Sent!
It is
the Overlooked Little Word of Supreme Importance...
Romans 10:14 "But how are men
to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in
him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a
preacher?"
In this verse we see that in order to properly hear the word of
GOD so that they may believe, there is a condition attached.
They cannot
"believe in Him" unless they have heard it, and have heard it from a preacher.
Does that verse mean any preacher, even a false one (2Cor 11:12-15)?
No,
definitely not, for Holy Scripture teaches that it could not be just any
preacher, but only a preacher who is sent by GOD.
The very next
verse will teach us this.
Romans 10:15, And how can men preach unless
they are sent? As it is written (Isaiah 52:7, Nahum 1:15*), "How
beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!" (Please note
that "good news" is the meaning of the word "Gospel".)
"And how can
men preach unless they are sent?" Sent?
If anyone has been sent, then it stands to
reason that "someone" had to do the sending. Isn't that true?
And if someone
had to do the sending, the word sent by itself implies authority.
By
simple deduction, and by common
sense, the question must be asked that
they who were sent then, were sent by whom?
In this verse we can see
and hear the death knell of the "Once saved, always saved" false belief.
The
word for "sent", as used in the Greek language of which the book
of Romans was written, is apostello.
Doesn't that sound like another
Biblical word for which we are all familiar?
Apostello means to send
out properly on a mission. From apostello we get the Greek
word "apostolos", meaning "Apostle".
The Greek word "Apostolos"
means "he who is sent".
So who are the "they" who are those
sent, and by whom are "they" sent?
The same Greek word,
apostello, is used by Jesus Christ when He spoke to His
"Apostolos" in John 20:21:
"Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send
you.""
It is obvious that those who are sent (apostello)
by GOD are also given authority by Jesus Christ who is GOD.
That
authority was delegated to the Apostles alone by Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:15
had said, "And how can men preach unless they are sent?". I must
ask, "Sent by whom and with what authority?"
"And He appointed
twelve, to be with Him, and to be sent out to preach..." Mark
3:14
So, those who are sent, are sent with the authority given to
them by GOD. Consequently, the only persons authorized to preach were the
Apostles, and those who followed them in a long line of succession, the office of the Bishops (Psalms
109:8, Acts 1:20).
This was said by Saint Paul:
"So, if I brag a little
too much about the authority
which the Lord gave us, I'm not ashamed. The Lord gave us this authority to
help you, not to hurt you." 2Corinthians 10:8
In addition there were a few
others mentioned in Scripture who were appointed directly by the Lord such as
the seventy who were sent in Luke 10:1.
There is another Greek word
for sent, and it is pempo.
Pempo is used in verses where sent means
not sent with the authority of GOD, such as in Matthew
14:10.
Non-Catholic preachers will have a hard time trying to prove
that they were sent by the authority of GOD since they are not in the
line of succession going all the way back to the Apostles. So by what authority
do these persons preach? They cannot claim that "GOD told me" either, since that
would be, at most, only a private revelation if that, and not a public one, so
how could anyone "prove" that their claim to "GOD told me" is to be believed?
Anyone can utter the excuse that "GOD told me!". History is replete with
heretics, criminals, dictators, and despots who used that term as their supposed
justification for their evil deeds.
In Numbers 12:1-2, Miriam and Aaron
complained against Moses, "Is it through Moses alone that the Lord speaks? Does
He not speak through us also?" "And the Lord heard this."
Now read the rest
of that chapter and see what the Lord did to them for their false claim. GOD has
always spoken through one "Father figure", be it Noah, Abraham, Moses,
David, Peter, and on down through Peter's successors for almost 2000 years. GOD
is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Today, as in the past, He does not
speak through multiple father figures who do not have the fullness of truth, but
speaks only through His one authoritative Vicar of Christ on earth.
In
Luke 10:16, Jesus said, "He who hears you hears me, and he
who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent
me." That verse
is a verse of authority and it is a
verse of infallibility as well.
It is a verse also of obedience for those who were sent. Now there are
well over 39,000 non-Catholic sects, each with at least one preacher and all of
them are preaching something different from one another. So, given the fact that
there can be only one truth and with obedience to only one authority, which one
of those tens of thousands is the model of obedience and has the authority and
infallibility given to him or her by Jesus Christ?
Which one of the tens of
thousands of them could lay claim to Luke
10:16?
"...and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me
rejects him who sent me."
What else could this part of Luke 10:16 mean other than to be applied to those
who reject the teaching of His "Apostolos" and their successors through the one
Church which He founded?
"Neither does any man take the honour to himself, but he that is
called by God, as Aaron was."
Hebrews 5:4
"He who speaks on his own
authority seeks his own glory;
but he who seeks the glory of him who sent
him is true,
and in him there is no falsehood."
John 7:18
"Some
were sent, but others just went."
©
Written by Bob Stanley on November 23, 2004
Updated on
January 1, 2007
Updated on March 25, 2008
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