rcc

A note about the brethren who live under the shadow of the Catholic Church

Posted on February 22, 2013 by elizabethprata

Yesterday, Pastor John MacArthur posted an introduction to a new blog series. It is called, A Timely Critique of the Catholic Church.

He wrote,

“Last week Pope Benedict XVI made the historic and unexpected announcement that he will soon retire … In the coming days and weeks, you’re likely to find yourself in a variety of conversations about the Catholic Church with friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors—each one an opportunity to shed biblical light on a topic that everyone will be talking about. And when the Lord brings those opportunities, I want you to be able to speak with clarity and authority regarding the truth of God’s Word and the corrupt idolatry of Roman Catholicism.”

In the first installation of the series, Pastor MacArthur pulled no punches. He said, “The fact is, the most formidable, relentless, and deceptive enemy in Satan’s long war on the truth has been Roman Catholicism. It’s an apostate, corrupt, heretical, false Christianity—a thinly veiled façade for the kingdom of Satan.”

His blog allows comments and I read them all last night. I came to one comment in particular, and I was just stricken to the heart. I admit, I did get emotional over it, and I prayed. The comment may not strike you the same way as it did me, but I post it here for you to consider. It is from a brother in South America. He opens with blessing Pastor MacArthur:

God bless you. Thank you for this resource. I live in Colombia where Catholicism has a huge influence and evangelical Christians are seen as an apostate sect.

I’m a journalist with a tv show in a secular channel, where I dedicate many programs to spread the truth and present many Christian testimonies. In my Facebook page I’ve had strong debates against many Catholic positions in many topics. The latest was the spiritual significance of the carnival (Mardi Gras) in our city, Barranquilla. It is the world’s second largest after Rio de Janeiro, according to Wikipedia. I’ve been alerting everyone about this, being the son of a carnival queen and the father of a carnival queen, member of the board of the entity which runs the carnival. Opposing to that is the Catholic Church. It’s archbishop and priests give their blessing to this pagan and satanic festival. It’s outrageous!

I can’t say enough about the spiritual damage the Catholic Church does in countries like mine where their influence is enormous.

Resources like this one are very helpful for people like me that like to preach the Truth not being a pastor or teacher of the Word of God, and only a disciple of Grace to You and John MacArthur’s teachings and writings. I listen to you daily on the web through KDRY of San Antonio, have your podcasts and read your books.

I just dream that we could have a Grace to You church in my town, dedicated to the teaching of the Truth of Scriptures. That would be a gigantic blessing because we have a lot of Christian Churches of all sizes, but many don’t preach the Gospel as it is and others are preaching the prosperity gospel.

So, there is a ton of work to be done and I just try to contribute from my position as a public figure in journalism to spread the true Gospel of Jesus.

Thank you for all you do and I must say you have been a blessing to me and my understanding of God’s Word “one verse at a time”!

May God bless you and your marvelous ministry.

Manuel De la Rosa; Barranquilla, Colombia, South America

There are two missionaries I know in Guatemala right now. They came and spoke to our church about the deep spiritual darkness of Central and South America, directly due to the Catholic Church. Their talk touched me deeply, and aroused a fervent inclination to oppose the Catholic Church where and when I can.

Mr De la Rosa of Barranquilla, Colombia’s comment was deeply humbling. As I prayed, I envisioned the darkness of so many millions in that place; the delusion of so many Catholic congregants; the wails and gnashing of teeth on the Day of the LORD when they discover to their eternal regret of the horrific ramifications of their spiritual choice.

But more than that, the comment touched in me a joy for our brethren who labor in obscurity in the dark places. In addition to spiritually cold and dead locations like Europe, and dangerous places like in the Muslim nations, the task is monumental for our Christian brethren in South America, as Mr De la Rosa indicated.

It is hard for an ’emotion’ or an ‘attitude’ to bleed through the monitor of the laptop, but this one did. His joy in persevering, his graciousness in accepting the sphere in which the Lord has placed him, and the heartfelt love for Jesus that is obvious from this man all touched me deeply.

Please remember to pray for our brethren who do not enjoy the liberties as we have in the US, and where spiritual warfare is more real and present and in greater force. And please, if you would be so kind, think of Mr De la Rosa, and the people like him, who humbly preach the truth in obscurity in a mature and gracious way.

It was a joy to read a fellow believer’s struggle and to see his servant’s heart. Though the task is daunting, we are one united body, spread all over the world, to be the Light for Jesus and to give Him glory. And…there are brethren who toil tirelessly, UNdaunted by the task, because they know who their Master is.

Pray for each other.

“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,” (Ephesians 6:18)

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,” (1 Timothy 2:1)

arrest, indictment, pope benedict, rcc

Did Pope Benedict resign to avoid an arrest?

Posted on February 19, 2013 by elizabethprata

News today from the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church & State reveals that according to the ITCCS an arrest warrant was imminently going to be issued against Pope Benedict for certain crimes.

The ITCCS claims that “on Friday, February 1, 2013, on the basis of evidence supplied by our affiliated Common Law Court of Justice (itccs.org), our Office concluded an agreement with representatives of a European nation and its courts to secure an arrest warrant against Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict, for crimes against humanity and ordering a criminal conspiracy.”

“This arrest warrant was to be delivered to the office of the “Holy See” in Rome on Friday, February 15, 2013. It allowed the nation in question to detain Ratzinger as a suspect in a crime if he entered its sovereign territory.”

“A diplomatic note was issued by the said nation’s government to the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, on Monday, February 4, 2013, informing Bertone of the impending arrest warrant and inviting his office to comply.”

The organization claims that no reply from the Vatican’s Secretary of State was issued but that six days after the indictment was received, the Pope resigned. The ITCCS plans to issue a commercial lien through that nation’s courts against the property and wealth of the Roman Catholic church commencing on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013. They do not name that nation.

The Pope resigned on February 11, 2013 and the resignation will take effect on February 28, 2013.

It should be noted that for all the fancy-sounding title of this ITCCS organization, it is a new organization, formed in 2010 and giving itself these stated powers. The ITCCS did not reveal which “European Nation” they are working with. The ITCCS says they were “established to enforce common law and try and convict the institutions and their officers responsible for such historic and ongoing crimes against humanity. We therefore constitute a de jure Court under common law, with full power of arrest, conviction and enforcement.”

Please note that as of now (5:15 PM on Tuesday, February 19, 2013) no official government, media, or organization has confirmed the alleged arrest warrant or proposed lien. However, saying that a warrant was issued is a monumental claim to make on a whim, incorrectly, or capriciously. And … the pope DID resign just after.

The ITCCS says that they plan to continue with the indictment against whoever Pope Benedict’s successor is, and further, that they plan to continue to put a lien on the entire Roman Catholic Church’s “property and wealth.” How much IS that wealth?

As Bill Keller stated yesterday in the NY Times, “Yes, the business of the church is saving souls, but it is nevertheless a business: a closely held conglomerate with a work force of more than a million, 1.2 billion more-or-less regular customers, 10 times as many outlets as Starbucks, more real estate than Donald Trump dreams of and lobbying clout to rival that of any secular industry.”

No one is quite sure exactly how much money in property, investments, money, and gold the RCC has. Avro Manhattan wrote an expose of the wealth and property holdings of the RCC/Vatican, and in his book titled “The Vatican Billions,” he states,

“The Vatican’s treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is just a small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant corporations of the country. When to that is added all the real estate, property, stocks and shares abroad, then the staggering accumulation of the wealth of the Catholic church becomes so formidable as to defy any rational assessment.”

“The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars.”

As for the office of Pope himself as a man, Rachel Donadio asked, When a Pope retires, is he still infallible? She wrote, “In transforming an office with an aura of divinity into something far more human, Benedict’s decision has sent shock waves through the Vatican hierarchy, who next month will elect his successor. But it has also puzzled the faithful and scholars, who wonder how a pope can be infallible one day and fallible again the next — and whether that might undermine the authority of church teaching.”

It already is. Italians are already despondent and doubting.
“The pontiff has long been the one stable element for Roman Catholic Italians in a modern state that has become a byword for political instability and flawed politicians. All that changed a week ago when Benedict announced he would be the first pontiff in 700 years to resign, causing alarm and despondency among many faithful in a country whose history has been shaped by the presence of the headquarters of the Church for 2,000 years.”

The world desperately seeks a strong leader, someone that they can count on to be there to bring the world through troubling times. And now 1.2 billion people have been rendered leaderless, the rug pulled out from under their feet. They have all been made more ripe to receive someone, anyone, whom they perceive to have answers and solutions.

Interestingly on February 15, Reuters reported that the Pope will be allowed to live inside the Vatican walls. The Vatican is a sovereign nation. The reasoning was that first, it is easier to guard the Pope inside the Vatican since the Guard already knows his habits, second, that if he retired say to a German monastery, for example, it might become a pilgrimage site, and third, a distant third the Vatican said, is that he’d be protected from prosecution.

In hindsight that distant third reason might not be so distant after all.

The conclave of 117 cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church is expected to start between March 15 and 18, about two weeks after Pope Benedict’s resignation Feb 28. Under the church rules, the conclave is to begin between 15-20 days after the papacy becomes vacant, to give cardinals time for the arrival in Rome, reports Zee News in India.

Scandal is not new to the Church. The pedophilia claims won’t go away. And last March 2012 it was noted by International Business Times that the Vatican was charged with money-laundering. The IB Times reported, “The Vatican bank is facing a possible money-laundering scandal after it emerged JP Morgan was closing one of its accounts due to a lack of information about the source of deposits, Italian newspapers report.”

The most interesting part of all this are the prophetic implications. First, the Lord our God is taking down leaders at an amazing rate. The Pope is the world’s most powerful man. He really is the most powerful and influential man on the entire planet, presiding over a sovereign nation (Vatican), having billions of subjects, immeasurable wealth, is said to be THE substitute on earth for Jesus (a claim to divinity), and being infallible in all his decisions.Yet he resigned abruptly,so suddenly the whole world was shocked. Just like Libya’s Qaddafi being deposed after 40 years and Egypt’s Mubarak after 30. Men who have been in power and seemingly held on to their position through many upheavals, suddenly caving in like a house of straw.

Secondly, it’s critical to watch the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) at this juncture in world history. If there is a scandal of magnitude that brings down the Vatican, it would leave a vacuum of unimaginable proportions. Make no mistake, the pope’s resignation, though not illegal in Vatican law, is definitely unprecedented. His decision opens the floodgates to all sorts of traditions being broken and doubts and questioning to begin. If compounded by a scandal, the effects will be very interesting to see.

Will the next pope (maybe the last pope) be the antichrist? The false prophet? None of the above? Will the Vatican be reduced in power and influence to such an extent that Islam becomes the dominant religion in the last days? Or will it be something else that prior to February 11 the world would never have suspected could or would happen?

Very interesting developments. Even if the arrest warrant turns out to be bogus, just the fuel it added to the very large fire is worth noting in itself. Please keep watching, These events in and around the Roman Catholic Church is without a doubt supernatural work of God. He is doing something. I praise Him for all His work and plans, known and mysterious!!

grace, pope, rcc, works religion

Why works-based faiths like the Catholic religion will not save you

Posted on February 12, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

My posts on the resignation of the Pope and the resulting discussion that the Roman Catholic Church is a false church has received more views than any post I’ve ever done, by at least double. Not only is it huge news that the Pope resigned, but it is news to many when someone declares flatly that the RCC is a false church and it promotes doctrines of demons.

(Left, Pope Pius IX, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal infallibility. He also defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, meaning that Mary was conceived without original sin. Previously, those doctrines were not an official part of Catholic dogma.)

Here are the three posts I’ve written about the RCC Pope, and the Prophecy of the Popes:

1. December 2011, Pope Benedict’s health failing, St. Malachy’s prophecy comes up again
2. February 2013, Pope Benedict resigned- will the next pope validate Malachy’s prophecy?
3. February 2013, Catholicism is not a Christian religion

The comments have been respectful for the most part. I have only had to delete a few out of hand for profanity or for not adding anything to the discussion (i.e. ‘You’re all nuts!” kinds of comments get deleted. At least tell us WHY you think we’re nuts…lol). Thank you all for reading and commenting.

In the comment section yesterday, someone had asked about how to witness to Catholics. It was a good question, and I responded. I thought I’d make my response be a post by itself. This is that post.

Any religion besides Christianity, which is to say, every other religion, promotes some form of works toward a person’s salvation. I say again, all other religions in some form or fashion are a works-based religion. How do I know this? Because there is grace, and works. Christianity is a grace based religion. Salvation comes because of the grace bestowed on penitents who believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection. He is the only God who can and who does bestow grace, absolve sins, and resurrect the dead. No other religious figure can do that because no other figure has risen from the dead. Therefore in the false religions, lacking the one thing that can actually save a person, the proponents of these false religions add works to their schema to cover the deficit.

In attempting to attain heaven by his own efforts, man forgets how holy God is and how lowly and polluted with sin we are. Attempting offer works to Jesus as an entry validation is like offering Jesus a filthy rag as your best effort. Isaiah 64:6a says-

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

Not to get too graphic, but the word for polluted garment is actually Hebrew for used menstrual rag. Believing we can get to heaven on our own works means when you stand before Holy God, and we all will, you will in effect hold out a used and crusty Tampax, and say “Here is a gift for you, Jesus, these are my works. Now I can go into heaven, right?”

Unappealing, right? God hates sin and cannot even look at sin or the sinner. He is angry over sin. He is personally angry with you by name, over your sin. (Exodus 4:14; 15:7; Leviticus 26:27-33; Numbers 11:1; 12:9; 22:22; 25:3; Deuteronomy 3:17; 29:24-29; Joshua 7:1; Judges 2:14; 2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Kings 14:15; 15:30; 16:2; 25:53; 2 Kings 13:3; 17:11; 23:19; 1 Chronicles 13:10; 2 Chronicles 28:25; Psalm 7:11; 11:4-7; Hebrews 10:27). (Right, Monstrance, a vessel used to show the consecrated Eucharistic host; Utrecht Museum, by Johan)

Get the idea? There is only His grace, and our works. His grace is pure and holy, and our works are a used tampon.

Buddhism, though seemingly altruistic in their promotion of good deeds toward others, is really at root a works based religion because one must work on one’s self before one can attain a state of nirvana. A Buddhist must work on their attitude toward worldly attachments, and once releasing all attachment to any self-desires, can then turn around and help others. Buddhism is an inward works based religion. I know I’m generalizing here, but you get the idea in broad strokes. A Buddhist must work on himself before attaining happiness and being able to help others.

Islam is the same but different. Allah’s grace descends upon the believer but the person must perform good works toward others. The entry into paradise for the Muslim is dependent upon a combination of grace and works. If the Muslim has performed more good works than bad, he’s in. However, the believer never quite knows where he stands…so the tension inside their heart is very heavy. To make matters worse, the Koran states that both good and evil come from Allah, and he is capricious. When you get to Allah’s Paradise gate good deeds may indeed outweigh the bad, but Allah may say “begone with you” anyway. The only sure way to please Allah for sure and make it into an Islamic paradise is to be a suicide martyr. And now you know why they line up for the job…

In Catholicism, works also figures in. God’s grace is upon the believer, but that grace is only an enabling function. It enables one to do good works and it is that which they will be judged as worthy or not for heaven.

In Christianity, we receive a free gift when God says, ‘you believe on the Son, therefore I declare you innocent of your sins, justified in My eyes.” (Titus 3:7). In the RCC, justification is denied.

If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Canons on Justification, Canon 9)

“If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema.” (Canon 14).

Anathema means excommunicated from the body of believers or it means cursed, usually both. The RCC does not come right out and say ‘you must work for salvation’ but that is what they teach. You can read here an essay outlining the key differences between Catholic and Christian doctrines.

One of the biggest burdens in all works-related salvation schemes, Catholicism included, is a secret, nagging fear and burden in the person that they may not be ‘doing enough.’ Mormons are particularly burdened with these secret thoughts, which they rarely verbalize, but are there. Catholics have these interior fears as well, because they are taught that they must maintain their salvation. As any sinner knows, even those who are thoroughly saved and rest on Jesus’s grace alone, we stagger with our conscience in knowing how desperately wicked we are. So any person depending on works in any way for their salvation will always fear they are missing the mark. Catholics are always worried. They have to be, they have no assurance of their salvation!

“If you could lose your salvation, you would.”
As John MacArthur replied once when asked about salvation, “if you could lose your salvation, you would.” That simple truth cuts right to the heart of works-based religions. Imagine the fear and burden of a Catholic wondering if they have recovered from their last sin enough. If they said enough hail Marys. If they will go to purgatory or heaven…

In witnessing to a Catholic, I think that focusing on the simplicity and perfection of grace alone will go a long way toward penetrating a Catholic’s mind and heart, because that is where the anxiety is, in my opinion. Humans simply do not have the perseverance to live a sinless life. Humans are not capable of accumulating enough resources to reach heaven. Only Jesus did that. People in works-based religions are always wondering, “Have I done enough?”

photo credit: John Steven Fernandez via photopin cc

In the faith that Jesus delivered to the saints once for all, HE is the one who did enough! We can have assurance of the perfection and completion of His work because God accepted Jesus as the sacrifice, raising Him from the dead. His grace is sufficient for all believers, no more works are needed, because as Jesus said,

“It is finished.”

John 19:30 records the last words of Jesus in His earthly ministry. It is finished means “As if he had said: “I have executed the great designs of the Almighty – I have satisfied the demands of his justice – I have accomplished all that was written in the prophets, and suffered the utmost malice of my enemies; and now the way to the holy of holies is made manifest through my blood.” An awful, yet a glorious finish. Through this tragical death God is reconciled to man, and the kingdom of heaven opened to every believing soul.” (Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible)

It is awful, as Clarke said, but it is simple. We only need to believe on the work of Jesus through the cross to be saved. It sounds so uncomplicated, doesn’t it? It is. The layers of works and tradition that the RCC has overlaid on this simple and awful-beautiful truth is the monstrous thing. Laying our works on His work is grotesque. Believe on the Son and be saved, beloved. How can one be saved? I will say again, using the words of the Holy Spirit,

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

cross photo credit: Christopher JL via photopin cc
rosary photo credit: Lawrence OP via photopin cc

catholicism, catholics, false religion, pope resigns, rcc

Catholicism is not a Christian religion

Posted on February 11, 2013 by elizabethprata

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:

Catholics worship Mary as a Queen of Heaven. They believe she intercedes for us in heaven. She does not. Jesus Christ is our intercessor. (Romans 8:34)
Rosary, a meaningless repetition of prayers which are worthless to God. (Matthew 6:7).
Selling forgiveness for money (indulgences)
Additions to and subtractions from the bible
Purgatory, a completely made-up notion. in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God’s grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.
Pope’s “infallibility”, earthly substitution for Jesus (‘vicar’ of Christ)
Priests forgiving men of sins. Shortly before His ascension, Jesus said to his apostles: “whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” (John 20:23). The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ was actually granting to the apostles the authority to forgive sins, and that the apostles passed on to their successors (supposedly the Roman priesthood) the same license to pardon sin. This position is false.
Different classification of sins (mortal, venial). FMI on the falsity of mortal and venial sins, read here
Deletion of second commandment. It says “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I The Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My Commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6 RSV)’ Obviously this presents a problem for the RCC, which indeed makes graven images and bows down to them. So they deleted that commandment.
Transubstantiation, the is the doctrine that, in the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and the wine used in the sacrament is changed into the substance of the Body and the Blood of Jesus. Not true.
Works & tradition related salvation, not faith alone

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)