Like Enoch,the saved walk with God.

(…continues from part two…)

3)            Cyprian was one of the earliest of the Church Fathers to enunciate clearly and unambiguously the doctrine of baptismal regeneration (“the idea that salvation happens at and by water baptism duly administered”). In the Book of Acts of the Apostles Chapter 10, verses 43-45 quotes Peter’s teaching and the divine outcome. “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. 44) While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. 45) And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” It was after their regeneration that Peter enjoined their baptism which serves as the credential of Christian faith.

                Cyprian believed that the lapsed can be re-admitted to the Church after penance. The Bible makes it clear that confession must be directed only to God. Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

“…and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).

                Cyprian believed the see of Peter (Rome) is the direct heir of Peter. This is pure fallacy. Where does it get documented that Apostle Peter was ever in Rome – to preach or found a local assembly? Galatians 2:8-9 “(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) 9) And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.” God, no doubt, pushed Catholicism to commit this huge mistake of making Peter the first Pope rather than Pauline Apostleship to the Gentiles, to which belongs Rome! Except for Peter, how is it that one hardly hears of the involvement of other contemporary Apostles of Jesus Christ in Romish Catholicism? Peter could never have been to Rome because God told him to teach the gospel only among the Jewish communities. Paul, on the other hand, is the Apostle of the Gentile nations.

                Cyprian was amillennial. Augustine argued that Cyprian taught the gift of perseverance. Amillennialism is an aberrational intent of Catholicism to debunk the veracity of Revelation Chapter 20. Verses 2-4 read, “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3) And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 4) And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

“…shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

                The so-called Church Fathers of Catholicism do not believe that Jesus will practically descend to this earth in the prophesied Second Coming to reign for an unprecedented one thousand years. Cyprian and Augustine rejected Johannine Spirit inspired Revelation 20:4. Roman Catholic Church finds it difficult to understand Revelation 20:6-7 “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 7) And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,” and that is quite disappointing.

                Augustinian ‘gift of perseverance’ means that only those that God arbitrarily predestined to save will be given the gift to persevere. Why will a good Jehovah God arbitrarily decide to create some people for eternal, hellish damnation? It does not look a smidgeon of the God of the Bible. This is what really happens. God has a faculty that enables Him to see and know absolutely everything that is going to happen. For this simple reason, His Omniscience, knowing who will and will not receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour, those who will do His divine will hear the gospel and be spiritually transformed. It is for the same rationality that God will say, “Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated.”

“And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”

                Cyprian argued that each day of Genesis consisted of 1000 years. “The first seven days in the divine arrangement contain seven thousand years” (Treatises 11:11 [A.D. 250]). Does this make any Scriptural sense at all? What does Mosaic Genesis creation days mean by, “And the evening and the morning were the first day?” The same goes for each of the subsequent second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth days. Is this not clearly a twenty-four hour period for each day? What about the Sabbath, seventh day of God’s rest, was it a whole one thousand years of Sabbath rest? Did it take God one thousand years to create Adam and his wife? How does one explain Genesis 7:24 in the light of Cyprian’s each day consisting of 1,000 years? The verse reads, “And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”Did Cyprian believe that those days were actually one hundred and fifty thousand years of antediluvian rainfall of the great deluge? How can one bring oneself to believe faulty teachers of Scripture when their bases for loss of salvation remain unscriptural?

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”

(…to be concluded…)

Read part 2 here

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