Hasn't the Devil used the "divide and conquer" war strategy with the slippery slope of Protestantism?

Question

In the tower of Babel story, God confused the languages because people didn't believe in God and King Nimrod was very proud and wanted to make a tower to reach into the Heavens in an attempt to show that he was better than God. So God confused the languages.

This is not true of the Pope whose calls himself the servant of the servants of God. Does that sound like a proud title to you?

Why would Jesus come if God wanted us to be confused about who Jesus is and what He was about?

There is no reason to hold back when the souls of people are at stake. The Devil wants us to all be divided so that people can be confused and be led away with all kinds of false doctrines.

Answer 1

Absolutely, divide and conquer is exactly what the devil has utilized with Protestantism.

J T: The devil did not "invent" the Catholic Church. Quite, the contrary, the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus and the Apostles.

Answer 2

Good question, though obviously loaded and inflammatory.

Actually, if we are going to define a unified body of Christ with a singular organizational body of human beings (as we should NOT), the first place the devil would have used the "divide and conquer" strategy on Christianity would have been in the split between the Orthodox Churches and the Holy See, the Catholic Church. Each of these claims Apostolic authority and each can THEORETICALLY trace their ecclesiastical lineage to the Apostles and neither refutes the claim of the other; they are simply divided. An interesting aside here: How can two churches that claim to have never changed, who were once one be divided???? Is not the division a change????

At any rate, Protestantism, while coming some 1500 years after Christ is a necessity just to address the division -- ASIDE FROM THE FACT that both the Orthodox and RCC have veered far left of the gospels -- also as they both ADMIT, both claiming that tradition is either equal to Scripture (Catholics) or that already accepting tradition is required for proper interpretation of the Scriptures (Orthodoxy).

As soon as you see the Orthodox and Catholic split, you really have only limited choices: Either the gates of hell DID prevail against Christ's church making the whole issue of Christianity null and void, OR Christ's church was not in fact the singular institution that men believed it to be, but a more dynamic, spiritual church discerned fully only by God Himself and encompassing a far broader scope than that singular institution did or does. That split is the first official failure at "unity" as observed by humans and thus either our human view of it is skewed and that organizational body was NOT the church in its entirety, or God failed to preserve His church as promised.

Protestantism has many, many flaws, but even Protestantism in all its 30,000+ forms still accepts the assertions of the first few councils that define what salvation is and how a man becomes saved, who Christ is and is not, etc. So what we see in Protestantism is that even with all the variances of human error and many sad divisions (first seen as mentioned among the supposed Apostolic Church), is the ability of God -- even working through all that, to maintain the integrity of His principle doctrines.

A good link for you to really begin a serious study on these matters may be found here:

http://www.reformed.org/webfiles/antithesis/v1n5/ant_v1n5_issue1.html

You might also enjoy these:

http://www.ritchies.net/churchhi.htm

http://christiananswers.net/hope/thehope-full-length.html

http://homepage.mac.com/shanerosenthal/reformationink/

Do not be in a hurry to make an intellectual decision that has left well studied men in tears of angst for generations. It is not all nearly so simple as Christ says salvation itself is.

Hope this helps. Peace in Christ.

Oh, here's another cool link:

http://www.wlalwcc.org/office.html

Rebecca Blasco
http://www.ipowergrfx.com
Public Adjusters
http://www.publicadjuster.com

Answer 3

You could say the same thing about the division of languages until you remember according to Genesis, it was God who divided men into seperate cultures. (Tower of Babel story)

So how can you say protestantism is a tool of the devil when it could just as easily been divinely inspired?

Besides, the Catholic schism that produced protestantism was a hotly debated issue at the time. One of my favorite arguements for protestantism is that they believe praying infront of a cross or statue of a saint is idol worship, while the catholics do not.

Answer 4

If unity is more important than truth, Catholics should give up what they believe and become Protestant. But that will never happen because Cathics only want people to be unified under the pope. I am all for unity, but we should unite on truth not a lie. Have the pope step down and there will be more unity!

As for proud titels, how about these?

"Against this background of love towards Holy Church, 'the pillar and bulwark of the truth' (1 Tim 3:15), we readily understand the devotion of Saint Francis of Assisi for 'the Lord Pope', the daughterly outspokenness of Saint Catherine of Siena towards the one whom she called 'sweet Christ on earth'" (Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation VITA CONSECRATA, (On The Consecrated Life And Its Mission In The Church And In The World), March 25, 1996.)

"The Pope is of so great dignity, and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God. and the vicar of God." (Ferraris Ecclesiastical dictionary)

"All names which in the Scriptures are applied to Christ, by virtue of which it is established that He is over the church, all the same names are applied to the Pope." (On the Authority of the Councils, book 2, chapter 17)

"The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth." (Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Chapter XXVII, p. 218, "Cities Petrus Bertanous")

"The Pope takes the place of Jesus Christ on earth...by divine right the Pope has supreme and full power in faith, in morals over each and every pastor and his flock. He is the true vicar, the head of the entire church, the father and teacher of all Christians. He is the infallible ruler, the founder of dogmas, the author of and the judge of councils; the universal ruler of truth, the arbiter of the world, the supreme judge of heaven and earth, the judge of all, being judged by no one, God himself on earth." (Quoted in the New York Catechism)

""To believe that our Lord God the Pope has not the power to decree as he is decreed, is to be deemed heretical." (the Gloss "Extravagantes" o.f Pope John XXII *** inter, Tit. XIV, Cap. IV. Ad Callem Sexti Decretalium, Paris, 1685)

Since the pope is ment to be God on earth, I would say he is very proud.

Answer 5

Yes, yes, yes. Satan has continually, and continues this day, to try to divide the church. The best defence is for the faithful to continue to spread the truth about the Roman Catholic faith. We, the laity, have the obligation just as much as Priests, nuns, and religious to share the faith and truth with others. Here and in our daily lives, we must follow in the footsteps of Mary and bring people, as a shining beacon, to the faith.

God bless - good question!

Answer 6

The devil is just a fairy tail.
Sure there is bad in the world, but that is just the way the world is.
Why do you wrap yourself up with such questions? Use fairy tail answers to unanswerable questions?

And you even capitolized devil as if he was a god or something.
Yeeks, it makes me crazy!

Answer 7

Do you realize that there are other Churches that have done very well that are not 'protestant'. Look at the Baptist and Pentecostals. Catholicism will continue to degrade unless it cleans up. Only churches that are losers are seeking reconciliation. Look at the Lutherens and Anglicans-they are dead.

Answer 8

No. Catholics in the dark ages took their power and beat the people over the heads with it. That was not at all how Christ described the workings of the "church," the members of the Body of Christ. Protestantism came into being with the Reformation and Martin Luther. The scriptures tell us that the world will hate us because the world first hated Christ and crucified him.

The Divide and Conquer thing---yes, Satan is using that. But there has been a war against God and Satan since Lucifer was cast out of heaven with all of his demons. Christians---anyone who accepts and confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he died to redeem us from eternal death for our sins, and that he rose again on the third day in fulfillment of the scriptures; and, that he will come again---all fight the fight.

1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
2 Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;

Eph 6:12-13 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.



We are engaged in a spiritual struggle and we are promised victory in this conflict:

1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?


The curse of sin and death has been broken by Jesus through his death, burial and resurrection. And he offers this to us as a gift. And he tells us who can overcome the curse “ he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Rom 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Once we are a child of God through accepting the free gift of salvation that Jesus offers, the nothing can have power over us, and nothing can separate us from the love of God.

II Corinthians 5:6-10
6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord -- 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight -- 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Answer 9

No, he used the lie and deceive method when he invented the Catholic church.

Answer 10

Always.