Roman Catholicism

Doh! Silly me, I should have known!

Lords and Bishops arrive in Sydney for World Youth Day!

HT: Living Journey.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:4-6

Breaking the 2nd Commandment

Talk about breaking the second commandment, and 33 times at that!

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Thirty-three lifesize sculptures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus - depicted clothed with heart exposed and arms outstretched - will be featured in an outdoor exhibition during World Youth Day.

Organisers commissioned a group of young artists to creatively dress and decorate the Jesus Walks sculptures at Bondi Beach, Hyde Park, The Domain, Circular Quay, Cockle Bay, the Convention Centre, the Hungry Mile, North Sydney and Randwick Racecourse.

“The exhibition includes work from artists of Catholic and non-Catholic backgrounds, [other] Christians and non-Christians of a variety of inclinations and cultural heritages,” said Helena McCarthy, the exhibition’s director and curator.

“Jesus Walks offers the commissioned artists a channel for their creative expression as well as a unique opportunity to interact with an audience of up to 300,000 young people. The exhibition also encourages an interactive dialogue between diverse audiences.”

The sculptures will be auctioned later, with proceeds going to Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets.

Photo Credit: REUTERS.

And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

Revelation 17:6

The Office of the Inquisition is not dead, contrary to what many might believe. It was renamed as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from its original name, and prior to his election as pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was essentially the Head Inquisitor!

Yes, that means that the Office of the Inquisition is in fact still valid, and it is probable that we might even see such intense persecution come our way in days to come.

This warning is put out just in case many are unaware of history. And for those who accuse Christians of committing such atrocities in times past, take note that it was the Roman Catholic Church, and she alone, who was responsible.

Hillsong: Savior King

Looks like it’s a musical Monday today…

This piece of news, taken from Symphony of Scripture, rather saddens me because I’ve always quite enjoyed the more Biblical songs by Hillsong such as Hosanna and Savior King:

Hillsong church are promoting and uniting with the gospel of the Roman Catholic religion. On a poster advertising World Youth Day, Hillsong worship leader Darlene Zschech says:

“We see WYD08 as a great opportunity to serve the Catholic Church in its vision to present the gospel and reach out to our city, our nation and our world in unity.” (Source)

Serve the Roman Catholic Church, the Whore?!

And which gospel would that be, Darlene?

Moving forward, I don’t see myself spending any more money buying their CDs and thereby indirectly supporting the preaching of a false, ecumenical gospel.

Full story at Symphony of Scripture.

The Idolatry of Mary

Mary was blessed, however, so is every Believer. To make the leap that because Mary was blessed she should receive the adoration/veneration/worship that she’s given is not Scripturally logical.

In fact, Scripture records the way Jesus handled the first attempt to elevate Mary’s status. In Luke 11:27-28 a woman in the crowd tried to draw attention away from Christ and to Mary (what the RCC has perfected) but Jesus corrected her saying, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Luke 11:27-28).

Also, Mary wasn’t/isn’t the only person blessed. See the Sermon on the Mount for a list of others who are “blessed” (Matthew 5:3-11).

Argument #2: Mary is worthy of/deserves our adoration and veneration.
Status: FICTION.

No human is worthy of any amount of veneration or worship because we are all sinners (Psalm 14:3, Romans 3:23; we are to worship God and serve Him only (Matthew 4:10); and God will not give His Glory to another (Isaiah 42:8, Isaiah 48:11).

Read the rest of the points at DefCon.

Originally posted by The Pilgrim at Defending. Contending.:

Veneration of Mary

I’ve found a treat for you.

The following two short videos are of a Roman Catholic apologist leading a class on the defense of the Immaculate Conception. He starts off the conversation explaining his conversation with a Christian youth pastor (who evidently needs to spend less time playing games and organizing ski-trips with his youth group and more time studying the Word of God to know what he believes and why he believes it).

The speaker is interesting to listen to but my head really spun when this apologist and his class used the pure conjecture of worldly human wisdom (and very minimal Scripture) to dismiss Romans 3:23. When “all” doesn’t mean “all.” He also provided us with his “most important verse in the Bible” in an attempt to justify his point.

Now things get really interesting when one student in the class named Frank brings up a great point: If Mary was sinless, then why did she die if death is the wages of sin? If Mary was sinless then she would have never died.

Read the rest of this entry »

Man of Perdition

I have had my fair share of debates with Roman Catholics over the years, both online and offline (with friends who are Roman Catholics), and one aspect of the Roman Catholic Church that they invariably bring up time and again is her claim of Apostolic succession.

Now, if you are like me previously, you’d be stumped by this fact and, without some study of church history, quickly beat a retreat due to lack of facts to counter that claim.

Back then, I had to dig through quite a few books to understand church history, but thanks to the Internet today and many kind scholars, we are today able to easily and quickly learn the history of the church. And it is no surprise that history itself invalidates Rome’s claims of Apostolic succession.

Read the rest of this entry »

I saw this advertisement on a Google AdSense panel on my blog, and being the curious person that I am, copied the URL and checked out the site.

What I saw had me in stitches. Though I can’t believe people will actually sell these, it will not surprise me one single little iota to find out that there is actually a market for this!

Sad, but true…

Read the rest of this entry »

The Vatican

To many who are not well acquainted with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, it might seem that I am nitpicking on non-essential issues and intentionally picking a fight with Roman Catholics.

I assure you that my issue is not with Roman Catholics per se, but with the institution that has installed herself as the “one true Church of Christ” that has, among other things, perverted the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ so that she can have a stranglehold on believers and twisted Scripture such that doctrines not taught in the Bible have become a snare to those truly desiring to seek God.

Many Roman Catholics are nice people (I hesitate to say ‘good’ but no one is ‘good’ according to Scripture), and some of them do earnestly seek God from what I know. It therefore pains me that they are trapped by a man-made institution and her un-Biblical laws when God’s Truth has set us free.

In the minds of many, Roman Catholicism has become synonymous with Christianity, primarily because the most visible displays of Christianity have been linked to the Vatican, e.g. in movies, you usually see a Roman Catholic priest called in to perform exorcism or marry a couple, but seldom a Protestant minister.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Woman Rides the Beast

Surely, this is not the “true Church of God” as they proclaim themselves to be! If you’re Roman Catholic, I encourage you to read this and see for yourself how far removed from the true teachings of God these traditions of men are! Refutations to these man-made traditions follow immediately after each event, and are taken directly from Scripture.

300 A.D.: Practice of praying for the dead and “signing with the cross” introduced.

375 A.D.: Veneration of dead people and use of statues and images as part of worship introduced.

500 A.D.: Doctrine of purgatory first preached by the Roman Catholic Church.

Read the rest of this entry »