David and Sonia Murray - Missionaries to Ecuador

above Catholic churches. The local tradition among the religious populace (most everyone gets really religious this time of year) is to pray the rosary at seven different churches on the Thursday evening of "Holy Week" in hopes of gaining merit with God. Thus the churches are open to the public to wander in and out at will. While lots could be said about our tourist-type visits, suffice it to mention some high-profile religious practices that are diametrically opposed to Bible teaching. Allow me to follow up my observations with a tearful question.

1) Cadaver of "Jesus" in a glass-sided coffin. Mt 28:6 says, "He is not here: for he is risen." 1 Corinthians 15:17 says, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." Question: Why exhibit a dead and powerless cadaver, faith in whom is patently "vain"?

2) Long lines at confessional booths. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Luke 5:21,24 says, "...Who can forgive sins, but God alone?... But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins..." Question: Why insist on sinful human mediators, restricted by human limitations of comprehension, location, and inability to forgive anyways?

3) Immense structures, ostentatious adornment, blatant worship of religious images. Matthew 23:14 says, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses... Leviticus 26:1 says, "Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it..." Question: Why demand unspeakable financial sacrifice from extremely poor people to provide them religious favors already won and paid in full by the Savior?

4) Prominence of Mary, even above her Son Jesus. Acts 10:25,26 says, "...Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man." Revelation 19:10 says, "And I fell at his feet to worship him [an angel]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant... worship God." Matthew 4:10 says, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Question: Who is the real deity here?

5) Wafer and wine worshipped, offered in sacrifice, and ingested to "receive Jesus Christ." Hebrews 10:10, 18 says, "...we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.... there is no more offering for sin." Question: Is not such a rejection of the perfect and complete sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, in reality to have "trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant... an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:29) Especially when considered against the backdrop of this Resurrection Season, when the Savior demolished the powers of darkness, won the Ultimate Victory over death and sin, and paid the very last demand of the Father's infinitely holy justice, the atrocities that go on under the guise of "Christianity" are nothing short of scandalous blasphemy. In effect, the religious establishment has nullified the entire essence of what it means to be Christian. Galatians 2:21 says, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in VAIN." Mark 7:6,7,9 says, "This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in VAIN do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.... Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." 1 Corinthians 15:14 says, "And if Christ be not risen, then... your faith is also VAIN."

That's why.

je |||:-)

AMEN , JON!