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Episode 7: The Authority of the Church, part 2 · The Uncensored Catholic

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Hey, y'all, welcome today's show. This will be part two of talking
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about the authority of the Catholic Church that comes to it through the apostles given
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to it by Jesus Christ himself. The authority of Saint Peter continued through the
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following popes and continues in unbroken succession to this day. Saint Clement the third
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Pope wrote around ninety eight d the apostles that preached the Gospel to us from
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the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has done so from God. Christ therefore
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was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both of these
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appointments then were made an orderly way according to the will of God. Having
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therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord
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Jesus Christ, and established in the Word of God with the full assurance of
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the Holy ghosts, they went forth, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was
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at hand, and thus preaching through countries and cities. They appointed the first
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fruits of their labors, having first proved them by the Spirit, to be
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bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this any new
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thing, since it Indeed, many ages before was written concerning bishops and deacons.
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For thus saith Scripture, in a certain place, I will appoint their
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bishops in righteousness and their deacons in faith. And what a wonder is it
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if those in Christ, who were entrusted with such a duty by God appointed
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those ministers before mentioned. When the blessed Moses, also a faithful servant in
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all his house, noted in the sacred books all the injunctions which were given
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him, And when the other prophets also followed him, bearing witness with one
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consent to the ordinances which he had appointed. For when rivalry arose concerning the
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priesthood, and the tribes were contending among themselves as to which of them should
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be adorned with that glorious title, he commanded the twelve princes of the tribes
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to bring him their rods, each one being inscribed with the name of the
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tribe. And he took them and bound them together, and sealed them with
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the rings of the princes of the tribes, and laid them in the Tabernacle
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of Witness on the table of God. And having shut the door of the
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tabernacle, he sealed the keys as he had done the rods, and said
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to them, men and brethren, the tribe whose rod shall blossom as God
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chosen to fulfill the office of the priesthood, and the minister unto him,
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and two minister unto him. And when the morning has come, he assembled
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all Israel six hundred thousand men, and showed the seals of the princes of
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the tribes, and opened the Tabernacle of Witness, and brought forth the rods,
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and the rod of Erin was found not only to have blossomed, but
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to have borne fruit upon it. What think you, he beloved, did
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not Moses know beforehand this would happen? Undoubtedly he knew, But he acted
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this so that there may be no sedition in Israel, and that the name
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of the True and Only God might be glorified to him forever and ever.
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Amen. Our apostles also knew through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would
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be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason.
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Therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect foreknowledge of this, the appointed
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those ministers already mentioned, and afterwards gave instruction that when these should fall asleep,
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other approved men succeeded them in their ministry. We are of opinion therefore
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that those appointed by those already mentioned, and afterward gave instruction that when these
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should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed their ministry. We are of
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opinion therefore that those appointed by them, or afterwards by other eminent men,
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with the consent of the whole Church, and who have blamelessly served the flock
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of Christ and a humble, peaceful and interested spirit, and have for a
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long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly dismissed from their
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ministry. For our sin will not be small if we eject from the episcopate
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those who have blamelessly and holy fulfilled its duties. Blessed are those presbyters,
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who, having finished their course before now, have obtained a fruitful and perfect
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departure from this world. For they have no fear lest anyone deprived them of
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the place appointed them. But we see that you have removed some men of
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excellent behavior from the ministry, which they fulfilled blamelessly and with honor. You're
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fond of contention, brethren, and full of zeal about things which shore not
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pertain to salvation. Look carefully into the scriptures, which are the true utterance
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of the Holy Spirit, observed that nothing of an unjust or counterfeit nature is
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written in them. There you would not find that the righteous were cast off
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by men who themselves were wholly The righteous were indeed persecuted, but only by
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the wicked. They were cast into p but only by the unholy. They
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were stoned, but only by transgressors. They were slain, but only by
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the accursed. And such had conceived an unrighteous envy against them. Exposed to
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such suffering, they endured gloriously. For what shall we say, Brethren,
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was Daniel cast into the den of lions? By such as feared God were
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an Ananias and Azariah. I'm sorry, I'm not good with annunciation of names,
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and Michill shut up in a furnace of fire. By those who observed
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the great and glorious worship of the Most High. Far from us be such
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a thought, Who then were they that did such things? These hateful and
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those full of all wickedness were roused to such pitch of fury, fury that
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they inflicted torture on those who served God a holy and blameless purposes. Of
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heart, not knowing that the Most High is the defender and protector of all,
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such as with a pure conscious venerate his all excellent name, to whom
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be glory forever and ever. Amen. This is, and it's only about
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half the quote. Actually, this was Pope Saint Clement, the third Pope.
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He was ordained by Saint Peter himself and was pope around ninety a d
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as we read, as we will read much more of in the various letters
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written by Saint Paul. There was much division even in the early Church,
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even when the Apostles were still alive. There were people stepping up promoting heresies,
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trying to take authority they did not have, beginning with Pope Saint Clement,
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following the close of the Bible and the DOC which is the first manual
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of Christian belief and instruction authorized by the Apostles themselves. Okay, and we
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know at least Saint John was still alive, probably several of them, and
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the DC is said to be the Teachings of the Twelve. So it was
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the first official church document post the Gospels, if we want to look at
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it that way, and it may have even been written before the Gospel of
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John and several other books of the Bible. We're not exactly sure, you
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know, you can estimate it within a few decades here and there, but
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we know that this was approved of by the Apostles and their successors. We
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find Pope Saint Clement really reiterating the authority of the church from whence it comes,
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speaking against division, and he would continue to speak against division at great
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length in his writings that were, like I said, around ninety a d
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okay, I mean, think about how short a period this is after the
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resurrection. Think about how short a period of time this is. That's who
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Pope Saint Clement is. He's the very next generation, the third pope and
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the first one really to write a lot, to write a lot of letters
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and really command the churches to follow the writings of the Bible that emphasize the
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unity of Christ. Christ said, I wish he prayed, He said,
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Father, I wish that they were one, as you and I are one.
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He emphasized unity, not a vision, not schism, as I said.
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Saint Paul said that a division of schism within the Church was crucifying Christ.
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Again, there is absolutely no authorization in the Bible in or church history,
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or in any legitimate Christian writings, for there being more than one church,
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and that one church is the original Church. That one church is the
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church founded by Jesus Christ, established by Jesus himself, guaranteed against all error,
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and it is the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Pope say Clement
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went on to say, But they who with confidence endure these things are now
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heirs of glory and honor, and have been exalted and made illustrious by God
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in their memorials forever and ever such examples. Therefore, brethren, is right
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that we should follow. Since it has written, cleave to the Holy means
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grab hold of it, cling to it. For those that cleave to them
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shall themselves be made holy. And again, in another place, the scripture
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saith with a harmless man, thou shalt prove thyself harmless, and within a
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elect man shall be elect. And with a perverse man thou shall show thyself
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perverse. Let us cleave Therefore to the innocent and righteous, Such these are
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the elect of God. Why are their strifes and tumults and divisions and schisms
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among you? Have we not all one God and one Christ? Is there
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not one spirit of grace poured out upon us. Have we not one calling
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in Christ? Why do we divide and tear into pieces the members of Christ,
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and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a
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height of madness as to forget that we are all members of one another.
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Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he saith woe to that
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man by whom offense come. It were better for him that if he had
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never been born, than he should cast a summing block before one of my
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elect yea, it were better for him if a millstone had been hung upon
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about his neck, and he should be sunk into the depths of the sea,
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than that he should cast a stumming block before one of my little ones.
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Your schism has subverted the faith of many, and has discouraged many,
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and given rise to doubt in many, and cause grief to us all,
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and steal your sedition continueth. Take up the epistle of the blessed apostle Paul.
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What did he write to you at the time when the Gospel first began
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to be preached truly under the inspiration's spirit? He wrote to you concerning himself
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in Cephus and Apollos, because even then parties have been formed among you,
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but that inclination for one above another entailed less guilt upon you, inasmuch as
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your partialities were then shown towards apostles already of high reputation, and towards a
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man, a man whom they had approved, but now reflect those who have
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perverted you, and lessen the renown of your far from famed brotherly love.
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It is disgraceful, beloved, highly disrespectful, highly disgraceful, and unworthy of
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your Christian profession that such a thing should be heard as that the most steadfastined
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ancient church of the corner of the Corinthians, should, on account of one
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or two persons, engage in sedition against its presbyters. And this rumor has
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reached not only us, but also who are unconnected with us. Through your
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infatuation, the name of the Lord is blasphemed, while danger is also brought
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upon yourselves. Let us, therefore, with all haste, put an end
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to the state of things, and let us fall down before the Lord and
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beseech him with tears that he would mercifully reconcile to us and restore to us
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our formerly former seemly and holy practice of brotherly love. For such conduct is
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the gate of righteousness, which is set for the attainment of life, as
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is written open to me, the gate of righteousness. I will go in
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by them and will raise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord.
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The righteous show enter by it. Although therefore many gates have been set
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open. Yet this gate of righteousness is that gate in Christ by which blest
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are they who have entered and have directed their way in holiness and righteousness,
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doing all things without disorder. Let a man be faithful, let him be
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powerful and utterance of knowledge, let him be wise and judging words, let
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him be pure in all his deeds. Yet the more he seems to be
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superior to others in those respects, the more humble minded he ought to be,
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and to seek the common good of all, and not merely his own
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advantage. Let us therefore implore forgiveness for all those transgressions which, though through
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any suggestion of the adversary, we have committed, and those who have been
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leaders of sedition and disagreement, ought to have respect to the common hope.
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For such as live in fear and love would rather that they themselves than their
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neighbors be involved in suffering, and they prefer to bear blame themselves rather than
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rather than the concord, which has been well and piously hounded down to us,
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should suffer. For it is better that a man should acknowledge his transgressions
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than he should harden his heart, as the hearts of all those were hardened
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who stirred up sedition against Moses, the servant of God, and whose condemnation
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was made manifest into all when they went down alive into Hades, and death
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swallowed them up. Pharaoh with his army, and the princes of Egypt,
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and the chariots with their writers, were sunk into the depths of the Red
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Sea and perished, for no other reason that their foolish hearts were hardened after
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so many signs and wonders had been wrought in the land of Egypt by Moses
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the service of God. That's a strong statement, isn't it. We look
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here at the first pope to really do a lot of writing. You know,
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Saint Peter did not write a lot in the Bible. But the apostles
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in the Bible, so much as they wrote about divisions in the church,
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condemn them outright here we have the third Pope, in about ninety a d.
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Writing to the church at corinth that you may remember Saint Paul so thoroughly
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criticized in the Corinthiums and tried his best to set them right. There was
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division already being stirred up. This division would eventually cause the various heresies you
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had, the Gnostic heresies and the Arian heresies and such as that the Church
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put them down. The Church as a body with authority said, no,
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this is not what Christ taught his apostles, and this is not what we
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believe. The Holy Spirit opposes what you're saying. I told you in yesterday's
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show how powerful the Holy Spirit was in the apostles, to the point that
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when two people lied to Saint Peter, they were struck dead. In this
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passage from poet Saint Clement. And there's a great deal more. Actually,
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if you want to read this, you can read it in the writings of
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the early Church followers. You can write in my book, you can read
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it in my book, Sorry Confirmation, an Autobiography of Faith. I would
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just probably pull a few sentences out of the rest of what I have in
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this section. There was not any teaching in the early Church that schism and
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division was okay. When the so called Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church,
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broke away, that was considered an incredible tragedy, and literally Christians on
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both sides have been trying to reconcile those two churches ever since. There were
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some serious doctrinal issues. There was a big, big issue over the language.
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Greeks and Romans have not usually gotten together very well, gotten along very
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well. Greeks are very proud people, Romans are very proud people. Greeks
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whet and things done in Greeks and Romans when things done in Latin. That
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said, until then, we don't have another truly breakaway church that had any
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momentum behind it until the Anglicans, when King Henry declared himself the head of
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a church because the Pope wouldn't allow him how divorces and said he couldn't cut
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his wife's heads off anymore. Really really evil man. As I said in
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yesterday's show, Martin Luther leading the Lutheran Rebellion, which is the father of
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the Presbyterians and really the Anglican belief I mean, if you look at what
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the Anglican doctrine in theology actually is. It's basically Lutheran. They just basically
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adopted it and said, but we recognize the King of England as God's representative
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on earth for no other reason except the English tend to think very very well
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of themselves, very very well of themselves. But the Presbyterians and Methodists,
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the Baptists, all of it comes down to Martin Luther. Really, I
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mean, you know, there'd be no Calvin without Luther. You know,
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you can go on through this progression and it really begins in absolute heresy,
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apostasy and pure evil because it's opposed to the words of the Bible, the
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words of God, and the words of the early Church fathers. And I
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know that's gonna be hard for many people listening to what I'm saying to accept.
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But if you go back to the words of the Bible, obviously,
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and the writings of the early Church and compare them with how lu and Calvin,
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etc. Justified their schism they're dividing the Body of Christ, you will
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find that the Catholic Church is always held firmly to the truth as taught by
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Jesus Christ and his apostles, and that the Protestant churches do not have the
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fullness of the truth. That's it. There are many good Christians in Protestant
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churches. I mean there are many, many, many good Church Christians in
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Protestant churches. Jesus, here's their prayers, because all people are God's children.
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But if you want the fullness of the truth and really the power of
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the sacraments, it is incumbent upon you to read the early Church fathers,
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to read the Bible, to see which church agrees with the words of Jesus
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and the Apostles, and with the words of those who learned directly from the
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Apostles. That's what caused me to convert to Catholicism. It was reading the
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Early Church and reading the Bible. I had been reading the Bible for many
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years but realizing that the doctrines of Protestant churches did not agree. And when
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it comes down to it, yes, it does hinge on authority. The
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authority of the person telling you something is the thing, the item, the
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aspect on which your belief hinges. If you believe that person, you believe
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what they're saying. If you don't believe that person, you don't believe what
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they're saying. If that person was authorized by a higher authority. You must
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believe what they're saying. And only the Catholic Church is authorized and guaranteed against
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error by God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ and through the power
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of the Holy Spirit. There was no question about this in hundreds of years
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of the Catholic Church. There is no question about it now in the Catholic
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Church. Protestants who protest, I honestly do so at their own peril.
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You have to really hope the founder of your church, or your minister whatever
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got it right, because he has no authority. He didn't get that authority
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given by God. There are, by some counts, as many as fifty
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thousand Protestant churches. Each of one believes distinctly different things, teaches distinctly different
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doctrine. But there's only one truth. Only one church can be right because
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they all teach distinctly different doctrines, and there's only one truth. I hope
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and pray anyone who reads my words and listens to my podcast will think to
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themselves, you know what I got one life. I need to make sure
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I'm in the church that got it right. You know. Joseph Smith,
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the head of the Churchill, Larity States, and Mormons. He swears,
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he swore, I mean that he would had visions given by God. Trust
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me. Look at the Mormon doctrine. It is entirely different from the Baptist
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doctrine, or the Lutheran doctrine, or of course the Catholic doctrine. You
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cannot believe both. Both can't be equally right because there's only one truth.
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I'm sorry to say. The Mormon Church is essentially a cult. It is
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not even Christian. They deny the teachings of the Apostles and substitute the writings
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of Joseph Smith for most of the Christian Bible. Doesn't mean they're at good
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people in It, doesn't mean there aren't people with faith in It doesn't mean
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Jesus won't have mercy on those people, and God willing, they will get
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to work things out in purgatory, which is something they don't believe in.
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We do. The Catholic Church is actually much more charitable in our belief that
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people will get to work things out in purgatory. But you only get one
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life to get certain things right. If you die in a state of moral
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sin, you're not going to purgatory. So I am really begging people just
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to first of all, get a good, legitimate, authentic translation of the
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Bible. We can start with the Biblious Acra, as you know, translated
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from the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic by Saint Jerome in the three hundreds,
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the Bible upon which all Bibles are based. Okay, you don't even have
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to learn Latin. Get a good version of the Dewey Reems, which will
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have the English right beside the Latin. I have taken the time to learn
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to read Latin. I got a version of the Biblious Sacra, and I
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have it right here beside my Dewey Reems and my ignacious revised standard version.
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And I look and I make sure the words are the same. Someone I
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was debating, we tried to tell me yesterday that when it says in the
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Bible they met on the Lord's Day, that was a mistranslation, and it
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actually said Sabbath in Greek. It didn't say Sabbath in Greek. That's what
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she had been told. That's what she believed because it fit her doctrine as
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a tour observing Christian, not a bit of truth to it. Didn't really
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take a whole lot of research to figure that out. But she said she
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had an app that does the translation for her. Fine, okay, you
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got an app. If I don't speak Greek, if I was going to
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read something in Greek, I would learn Greek, just like I was gonna
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when I decided I need to read things in Latin. I learned Latin,
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and I actually learned on my own through books. I didn't take any classes
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on it. It's just dual. It can be done if you have the
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access to classes that you know, go for it. But you know,
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it's actually not that difficult a language. They tell me Greek is even easier.
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I don't know. Like I said, I don't speak Greek. And
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frankly, most of the people that are, we'll say fringe Protestants, your
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tour observant, your seven day Adventus, your Messianic Jews and such, they
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may learn to speak Greek, or they may learn to speak Hebrew. Most
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of them don't learn Latin because they think that's a Catholic thing and they're opposed
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to it. Maybe if you do. I've never heard of one of them
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that's learned to speak Aramaic, which was the language Jesus actually spoke, So
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you know, it's just difficult. It really comes down to if you believe
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that Jesus had authority given to him by the Father. Okay, that's a
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huge issue. I mean, you know, the Jews don't believe that,
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and Jehovah's witnesses don't believe that. Then you accept Jesus's authority if you believe
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that Jesus gave his apostles his authority, which he did. He said,
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those who hear you hear me, and those who reject you reject him who
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sent me. I give you the power to bind and loose. Which you
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bind on earth would be bound in heaven. Which you loose on earth would
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be loose in heaven. If you ask anything in my name, it will
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happen. I mean, and again, I don't worry about what you're going
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to say before the praetorium or when someone questions you. The Holy Spirit will
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put the words in your mouth. I mean, you can go on and
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on and on. He absolutely gave his authority to his apostles. If you
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believe the apostles gave the authority to their authority to those they ordained, which
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they said they did. I mean, come on, you believe the Catholic
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Church. If you do not believe the authority of the Catholic Church, how
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can you believe the authority the Apostles who wrote the New Testament if you don't
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believe they were prevented from error by the Holy Spirit, that God gave them
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the authority to literally speak with his own mouth. I mean, you know,
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like I said, Martin Luther said, he had a vision where Jesus
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said, why do you look for my keys? I gave them to Peter.
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His tongue is my tongue, his mouth is my key case. Even
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Martin Luther admitted that if you don't believe the authority the Apostles, how can
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you believe the New Testament is free from error? How can you believe anything
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you read in the Bible about, you know, in the New Testament.
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Well, if you can't trust what's in the New Testament, how do you
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know Jesus as God? It could be made up. It could be like
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Joseph Smith wrote stuff right, It could be a demon that wrote it.
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Your only foundation a belief which the Bible actually says the Church is the pillar
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and foundation of the truth or of the faith, or various translations say different
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things that it says specifically, the Church is the pillar and foundation. If
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you don't believe in the Church Jesus founded, how can you believe in his
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apostles. If you don't believe in his apostles, how can you believe in
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the Bible. If you can't believe in the Bible, how can you believe
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in Jesus. The Protestant idea of the Bible alone being the sole authority and
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the Church having no authority given by God actually undermines the entire faith of Christianity.
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If you only take one thing away from what I'm telling you, let
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that be it. Read the Bible, Read the early Church you actually learn
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from the Apostle. Read the dac which was written by the apostles, dictated
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by the apostles, however you want to say it. Compare that with the
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doctrines of any church you are considering being a part of, or which you're
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already a part of. You know, here's another really good example. Jesus
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said his church would be a shining city set up on a hill, visible
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for all ages, and there's only one church that has existed for two thousand
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years. He said it would be built upon the rock Saint Peter, and
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the Vatican is like Saint Peter's Cathedral is literally built upon the bones of Saint
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Peter. There is no historical evidence for another church until the schism of the
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Orthodox there is no There are no churches that claim to be Christian Church sim
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weren't Catholic. There are writings that were written by heretics and such like the
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Gnostics and the Arians and such as that, but then the people who are
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actually ordained by the Apostles condemned them, and like Saint Irenaeus in great details
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said, this is why Christians don't believe this, because this is what the
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Bible says. This is why Christians don't believe this because this is what Jesus
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said. Okay, there's only been one valid church for really about fourteen hundred
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years that had any claimed to be valid. And honestly, there's still only
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one church that has the fullness of the truth, and it's incredible legacy.
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As I said, you can read thousands and thousands and thousands of pages written
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by the early church fathers. It's not a mystery. It may have been
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you know before Now, as much as I disliked the Internet. It gives
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me the ability to write and do a podcast, and it gives us the
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ability to read all the books in the world. Yeah, you know,
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fifty years ago, I mean certainly, my grandparents had no idea that the
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writings of the Early church Fathers even existed. Only about one hundred I think
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it was only maybe less than a hundred years ago that the original copies of
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the dak were even discovered. You cannot blame your grandparents, your great grandparents
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for not knowing what they didn't have access to. If they grew up in
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a Presbyterian or a Baptist or a Methodist or whatever household, that's all they
31:45
knew. And they were told that Catholicism was evil and the Catholic Church was,
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you know, worshiping the devil and all that. You don't have excuse
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anymore. You can literally read the writings the full library thousands of pages of
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the Early Church Fathers online on your phone, on your laptop, anywhere you
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are in the world. It's incredible. This is a an opportunity. Our
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true you know, I had an ancestor on the Mayflower, our true pilgrim
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ancestors would have given anything to have those that library so they could compare their
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beliefs, because I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said, question everything,
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because God must surely prefer informed disbelief over ignorant belief. You know, God,
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who made who wrote the law of the Word of God through Moses,
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which was the law that you go through Leviticus and all that, who gave
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us the truth in so many different ways, who spent so much time speaking
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through the prophets, never wanted anyone just to close their ears and except what
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they were told. I mean, sure, blessed are those who believe but
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have not seen. Absolutely blessed are those who believe that have not seen.
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How many of us have actually seen Jesus, but we hear his words.
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And when you hear his words and you believe his words, well that changes
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everything. That absolutely changes everything. And look, I mean the authority he
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gave as he said, the Father gave him the authority, he gave it
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to the apostles, the apostles gave it to their successors. And now that
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we actually have access to this information, really I think we can start repairing
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and bringing the body of Christ back together. You know, it's the devil
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that sews division. Division is absolutely opposed. Confusion is composed of the truth.
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Division is composed to all Christian belief. Where a family where brothers and
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sisters. We're supposed to love each other, we're supposed to be unified,
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We're supposed to be of one mind. We will never be of one mind
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when we're going to fifty thousand different denominations. So yeah, I got a
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lot more in here. By Pope, say Clement, like I said,
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I'll just grab a few sentences out of the next couple of paragraphs. He
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said, who among you is noble minded, who compassionate, who full of
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love? Let him declare, if on account of my sedition and disagreement and
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schisms and schisms have arisen, I would depart. I will go away whithersoever
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you desire, and I would do whatever the majority commands. Only let the
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flock of Christ live on terms of peace, with the Presbyter's set over it.
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He that acts thus shall procure for himself great glory in the Lord,
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and every place will welcome him. For the earth is the Lord's and the
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fullness thereof these things. They do who live a godly life that is never
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to be repented of, both have done and always will do. Ye therefore,
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who have laid the foundation of this edition, submit yourselves to the presbyters,
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and receive correction, so as to repent bending the knees of your hearts,
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learn to be subject, laying aside the proud and arrogant self confidence of
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your tongue. For it is better that you should occupy a humble but honorable
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place in the flock of Christ, than that, being highly exalted, you
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should be cast out from the hope of His people. For thus speaketh all
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virtuous wisdom. Behold, I would bring forth to you the words of my
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spirit, and I would teach you my speech. Since I called and you
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did not hear, I held force my words, and you regarded them not,
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but set at nought my counsels, and yielded not at my reproofs.
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Therefore I will laugh at your destruction. Yea, I will rejoice when ruth
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ruined cometh upon you, and when sudden confusion overtakes you, when overturning presents
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itself like a tempest, or when tribulation an oppression fall upon you. For
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it shall come to pass. And when you call upon me, I will
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not hear you. The wicked shall seek me, and they shall not find
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me, for they hated wisdom and did not choose the fear of the Lord.
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Nor would they listen to my counsels, but despise my reproofs. Wherefore
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they shall eat the fruits of their own way, and should be filled with
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their own ungodliness. That's pretty harsh, actually, isn't it. But that's
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again I believe it's from the Book of Wisdom. One of those books that
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Martin Luther could cut out of the Bible could be from Ecclesiastics. I'm not
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sure he didn't get the reference, and I don't have that right the tip
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of my tongue. But you know, you just have to ask yourself to
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the words of this saint who was baptized and confirmed by Saint Paul, sound
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as if they approve of schism. And was he not exercising his authority over
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Christians, managing them to submit to the authority of the officers of the church
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and reject those who would break away? Does he not echo Saint Paul,
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who said much same in the Bible? This is the authority of succession granted
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by Jesus Christ. Really, ask yourself upon what authority is my church?
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Founded. Was it founded by Jesus Christ, Can my minister trace his ordination
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all the way back to the Apostles? Or was it founded by a man,
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an intelligent man, an educated man, whatever, who read the Bible
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and decided he had a different idea, a different interpretation. If so,
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and there's only one truth, you're gonna have to weigh that out. You're
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gonna have to weigh it and measure it and try to figure out which church
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has the fullness of the truth. I hope I can help you along that
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way. And if you're a Catholic, I hope I can help you to
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within your faith. I hope I can help you be stronger in your faith.
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I hope I can help you answer those hard questions. Because for us,
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even more so than for Protestants, we have absolutely no excuse in our
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ignorance. We have this vast library, we have the unbroken succession, we
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have the fullness of the truth, and you know Jesus commanded that we be
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ready to defend it whenever a question. So y'all, let's end this with
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the words of Saint Pio. Pray, hope, and don't worry, and
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I'll talk to you tomorrow.