OBEDIENCE!
How Many know What The Word Means?
How Many Do Not?

What does Holy Scripture say about obedience?
What happens to those who refuse to be obedient?
"And Pharaoh said, Who [is] the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go."
Exodus 5:2
Pharaoh refused to obey the Word of GOD and look what happened to him and all of Egypt? He and his country were cursed by the ten plagues which are graphically described in Exodus 7-12, the last of which was the death of all the firstborn children in Egypt including Pharaoh's son.

Read what GOD had to say regarding this Pharaohic incident:
"And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.""
Exodus 19:3-6
See? Those who obey the Word of GOD are given rewards. What happens to those who do not obey?
For the answer to that one, I would suggest that everyone read Numbers 16. It is about the disobedience to the GOD given authority of Moses, by Korah and his followers. Moses did everything he could to try and convince Korah, pleading with him that he was defying GOD by his disobedience, and yet Korah and his followers rejected his pleas. Read the final outcome of Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16:30-35. It isn't pretty.
However, Korah being puffed up with his own self interests, would not listen to Moses, who was the father figure of whom GOD had chosen to lead His people. Now read about Martin Luther and his disobedience against the authority of the Catholic Church, and you will see that the story of Korah has amazingly parallels. Now read Numbers 16 again, but this time substitute the name of the founder of your church for Korah, and for Moses, the name of the Catholic Pope.

Here is what Saint Cyprian of Carthage (205-258) said regarding the disobedience of Korah and others. It could just as well apply to Martin Luther and his contemporaries some 1300 years later.
"But the enemies of the one Catholic Church in which we are, and the adversaries of us who have succeeded the apostles, asserting for themselves, in opposition to us, unlawful priesthoods, and setting up profane altars, what else are they than Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, profane with a like wickedness, and about to suffer the same punishments which they did, as well as those who agree with them, just as their partners and abettors perished with a like death to theirs?"
Epistle LXXIV-16, to Firmilian
Whew! Powerful words from a great Saint.

Here is yet another example of what happens to those who are disobedient:
"While they were in Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman. They complained, “Is it through Moses alone that the Lord Speaks? Does He not speak through us also?” And the LORD heard this. Now, Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth. So at once the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the meeting tent.” And the three of them went. Then the LORD came down in the column of cloud, and standing at the entrance of the tent, called Aaron and Miriam. When both came forward, he said, “Now listen to the words of the LORD: Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal myself to him, in dreams will I speak to him; Not so with my servant Moses! Throughout my house he bears my trust: face to face I speak to him, plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the LORD he beholds. Why, then, did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?” So angry was the LORD against them that when he departed, and the cloud withdrew from the tent, there was Miriam, a snow-white leper!"
Numbers 12:1-10

Wow! Those verses are loaded. First GOD said He speaks to Moses directly, His father figure.
Then look what happened to Miriam who was disobedient to GOD's visible representative on earth?
She was turned into a leper for her disobedience. What do you suppose what will happen in our time to those who are disobedient to GOD's visible father figure on earth, and to those who refuse to obey the commands of Holy Scripture?

Those who fail to profit from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them over again.
"Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new; for it has already gone before in the ages that were before us."
Ecclesiastes 1:10


"Obey your superiors and be subject to them, for they keep watch as having to render an account of your souls; so that they may do this with joy, and not with grief, for that would not be expedient for you." Hebrews 13:17
"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for any honest work,..." Titus 3:1
So many non-Catholics claim to follow the teaching of Holy Scripture. I would venture to ask them if they thought the founders of the Reformation, Luther, Calvin, Munser, Zwingli, and the others, obeyed these verses as well? If they were not obedient, how then could their followers be obedient? Are we free to pick verses that we like, which follow our trends of thought, and to reject those which seem to conflict with our beliefs? What does Scripture have for an answer to this question?
You will find the answer in Acts 5:29,
"But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men."
How many of the followers of Martin Luther, and the other 'reformers' heeded this verse, or even knew it was in Scripture? Since all of Holy Scripture is the Word of GOD, doesn't this verse teach us that we must obey all of it? Were the followers of Luther and the others in obedience to the Word of GOD, or did they simply obey the opinions of mere men? What does this next verse say?
"I laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let everyone take care how he builds thereon, for other foundations no one can lay, but that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ."
1Corinthians 3:10-11
Obviously, Martin Luther and his contemporaries were disobedient to this verse as well, for they laid many other foundations, the beginnings of the tens of thousands of which we have today.
"And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."
Acts 5:32
For those who obeyed the opinions of mere men rather than the truth of GOD, does this mean that they do not have the Holy Spirit? If you think they do, then aren't you rejecting this verse?
A persons personal opinion has no bearing whatsoever on doctrinal truth.
Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life", John 14:6. Since truth is a person, the person of Jesus Christ, whatever He said is truth, simply because He said it. He said in Luke 10:16, "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
In this verse Jesus gave authority to His visible representatives on earth to speak in His behalf.
Didn't Luther and the other 'reformers' reject GOD's Father Figure on earth, who is the direct successor to Saint Peter? In so doing did they not reject the Father and the Son as well?
Is it no wonder then that they could not have the Holy Spirit as well?
"Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your GOD, and the Lord will repent of the evil which he has pronounced against you."
Jeremiah 26:13
Is this not a suitable fit with Luke 10:16, "He who hears you hears Me..."?
"Jeremiah said, "You shall not be given to them. Obey now the voice of the Lord in what I say to you, and it shall be well with you, and your life shall be spared.""
Jeremiah 38:20
The prophets in the Old Testament spoke in GOD's Name, in the first person.
Here are examples...
"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put My words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I commanded him. If any man will not listen to My words which he speaks in My name, I Myself will make him answer for it."
Deuteronomy 18:18-19,
"And He said to me: Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and you shall speak My words to them."
Ezekiel 3:4
The precedent was set many times in the Old Testament that GOD would speak through a visible human person on earth, a Father Figure. Since GOD is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), then why do some say He does not speak through the Pope, His visible Father Figure on earth today?
With so many differences of opinion in the tens of thousands of non-Catholic churches, if you believe that GOD does not speak through the visible Pope, then pray tell, give me the name of the person GOD does speak through? Go back to Luke 10:16 again, for Jesus Christ did give authority for a visible person to speak in His behalf.

"If you fear the LORD and worship him, if you are obedient to him and do not rebel against the LORD’S command, if both you and the king who rules you follow the LORD your God—well and good. But if you do not obey the LORD and if you rebel against his command, the LORD will deal severely with you and your king, and destroy you."
1Samuel 12:14-15

"If they obey and serve him, they spend their days in prosperity, their years in happiness. But if they obey not, they perish; they die for lack of knowledge."
Job 36:11-12

"But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward."
Jeremiah 7:23-24

"But if they do not obey, I will uproot and destroy that nation entirely, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 12:17

"But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver [thee]. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live."
Jeremiah 38:20

"It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule upon his throne. And there shall be a priest by his throne, and peaceful understanding shall be between them both. And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah the son of Zephaniah. And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord; and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God."
Zechariah 6:13-15

"For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury."
Romans 2:6-8

"Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factious, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Galatians 5:19-21
"Factious"? The dictionary says, "Factious: (1) relating to internal dissension. (2) promoting internal dissension." Doesn't this sound like the mind set of the reformers? The Reformation certainly did lead to the "thousands of factions"* which we have in Protestantism today. The word "factions" leads us to yet another verse, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing; and there be no dissensions among you, but that you be perfectly united in one mind and in one judgment." 1Corinthians 1:10"
Well then, those who do not obey GOD's visible representative on earth will have much to fear.

"Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness."
Romans 6:16-18

"You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?"
Galatians 5:7

"If anyone does not obey our word as expressed in this letter, take note of this person not to associate with him, that he may be put to shame."
2Thessalonians 3:14

"Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,..."
Hebrews 5:8-9
There you have it, many verses to remind us that we must be obedient to the one Church which Jesus Christ founded, and to GOD's visible father figure on earth. There are so many verses listed here which are a dire warning for those who refuse to be obedient to GOD given authority.

©
Written by Bob Stanley, March 6, 2002
Updated June 27, 2002

"Have I then become your enemy, because I told you the truth?"
Galatians 4:16



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