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The anti-Christ is not a system but a person who will deny the
belief of the Incarnation.
The Incarnation is so important to Catholics that they are
required to worship God with a bow when they
professes it in the creed at every Sunday Mass.
The validity of every doctrine that we have is based on the
foundation that Jesus is the God - Man and is
therefore trustworthy and that His promises - to
guide and protect and work through the Magisterium
on the Church that He founded - are trustworthy. We
accept the Church's teachings , Eucharist etc.
Our faith is in the truthfulness of Jesus’s Promise, and the
Power of the Holy Spirit to effect that promise in
spite of the sins of the members of the Church, and
the Love of the Father who wants to give us
certainty - Infallibility - in how to reach our
Heavenly home.
We Do Not Accept The Church's Teachings Just Because
We Are Intellectually Smart Enough To Reason
To Them Or Because They Are in Agreement
With Our Private Interpretation Of The
Bible. That would not be faith. We need God’s
grace to believe and to love truly.
But, in spite of the sins of men God in his mercy prevailed
for our benefit. By his grace we can know with
certainty the sure path to heaven. We do not have
to become egotistical and just assume our private
interpretation of the Bible is correct and that
everyone else is wrong.
We do not have to commit the sin that Peter made on the night
before Jesus crucifixion. He had egotistically
proclaimed that his own faith was true and that he
would faithfully follow Jesus and persevere to the
end.
Many today still make the same mistake as they consider
themselves the judge of their own faith, and how
strong and steadfast it will be.
Those who believe in the false doctrine of Faith Alone, can be
strongly influenced to have a strong need to
convince themselves that their own faith is
impeccable.
However, Jesus desires that we become more humble like Peter
was in John 21, rather than how he proudly
proclaimed his faith at the Last Supper.
Peter had once presumed on the greatness of his own faith and
love telling his Master the night of the Last
Supper, that even though all others would be
offended and scandalized in Him, that he, Peter,
would not deny.
In John 21, Peter was now addressed as Simon, son of John -
Simon being his original name. Our Lord was
reminding Peter of his past three times denial.
Jesus was walking and leading Peter up the path of humility.
All the Saints had become humble. Only Jesus was
more humble, when God became the Man-God.
Jesus asked Peter in John 21 if Peter’s love was stronger than
the rest. Now humbled, Peter makes no more
comparisons with the others.
There are two different Greek words used for love in John 21.
The first two times Jesus was asking if Peter had
agape love, that is, a great love that is perfected
by God’s grace.
Humbled, Peter now only proclaims himself to have a love that
is lower, a brotherly love.
John 21:17
“Peter was grieved because he said to him the third
time, “Do you love me?”
The third time Jesus asks his question using the second Greek
word denoting this lower love. He asks Peter if he
even has this lower brotherly love.
That Jesus was now questioning Peter’s lower brotherly love
was distressing for Peter. Peter responds with the
humility that he did not have at the Last Supper.
He professes a brotherly love that is apparent not just by
Divine judgement, but that even this lower brotherly
love is apparent and known by simple observation.
Peter grows more humble with each question. That Peter’s
answer is now correct and favored by Jesus is shown
by Jesus triple affirmation instead of the rebuke or
correction that Peter got at the Last Supper,
Matthew 26:34. Now humbled, Peter is commissioned
by Jesus.
Peter is told three times to feed and tend the sheep in Jesus’
absence. God does not reward a bad heart.
Therefore, Simon Peter, now humbled was more
pleasing to God.
Calling Peter Simon must have also reminded Peter of his
glorious confession when Our Lord said to him,
‘Blessed art thou Simon, son of John,’ and made him
the Rock on which He would build His Church.”
True faith is not believing or convincing ourselves that our
faith is true. Rather, faith means to trust that
God will be faithful to His promise that Peter and
his successors will not officially define error as
truth and truth as error.
We do not worship the Pope. And, this does not mean that he
will never teach wrongly, but it does mean when He
officially defines what is true we can know with
certainty that this is the true path to heaven.
May God be Praised
And Christ’s Promise to Peter was not to be without effect.
See
Matthew 16:13-19, Luke 22:28-32, and John 21:15-18
SDA
Adventist claim 538 – 1798, 1260 years prove the
Papacy is the Anti-Christ
Part
1.
538 AD
Part
2.
The Historical Events between 538 – 1798
Part
3. God's Gift - this page
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