Читать книгу Head of the Serpent? - Mary Spinale Williams - Страница 3

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. I've been married for 40 plus years with two children and two beautiful granddaughters. I can't really remember a day when I didn't believe in Jesus. Now at the age of 65 I felt compelled to write of what I've learned as a layman, and what God's word says to me. My goal and what drives me to write is Jesus, the only name under heaven by which we must be saved.

I want to share God's word to whomever has ears to listen. This, my first book, is about the Roman Catholic Church because that's where I had my own start. My intent is not to condemn your beliefs but to get you to honestly question them. It's not easy to leave a church that you've believed in all your life, believe me, I understand. For me, it was a long, slow process. I look back now and wonder how could I have accepted all their distortions and deceptions for so long. Studying and reading His word, reading and listening to biblical scholars helped me to understand and see the misinterpretation and errors of the Roman Catholic Church.

Let me introduce myself. I grew up in a typical Italian American Catholic family. We weren’t strict Catholics by any means, but we did go through first Holy Communion and Confirmation within the church and attended mass sporadically. As I grew into my teen years and beyond I now see I yearned for a relationship with Jesus but didn’t know how to go about it other than attending Mass. And if I missed a Sunday Mass I recall feeling very guilty, yet I would miss it again and again. I got past the guilt trip and went on with my life. After marrying in the Catholic church and having two children baptized within the Catholic church, we went on as most families do, busy with our lives and not really searching and reading God’s word with any regularity.

I realize that this is a boring introduction to a very uneventful life, but most of us have ordinary lives and this was mine. I hope you hang in there because there can’t be anything more important in our lives than meditating on His word and spending time with our Creator. This book is my journey and quest for the truth of His word. Sometimes you feel like a Ping-Pong ball bouncing back and forth between verses trying to figure out what He is really telling us. I don’t claim to have it all correct, but there are some things that the Bible makes clear. Then we come along and try to muck it up anyway.

If you read Ephesians 6:12 you will learn for yourself who we are battling. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” So there you have it, our battle is against the spiritual forces of evil and the father of lies. There’s our answer as to why we are all so confused. Satan has done and will do everything in his power to distort God’s word to us now and since the beginning of time with Adam and Eve.

The main purpose is to ask you to open your mind and read the Bible as if it's the first time disregarding all of your past preconceptions. Let Him remind you of His word. With a sincere and humble heart read the Bible and compare it to what you were taught and are now following.

Apostasy has occurred all over the world. Following any institution without comparing what they teach to the Bible is allowing yourself to be deceived. Don't stubbornly cling to your pride and preconceived notions. Let God speak to you and learn His word so you can't be fooled into believing errors. It's only the most important action you can undertake in your life. As He tells us in John 3:36 "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them." This is a message of love, not hate, as is sometimes portrayed.

Daniel 10:12-14 gives us a glimpse of the supernatural and what’s happening behind the scenes, you might say. “Then he said to me, “Do not fear Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

I find this verse interesting because it shows us two things. It demonstrates the invisible supernatural activity in a realm outside of our dimension. Michael, one of the chief princes, had to come and help this other angel fight a prince of another kingdom that lasted 21 days. The fight against good and evil really exists not only in this world but in a realm unseen by human eyes. It also shows us that if we humble ourselves and seek our God, He hears our prayers! What a great confirmation from our God if we will just open the Bible to see for ourselves.

As time passes, God has a way of pulling at your heartstrings and we sort of go in and out of His word. We continued as a family to attend Mass occasionally, but the connection wasn’t there. There is a need inside most Christians to know and understand God’s word and so occasionally, especially in times of need, we pick up the Bible and read some more. But we inevitably get caught up back in life and raising little ones. But as we go through life we have that nagging feeling and the need to get back into His word. My appetite wasn’t appeased by attending Mass so, besides reading and studying on my own, I started listening to Christian radio programs. Every day to and from work I would listen, then go home and read until one day, over time, I realized I couldn’t attend Catholic Mass again. In fact, I was no longer Catholic. That was kind of a surprise even to me because anyone who has grown up Catholic knows that we are taught that we are the true church and that Peter was the first pope and all the made-up lies that go with it.

Oops, my husband says I should say “misconceptions” and that’s certainly what they are now. But its foundation is a lie from the father of lies, and I have a hard time softening it. Catholics are wonderful God-fearing people that are being misled by the Vatican and its dark roots. Let me make myself clear. The priests within the church are not the deceivers but the deceived, in turn becoming the deceivers unknowingly.

We all have one life to live and one life to figure out the truth. I can’t think of a single thing that is more vital in life to pursue than God’s truth. I say vital because truth (His word) can lead us to eternal life with no pain, sorrow or sickness. Revelations 21:3 tells us “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” The dictionary describes “eternal” as everlasting, never-ending, endless, without end, perpetual, undying, immortal, deathless, indestructible, imperishable, immutable, abiding, permanent, etc. Do you get it yet? Can we really understand or comprehend eternity? Life without end, with our maker, with no pain, crying, sorrow or sickness, sounds like heaven on earth! That’s what He promises to believers. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life! His grace is a free gift, but a gift that you must first accept, then realize that it will make us a peculiar people, according to the bible.

We are His special people made in His image and likeness. In fact, science doesn’t want to admit it but it seems that the Earth is in the center of the universe, in what they termed the Axis of Evil. You won’t hear any of that on mainstream media. Not once or twice, but three times it was confirmed. Look it up for yourself. It’s a documentary called “The Principle." That’s another book that needs to be written for Atheists out there. The point is, we as humans are very special, live in a very special place and have a very special relationship with our maker. Earth and the people living on it are not some insignificant nothing, created from nothing, floating in space. The heavens and universe are designed, and when that happens there is usually a designer. We could get into DNA and everything else that proves a designer but God tells us that we should know by looking around us that there is a designer and that we are without excuse. Romans 1:20 says “For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

We as believers are also without excuse not to learn and know His truth. Our Creator wrote us a book to tell us where we came from, where we are going and how to get there. We can remain in our pride and our comfortable little worlds with our own truth or we can humble ourselves and ask God for His truth. Galatians 1:8-9 says “But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell!” You need to decide for yourself. Is the Roman Catholic Church preaching a gospel contrary to what we received in His word? Is it all about Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross or will we be sidetracked with man-made traditions which ultimately are Satan’s lies and deceptions?

We need to spend time in His word and learn that He is the truth and that truth is not just a concept, but it is a person who has reached out to us, if we are willing to really open our hearts and minds to accept His word and not man’s word. This is not always easy and sometimes can take years before the blinders are removed from our eyes and we are willing to accept true doctrine from the Holy Spirit working within us. God not only wants to speak to us, but through us as believers and disciples of Christ. We as believers need to share and spread His word with a humble heart praying to God that our loved ones will respond. The gospel is simple, but man has complicated matters with the help of Satan. John 3:16 is famous for summing up His word. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

So there it is, belief in Him, not the Pope, not Mary, not the Roman Catholic Church and its man-made traditions, but Him and Him alone. Jesus Christ is our advocate and mediator, not the church, not a priest, not the pope nor even Mary. Scripture tells us in Acts 4:12 that “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” So you can go to a priest to confess your sins, kneel and pray to Mary as an advocate, listen to the Pope and all of his heresies, or we can go back to the Bible and find Jesus. That’s why the bible says, “He is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him.” I can't understand if you believe that Jesus is the sole way to God, you can still go to Mary and others. Can we get that into our heads?

It’s only through Jesus, sisters and brothers. Why do we ignore this and continue to do what we’ve always done and not give it a thought? Our lives are but a vapor. Don’t fill it with useless traditions that won’t bring you any closer to God. Let God speak to your heart to see the truth of His word. Don't allow the church to confuse you and twist His word.

So who will you depend on at your last breath? Whose name will you utter? If your answer is Jesus, don’t wait, go to him now where you can draw closer to him, maybe wake up our loved ones and bring them to their senses. His word will do that for you. Read the Bible yourself and you might find you’re no longer “Catholic."

My fervent prayer is for anyone that is following any Christian religion or denomination, to stop and follow the Bible. If there is one faith, why do we have so much confusion and denominations within the Christian Community? His word is the only truth. It’s imperative we follow God and His word and not man and traditions. Don’t let deceiving spirits and your pride keep you from His truth. Open your heart and mind and let the Holy Spirit teach you the truth that will set you free. It's man ultimate decision, it's your ultimate decision. Make the right one.

Read what Paul says in Acts 17:23-31 "Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "...So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.

“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Paul says that in every way they were very religious but ignorant of the very thing they worship. Let's not be ignorant of what we worship. God wants us to reach out to Him and we will find Him because He is not far from any one of us. He tells us we are His offspring. What happened? If we are His offspring why do we seek another face like Mary or the Pope? Paul tells us that in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Will you? He has given us proof of who he is by raising Him from the dead, yet here is man looking to Mary or the Pope for salvation. There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. Don't let the Catholic church interpret His word and decide what it says for you.

How is it that we can all read the same book yet come up with different translations, a different Jesus, a different gospel? Why are there so many different denominations within the Christian religion? How many books can be written on the same subject? Is there any “Church” on earth anymore without its own agenda that teaches the truth? Or is there no one truth anymore? Do all roads lead to God?

Let’s go to His Word to see what He is really telling us.