This letter appeared in today’s “Irish News” and the screenshot of it was sent to me early this morning by a friend. I replied as followed and submitted my reply to that newspaper. Hopefully, they will print it.
Sincere regards,
Ivan Foster
Sir,
I wonder has your correspondent, Mr Brian O’Hare of Newry, (Letter – Catholic Church not a Christian Church) ever read the words of the Lord Jesus when He said:
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it,” Matthew 7:13-14.
It is not popularity amongst mankind but conformity to the Word of God which identifies the true and false within Christendom.After all, Christ had very few to stand with Him at the cross!
It must never be forgotten that the Roman Catholic Church for centuries strictly forbade the possession of a Bible and pronounced an anathema against any who violated this decree. (Council of Valencia, 1229 and repeated in the Council of Trent, 1545-63 and in other authoritative later pronouncements.) The banning of the Bible was part of Rome’s response to the Protestant Reformation and the Reformers’ urging of the people to read the Word of God in their mother tongue.
What a contrast such a decree is to what the Lord COMMANDED Israel!
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates,” Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
To these verses we might add what Paul wrote.
“And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 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 perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works,” 2 Timothy 3:15-17.
Only ignorance of the Bible will promote the view espoused by Mr O’Hare!
While I could add many other passages in support of what I say, I will let the apostle Peter have the last word:
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.,” 1Peter 1:23-25.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Kilskeery, Co. Tyrone.