Contrasting Catholic Dogma & the Bible, Part 1

Transcript

GRM 1143
09/27/2015
Contrasting Catholic Dogma and the Bible, Part 1
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

As you are aware most of the attention of our country has been focused on the coming of the Pope of the Catholic Church to the United States to address our governing leaders and then to conduct masses and meetings and go to the UN. Striking times. While I was gone this summer, I was reading material related to the time of the Protestant Reformation and what is sometimes called the Catholic counter reformation which we will refer to a little bit later. And just to see, here is a man who is a religious leader, why would he be addressing the political leaders of our country? But yet he is political as well as a spiritual leader.

Almost all the news I've watched or read has been favorable, in fact people can't gush enough about how wonderful he is. One person, I thought, brought an important point, and I'll mention it now and then we'll look at it in a little bit. As the commentator was a Catholic priest, and I wasn't watching it, I was listening, but it's a Catholic priest and the news person mentioned to him about how wonderful it is, the pope, and the changes he is bringing to the church. And the priest immediately corrected him and said, Pope Francis is bringing no doctrinal changes to the church. He believes and teaches the same doctrine that the Popes before him have taught.

I thought that was an important point of clarity because doctrine has not been raised hardly at all during this time. And some of what has been said has been misunderstood as though there has been a change in the Catholic Church and its dogma. So I just want to look at that with you and some of their teachings and where and why we disagree. The material I am using for the Catholic Church (sometimes criticism comes that we just quote from those who are critical of the Catholic Church) this is the catechism of the Catholic Church, I think it's the most recent. It was done in 1994 and it was done under the oversight of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who went on to become Pope Benedict who is the Pope Emeritus now. So this is official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. We also as there is time will reference the Catholic Encyclopedia and Roman Catholic works that are authorized by the church as being doctrinally pure and morally, have the imprimatur and the nihil obstat. Latin terms—nihil obstat, nothing objectionable; the imprimatur, it's something that can be printed. But here is what they say about this. The nihil obstat and imprimatur are a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free from doctrinal or moral error. So the priest or bishops or archbishop, in this case here one of this giving an imprimatur is an archbishop, it is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free from doctrinal or moral error. Now just as an aside, I'm always interested they add the next statement. It is not implied that those who have granted the nihil obstat and imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed. Now if it is free from doctrinal moral error and put your stamp on it, I can't quite understand why they don't have to agree with it. At any rate., So I do draw on that because it's a Catholic encyclopedia. So you can come here and look up Mary and it will give you a summary of the church's teaching on Mary or the mass or baptism or whatever.

One other work I will be referring to comes from The Creeds of Christendom edited by Philip Schaaf. It's three volumes, this is volume two. It's an interesting work, it contains all the creeds of the church down through its history. And the ones we will be interested in come from the 16th century, the 1500s. That's when the Protestant Reformation was really going, men like Luther and Calvin. The Catholics responded to the Protestant Reformation with the Council of Trent which met from 1545 to 1563, I believe. And then their decisions and so on are recorded. Now one thing keep in mind and I'll come and refer to this, sometimes you talk to people and they say if you refer to the Council of Trent or earlier doctrines or dogmas, they'll say the Catholic Church has changed, some of its doctrines have changed. So that's old stuff. I think it's important you understand Roman Catholic doctrine does not change. It has not changed, it cannot change. It, and the word they keep using, is irreformable, especially where the Pope speaks. Vatican II, it brought such changes to the church, but Vatican II changed no doctrines of the church.
For example the change was made that the mass did not have to be conducted in Latin any longer, it could be conducted in the vernacular of the people, their various languages. That's not a change in doctrine. The doctrine of the mass and transubstantiation was not altered one bit. It's the exact same doctrine that is recorded in the Council of Trent and its decisions.

Before we go further I want to look at something that we as evangelicals, Bible-believing Christians, I'm just going to use the word evangelical in the narrow sense that we would of biblical Christians, and the Roman Catholic Church. There is something that we'll start out agreeing on, there are points of agreement that we have with Roman Catholicism, but a foundational agreement. All religious activity is supernatural. We have spiritual forces at work, we see that with the present visit of the Pope. People who are non-Catholic, saw a non-Catholic being interviewed, he has written books, is very intelligent and is in his 60s says I've never experienced anything like it. But they are seeing an individual have the impact that this one has. It is supernatural. Now it is either supernatural because it comes from the one true and living God and the ministry of His Spirit or it comes from the devil and his demons who are promoting false religious activity. Those are the only two options. From what I read from Catholic theology they agree. Those who don't agree with their theology are anathema—devoted to destruction, cursed to hell. We would say those who don't believe the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone, that's the only way of salvation. So we are agreed.

I want to look at just a couple of passages, we're presupposing a lot. Go to John 14, this would be the ministry of the Holy Spirit, He is the Spirit of truth. Jesus said in John 14:16, “I will ask the Father, He will give you another Helper that He may be with you forever, the Spirit of truth.” And it is truth that is brought to man by the ministry of the Spirit, he is going to come in a special way. And it was this Spirit who inspired and instructed Old Testament prophets as Peter wrote—holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of God. Come down to verse 26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” So God communicates His truth by the ministry of the Spirit of God where that is truth, that's true worship. We would say that is the Scripture.

What is the other side? Come over to 1 Corinthians, we'll just take these in order through the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 10. And he started in 1 Corinthians 8 talking about idols and sacrifices to idols and food sacrificed to idols. Then in 1 Corinthians 10 as he wraps this up he tells them in verse 14, “therefore my beloved, flee from idolatry.” You come down to verse 19. “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?” The physical food that is sacrificed to idols is just physical food, nothing changes. The idol is just an idol. In Jeremiah 10 Jeremiah mocked the idols that were carved out of wood. And you cut down a tree and you use part of it for firewood or to heat your dinner and the other you carve into an idol and worship as your god. What kind of silliness is that? So an idol is just a piece of wood, a piece of stone and those things offered to idols are just physical things. But that's not the last word. Verse 20, “But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.” What is at issue is the spiritual worship that is going on. And all false worship is a worship of demons, it is a fellowship with demons. Look at the last part of the verse, “I do not want you to be sharers, become sharers,” fellow-shippers, “with demons,” become involved in their work. That's what false worship is.

Come over to 2 Corinthians 11, and we'll get here if I don't keep taking side trips in our study in 2 Corinthians, Paul says in verse 3, “I am afraid as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” You'll note, Satan deceived Eve, I am concerned he might deceive you. And then it's the teaching that is being taught. Where does it come from? If it's not truth from God it is error from the devil. So you come down to verse 13, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” Now note this, “Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves.” You'll note, these are the servants of the devil, false religious teachers disguised as servants of righteousness. “Their end will be according to their deeds.”

Come over to Ephesians 6:12, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.” You'll note, our struggle is against these spiritual powers. That is ongoing.

One other passage, come over to 1 Timothy 4:1, “But the Spirit,” this is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, “explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith,” depart from the faith. Note this, “paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” Now human instruments are used, just like the Holy Spirit uses human instruments to convey truth. So the devil uses human instruments to convey his error, his lies. They are called deceitful spirits promoting teachings or doctrines of demons.

Now keep this in mind, because otherwise we are impacted. You have to be impacted as you watched the response to the Pope. And it is overwhelming. I couldn't find any news commentators, well, to be objective we'll have to say the Roman Catholic Church has been the persecutor of those who disagree with them. Nobody said that, nobody mentioned as the Pope talked about how important it was that we spread our wealth and then he left Washington and went to New York to visit St. Patrick's cathedral and to appreciate the recent renovation completed at the cost of $175 million. See the church can take in money, and some of you visited South American and you can visit these cities and towns and poverty is characteristic of it, but there will be a majestic cathedral there.

Now we have to talk about who is right and who is wrong. The Roman Catholic Church, and I hope I read it if not this morning then tonight, says that evangelical Protestants are in error and when you are in error about salvation and the way of salvation, they have to be condemned to hell. We as evangelical Protestants, Bible-believing Christians, say we believe the Catholic Church is in error. And that means they are promoting a way to hell. So we both agree, spiritual forces are at work; we both claim to be representing the living God. We need to be careful we are not carried along by emotions. The Pope did not talk about the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, he talked about we all need to come together, we need to have religious freedom for everyone, we need to be concerned for the poor, the downcast, we need to welcome the immigrants. And these aren't the issues that I want to disagree with the Pope on, I can disagree with some of those, I can agree with some of them…whatever. But we have to come down to what distinguishes the Roman Catholic Church and those of us who claim to be Bible-believing Christians that the Roman Catholic Church says are anathematized and we see the Roman Catholic Church as in error.

This is a summary, and some of these I'll talk about and some of it I'll read from their writings and we'll see how far we get.

Roman Catholic Church is built on the magisterium and the liturgy. In other words when you hear the Pope talking about Christ and His sacrifice, His grace, faith in Him, we say that sounds like evangelical Christians. And we talk that way, that's where it is confusing. The more alike we are, the more difficult it is to recognize the error. That's why Paul said those infecting and affecting the Corinthian church were masquerading as angels of light. They were enough alike the truth. So the Roman Catholic Church, well, he's talking about the Gospel and we're bringing the Gospel to the world. Now you understand you start out with Christ, His sacrifice, we agree on grace and faith that is mediated. You don't get that directly. That is mediated, the best way is to go through Mary. Through Mary, the mother of God, that are strong on, she is co-mediatrix, co-redemptrix, so you go through her because Christ will always listen to His mother. So things are mediated, grace is mediated through her to us for our salvation.

But then we get down to the human realm and you have the Pope. And the Pope talked about spreading power, sharing power. But one of the commentators noted and it's in Roman Catholic doctrine, there is nothing to compare to the Pope for absolute power. What other religious system has one man? You understand no one, no cardinal, no bishop, no council of the church—Vatican I, Vatican II—no one can overrule the Pope. He has the final, last say. Then through him the grace that comes that brings salvation comes from Christ, through Mary, to the Pope. And with his authority you have bishops under him, and under the bishops are the priests. So those three main categories that they deal with in their catechism and so on. Now under the priests are the people. Now the important thing is, you do not have direct access to God's grace and His salvation by just going directly to Christ. That has to be mediated through the magisterium. It comes down to you, most contact will be with the priest. He has the authority from the bishop who gets it from the Pope to forgive sins. We have baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, those are the three foundational matters in the Catholic Church. You get baptized into the Church and that cleanses you from sin. There is no salvation apart from that, you have to be baptized.

Let me read from the catechism, the celebration is a mystery, the mysterium. This is the magisterium of the church and its liturgy. This is, they give you what the word liturgy means. It comes to mean a service in the name of or on behalf of the people. Through the liturgy of Christ our redeemer and high priest continues the work of redemption in and through His church. So you see the connection. They can talk about redemption, they can talk about the work of Christ. We would tell people you just bow your head, acknowledge your sin, place your faith in Christ. In the Catholic Church it is mediated through the church. Through the liturgy Christ our redeemer and high priest continues the work of our redemption in, with and through His church. It's coming down through that line.

The importance of sacraments. There are seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. The three I mentioned are the key and they mention that. The faithful are born anew by baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of confirmation and receive in the eucharist the food of eternal life. Now not saying the other sacraments are not important, but those are the three, the main ones. And you see the importance of the mass, the eucharist and the mass referring to the same thing. The eucharist, giving thanks, the blessing; the mass comes from a Latin word for mission, misial. After they had the meal when Christ did it they went out. Well, after partaking of the mass we go out to the world, so they call it the mass or the eucharist. So we're talking about the same thing. The Pope is going to celebrate mass in Philadelphia for 1.5 million people, they say, today. We saw the one that he celebrated earlier on his trip when he holds up the wafer. They have the cup and then people come and get the wafer.

Well you start out with baptism. Only baptism is the basis, again I'm reading from the catechism of the Catholic Church. Only baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, the door which gives us access to the other sacraments. Through baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God. We become members of Christ, are incorporated into the church. Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration. And they have a number of pages here about it.

You know the Catholic Church is adaptable and it will draw in practices. We would say they are connected with paganism but they state in here, in mission countries in addition to what is furnished by the Christian tradition, the Catholic Church, those elements of initiation rites may be admitted which are already in use among some of the peoples, as long as they can be adapted to the Christian ritual. In other words as long as you will accept the sacramental rites of the Catholic Church, you can bring in other things that you might be comfortable with in your religious practice. These sacraments are everything. They are called sacraments because they bring God's grace into your life and without them you are excluded from God's grace. That's why they said that baptism is the foundational one that provides the opportunity and opening for you, now, to partake of the other sacraments. And just to mention it, to put it in line, the sacraments can only be administered by the representative of the Pope. He is the Vicar of Christ, he mediates Christ to the creation. And so the priest can do it because he has received authority from the Pope. And this includes children. So here is the baptism of infants, and you know how important this is in the Catholic Church, it's important in Protestant churches, Lutherans. I've had parents call on the phone who were Lutheran, crying when their college-age student who had professed Christ was getting baptized here. We had them baptized as a baby in the church. In the Roman Catholic Church you are baptized once, that's it. Important.

Children have the need of the new birth in baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God. Now listen! The church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer baptism shortly after birth. If you don't get your newborn baby baptized quickly, they die, you've denied them the priceless grace of becoming a child of God. Now if they develop they'll add things and they say we can maybe, they'll baptize an aborted fetus. It may be dead but maybe God's grace will extend over to that. But it's all tied in baptism. Some of you come out of Catholic backgrounds and were saved as an adult. Then when you had children it becomes an issue in your family if you don't get the child baptized. Parents are terribly concerned, those kinds of things.

Now note this. It is only within the faith of the church that each of the faithful can believe. You can have faith, but it's only in the context of the Roman Catholic Church that that faith is really saving faith. So we begin to understand when we talk about saving faith and they talk about saving faith, we're not on the same page. They go on to say the necessity of baptism for salvation. Then they say the church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry into eternal blessing. That's it.

Now you see what we have, some of you are familiar with the Bible, in the New Testament times Paul had to deal with the Judaizers, the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15. They did not disagree that Christ was the Messiah of Israel. These are Jews; they did not deny you had to believe in Him, but they said that is not enough. They must be circumcised and then they must keep the Law. We're right back to the Judaizing heresy, only they say it's not enough to have faith in Christ, you have to be baptized and you have to be baptized into the Roman Catholic Church because that's the only area where faith is operative, where your faith really results in God's grace coming into your life.

We are justified by faith in baptism. Baptism not only purifies from all sin, but it also makes the neophyte a new creature, an adoptive son of God who has become a partaker of the divine nature, members of Christ, co-heir with Him, a temple of the Holy Spirit. The baptized receive from the trinity, the most holy trinity, sanctifying grace, the grace of justification. So they can say we are justified by faith, but there is no justification by faith apart from baptism. It's when you are baptized into the church that you have saving There is no grace outside this system, there is no salvation outside this system. This is crucial. I'll read to you from the councils, that they anathematize anyone who would say you could be saved outside the Roman Church. I thought it was interesting, one of the Roman Catholic officials being interviewed in connection with Pope Francis said well you know he has this whole vast group working for him at the Vatican. If he is going to travel someplace they research exhaustively that area, what's going on there, what should be said, what should not be said. He was saying it positively. You realize the Pope comes knowing what you better not get into and what will be acceptable to get into. So he comes to his various areas, would he stand up and say, I must tell you that unless you receive the sacraments that are provided only in the holy Roman Church, you are doomed to destruction, consigned to hell. No, it's come across soft—help the poor and needy, do these things and everybody, non-Catholics alike, they'll say whatever your beliefs, whatever your religion, pray for me. But he is the defender of the Roman Catholic doctrine that you can't get to God outside the Roman Catholic Church.

So why would you say these things? Why would you talk about, like we need freedom of religion when anyone who says there should be freedom of religion in Roman Catholic countries is guilty of heresy? I'll read that to you. All right, let's move on.

Baptism is birth into the new life in Christ. It is necessary for salvation, as is the church itself which we enter by baptism. This is why all this is form. This is where the Jews came to, they were still going through their sacrificial system, still remembering the holy days, still going and having the priest represent them. But they were living like the devil. In Isaiah 1 God says don't bring these sacrifices to Me anymore, it's a sacrilege. So here, that's why Roman Catholics, as long as you are baptized into the church, as long as you go take the sacraments, the other things don't matter. And they make clear here, we've had issues with Roman Catholic priests' conduct. The character and conduct of the priest doesn't affect your receiving grace through him. That's why the Roman Catholic Church is not quick to kick people out. People who thought that the Pope ought to come and condemn abortion, he's not looking to push anybody out of the church or offend anybody because as long as you partake of the sacraments and then don't go against the system, we can live with you. You may practice abortion, but that's all right, go to confession. And you understand, only the priest who has been given the authority by the bishop and the Pope can forgive sins. That's in their catechism here, we may get to it.

Then you come to the “sacrament of confirmation,” that follows baptism. In the Catholic Church it's when you get to the age of being responsible or accountable. The effect of the sacrament of confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit like it came on the Day of Pentecost. So you were saved and cleansed in baptism, now you receive the Holy Spirit in confirmation. And interesting, confirmation is only given once, these are single acts. It should be given by the bishop, not the priest, unless there are exceptional reasons. You see what they are doing, they tie the person into the system. You are reminded, you got baptized by the priest, you are confirmed by the bishop, you must stay in the system. And both of these receive their authority from the Pope. And this is why you don't have priests going out and starting their own Catholic churches. There is no authority, they are cut off from the ability to offer sanctifying grace to anyone. Not saying people don't get off track there, but by and large it keeps the unity of the church. But you can have a diversity of doctrine, and they do, and people sometime say, why don't they just kick them out of the church? Well, they don't need to. As long as he recognizes the Pope as the head and recognizes the sacraments of the church, these other things will work themselves out. That's the point.

Like baptism which it completes, confirmation is given once. For it, too, imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the character which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked the Christian with the seal of His Spirit, clothing him with power on high that he may be His witness. Now even if you don't get confirmed, you got baptized but you get off and your parents got saved and you never were taken up to be confirmed, that's all right, but your life is incomplete. And you need to get back to the church so you can get back on track and be sure that your salvation will be brought to completion. See, the Roman Catholic Church is a system of works, there is no final salvation. You get in by a physical rite that the church performs, but that's not permanent salvation. You must keep partaking of the grace, confirmation, that will give you the Spirit, that will move you along, and you should do penance before you do confirmation because that cleanses you from any sins you've done. Because baptism only cleansed you from original sin or sins you may have done to that point. You need to be cleansed and it's a work because you go confess to the priest and he's the only one with authority to declare you forgiven. Say this many Hail Mary’s, say the rosary so many times or do this work of contrition to pay the penalty for sin. And when you die you will still have some debts you owe, that's where you get into purgatory and why you can offer masses for the dead and so on. It's a works system from beginning to end.

The major sacrifice of the Roman Catholic Church is the mass or the eucharist. Note here what it is. Thousands of people have died at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church because they would not agree that the mass is the actual, literal sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ. As often as the sacrifice of the cross, in the mass here, by which Christ our passover has been sacrificed is celebrated on the altar, the work of redemption is carried out. The eucharist is a sacrifice, the sacrifice of the cross. Now this can only be done through the ministry of priests. That's what it says here, through the ministry of priests in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass, the same Christ who offered Himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner. It is a re-sacrifice of Christ. So what happens when the priest says those words over that bread and wine, an actual physical change takes place. The wine still looks and tastes like wine, but it is literally, truly the physical blood of Christ. And each of those wafers, and I won't try to get the exact reference, they say each individual wafer is fully and completely the body of Christ. You are not just getting a part of the body of Christ, you are getting the full body of Christ. And once it has been consecrated by the priest, it cannot change back to bread or cracker, whatever. So in other words, I don't want to be gross, but if you eat that wafer and all of a sudden you get sick and you throw up, you must sort through the wafer to get the wafer out and re-eat it. That's why at the front of the Catholic church, usually, they have what they call the monstrance or the sancratarium, all the wafers that have been consecrated by the priest have been turned into the literal, physical body of Christ. That can never change. They are placed in that little, we'll call it a box. That's why when Catholics go into the church they genuflect down, sometimes do the sign of the cross. That's because the body of Christ, Christ is bodily present there in the front. And then those wafers can be used to offer a mass at the last rites if someone dies or a special mass that might come up. Important, this is the issue.

The eucharist sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified, so they maybe enter into the light and life and peace of Christ. In other words a person dies, you can offer a mass because every time you are partaking of this grace, you are drawing grace, you are getting more like Christ. That's why it becomes an emotional experience, an environment of the emotion. That's why the cathedrals and the pomp and the priest coming down and the garments and everything, it conveys a feeling and a sense of you are in the presence of God.

And then they quote the Council of Trent. Some Catholics don't know their own doctrine. The Council of Trent is still in force and they can quote the Council of Trent on the doctrine. Because Christ our redeemer said it was truly His body that was offered unto these pieces of bread, it has always been the conviction of the church and this holy council now declares again that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of the blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation. The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration, endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. As long as that wafer that has been consecrated is in existence, it is fully and completely the body of Christ. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.

That's the heart of the system. The Pope will offer a mass and receive it directly, we've cut out intermediaries here. I'm in the presence of him offering the mass, there is greater blessings. And the blessings the Pope gives are special. Catholic Church gives indulgences, and in part of the Reformation there were battles over the sale of indulgences by the Catholics. Indulgences, you can get them for yourself or you can get them for someone who died. You can't get an indulgence for another living person, just for yourself and someone who died. They are only through the church. Indulgences cut off time in purgatory. Purgatory is where sins are purged, the consequences of sin. You can have a plenary indulgence or you can have a venial indulgence. A plenary indulgence is a full absolution from the sin, consequences of that sinful act. Venial is just partial so the priest may absolve you but also say there are certain things you have to do. When the Pope gives you a blessing, you get a plenary indulgence. So you'd like to get as many of those as you can, because you are taking off time in purgatory.

The mass: I mentioned indulgences, I just want to read this, then I want to read you something from the Council of Trent. We won't get any further than that. This treasury of grace for forgiveness, indulgences, includes the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, even pristine in their value before God. And then included are the prayers and good works of the saints. In this way they attain their own salvation and cooperate in saving their brothers. In other words Mary had so many overflowing good works and graces, they could be stored up and they are unfathomable, they are bottomless. Now you see we've gone beyond what Christ has done. And some of the greatest saints, they had extras, too, because they had so many good works they didn't need it, they had enough to take care of all the consequences of their own sins. So you have this treasury of the saints, treasury of Mary, and that has been given to the church. Don't come to me for it, I'm not a priest, I can't give it to you. Only priests can grant indulgence. So you can see everything is tied into the church.

I have to read a little more here. We came to study the Word, right? Now you have to know the difference, I'm bothered, there are leading evangelicals, I may read some testimonies tonight, who have converted to Catholicism because they were overwhelmed with the emotional impact of being in a Catholic mass. I realized I had to be able to eat the body of Christ, too. I have to say something else. This is a doctrinal heresy of magnitude. Jesus Christ is fully God, as God He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. As man, the God/Man in a physical body, that physical body is not omnipresent. He is seated in that body at the right hand of the Father in heaven. It is a lie from hell to say that He is bodily present. Their doctrine says this is the way we can have Christ bodily present with us. That denies the reality of the humanity of Christ. Even in a glorified body we will never be omnipresent, we are only one place. In His physical body Jesus Christ is seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father. Period. As God He is omnipresent. But to say that this wafer becomes fully and completely the real physical body of Christ, that's a lie. It's worse than a lie. And people say the church tells me it is, I'm partaking of the body of Christ.

Now here, this is from the Canon and Decrees of the Council of Trent. This is official Roman Catholic doctrine down to today. In fact if anyone denies that it is, they are anathematized. No one down until today does that. If anyone says that in the mass a true and proper sacrifice is not offered, let him be anathema, devoted to destruction, cursed to hell. If anyone says that the sacrifice of the mass is only a commemoration of the sacrifice consummated on the cross but not a propitiatory sacrifice, this is not a minor matter. The sacrifice of Christ in the mass is a propitiatory sacrifice. Remember 1 John? He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world. But propitiation is a sacrifice which has turned the wrath of God away from us. If anyone says that it is not a propitiatory sacrifice, that it ought not to be offered for the living and for the dead for sins, pains and satisfaction of necessity, let him be cursed to hell. I mean, some say we bash Catholics. Catholics bash us. That's pretty strong language. If you deny that the sacrifice of the mass is a propitiatory sacrifice, they are using the same language as the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. And it will take away sins. You see why you are trapped in that system. I may come to this in the reading here, if you say you are justified by faith completely, you are cursed to hell because that would mean you didn't need the ongoing sacraments of the church to guarantee your salvation.

These are serious matters. That's why I started out by saying these are serious matters to the church. If anyone denies that in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist the whole Christ is contained under each species and under every part of each species when separated, let him be cursed to hell. That is word for word for what we read in the catechism. Nothing has changed. Roman Catholic doctrine has not and will not change. So be careful, and some Roman Catholics don't know this, they say the church has changed. The doctrine of the church has not, cannot change.

The Pope talked about freedom of religion because Christians are being persecuted in Syria and places. It's interesting to me, he talks about this not when he's in South America when he talks about it about other countries. But here is what the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is. Anyone who says every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe true is heretical. You have no freedom of religion. And anyone who says that every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he truly believes, this is the quote from the papal syllabus of errors, these are errors that cannot be accepted or tolerated. But the Pope can come and say we need freedom of religion in our world. Talk to Roman Catholic religions who have ministered in South America, Latin America. My cousin was in France in Roman Catholic areas. He’s written a book on Roman Catholicism, how oppressed and strongly opposed you are. It's Roman Catholic doctrine. Anybody who says you are free to embrace and profess the religion you believe, that's an error that cannot be tolerated.

If anyone says we may entertain at least a well-founded hope for the eternal salvation of those who are in no manner in the true church of Christ, that' a heresy not to be tolerated. There is no hope of salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church. Whatever your religion, whatever you believe, pray for me. But he is a defender, a promoter of the Roman Catholic doctrine. The Roman Catholic doctrine says there is no hope and if you even say there may be a well-founded hope that someone outside the Catholic Church will be saved, that's a teaching that cannot be tolerated.

Another error that cannot be tolerated. If anyone says the church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion, that's an error that cannot be tolerated.

Now here is another interesting one, since the Pope talks about power and force. If anyone says the church has not the power of availing herself of force or any direct or indirect temporal error, that's an error that cannot be tolerated. That's why he's different when he comes and addresses the United States. We're going to Revelation 17. That's why the awe of the Pope here, the leaders of our country in awe with him, and Revelation says there is a coming together. And this apostate church will join together with the political leaders of the western world and we'll have the system that will be in existence for the first 3½ years of the tribulation. Couldn't believe it, there's the Pope addressing the Congress. Why would they have him? He's the Holy Father. The President of China comes and he's a back page news story. The Pope comes and talks, we ought to be caring for the poor, and everybody says we've never had anything like him. He is awesome, he is supernatural. You are right. I don't believe the Pope is the Antichrist, I believe he will work in concert with the Antichrist.

Here is another from the papal syllabus of errors that are not to be tolerated. In the present day, if anybody says in the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion be held as the only religion of the state to the exclusion of all other modes of worship, that's an error that cannot be tolerated. And here the Pope is talking about freedom of worship. The official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is that anyone who would say that it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion be held as the only religion of the state to the exclusion of all other modes of worship, that's an error and heresy that cannot be tolerated. Because see the Pope, and we'll read it maybe tonight, their doctrine says he has universal power. He's the leader of the church but he's God's representative on earth, and who rules the earth? God. Who is His representative on earth? The Pope.

And the last one. Anyone who says it has been wisely provided by law in some countries called Catholic that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own worship, that's an error and heresy that cannot be tolerated. You will not be allowed to come into a Catholic country and worship in your own way. That's why, the Pope comes and says we need freedom of religion in our world today, freedom to practice. Why? Because Catholics are being persecuted. When Catholics are in charge we have the true religion of Christ, now we don't tolerate any error. And they go back of course to the Old Testament. Did Israel tolerate false worship? No. And you mix all of this, it all comes down to, some Christians were hoping even that the Pope would address homosexual marriage and that. I was glad he didn't, though some people see it in what he said. I don't take anything from the Pope because we are coming from a totally different foundation. I'm coming from a foundation which they declare means I should be consigned to hell for eternity. I believe that salvation has been accomplished fully by the one-time sacrifice, by one sacrifice for all time He has perfected those who believe, in the book of Hebrews. They say anyone who teaches that should be devoted to destruction.

The foundation we come from is totally different. That's why you better be careful. The Pope is here. Some of you like conservative commentators, but you know how many of them are Roman Catholic. And the Speaker of the House who has just resigned, he's a Franciscan, was trained in Franciscan schools. He's been trying since the day he entered Congress to get the Pope to come and address Congress and then controlled by their religious convictions. We better be careful that we are clear on ours. It's not because we hate Catholics, we believe Catholic doctrine is wrong and like the Judaizing doctrine you believe that anyone who teaches any other Gospel than the one that has been revealed, he is anathema. The devil has turned that around and said anyone who doesn't hold and promote the doctrine that I teach should be anathema. But they will join him in the hell prepared for the devil and his angels.

I want to look at a few more things tonight with you.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Word. How important it is that we be solid and clear on the truths of your Word. Lord, we have taken time to look at some of the error promoted in this system, its popularity, and Lord we do that so we might be clear with the Gospel, that we might not be like the Corinthians who were in danger of being led astray from the purity of devotion to Christ. May we not minimize the power and influence of the god of this world, Satan, and the work that he accomplishes and the impact that he has. But, Lord, we are called to be faithful to You and be separated from the world and the world system and its religions and doctrines. May we be faithful. Thank You for Your Word, thank You for Your salvation. In Christ's name, amen.