Friday, March 2, 2007

The following question, I have raised
in an international forum: -


How would you react to Church Heads participating
in Commercial Evangelists' money-spinning carnivals?


More on the above question! I am a regular viewer of Commercial Evangelists' soap operas telecast through different channels all over the world where they claim of Holy Spirit’s intervention, divine healing and go on misinterpreting Bible to suit their interests. What I find most disgusting is the presence of ecclesiastical community, mostly Bishops, sharing the podium, nodding, singing and gesturing in appreciation of misplaced Evangelism. Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ for 30 silvers by kissing him. Here the Evangelists are warmly kissed betraying and tarnishing the image of Jesus Christ and Christianity either for a TV-Screen presence or for some tangible returns. The pathetic fact is that the presence of church-heads gives respectability and credibility to the Commercial Evangelists that help them in their collection drive and their building personal assets all over the world. Is this not a deplorable conduct that is hostile to Christianity and the faith of true Christians?

Out of the several answers I have
received, voters chose the one below
as the Best Answer:
If God has intended that man should learn His religion from a book, the Bible, surely God would have given that book to man. Christ would have given that book to man. Did He do it? He did not. Christ sent His Apostles throughout the whole universe and said, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Christ did not say, "Sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth, and let every man read his Bible and judge for himself." If Christ had said that, there would never have been a Christianity on the earth at all, but a Babylon and confusion instead, and never one Church, the union of one body. Hence, Christ never said to His Apostles, "Go and write Bibles and distribute them, and let everyone judge for himself." That injunction was reserved for the Sixteenth Century, and we have seen the result of it. Ever since the Sixteenth Century there have been springing up religion upon religion, and churches upon churches, all fighting and quarreling with one another, and all because of the private interpretation of the Bible. Christ sent His Apostles with authority to teach all nations, and never gave them any command of writing the Bible. And the Apostles went forth and preached everywhere, and planted the Church of God throughout the earth, but never thought of writing Up to that time the whole world for three hundred years did not know what the Bible was. Hence, they could not take the Bible for their guide, for they did not know what constituted the Bible. Would our Divine Saviour, if He intended man to learn his religion from a book, have left the Christian world for three hundred years without that book? Most assuredly not. It is Divine Faith alone by which we give honor and glory to God, by which we adore His infinite wisdom and veracity. That adoration and worship is necessary for salvation. We must have Faith in order to be saved, and we must have Divine Faith, not human faith. Human faith will not save a man, but only Divine Faith. What is Divine Faith? It is to believe, upon the authority of God, the truths that God has revealed, that is Divine Faith. To believe all that God has taught upon the authority of God, and to believe without doubting, without hesitation. For the moment you begin to doubt or hesitate, that moment you begin to mistrust the authority of God, and, therefore, insult God by doubting His word. Divine Faith, therefore, is to believe without doubting and without hesitating. Human faith is belief upon the authority of men, on human authority. But Divine Faith is to believe without doubting, without hesitating, whatsoever God has revealed upon the authority of God, upon the Word of God.


Source(s):Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J. (1815 - 1890)
This answer is also pasted in my other web sites namely: -

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