Author: Ian Traill D.Min

Publisher: Traillblazer Bookshop

Published: 2014-01-01

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1921978201

The term, “Sacrament”[1] for the Christians has haunted the Church from the emergence of the Roman Catholic Church in the third century when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. They viewed a sacrament as a religious rite of passage, as a way of receiving God's grace. It has been and is seen by certain parts of the Church as a means by participating in or working for God’s favour. These rites of passage established by the priests of the Roman Catholic Church, have caused the faith of many to suffer shipwreck. Religious Sacraments are a set of rituals or ceremonies held by the traditional Church seen as a means of gaining God’s love and grace by conferring some specific grace upon those who receive them. The list is as follows; baptism, confirmation, communion (Eucharist), penance (confession), holy orders (setting people aside for ordination to ministry), matrimony, and the anointing of the sick. Today we may even see in the Pentecostal Church another sacrament of “the offering” in order to gain God’s grace and love. The Roman Catholic Church believes that the Sacraments ‘are the second part of God's way of salvation to us.[2]’ In addition to the previous statement the Roman Catholic Church believes, ‘that the Roman Catholic Church is the universal sacrament of salvation…, …Anticipating the Second Vatican Council, the great theologian Henri de Lubac depicted the Church as the “Sacrament of Christ”[3]’. Thus we conclude that the traditional Church view Sacraments as a way of salvation through observance of works or allegiance. It is my view that the sacraments listed in the previous paragraph as a way of receiving God's grace and love are a misnomer an inaccurate understanding of the Bible, and they are heresies, because they are used as a way of saying we can gain more grace from God by doing them, instead of doing them in remembrance, to signify a new stage in spiritual life and in obedience to a command. My understanding of the word, “heresy”, unlike the traditional Church’s view, and that is it is a teaching that conflicts with what the Bible says. You may say, “Where do you find the word, “sacrament” in Scripture? Since it is not there it is surely permissible for anyone to choose to put any interpretation on it.” My answer to that is, ‘Correct we do not find it in the Bible. But it is how the traditional Church has used this terminology and interpretation to control or even hold some in fear of not receiving salvation through justification by faith, but the questionable teaching of following some traditions to gain grace, needs to be addressed’. Therefore it is my aim in this book to show that once we see that God has chosen a person or group in each generation in Church history to bring a certain perspective to the overall theology. Each perspective was and is only a stepping stone for the next generation to stand on. We must stop thinking of doctrine as a closed door and move onto the unity of faith and not the unity of dogma. In this book we will use the canon of Scripture which is commonly known as the Protestant Canon. I have chosen this one to use as it is the oldest accepted canon. It had been accepted by the Catholic Council of Carthage, Africa in A.D. 397. The word, “Protestant” may seem to be an anachronism, since “Protestantism” per se refers to the time of the Reformation in the 13th century. If we believe a doctrine, we need to be brave enough to publish it in some form, but it is from this point onwards that it is open to investigation and possible rebuttal. But let us not shrink away from this type refutation but continue to investigate what we believe. In this book we will study what I believe is the only act that makes God happy with us and we will reflect upon what does please Him too.