What Are We to Believe?

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Many of us, at least in the United States, have heard of the newspaper feature “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.” This feature told of unusual facts which were true, but nevertheless rather hard to believe.

Often it’s hard to believe the truth. Often it’s hard to believe something is possible, until it’s been done.

For more than forty years the Empire State building in New York was the world’s tallest building. But before it was built many did not believe it was possible to build such a tall building. Yet the man who built it believed not only that it could be built—but that it could be built in less than a year and a half. Sure enough he achieved what many did not believe possible. The building was completed in just over a year from the time it was started (http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/empirestatebldg_3.htm).

Many did not believe the Golden Gate bridge across the entrance to San Francisco Bay could be built—until it was done. Until not long ago most would have thought the idea of man going to the moon was an impossible dream. Yet, now it’s been done. Is it possible for the dead to live again? Is it possible for humans to become like God—shining with supernatural brilliance like the noon-day sun (I John 3:2; Daniel 12:3; Matthew 13:43)? What do you believe is possible?

Does belief matter? Is belief necessary for a Christian? Does it matter what you believe? Does it matter whom you believe? How can you believe the truth?

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2026 Festival Observance Planned

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The Messenger Church of God keeps the festivals God commands his people to keep. The commanded festivals and annual Sabbaths are listed in Leviticus 23. They include, in addition to the weekly Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, but technically a separate feast. The 2026 festival observance planned by the Church for the commanded annual festivals is summarized below.

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Find and Remain in the True Church — Part II

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Are you a member of the true Church? How many true Churches are there? What is the true Church? How can you know if you are in the true Church? And if you are in the true Church, how can you stay in the true Church of God? These are questions every person who desires to be a genuine Christian faces. We should know the answers. Not knowing the answers has already put the salvation of many in jeopardy, and can put your salvation in jeopardy. A good deal of misinformation has been propagated concerning the matter of being in the Church and how it relates to our standing before God. Years ago, in the midst of an apostasy being engineered by the leaders of a Church of God fellowship, people were told that God called them into a particular corporate Church body, and that’s where he expects them to stay. Individuals have said, “God called me into this Church,” meaning a particular corporate organization, “and this is where I’m staying.”

Is that what God called us into? Is that true?

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Find and Remain in the True Church — Part I

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Are you a member of the true Church? How many true Churches are there? What is the true Church? How can you know if you are in the true Church? And if you are in the true Church, how can you stay in the true Church of God? These are questions every person who desires to be a genuine Christian faces. We should know the answers. Not knowing the answers has already put the salvation of many in jeopardy, and can put your salvation in jeopardy.

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Was Peter the First Pope?

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The Roman Catholic Church and the Papacy have made extremely bold and audacious claims. The papacy has claimed authority to appoint kings or depose them, to grant salvation or to deny it.

Innocent III (1198-1216) claimed as pope that he was the “Vicar of Christ” and of God, and that he was “Supreme Sovereign over the Church and the World.” He claimed that “All things on earth and in heaven and in hell are subject to the Vicar of Christ.” (Halley’s Bible Handbook, p. 883).

Pope Nicholas I (858-67) declared: “We popes alone have the power to bind and to loose,” claiming that the judgment of a pope “alone is infallible” (cited, A Woman Rides the Beast, Dave Hunt, p. 85).

Pope Gregory VII (1073-85), “…declared that the power to ‘bind and loose’ granted by Christ to Peter gave the popes ‘the right to make and unmake kings, to construct and reconstruct governments, to wrest from those who disobeyed all the territory held by them, and to bestow it upon those who would hold it subject to papal authority'” (A Woman Rides the Beast, p. 233).

On what foundation do such bold claims rest? They rest on the proposition that Jesus Christ gave to Peter the power to “bind and loose,” and that power somehow was passed on to a supposed unbroken line of successors. The idea is that Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, and that he was the first Pope, and that his authority has been passed down to his successors as Bishops of Rome.

It would seem that anyone, especially those who are interested in following Jesus Christ, would want to carefully examine such claims, to test their legitimacy. Before turning over your hope of salvation to such claims, wouldn’t you want to know their validity? Let’s then examine the question: “Was Peter the First Pope?”
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