Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: Perhaps the most serious issue in the Roman Catholic church or Catholicism is the unwillingness to accept biblical authority alone. The word of God is the final determiner of Christian doctrine and practice. They don't agree with that. They always want to go back to their history, and they want to go back to their books.

Music: I am falling. I am falling in love. I am falling in love. I am falling in love with you.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio. The Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Well, it is great to have you with us today.

We're focusing on absolute truth and Raul will underscore the importance of having a strong, thorough knowledge of the Bible. False religions and man-made belief systems can appear credible on the surface, but the Bible is the only pure word of God. Any attempt to twist it, contradict it, add to it, or detract from it, leads to error and spiritual deception.

In Titus chapter 2, here's Raul Ries with our study, Spiritual Authority, Error versus Truth.

Raul Ries: When Paul the Apostle was talking to Timothy, Timothy was just a youngster. He was young, 30 years old. And Paul was discipling him for a long time. He called him his own child in the faith. And when Paul was writing First and Second Timothy, he wrote those two epistles because Timothy was being encouraged to be a pastor, a leader.

And in Second Timothy you find out that Timothy was having some problems in his life. And one of the things that Paul always did, he was an encourager, an exhorter. And in chapter 3 of the book of Second Timothy, verse 10, Paul tells Timothy this.

He says, "But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose and faith, long-suffering, love, and perseverance. Persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, and Iconium, and at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all, the Lord delivered me." Yes.

"And all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing them from whom you have learned them."

"And as from a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ." Then he says, verse 16. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Now, Paul was warning Timothy about these impostors that were coming into the church. They were teaching philosophy, they were teaching false doctrines, they were teaching Gnosticism. All these things. And many times when the Bible gives us an exhortation, it's not because God just wants us to speak, but he wants to remind us, and he wants to teach us, and he wants us to adapt to his teaching so that we do not become deceived.

Because what happens is that a lot of times when a Mormon or a Jehovah Witness, or a Unitarian, or a Buddhist, or a Muslim will come to you and begin to share with you, if you don't know the Bible, they sound very convincing in what they say.

So what you have to do as a Christian, you have to know what the Word of God says, not to defend God, or to defend yourself, but to prove to them the truth about God. That's really important. A lot of times people call me a Catholic Basher, and I'm not that, because that's where I came from, that was my background.

At the same time, my whole family was Catholic, and most of my family today in Mexico City and over in New York City, Virginia, and different parts of the United States, they're still Catholics, they're Spaniards. Full on Catholics. And yet, we never tried to change any person. I let them speak, and then I'll speak.

But if they don't want to really listen to what I have to say, then you know what, end of conversation. And it's really important that when you're witnessing to a person that doesn't really want to hear it, you're wasting your time. Because first of all, you will never convert any person. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

That's what Jesus taught. And yet, there are Christians that believe that they can literally convict a person and bring them to salvation, and that's not true. We always hear Billy Graham say, "The Bible says." Why? Because this is the Word of the Lord.

It doesn't matter what the Watchtower says, or the Book of Mormons, or the Christian Science book, you see? What matters is the Word of God. The Word of God is the truth. And so tonight, we want to look at spiritual authority, error versus the truth of God. Error versus truth. That's important.

And what we're going to look is at the doctrines of the Catholic Church versus the Bible. Does the Bible back up what the Catholic Church teaches? Is it doctrinal? Is it truth or is it error? So we're going to see that.

Let me quote to you a reading from one of the Reverend John A. O'Brien, The Faith of Millions, page 46. He said this: "The Catholic Church is the one true church established by Jesus Christ for the salvation of all mankind." See? Is that a true statement? No, that's a false statement. False statement. He's already going against what the Word of God says. You see?

Because the Catholic Church is not the true, only one church. They're not the church. It's really important that we understand the word church means ecclesia in Greek, it means the called out ones. And how do you become a member of the body of Christ? Or how do you become a member of the church? You don't join it, you are born into it by the Holy Spirit.

That's how you do it. Jesus said in John chapter 3, to Nicodemus, "You must be born again of the Holy Spirit." If you're not born again of the Holy Spirit, then you don't belong to the church of Jesus Christ. You see? You cannot be part of the body of Christ unless you're born into it. You cannot join it like any other church.

Perhaps the more serious issue in the Roman Catholic Church or Catholicism is the unwillingness to accept biblical authority alone. That is a major, major problem. The Word of God is the final determiner of Christian doctrine and practice. They don't agree with that.

They always want to go back to their history, and they want to go back to their books. You see? And I have a problem with that. Let me give you kind of an example about this, by accepting Catholic tradition as a means of divine revelation. Even biblically correct teachings in the church become hedged about with unbiblical trimmings, which in turn tend to either revise, neutralize, or nullify the truth found in the Word of God.

You see? The Bible is the authority. God's Word. And Jesus is the one that built his church. Peter was not the rock, the massive, massive rock that Jesus talked about. Peter was just a little stone that he would use. Peter was married, he was a Jew, and he was never, ever a pope. Ever. He was a fisherman.

He was a disciple of Jesus Christ. Dr. Lloyd Jones from Britain, he taught from 1899 all the way to 1981, and right before he died, he said this: "In many ways, the problem is not so much a matter of denial of the truth, but rather such an addition to the truth that eventually it becomes a departure from the truth." You see?

It's like a, you know, you have an airplane and you have a pilot and if he's not watching his instruments, one degree off, it's a long ways from the truth. And that's the way it is with the Bible. If you start off from here from Catalina and go to Hawaii, one degree, you'll never make it to the Hawaiian Islands if you're off. You see?

And how many people have been deceived by false doctrines and the teachings and the traditions of men?

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for Bible-based resources to grow your faith and enrich your understanding of God's love. You can also download our free app for live-streamed Bible teaching, digital Bible studies, and much more. Now, back to more with Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: Let me give you back and forth what the Catholic Church says and then what the Bible teaches as we look at this tonight. Number one, was Peter the head of the apostles? Was Peter the head of the apostles? The Bible teaches that Christ, listen, that Christ was the head of the apostles, not Peter. The Catholic Church says that Peter was the head of the apostles.

And that Peter is the head of the church. According to John 13:13, Jesus said, "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for I am so." For I am so. You see? And it's really important because when you think of what the Bible teaches concerning what the Catholic Church is teaching, it's wrong.

You see, Jesus is the head of the church. Christ is the head. And without the head, the whole body would not be able to operate. We are the fingers, we are the toes, and we're the torso, but we're not the head. The head is Christ. You see? He's the one that leads the church.

Even Christ, in using metaphors, he calls the church the bride, you see, the temple. We have different metaphors that are used for the church. And yet Christ is the only one that can lead the church. And yet, the Catholic Church teaches that the bishops are the successors of the apostles.

That the bishops of the Catholic Church are the successors of the apostles. Is that true? Well, the Bible teaches that the apostles had no successors. For to succeed them, one needed to be a witness of Christ's resurrection. If you wanted to be a successor, you had to be and watch the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Listen, in Acts 1:21-22, this is what Luke said: "Therefore, of these men who had accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and among us, beginning from the baptism of John the Baptist to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must come and witness with us of his resurrection."

And that's why they didn't choose the other two disciples, but the real disciple after Judas hung himself was who? Not Matthias. It was Paul the Apostle, because Paul was a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on his way to Damascus, in Acts chapter 9 and then 10. He saw Jesus.

So Paul became the 12. He took Judas's place, not Matthias. It was Paul the Apostle. The Catholic Church teaches the Pope as the Bishop of Rome is the successor of Peter. Notice what I said. The Catholic Church teaches that the Pope as the Bishop of Rome is the successor of Peter. The answer, Peter had no successor.

No successor. It's false. The Catholic Church teaches that God has entrusted revelation to the Roman Catholic bishops. Notice what I said again. They teach that God has entrusted revelation to the Roman Catholic bishops. And yet, the Bible teaches that God has entrusted revelation to the saints.

And who are the saints? Those that canonize? No. You can call me Saint Raul tonight legally. And you can put your name right after that. We are the saints. Those who have been born again of the Holy Spirit. The word saint is a very interesting word in Greek, hagiois. It means literally, separated ones. That's it.

Separated ones. We have been separated for the work of God. So we, the church, every person individually born again of the Holy Spirit becomes a saint. Jude 1:3 says this, "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints." You see? Who are the saints?

You and I. Those that Jude was writing to that were born again of the Holy Spirit. Those are the saints. The Catholic Church teaches the Magisterium is authoritative teacher of the church. That is, the council that they have when they say this is biblical and this is tradition. This belongs to the church and this doesn't belong to the church.

Listen. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is the authoritative teacher of the church, not the cardinals, not the priest, not the Pope. In John 14:26, Jesus said to his disciples before he left, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said unto you."

And then in John 16:13, "However, when he, the Holy Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak; and he will tell you even of things to come." Who's he talking about? Jesus is talking about him leaving, dying on the cross, resurrecting, and sending the Holy Spirit to live in the life of every individual, and the Holy Spirit would what? Guide and lead our lives.

Then in 1 John 2:27, he says, "But the anointing which you have received from Jesus abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and that is true, and that is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him." You see, the Holy Spirit is the teacher.

It doesn't mean that we don't need teachers. The Holy Spirit anoints teachers so that we can be taught the Word of God, you see? That's what he's talking about. The Catholic Church teaches that the council that makes up the scriptures is the infallible interpreter of scripture. The infallible interpreter of scripture.

Whatever they say, that's scripture. The Bible teaches that scripture is the only infallible Word of God. It is interpreted what? Through scripture, the Bible. Period. Nothing else. Acts 17:11. He says, "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so or not."

When Paul came to Thessalonica, there were a group of men there when they heard the Word of God, they were searching the scriptures to see if Paul was speaking the truth or not. You see? And that's what we do here at Calvary Chapel. The Catholic Church teaches the Pope is infallible in his authoritative teaching.

He's like God. When he speaks, you just accept it and you believe it. The Bible teaches that God alone is infallible. God alone. Nobody else. In Numbers 23:19, he says this, "God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. For he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?"

You see? Of course. Whatever he says, it's done. It's his word, and he always, always backs up his word 100%. The Catholic Church teaches that the Magisterium alone has the ability and the right to interpret scripture. That is that little council of the Catholic Church, they're the only ones that can say what the Bible says.

So the laity cannot do that. Look at, the Bible teaches that every Christian, aided by the Holy Spirit, has the ability and the right to interpret scripture. You can go home, you can have a Bible study in your home, and if you study and you pray, the Holy Spirit's going to lead you and guide you, and you can do a Bible study.

You see? Anybody can do that. Not just the council. In Acts 17:11, it says, "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word of God with all readiness, and they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." And then in First Corinthians chapter 2, 12 through 16, he says, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that we have been freely given to us by God."

"These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but by the Holy Spirit in what he teaches us." Notice that. "Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God." How can a council in Rome interpret the Bible when they haven't even been born again of the Holy Spirit?

They're natural men. They're not spiritual men, you see? That's the problem. Like in our own Protestant seminaries, there are Bible teachers in seminaries that are not born again of the Holy Spirit. So what do they do? They start telling you that the Bible has mistakes, Neo-orthodoxy, you can't really believe all about the Bible.

And they start discrediting the Word of God instead of teaching the Word of God, you see? And that's what the Catholic Church does too. "The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual," look what he does, "judges all things. Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"

And what does he say? "We have the mind of Christ." Who's he talking about? Those that have been born again of the Holy Spirit. We have the mind of Christ. I love it. Scripture is to be interpreted in the sense in which it has been defined by the Pope. That's what they say. The Catholic Church teaches that.

The Bible teaches that scripture must be interpreted in the original sense intended by the Holy Spirit. You can't spiritualize the scripture. You can't diminish the scripture. The scripture has to speak for itself. Just the way it is. Second Peter 3:14 through 16. He says this: "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent and be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless. And consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. As also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people are twisting to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the scriptures."

Peter warns us. In his own time, people were twisting Paul's letters to their own destruction and not believing the Word of God, just like today.

Guest (Male): Many people claim that truth is found in a gray area that's personally defined. But we've seen today that God's Word is written in black and white, and its message doesn't shift with anyone's views or ideals. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries.

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Thank you for your partnership in sharing God's mighty, unchanging Word. Every contribution is tax deductible. Tune in again next time as we continue this series with a heart-lifting look at the greatest truth of all time. We have a Savior, and his name is Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross paid for our sins and built a bridge to eternal life with God.

Music: I am falling in love with you.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.