This article was originally written in 2017. I felt that it should be posted again because of the ever increasing push for ecumenism. Unity can be so very evil. This is not the unity of which our Lord Jesus spoke. We are to be united in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are to believe the Word of God – all of it – inerrant and infallible.
Words of Jesus
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23).
Article from 2017:
After I was born-again from above, I was approached by a Catholic woman who had heard about my conversion. Actually, I don’t call it a conversion. I am Jewish, and when the Lord saved me, I became a completed Jew. Anyway, to this Catholic woman–I was a convert.
The mission of the woman was to help me see the light–in other words; she wanted me to become a Catholic. We went round and round, mostly about “Mary.” It became so obvious that this woman was worshiping Mary!
She called Mary Queen of Heaven, Mother of God, Blessed Mother, Immaculate Mary and Virgin Mary. Everything the woman was saying to me came straight from the Roman Catholic Church. Everything that I said to her came from the Bible. She did not feel that the Bible was a good source of information about Mary or Jesus. I was STUNNED!
I used Scripture whenever the woman made false statements. When I would say the name of Jesus, she would go right back to talking about Mary. She told me that this is what Jesus wanted; for people to go through His mother to get to Him. I told her that Mary had other children. I could hear her breathe in, as if she had been slapped.
“Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25). (emphasis mine)
Before I became a Christian, I had always thought that the holiest people in the world were Catholics. God opened my eyes to see that this was a facade in the Roman Catholic Church, which Satan used to his advantage. Everything was so beautiful with stained glass windows, statues of their saints, purple velvet, golden chalices; I could go on and on.
How could this NOT be the true church of the Lord?
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says 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” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
As I thought about the birth of our Lord Jesus in a lowly stable, something about all of the obvious riches in the Roman Catholic Church did not seem genuine to me. Would Jesus want millions of dollars spent on huge, ornate buildings? It became apparent to me that this church had little to do with Jesus Christ, and everything to do with Mary and worshiping her. The more I learned about the Roman Catholic Church, the more it reminded me of the synagogue; traditions of men being taught as the truth–replacing the Word of God.
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
The devil takes a little bit of truth (Word of God) and twists it to deceive us. He did this to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He even tried doing it to our Lord Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus simply corrected and rebuked the evil one, using the written Word of God.
After the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, Satan did not waste any time building his own institution (the Roman Catholic Church), to make sure that people would remain lost in their sins. Before Lucifer was cast out of heaven by God, he was exalting himself to be like the Lord Most High. He wants worship!
He demands worship.
Graven Images
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4).
The Roman Catholic Church is filled with statues of people who they claim did at least two or more miracles. These canonized people are called saints.
From gotquestions.org
“How does the Roman Catholic understanding of “saints” compare with the biblical teaching? Not very well. In Roman Catholic theology, the saints are in heaven. In the Bible, the saints are on earth. In Roman Catholic teaching, a person does not become a saint unless he/she is “beatified” or “canonized” by the Pope or prominent bishop. In the Bible, everyone who has received Jesus Christ by faith is a saint. In Roman Catholic practice, the saints are revered, prayed to, and in some instances, worshipped. In the Bible, saints are called to revere, worship, and pray to God alone: source
Salvation
In Catholicism, Mary is the co-redeemer along with Jesus. The people are taught that Mary participated with Jesus in His painful act of redemption. We know Who redeemed us–Jesus the Christ and no one else:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).
No mention of Mary in that passage of Scripture. Not once.
In Catholicism, Mary is the co-mediator, whom we can trust with all of our cares. The Bible says this about our mediator:
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
Extremely clear, wouldn’t you say?
In Catholicism, salvation is sought after by good works and participation in the sacraments. I’ve never met a Catholic who has said that they are sure they going to heaven.
The Bible says this:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
We are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross. It is a gift of God. It has nothing to do with our works. Good works should come naturally to a redeemed soul, but being redeemed is the work of God. We must believe Him.
The Bible
The priests in the Roman Catholic Church do not encourage the reading of the Word of God to its members. Well, I can see why! If the people begin to read God’s Word, they will see that the Roman Catholic Church is teaching doctrines contrary to the Bible. Then a Catholic person would need to make a choice: To adhere to Catholic doctrine and tradition or believe what they read in the Holy Word of God.
After my last article, I received an email from a woman who seemed frantic. She told me that she was a Catholic Christian. She said that her priest told the congregation that Allah is the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I assured her that is NOT the truth. I sent her two articles addressing this lie that is being perpetuated by false teachers.
In the 2nd Council of the Vatican in 1962-1965, this was added to the Book of Catechism:
Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate 3, October 28, 1965
“The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from her own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. Yet she proclaims and is in duty bound to proclaim without fail, Christ who is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (Jn 1:6). In him, in whom God reconciled all things to himself (cf. 2Co 5:18-19), men find the fullness of their religious life.
“The Church, therefore, urges her sons to enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions. Let Christians, while witnessing to their own faith and way of life, acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians, also their social life and culture.
“The Church has also a high regard for the Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth (Cf. St. Gregory VII, Letter III, 21 to Anazir [Al-Nasir], King of Mauretania PL, 148.451A.), who has spoken to men. They strive to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just as Abraham submitted himself to God’s plan, to whose faith Muslims eagerly link their own. Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate Jesus as a prophet, his Virgin Mother they also honor, and even at times devoutly invoke. Further, they await the day of judgment and the reward of God following the resurrection of the dead. For this reason they highly esteem an upright life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting. (emphasis mine)
“Over the centuries many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between Christians and Muslims. The sacred Council now pleads with all to forget the past, and urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding; for the benefit of all men, let them together preserve and promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.”
“Therefore, the Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against people or any harassment of them on the basis of their race, color, condition in life or religion. Accordingly, following the footsteps of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, the sacred Council earnestly begs the Christian faithful to ‘conduct themselves well among the Gentiles’ (1P 2:12) and if possible, as far as depends on them, to be at peace with all men (cf. Rm 12:18), and in that way to be true sons of the Father who is in heaven (cf. Mt 5:45).”
Bringing Muslim Cleric to Pray in Vatican
In June of this year, the Vatican invited a Muslim cleric and a rabbi to pray together with the Pope. This smacks prophetically of a one world religion, and should alarm Christians everywhere. But God is in control, and all that happens is because He allows the events to fulfill His Prophetic Word.
I have to think that the priest telling his congregation the lie about Allah, is not a fluke. Perhaps the Vatican is telling Catholic priests to preach that Allah and the Lord God Almighty are one and the same.
Satan knows that the end is near.
Corruption in the Vatican
Anyone can search the history of the Vatican and find appalling corruption with each new pope. But nothing can compare with the Vatican during the reign of Hitler in Nazi Germany:
Why, it has been asked repeatedly, did the Pope not utter a solemn denunciation of this crime against the Jews and against humanity? . . . Why, it has been demanded, did he not give a clear moral and spiritual lead to Catholic priests throughout Europe? In June 1941, when the Vichy French government introduced “Jewish laws” closely modeled upon the Nuremberg Laws, the Pope responded to appeals from French bishops by stating that such laws were not in conflict with Catholic teaching. Later efforts by the British, Americans and Poles to persuade the Vatican to publish a specific condemnation of Nazi extermination of the Jews fell on deaf ears. The Pope, came the reply, could only issue a general condemnation of wartime atrocities. “A strong and openly voiced papal line might have silenced those Catholic bishops throughout Europe who actively and fervently collaborated with their Nazi masters.” –Ronnie S. Landou, The Nazi Holocaust, pp. 216-217
I cannot understand how a person who has been saved by our Lord Jesus, and begins to read the Holy Word of God, could remain in the Roman Catholic Church. The only reason I could see a person remaining there would be if they felt the leading from God that they were to share the message of salvation with other Catholics. I still think that a person such as this should seek out a place of worship where God’s Word is preached boldly.
Brethren, we are to obey God. He has given us all that we need in His Word. We are to be as the Bereans were–searching the Scriptures to see if what we were told is so.
Another article I wrote about our Jesus from the Bible Vs. Isa from the Qur’an:
“Chrislam is the Ultimate Deception: Jesus is NOT Isa from the Qur’an”
Dave Hunt speaks on “A Woman Rides the Beast.”
The evil one is always standing by to confuse and lie to us!
“But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Shalom b’Yeshua
MARANATHA!
Great post, thank you. I read a book years ago called The Gospel According To Rome. It completely exposed the known and not so known beliefs, practices, and lies of the Catholic religion. Very eye-opening for me as I knew almost nothing about them previously. Aside from the more well known practices such as Saint and Mary worship. God bless.
God bless you too, Dee 🙂
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Well said! It is amazing how people would rather listen to men than the Word of God. The queen of heaven is a pagan worship that has been done centuries ago that the Lord was totally against. How can anyone want to worship a graven image rather than the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth? Keep up the good work and God bless you.
In his book The Faith of Millions, John O’Brien,(1) a Catholic priest and full Professor of Theology at Notre Dame, explains the procedure of the mass.
“When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors: it is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed, it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man—not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command.”
Scripture says.
For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment— so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. (Hebrews 9:24-28)
(1.) John O’Brian, Research Professor of Theology at Notre Dame
Born 20 January 1893 in Peoria, Illinois, John A. O’Brien attended St. Patrick School, the Spalding Institute, Holy Cross College (Worcester, Massachusetts), and St. Viator’s College (Bourbonnais, Illinois). Bishop Edmund M. Dunne ordained him as a priest of the Diocese of Peoria and he celebrated his first Mass 18 June 1916. He served as chaplain for the Catholic students at the University of Illinois and earned a Ph.D. in psychology there. He started the Newman Foundation at the University of Illinois. He began his career as an author of Catholic books by organizing symposia (Catholics and Scholarship and The White Harvest) and writing about Evolution and Religion. In 1938 he published a book about Catholicism called The Faith of Millions which became a best seller (200,000 copies by 1945), was reprinted in 27 editions, and was translated into 10 languages. He remained at the University of Illinois for twenty-two years. In 1939 he spent a year at Oxford University and produced a book about communism, Thunder from the Left.
For the rest of his life he taught, and wrote, at the University of Notre Dame. Father O’Brien believed that Catholics ought to work actively to convert others to the Catholic faith; he participated in crusades to that end, organized campaigns in 50 American dioceses, spent his summers preaching in the streets of southern cities, published articles in popular magazines, and wrote pamphlets to promote missionary efforts and explain the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He continued to consider issues involving conflicts of secular and Catholic beliefs — anti-Catholicism, birth and population control, priestly celibacy, communism, evolution, science, sex education — and participated in friendly discussions with Protestants, Jews, Masons, and other non-Catholic groups. He wrote 45 books and hundreds of pamphlets and articles. In 1973, the University of Notre Dame awarded him the Laetare Medal. He died 18 April 1980 in South Bend, Indiana.
David, I am going to leave your post up in hopes that others may get through to you that Catholicism is NOT Christianity – it has nothing to do the the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Brethren, I hope that you will dialogue with Davie…………..
As one who was born a catholic….
First and foremost I’ll be perfectly clear. There are Born Again Believers that are catholic. Why they remain only God knows.
If you take away all the idolatry, worship of creation (Mary and saints), bizarre teachings on Eucharist, and religiosity. Catholicism still has ONE major flaw.
The blood of Christ:
In Catholicism the Blood of Christ is IMPARTED to you. You must then follow the sacraments of the church from baptism to last rights. AND if you were good enough to DO all that you might get to heaven. You see it becomes works based. And imparted means the Blood of Christ alone is not enough. To spare you theological drivel I’ll sum it up as this; Imparted means you only receive some of Jesus righteous. That tells us Jesus’ Blood was NOT enough and somehow we have to complete His work on the cross.
The bible tells us different:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8
Jesus said on the cross:
So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:30
Got Questions say it well:
“it is finished” is (greek) tetelestai, an accounting term that means “paid in full.” When Jesus uttered those words, He was declaring the debt owed to His Father was wiped away completely and forever. Not that Jesus wiped away any debt that He owed to the Father; rather, Jesus eliminated the debt owed by mankind—the debt of sin.
Biblically the Blood of Christ is IMPUTED to us. Imputed means; Our sin is transferred to Him and His Righteousness is transferred to us.
Since the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) Gods wrath poured out upon Jesus that penalty. A penalty He did not deserve. Since only the righteous can come to God, Jesus’ righteousness was transferred to us. Something we do NOT deserve.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 1 Peter 3:18
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ Leviticus 17:11
God has given us… This concept is called Grace. It is a gift from God. There is no work NOTHING we can do to save ourselves. Even the best we can offer God is a dirty rag in his eyes.
But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6
But you may ask.. It says “That we MIGHT be Saved” Indeed. It is a gift we MUST receive.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: John 1:12
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5
How?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31a)
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1)
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9, 10)
It is by faith we are saved. Our good works are a fruit of salvation not a means to it.
There is a clear difference between Imparted and Imputed. It is easy to focus on the overt flaws with the Catholic church, HOWEVER the MOST dangerous is the covert, the lessening of Christ Blood, and His sacrifice.
Bear in mind this flaw is not exclusive to Catholics. It reaches in to many denominations.
Know your Bible. Know Gods Word. Learn to spot these errors. Learn to discern the truth!
And if you haven’t :
Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near (Isaiah 55:6)
Shalom,
Brian
Loved Dave Hunt! He was a major influence on my life and taught me to be a Berean.