By Elizabeth Prata
The Roman Catholic Church is Christian, right? It’s different from us Protestants, but we can learn from them/use some of their rituals/admire their spiritual fathers, right? We can partner with them in moral endeavors, right?
No. The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is just as false as a Muslim mosque. The Catholic Church is apostate. The Catholic Church is a mission field. Continue reading “Some truths about the papacy”
LifeWay tweeted this out this morning:
Seth Dunn, a young Christian man whom I follow on Twitter, responded thus-
The United States’ Christians’ response to Pope Francis’ trip to our shores is sad but not surprising. End Time apostasy is growing and growing, metastasizing in fact, if you ask me.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, (1 Timothy 4:1)
Worse to swallow though is the massive biblical ignorance from the more conservative quarters, such as the LifeWay survey participants. Catholicism is NOT Christianity. The Protestant Reformation happened during the last year of the Middle Ages (1517) because of the protests from those who had come to see this fact and were willing to stand up and be heard. Christians protested the Catholic Church’s corruption of the Gospel, its stranglehold on the people, and the depravity of the papacy & priesthood. We are still protesting, or should be. Yet according to the survey above, those who should know better are accepting, not protesting. They are joining, not separating. The blood of all the true Christians martyred at the hands of the Pope and his henchmen cries out from the ground against this blasphemy and this defection.
On the other hand it is not surprising that it seems that only 37% or less of pastors surveyed actually hold to biblical doctrine. Many of you faithful and lovely readers email or comment or contact me on Facebook in your pain and confusion over the rapid loss of biblical truth in your church and who mourn the defection of your own husband-pastor-deacons-women’s leaders-church from the true faith. Anyone who worships in a church which preaches solidly in these days seems to be in the minority.
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| Wikimedia commons |
It seems to be the way of flesh and it seems to be the way of the prophecies that this would happen. See this from Hosea of the people Israel after they got comfortable subsequent to the Exodus,
When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. (Hosea 13:6)
See this similar behavior from Revelation of the wealthy and satisfied church at Laodicea,
For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Rev 3:17).
See this rebuke from God to His people Israel for having rejected His knowledge,
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. (Hosea 4:6).
See this similar pattern in the New Testament-
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7)
Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. (1 Corinthians 14:36-38).
It is prophesied that what is happening will happen. The prophecies of mass defection from sound doctrine are many, as is the past behavior of a myriad of peoples all throughout time in the Bible.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, (2 Timothy 4:3).
And 2 Timothy 3:1, Jude 1:18, 1 Timothy 4:1 and many other verses also speak to the professing believer’s refusal to submit the flesh to sound doctrine and that they will go astray, revealing they were only professors and not genuine after all.
Here are some resources regarding the hopeless religion Catholicism is. And keep studying your bible so!!
The Beginning of Knowledge
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:1-7)
Resources; and there are many more at each of these sites besides just the three listed here,
Mike Gendron, ex-Catholic Apologist:-
False Prophet praised as Holy Father
Matt Slick, Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry-
Attaining salvation in Roman Catholicism
John MacArthur, Grace To You-
Explaining the heresy of Catholicism
And why it doesn’t matter what Obama said…
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| The Battle of Ager Sanguinis, medieval miniature |
On February 5, 2015 Obama gave an address at the National Prayer Breakfast. He said of people who seek to “hijack religious for their own murderous ends”,
“Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”
There was enormous outcry over Obama’s likening of Christianity to terrorist Muslims. There have been many Op-Ed pieces, reaction articles, and blogs published over it.
Even reformed pastor-blogger Tim Challies linked to Professor of Medieval History Thomas Madden’s piece, in which Madden said both the Crusades and the Inquisition
“were initiated by popes, the unquestioned leaders of Western Christianity.”
Kings and popes. Professor Madden set forth a response placing the Crusades in historical context as part of Christianity. Madden said the first Crusade was called in 1095 by Pope Urban II. Remember, Tim Challies linked to the piece in his daily A La Carte segment.
Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission said Obama’s words were “an unfortunate attempt at a wrongheaded moral comparison,” He continued, “The evil actions that he mentioned were clearly outside the moral parameters of Christianity itself.”
That’s because the evil actions that happened in the Crusades and the Inquisition were not part of Christianity at all. In a CNN interview discussing Obama’s remarks, Russell Moore took issue with Obama’s statement solely on the front of its moral equivalency, saying it was wrong to compare ISIS with Christianity, and it would be the same as if Roosevelt had stood up and said “Pearl Harbor was a day that will live in infamy, except let’s remember we surprised the British at Yorktown too.”
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| A 19th-century depiction of Galileo before the Holy Office, by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury |
All of this is moot. Wrong. Of no consequence. It. does. not. matter. Why? Of the reactions I’ve read from both political leaders and religious leaders, none have stated the obvious. The Crusades and the Inquisition were Catholic events. The Catholic popes started them and Catholics carried them out.
Catholics are not Christians. The First Crusade was Papal response to Muslim aggression, especially the first crusade which sought to retake Jerusalem from Muslim hands. The First Crusade was followed by the Second to the Ninth Crusades. In all cases, the Catholic popes’ thrust was to forcibly defend against Muslim invasion. The Catholic popes have the Inquisition on their hands also.
Catholics follow a false god and their doctrine is not the saving doctrine of Jesus’ Christianity.
Catholic dogma is not of Jesus and is in fact of satan, just as the Muslim dogma is.
The worst comparison Obama made in his speech was not Christianity to ISIS, but Catholicism to Christianity. If people would take issue with THAT, it would really be doing something for the name of Jesus.
To answer the question in short form: no. There is no list of ‘7 deadly sins’ in the bible.
It’s one of those things that’s been around so long it seems as though it should be in the bible. Like, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. That’s not in the bible either. Or “This too shall pass” or “There but for the grace of God go I.”
So where did we get the notion of seven deadly sins? Roman Catholicism, with a lot of help from Renaissance painters, novelists, poets, and cultural icons, which embedded the false notion of 7 deadly sins so that it carries weight even to this day. But first, let’s go back to the bible.
Malachi lists 6 sins the priests did that brought destruction upon the nation. As John MacArthur lists them in his introduction to Malachi:
1) repudiating God’s love (1:2–5);
2) refusing God His due honor (1:6–2:9);
3) rejecting God’s faithfulness (2:10–16);
4) redefining God’s righteousness (2:17–3:5);
5) robbing God’s riches (3:6–12); and
6) reviling God’s grace (3:13–15).
Paul makes several lists of sins, but they’re longer than 7. (Galatians 5:19-21, for example).
Proverbs 6:16-19 lists six things the Lord hates, no, seven, but those sins are not the same as the renowned ‘Seven Deadly.’
So why seven? And why are these deadly? Isn’t all sin deadly? (Romans 6:23)
John MacArthur explains the general origin of what we know today as the list of 7 deadly.
Now some medieval monks, you know back in the medieval times between 500 and 1500, took all the sins and sort of spread them out over a table and they drew them all together in groups and they decided that they all sort of got reduced down to seven sort of motivational sins that were behind all sins and they were called the “Seven Deadly Sins.” The seven deadly sins are: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, and laziness. These medieval monks said all sin kind of fits into those categories. And these were the categorical sort of underpinnings or attitudes of the heart that led to all kinds of sin. Now that wasn’t a biblical group but it was sort of a classic group by those medieval theologians.
To be more specific than MacArthur, the generally accepted originator of the first list is Monk Evagrius Ponticus (345-399AD). He listed them as ‘seven evil thoughts’. In 590, Pope Gregory I revised this list to form the more commonly known Seven Deadly Sins.
The Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: venial sins, in which guilt is relatively minor, and the more severe mortal sins. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a mortal or deadly sin is believed to destroy the life of grace and charity within a person and thus creates the threat of eternal damnation. (Wikipedia).
That’s why there are 7 ‘deadly’ even though Protestants know that ALL sin is deadly.
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| Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516): The Seven Deadly Sins. |
The 7 deadly sins were increasingly codified into Catholic doctrine and then gravitated to the culture. In other words, because we live lists so much, the list of seven deadly sins really caught on. When the Renaissance came, they became even more deeply ingrained in the culture. Medieval writers and artists such as Dante Alighieri wrote of them in his “Divine Comedy”. Hieronymus Bosch painted The Seven Deadly Sins. Printmaker Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569) depicted them. Poet Edmund Spenser used them as a theme. And so on.
Today we have Lawrence Sanders’ Seven Deadly Sins series of detective novels, Se7en the movie, and the manga series The Seven Deadly Sins.
So that is the history of the Seven Deadly Sins not being in the bible (as a list, or as a sin that’s any more special than any other sin).
Remember, all sin kills. That’s why we must kill IT. We cannot engage in a program is sin management, as Jared Wilson says in the Sunday School curriculum “Seven Daily Sins.” In an interview with Trevin Wax, Trevin asked Jared about the difference between sin-management and sin-killing.
Trevin Wax: Why are Christians tempted toward sin-management instead of sin-killing? What’s the difference?
Jared Wilson: Sin-killing is more painful and requires more self-honesty. Any schmuck can change his behavior. The Pharisees did. Buddhists do. The unsaved working the program in addiction recovery can do that. But it’s the desire, something much more elusive, much deeper, more rooted in our interior life and worship-wiring, that has to be fixed.
It’s the difference between mowing over weeds and actually uprooting them. And it’s a pain to pull weeds; we’d all just rather mow them down. Over and over and over again. It takes some grit to manage our sin — and then we can feel proud of ourselves — but it takes grace to kill sin.
We must kill it. There must be grace to do it. Don’t mow over your sin, whether there are “seven” or not. Uproot them! The best sermon I’ve heard on sin-killing is John MacArthur’s “Hacking Agag to Pieces.” I recommend it.
Alpha and Omega Ministries: November 30, 2014
Video Response to Rick Warren’s Capitulation to Rome
By James White
[Ed. Note: White has since put up a part 2 and it can be viewed here. It is excellent!)
As synopsized on the Youtube channel, it states of the 12-minute video,
Rick Warren has been used in a Roman Catholic promotional video to white-wash the fundamental differences between Christianity and Romanism. Here is a brief response, shot in Irpin, Ukraine, challenging Warren’s capitulation to Rome’s claims
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| Warren |
In the video James White explains that Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, had gone to Rome to meet with the pope and other men from different faiths, to discuss their ‘commonalities’. I believe it was the conference on marriage to which the Southern Baptist Convention’s Dr Russell Moore (among others) was also invited.
White goes on to explain how the things Warren said are not biblical, though they sound as though they could be. Other things Warren said are simply Catholic Dogma, as Warren briefly becomes an apologist for Catholic doctrine.
White is generous in his hope that it was only a temporary ignorance of the dogmas of Rome that allowed Warren to say the things he did, which White unpacks against the pure light of the Gospel. I thought that the last statement White made in the video was powerful- and necessary.
I found myself asking the obvious unasked question, if Warren was ignorant, then he should not be mature pastor of a church expounding the word, nor should he represent the Gospel on behalf of millions of evangelicals. In my opinion Warren is a pragmatist who sets aside the Gospel because he is going the Way of Balaam.
Our precious Christ’s Gospel must remain unadulterated, and on center stage, not marginalized in a pointless search for commonalities. If we do not share a belief in and knowledge of this same Jesus and His saving Gospel, we share nothing in common. All else is dung. He is too beautiful, too wonderful and too powerful to treat His words with anything less than reverence and earnest exactitude as it has been delivered.
Here is the video.
As more and more formerly solid but now straying teachers, and other false brethren associate with and cuddle up to Rome, (I’m speaking of Beth Moore, Kirk Cameron, James Robson, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland… and others) it becomes a concern. Amid their unbiblical calls for unity with Catholics and with Rome, we forget the blood that the Reformers shed to keep the Gospel alive and undiluted by Rome’s false doctrines. Here is Charles Spurgeon using plain language to state the truth. O, for such a one at a time like this to say the same.
It is all very well with that Church when it is separated from her heretical sons, and a great gulf fixed, but all that helps to bridge that gulf must mar her glory and destroy her power. We must have no truce, no treaty with Rome. War! war to the knife with her! Peace there cannot be. She cannot have peace with us—we cannot have peace with her. She hates the true Church, and we can only say that the hatred is reciprocated. We would not lay a hand upon her priests; we would not touch a hair of their heads. Let them be free; but their doctrine we would destroy from the face of the earth as the doctrine of devils. So let it perish, O God, and let that evil thing become as the fat of lambs. Into smoke let it consume: yea into smoke let it consume away.
War! War! War! A Sermon,
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, May 1st, 1859, by the
REV. C. H. Spurgeon
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
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| Vatican City |
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Further Reading
This is long. Settle in.
I have come to a conclusion based on both what the bible says about the last of the last days, and on the evidence I’ve seen and gathered over the last few years. Though this essay is based on the bible, the conclusion I am coming to is speculation. It is opinion. I cannot be dogmatic about it. And neither can you.
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| Source |
It is crystal clear to me that the Tribulation church is forming before our eyes. The Tribulation Church in my opinion may be mainly Catholic in some form. All false religions will be part of the final, Babylon church. But the most recognizable portion, the foundation, will likely be Catholic. Allow me to lay out why I believe this. This will be in three sections. First, let’s get an introductory understanding of that the final church is.
In Revelation 17 we read of a whore, the Whore of Babylon.
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Rev 17:3-6)
That tremendous chapter describes the fall of the final religion, the Tribulation ‘church’ of which I speak. Here is John MacArthur:
Since the fall of man recorded back in the third chapter of Genesis when he rebelled against God, God cursed man. And because man was cursed, because he is now by nature sinful, his nature has been perverted and so that innate longing to know God has been twisted. Man still reaches out for the supernatural but no longer does he long for the true God. In fact the Bible says no man seeks after God. His residual religiosity makes him long for some deity, but it’s usually a deity that accommodates somehow his sinfulness.
Satan, as you well know, has spawned all the false religions. They’re really one and the same, they just have different names and a few different rites and ceremonies, but they’re basically all the same. They fit in and out of varying cultures for varying purposes and reasons in Satan’s enterprise, but ultimately they are all the same. They are systems that attach themself to non-existent deities, systems that teach that man can save himself by his own works and his own achievement and his own self-righteousness, that the way to God is through ceremony, ritual, rite, things like that. It’s all the same. And it will come together in one great world final form of religion in the very end.
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| Source |
As the 2000’s have seen the rise in power of the Muslim religion, many people have said that they believe the last days church will be Muslim. They make a connection between the future beheadings prophetically reported in Revelation 20:4 and the Muslim’s favorite method of execution. They tie Islam’s rise in power and terror to the antichrist, and speculate the antichrist will be from Islam.
The Muslim end times eschatology is eerily similar to the Christians’, except the opposite. Their Jesus is our false prophet. Their Mahdi is our antichrist. Their outcome is that Islam will win, and of course, God has already won, through His Son. Christianity will prevail in the end, and all Christians already have prevailed.
Though of course Islam is satanic, I’ve always thought that Islam is to extreme and too violent to be the winner of the Tribulation religion last days false religion trophy. After all, satan is the most subtle creature in the Garden (Genesis 3:1). Islam is not subtle. I have always believed that satan’s most successful, his most crowningly subtle dark achievement, has been Catholicism.
In a piece I quote in lengthier form below, RL Dabney (1820-1898) said in “The Attractions of Popery,” that Catholicism is “the most skillful and pernicious system of error which the world has ever known.”
I firmly agree.
There are three pieces to the final Babylon church puzzle I am seeing in the wide scale, of which Catholicism is taking a major role.
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| Pixabay: Public Domain |
Here is reason #1 why I believe the final Babylon religion will be most recognizably Catholic. In 1990, Pope John Paul II initiated a “new evangelization.” Since nothing at the Vatican moves quickly, it wasn’t until 2010 that the new evangelization began in earnest, and then boy, did it leap forward with light speed. Pope Benedict’s creation in 2010 of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, the installation of the first officers to this council in 2011, in 2012 the Year of Faith so as to get ready to evangelize, and the three year plan being issued in 2013 all have hurtled Catholicisim into the forefront again.
We are seeing much movement and energy from the Bishops regarding this initiative. It is all the talk in Catholic circles.
There are three aspects to the Catholic new evangelization,
As the article explains in plain terms, the Catholic New Evangelization means
In the United States, there are now 22 million ex-Catholics, big enough to be the largest religious denomination in the country. The church drops four members for every one member it gains, and if it were not for Hispanic immigration, it would have been declining for decades. Yet the Catholic church in America also holds on to almost 70 percent of its members into adulthood, a higher retention rate than any other Christian denomination.
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| Pixabay: Public Domain |
The Vatican is aggressively doing something about this. If you think this has nothing to do with Protestants, you are quite wrong. If you think for one moment that Catholics won’t poach Protestants, you are absolutely wrong. That uneasy truce with Catholics on one side of the Reformation and Protestants on the other is shrinking every day. More about that in part 3 below.
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)
Here is reason #2 why I believe the final Babylon religion will be most recognizably Catholic.
Informally since Constantine, and formally since Pope Gregory I (pope from 590-604AD), the Catholic Church has practiced something called interpretatio christiana.
A notable strategy for Christianization was interpretatio christiana – the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses…Reformatting native religious and cultural activities and beliefs into a Christianized form was officially sanctioned; preserved in the Venerable Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a letter from Pope Gregory I to Mellitus, arguing that conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditions, (source Wikipedia)
So for example, a missionary priest entering the jungle of South America would tell the local indians there, that sacrificing to the jaguar god was no longer acceptable, but if they sacrificed to the sky God Yahweh, it would be all right. Their fertility festival was no longer acceptable, but Mardi Gras-type bacchnalias were all right. The Catholics simply renamed the pagan practices, encouraged the locals to continue them, and melded Catholicism to the locals’ already established pagan religions. In this way, Catholicism has a centuries-old head start on syncretism. Renaming is not converting.
So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. (Acts 20:31)
Interpretatio christiana in the secular world is known as syncretism,
the combining of different, often seemingly contradictory beliefs, while melding practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merger and analogizing of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths
The Catholic leaders have syncretized most other religions into Catholicism in some way and they are working on Islam. In his Evangelii Gaudium (Apostolic Statement) on November 24, 2013, in the section on interfaith dialogue, Pope Francis said of Muslims,
We must never forget that they “profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, who will judge humanity on the last day”.[198] The sacred writings of Islam have retained some Christian teachings; Jesus and Mary receive profound veneration and it is admirable to see how Muslims both young and old, men and women, make time for daily prayer and faithfully take part in religious services. Many of them also have a deep conviction that their life, in its entirety, is from God and for God.
Pope Francis has also said that “inside every Christian is a Jew“. And so on with Catholic attitudes toward Hinduism, Buddhism, Charismaticism, paganism, animism, and the rest of all the other world religions. Catholicism has had almost two millennia of organized practice of melding the local religion into its own. They have a head start at laying the local infrastructure to absorb it, the organization to execute it, and the will, money and tradition to sustain it.
Here is reason #3 I believe the final Babylon religion will be most recognizably Catholic in some form. The chasm between Conservative Protestantism and Catholicism is closing rapidly, with frightening speed. With such speed it must have been supernaturally induced.
Since the Reformation when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the All Saints’ Chapel door at Wittenberg, there has been a chasm between Protestants and Catholics. The twain did not ever meet. There was no common ground. There was only split and more distance. One side cast a wary eye at the other but mostly the two sides have left each other alone.
Except…now that chasm is shrinking. It’s as if God had held the Protestant and Catholic apart until His timing, and is now allowing satan to bring the chasm together at warp speed. One “evangelical” leader after another is caving in to the popery of Rome. The unification of the two sides is rapidly occurring, so rapidly it seems to me it is directly supernatural in its origin.
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.(Philippians 3:18)
The other day I wrote about a Franklin Graham crusade in Pittsburgh. In that piece I’d mentioned in 2011 I was shocked to find an Episcopal congregation in Maryland voted to return to Rome and become Catholic. The church had been Protestant for 100 years. However, unbenownst to Protestants, there were new rules that had been issued by the Vatican, the article revealed, that deliberately propose to reach out to disaffected Protestants. Father Dwight Longenecker wrote of the mass conversion,
The way to understand this more dynamic possibility is to see the ordinariate as a new bridge across the Tiber for a whole range of Protestant Christians.
The bridge across the Tiber is a reference to the Tiber River which surrounds Vatican City in Rome. The Father continues,
Already, conservative, liturgically minded Lutherans are asking why there isn’t a Lutheran ordinariate, … And if Lutherans may come across the ordinariate bridge, why not Methodists? … The way to a very exciting future for the Anglican ordinariate is for the new Anglican-style Catholics to set out with missionary fervor. They might begin with American Evangelicals.
And they have. They have set out to unite with, partner with, ‘dialogue’ with American evangelical leaders. And they have been successful. In 2011 Fr. Longenecker wrote that Rome should begin seeking American Evangelicals. In 2014, done. Check that one off the list.
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| 2014: Pope Francis with evangelicals (Life Outreach) |
And if Lutherans and Methodists…why not Baptists? You see there is no end to the Pac Man gobble. Not until Mystery Babylon is slain by a returning, wrathful Christ.
Later, James Robison telecasted the video of his meeting with Pope Francis on his daily TV program, Life Today.
“The pope, in the video, expressed a desire for Protestants and Catholics to become what Jesus prayed for — that Christians would become family and not be divided,”
I am hearing more and more of this plea to “unite”. For example, Beth Moore has said she believes the Reformation was a mistake. She discussed it in a segment on the 2006 Catholic-influenced Contemplative DVD “Be Still,”
“You know, one of the things that time gives us is that it erases the lines in between people so many different sections of the people of God. Because many years later it doesn’t matter any longer that this person was of this practice in the Christian faith and this person of another. Time somehow blurs those lines and we are profoundly moved by the historical narratives of all their lives, of so great a cloud of witnesses; that we can look back on and see what kept them running the race, what kept them running toward the face of Christ at the end of that finish line.”
So, ‘all that messiness’ was so long ago it doesn’t count anymore? All the martyrs burned for daring to oppose the Catholic Church’s authority can be dismissed, while we embrace the forefathers of this perpetration of evil because we’re moved by their historical narrative?
Why do I mention James Robison and Life Today ministries? Because by their own account, they are in 50 nations over 6 continents. Because Beth Moore, monetary anchor of LifeWay Books and member of the conservative the Southern Baptist Convention, partners with Robison which airs her program, Wednesdays in the Word.
Joel Osteen Meets with Pope Francis at Vatican: ‘He’s Made the Church More Inclusive’
Because Joel Osteen regularly speaks to 16,000 people at his stadium and broadcasts to over 100 million homes in the U.S. and tens of millions more in 100 nations. Each week more than one million people download Osteen’s heresies on their audio and video podcast, by Osteen’s accounting, “making our podcast consistently one of the top five in the world.”
That is quite a bit of heresy spread around and I’ve only mentioned three people. What of Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, when he partners with Pittsburgh’s Bishop Zubik? When Graham set the venue for Graham’s crusade/festival next door to Epiphany Catholic Church so that Crusade seekers can enter there and be counseled? So said Zubik, exultantly, here,
Those who respond to Rev. Graham’s invitation to make a decision for Christ, and who identify as Catholic, will be given the opportunity to go to Epiphany Church — adjacent to the Consol Energy Center — for the sacrament of reconciliation, or confession. ”We’re right next door,“ Bishop Zubik said. Bishop Zubik said Catholics don’t share all of Rev. Graham’s controversial political statements but added: “That’s not what this is all about. The whole point is to bring people back to Jesus.”
Since the DVD ‘Be Still’ was published in 2006 with Moore’s cloaked language, Moore now openly teaches that Catholicism is part of denominational Christianity. Below are stills from a video in which she was teaching this, and below that, the actual video. She wasn’t using the bible as her basis, either. Moore was teaching from a directly revealed vision.
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| Vatican. Pixabay: Public Domain |
Moore said that “Jesus” sent her a vision which included lifting her into a dimension in which He dwells, to see the global church through His eyes, and which included Catholics. We know her vision is not from Jesus. Firstly, because Jesus is not giving personal and direct revelation any longer. And second, because He would never teach that the blasphemous doctrines of Rome are part of His church. Beth Moore is NOT hearing from Jesus. She is having satanic visions.
Here are the denominations Moore was using in her lesson as representations of this ‘global interdenominational church’ “Jesus” showed her.
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| “First United Methodist Church”, & “Christ Redeemer Lutheran Church” |
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| “Mt Zion Missionary Baptist Church” |
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| “St Anne’s Catholic Church” |
Transcript: “Right back here, I want you to meet St Anne’s Catholic Church of Lessthanland. These ladies, although they attend different Catholic Churches, all attend a Catholic church, right here in Houston, and I am so thrilled they are here.”
Babylon is to be better understood as the sort of the archetypical head of all worldly resistance to God. It is a trans-historical Babylon. It is the Babylon of idolatry. It is the eschatological symbol of worldwide satanic deception and power. ~John MacArthur
The Puritans always thought a future Pope would be antichrist. In one sense, the general sense, all popes are antichrist, because they do not believe the truth. (1 John 4:3). But we all know (or should know) that there will be one final man who will embody the totality of the antichrist spirit. Just as there was one last Adam, the Son of Man, embodying all of God’s Spirit (Jesus), there will come one man who will perform all the perdition there can be, and thrust it onto the world, which will accept it. This one will be the Beast, the antichrist, a man, later indwelled by satan. One of his very names is “Son of Perdition.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
Here is a piece written in 1894 which portends much,
The Attractions of Popery
R.L. Dabney
Appeared In The Presbyterian Quarterly, April, 1894.
Dr. John H. Rice, with the intuition of a great mind, warned Presbyterians against a renewed prevalence of popery in our Protestant land. This was when it was so insignificant among us as to be almost unnoticed. Many were surprised at his prophecy, and not a few mocked; but time has fulfilled it. Our leaders from 1830 to 1860 understood well the causes of this danger. They were diligent to inform and prepare the minds of their people against it. Hence General Assemblies and Synods appointed annual sermons upon popery, and our teachers did their best to arouse the minds of the people. Now, all this has mainly passed away, and we are relaxing our resistance against the dreaded foe just in proportion as he grows more formidable. It has become the fashion to condemn controversy and to affect the widest charity for this and all other foes of Christ and of souls.
Prophetic words, those. The feature of the distant past time was to speak against Rome’s Popery/Catholicism. Active and organized vigilance against it. How refreshing. But now, vigilance has thoroughly decreased in the face of those who vociferously condemn “controversy” and command speaking only of “charity” (niceness). The piece continues,
The popish system of ritual and doctrine was a gradual growth, which, modifying true Christianity, first perverted and then extinguished it. Its destructive power has resulted from this: that it has not been the invention of any one cunning and hostile mind, but a gradual growth, modified by hundreds or thousands of its cultivators, who were the most acute, learned, selfish, and anti-Christian spirits of their generations, perpetually retouched and adapted to every weakness and every attribute of depraved human nature, until it became the most skillful and pernicious system of error which the world has ever known.
How I long for strong, clear words today condemning “the most pernicious system of error the world has ever known”! Instead, ‘Christian’ leaders partner with it! There will be a dire price to pay for this. Roger Oakland of Understanding the Times wrote:
The purpose of the New Evangelization is to promote the Roman Catholic gospel by reaching out to all religions as well as the separated brethren and introducing them to the Eucharistic Christ. … Evangelicals who believe there will be a great revival (rather than a great apostasy) in the last days centered around the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are candidates for this delusion.
While American evangelicals have been distracted by the shadow Muslims crouching at the door, the Vatican has been intentional, missional, and aggressive in aiming for our most conservative Protestant remaining pockets of resistance to pollute the minds of those who are supposed to be leading us. Muslims have been loudly storming the front door, but Rome has silently infiltrated the back. (Jude 1:4; Galatians 2:4; 2 Timothy 3:6). There are so few religious battlegrounds left for Rome to conquer.
Therefore, because of the “new evangelization”, because of a centuries of interpretatio chrstiana, and because of the rapid absorption of so many leading ‘evangelicals’ into Catholicism and so much infusion of Catholicism’s traditions into Protestant life, the final days church is nearly formed. This is my opinion.
They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. (Titus 1:16)
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I appreciate that you read this lengthy opinion essay of the last days church. I think the pieces of it are coming together quickly. It is significant that Rome, not known for speed, is moving so fast. It is important to be careful and measured when speaking an opinion though, that is why I laid it out so thoroughly, with examples and many quotes. However, far be it for me to analytically present the pieces without encouragement to your soul, and suggested actions.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! (Psalm 34:7-8)
We are all familiar with this next verse. For these times especially when so much prophetic activity is occurring, that which we see, and that which we sense, lean not on our own understanding. Trust in Him and His word. He has told us beforehand!
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
No matter what is happening in the world, we are not of this world, but of the world where Jesus dwells,
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:8
Meanwhile we can take actions.
1. Do not partner with darkness, including Rome. (2 Corinthians 6:14). Not even for a moment. Do not let anyone fool you, Catholicism is not Christian. (2 Corinthians 11:4).
2. Because Catholics need the true faith, evangelize them. (Matthew 28:16-20)
“What was at stake? I’ll tell you what was at stake. What was at stake is whether or not we evangelize Roman Catholics, that’s what’s at stake. One billion of them in the world. Are they a mission field? Or are they our co-laborers for Christ? That changes everything, everything. On the other side, one of the leading evangelicals said, “I think it’s so wonderful that we can now see Catholics as Christians because that means millions and millions of people are Christians.” As if somehow by them deciding they were Christians they became Christians. I was absolutely incredulous, almost fell off my chair.”
Reclassifying the Pope, reclassifying the Roman Catholics as believers isn’t that simple. It has massive implications. It has implications that literally overturn centuries of missionary effort. It has massive implications that overturn centuries, if not millennia of martyrdom. In the long war on the truth, the most formidable, relentless and deceptive enemy has been Roman Catholicism. It is an apostate, corrupt, heretical, false Christianity, it is affront for the kingdom of Satan. The true church of the Lord Jesus Christ has always understood this. And even through the Dark Ages from 400 to 1500, prior to the Reformation, genuine Christian believers set themselves apart from that system, and were brutally punished and executed for their rejection of that system. ~John MacArthur
3. Do not be afraid to name names. We must declare ones like Joel Osteen false so that when he promotes the Pope we will not be confused by his doctrinal error. As Tony Miano said, “Any man who declares a Roman pope to be a brother in Christ is, himself, an enemy of Christ.”
When Apostle John wrote, he said,
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| Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned, Romans 16:17a |
I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. (3 John 1:9-11)
John did not say, “Love Diotrephes and do not criticize him, and neither will I.” No, John said he will bring up what Diotrephes was doing, because Diotrephes was doing evil.
Paul wrote to warn of Alexander the coppersmith:
Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. (2 Tim 4:14-15).
Today’s Christians would chastise Paul for “gossiping” and “criticizing”. When they tell you not to name names (after prayer and if you have evidence), don’t fall for it. Name them! (Romans 16:17).
How will we know to beware of anyone if Christians refuse to say who to avoid? Who to guard against? Who to refuse into their homes? (2 John 1:10).
3. Pray. Pray for all the ones mentioned in this article. They need Jesus too. Pray for the ones who follow the ones mentioned in this article (Robison, Osteen, Moore, Graham, etc). Pray against antichrist.
It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the popery in the Church of Rome there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. …
Popery is contrary to Christ’s Gospel, and is the Antichrist, and we ought to pray against it. It should be the daily prayer of every believer that Antichrist might be hurled like a millstone into the flood and for Christ, because it wounds Christ, because it robs Christ of His glory, because it puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement, and lifts a piece of bread into the place of the Saviour, and a few drops of water into the place of the Holy Ghost, and puts a mere fallible man like ourselves up as the vicar of Christ on earth; if we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors: we shall love their souls though we loath and detest their dogmas, and so the breath of our prayers will be sweetened, because we turn our faces towards Christ when we pray. ~Charles Spurgeon
I’ve stated several times on this blog that any person who adheres to the Catholic faith, its creeds, or submits to the Pope as spiritual authority, isn’t saved. The Catholic religion is a false religion. Espousing, believing, or failure to renounce Catholic dogma means you will go to hell when you die. Mother Teresa is in hell. Every pope that ever lived in in hell. Catholicism denies the saving work of Jesus as the SOLE means of redemption. The Pope is a heretic. I hope I have been clear.
Today Pope Francis followed in his papist forbears’ footsteps by explicitly denying Jesus. I am going to post what he is quoted as saying, and then lead you through how it denies Jesus. Pope Francis exhibits the exact nature of the characteristic 2 Timothy 3:5 states we will see in the last days, an appearance of Godliness, but denying its power. Watch and read:
Pope says everyone can do good, regardless of belief
Every human person despite his or her beliefs can do good, and a sharing in good works is the prime place for encounter among those who disagree, Pope Francis said at his Mass today. “The Lord created us in his image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and he does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and avoid evil. All of us,” the Pope taught in his homily May 22 at St. Martha’s residence in the Vatican.
He went on to explain that all human persons are created in the image of God, who is goodness himself and the source of goodness. He emphasized the universality of Christ’s saving act on the cross as a compliment [sic] to the universal call to holiness, regardless of religious belief.
“The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone.” “Even the atheists. Everyone,” Pope Francis stressed. He said that the saving blood of Christ “makes us children of God of the first class. We are created children in the likeness of God and the blood of Christ has redeemed us all. And we all have a duty to do good.”
In reading this, it becomes obvious that the Pope denied Jesus in three ways.
1. Doing good. Psalm 14:1 says there is none who does good. The Pope is talking about a human moral standard of doing good, relativistic and with no absolute benchmark. To men, doing good may mean giving back a lost wallet, or helping an old lady across the street. In God’s view, there is not one person who does good. We cannot achieve any standard of holiness on our own. Yet as the Pope is speaking in his religious capacity at Mass, he is saying we possess within us the standard of goodness that God accepts simply for having been born, because our “likeness” is like God’s.
The bible says none do good. Romans 3:10-12, “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
2. Universal salvation. The Pope said that even atheists are saved because Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood. ““The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone. “Even the atheists. Everyone,” Pope Francis stressed.”” However, only those who repent and believe are saved. Romans 10:9 says “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Also see Acts 126:31, 1 John 4:15, Mark 1:15).
What the Pope is really promoting is universal salvation. Rev. Matt Slick explains what universal salvation is. “Universalism is the teaching that all people will be saved. Some say that it is through the atonement of Jesus that all will ultimately be reconciled to God. Others just say that all will go to heaven sooner or later, whether or not they have trusted in or rejected Jesus as savior during their lifetime.” The Pope’s statement is shocking to Catholics because previously, Catholic dogma stated that only Catholics are saved. They believe that the blood of Jesus atoned for only those who are in the Catholic denomination, excluding Baptists, Lutherans, etc. So the Pope claiming that the blood of Jesus saves all, and that all are saved, is astounding to Catholics. Catholics have pronounced anathema (curse) on all non-Catholics since 1545, but true believers know that the Pope’s words about salvation and redemption are false.
3. Jesus plus works. (Quote from the article: “He emphasized the universality of Christ’s saving act on the cross as a complement to the universal call to holiness, regardless of religious belief.”) According to the Pope, Jesus’s blood PLUS good works, AKA holiness, is the combination one needs for salvation. Worse, believing that the work of Jesus is a complement to anything else is heresy. This is in effect saying that our works is primary and Jesus’s work is a complement as complement is defined here: “Add to (something) in a way that enhances or improves it; make perfect.” His work on the cross is not a complement to anything. He IS the perfect! It is Jesus plus nothing which saves.
The bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
I hope this explanation has helped you see how influential and pervasive the false doctrines of the Catholic faith are and how much more dangerous they have become with this Mass today by the Pope. I had a terrible feeling when Pope Francis was elected, being a Jesuit. The march toward a prophesied universal faith, AKA one world religion seen in Revelation 13:15-17, just got a lot more real.
I can say with a fair amount of certainty that all popes that have ever pontificated are in hell now.
I do not say this with any sense of glee or happiness. The real fact of hell and people there who had the chance to accept Jesus, but didn’t, and are now in eternal torment, saddens me to the point of tears.
But I said what I said bluntly because I want to cut through the “political correctness” to penetrate the mind of those who give sway to any kind of notion that Catholicism is a true faith. It is not.
I can say without fear and with absolute certainty that Roman Catholic Church is a false religion. Why is it false, I was asked. Here are just a few examples:
The Pope is the one who is in charge of protecting and promoting all these false doctrines. When Pope John Paul II died, John MacArthur said, “And the question came up, is the Pope in heaven? And you hear all these people say, “Yes, yes, yes.” People have asked me, “Is the Pope in heaven?” And my answer is, “Is the Pope Catholic?” Isn’t that the answer? I think he is, I think the Pope is Catholic. Does he believe Catholic theology? Yes. He is the guardian of Catholic theology. Do you get to heaven by works, by Mary, by Penance, by Baptism, by confession, by Rosary? No. This is another gospel. This is not the true gospel.”
You can read a more thorough explanation of The Pope and the Papacy and why these are false.
More here about the Catholic religion here at Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
GotQuestions also has more about the Catholic religion
More here on why a Christian should not partner in ecumenical fashion with the RCC
When the new pope is installed in a few weeks, think on this. It is a comment from John MacArthur at the last pope’s coronation:
“At the consecration of Roman Catholic bishops there is an oath of allegiance to the Pope. Whenever a bishop is consecrated, an allegiance oath is given. Here’s what it says, “With all my power I will persecute and make war on all heretics, schismatics and those who rebel against our Lord the Pope, and all his successors, so help me, God, and these holy gospels of God.” So you swear to make war on anybody who rebels against the Pope. Where is humility in this? Romanism is a gigantic system of Church worship, sacrament worship, Mary worship, saint worship, image worship, relic worship, priest worship and Pope worship. J.C. Ryle was right when he said, “It’s a huge organized idolatry. A man wearing a gold crown, triple decked with jewels worth millions? A cardinal’s garb that costs tens of thousands of dollars?” Peter said, “Silver and gold have I not.” Paul said, “I coveted no man’s gold, no man’s silver, no man’s clothing.” The Pope is surrounded by a dazzling display of arrogant over-indulgence, it is theater, it is nothing more than theater to give the illusion of God, the illusion of transcendence, the illusion of spirituality. It is a pompous display of wealth. It is a lavish indulgence in ridiculous buildings, ridiculous robes, crowns, thrones to cover and mask a sinful system like the whitewashed tombs that Jesus referred to. There was never such a thing as a papal coronation before the tenth century. And now the world has gone berserk over this as it if was true religion.”
I entreat you, please read more to learn why the simple Gospel is the truth. God said, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2). He repeated the warning in Revelation 22:18-19.
Jesus came to seek and save sinners. A a sinner is someone who sins, which means everyone on earth who was ever born is a sinner (Romans 3:23)- EXCEPT Jesus, who is God. Jesus lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15) in obedience to His Father, who is God, and died as a sacrifice to atone for the world’s sin. (Romans 3:25). He shed His blood and took upon His person the wrath of God for sins, which was poured out upon Him on the cross. When the wrath was poured out, Jesus died, saying, “It is finished.” (John 19:30). He was buried, and three days later, by the power of God, He resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:4) and walked on the earth for 40 days, teaching and preaching to His believers. (1 Cor 15:6). On the 40th day He ascended to heaven on a cloud, and this same Jesus will return in like matter (Acts 1:10-11) at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:5).
The time we live in now is called the Age of Grace, when all one must to to be saved is be born again- repent of your sins, believe on the Son. He is not only your Savior but your Lord, Lord of all the earth and heaven. He is coming soon, but this second time to deal with sin and bring wrath then justice upon sinners. If you die before you repent and believe on the Son, you will go to a place that is separate from God and is a place of eternal torment.
Belief in Jesus is ALL that one needs to be saved. He paid the entire price, He did the work, He is in control. Man has no part to play in our own salvation. You can’t work at it like the RCC says, you can’t pay for forgiveness through indulgences, you can’t pray your way into it, you can’t appeal to Mary. It is a simple Gospel: Jesus oriented and pure. Please, if you are reading this, heed the words:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36)
the-end-time.org 