Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

I read a lot and write very little, but I hope to change this.

I started going through a series of articles by Jim McKendrick, and they are mostly book reviews. Some of the books he reviews I’ve read. Two that he mention were A Woman Rides the Beast by David Hunt, and The Gospel According to Rome by Jim McCarthy. It just so happens I read both books.

Now, I will not do another review on these books, but I will recommend them, and if you want to read a 5-minute review, you can find it on my blog at https://downtoearthbutheavenlyminded.com/category/articles-by-jim-mckendrick/

There are so many subjects I would like to write about, and while I am writing on one subject, I’m thinking about another. This time, I will try to stay focused. The subject of this writing will be about the Church of Rome.

My History in this church

Before getting into my history and this church, I need to mention that I didn’t become a Christian until I was forty. When growing-up, my mother brought both my sister and I up in the doctrines of the Catholic Church. So when I watch TV shows like Blue Blood, I can relate to a typical Catholic family; pray for every meal, do the sign of the cross, and wearing a crucifix around my neck.

I used to love going to the movies when they were playing movies like the Robe, and some of the old Roman movies where they were throwing the Christians to the lions. While walking home after watching one, I would think to myself how incredible Christians must be to have such strong faith, allowing themselves to be thrown to the lions or burnt at the stake. Even though I was a Catholic, and Catholics were called Christians, in my heart I know I was not one.

As I got older and I left home, I also left the church. Because of this, I became an evil person, but I found I enjoyed being this way. Maybe it was because I enjoyed doing all the bad things I was doing. I loved my sin, and I didn’t want to stop doing them.

When I walked away from the church and lost all faith in God until God got my attention by pulling the rug out from under my feel. I fell, and I fell hard. I lost everything I had and hit a low in my life, and this made me turn back, not to the church, but to God. Without going into a lot of details, I will just say I prayed a faithless prayer and God heard me an answer that prayer. This made me want to know the God that answer this faithless prayer. The reason I call it faithless is because of what I said when I prayed. I said, “God, if you are out there, you are the only one that can help me.” Because of this, I started reading the Bible, and I found Him in the pages of His book; The Bible.

After becoming a true Christian, I could see how the early Christians could have such strong faith, faith to die for. Because of what happened at that point in my life, I started doing something I had never done before. I started reading and enjoyed it. I read the Bible to learn more about God and His Son, and Church History to find God’s true Church. It was not the Church of Rome.

In all my reading, I found that as time passed; it was the Church of Rome that persecuted the true Christians. Oh! if every Catholic would read books like Foxes Book of Martyrs, or By their Blood, which is the sequel to Foxes Book of Martyrs. Then, all one has to do is read books that talk about the founders of the Reformation. Men like Martin Luther (1483–1546), Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531), Hugh Latimer (1487–1555), Martin Bucer (1491–1551), William Tyndale (1494–1536), Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560), John Rogers (1500–1555), Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575), and John Calvin (1509–1564).

With all these writings out here, one only needs to ask themselves, is this all true? Did the Catholic Church do all this evil, and if so, how can one still stay in this church? How, and when did the Catholic Church come on the scene?

If you are a Christian, and you are in the Catholic Church; and yes, there are Christians in the Church of Rome, but they are blindly following false teachings. I ask you to pick up your Bibles and start reading, and you will see that this church is not the church of the Bible. Their teaching is contrary to the teachings of God’s Word.

I want to make this very clear that this false church has led millions of people down the road that leads straight to hell. We are told in Scripture: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Ask yourself, which way are you traveling through life? Are you following the crowd or do you follow the few that have found life and the right way? The narrow way.

When you study the parables found in the Bible, you will see there is good and evil in the Kingdom of God. When I talk about the Kingdom, I need to set the record straight. The Church is not the Kingdom, but the Church is in the Kingdom. We need to distinguish between Christianity and Christendom because they are both in the Kingdom. Christianity is small where Christendom is very large. The parable of the mustard see bring this out. The parable is short, so we need to draw some meaning from the other parables.

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32.)

If you look at the parable of the sower, we read, “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.” Later on in Matthew 13, the Lord tells us that the Birds in this parable are evil ones. It reads like this: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.”

If we apply what the Lord said about this parable, and apply it to the parable of the mustard seed, we can say the overgrowth of Christianity, which has become Christendom, where the evil one has infiltrated. The false church has become the largest church in Christendom.

Any church that allows itself to grow to an abnormal size will open the door to evil ones who will bring in false teachings. I would recommend reading this brief article by James McCarthy entitled, “Is Bigger Really Better?” https://downtoearthbutheavenlyminded.com/2024/01/15/is-bigger-really-better-by-james-g-mccarthy/

In closing, I will say, it’s easier to follow the crowd than to walk the narrow path. Remember to enter by the narrow gate, because if you are following the crowd, it will lead down to destruction, and many are going this way.