Many non-Catholics repeat outright lies about the Catholic Church and take what they have heard or have been taught as truth, without bothering to find out if these things are true or not. When they do this, not only are they calumnizing the Catholic Church, but they are calumnizing its founder, Jesus Christ Himself. After reading this file, not one person can ever again plead innocence of what Scripture has to say about spreading the truth, and about not spreading malicious lies.
Anyone who professes to follow Holy Scripture to the letter, must follow ALL of what it says. They cannot keep the parts they like and reject what they do not like. Here are some verses which obligate each and every one of us to search for the truth...
"This is good and agreeable in the sight of GOD our Savior, who wishes ALL MEN TO BE SAVED AND TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH."
1Timothy 2:4
"Sanctify them in the truth. Thy Word is truth."
John 17:17
"FOR THE WRATH OF GOD IS REVEALED FROM HEAVEN AGAINST ALL UNGODLINESS AND WICKEDNESS OF THOSE MEN WHO IN WICKEDNESS HOLD BACK THE TRUTH OF GOD."
ROMANS 1:18
That verse by itself should deter any GOD loving person from spreading malicious lies... But there is much more to come. Read on...
"BUT WRATH AND INDIGNATION TO THOSE WHO ARE CONTENTIOUS, AND WHO DO NOT SUBMIT TO THE TRUTH BUT ASSENT TO INIQUITY."
ROMANS 2:8
"...HE WAS A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING, AND HAS NOT STOOD IN THE TRUTH BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. WHEN HE TELLS A LIE HE SPEAKS FROM HIS VERY NATURE, FOR HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF LIES."
JOHN 8:44
Now that verse settles it. Lying comes from Satan. The truth comes from GOD.
"BUT AS FOR THE COWARDLY AND UNBELIEVING, AND ABOMINABLE AND MURDERERS, AND FORNICATORS AND SORCERERS, AND IDOLATERS AND ALL LIARS, THEIR PORTION SHALL BE IN THE POOL THAT BURNS WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH."
Revelation 21:8
Pretty strong words for those who propagate lies.
"...AND THERE SHALL NOT ENTER INTO IT ANYTHING DEFILED, NOR HE WHO PRACTICES ABOMINATION AND FALSEHOOD, BUT THOSE ONLY WHO ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE OF THE LAMB."
Revelation 21:27
Let all who have eyes to see, see, and ears to hear, hear.
"OUTSIDE ARE THE DOGS, AND THE SORCERERS, AND THE FORNICATORS, AND THE MURDERERS, AND THE IDOLATERS, AND EVERYONE WHO LOVES AND PRACTICES FALSEHOOD."
Revelation 22:15
Verse after verse about what will happen to liars.
"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." Proverbs 12:22
"A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaks lies shall not escape." Proverbs 19:5
"The lip of truth shall be steadfast forever; but he that is a hasty witness frames a lying tongue."
Proverbs 12:19
"He that speaks that which he knows, shows forth justice; but he that lies, is a deceitful witness."
Proverbs 12:17
"Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh His soul detesteth: haughty eyes, A LYING TONGUE, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into mischief, A DECEITFUL WITNESS THAT UTTERETH LIES, AND HIM THAT SOWETH DISCORD AMONG BRETHREN."
Proverbs 6:16-19
Wow! Who wants to be on the wrong side of GOD? Those who spread lies are there already.
"I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit."
Romans 9:1
"To this I have been appointed a preacher and an Apostle (I tell the truth, I do not lie), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth."
1Timothy 2:7
"Rather we are to practice the truth in love, and so grow up in all things in Him who is the head Christ."
Ephesians 4:15
"Wherefore, put away lying and speak truth each one with his neighbor, because we are members of one another."
Ephesians 4:25
"O men, how long are you dull of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after lying?"
Psalms 4:3
"But if you have bitter jealousy and contentions in your hearts, do not glory and be liars against the truth. This is not the wisdom that descends from above. It is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where there is envy and contentiousness, there is instability and every wicked deed."
James 3:14-16
Again! Lies are from Satan. Truth is from GOD.
"Now this is the judgment: The Light has come into the world, yet men have loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, that his deeds may not be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the Light that his deeds may be made manifest, for they have been performed in GOD."
John 3:19-21
Again! Verse after verse, truth comes from GOD.
"And his coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all wicked deception to those who are perishing. For they have not received the love of truth that they might be saved. Therefore GOD sends them a misleading influence that they may believe falsehood, that all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have preferred wickedness."
2Thessalonians 2:9-12
Again! Need I say more?
"Therefore GOD has given them up in the lustful desires of their heart to uncleanliness, so that they dishonor their own bodies among themselves - they who exchanged the truth of GOD for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is Blessed forever. Amen."
Romans 1:24-25
Amen!
"What can be made clean by the unclean? And what truth can come from that which is false?"
Sirach 34:4
"But that servant who knew his masters will, and did not make ready for him and did not act according to his will, will be beaten with many stripes."
Luke 12:47
"For the rest, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever honorable, whatever just, whatever holy, whatever lovable, whatever of good repute, if there be any virtue, if anything worthy of praise, think upon these things. And what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, these things practice..."
Philippians 4:8-9
"O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth; thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved; thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return."
Jeremiah 5:3
"...No lie is of the truth."
1John 2:21
"Woe to you that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter."
Isaiah 5:20
"These then are the things, which you shall do: Speak you truth everyone to his neighbor: judge you truth and judgment of peace in your gates. And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his friend, and love not a false oath, for all these things I hate, said the Lord."
Zechariah 8:16-17
"...Everyone that hath zeal for the law, and maintaineth the testament, let him follow me."
1Maccabees 2:27
"Let thy speech be sound and blameless, so that anyone opposing may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say of us."
Titus 2:8
"Keep yourselves therefore from murmuring, which profiteth nothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction; for an obscure speech shall not go for naught, and the mouth that believeth, KILLETH THE SOUL."
Wisdom 1:11
"Honor and glory is in the word of the wise, but the tongue of the fool is his ruin."
Sirach 5:15
"Ever learning yet never attaining knowledge of the truth."
2Timothy 3:7
"For there will come a time when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their own lusts, and they will turn away their hearing from the truth and turn aside rather to fables."
2Timothy 4:3-4
"Now the Spirit expressly says that in after times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies hypocritically, and having their conscience branded."
1Timothy 4:1-2
"But these men, like irrational animals created by nature for capture and destruction, deride what they do not understand, and WILL PERISH IN THEIR OWN CORRUPTION."
2Peter 2:12
There is a mouthful of food for thought in this verse, people who deride, since they do not understand because they have not sought the truth. Look at their end result.
"In these epistles there are certain things difficult to understand, which the unlearned and the unstable distort, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures also, to their own destruction."
2Peter 3:16
"Blessed are you when men reproach you, and persecute you, and speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you, for My sake. Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in Heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets who were before you."
Matthew 5:11-12
"But all did not obey the Gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?"
Romans 10:16
"He who says that he is in the Light, and hates his brother, is in the darkness still. He who loves his brother abides in the Light, and for him there is no stumbling. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and he does not know whither he goes; because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
1John 2:9-11
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
1Corinthians 10:12
And who can possibly forget one of the ten commandments...
"You shall NOT bear FALSE WITNESS against your neighbor."
Exodus 20:16
There you have it. Words straight from the Bible. Do you claim to follow the Bible and all of its teachings? If so, you had better not spread lies and calumnize others. Make sure of what you speak is truth only, and not some false teaching you received from a secondary source. If you want to find the truth about something you have to go to the source and not to someone outside of that source who may be biased. If you want to learn the truth of what the Catholic Church teaches, then go to the source. Purchase a Catholic Catechism or go HERE for a Catechism search engine.A few reasons why some people would rather not search for the truth...
They have a closed mind.
They are afraid of what they may find.
They have a fear of the unknown.
They are set in their ways and fear change.
Their pride is greater than their desire for the truth. It is human nature, not to want to admit to a mistake.
They have a habit of automatically condemning something of which they know nothing.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said, "Not many men want to die to their lower selves; it costs so much. Some prefer to have a cosmic religion, which NEITHER PUTS RESTRAINT ON THEIR PRIDE NOR CURBS THEIR PASSIONS."
They would not consider learning the truth of the Catholic Church because they would have to give up some part of their lifestyle, such as using contraceptive measures.
I have heard of several Protestants who would have to give up their livelihood, as they are ministers, or gain their livelihood from Church services.
Family and peer pressures prevent them from seeking the truth. Remember, GOD comes first in the lives of all of us. Exodus 20:2-3
One highly educated ex Protestant minister stated he converted after realizing five things about the Catholic Church: Its Authority, its Antiquity, its Unity, its Liturgy, and its Sacraments.
Now that I have shown you what Scripture says that you must do,
I will leave you with your conscience. You have to make the decision.
A man may blaspheme against the Son of Man and be forgiven; but the sin against the Spirit of Truth -- what can God Himself do with or for the man who will not acknowledge the truth he knows, or follow the light he sees?
... Alexander Miller, The Renewal of Man
The person who spreads lies risks losing his or her soul.
"If I had two souls, I could risk one, but since I have only only one, I must save it."
Saint Thomas More...
"Truth has always bothered people and is never comfortable."
Cardinal Ratzinger, October 9, 2000
However, He who has refused to acknowledge the truth in life will be forced to confront it in death.
1 comment:
[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” (John 6:22-29)
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