Roman Catholicism

It’s not surprising in these times that “Queen Mary” has been making headlines with more apparitions and the present pope — Benedict XVI — continuing in the heretical devotion to Mary that his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, emphasized. In fact, a cursory look at headlines where the pope mentions Mary tells us that such devotions are increasing in intensity:

October 23, 2008: Addressing the full Synod of Bishops, Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, and papally-appointed auditor, said:

“For many years the Knights of Columbus has promoted a form of “lectio divina” within the context of Marian devotion through the rosary and Marian Hours of Prayer. We consider such communal proclamation and meditation on the Word of God within the setting of traditional Catholic devotions — especially recitation of the rosary … Through her Assumption, Mary was chosen to have a special place of honor in the Godhead.”

Source: Zenit, via Watcher’s Lamp.

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“… to suppose the eye with all of its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberrations could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree possible.”

Charles Darwin
The Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection

And the Roman Catholic Church can proclaim that “the theory of evolution was compatible with the Bible“?! Yoo hoo, Mr. RAT-zinger, read this:

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

Genesis 1:31

Oops, I forgot, you’re not too keen on Biblical literalism, are you?

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

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.

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.

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.:

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.

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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.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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Karen’s testimony on my old blog has been soliciting some interesting comments even though I’ve closed down the blog. One particular response caught my attention because the brother who wrote me faced the same situation as I did years ago when my wife was still a Roman Catholic and I a Protestant.

The brother, Mike, has given permission for his comment to be reproduced here, and I’ll also be sharing our email exchanges here in the hope that perhaps some of you who are better counselors than I am will be able to help. If you’d like to contact Mike directly, please write me and I’ll send you his email address.

He first wrote me with this comment:

Isaiah,

I think I am in the same situation you were in. I am in deep love with a girl who is a Catholic. (I am a Christian). She is an incredible person with high morals and a love for Christ as well. I decided to break off the five year relationship because of the differences between Catholicism and Christianity. Since the breakup, which has been almost a year I cannot seem to get over her. I have depression now and she is all I ever think about. She has inspired me in so many ways over the years, helped me achieve so many many goals, and has been an inspiration to me. She is that kind of person everyone loves who brings a smile into the room, one who is sweet and one who can be trusted. I have learned a lot from this, but my heart feels completely torn and broken since i am not with her. She still said’s to this day, “I am waiting for you” but I cannot wait forever. Hear she is able to accept me, but I am not accepting her. I learned it’s not about religion anymore, but if you believe in Christ as your savior. I am in between the rocks and would love to be able to speak with you about this situation. Hopefully by the grace of God you will read this posting or someone will pass this along to you.

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I chanced upon a Roman Catholic blog written by a blogger who calls himself “ordinary guy” the other day because my curiosity got the better of me when I saw that he had written on the issue of purgatory. After a short exchange with him on the issue, “ordinary guy” decided to respond to my comment with a post where he asked if only Christians are saved, and I thought I’d respond with a post of my own as well.

Dear friend, while you mentioned that you “… do not base on ‘sola scriptura‘ alone”, let me first state that I’ll be basing all my points on Scripture, because it is the Word of God. For that matter, I think that many Roman Catholics misunderstand the concept of Sola Scriptura. While it primarily means “Scripture alone”, it also means that we take Scripture as the final authority on all issues pertaining to our faith. We do refer to other writings by men (I myself love the works of Charles Spurgeon), but we check their writings against Scripture, and reject them if they contradict Scripture.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

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Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

Revelation 17:1-6

Bush welcomes pope and says US is open to his message.

Also see: The Pope’s Ecumenical PEACE Plan. (HT: Watcher’s Lamp)

Photo: © Associated Press.

Heard this just this morning on Way of the Master Radio.

Todd Friel (TF): “The pope (John Paul II) might be beatified and canonized and become a saint. Made me think of a Bible verse. Dave is in Texas, on KDKR. Dave? Can you name that verse, sir?”

Dave: “I’m thinking it’s John 11:35.”

TF: “Which is?”

Dave: “Jesus wept.”

TF: *Uncontrollable laughter* “Well, Dave, perhaps a more appropriate verse than mine, but no!”

I’m sorry but I suspect that I, too, have a weird sense of humor, and I am laughing a little too hard now to write more…

Since my wife’s testimony was posted, I’ve met a few well-meaning people who have encouraged me to take a good, hard look again at how my opposition to the Mother was in error.

And I must say that, after much consideration and study, I agree with them.

Hence, it is our wish to now state that we’ll be returning to the faith of the Apostles and the great Church fathers, and follow the Roman pontiff in his guidance for our salvation.

For those who are still erroneously believing that the Roman Catholic is not the true Church, I’d strongly encourage you to do some serious studying for yourselves the history of the Church and our faith — not only from the Bible but from traditions of men passed down through generations that must be taken into consideration as they are on par with Scripture.

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Foreword: I thought I’d give a little background into how this testimony came about, because it simply demonstrates how often God works wonderfully in us and there’s only goodness when we submit to His will.

For some days now, my wife has told me that she hasn’t been able to sleep well because God has prompted her time and again to write her testimony down.

She asked me why, and I told her testimonies were a good way for us to glorify God through telling others what He has made anew in us. As to why God is telling her to do so I am not sure, yet we need trust that the Lord has need for her to do something that has not been revealed, but it’s all good.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

We had retired rather late to bed last night. Just 15 minutes later, she was out of bed, and the study light came on while her computer whirred to life. When I popped into the study to ask why she wasn’t in bed, she was quite in tears, telling me that God had admonished her for not submitting to His will, right after prayers.

She had been fighting the burden in her heart to write her testimony down, believing wrongly that it’s rather pointless.

It was the first time she had experienced such a prompting, so I gently told her that that’s what God does with me many, many times over — a feeling so heavy in one’s heart that you go on your knees and cry out saying, “Father, Lord, I’ll obey and do it!”

I made coffee for us and stayed up with her while she completed her testimony which we are now sharing with you. May it encourage and bless you as it has us.

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Is this the beginnings of the one-world faith/religion that shall come in the Last Days?

I don’t think so because the movement has been in effect for some time, but this is definitely an open declaration that the movement is well and is being pushed to all and sundry from the United Nations, starting with the young in schools.

The movement pushes the idea that all religions are equal and reverence the same God, and it has crossed denominational lines and borders in the name of tolerance. That means that those of us who stick to the Bible’s proclamation that Jesus Christ is the only way and truth to God the Father will labeled intolerant bigots.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

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It appears that the Vatican has done it again, i.e. changed what is clearly stated in the Bible, God’s Word, to something else at their whim and fancy.

This time, it has to do with where our Lord Jesus Christ was at His birth.

Now, I don’t care much for putting up the Christmas tree or nativity scene during Christmas as I don’t really celebrate the festival as a Christian, but this piece of news piqued my interest because by doing this, the Vatican is in fact saying, “Let’s ignore both Gospel records and the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy!”.

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Take a trip to Lourdes during the “special offer” period starting this weekend till December 8, 2008, says Pope Benedict XVI.

This piece of news had me both laughing and shaking my head in disbelief (yes, I can do both at the same time!). Yet, on the other hand, it also saddened me to know that there’d be Roman Catholics who will believe this spiel and make the pilgrimage and be filled with false hope!

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I usually don’t post these short little posts that do nothing but showcase a picture, video or audio clip but (with much apologies to my readers) this is too funny to pass up.

The Protestant in me made me do it.

Since we are on the topic of Roman Catholicism, I shall share with you another reason why I rejected the Roman Catholic Church and her doctrines.

In my testimony, I recounted how Roy, a neighbor and a student of my dad’s, came from a Roman Catholic family and introduced me to Roman Catholicism. Back then, I felt that the statues of saints and of Mary were no different from the idols that my mom has on the family altar.

Today I thank God for giving me wisdom then to discern that fact.

So what is it about the Roman Catholic Church and her teachings about Mary that I disagree with?

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Norski’s comment on my post on Christian marriage and how he converted to Roman Catholicism because of what he believed to be Peter’s primacy got me writing a post on this finally.

I’ve always intended to write something on the topic, seeing that I had rejected Roman Catholicism in my journey to Christianity, but it seems that even talking about it can get quite a few people all riled up. However, I feel it’s better to write about it than to keep quiet.

Before I continue, let me make it very clear that I have nothing against Roman Catholics — my wife’s family is Roman Catholic and I have many friends who are Roman Catholics and we get along really well. What I have a problem with is the Roman Catholic Church’s claim to have power over Christians worldwide because of the ‘legitimate’ power of the pope passed on from Peter.

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I’ve written so much on Christianity and my Christian views that some of you might be wondering “where did this guy come from?”.

Wonder no more, I’ll tell you a story today — of how I came to be a Christian.

I am the first-born of a Chinese family in Singapore, and took my first breath outside my mother’s womb just before midnight on May 9, 1970.

Dad was a Chinese teacher until his retirement and mom has always been a housewife since I was born. Two brothers followed me — my parents’ 2nd son arrived 4 years later, while their youngest 9 years after. Today, it’s just my younger brother and I, as my youngest brother passed away a couple of years back in a motorcycle accident. He was just 26.

As a young child I was quite sickly and never did a week go by without me having to see the doctor for a bad cough that can keep the entire household awake all night. Exasperated, my mom took the advice of my paternal grandmother, and prayed to Guan Yin (the Chinese goddess of mercy) to cure me.

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