For those who continue to insist and defend Catholicism, saying it is Christianity. I urge you to open your Bibles and put down the catechism. Start asking questions…to Almighty God and He will reveal the Truth you need to know. Catholicism smells like christianity, looks like christianity and tastes like christianity but it is FAR from True Christianity! It is on the road that leads to Hell. Repent and turn from your wicked ways and your idols and turn to the ONLY One who can save you, Jesus Christ! Please examine the scriptures while you have time, time is running out and the Lord will return soon for His True Bride! Repent and Turn to Jesus! WHEN YOU ARE DONE READING THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE…Check out WHY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IS NOT CHRISTIAN…

https://lightnercrew.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/why-the-roman-catholic-church-is-not-christian/

These are inserts of a sermon series by Dr.David Jeremiah on the book of Revelation.

So here beginning in chapter 17 as well as chapter 18 you have an insertion.  Inserted at this point is an important digression that details the nature of Satan’s world system that we already see emerging today and gaining momentum, a one-world government that will be ruled by Satan’s apes, the antichrist and the false prophet.  The Lord calls this coming empire “Babylon” which he also uses to describe the name of an actual city that will serve as the headquarters of the antichrist.  And, of course, this is an appropriate name given the exceedingly vile history of Babylon that ancient kingdom.

But, as we will see today, this will be a mystery, “a mystery, Babylon the great.”  It will be a system of government and religion that has not yet been revealed.  We see glimpses of it now, but it will not be fully known until the time of the antichrist during the tribulation. This is something, my friends, that is not to be confined to a particular geographic region of the past or even of the present. But this will be a system that exceeds anything that the world has ever witnessed, a system that was originally spawned at the tower of Babel and later evolved into the Babylonian Empire.

So Babylon should be understood as a symbolic name for Satan’s coming world system. We will learn that this empire will possess both a military to enforce its policies as well as a religious system. It will also have an economic system. It will be committed to the extermination of Christians, especially Jewish Christians who have come to Christ who will refuse to worship the Antichrist and whose promised kingdom Satan seeks to prevent at all costs.

To be sure, true Christians are despised today. But, my friends, as we learn from the Word of God they will be hated beyond anything we can imagine during the coming time of Babylon the Great.  The world will hate God during that time because, first of all, it will see how he slaughtered the Russian and Arab alliance that came down on Israel as we have studied the battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39.   They will also hate him because of the destruction that much of the world will have experienced by that time through the seal and the trumpet and even the bowl judgments.

According to Revelation six verses 16 through 17 even early on in the tribulation, in the first half of the tribulation, the world will be terrified of the triune God. Yet they will still refuse to worship the Lamb choosing instead to worship the beast, the antichrist.

So the satanically controlled antichrist and his false prophet will cause the nations of the world to believe in some kind of religious deception that will satisfy their demand for a supernatural explanation of all that is occurring and also offer them some kind of hope without any need to repent, without any need to submit to the authority of God. They will need some type of a religious system that will allow them to continue to satisfy their insatiable appetites for sexual immorality, materialism, idolatry and so forth. And, again, already we see the shadows of Bible prophecy casting themselves forward as we look at the world in which we live today.

So in chapter 17 the Lord will give us further insight into the character and eventually the judgment of the spiritual or religious facet of the kingdom that will be led primarily by the false prophet. And then in chapter 18 he will describe the political economic aspect of the kingdom led by the antichrist and God’s judgment upon him.

Now I wish to read to you the entire chapter here in chapter 17, 18 verses, so that you get a grasp of the Lord’s intentions here in this stunning description. And then we are going to focus exclusively this morning on the first six verses where we will see the character, the clout and the contempt of the final world religion that is depicted as a harlot.  So follow along as I read Revelation 17.

And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”

And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.  And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.

And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I shall tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.  The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will wonder, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.  Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.  And the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.  These have one purpose and they give their power and authority to the beast.   These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”

And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.  And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.  For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled.  And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”2

Now it is important for you to understand the history of ancient Babylon in order to grasp what the Lord is telling us here with respect to mystery Babylon to come.   That which, according to verse five, is called “the mother of harlots,” not just a harlot, but the mother of harlots, the one that actually birthed the blasphemous idolatries that will ultimately characterize this false religious system, this final mystery Babylon. So much of what I have to share with you this morning will be introductory.

First of all, bear in mind that this final world religious system will be thoroughly demonic, therefore irresistibly appealing to man.  It will be so vile and so blasphemous that the Lord describes Babylon’s sins as being “piled up as high as heaven,”3 in chapter 18 verse five.  This, I might add, will be the unholy counterpart to the bride of Christ.

Now allow me to trace the history of Babylon for a few moments. 1,656 years after God created Adam he judged man by a world wide flood.  All except eight people were killed in that flood. Those who, according to the Word of God, found favor in the eyes of the Lord.  Of course that was Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives.  And we know, according to Genesis chapter 10 verses eight through 10 that one of Noah’s sons, Ham, had a descendent named Nimrod and that Nimrod tried, according to Scripture, to build a kingdom called Babel, the Hebrew from of which is Babylon. And he did this in the land of Shinar according to verse 10 of Genesis 10.  That, by the way, is the region of Iraq today, the same region as was originally the place of the Garden of Eden, the land of Mesopotamia.

And, according to Genesis chapter 11 and verse one we read, “Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.”4 Obviously they were of the same family, the family of Noah. They all spoke the same language. And in verse two we read that “they journeyed east to the land of Shinar and they settled there.”  So, basically what we see happening in the biblical record is 100 years after the flood Satan tries to establish an earthly kingdom through a wicked man named Nimrod, Noah’s great grandson, Nimrod being a foreshadow of the antichrist.

We learn more about their motivation in verse four of Genesis 11.  “And they said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’”5

Now this is commonly called the Tower of Babel.  It was a ziggurat or a staged tower erected to facilitate idolatry. History reveals that on top of these ziggurats were the sign of the zodiac where priests would go to chart the course of the starts to determine the future.  It should be no surprise that we still have this satanic practice with us today, one that is absolutely forbidden for Christians to participate in, just another ploy to distract man from worshipping the one true God who has actually ordained the end from the beginning.

Now, we know that God was displeased with their idolatrous practice and their rebellion. He knew that it was thoroughly satanic.  So, according to verse seven we read the Lord saying this.

“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.  Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.6

Now, being confused, the people had to coalesce or unite around those that spoke their language. Imagine if all of the sudden you couldn’t speak the language of anybody around you and then finally you heard someone that you could understand and that is what they did. They gathered together and they went their separate ways to find a region upon the earth that could support their particular group.

But, dear friends, they took with them all of their idolatries, much of which historians have discovered was an ancient form of mother son fertility worship.

As we study a combination of myth, legend and history and archaeological finds and so forth, all of this points to a woman originally named Semiramis who was believed to be the wife of Nimrod.    But regardless of the veracity of the name, as many as 180 shrines dedicated to the goddess Ishtar were documented in ancient Babylon. So the idolatrous mother son fertility cult worship can be seen today in virtually every aspect of the globe because it was all spawned there and spread around the world.

In Greece she became Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Gaia.  In Rome she was Venus, Dianai, Minerva, Tera. In India she became the goddess Divaki with the infant Krishna as well as the goddess Isi and the infant Isuara.  In Egypt she was the goddess Isis with the son Horace.  In Asia she was known as Sybil and Iosis. The Scandanavians called her Desa. She is often pictured with a child.  The ancient Germans worshipped the virgin Hertha with a child in her arms and on it goes.

And as we see even biblically this “queen of heaven” also had a son named Tamuz.  Even Israel was later rebuked for worshipping the queen of heaven, the goddess Ishtar.  We read of this in Jeremiah chapter 44.  And they even were rebuked for worshipping her son Tamuz in Ezekiel chapter 8:14 which included forms of idol worship that involved the lowest, most vile and abominable forms of immorality, things that are unspeakable, idolatrous practices that they refused to abandon therefore God judged them.

Now it should be no surprise that the name “queen of heaven, mother of God” is still used by Roman Catholics to describe the virgin Mary. In fact, any honest student of Roman Catholicism will quickly see that the papacy and the Roman Catholic system is far more Babylonish and Jewish than it is Christian.

Historically we can see this Babylonish mother of harlots eventually settled in Rome and when Constantine conquered Rome around 300 AD he mixed a perverted form of Christianity with the pagan Babylonish myths of Rome, mixed them together, all of that paganism to form the Roman Catholic Church.  They also mixed much of Judaism with it. Therefore the altars and the robes and all the things of the Pharisees can be easily traced to various facets of Judaism.

And during that time the famous historian Eusebius, which was a follower of the Church Father Origen, taught that the Church which is now the Roman Catholic or Roman universal Church was the new Israel, that it had permanently replaced the Jew. In fact, Constantine even made it a crime to convert to Judaism. And, ultimately Constantine united the new Roman Empire with the new Roman Catholic Church in an effort to promote loyalty and unity among the citizens.

So this mixture of Babylonian paganism and aspects of Judaism and a distorted form of Christianity became the Roman Catholic Church. It literally became the glue that held the early Roman Empire… the Holy Roman Empire together. And to this day Roman Catholics ultimately worship Mary, the holy mother called the “queen of heaven.” In fact, the coat of arms of Pope John Paul II bears the letter “M” which stands for Mary and embroidered on the inside of his robes is the Latin phrase “totus tuos sum Maria” which means “Mary, I am all yours.”

History is replete with documented evidence of popes who were notoriously evil.  And, of course, this is all thoroughly pagan. It is rooted, once again, in ancient Babylon and these popes are in many ways prototypes of the antichrist.  If you want to read some of this, read Vicar’s of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy by Peter De Rosa who was a former Jesuit. The same type of vileness can be seen even in the recent scandals of the Roman Catholic priesthood.  Again, the Roman Catholic Church is Babylonish at its core. It will continue to be a major player in the religious system of the antichrist and the false prophet.

I might add that it is staggering to me to see how many evangelicals who claim to be Bible believing Christians are trying to get people to believe that somehow the Roman Catholic Church is just another brand of Christianity.  People who are desperate to see us all just kind of get along.  “Let’s just set aside these minor doctrinal differences.”  Maybe you have read of this movement, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together.”

It is astounding to me.  It is beyond the purview of our study here today for me to elaborate on the difference, but, dear friends, they are vast.  They are vast. Have you not studied the five solas of the Reformation? Have you not studied the Reformation?

At their famous Council of Trent in 1543 they said this, quote, “If anyone says that after the reception of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged by the person’s own suffering either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema,” which means let him be damned.

Well, beloved, then if you believe the gospel you are damned according to that. People say, “Well, they don’t still believe that.” Oh, wrong.  This was once again affirmed at Vatican II in 1965.

Beloved, grace is at the very core of the gospel.  The Roman Catholic system utterly eviscerates grace.  It says that it is faith plus works. It is grace plus works.   It is not Scripture alone. It is Scripture plus tradition.  And on and on it goes.

It should be no surprise that the Roman Catholic Church is positioning itself today at the very center of the current movement towards globalization and an emerging world government. In fact, as I mentioned to you in an earlier exposition, in a recent papal treatise called “Charity and Truth” given by Pope Benedict XVI just prior to the meeting at the G8 nations in Italy this July he stated that there is an urgent need for a, quote, “True world political authority to manage world affairs,” end quote.

In fact, the New York Times picked up on this and noted in their July seventh edition that the Pope’s controversial statement clearly endorsed a new world economic order. The Pope did warn, however, that such an order could, quote, “produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature,” end quote.  Boy, he got that right. It will produce that, that of the antichrist and the false prophet. So, once again, beloved, we see the events of prophecy casting their shadows forward.

So out of the Tower of Babel, out of that complex of all these pagan religions we find all of the religions today that are apostate, whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism, Shamanism that I ran into so much in Siberia, Islam, whatever it is. They were all birthed by the “mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth” of ancient Babylon.

After Babel, you may remember, that the great empire of Babylon was built by Nebuchadnezzar right there in Iraq, the cradle of civilization.  It is interesting how it all began there and it will all end there.  This remains the most hostile region in the world in its vicious hatred of God’s covenant people the Jews and certainly the true Church.

So here in Revelation 17 the world or the Lord warns that just before the end of time, before he returns history is going to come full circle. He is telling us here that all of these false religious systems will have, shall we say, a family reunion. They are all going to come home to momma. They will all be rolled into one religion (which will ultimately be the worship of the beast) that is personified as a harlot.

Now this also helps explain why politicians and world leaders today are united in trying to come up with a political system as well as a religious system that brings us all together.  We see this in the sad historical progression of the Billy Graham crusades.  I have been studying that of late because I have been so disappointed with where this has ended up. After years of trying to appease the liberals and the Catholics and unite them in some kind of grand church evangelical unity, Graham and his people finally succumbed to the very liberalism that he sought to influence. By the way, we should always remember, dear friends, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. It is never vice versa.

A few years ago Graham said to Robert Schuler, and I quote, “I think that everybody that loves Christ or knows Christ whether they are conscious of it or not, they are members of the body of Christ whether they come from the Muslim world or the Buddhist world or the Christian world or the non believing world, they are members of the body of Christ because they have been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts they need something that they don’t have and they turn to the only light that they have and I think they are saved and they are going to be with us in heaven.”

To which Dr. Schuler replied, quote, “What I hear you saying is that it is possible for Jesus Christ to come into a human heart and soul and life even if they have been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible.  Is that a correct interpretation of what you are saying?”

Dr. Graham replied, “Yes, it is because I believe that.”

Well, examples such as this abound today.  Indeed, the world is being prepared, beloved, for a Babylonish whore, an apostate religious system that will promise to bring all of the world’s religions together under one monolithic banner of ecumenism, a demonic system that will eventually lead to the sole worship of the antichrist.

Now let’s examine the text where we will discover three things the Lord reveals about this religious harlot.  Again, keep in mind that harlotry is a biblical metaphor used to describe a false religion or those who commit spiritual fornication with some kind of apostate religious system.

First let’s notice her character, her intoxicating seduction in verse one.  “And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here, I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.’”7

“Sits on many waters.”  What does that mean?  Verse 15 explains it. “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.”8 So, in other words, this is emblematic of the vast universal influence she will have on the people of the world which will also include the rulers of the world, verse two. “…with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”9 “Those who dwell on the earth” is a description that John uses throughout Revelation to describe unbelievers.

So the world will become inebriated, if you will, with her deceptions.  This imagery of her intoxicating effect upon the world is drawn from Jeremiah’s description of ancient Babylon as we read in Jeremiah 51 verse seven.  “Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, Intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; Therefore the nations are going mad.”10 So this coming religious system will be so seductive that she will enjoy world wide popularity encompassing all of the social strata of the nations, transcending all of the cultural and ethnic and language barriers.

Now, like all apostate churches down through history she will align herself with the political power brokers of the nations who will need her as much as she will need them.
Jump down to verse four. We will see more of this.  We learn more of her character. “And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.”11

So here we see her depicted in the robes of royalty. She is adorned with all of the trappings of luxury and wealth.  Here she is flaunting the success of her whoredom as an expensive prostitute would do.

Beloved, I might add that these are always the trappings of a ritualistic apostate church.  As I think about it, what a contrast to the attire of the bride of the Lamb that is given to her by God in chapter 19 verse eight where we read she is given these garments, “to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”12

Now her repulsive arrogance and wickedness are also displayed in what she holds in her hand, verse four.  “…having in her hand a gold cup.”13 Here like all prostitutes she is depicted as intoxicating her victims with the wine of pleasure and debauchery.  But like the woman described in Proverbs 7:10 as the one, “Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart,”14 we know that all who will fall victim to her seduction will perish even, again, as Proverbs seven verse 26 says:

For many are the victims she has cast down, And numerous are all her slain.  Her house is the way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death.15

Now, it is for this reason that the Lord describes the deadly contents of her cup in verse four. He says that it is, “….full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality.”16 The Holy Spirit has used the word “abominations” in other places in Scripture, especially in the Old Testament and there it is used to describe the blasphemous practices of idolatry that are reprehensible to God.  Yet what we see here in the prophecy is that this will be the formula of the brew that the world will guzzle as they fall prey to the harlot church.

And for this reason she has a name on her forehead. And this is probably, probably what John sees. We can’t be dogmatic here.  But probably what he sees is this name written across a headband because in those days the prostitutes wore a large headband scarf around their forehead.  In verse five we read that, “Upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, ‘BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’”17

Once again, I stress. This is a mystery yet to be revealed that will eventually reveal her true identity, an identity associated not only with a great city as we read in verse 18 of chapter 17, but also this immense false religious system inspired by Satan and utterly opposed to Christ and all who belong to him.

So this is an idolatrous system first birthed at Babel. This is the character of the woman.  But notice what happens next in John’s vision.  In verse three we read that, “He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness,”18 literally a place of desolation, probably symbolic of her eventual demise.  And he says, “And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.”19 And here, secondly, we see her clout, her intriguing power and influence.

Now the imagery is most insightful here.  Won’t you notice that the woman is on top of the scarlet beast, which is the antichrist according to chapter 13 verse one.  And scarlet is symbolic of royalty. Recall how the wicked men around Jesus placed a scarlet robe on him at his crucifixion mocking him as King of the Jews. But scarlet is not only a symbol of royalty in the Bible, but also of luxury. It is also a symbol of sin and blood.

So we also see that this woman is riding the beast, symbolic of her clout, her influence on him as well as his support of her; albeit temporary because we know that the antichrist and the false prophet will need each other for a while.

But remember. The beast will need to offer a desperate, a confused world some kind of supernatural explanation for all that is happening, all the cataclysmic judgments. They are seeing the invincible power of the two witnesses. They are seeing the angelic preachers preaching the gospel flying in mid heaven. They are seeing the miraculous deliverance of many of the Jews into the wilderness and obviously they are seeing the cataclysmic judgments upon the world so they need an explanation and this church will give it to them.

So the beast will support the harlot till he no longer has any use for her and then he will discard her as men do with prostitutes.  And then he will demand that the world worship him alone as we read in verse 16.  “And the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.”

Now, notice also in verse three the scarlet beast or the antichrist is “full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.”20 These blasphemous names on the beast are titles of self-deification that he has attached to himself, titles that oppose the true Christ, that demands that the world used to worship him. And, again, this underscores the depths of his blasphemy. And “the seven heads” represent seven consecutive world empires in history. We will study this more when we look at verses nine through 11. But these will include that of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and then the final empire of the antichrist.

And the text also demonstrates this symbiotic relationship between these satanic empires and their religious harlots that have been used down through history to oppose Christ and all who belong to him. And we have seen similar alliances in our lifetime.  You can recall even with Japan and the emperor worship that bolstered that whole political movement. You can see it today with Islam in Iran and so forth. So the future alliance between the woman and the beast will be nothing new.

And the “10 horns,” according to verse 12, represent “ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.”21
So these will be political leaders, probably of various countries that will be a part of the confederacy of the antichrist.  These will be kings who will be subordinate rulers with him for only a short period of time at the end of the tribulation just prior to their demise at Armageddon.

So the Lord reveals to John the character and the clout of the woman and then finally her contempt, verse six. “And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.”22

The idea of being drunk with blood was a concept used by ancient people that we all still understand to this day. It describes a person that is utterly intoxicated with violence. It describes one who is consumed with the shedding of blood like a drunkard who is out of his mind.  And this will characterize the final apostate Church, their utter contempt for Christ, their hatred for all who belong to him.  And the whole spectacle was so powerful, so staggering that John says, “When I saw her I wondered greatly.”23 In the original language it literally says, “I marveled a marvel.” It is an overwhelming scene.

Well, while any of us would equally marvel at such a spectacle, we are not really that surprised because of what we see in the world today.  We can already see the political, economic and military components of a satanic Babylon beginning to emerge. The world’s economies are teetering on collapse. I saw that first hand in Russia. That is why they are so desperate to do business with Iran. That is why they hate the United States and Israel.

And, of course, the only answer is going to be a one world monetary system leading to a one world government. The nations of the world today are either plotting some kind of violence upon another nation or they are cowering in retreat like the United States. The people of the world are afraid. They are confused. They are angry. They are immoral. They are materialistic. They are idolatrous. They are haters of Christ. And they are fundamentally opposed to the gospel.  They are poised to follow a charismatic leader who will offer them change they can believe in.

We have already seen that today, people will believe absolutely anything. We can also see the seduction of “the mother of harlots” gaining influence in all of the religions of the world.  We now have what Michael Horton has aptly labeled in his recent book, a  “Christless Christianity, the alternative gospel of the American church.”

Today we have an American church that is more about moral and political crusades than proclaiming the gospel of grace.  The Church today is being inundated with various forms of contemporary evangelicalism that is utterly bereft of Bible doctrine.  Not just in liberal camps, but also in conservative camps.
You can go today, dear friends, into virtually any Christian bookstore and as you walk in they will have the best sellers right there in front of you. And I challenge you to do this because I did this just recently and I saw this. You can go in and you will find the man- centered gospel of the purpose driven church. If you don’t like that you can look over and you can also find the blasphemous gospel of prosperity theology. And if you don’t like that you can find the utterly eviscerated gospel of the emergent church all on one shelf. But you will be hard pressed to find in our Christian book stores today books that are truly, biblically, doctrinally sound that uphold the gospel of grace.  In fact, many times when I call the larger bookstores to look for books that I want to read, they say, “Well, that is on the B or the C list. We don’t carry those, but we can order that for you.”

And Christians who believe the gospel are being shouted down, are being marginalized and being called narrow minded.  They want us all to come together whether we are Muslim or Jew or Buddhist, whatever it is. “We all worship the same God. We are all people of faith.”

And one day soon, dear friends, this will be accomplished in mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. Dr. David Jeremiah

Now if you have any catholic family or friends PLEASE do not let them continue in darkness. Share the Truth with them that they may be saved. If you love them enough you wouldn’t care how offended they may get. The Word of God is a double edged sword. When it pierces it goes to the very core. That may be needed to pull someone who is in total darkness. I’m praying for the catholics who are truly being deceived, and to those who hang on to your idolatry, false teaching and paganism…WOE to you when the Lord returns!!!

Rapture

Wikipedia Definition:Ecumenism or oecumenism now mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater religious unity or cooperation. In its broadest sense, this unity or cooperation may refer to a worldwide religious unity; by the advocation of a greater sense of shared spirituality across the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Most commonly, however, ecumenism is used in a more narrow meaning; referring to a greater cooperation among different religious denominations of a single one of these faiths. The word is derived from Greek οἰκουμένη (oikoumene), which means “the inhabited world”, and was historically used with specific reference to the Roman Empire. Today, the word is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice. Within this particular context, the term ecumenism refers to the idea of a Christian unity in the literal meaning: that there should be a single Christian Church.

People of God does that not sound like the very prophecy that God gave us about a One World Government, One World Religion under One Leader? This unity is needed if ONE man is going to control everything. We are treading very dangerous waters when we say that we all have a common purpose when speaking of Catholics, Hindu’s,  Jehovah’s Witnesses,Muslims and Christians. We DO NOT have a common purpose! These are very different religions all together! We are NOT brothers and sisters in Christ! Christians need to wake up and stop sleeping on the tracks! You are just going along with what your pastors/teachers are feeding you! Open you bible and may the Lord Jesus open your eyes for what He is about to reveal. Godspeed!!!

A woman once wrote to John MacArthur and she said she thought Christianity was fine but frankly she was in to Zen. And she liked to listen to Christian radio, she says, because quote: “The music soothed…smoothed out her karma.” But she said MacArthur interrupted that karma because He was too narrow minded and too minded toward other religions. So she wrote to encourage MacArthur to be more broad minded. And she said, here’s a quote, “God doesn’t care what you believe as long as you believe. God doesn’t care what you believe, she says, as long as you’re sincere.” She went on to say, “All religions…all religions lead ultimately to the same reality, it doesn’t matter which road you take.”

Now I understand it’s political correct to have this kind of lattitude. I understand it’s political correct to not say your religion is right, and your faith is right and you believe right and everybody else is wrong. That doesn’t fly today, does it, in a post-modern world disinterested in truth?!!! The great goal of post-modernism is that everybody is accepted no matter what it is that they believe and they certainly have a right to believe that. And who are you to come along and say you have the truth? We all know there is no such thing as real truth, it’s only a matter of preference, whatever makes you feel better is fine for you to believe. But don’t tell me it’s the truth and everything other than that is error. That’s not popular. Now that kind of indiscriminate view of truth, or a view of non-truth is so pervasive that it is literally infecting evangelicalism and people are now saying that there are folks, as I said earlier, and all over the world and tucked off into little corners who never will know the truth and God will take them to heaven any way.

Ecumenical Jihad, The Book…

Jihad is a holy war and the writer of the book, Peter Kreeft is a Catholic apologist. He is saying that if we’re going to win the holy war which is the war for the culture, if we’re ever going to get the world to be more moral and get the world to be behaving itself better and end the wars and the crime and all the rest and get a moral world, we’ve got to fight that holy war together so we have to get ecumenical, in essence we all have to get together. We can’t do it alone. So he says in the book, we have to recognize that we’re really all God’s children, we’re all going to…down the same road to the same heaven. And he writes the book in a very clever way. It opens up with him surfing in California, I guess, and he gets turned over by a wave and he hits bottom and has an out-of-body experience. He goes to heaven. And when he goes to heaven he’s amazed to find out when he arrives in heaven he sees Buddha, in whom anybody would recognize, I suppose, he’s a rather unique looking character. No doubt he didn’t have too long to discover who this was and he meets Buddha and he says, “What in the world are you doing in heaven?” I mean, Buddhism is not Christianity. What are you doing? He says, “Well, you know, I was in to contemplation, I was into peace and I was into tranquility and what I didn’t know about Jesus God sorted out when I arrived.” And then he went a little further and he ran into Mohammed and he said, “What are you doing here? You just believe Jesus is another one of the prophets like Mohammed. What are you doing here, how did you get here?” And he said, “Well, we were into morality.” In fact, Kreeft says in his book that Muslims are better Christians than Christians because they don’t fornicate, adulterate, commit homosexuality and other things…it’s against their standards so they tend to do it less than people who claim to be Christians do and so they’re actually better Christians than Christians. And Mohammed says…What I didn’t know about Jesus, God straightened out when I arrived. And he goes a little further and he comes across some Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus either but they were worshiping the true God, the God of the Old Testament and that was good enough for God because they were worshiping Him, the true God. And what they didn’t know about Jesus they found out when they arrived in heaven. And then he ran into a group of atheists. And the atheists were searching for truth, and since God is truth they were really searching for God and that was good enough for God. So they were there, too. And Peter Kreeft’s point is that look, when we get to heaven we’re going to find each other there anyway, why are we fighting down here? Let’s all get together and win this war.

Well, toward the end of the book, I’m going through it rather rapidly, he says, “Now we need a general, we need a great leader to lead us if we’re going to fight this war…getting all the Muslims, and all the Buddhists, and all the Jews, and all the atheists, and everybody else together. And there were others as well. And we’re going to all get together, we have to have a leader.” He says, “There’s one great leader, the great winner of unwinnable wars.” He calls him, “The Pope, and he’ll be our leader and we have to have an internal power and so we all have to devout ourselves to Mary. Mary is the great spiritual power, the great spiritual source. So we’ll all get together, we’ll all worship Mary, we’ll have the Pope as our leader. We’ll all embrace and we’ll win the jihad.”

And you say, “Well, that’s pretty bizarre stuff?” Well what is even more amazing is on the back is an endorsement and the endorsement is by Chuck Colson and this is what it says, on the back of the book. “Peter Kreeft,” the writer, “is one of the premier apologists in America today, one of our most valiant, intellectual warriors,” end quote.

Peter Kreeft is a deceiver and a liar. He’s not one of our most or premier apologist. What blasphemy! And even more shocking was a quote from J.I. Packer who talks about the book and then asks at the end of his little blurb, “What if he is right?”

Are we asking that question? Is he right? Is everybody going to heaven no matter what they believe? Is there something wrong with this picture people???? If the spirit of God dwells in you, you are saying right about now…what in the world is this man teaching??? Let me answer that for you friend…one world religion based on the “POPE” ummm that would be catholicism and the worship of Mary. He is teaching there is No TRUTH in the word of God therefore our main concern is that we ALL come together and just have a modern utopia on earth. He is saying as I have heard MANY catholics imply that the mean justifies the end. Is this what the Bible teaches??? Do you honestly believe Jesus would go against HIS HOLY Word to make YOU happy by creating a “better place on earth”, did he not say…you will be persecuted, face opposition and even death? Are you kidding me? We just managed to save the whole universe without the the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and without leaving the room. How amazing! Now that is one big miracle!!! 🙂

John MacArthur on ecumenism
“We are one body…one body. Not at the expense of truth and not at the expense of iniquity, we
do not unite around confusion, we unite around the truth. It is a unity built on truth. It is the unity
of the faith…the unity of the faith, as well as the unity of the Spirit. It is that unity which belongs
to us because we possess the same life of God…the same living Christ…the same Spirit ofChrist, as Paul identifies Him in Romans 8.It is the unity of a common understanding of
Scripture and the Word of God.

There is a drive today in evangelicalism…and what a bland term that has become. But there is
a drive in evangelicalism for an ecumenism that ignores sound doctrine, that overlooks error
and accepts even what we would deem as heresy. There is a kind of evangelical ecumenism
that says we’re all one and we need to enjoy one another without regard for any of our doctrinal
differences. That is a false and unbiblical and displeasing unity, if indeed it is unity at all in the
sense that it dishonors and displeases the Lord.
There is another kind of striving for unity that wants to disregard iniquity and embrace
everybody no matter whether they are walking in obedience to the Word of God or not,
overlooking their sin and their iniquity.
But quite the contrary. The Scripture says if there is someone in your midst, according to Titus
chapter 3, teaching error, if there is a heretic there, admonish him once, admonish him twice
and then put him out. He’s forfeited a right to lay any claim to acceptance within that unity. And
if there is a brother or sister in iniquity, you go to him or her and you go through a process
calling them to repentance. And if they do not repent, you put them out. And the Apostle Paul
reminds the Thessalonians of what that’s like. He says this in 2 Thessalonians 3:6, “We
command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you stay apart, or keep aloof,
from every brother who leads an unruly life, not according to the tradition which you’ve received
from us.” That tradition not being some rabbinic tradition, but that tradition established by the
revelation from God.
If you have someone in your church who is teaching error, you cannot have unity with that
individual. If you have someone who is leading an unruly or sinful life, you cannot have
fellowship with that individual. So what we’re talking about here is the pursuit of the true unity of
the Spirit that belongs to those who surround the truth and affirm it and who live godly lives.”

As believers In Christ we are set apart, we Can NOT stand with hindus, muslims, catholics, jehova’s witness and call our selves brothers and sisters in Christ. That is NOT what God says over and over throughout the Bible. I’m amazed of how many people are falling into deception because they do not study the Bible and this movement sounds great and promises to win Jihad thus fixes all the problems we have in the world today. Destruction IS going to come, you can not stop it, why? Because it is in the prophetic book of Revelation in the Bible. God is not a liar and does not change his mind. Everything that is happening right now has been foretold. People are being deceived and are scared and even  threatened or intimidated at times by their own churches to keep silent for the sake of unity, not to sound politically incorrect or offend anyone with TRUTH…the very churches that you would not dare question any teaching in fear of retribution and even “punishment” or as they may call it “restoration”…let me restore you sister or brother because you have fallen! LOL . I’m sorry but my God is not a fluffy wuffy, cuddly bear, let’s all sit around the fire love one another and sing Kumbaya! I serve a HOLY HOLY HOLY God! God is will not compromise his HOLY word to make you feel all warm and fluffy inside and neither WILL I! I would be deceiving people if I candy coated my messages. I refuse to be a vessel of satan to spread deception, so if you take offense to what I write look in the bible and check ALL the scriptures when Jesus dealt with fasle teachers about false teaching… Did he say..”ohhh you have such good intents, but you know this is not quite right”??? NOOOOOO!

He saidMatthew 12:34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”

If we are to be more like Jesus everyday until’ we meet him face to face we are to expose false teachings and bring light into what is very dark! 2 Cor 10:5-6 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.”

It is as simple as this, if you are not ready to lay your very life down you CAN NOT be his disciple!

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” He is not saying that He requires that of every believer…He may or may not. The truth is that if you are not willing to lose everything you have to follow Christ, you CAN NOT be his disciple. If you wont speak truth because of fear or concern that you wont be liked, then follow the example of our Savior…was he received well when He spoke truth against the religious leaders of His time? NO what did he get? Crucifixion! Why? Truth offends! He didn’t come to make you happy or healthy or wealthy! He came to save YOU and if he did NOTHING else HE has done more than we deserved!

John 14:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain my own ways before him.”

Ecumenism embodies the very spirit of the Anti-Christ! We need to start opening our eyes and following the Word not to be tossed to and fro with everything around us. Our anchor must hold within the Veil. There is ONLY ONE way to heaven and that is through the Death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” You really think he would have lied and said there is ONLY one way to the father if there are many ways? If you do you just called Jesus, God a liar and therefore the whole Bible is a heresy. And that is in itself the spirit of the Anti-Christ!

It is so interesting to me how people always try to find something wrong with the Bible, to catch God in an error. The beauty of it is that you will NEVER find an error in the Bible. For a Holy God doesn’t make mistakes!

The First Man…Adam

Thus, there was only one man at the beginning—made from the dust of the earth “Genesis 2:27 . This also means that Cain’s wife was a descendant of Adam. She could not have come from another “race” of people and must be one of Adam’s descendants. For only those who are descendants of Adam can be saved.

The first woman…Eve

In Genesis 3:20we read, “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.” In other words, all people are descendants of Adam and Eve—she was the first woman. Eve was made from Adam’s rib (or side) (Genesis 2:21-24)—this was a unique event. Jesus (Matthew 19:4-6) and Paul (Ephesians 5:41)use this historical and one-time event as the doctrinal foundation for the marriage of one man to one woman.Also, in Genesis 2:20, we are told that when Adam looked at the animals, he could not find a mate—there was no one of his kind.All this makes it obvious that there was only one woman, Adam’s wife, at the beginning. There were never any other women around who were not Eve’s descendants.

Cain’s brothers and sisters

Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve recorded in Scripture (Genesis 4:1). His brothers, Abel (Genesis 4:2) and Seth (Genesis 4:25), were part of the first generation of children ever born on this earth.Even though only these three males are mentioned by name,Adam and Eve had other children. In Genesis 5:4 a statement sums up the life of Adam and Eve—“And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were eight hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters.” This does not say when they were born. Many could have been born in the 130 years (Genesis 5:3) before Seth was born.During their lives, Adam and Eve had a number of male and female children. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that, “The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters.”The Bible does not tell us how many children were born to Adam and Eve. However, considering their long life spans (Adam lived for 930 years—Genesis 5:5), it would seem reasonable to suggest there were many! Remember, They were commanded to “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).

The wife…Cain’s

If we now work totally from Scripture, without any personal prejudices or other extra-biblical ideas, then back at the beginning, when there was only the first generation, brothers would have had to have married sisters or there would be no more generations!We are not told when Cain married or any of the details of other marriages and children, but we can say for certain that some brothers had to marry their sisters at the beginning of human history.

But what about God’s Laws?

Many people immediately reject the conclusion that Adam and Eve’s sons and daughters married each other by appealing to the law against brother-sister intermarriage. Some say that you cannot marry your relation. Actually, if you don’t marry your relation, you don’t marry a human! A wife is related to her husband even before they marry because all people are descendants of Adam and Eve—all are of “one blood.” The law forbidding marriage between close relatives was not given until the time of Moses (Leviticus 18-20). Provided marriage was one man to one woman for life (based on Genesis 1 and 2), there was no disobedience to God’s law originally when close relatives (even brothers and sisters) married each other.Remember that Abraham married his half-sister (Genesis 20:12). God blessed this union to produce the Hebrew  people through Isaac and Jacob.

It was not until some 400 years later that God gave Moses the law that forbade such marriages.

Biological deformities

Today, brothers and sisters (and half-brothers and half-sisters, etc.) are not permitted by law to marry because their children have an unacceptably high risk of being deformed. The more closely the parents are related, the more likely it is that any offspring will be deformed.There is a very sound genetic reason for such laws that is easy to understand. Every person has two sets of genes, there being some 130,000 pairs that specify how a person is put together and functions. Each person inherits one gene of each pair from each parent. Unfortunately, genes today contain many mistakes (because of sin and the curse), and these mistakes show up in a variety of ways. The more distantly related parents are, the more likely it is that they will have different mistakes in their genes. Children, inheriting one set of genes from each parent, are likely to end up with pairs of genes containing a maximum of one bad gene in each pair. The good gene tends to override the bad so that a deformity (a serious one, anyway) does not occur. Instead of having totally deformed ears, for instance, a person may only have crooked ones! (Overall, though, the human race is slowly degenerating as mistakes accumulate, generation after generation.)

However, the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they will have similar mistakes in their genes, since these have been inherited from the same parents. Therefore, a brother and a sister are more likely to have similar mistakes in their genes. A child of a union between such siblings could inherit the same bad gene on the same gene pair from both, resulting in two bad copies of the gene and serious defects.Adam and Eve did not have accumulated genetic mistakes. When the first two people were created, they were physically perfect. Everything God made was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), so their genes were perfect—no mistakes! But, when sin entered the world (because of Adam—Genesis 3:6, Romans 5:12), God cursed the world so that the perfect creation then began to degenerate, that is, suffer death and decay (Romans 8:22). Over thousands of years, this degeneration has produced all sorts of genetic mistakes in living things.Cain was in the first generation of children ever born. He (as well as his brothers and sisters) would have have received virtually no imperfect genes from Adam or Eve, since the effects of sin and the Curse would have been minimal to start with (it takes time for these copying errors to accumulate, like making a copy of a copy of a copy, the more copies you make the less quality). In that situation, brother and sister could have married with God’s approval, without any potential to produce deformed offspring.By the time of Moses (a few thousand years later), degenerative mistakes would have built up in the human race to such an extent that it was necessary for God to forbid brother-sister (and close relative) marriage (Leviticus 18-20). (Also, there were plenty of people on the earth by then, and there was no reason for close relations to marry.)

Cain and the Land of Nod

Some claim that the passage in  Genesis 4:16-17 means that Cain went to the land of Nod and found a wife. Thus, they can conclude there must have been another race of people on the earth, who were not descendants of Adam, who produced Cain’s wife.“And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew (Yada in greek meaning in a sexual way) his wife; and she conceived, and bore Enoch: and he built a city, and he called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.”From what has been stated previously, it is clear that all humans, Cain’s wife included, are descendants of Adam. However, this passage does not say that Cain went to the land of Nod and found a wife. John Calvin, commenting on these verses, states:

“From the context we may gather that Cain, before he slew his brother, had married a wife; otherwise Moses would now have related something respecting his marriage.”

Cain was married before he went to the land of Nod. He didn’t find a wife there, but “knew”(greek word yada) (had sexual relations with) his wife. Others have argued that because Cain built a “city” in the land of Nod, there must have been a lot of people there. However, the Hebrew word translated as “city” need not mean what we might imagine from the connotations of “city” today. The word meant a “walled town” or a protected encampment. Even a hundred people would be plenty for such a “city.” Nevertheless, there could have been many descendants of Adam on the earth by the time of Abel’s death.

Who was Cain fearful of? Ge

Some claim that there had to be lots of people on earth other than Adam and Eve’s descendants, otherwise Cain would not have been fearful of people wanting to slay him for killing Abel.First of all, in the days before civil government was instituted to punish murderers (Genesis 9:6), someone would want to harm Cain for killing Abel only if they were closely related to Abel! Strangers could hardly have cared. So the people Cain was afraid of could not have been another race of people.Second, Cain and Abel were born quite some time before Abel’s death. Genesis 4:3 states:

“And in the course of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord.”

Note the phrase “in the course of time.” We know that Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old (Genesis 5:3), and Eve saw him as a “replacement” for Abel (Genesis 4:25). Therefore, the period from Cain’s birth to Abels death may have been 100 years or more—allowing plenty of time for other children of Adam and Eve to marry and have children and grandchildren. By the time Abel was killed, there could well have been a considerable number of descendants of Adam and Eve, involving several generations.

Where did the technology come from?

Some claim that for Cain to go to the land of Nod and build a city he would have required a lot of technology that must have already been in that land, presumably developed by other “races.”However, Adam and Eve’s descendants were very intelligent people. Judal made musical instruments such as the harp and organ (Genesis 4:21), and Tubal-Cain worked with brass and iron (Genesis 4:22).Because of intense evolutionary indoctrination, many people today think that our generation is the most intelligent that has ever lived on this planet. But just because we have jet airplanes and computers, it does not mean that we are the most intelligent. Modern technology results from the accumulation of knowledge. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. Our brains have suffered from 6,000 years of the Curse (since Adam). We are greatly degenerated compared with people many generations ago. We may now be nowhere near as intelligent or inventive as Adam and Eve’s children. Scripture gives us a glimpse of what appears to be great inventiveness from the beginning.

!!!

Many Christian’s cannot answer the question about Cain’s wife because they focus on today’s world (and the problems associated with close relations marrying), and do not understand the clear historical record God has given to us. They try to interpret Genesis from our present situation, rather than understand the true biblical history of the world and the changes that have occurred because of sin. Because they are not building their world view on Scripture, but taking a secular way of thinking to the Bible, they are blinded to the simple answers.Genesis is the record of the God who was there as history happened. It is the word of One who knows everything, and who is a reliable witness from the past. Thus, when we use Genesis as a basis for understanding history, we can make sense of questions that would otherwise be a mystery.

“God’s enemies will inevitably oppose God’s people. Such Conflict is unavoidable, because light & darkness do not mix.”

God does great things through obedient servants. Esther defied all the rules of her time, violated a decree of the king simply to do what God asked of her. Even though some people advised her against going unto the king without being summoned, for she would be risking her very life. When she was faced with the choice between common sense (safety & security) and going against all odds and risking her life for her people…Esther (Hadassah) chose the latter. She knew that even if it didn’t make any sense to the rest of the world, she had to follow God’s command regardless of the consequences. To be obedient to God at whatever the cost. Sometimes we must break the social norm and rules in order to be faithful to the call of God on our lives. No one on this earth is unquestionable!!! Not the princes, kings, theologians, pastors or scholars. God is the ONLY unquestionable ONE. I urge you brothers/sisters in Christ, if you know that something being said or taught directly contradicts the word of God, no matter how subtle we MUST stand up for TRUTH and address it. We must humbly seek the Lord in prayer and follow the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If God would have you keep silent, he has a purpose in that silence. He may want to send someone else to address the matter. If you remember the story of king David, he did not have God’s permission to build the temple for the privilege would be given to his son king Solomon. On the other hand if God asks you to stand up for what’s right, just like he did with Esther…we must be quick to obey. I want to camp out a minute on the subject of “convictions”. In my 6 year journey (so far) with God i have heard Christians say “well God hasn’t convicted me on that matter”. Ummmm let me say this, either God convicts you or not on something that is SIN YOU NEED TO STOP doing it! It doesn’t matter if you’re convicted or not…you need to STOP SMOKING, STOP watching inappropriate tv shows, stop listening to less than God honoring music, STOP the drinking (the bible states that those who drink and get drunk WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM in Galatians). JUST STOP! Don’t wait to be convicted on it and use it as an excuse to go on sinning, GOD KNOWS YOUR HEART! Stop playing games with the Creator, you will always lose! Now back to the story 🙂 For we must remember that most times what makes sense the Heavenly Kingdom doesn’t in the Earthly one.

Isaiah 55:8 -9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God’s plans are created in the heavenly places. Therefore to those in communion with God, he gives insight. I must also point out that we must be very careful when the Lord has commanded one of his children to carry out a task that we don’t pretend to know what God has/has not spoken as an outsider. If we look at Esther, God did not give the insight of his plan to her friends or to the Jewish nation. He gave it to whom was going to carry it out for him. So because we may think that it makes no sense, let’s not pretend to know God’s plans for someone else’s life if it clearly does not contradict the word of God. Sometimes we can discourage brothers/sisters in Christ because we feel that we know God’s plans better than God himself.

Be of courage and do not be afraid. John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you WILL have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

In Greek the word tribulation is defined as:

Original Word: θλῖψις
Transliteration: thlipsis
Phonetic Spelling: (thlip’-sis)
Short Definition: affliction

Word Origin
from thlibó
Definition
tribulation
NASB Word Usage
affliction (14), afflictions (6), anguish (1), distress (2), persecution (1), tribulation (16), tribulations (4), trouble (1).

If we are NOT experiencing these things in the present world then we must question “who are we working for”? He didn’t say, maybe you will face tribulation…he said WE WILL…and if we’re not, then we must not be a threat to satans kingdom, for he is leaving us alone. So stand fast when the world comes against you, for it came against our Lord first, and he HAS overcome the world. When we are working for the kingdom of God, life get’s all sorts of complicated! 🙂 Yet he stand firm on this promise…Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Brother/Sisters let’s continue frighting the good fight for our Kings return is at hand.

2 Tim 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

May we be obedient to death to he who dies for us. No matter how unpopular!

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Always keep in mind that the trials we face today may be the beginning of a divine work God is commencing in our lives. Your current circumstances are the tools He will use for his next great work in and through your life. The story of Esther is a testimony of God’s providential care for his people, even in the midst of devastating oppression. Governments may seek to challenge God’s cause, but no power can prevail against God’s will. Even the most sinister forces must yield to Almighty GOD. God’s timing is perfect, and we must learn to focus on the message NOT the circumstances!

An indulgence, according to the Roman Catholic Church, is a means of remission of the temporal punishment for sins which have already been forgiven but are due to the Christian in this life and/or in purgatory.  This punishment is most often in purgatory but can also be suffered in this life.  An indulgence removes time needed to be spent in purgatory.  There are two kinds of indulgences:  partial and plenary.  A partial indulgence removes part of the punishment of sins.  A plenary indulgence removes all of the punishment of sins.   Granting an indulgence of a certain number of days or years means that is how many days or years is removed from the time of punishment a person must undergo in purgatory.

On the inside of the cover of the New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism published in 1969 there is a prayer. After the prayer it says the following: “An indulgence of five years. A plenary indulgence on the usual conditions, provided this prayer has been recited daily for a month.” This means that by saying the prayer properly five years is removed from a person’s time in purgatory!

On the same page of the New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism it says, “The faithful who devote 20 minutes to a half hour to teaching or studying Christian doctrine, may gain: an indulgence of three years.  A plenary indulgence on the usual conditions twice a month, if the above practice is carried out at least twice a month.”

So, we can see that according to this catechism if you say the prayer properly you can have five years removed from your time in purgatory.  Likewise, if the faithful devote 20 minutes to a half hour to teaching or studying Christian doctrine, they can have three years removed from purgatory.  Is this biblical?  Not at all.  It is ridiculous to think that reading doctrine and saying a prayer removes time of punishment in the Catholic-invented place called purgatory.  It is nothing more than a means to control the Catholics and keep them dependent on “The Mother Church.”

The treasury of the church

The Treasury of the Church is a storehouse of merit that has earned the sacrifice of Christ and the prayers and good works of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.  This reservoir of merit is drawn upon and applied to Roman Catholics via the Roman Catholic Church so that their future duration of punishment might be reduced.  So, essentially what we have is a system where merit is dispensed through the Roman Catholic sacraments and priesthood.

• “We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints ‘the Church’s treasury’, which is “not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the ‘treasury of the Church’ is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ’s merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1476).
• “This treasury includes, as well, the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission in the unity of the Mystical Body” (CCC, 1477).

In short, this treasury of the church of Rome is a means by which it keeps its people dependent upon its sacramental, ecclesiastical system.  Without participation in Roman Catholic Sacraments, future punishment will be far more extensive.  The Roman Catholic Church keeps its people coming back to it, dependent upon it, needful for the dispensing of the treasury of merit that it has at its disposal.  Instead of the Roman Catholic being completely sanctified and justified in Christ, by the work of Christ on the cross, the very propitiation offered by the Lord in his sacrifice is usurped by the Roman Catholic Church.  The power and priesthood and mediatorship of Christ is replaced by that of the Roman Catholic Church and it becomes the means by which the so-called people of God are relieved of their sin punishment.  This is a blasphemous claim of Rome that detracts from the power and glory and sufficiency of the cross.  All Roman Catholics should stop looking to the church as its means of salvation and/or as a means of deliverance from punishment.  Instead, the Roman Catholic should look to Christ alone through faith alone for the forgiveness of his/her sins.

• “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” (Rom. 3:28).
• “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness,” (Rom. 4:3).
• “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,” (Rom. 4:5).
• “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Rom. 5:1).
• “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him,” (Rom. 5:9).
• “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,” (Eph. 2:8).

The problem with indulgences

The obvious problem with indulgences is that they negate the all-sufficiency of the cross. It was Jesus who took our punishment.  He took our place so that we do not have to suffer any punishment for our sins so that we might be made right with God. We are not saying that sins do not have consequences and punishments.  We are saying that being made right with God is not by our suffering, but by Christ’s.

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. ⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.  ⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray.  Each of us has turned to his own way.  But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him,” (Isaiah 53:4-6).

The Second Vatican Council, p. 63, mentions purgatory as a place of punishment for our sins:  “The truth has been divinely revealed that sins are followed by punishments. God’s holiness and justice inflict them. Sins must be expiated. This may be done on this earth through the sorrows, miseries and trials of this life and, above all, through death. Otherwise the expiation must be made in the next life through fire and torments or purifying punishments.”  Indulgences only have value in Catholicism due to the unbiblical teaching of purgatory, which the Roman Catholic Church teaches is a place of punishment where people expiate their own sins there (CCC, 1475).

Expiation is “a term associated with the removal, cleansing, or forgiveness of sin.”1 But how does a person expiate or cleanse himself of his own sins?  He doesn’t.  If there were a means by which we could cleanse ourselves on our own sins, then God would have provided that.

“I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly,” (Gal. 2:21).

Nevertheless, out of the teaching of purgatory, and temporal punishment comes the teaching of indulgences — a means by which punishment for sin is reduced through a person’s own sufferings.  How horrible is this teaching since it reduces the power and glory of the cross and says we can expiate our own sins, instead of trusting in Christ alone for this.  The Roman Catholic Church needs to recant its false teaching and urge its people to look to Christ alone and not to its mediatorship, its priesthood, its treasury of merit, its sacraments, or its rules and regulations for the salvation of souls.

The indulgences practice is not a biblical teaching.

Transubstantiation is the teaching that during the Mass, at the consecration in the Lord’s Supper (Communion), the elements of the Eucharist, bread and wine, are transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus and that they are no longer bread and wine, but only retain their appearance of bread and wine.

The “Real Presence” is the term referring to Christ’s actual presence in the elements of the bread and the wine that have been transubstantiated.

Paragraph 1376 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states,

The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, 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 and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation (CCC, 1376).

Because they are the presence of Christ himself, Catholics worship and adore the elements.

The Mass contains a series of rituals leading up to the Lord’s Supper which also contains a reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ.  Furthermore, transubstantiation states that the substance of the elements are miraculously changed, even though their appearance is not. In other words, the bread and wine will appear as bread and wine under close scientific examination, but the true substance is mystically the Body and Blood of Christ.  Synonymous with transubstantiation is the doctrine of the Real Presence.  Where transubstantiation is the process of the change, the real presence is the result of that change. In other words, the doctrine of the real presence states that the bread and wine contain the actual presence of Christ in bodily form as a result of the process of transubstantiation. Roman Catholicism states that the incarnation of Christ itself, where Jesus was a man but contained an invisible divine nature, is analogous to the the doctrine of the real presence.

Some of the verses used to substantiate this teaching are the following:

• Matt. 26:28, “for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”
• John 6:52-53, “The Jews therefore began to argue with one another, saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat? ⁵³ Jesus therefore said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.'”
• 1 Cor. 11:27, ” Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.”

Can we conclude from the above verses that the Communion Supper actually involves the change of the elements into the mystical Body and Blood of Christ?  Let’s take a look. First – there is no indication that the words were meant to be literal.

No where in scripture do we find this teaching.   We see scriptures refer to the elements as the body and blood, but we also see Jesus clearly stating that the words He was speaking were spiritual words:  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life,” (John 6:63).  He did not say they were literal words; that is, He did not say that they were His actual body and blood.

But, a Catholic might object and say that Jesus clearly said, “This is My blood…” and “This is my body…” This is true, but Jesus frequently spoke in spiritual terms:  “I am the bread of life,” (John 6:48); “I am the resurrection and the life,” (John 11:25); “I am the true vine,” (John 15:1), etc.  Jesus often spoke in figurative terms and in the context of Jesus telling His disciples that they must eat His body and blood, He clearly says He was speaking in spiritual terms, “…the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life,” (John 6:63).

After Jesus said, “This is my blood,” (Matt. 26:28), He said, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Fathers kingdom, (Matt. 26:29).  Why would Jesus speak figuratively of His blood as “the fruit of the vine” if it was His literal blood?  We can clearly see that Jesus was speaking figuratively.

Second – there is no indication the disciples thought the elements changed

There is no indication in the biblical accounts of the Last Supper that the disciples thought that the bread and wine changed into the actual body and blood of Christ.  There simply isn’t any indication of this. Should we say that the disciples who were sitting right there with Jesus, actually thought that what Jesus was holding in his hands was his own body and blood?  That would be ridiculous.

Third – there is no indication the disciples worshipped the elements

We see no indication at all that the disciples worshipped the elements.  The adoration of the Eucharist is practiced during the Mass.  Catholicism says, “Moreover, the Catholic Church has held firm to this belief in the presence of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist not only in her teaching but in her life as well, since she has at all times paid this great Sacrament the worship known as “latria,” which may be given to God alone.”1 Where is the worship given the sacrament by the disciples anywhere in the New Testament?  It is not there.

Fourth – the supper was instituted before Jesus’ crucifixion

The Mass is supposed to be a reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ.  Therefore, according to Roman Catholic theology, the bread and wine become broken body and shed blood of Christ and represent the crucifixion ordeal.  But how can this be since Jesus instituted the Supper before He was crucified?  Are we to conclude that at the Last Supper, when they were all at the table, that when Jesus broke the bread it actually became His sacrificial body — even though the sacrifice had not yet happened?  Likewise are we to conclude that when Jesus gave the wine that it became His actual sacrificial blood — even though the sacrifice had not yet happened?  That would make no sense at all.

Fifth -the Roman Catholic view is a violation of Levitical law

The Roman Catholic interpretation of the Eucharist requires the participant to eat human flesh and drink human blood.  Remember, Roman Catholicism teaches that the bread and the wine become the actual body and blood of Christ.  Essentially, this amounts to cannibalism.  What does the Scripture say concerning this?

“For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off,” (Lev. 17:14).

Notice that the scripture says that you are not to eat the blood of any flesh. It would certainly appear that the Roman Catholic view is in contradiction to the Old Testament scripture since it advocates the eating of the blood of Christ.  To the RCC it is not just symbolic, it is the actual eating and drinking of the body of Christ.

Sixth – It is a violation of the incarnation

The biblical doctrine of the incarnation states that the Word which was God and was with God (John 1:1), became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). This “became flesh” involves what is known as the hypostatic Union. This is the teaching that in the one person of Christ are two natures: divine and human. That is, Jesus is both God and man at the same time and He will forever be God and man.

Furthermore, by definition, for Jesus to be human He must be located in one place. This is the nature of being human. A human male does not have the ability to be omnipresent. He can only be in one place at one time.  To say that Jesus in His physical form is in more than one place at a time, is to deny the incarnation.  That is, it denies that Jesus is completely and totally a man — since a man can only be it one place at one time.  Therefore, to say that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ is to violate the doctrine of the incarnation by stating that Christ is physically present all over the planet as the mass is celebrated. This is a serious problem and a serious denial of the true and absolute incarnation of the Word of God as a man.

But, did not Jesus say in Matt. 28:18-20 that He would be with the disciples always, even to the ends of the earth?  Is this not a declaration that Jesus will be physically present everywhere?  No, this is not what is stated.

The answer is found in the teaching of the communicatio idiomatum. This is the teaching that the attributes of both the divine and human nature are ascribed to the single person of Christ.  It does not mean, however, that anything particular to the divine nature was communicated to the human nature. Likewise, it does not mean that anything particular to the human nature was communicated to the divine nature.  It means that the attributes of the divine nature are claimed by the person of Christ.  Therefore, Jesus is omnipresent, not in His human nature, but in His divine nature.

To make this more clear, let’s look at some verses that illustrate the communicatio idiomatum:

• John 17:5, “And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”
• John 3:13,”And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man.”

Please notice that in these two verses, Jesus lays claim to the glory that He had with the Father before the foundation of the world. He also claims to have descended from heaven. But how could these be true since He is a man? The answer is because the attributes of the divine nature are claimed by the person of Christ. Therefore the person of Christ could claim to have glory with the Father and could claim to descend from heaven. But we know that the man Jesus, in the flesh, did not exist until His conception.  Furthermore, this means that the two natures of Christ are distinct, yet they are in Union in the one person of Christ (the hypostatic union).  It further means that the attributes of the divine and the attributes of the human are not transferred to one another — the divine does not become localized and the human does not become infinite.  If this were the case, then the nature of the divine and the nature of the human will be violated. Therefore, we can see that for Jesus to be a man, He must retain the attributes of humanity. This means that He must be localized and it means He cannot be physically omnipresent. If He were, by definition He would not be a man. But the Roman Catholic position is that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ and this violates the doctrine of the incarnation.  Therefore, transubstantiation cannot be the correct teaching of Scripture.

Seventh – the Lord’s Supper is not a sacrifice of Christ

The Bible tells us:

“By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; ¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified, (Heb. 10:10-14).

In the Roman Catholic Mass, there is a sacrifice of Christ.  In other words, in the ceremonies, is a reenactment and an actual sacrifice of Christ per the Mass.  This is an obvious contradiction to the Scriptures which teach us that Christ died once for all and that by the one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.  It does not state in the Word of God that the sacrifice of Christ must be repeated in order to forgive us of our sins or somehow help us to maintain our salvation by the infusion of grace.  The fact that Christ died once and the sacrifice occurred once, is proof that it is sufficient to cleanse us of our sins.  We connect with the sacrifice of Christ by faith, not by a ceremony.

Conclusion

It should be obvious to anyone who believes the word of God, that the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation is not biblical.  For the reasons listed above, we urge that Roman Catholics recognize that Jesus Christ died once for all and that there is no need to participate in a ritual where His re-sacrifice is practiced.

Finally, because the sacrifice of Christ was once for all, it is sufficient to save us and we do not need to maintain our salvation by our efforts or by our participation in the Lord’s supper.  It is not a means of grace that secures our salvation or infuses into us the grace needed that then enables us to maintain our salvation by our works.  Instead, we are made right before God by faith.

• “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,” (Rom. 3:24).
• “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” (Rom. 3:28).
• “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness,” (Rom. 4:3).
• “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith,” (Rom. 4:13).
• “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Rom. 5:1).
• “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved,” (Rom. 10:9).

What does the Bible say about the virgin Mary

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Question: “What does the Bible say about the virgin Mary?”

Answer: Mary the mother of Jesus was described by God as “highly favored” (Luke 1:28). The phrase “highly favored” comes from a single Greek word, which essentially means “much grace.” Mary received God’s grace.

Grace is “unmerited favor,” meaning that something we receive despite the fact that we do not deserve it. Mary needed grace from God just as the rest of us do. Mary herself understood this fact, as she declared in Luke 1:47, “. . . and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. . .”

Mary recognized that she needed the Savior. The Bible never says that Mary was anyone but an ordinary human whom God chose to use in an extraordinary way. Yes, Mary was a righteous woman and favored (graced) by God (Luke 1:27-28). At the same time, Mary was a sinful human being who needed Jesus Christ as her Savior, just like everyone else (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 1 John 1:8).

Mary did not have an “immaculate conception.” The Bible doesn’t suggest Mary’s birth was anything but a normal human birth. Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus (Luke 1:34-38), but the idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary is unbiblical. Matthew 1:25, speaking of Joseph, declares, “But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.”

The word “until” clearly indicates that Joseph and Mary did have sexual union after Jesus was born. Joseph and Mary had several children together after Jesus was born. Jesus had four half-brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55). Jesus also had half-sisters, although they are not named or numbered (Matthew 13:55-56). God blessed and graced Mary by giving her several children, which in that culture was the clearest indication of God’s blessing on a woman.

One time when Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd proclaimed, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed” (Luke 11:27). There was never a better opportunity for Jesus to declare that Mary was indeed worthy of praise and adoration. What was Jesus’ response? “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Luke 11:28). To Jesus, obedience to God’s Word was more important than being the woman who gave birth to the Savior.

Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus, or anyone else, direct any praise, glory, or adoration towards Mary. Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, praised Mary in Luke 1:42-44, but her praise is based on the blessing of giving birth to the Messiah. It was not based on any inherent glory in Mary.

Mary was present at the cross when Jesus died (John 19:25). Mary was also with the apostles on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:14). However, Mary is never mentioned again after Acts chapter 1. The apostles did not give Mary a prominent role. Mary’s death is not recorded in the Bible. Nothing is said about Mary ascending to heaven or having an exalted role there. As the earthly mother of Jesus, Mary should be respected, but she is not worthy of our worship or adoration.

The Bible nowhere indicates that Mary can hear our prayers or that she can mediate for us with God. Jesus is our only advocate and mediator in heaven (1 Timothy 2:5). If offered worship, adoration, or prayers, Mary would say the same as the angels: “Worship God!” (See Revelation 19:10; 22:9.) Mary herself sets the example for us, directing her worship, adoration, and praise to God alone: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is His name” (Luke 1:46-49).

Catholicism and the Bible.

Practically all precepts of the Roman Catholic religion contradict the Bible repeatedly. It is the largest cult in the world and most preachers will not openly say so because it is so large. For Catholics who read this, please remember this: the person that tells you the truth is the one that cares.

For a glimpse of the atrocities committed by the Roman Catholic religion, do a net search on the Inquisition or the Crusades. During the Inquisition, the Catholic religion killed thousands. Why? Primarily to suppress any and all opposition to the pope. Side “benefits” included taking the material wealth of its victims and showing the pope’s power. The Catholic Inquisitors tortured, crippled, burned, and imprisoned thousands of people. Whatever happened to love your enemies? (Matthew 5:44)

Before we get to specific problems with Catholic doctrine, let’s review how this bloodthirsty organization treated a man who simply wanted to get the Bible into the hands of the common people. In the late 1300s John Wycilf translated the scriptures from the Latin Vulgate. Some 40 odd years after his death, the Catholic religion dug up his bones and burned them calling him an arch-heretic. In the 1500’s William Tyndale sought to translate the Bible into the language of the common people, English. He could not gain approval from the Catholic religion so he worked as an outlaw on the run in Europe, translating the Bible. He was eventually captured, condemned and executed in 1536. It is because of people like these men, Tyndale and Wycliffe, that we have the scriptures today. If the Catholic religion had its way, we’d still be in ignorance about the Bible and enslaved to the pope. Time fails me here to tell of other martyrs like John Hus, John Rogers, etc. who were killed by popish persons.

I’ll list the catholic tradition first and then what the Bible has to say about the matter.

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Call priests father, e.g., Father McKinley.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS –

Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Forbidding the priesthood to marry.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS –

1) It is devilish to forbid God’s people to marry when He has given marriage to be received with thanksgiving.1 Timothy
4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

2) Peter was married (remember the pope is supposedly continuing the apostolic line through Peter).

Matthew
8:14 And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

Mark
1:30 But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.

Luke
4:38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.

3) Paul, a great apostle, remained single; however he made it very clear that he could marry if he wanted to.

1 Corinthians
9:5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Mary never had other children after the Lord Jesus. A perpetual virgin.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – Mary and Joseph indeed had children. They were the Lord’s half brothers and sisters for their father was Joseph and mother was Mary.

Matthew
13:55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
13:56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?Mark
6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Mary is the queen of heaven.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – Worshiping the queen of heaven (which is not the Mary of the Bible) is worshiping another god and it provokes the Lord to anger.

Jeremiah
7:17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
7:19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Mary is the mother of God.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – Mary is the mother of the earthly Jesus, not God. Jesus pre- existed from everlasting as God (see John 1:1). When He came to redeem mankind, He laid aside His glory and was made like unto sinful man so that He could take our punishment (Hebrew 2:9). God has no mother. He has lived from everlasting which means He had no beginning.

Isaiah
43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. [If Mary gave birth to God, she’d be God.]Psalm
93:2 Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.

Micah
5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler [Jesus] in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Philippians
2:6 Who [Jesus], being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Pope called Holy Father.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – The term Holy Father is only found one time in the entire Bible. It was when Jesus prayed before He and His disciples went to the garden of Gethsemane. He referred to God the Father as Holy Father. It is blasphemy to call a man by God’s name

John
17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Purgatory, nuns, popes.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – None of these is mentioned in the Bible. It is a sin to add to the Bible.

Proverbs
30:6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.The pope is a man who takes upon himself honor which belongs to no human being. Even the very name by which he allows himself to be called (Holy Father) is highly presumptuous and blasphemous (see above).

One does not need the pope to determine what God’s will is. The Bible says that God has given the Holy Ghost to each believer and that He (the Holy Ghost) guides and leads us into all truth. All a believer needs is the Bible and the Holy Ghost to know the will of the Lord. Popery has been treacherous, but worse, each pope has been the blind leading the blind. Jesus said that both will fall into the ditch. Catholics, come out of this system that cannot save and know Jesus for yourself, intimate and up-close.

NOTE: Purgatory is supposedly a place where a person is purified of sins–even popes supposedly go there. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the one that purifies us of our sins. Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…. When a person dies their eternal home is sealed–heaven or hell–no in between. Hebrews 9:27 …it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – Venerating/worshiping images. Pope bows to statues of Mary, people worship the eucharist and have statues/candles in their homes and churches.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – It is idolatry to venerate images. We are not even supposed to make them.

Exodus
20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God…

* * * *

CATHOLIC TRADITION – The mass. Through transubstantiation, the wafer/host and the wine supposedly become the actual blood and body of Jesus Christ when the priest prays over them.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – Jesus died once for sins, never to be repeated. He sits on the right hand of God and does not reappear in the mass as a mass of blood and flesh.

Hebrews
10:12 But this man [Jesus], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
10:13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
10:15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.John
19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

1 Corinthians
11:24 And when he [Jesus] had given thanks, he brake it [bread], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come (not for the forgiveness of sins or to receive Jesus).

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CATHOLIC TRADITION – Saved, in part, by good works.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – Good works are the fruits that grow out of being saved. They do not make you saved. An apple does not make its tree an apple tree, it was already an apple tree before any apples appeared. When you see the apples; however, you know what kind of tree it is. If a person is saved, he will shew forth good works because he has the spirit of Christ in him. The good works don’t make him saved only the blood of Jesus can do that.

I John
1:7b …the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.Acts 16:31b
…believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Romans
3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

What about James 2:20 “faith without works is dead”?

The kind of faith that saves is a faith that shows forth the works of God. Even devils believe in Jesus and tremble (James 2:19). Many people believe in Jesus but they won’t follow Him. They have a faith, but not the kind that saves. If a person has true faith in Jesus, the Holy Ghost dwells in him and will cause good works will show forth in his life. The good works confirm the faith by which the person was saved. James 2:21-23 uses Abraham as an example. Abraham believed God so when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham, out of his faith in God, offered up Isaac.

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CATHOLIC TRADITION – The church is founded on Peter.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church. Peter was a man like you and me. Jesus called Peter Satan in Matthew 16:23 when Peter rebuked Jesus dying. When Cornelius tried to worship Peter, Peter responded, “Stand up; I myself also am a man.” (Acts 10:26). The pope needs to remember Acts 10:26 when he has men bowing to him and kissing his hand like he is worthy of worship.

1 Corinthians
3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.Matthew
21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected [Jesus], the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

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CATHOLIC TRADITION – Confessing sins to a priest. Petitioning saints and Mary.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS – We are to confess our sins and needs to God alone.

I John
1:9 If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.Matthew
6:9, 12 After this manner…pray ye: Our Father… forgive us….

1 Timothy
2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus [not Mary, not saints, not priests, not the pope];

I John 2:1, …And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

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There are many other scriptures that could have been used here to testify against the doctrines of the catholic religion. There are also many other doctrines of the catholic religion which could have been refuted (e.g. the sacraments, receiving the Holy Ghost, salvation through the catholic religion, penance, rosary, etc.).

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The Catholic religion has a history of taking the money of poor widows in order to say masses for the dead (which do no good) and collecting the material possessions of nuns. In Italy, the heart of Roman Catholicism, there is a saying that goes, “Without money, they don’t sing the mass.” That trickery is evil on a number of fronts–1) the mass is blasphemous and dishonours the finished work of Christ 2) people who trust in the mass waste their money and go to hell 3) their survivors waste their money and possessions having masses said for the dead 4) the survivors go to hell and then their survivors pay for masses…the costumed curia have subverted whole houses for centuries on end collecting wealth of the coffers of the Roman Catholic institution 5) the doctrine of purgatory is a heresy because there is no such thing as purgatory–it is not in the Bible and (the apocrypha is not part of the Bible, it is a collection of spurious books) and 6) they blaspheme God when they put a monetary price on the gift of God because the Bible teaches that the gift of God is without price.

I’ve heard it said that the Roman Catholic institution is the wealthiest government in the world. It owns a good share of America’s hospitals and has many real estate interests. She has a history of collecting lands and wealth through the ages. One look at her splendor confirms this. The bottom line is, if you want to get right with God, you have to go through His Son, Jesus Christ, according to his word, not the word of man and his traditions.