4.8 Correspondence with Anne Brown

1. Mail (from Anne Brown)

Hello,

I see you have a passion for God. Yet, I wonder- what history have you studied? You may note, in the book of Acts- this is where we "Christians" are first called Christian... the place was Antioch. And as early as 110ad we find the Church being referred to as Catholic, and again it is in Antioch. Ignatius, a martyr thrown to wild beast, and a hearer of John, the beloved disciple, became Bishop of Antioch- and he wrote seven letters that were initially suspect to protestant scholars, but after much review were vindicated and are now widely accepted. In your quest for truth, I would encourage you to investigate this.

Most Protestant scholars go on to accept Catholic authority up until the first Nicene council. It is at this point that they deem the Catholic Church to have gone the wrong way.

Even secular authority accepts that the early Church called itself Catholic, and that the Catholic Church was the first" denomination".

Today, if you do not identify your denomination- how do we know what you believe??

And finally, you believe in Sola Scriptura, and I want to pose a question... I was taught by my protestant church that if I read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will guide my understanding to the truth. But no where in the Bible does it say that. Sure, it says the Bible is profitable for teaching... but read 2 pet. 1:20.

I conclude that, if the Holy Spirit did in fact guide us, then we would all certainly be united, for Gods Spirit would not lead us to such drastically different conclusions! 10's of thousands of denonminations- including yours.

1 tim 3:15 states the pillar of truth is not the Bible, but the Church- who gave us the New Testament. Jesus passed his own authority to the apostles, and even promised them they would do even greater things than he had- and for 400 years, without a Bible to guide them the Church grew! Jesus never ever said, " go ye therefore and write my words down so that all may read" He said " Go ye therefore and TEACH..." The Catholic Church gathered and prayed over all the writings, and through much prayer, decided on the 27 we have today, and with the Authority given them by Jesus, handed down through the laying on of hands ( 1 Tim 5:22... an example) announced to the world those books were Sacred and Holy.

Thats actually what happened. And it is written down in many many books, catholic, protestant and secular.

take care my Christain brother,
I converted to Church founded by our Lord Jesus himself-
The Catholic Church
Ann

2. Mail (to Anne Brown)

Dear Ann

You suggest to investigate Ignatius. Let me refere to "The Man-Made Church" chapter 7 "Is Suffering Necessary?" There I am mentioning apostolic fathers like Clement and Ignatius. About Ignatius you will find there the following:

>>Other writings of the "apostolic fathers" are the letters written by Ignatius. His only aim for the churches he writes to is to get them to obey bishop and clergy. His command is to not to do anything without the bishops and the clergy: "Do nothing without the bishop". And this is written by a man that lived in the first century, a man who might have personally known John the apostle. I can imagine that the "Roman Church" would have loved to include these letters of Ignatius into the canon, but the content of Ignatius' letters was probably too obviously inspired by the wrong spirit and there were still too many spiritual Christians around who would have scorned such a decision.

So how do we handle people like Ignatius? We do it the same way David handled Saul: let them alone, get away from them, especially when they start to persecute you. Jesus gives us this command in Matthew 10:23 "But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another". And when you come in contact with them, do the same what David did. David warned Saul. Warn a divisive person (Titus 3:10).<<

The whole church history was written by Orthodoxy. So what you find there is what they think - and want - to be church history. You will not find there the history of what they call heresy. If someone would have written the true history of the forces opposed to Orthodoxy his books would have been forbidden, confiscated and burned. And before they would have put fire to the pile they would have put the author on top of the pile. And it would not matter if the author was Catholic or Protestant or secular.

You try to support your opinion by referring to Protestant scholars and to secular authority. A Protestant scholar's interests are identical with that of his Catholic colleague. They are both part of Orthodoxy. They are both in the business of religion. A Protestant scholar is as much eager, as any other priest or pastor or whatever who makes a living out of selling his knowledge of Jesus to someboy, to make the world believe that their man-made church system was the original one of the early church. He will be very glad that his Catholic friend has done all the proving so well and extensively, especially when he starts to think of all the shortcomings of it all, and he will be very glad that all this is not his responsibility and that nobody can blame him. He can just refer to the Catholics. But this front is not holding anymore so well. Just read the books by Walter Bauer and Elaine Pagels, you find the details about these books on my website. And a secular scholar has to go by what the Catholic scholars have leftover for him. And the leftovers are their socalled church history. Everthing beside that was systematically destroyed.

So when you were taught by your protestant church and when you are now taught by the Catholic Church, to which you converted, then in both situations you are a member of a denomination, you were part of and still are part of Orthodoxy, you have been caught by the religious guys, and they have sold your soul and you are paying for it all. As long as you remain inside Orthodoxy you will remain carnal, by the definition of this word in the Bible, and spiritual things will remain a mystery to you.

You write, "I was taught by my protestant church that if I read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will guide my understanding to the truth. But no where in the Bible does it say that." Now what about John 16:13? Do you ignore that one? There it says: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." Your statement does not look too good. Your reference to 2 Peter 1:20 is an indication that you strongly believe to have someone between you and God, a priest, that any private interpretation is wrong and that the holy spirit can't work in you - that you need an organization that does it for you.

So get out of your denomination and never joint any other denomination. When you have made peace with God you are already a child of God and you are already a member of his family and you are already a member of the real church.

You write: "I conclude that, if the Holy Spirit did in fact guide us, then we would all certainly be united, for Gods Spirit would not lead us to such drastically different conclusions!" That is a very true statement of yours. I agree wholeheartedly. Just accept John 16:13 and you are alright.

Yes, 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us that the house of God is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It is the church of the living God, where God is alive in every member present, where the holy spirit is guiding everybody who has come to the meeting and where the spirit is giving supernatural utterances and where there is no clergy interfering, and where there is taking place a permanent updating of the will of God. You don't need the religionists, your email clerly indicates that your are very well able to think for yourselves.

You write about the 27 writings we have today. There is no comment of yours referring to chapter "21. Meditation" of "The Man-Made Church." You should let me have some comments on that chapter. What about continues revelation? Now that you know that the Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth you will obviously go for this and let it happen. So let me know what you are going to do about it.

All the best

Frank

Frank L. Preuss

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