“I would not hesitate to assert that … Roman Catholicism it the devil’s greatest masterpiece! It is such a departure from the Christian faith and the New Testament teaching, that i would not hesitate with the Reformers of the sixteenth century to [say] … she is, as the Scripture puts it, ‘the whore.’ … Christian people, your responsibility is terrible. You must know the truth. … There are innocent people who are being deluded. It is your business and mine to open their eyes and to instruct them.”
D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Roman Catholicism” booklet, pages 1-4, 16. Cited by Dave Hunt in The Berean Call, June 1990
7 comments:
Very true Glen. It ought to be getting clearer and clearer when we see the Pope courting credulous leaders like Osteen, Houston and Copeland, but then he declares salvation is only possible through his church! My blog describes this, if any are interested.
http://itaintthesame.wordpress.com
Lindsay,
That was a good article - thanks!
Please forgive me here as I may totally off base with this...however, here it goes.
Many within Christianity believe the Roman Catholic Church is the whore or prostitute described in the Book of Revelation. They have pinned it down to one so called denomination and one so called location, being Rome. The mother of harlots is labeled as "Mary" in many sources that I have researched, whom the RC church has as the spiritual head of their church, with the pope worshipped and adored as their earthly head or leader.
But, what if the whore is the man-made church system in general....a combination of man's traditions and twisting the Scriptures so as to falsely point everything we do in our churches to appease the ego of man instead of truly worshipping Jesus Christ in spirit and truth as told by Jesus Himself to the woman at that well so long ago.
continued
I came out of many denominational churches, with each one truly believing they "knew Jesus and taught Jesus" better than any other denominational system. In order to be a recognized Christian according to the traditions of man, I had to receive "first communion" after attending two years of classes before I could receive our LORD'S Supper. I was required to attend two years of confirmation classes, take notes during the sermons in church, memorize the catechism, the ten commandments and their meanings, and write a "statement" of faith reguarding my spirituality; was questioned by a "church board" to determine if I was qualified to be "confirmed in the Christian" faith. We studied the teachings of Luther and Augustine more than our Holy Scriptures and at the end of the day, I did not want to be a follower of either Luther or Augustine, nor any other "pillar"
of this world....including Billy Graham, thank-you very much.
I received my papers, signed by the church board, went through a confirmation ceremony in a church building and had a wonderful gathering at my home courtesy of my kind parents in honor of my "confirmation." But there was one Name missing in this whole spectacle, this whole pomp and circumstance, this whole party system.....His Name was Jesus, and His teachings were silent.
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I was told that I was now a "member of the Body of Christ."
The deal was sealed....other people told me who I was and where I was headed.....to heaven, because I was a Lutheran and my first communion, my confirmation, and my church membership were my tickets to my eternal salvation in Christ. So, let the party begin....
The whole circus reeked of the rot of man, for none of us had a true personal relationship with Jesus Christ.....His Name was never even mentioned in our conversations, nor were His teachings lived out in our lives....we have a difficult time obeying our LORD'S two greatest commandments, let alone His ten commandments....so we did not truly understand our need for Jesus Christ's redemption, leading to eternal salvation.
We never understood sin and the blatant wickedness of our own hearts, which is why we needed a Savior in the first place....there were never any tears shed, nor guilt felt in our hearts leading to true repentance before our Mighty, Holy, God.
None of that. We were told we were good people and that we had to do this and that for a lord to get to heaven....our works sealed the deal, as seen by man. And yet, there were no Bibles in the pews, our Bible studies always questioned God's authority (most don't even believe God created this whole world in a literal six days and rested on the seventh because He could not have such Power, Glory, and Might- sadly our Bible colleges here in our state question the creation as well and we now have Bible college graduates believing in evolution as well-for shame, for shame), our church services worshipped this leader or that leader in church and their "work" were bragged and boasted about as if the rest of us were supposed to "do more to compete with the outstanding job the "chosen" were doing in the church system." The competition to appear more holy than your neighbor had the stench of a dead animal....the whole system was disgusting with the church people exhibiting the characteristics of 2 Timothy 3:1-7 more than the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
There was no love for our LORD, only love for the self and the boasting, bragging, and flattery of the self.
continued
I did not grow up Roman Catholic, but Lutheran, a by-product of the Catholic church system, where to this day, the membership believes that infant baptism declares you are going to heaven, and if the baby is not baptized, well, then they are headed for hell.
Infant baptism guarantees salvation....another brainwashed tradition of man within the harlot church system.
This has been a long response, please forgive me as I could write so much more here because the parallels between the catholic church and many other blind denominations are abundantly clear. How many churches lift up their arrogant, haughty, and prideful pastor as their "pope," placing a mere man as their mediator between God and man....that position is to be filled by Jesus as our mediator, not man. How many believe they must sign papers to become a church member before they enter the gates of Heaven, when the New Testament is clear, when we are born again of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit enters our soul and we can only then worship Him in spirit and truth. The Body of Christ does not need a signed document by a religious system to verify that we are in Christ Jesus; I can not find any Scriptures to verify man's claim to document fame here.....so most western churches are in direct rebellion against God, the Holy Spirit, here......so carnal, so earthly, and so wicked....to control and manipulate the sheep of Jesus Christ in such a fashion.
In closing, I do not see the catholic church as the harlot church system described in Revelation, but the visible church in general that has already whored itself out of true love for our Father in Heaven, for it makes disciples of men rather than disciples of our LORD Jesus Christ.
And at the end of the day, when I am desperately in need of prayer by the saints, I call those who do not have church membership cards for prayer in the Spirit, for those are such that love the LORD with all their heart, mind, and soul. The rest are too busy bragging and boasting what they are doing for a lord.
Did not our LORD say, "Come out of her my people?" May our Father in Heaven forgive all of us for succumbing to the false teaching of the self (you will be like god) which has consumed the western church systems.
Anonymous,
I certainly agree with much of what you said; my wife grew up in the LCMS, and we attended LCMS churches for 8 years after we married. By that time I was getting tired of Luther over the Bible, and all the other Augustinian teachings. Our pastor even said that aborted babies would go to hell for lack of baptism.
All the mainline denominations did indeed just break off of Rome while carrying much Romanist baggage with them. I think, with much of what is happening across the world, that it won't be long before the Anglican and Lutheran communities rejoin with Rome, while others will take longer.
I'm pretty convinced that the Roman church itself will be the woman who rides the beast in Revelation, or will at least make up the major part of the new religious system.
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