In God's Name

Some Groups, including Catholics, believe you may add to God's worship as long as it is in God's name. If you are honoring Jesus with the worship, holiday, or fast etc. That is the basis in which they changed pagan worship into Christian worship. They allowed pagans to use their pagan practices as long as it was in Christ's name.

Paul Disagreed with this assumption, some things we allow can condemn us. Especially if it is opinion vs faith spoken in God's word.

Rom 14:22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

As a principle eating meats might be allowed, but when reflecting paganism it could over throw the Christian faith. By allowing pagan practices to continue among new converts, it would lead to gradual changes in Christian doctrine as more pagan groups were brought into Christianity without requiring them to repent of their old practices. Infant baptism, a pagan practice, eventually became acceptable among groups associating with the name of Christ, and as more groups practiced it then it eventually became the norm.

Catholics did not require repentance from old pagan practices as the Apostles did.

Act 26:20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

In the same spirit of compromise, Catholics have recently added theistic evolution to the list of acceptable doctrines. It is the theory God created the universe through evolution. Catholics have copied the secular Jewish view of evolution.

"Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh, an Italian Kabbalist, wrote that were evolution to become a mainstay of scientific theory, it would not contradict the Torah as long as one understood it as having been guided by God." Wikipedia

Darwinism would contradict faith because it uses the theory of natural selection vs being ordered by God. It was a secular theory.

Yet, faith is more than invoking God's name over your beliefs and activities. If God did not say he created the world by evolution then it is opinion, not faith. Opinion may or may not contradict faith. If God did not mention evolution then there is no faith.

Theistic evolution would contradict faith if God's word stated it occurred by another method. ie God spoke it into existence in a short time period.

"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. God's word said he spoke and it was done.

Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Simply invoking Christ's name over your doctrine and works does not make them acceptable to God. Teaching that a lie is acceptable as long as you say God did it is still just a lie.

The belief God created the universe through speaking it into existence is a very basic Christian doctrine.

Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

It shows that God first allowed that light be created before it was created. It did not come from natural selection but through God's permission.

The Father permitted it, Christ created it, the Holy Spirit ordered it.

Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Before anything could exist it had to be approved through his word, and first spoken into existence.

The word "Let" in greek has always been used to set permission and boundaries. Anything we do without God's permission isn't really of faith.

Let your women keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to speek.

The word let hasn't changed meaning over time as some suppose, it has always been used of permission.

Nothing was created without God's express permission and power. He command them.

commanded vs natural selection

Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

Tatian a Christian around 150 AD said God spoke the world into existence, many attributed this teaching first to Tatian whom they called a Heretic, but the scriptures taught this doctrine long before Tatian.

Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

The earth was formed by God with the express purpose of habitation. Teaching man came into existence without a pre-ordained purpose would violate faith.