Blog note.

“I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matt. 7:21-23). The Lord Jesus will declare those horrifying words to many, not a few, who will boast in the many works they did in His Name. They called Him Lord but did not obey His first command to “Repent and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Who are the “many” who will be turned away on Judgment Day? They are those who thought they could merit eternal life by the works they were doing instead of trusting in the work Christ had done. They also never turned from their sin to follow Jesus Christ in faith. Since they never obeyed the Gospel of Christ, they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord (2 Thess. 1:9). Tragically, when Jesus declares to them, “Depart from Me,” there will be no second chance, no excuses, and no blaming the false teachers who deceived them.

The Lord Jesus also referred to the “many” when He spoke of the two paths to eternity. Many will travel the broad road to destruction instead of the narrow road to eternal life (Matt. 7:13-14). Rather than striving to enter the narrow gate by testing every man’s teaching, they foolishly follow false teachers, who are wolves disguised in sheep’s clothing (Luke 13:24; Matt. 7:15).

With so many false converts, the church has become a mission field. Many professors of Christ are not really possessors of Christ! They are strangers to the new birth. They have never passed from death unto life. They remain condemned because they have not been justified. They remain enemies of God even though they profess to be His friends! They remain enslaved to sin because they have never been set free. They profess the Savior with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. They deceive other people with their external righteousness, but they cannot deceive God! They are unaware of their pending peril, because they have never examined themselves to see if their faith is genuine (2 Cor. 13:5) The apostle John wrote his first epistle so that those who believe in the Lord Jesus may know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). We also see many characteristics of false converts in God’s Word. Some of them are listed below:

You think you are a good person (Romans 3:12).

You have a zeal for God without knowledge (Rom. 10:1-4).

You have knowledge of God without obedience (Titus 1:16).

You do not pursue sanctification (Heb. 12:14; 1 Thess. 4:3).

You are self-righteous without repentance (Luke 18:9-14).

You seek to establish your own righteousness (Rom. 10:3).

You think you can merit or earn eternal life (Titus 3:5).

You are unwilling to forgive others (Mat. 6:15).

You have no desire to follow Jesus (Luke 9:23).

You call Jesus ‘Lord’ but do not do what He says (Luke 6:46).

You do not love other Christians (1 John 4:20-21).

You love your sin (John 3:19).

You have not departed from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19).

You condone or promote things God hates (Prov. 6:16-19).

You are a mere hearer of the Word, not a doer (James 1:22).

You are full of pride with no humility (James 4:6).

You walk in darkness (1 John 1:6).

You live according to your sinful nature (Romans 8:5).

You do not love the truth (2 Thess. 2:10-12).

You take Jesus as Savior but not as Lord (Romans 10:9).

You desire Jesus as a priest to pardon sin, but not as a prophet to instruct you or a king to rule over you.

The True Gospel vs. the Fatal Gospel of Rome

There is only one Gospel that has the divine power to save souls. Therefore, if there is the slightest deviation, distortion or perversion, it is no longer the gospel (Gal. 1:6-9). Anyone who distorts the gospel is accursed. It does not matter who you are: a pope, a bishop, a priest, or a pastor. It does not matter how many works you have done in the name of Christ, or how diligently you have served, or how sacrificially you have given, or how fervently you have prayed. If you preach a false gospel, you are accursed. Only the pure Gospel of grace is good news; in fact, it is the greatest news anyone will ever hear. The false gospel of the Roman Catholic Church does not offer any good news, only a false hope.

Revelation 22:18 … “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

Revelation 22:19 … “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

End of note.

Prosecutor in Chilean sex abuse scandal targets bishops

Ana FERNANDEZ. AFP. August 17, 2018.

Rancagua (Chile) (AFP) – The prosecutor in charge of investigating a massive sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in Chile said several bishops could face charges after he questions the Cardinal Archbishop of Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, for the first time next week.

Prosecutor Emiliano Arias will on Tuesday take a statement from Ezzati, the head of the church in Chile, who has denied allegations that he covered up cases of abuse, including those by a top aide who was jailed earlier this year. Other bishops “whose actions are being analyzed, could also be accused,” Arias told AFP in an interview at the Rancagua prosecutor’s office 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Santiago.

State prosecutors began investigating scores of abuse cases last month after outrage around the country over the church’s own probe into decades of abuse by priests, crimes over which it often failed to take any action or handed down too-lenient punishments. Now bishops and other priests accused of abuse in Chile will face the full force of secular law.

Arias said he will have to determine if Ezzati “fulfilled or failed to fulfill his obligations” to protect victims and enforce church regulations. Ezzati has come under pressure after prosecutors ordered a search of church headquarters in Santiago after it refused to hand over documents linked with how it dealt with abuse cases.

“The church should have acted immediately to denounce the abuse. It is in its interest to make it stop,” says Arias. He pointed out that “not having an obligation to report (abuse) does not mean they are forbidden” to do so. Chilean prosecutors announced last month they were investigating 158 members of the church, both priests and lay people. The cases related back as far as the 1960s and involved 266 victims, including 178 children and adolescents.

Pope Francis has already apologized repeatedly to Chileans over the scandal, admitting the Church failed “to listen and react” to the allegations, but vowed to “restore justice.” In May, the entire Chilean hierarchy of bishops who Francis summoned to Rome, tendered their resignations over the pedophile priests scandal.

So far, five Catholic bishops have resigned and a priest, Oscar Munoz — a former top aide to the archbishop – was jailed for the abuse of at least seven minors.

– Trials in six to eight months –

The first cases will come to trial within “six to eight months” Arias told AFP. He said cases where clerics are charged with covering up crimes would take longer, being more “difficult” to prove wrongdoing. “The fact that a person is cited as being complicit in a cover-up does not mean that they are guilty,” he cautioned.

Arias has lashed out at the church over the destruction of evidence in the sex-abuse cases but said he was confident it “will help more than hinder” him in an attempt to apportion blame in the cases. What matters more, he says, is that “the victims come forward” with evidence so the perpetrators can be tried before ordinary courts. Arias says around half of the cases are subject to the statute of limitations, though investigating them will help “to specify the behaviour deployed in the past” by church authorities, especially the tactics they used to conceal abuse.

The prosecutor does not think the sex abuse scandal in Chile is comparable to the church scandal in Pennsylvania, where prosecutors found more than 1,000 children had been abused over decades by some 300 priests, while bishops covered up their crimes. “Hopefully it is different because here the authorities in charge of public criminal prosecution have acted against the perpetrators,” he says.