Source: AP
ANAHEIM, CA - Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says it's "heresy" to believe that an individual can be saved through a sinner's prayer of repentance.
In her opening address to the church's General Conference in California, Jefferts Schori called that "the great Western heresy: that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God."
The presiding bishop said that view is "caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus."
Let's see now, Romans 10:9-15 says, "... that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!' "
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According to Schori, it is heresy to believe that an individual's prayer can achieve a saving relationship with God. "That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy."
Now, according to the passage just quoted, who is the heretic and idolater?
My response is why doesn't the irreverent reverend try reading the Bible instead of making wide sweeping and heretical statements. Try asking Billy Graham how one is saved and you will find that he is exactly opposite of this person. But it gets worse!
Bishops want marriage rituals for homosexuals
Meanwhile, six Episcopal bishops are pushing for greater recognition of same-sex marriages at a national gathering of church officials in California. Bishop Thomas Ely of Vermont says he and other bishops from states recognizing same-sex marriage will offer a resolution urging the church to adapt marriage rituals to include homosexual couples.
Ely says the resolution will be introduced at the church's General Convention, which started Wednesday in Anaheim. The convention is held every three years.
Besides Vermont, states that have legalized same-sex marriage are Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Connecticut.
Their resolutions go directly against clear scripture. Romans 1:18-32 makes it very clear what God thinks of homosexual perversion. Why doesn't the Episcopal denomination just stop calling itself Christian and call itself according to its teachings: The Church of Man's Opinions and Perversions. Why continue to stain the reputation of REAL Christian churches by claiming to be one of us? Leave now and save yourself if you can. I suppose that since the Bible is no longer their absolute authority, maybe some cult book could replace it such as cult leader Oprah Winfrey uses, "A Course In Miracles," which came from a demon.
It is time for true Christians to take a stand against such heresy and put a lot of distance between the truth and lies like these. The Bible is quite specific on both of these issues. All this organization is doing is making their converts "twice the sons of Hell as they themselves are."
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." Matthew 23:15
There you have it in the very words of Jesus Himself! By the way, she never did say how she believes that one is saved, did she?