Apologetics for the Masses #396 - Mike Gendron Pamphlet

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Topic

Dissecting the Lies and Misinformation in a Mike Gendron Pamphlet

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General Comments

Hey folks,

A few things:

1) My apologies for not getting a newsletter out lately, but various projects - particularly the Catholic billboard campaign in Birmingham (see #2 below) - have kept me exceedingly busy the last few weeks.

2) The Catholic Billboard Campaign - if you haven't heard about it yet, you can go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/john.s.martignoni/ - and check out the 4 billboards the Bible Christian Society has put up in the Birmingham Metro area over the last month. 1 billboard ad per week for 4 weeks, on 9 different billboards, surrounding Birmingham. (We don't have to be "friends" for you to be able to see them.)

Response to them has been off the charts! Thousands of comments via FB, phone, email, text, in person, etc. Thousands of page views on the Bible Christian Society website because of the billboards. Getting inquiries to do them in other cities. Trying to raise money right now for a major campaign in several major cities across the South - Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Jackson, etc. If you're interested in having them in your area, let me know...

Introduction

This week is an oldie but a not-so-goldie. We pay a visit to our old pal Mike Gendron. He put out this pamphlet titled: Which Jesus Do You Trust? Which was nothing but an unadulterated attack on the Catholic Faith. It was filled with misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies about Catholic teaching. So, over the next 3 issues, I am going to "analyze" Mr. Gendron's pamphlet and respond accordingly to what is in it.

In this first part, I will take two sections of his pamphlet, present them in their entirety, and then go back through them paragraph-by-paragraph with my commentary interspersed.

One other thing, though, just a little "heads up"...I have come across an anti-Catholic that is more vile in what he says about the Catholic Church than even Mike Gendron is. In fact, I believe this guy wins the prize for being the most vile anti-Catholic I have EVER come across...and that is saying something! In a few weeks I will be sharing with you a "conversation" I had with him, via Facebook, once I have finished with my analysis of Gendron's pamphlet. So stay tuned for that one. What this guy said will shock you and it will even shock most Protestants...

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Mike Gendron Pamphlet - "Which Jesus Do You Trust?"

Which Jesus Will You Trust?
The Lord Jesus warned us, “If anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ, do not believe him’” (Matthew 24:23). Yet this is what Catholic priests proclaim each time they lift up the Eucharist. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Eucharist becomes "the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ...[such that] the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (CCC, 1374). This is done so that “the same Christ who offered himself” on the cross can “be offered” on Catholic altars (CCC, 1367).

How can we know if the Eucharist is truly the Lord Jesus or a false Christ? The Apostle Paul warned us that some will preach another Jesus whom the apostles never preached (2 Corinthians 11:4). Therefore, the accuracy of every teaching must be tested with the word of God (Acts 17:11). Jesus proclaimed, “it is finished,” so we know it cannot be Jesus who is being offered daily on Catholic altars (John 19:30). “There is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18).

Jesus Will Return A Second Time
The bible gives precise details about the return of Christ so that no one will be deceived. The true Jesus does not return every day in the Eucharist as an offering for sins. “He will appear a second time, not to bear sin” (Hebrews 9:28). When He returns it will be with power and great glory in a physical body, the same way He ascended to heaven (Matthew 24:27-30; Acts 1:11).

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Mike Gendron
The Lord Jesus warned us, “If anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ, do not believe him’” (Matthew 24:23). Yet this is what Catholic priests proclaim each time they lift up the Eucharist. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Eucharist becomes "the body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ...[such that] the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (CCC, 1374). This is done so that “the same Christ who offered himself” on the cross can “be offered” on Catholic altars (CCC, 1367).

My Response
     Well, it seems that Mr. Mike Gendron doesn’t give a rip about context when it comes to interpreting the Bible. The passage he quotes from in Matthew 24 to open up his screed against Catholic teaching is referring to the Great Tribulation that occurs in the last days (Matt 24:21). It is not referring to the Eucharistic presence of Christ. How do we know that? Well, in Matthew 24:23, it is talking about men who will be appearing in bodily form and performing great signs and wonders so as to lead many astray (v. 24) and who might be out in the wilderness (v. 26). How many times have Catholics claimed that a Eucharistic host was out in the wilderness performing great signs and miracles? Does Mr. Gendron ever claim such a thing? I think not. In other words, he is taking a passage of Scripture that is talking about one thing, and applying it to something completely different in an effort to make it mean something that it does not mean. By taking Matthew 24:23 out of context, all he is doing is twisting the Scriptures, as 2 Peter 3:16 speaks about.
     Now, if he defends his words by saying: “Well, what I’m saying is that the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus is physically here on Earth and the Bible says He is not, so Jesus cannot be ‘truly, really, and substantially’ present in the Eucharist as the Catholic Church teaches.” Oh...really?! Let’s see what the Bible actually says about all of this:
     Yes, Jesus will return in bodily form at His 2nd Coming in the same way He ascended, as it says in Matthew 24:27-30 and Acts 1:11...absolutely! That is Catholic teaching. However, Mike seems to have forgotten what Jesus said to the Apostles right before He ascended into Heaven: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, you’re on your own until the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20). Uhhmm...no. I don’t think so. Jesus told the Apostles, “...and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” Mr. Gendron apparently denies that Jesus is with the Apostles always, even unto the end of the age.
     Then, we have the passage where Jesus says wherever two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of them (Matt 18:20). Mike Gendron apparently denies that. After all, Gendron says, Jesus isn’t coming back until the 2nd Coming at the end of time (well, except, of course, for the Rapture - He’s coming back for that...but, not all the way back, so that doesn’t really count). The “true Jesus” doesn’t come back every day when two or three are gathered in His name.
     And what about Malachi 1:11? “For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.” This is a prophecy, because the Lord’s name was not made great among the nations, or the Gentiles, until after Jesus’ death and resurrection. And what does the Bible say will be going on in all of the nations after Jesus’ death and resurrection? Incense will be offered to the Lord from the rising of the sun to its setting - all day long. What else will be offered, or sacrificed? A pure offering is offered to the Lord all day long in all the nations. What is the only pure offering ever offered to God? His Son...Jesus Christ. So, the prophecy in Malachi 1:11 is telling us that all day long, in every nation, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ will be offered to God. And where are sacrifices made? On an altar.
     So, when Mike Gendron scoffs at the idea of Jesus being offered on Catholic altars, he is, essentially, scoffing at Scripture.

Mike Gendron
How can we know if the Eucharist is truly the Lord Jesus or a false Christ? The Apostle Paul warned us that some will preach another Jesus whom the apostles never preached (2 Corinthians 11:4). Therefore, the accuracy of every teaching must be tested with the word of God (Acts 17:11). Jesus proclaimed, “it is finished,” so we know it cannot be Jesus who is being offered daily on Catholic altars (John 19:30). “There is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18).

My Response
     First, his relying on the example of the Bereans (Acts 17:11) to “prove” that every teaching about Jesus must be “tested with the word of God” - aka Sola Scriptura - is just another example of a bad interpretation of Scripture. The Bereans were not testing what Paul was telling them with the Word of God, rather, they were searching the Scriptures to see if what Paul was saying to them about Jesus and the Scriptures was actually in their Scriptures. In other words, they didn’t know Scripture well enough to know if what Paul was telling them was really in there, and, they had no clue what those Scripture passages really meant, in terms of pointing to Jesus, until Paul explained it to them. The Bereans are a bad example to use if you are trying to build a case for Sola Scriptura. They “searched” the Scriptures because they didn’t know what was in them!
     And what about what Paul says in Scripture? In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says that whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of “profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (v. 27). How can you profane the body and blood of the Lord, if it isn’t the body and blood of the Lord? Paul goes on to say, in verse 29, that anyone who eats or drinks without “discerning the body” eats and drinks judgment upon himself. How can you “discern” the body of the Lord, if it isn’t the body of the Lord?

     “It is finished.” Gendron takes that to mean that everything that needs to be done for salvation has been done. Yet another bad interpretation of Scripture. For example, how does he himself claim to be saved? By the blood of Christ, right? Yes, indeed. Mike Gendron claims to be saved by the blood of Jesus. But, is Jesus still bleeding? Was Jesus sacrificed again the day Mike Gendron was “saved”? No. So, how is Mike Gendron saved by the blood of Christ almost 2000 years after Jesus stopped bleeding? How is that possible?
     Does Gendron not believe that when he accepted Jesus into his heart as his personal Lord and Savior that he, essentially, offered Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross...offered the blood of Jesus...to the Father as the reason the Father should forgive Gendron’s sins? I mean, if the Father was not presented with Jesus’ blood as the reason for Mike Gendron’s being able to be saved, then how was Gendron saved? But, how could the sacrifice of Christ be offered to the Father on Gendron’s behalf if Christ’s offering was completed 2000 years ago? If it was "finished". If there is now no longer any offering for sin? How?!
     Does not Gendron wish to claim that the offering of Christ on the Cross was maybe, somehow, re-presented to the Father 2000 years later in order to obtain forgiveness from the Father for Gendron’s sins? Huh...how about that?! That would be sorta like what Catholics teach about the sacrifice of Christ - the once for all sacrifice of Christ (a pure offering) - being re-presented on the altars of Catholic churches, from the rising of the sun to its setting, in all the nations, just as Malachi 1:11 predicted. Not a new sacrifice for sin, but the same sacrifice for sin. Which means there is indeed no longer any offering for sin. The offering of Christ, the once for all, pure offering, has been made. There is now no longer any other offering that needs to be made.

Mike Gendron
Jesus Will Return A Second Time
The bible gives precise details about the return of Christ so that no one will be deceived. The true Jesus does not return every day in the Eucharist as an offering for sins. “He will appear a second time, not to bear sin” (Hebrews 9:28). When He returns I will be with power and great glory in a physical body, the same way He ascended to heaven (Matthew 24:27-30; Acts 1:11)

My Response

“The bible gives precise details about the return of Christ so that no one will be deceived.” Really?! So that’s why the Bible says, “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray,” (Matthew 24:11) and “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (v. 24). Yet, according to Gendron, no one will be deceived by these false Christs and false prophets performing great signs and wonders. Who should I believe...the Word of God, or the Word of Gendron?
All in all, Gendron’s pamphlet suffers badly from the fact that Mike Gendron is not an infallible interpreter of Scripture. He has told me in the past, and I quote, “Yes I admit my interpretations of Scripture can be wrong because I am fallible.” Yet, in this pamphlet, as in all of his audio and written materials, he acts as if he is indeed an infallible interpreter of Scripture. Nowhere does he admit the possibility that he could, even in the slightest of ways, be wrong in what he is teaching and in his interpretations of Scripture. Furthermore, he knowingly distorts Catholic teaching to further his own ends and buttress his flawed interpretation of Scripture. I say he knowingly distorts Catholic teaching because he will quote from a paragraph of the Catechism, and then say it means such and such, when what it actually means is quite often explained in the very next sentence and/or paragraph after the one he just quoted from.

To be continued...

Closing Comments

I hope all of you have a great week. 'Til next time...

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