Searching for the Truth in the King James Bible;
Finding it, and passing it on to you.
EDITOR:
Steve
Van Nattan
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THERESA'S BONES
St.
Therese Relics Irish Visit "there was darkness over all the land" Matthew 27:45. Ireland is currently in the midst of a 75-day visit by the relics of the Roman Catholic Saint Therese of Lisieux [also affectionately known as "The Little Flower"]. This young lady who lived from 1873-1897 is a very important figure in Roman Catholicism being the youngest of only three women to have been declared "Doctors of the Church" ["Saints whose writings or preaching are outstanding for guiding the faithful in all periods of the Church"s history" - Pocket Catholic Dictionary: J A Hardon SJ; page 115]. A special booklet to commemorate the visit has been published and it is my intention in this article to comment upon certain statements made in this booklet - statements that I believe are in direct opposition to the teaching of God"s truth as revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. Perhaps you may ask - "why are you doing this?" - well in recent months I have on several occasions been engaged in a public exchange of letters with well-known Belfast priest, Patrick McCafferty, who has been defending the Roman Catholic claim that where Christianity is concerned "the very fullness of grace and truth [has been] entrusted to the Catholic Church" ["Dominus Iesus" Issued by the Vatican - September 2000]. This article is designed to show graphically the spurious nature of that lofty claim. ERROR 1 In the opening article in the booklet, penned by Bishop Brendan Comiskey, [Chairperson, Relics Visit Organising Committee] he makes the following statement
Does the Bible teach that "suffering is a grace"? In 2 Corinthians 12:7 the Apostle Paul gives details of how he was suffering from a "thorn in the flesh" so much so that 3 times he prayed that God might remove it [v 8]. We find God"s answer in verse 9 - rather than remove Paul"s suffering God declared that in contrast His "grace" would be "sufficient". Clearly suffering itself is not a "grace" but the God-given ability to cope with it is a gracious gift from God. The Scriptures reveal that suffering stems from God"s curse upon the world as a result of man"s fall into sin as recorded in Genesis 2:16-17 and Genesis 3:17-19. ERROR 2 Bishop Comiskey wrote
God"s Word teaches that there is a way to approach God as we read in Hebrews 10:19-22 "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh". The "living power of God" is not encountered by drawing near to dead relics but through the quickening [life-giving] Spirit of God [John 6:63] applying the living Word of God [Psalm 119:50; 1 Peter 1:23]. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews declared in chapter 4:12 "the word of God is quick and powerful". If God refused to send back "living" someone who had already died, as we read in Luke 16:31 ["If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead"] would it then be consistent for Him to actually work through the world-wide travels of a dead corpse? The incident recorded in 2 Kings 13:21 is cited by Rome as a precedent for this type of activity - where a dead man"s corpse was hidden by his friends in the burial cave of Elisha and through contact with the remains of Elisha came back to life. This was a "timely" miracle, sovereignly performed by God, not sought for by the friends of the dead man, but most likely designed to encourage King Jehoash who had earlier in verses 18-19 displayed a lack of faith in God"s promises. The parting of the Red Sea [Exodus 14:21] and later the Jordan [Joshua 3:15-17] were "timely" miracles but despite them, in this day and age, the channel tunnel still had to be built. Those Old Testament miracles were not an "ongoing norm" for today. We read in the New Testament of God giving apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers " for the perfecting of the saints" [Ephesians 4:11-12] but nowhere do we read of God giving the "relics of the saints" for such a purpose. To encourage people, as Bishop Comiskey did, to expect to be "touched with the living power of God" through an encounter with a corpse, such teaching is clearly rebuked by the words of the angelic messengers [Luke 24:5] on resurrection morning "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" ERROR 3 "Father" J Linus Ryan in his editorial in the booklet writes
If spiritual healing ["healing of souls"] has truly been taking place in the lives of people as a result of encountering the relics one would expect to see good "biblical" fruit. Sadly this is clearly not the case for "Fr" Ryan goes on to write "So many have returned to the practice of their faith and to the reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion". Rather than setting people free from the false religion of Roman Catholicism these encounters with the relics are having the opposite effect and are apparently confirming people"s trust in the errors of Rome. As for the physical ["healing of"bodies"] we know that as the return of the Lord draws near there will be an upsurge in "the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" [2 Thessalonians 2:9] so "healing" is not necessarily or automatically from God. Many today [not just Roman Catholics but also extreme charismatics] are not content to be like Paul who wrote "For we walk by faith, not by sight" [2 Corinthians 5:7]. The Lord Himself had words for such a sign-seeking attitude as we read in Matthew 12:39 "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" and He went on to point out where people"s focus should really be centred, in the rest of that verse and in verse 40 "and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale"s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth". Christ was applying the words of Isaiah 45:22 to Himself "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else". ERROR 4 "Father" Gabriel O"Brien in his
Earlier Bishop Comiskey had written of how "hundreds of thousands come and reach out to touch the reliquary" and later on page 16 in the "Vision Statement" we are told "A world with disordered ideas of the human body needs to be reminded that the body with which Therese served God, is used by God, to bestow blessings of conversions and healings". Christians know that at physical death the soul leaves the body and goes to one of two places - the Lord Himself makes that clear by His teaching in Luke 16:19-31. But what of the body? Quite clearly it is lifeless - "the body without the spirit is dead" [James 2:26] and the body "sleeps" [John 11:11] until the day of resurrection when it shall be summoned forth to go to its final, eternal destination [John 5:28-29]. The idea of a corpse being paraded around to be touched in order to obtain spiritual ["conversions"] blessings and physical ["healing"] blessings belongs in the realm of paganism. Alexander Hislop in his monumental work "The Two Babylons", having lamented Augustine"s promotion of petitioning dead "martyrs" for their help, then wrote [p177-181] "Now, if men professing Christianity were thus in the fifth century paving the way for the worship of all manner of rags and rotten bones, in the realms of Heathendom the same worship had flourished for ages before Christian saints or martyrs appeared in the world. In Greece, the superstitious regard to relics, especially the bones of the deified heroes, was a conspicuous part of popular idolatry"From the earliest periods the system of Buddhism has been propped up by relics [officially acknowledged on page 19 of the commemorative booklet] "In the Asiatic Researches a statement is made"The statement is this "The bones or limbs of Buddha were scattered all over the world like those of Osiris""it is evident that the worship of relics is just a part of the ceremonies instituted to commemorate the tragic death of Osiris or Nimrod who"was divided into fourteen pieces which were then sent into so many different regions infected by his apostasy and false worship"The resurrection of Christ therefore stands on a very different footing from the resurrection of Christ. Of the body of Christ, of course, in the nature of the case, there could be no relics. Rome however, to carry out the Babylonian system, has supplied the deficiency by means of the relics of the saints". For those, like myself, who are repulsed by this heathen, unscriptural, God-dishonouring practice, Rome has a word "the holy bodies of the holy martyrs and of others living with Christ"are to be venerated by the faithful, through which many benefits are bestowed by God on men, so that those who maintain that veneration and honour are not due to the relics of the saints"are to be utterly condemned, as the Church has already long since condemned and now condemns again" [Council of Trent: Session 25]. God "s Word to those who would copy such heathen practices is quite explicit "Learn not the way of the heathen" [Jeremiah 10:2]. "Father" Patrick McCafferty, in the "Hearts and Minds" TV programme broadcast on BBC2 [3 May 2001] tried to justify the parading of relics/corpses on the basis of Joseph"s body being carried out of Egypt during the exodus [Exodus 13:19]. The people did not carry the body of Joseph during the exodus in the hope of obtaining "benefits" but simply to honour their pledge to Joseph that his body would be taken with them when God "visited them" [see Genesis 50:25]. In Joshua 24:32 we read "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem". A people honouring a pledge, not parading a relic! ERROR 5 At the foot of the "Vision Statement" we read
This is the usual line put forward by Rome to justify, not only the veneration of relics, but also the use of statues, "holy" pictures etc. Plausible as this idea might be to the natural man, it is rejected by the God of heaven. One only has to read what happened to those who sought, by use of a "molten calf", to observe "a feast unto the Lord" [Exodus 32:1-28]. Every born-again believer is a "saint" [see Romans 1:7]. They are "chosen" by God [Ephesians 1:1-4] and they are "sealed" by God [Ephesians 1:13] and they are certainly not limited to a select few, chosen at the behest of any Pope. ERROR 6 On page 18, Christopher O"Donnell, O.Carm. writes
Two points need to be made here. Firstly, God"s children have ONE who intercedes for them "But this man [Jesus Christ] because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" [Hebrews 7:24-25]. Secondly, any attempts to "draw close" to the dead, in the hope that they may obtain favours for people, is the occultic practice of necromancy. God makes his views on such practices perfectly clear in Deuteronomy 18:12 "For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord". ERROR 7 Our final consideration is Christopher O"Donnell"s statement on page 19
The
truth is that God has given to His people the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit With the help of the Holy Spirit, God"s people, unlike unsaved people, are able to mine the riches found in God"s written Word, as we read in 1 Corinthians 2:12-14. With such help in the realm of "spiritual realities" what possible need could there be for any other "helps", particularly "helps" that, as we have already seen, are classed as "abominations" by the one, true God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" [John 3:16] and for those searching for "spiritual realities" God"s signpost is found in Hebrews 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith". CECIL ANDREWS -
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