People who have spent time with him recently say they found him weaker than they'd ever seen him, seemingly too tired to engage with what they were saying. He no longer meets individually with visiting bishops. A few weeks ago he started using a moving platform to spare him the long walk down St. Peter's Basilica.
Benedict turns 85 in the new year, so a slowdown is only natural. Expected. And given his age and continued rigorous work schedule, it's remarkable he does as much as he does and is in such good health overall: Just this past week he confirmed he would travel to Mexico and Cuba next spring.
But a decline has been noted as Benedict prepares for next weekend's grueling Christmas celebrations, which kick off two weeks of intense public appearances. And that raises questions about the future of the papacy given that Benedict himself has said popes should resign if they can't do the job....
The best possible explanation, nyp, in the Bible is found here, where Jesus compares with the OT story of healing from serpent bites. Here is the gospel message of salvation by simply looking to Jesus Christ and him crucified. Read Numbers 21:6-9 and then these verses, and all will become clear.
John 3:14-16 KJV 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Please note especially the words "believeth in him". That is the key which unlocks the gate of heaven to you. Anything else added to that, is like when you have a key which hasn't been cut to suit the lock, and it has more notches than the lock will accept.
God will save you and forgive all your sins, and give you eternal life; but only by the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has done it all FOR you. Put your trust in him tonight; call out to him "Jesus, be merciful to me, a sinner", and when you do this humbly, repenting of your sin and unbelief, God will POUR out into your heart the Holy Ghost to give you full assurance of faith.
G.K. Chesterton said he knew the Catholic Church was for him because when he left his umbrella at the back of a Methodist Church it was still there, but when he left it at the back of a Catholic Church it was stolen.
It's still full of sinners. I know. I'm the chief of them.
Not your pope wrote: If they have the Holy Spirit within, why
Not your pope .....does the Roman Catholic Church deny, The Truthfulness, The Authority, and the Sufficiency of the Word of God, the Bible, what the Holy Spirit moved men to write in Scripture, with RC Tradition and the Teachings of the Magisterium?
For instance there is One Mediator between God and man while the RC (False) teaches the lie that the RC Mary is the Comediatrix of all graces.
Something no honest person will ever find in the Bible.
Not your pope wrote: 1. These can't agree how much water to use during baptism.
2. They can't agree what the essentials are of the Gospel.
3. They can't agree on the order of salvation.
4. They can't even agree on the Big Enchilada, the "doctrine upon which the Church stands or falls": Faith Alone or Faith & Works.
1. And you are yet another one who cannot agree with me about how much water to use. Neither do you agree what the purpose of baptism is.
2. And you do not agree with me about what the gospel is saying to sinners.
3. And you do not agree with me on how God seeks and saves that which is lost.
4. And you do not agree with me on the doctrine of salvation through faith alone without works.
One reason you do not agree with me is because you do not accept, nor can you understand, the teaching of God through his word. It is not that it is difficult, for in many places the Bible is very plain and simple to understand.
Another reason you do not agree with me is because you are a normal, sinful human being, and as such, you suffer from a terminal malady caused by original sin. It makes you blind, deaf, indeed, it makes you dead to spiritual things. And except God has mercy on you, you perish forever.
If you have actually read the enitre Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, and every verse in between, you could not possibly come up with the idea that any man could be saved from his sins by his works. If it is your conclusion that you can be saved by your so-called religious works and not by faith alone in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and bodily resurrection for all the sins of men, there are at least two things that you are doing.
#1 You must ingore many, many clear teachings found through out God's Word.
#2 You miss the whole point of why the Son of God left the glory of heaven to die for wicked men who would have no hope for salvation otherwise.
TB wrote: "Which one?" you ask... Neither. Those who have the witness of the Holy Spirit need neither the church's nor their own interpretation as they have God's within. You testify against yourself. As I said, it's sad you believe that.
If they have the Holy Spirit within, why are there 100s of denominations and 1,000s of independent churches of every stripe under the Sun?
These can't agree how much water to use during baptism. They can't agree what the essentials are of the Gospel. They can't agree on the order of salvation. They can't even agree on the Big Enchilada, the "doctrine upon which the Church stands or falls": Faith Alone or Faith & Works.
How could this hodgepodge of 10,000s of Protestant bodies even square with the Bible's requirement that Christians be one?
And if the Bible hadn't been fixed in the late 4th Century by a Council of Carthage, how could Protestants ever determine the Bible canon when they can't decide the Gospel essentials?
Not your pope wrote: --- Either Jesus left a Church to compile and interpret His book or He left a book so that each of us would have to interpret it for ourselves. Which one?
The first thing you need to do is understand what the Church is, and isn't. Your question reveals you don't.
Not your pope wrote: Either Jesus left a Church to compile and interpret His book or He left a book so that each of us would have to interpret it for ourselves. Which one?
NOT Pope As I have posted to you in on other threads, and again as kindly as I might here as well.
You really don't believe God, what God Himself has said to us in the Bible.
God's word, the Bible is Truth, His word accomplishes what He sends it forth to do. And part of that is dividing believers those who believe Him, from non-believers whose who don't.
example: 1 John 5:9-13 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater;
for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself;
he who does not believe God has made Him a liar,
because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Review the SA threads that number 500 entries. At the end there's no settled doctrine. Just worn out Christians trying to convince each other what's right in their own eyes.
Either Jesus left a Church to compile and interpret His book or He left a book so that each of us would have to interpret it for ourselves. Which one?
Dr. Alan Cairns | 8/3/2009
COMMENTS | 
frank: "
john uk
ha! :thumbsup:
ah well........
is it true bro that roman..."
