What's Wrong with the Roman Catholic Church?

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What's Wrong with the Roman Catholic Church? By Ken Raggio

Revelations 17:1-4, 6 "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,  and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." Scarlet and purple are the official colors of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinals wear Scarlet robes and Archbishops wear Purple robes at official church functions. The gold, pearls and precious stones with which she is decked can be plainly seen at a typical event held at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The altar is decked with these ornaments. The golden cup can be seen in the hand of the Pope each time he conducts the Mass. The Roman Catholic Church is the Great Whore and Mother of Harlots exactly as described in Revelation 17. If not, then who? Despite its carefully crafted universal reputation, Roman Catholicism is NOT true Christianity in Biblical terms. It is the apex of paganism, and I will demonstrate why I say so. Before you make an accusation that this is only mindless Catholic-bashing, I will argue in complete favor of the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to the Bible. The Church of Jesus Christ EXISTS to preach the Truth of God's Word - from Genesis to Revelation. It does not exist to perpetuate paganism, idolatry, mysticism or extra-Biblical religious traditions. If history shows that the Catholic Church has faithfully defended the pure unadulterated word of God, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ - including the New Birth experience - as it was preached and practiced by the Apostles and the first-century Church, then we should fervently defend it. If, on the other hand, we find a MOUNTAIN of evidence that the RCC has in fact worked viciously AGAINST Biblical Christianity (which was evidenced in the first-century church), then we should not only denounce it, but also do everything in our power to persuade everyone who is under its seductive influence to free themselves immediately from it. I intend to present here an expose' of disturbing, even shocking facts about the RCC that are, in most cases, little-known by the general public. It is profoundly significant that the Bible clearly describes the very essence of the Roman Catholic Church HUNDREDS OF YEARS before it came into international power. The Bible unabashedly, and unkindly, calls it "The Great Whore." This terminology, "The Great Whore," stands in the very starkest contrast to other Biblical terminology for the TRUE Church, such as used by the Apostle Paul in his epistles. "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," 2 Corinthians 11:2. So, the TRUE Church is "a chaste virgin" espoused to one husband. The FALSE church is "the great whore." If you want to be a true Christian, you should be absolutely certain that your mother church is NOT the great whore. I cannot imagine why anyone would not want to know all the facts that prove the case one way or the other.   Is your church the "chaste virgin espoused to one husband," or is it "the great whore?" Why would anyone in their right mind want to be a part of, or DEFEND something that Almighty God calls a great whore? If the Roman Catholic Church is that Biblical "chaste virgin," then I WILL JOIN IT! But if it is "the great whore," then the Bible already tells me what to do: "I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities," Revelation 18:4-5. Nothing but the cold, hard facts really count in this assessment. Denial of the facts could cost you your eternal soul. You can never get to the truth of the matter with your head buried in the sand. Denial chooses deliberate ignorance instead of truth. If you insist on denying the real facts about the Roman Catholic Church, you are selling truth and buying ignorance. The outcome can only be bad. Is the Roman Catholic Church the Church Jesus Christ founded? Most people do not have a clue about the true origin and history of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). If the world knew all the facts, the RCC would already be out of business. The Roman Catholic Church only exists by deception and subterfuge. On the surface, it appears to be a most sanctimonious descendant of the Biblical church. Its pomp and splendor, global wealth and inestimable political power cannot be surpassed by any other entity on earth. But close inspection reveals a secretive, scheming, diabolical, murderous, despotic organization with nothing less than world dominion - world control - on its mind. Its Catechism does NOT teach that Jesus Christ will come back to rule the world, but instead plans for its POPES to rule the world for 1000 years. The RCC has almost nothing at all in common with the original church of Jesus Christ that was born in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Catholicism Is NOT Based On The Bible The very foundation upon which the Roman Catholic Church was built is a heresy twisted from Matthew 16:18-19. There, where Jesus said to Peter, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The RCC claims that PETER was the ROCK the church is built on. Then, by claiming an unbroken (albeit spurious) line of successors from Peter to the current Pope, they claim that every POPE is built on the ROCK, Peter. Look at this unbelievably exorbitant bronze and gold statue surrounding the so-called "St. Peter's Chair" in St. Peter's Basilica. (click to enlarge photo) The entire farce is utter blasphemy, and was completely designed to hijack the original, true church for Roman exploitation! Peter would certainly disown and disavow this entire sham. The ROCK Jesus was referring to was the TRUTH that Peter had just confessed two verses earlier, namely, "Thou art the CHRIST, the Son of the living God!" THAT TRUTH - JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD - is the ROCK upon which the TRUE Church is built. Not Peter. And NOT ONE of the alleged 265 Popes. Their false claims include such outrageous titles as Pope Leo's (ca 451 AD) "Lord of the Whole Church." Tertullian, in the early third century, said that the Holy Spirit was the "Vicar of Christ," meaning that the Holy Ghost was the stand-in for Christ. But when Pope Gelasius I, in 495 began to teach "Papal Primacy" or "Papal Supremacy," that the Pope was the absolute authority over all churches, then the title "Vicar of Christ" was given to the Pope - meaning that the Pope is the stand-in for Christ.   These Papal claims are almost identical to the claims Lucifer made in Isaiah 14: "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, ...I will be like the Most High." The Papal Crown, or Tiara, is a triple crown representing dominion over all earthly realms, spiritual and temporal. The Pope, or Holy See, is officially the King of the Sovereign Monarchy of the Vatican State. But for over 1000 years, the Pope empowered the kings of Europe by presiding over their coronations. Today, the Pope is the only international religious leader who holds observer status at the United Nations, and the only official religious voice to address the General Assembly.   Lucifer has finally, albeit temporarily, exalted his throne in the earth in the form of the RCC. But make no mistake about it. This throne will be thrown down. Neither Peter nor any other Apostle or Pastor in the first 150 years of the early church ever claimed to have the kind of authority that modern Popes claim to have. If you study the Roman Catholic Church long enough and hard enough, you will finally come to the conclusion that the entire operation is ultimately atheistic, and is nothing better than a vicious wolf in sheep's clothing, fully intent on hijacking the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the purpose of building a temporal world-wide kingdom under its own rule. Because of its enormous influence in the world today, the RCC should have to face the most piercing scrutiny and brutal questioning to prove its authenticity. If the RCC could pass unfettered Biblical scrutiny, then we should have no doubts about it, and we should all join it. But if we thoroughly investigate it and discover that the Roman Catholic Church in its present form is almost completely alien to the Biblical church and its teachings, then we should pull the wool off, and show the entire world what a wolf it really is. How Did The Roman Catholic Church Come Into Existence? The founding of the Roman Catholic Church cannot be understood without understanding its root in the ancient Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine of Rome, a terrifying adversary of early Church Christians, played a major role in the founding and establishment of the Roman Catholic Church. That fact, by itself, should trigger every alarm, and cause us to ask probing questions about how this movement really became what it is today. In addition to that, the RCC would have you totally forget that the REAL CHURCH was born in Jerusalem - NOT ROME! So, was Constantine a true disciple of the religion of Jesus Christ and the original Apostles, or was HE part of a great deception? We should take a look at several of the MOST FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES of the Roman Catholic Church and decide whether this so-called church is really built on the TRUE ROCK, Jesus Christ, or upon blasphemous heresies. ANY doctrine that CONTRADICTS the Bible is a heresy. Not surprisingly, however, the RCC calls anything that contradicts the RCC Catechism heresy. But the Catholic Church holds dozens of fundamental doctrines that are not only unbiblical, but they are also unbelievably heretical and subversive. To preach and practice these doctrines is to countermand countless infallible truths of the Bible. The biggest single reason why the Catholic Church can get by with these diabolical teachings is because virtually all (though not ALL) of modern Christianity has its roots in the Roman Catholic Church. Society has become so accustomed to the RCC definition of Christianity, that the Bible and God Himself have almost no influence to convince this generation otherwise. But in earlier centuries, these lies had to be foisted on the public by force - by threatenings, confiscations, excommunications, abuses, even murders. Look at these flagrant heresies, for examples: Transubstantiation - This RCC doctrine teaches that the communion bread becomes another substance [transubstantiation], changed miraculously into the literal body of Christ, the communion wine is miraculously changed into the literal blood of Jesus. No one can be saved unless he or she takes that communion from the hand of a Priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Like it or not, the Catholic Church, in its official Catechism, teaches that there is NO SALVATION without the RCC communion. But just as bad, if this doctrine were actually true, then every time a person partakes of the communion sacraments, he would be literally committing cannibalism - eating human flesh, drinking human blood, AND crucifying Jesus Christ all over again and again. All of that is patently absurd and flagrantly offensive to the Truth of the matter. I personally believe that it exposes the true spirit of Roman Catholicism, which is to crucify Christ again and again. Why else would it gloat in keeping Jesus Christ hanging on a cross for all of time? Jesus is no longer on the cross, and it's time to stop depicting it. A more accurate symbol of true Christianity is NOT Christ dead on a cross, but resurrected from an EMPTY TOMB! The Communion Supper that Jesus gave to His disciples was commemorated on the Passover - a once-a-year event instituted by God when Israel escaped the bondage of Egypt. Once Jesus conducted communion, He prescribed that from that time forward, every annual Passover communion should be a "REMEMBRANCE" of His death - His broken body and His shed blood - at Calvary. A "REMEMBRANCE" is a long way from cannibalism. This cannabalistic, exclusivist doctrine of TRANSUBSTANTIATION is NOT a Biblical doctrine. It is raw heresy. Venial and Mortal Sins - The RCC separates good and bad sins. The Catechism states, "Venial sin does not set us in direct opposition to the will and friendship of God; it does not break the covenant with God. ...Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal happiness."   Only if you commit a little sin many times does it become a "mortal" sin, and has to be repented of - or rather, confessed to a priest. So there you have it. You can sin without sinning. This is taking leave of all rational thought. Sin is sin is sin. How can ANY sin be sinless? If sin is not sinful, the entire subject is a farce. The Bible clearly says that ALL sin separates a man from God. THIS LYING, DECEPTIVE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE JUSTIFIES SIN, and leads one to believe that you have no cause to be concerned if you have only committed a venial sin. THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL TEACHING. Indulgences - In exchange for donations to the Catholic Churches, the priesthood is allegedly able to absolve the donors of their guilt, allowing them to commit adulteries, fornications and many other sins. So, for a reasonable donation to the church, you can excuse your adulteries and fornications, or whatever indiscretions you may have committed. How can any rational person believe that Almighty God endorses such payola or extortion? ALL SIN must be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. THIS OUTRAGEOUS PRIMARY CATHOLIC DOCTRINE IS NOT IN THE BIBLE (and clearly demonstrates the RCC proclivities toward avarice - greed for riches). Confessionals - The Catholic Church teaches people to confess their sins to their priests instead of confessing to God. What kind of extortion and intrigue could YOU perpetrate if you knew every secret sin of every person in your community? THIS CONNIVING AND INTIMIDATING PRIMARY CATHOLIC DOCTRINE IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND IN THE BIBLE. It is supremely deceptive. You should take your sins directly to God in sincere repentant prayer. Purgatory, Limbo and Prayers for the Dead - Jesus taught that when the rich man died, he went immediately to hell, and the righteous man, Lazarus, went immediately to be with Abraham in the presence of God. But the Catholic Church has created a fantasy world called Purgatory or Limbo, a supposed "staging area" where ungodly souls await their entrance into heaven or hell.   These are gravely unscriptural beliefs about the destiny of the soul. The RCC teaches that through gifts and donations, deceased loved ones can be prayed out of purgatory into the Holy Presence of Almighty God in Heaven, regardless of the lives they lived or what they believed. They can be bought free, by making substantial donations to the Roman Catholic Church. I THINK NOT! The blasphemy of this is only matched by the nauseating avarice and greed designed to take advantage of grieving loved ones.   This entire concept is completely foreign to the Bible. NOBODY in the Bible ever prayed for the dead. At best, the RCC is fostering deceptive, misleading false hope. At worst, it is responsible for millions upon millions of people being duped into believing that if you don't get Born Again before you die, your relatives can buy your way out of hell. Nothing could be further from the truth. BALD-FACED LIES.   Veneration of, and Prayers to the Virgin Mary - Solomon asserted that when a man dies, his body returns to the dust. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it," Ecclesiastes 12:7. His spirit has no more awareness of what is going on in earth, "...for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?" Ecclesiastes 3:22. "Wherefore I praised the dead... who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun." Human spirits are very conscious in heaven or hell, but not on earth. "The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, ...Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished," Ecclesiastes 9:5-6. What does that mean? That means that THE SAINTS DO NOT HEAR YOUR PRAYERS! The righteous men and women who are now ascended into the Presence of God are oblivious to your activities on earth. They are not bothered with earthly matters. So, grab your prayer beads, and say the rosary a thousand times. Say your "Hail, Marys" until you pass out. She cannot hear you. But FAMILIAR SPIRITS (demons) can hear you. The same kind of spirits that the Witch of Endor raised up for King Saul. Is that who you want to pray to? They would LOVE to ensnare you and have you spending the rest of your life trapped in their lies and deceptions. NOTHING in the Bible leads us to pray to the Saints. Thus, the entire Catholic religious practice of praying to the saints, including the "Virgin Mary" [she is no longer virgin] is paganistic, mystical and ultimately, demonic. IT IS CERTAINLY NOT IN THE BIBLE! The Pope himself prays to the Virgin, and John Paul II credited her with saving his life in an assassination attempt. She is called the Mother of God, Tower of David, Ark of the Covenant, Gate of Heaven, Morning Star, and Refuge of Sinners among other blasphemous titles. THIS DEMONIC DOCTRINE throws the doors wide open for familiar spirits and witchcraft to be practiced in the name of God. Don't even THINK God is OK with this! Mariology - Throughout the Roman Catholic Church, Mary is being listened to through visions, apparitions, weeping statues, and various demonic revelations. The Spirit of Mary is credited with the fall of Communism in the USSR, and multitudes of pilgrims travel to places where the Virgin is said to have appeared - over 600 cities worldwide in all. THE PROBLEM HERE IS THAT MARY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY OF THESE "MIRACLES." They are demonic manifestations which delude and deceive everyone who is tricked by them. These are deceiving spirits and doctrines of devils. Run from this like it is the plague!! Idolatry - Statues and icons by the multitudes play significantly into the Catholic religion. IDOLATRY IS PROFOUNDLY CONDEMNED AS ONE OF THE MOST ABOMINABLE SINS IN THE BIBLE. God destroyed entire nations for their idolatry. This doesn't even deserve any further argument. The Supreme Pontiff - The Pope - According to the Catholic Doctrine, the Pope (Papa/Father) is the Vicar of Christ - the stand-in for Christ. They call him Holy Father, in direct refutation of Jesus' teaching to "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven," Matthew 23:9. The Pope claims to have the keys to the kingdom which were delivered to Peter by Jesus Christ, and claims Apostolic Succession to Peter as the first Pope. If this Pope is the successor to Peter, why doesn't he preach the identical message that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost? "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost," Acts 2:38. Yet they claim he is infallible. AS THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PERPETRATOR OF FALSE DOCTRINES, HE IS A CRIMINAL USURPER; A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. The Mass - The Catechism teaches that only those who take communion in the Roman Catholic Church from the hand of a Roman Catholic Priest can be saved. SINCE THE ROMAN VERSION OF COMMUNION IS ITSELF A HERESY, THIS DOCTRINE WOULD FORCE THE ENTIRE WORLD INTO HERESY. The Rosary - Jesus specifically preached against vain repetitions in prayer. "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking," Matthew 6:7. What is the point of repeating "Our Fathers" twenty times? Nowhere in the Bible is ritualistic praying taught. "Hail Marys" are based on Elizabeth's greeting to Mary, which was never a prayer in the first place. We are not to pray to saints. John revealed (in the Book of Revelation) that in heaven, the angels rebuke men for venerating them. Infant Baptism - With the introduction of infant baptism, the whole notion of baptism was disassociated from a truly repentant conversion experience. With everyone converted to Roman Catholicism in their infancy, the perceived need for adult baptism was diabolically subverted. The entire subject of the New Birth (John 3:5) was eliminated from the discussion. "Partaking of the sacraments," became the way to salvation. All of it was deviously designed to prevent the resurgence of the true doctrine of being Born Again of by "water and spirit," (by full immersion, and the infilling of the Holy Spirit, in the pattern of the early church).   The list of Biblical infractions could go on and on. Clearly, the Roman Catholic Church has built a pyramid of extra-Biblical doctrines that have been drawn in large part from ancient Egyptian and Babylonian mysteries, and a variety of pagan mythologies. The RCC has, for centuries, replaced truth with lies and deceptions, and created new and false doctrines that had nothing to do with the Bible. They stripped the Word of God from their pulpits, and utterly forbade the laity from reading or possessing copies of the Bible, on penalty of excommunication, and sometimes death. They uttered the Masses in the Latin language, regardless of the native language of the people, insisting that God would miraculously make their hearts understand what was being said. "Canon 14 says: We prohibit also that the laity should not be permitted to have the books of the Old or New Testament; we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books." - The Church Council of Toulouse 1229 AD Source: Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, Scholar Press, London, England, Copyright 1980 by Edward Peters, ISBN 0-85967-621-8, pp. 194-195. The Council of Tarragona of 1234, in its second canon, ruled that: "No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days, so that they may be burned..." - The Church Council of Tarragona 1234 AD; 2nd Cannon - Source: D. Lortsch, Historie de la Bible en France, 1910, p.14. "Opened on Thursday alongside the Inquisition archives was the infamous Index of Forbidden Books, which Roman Catholics were forbidden to read or possess on pain of excommunication. They showed that even "the Bible" was once on the blacklist. Translations of the holy book ended up on the bonfires along with other "heretical'' works. ...The Index of Forbidden Books and all excommunications relating to it were officially abolished in 1966. The Inquisition itself was established by Pope Gregory IX in 1233...." - Vatican archives reveal that the Bible itself was once a banned book. By Jude Webber, ROME, Jan 22, 1998 (Reuters). All this brings up another horror story in the RCC's vile history. Both the Catholic Crusades and the Inquisitions were infamous campaigns during which the RCC captured multitudes of people of many nationalities and either forced them to become Catholics or be persecuted, tortured or killed. Not many historians would disagree with an estimate of 50-60 million people who died mercilessly at the hands of militants fighting in behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. And most of them died because they would not conform to the wishes of the RCC. So, do you really think this is the Church Jesus built?? Not on your life! And then there are other grave matters of Catholic compromise. Consider ecumenism. Ecumenism As if these errors alone were not enough, the RCC has set out to bring together all the major religions of the world under her umbrella, and eventual control.  According to the Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, since the RCC convened the Second Vatican Council in the 1960's, under Pope Paul VI, the Ecumenical intent of the church has been a major thrust. One of the principle motives of Vatican II was to recapture all the recalcitrant Catholics, Protestants and any other religion that was considered doctrinally deviant and bring them under the authority and control of the Roman Catholic Church. In doing so, Roman Catholicism has deceptively pretended to consent to other religions, even though its official Catechism STILL insists that no one can be saved outside the communion of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the establishment of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, and with the help of the World Council of Churches, the RCC has fostered a new dimension of Hindu-Christian dialogue that has resulted in the GROWTH AND SPREAD of Hindu missions in the West. Within the Catholic Church, THOUSANDS of priests and nuns practice Yoga and other forms of Hindu or Buddhist mysticism. One keen example is at the College of St. Mary in Omaha, where Sister Mary Ohara, professor of philosophy teaches Buddhist and Hindu techniques for enhancing education in Catholic schools. Pertaining to the Islam (Moslem) faith, Pope John Paul II greeted a crowd of Muslims in Brussels, Belgium by saying, "Christians and Moslems, we meet one another with one faith in one God... and try to put into practice the teachings of our respective holy books." The outrageous crime of that statement is that no true Christian would ever agree that the God of Islam is the same God of the Bible, nor can any true Christian commend the teachings of the Koran. The Catholic Church is increasingly intertwined with heathen and pagan religions. In New York City, in St Patrick's Cathedral, Cardinal Cooke received the Dalai Lama, who claims to be the FOURTEENTH reincarnation of the first Buddha. The Cardinal exclaimed, "all the world's religions are basically the same," and called the event "one of the greatest movements of the spirit in our time." Surely not the Holy Spirit. "But," you may say, "what does the Roman Catholic Church have to do with us?" For all its determination to fuse all the world's religions together under the umbrella of the RCC, the RCC has unofficially declared Holy War in Brazil against fundamentalist Christians - especially Pentecostals. Catholic "Liberation Theologians" are simply Communist Catholics, and they are multiplying like killer bees throughout the world - in South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and yes, even the United States of America. In Nicaragua, Ronald Reagan and Oliver North sided with the Contras in their war against the Sandinistas - Catholic Communists who taught, and still teach, that Jesus Christ was the first revolutionary. Sandinista artwork depicted Jesus Christ with an assault weapon. In Guatemala, a veritable holy war has been waging between Catholics and evangelicals. Thousands have been persecuted and killed in the fray, and the evangelical-leaning government was finally blackballed and overthrown. In Washington DC, Liberation Theologians lobby extensively for legislation that presses for Ecumenical religion world-wide, while at the same time, stripping religious freedoms from the "little guys" like evangelicals and religious fundamentalists. The massive Socialist Revolution that is taking place in America right now is being fueled in large part by activist Catholics. A vastly disproportionate number of politicians and media personalities are members of the Roman Catholic Church. Even many of the so-called Conservatives seen nightly on television, despite all their "right-wing rhetoric" are doing precious little to actually turn the tides from extreme left-wing liberalism, demanding instead, a "fair and balanced" mix that almost always gives equal time to socialist commentary. Few people genuinely believe anymore that there is a substantial ideological difference between the right-wing and the left-wing. Both sides are filled with radical New World Order Socialists, spurred constantly by Catholic ideologues. Meanwhile, the immigration nightmare in the United States is also being encouraged AND legally defended by the Roman Catholic Church. A massive influx of illegal aliens will eventually be granted amnesty by a liberal, left-leaning Obama administration, and overnight the number of Spanish Catholic voters in America will multiply by millions. The Reformation was fueled by RCC abominations Martin Luther himself left the RCC for 95 reasons (known as his "95 Thesis") no different than what I have already mentioned. The Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, and EVERY OTHER Protestant church revolted against the universally corrupt RCC. Reformation nullified in our time But in OUR TIME, the reformation has been overthrown by evangelicals who have been totally duped by the RCC propaganda machine.  The New York Times, March 30, 1994, reported the most significant event in 500 years of Catholic/Evangelical relations: It read, "In what's being called a historic declaration, evangelicals including Pat Robertson and Charles Colson (one of the chief originators) joined with conservative Roman Catholic leaders today in upholding the ties of faith that bind the nation's largest and most politically active religious groups. They urged Catholics and evangelicals... to stop aggressive proselytization of each other's flocks. John White, President of Geneva College and former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said the statement represents a "triumphalistic moment" in American religious life after centuries of distrust..." Other Evangelical endorsers include the heads of the Home Mission Board and Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention (who acted in an independent capacity), the nation's largest Protestant denomination, and Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ... Mark Noll of Wheaton University... Os Guiness, Jesse Miranda, (Assemblies of God), Richard Mouw (President, Fuller Theological Seminary)." Another endorsement came from Robert Simonds, the Southern California Chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals. He "applauded the declaration" and said he hoped that it would "bring increased cooperation between evangelicals and Catholics." Reformers called RCC Antichrist Charles Spurgeon would have turned over in his grave. Years ago, Spurgeon declared, "It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the Popery in the church of Rome, there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. It wounds Christ, robs Christ of His glory, puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement, and lifts a piece of bread in the place of the Savior. If we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors; we shall love their souls though we loathe and detest their dogmas." Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the late pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, said, "The Roman Catholic Church is a counterfeit... of the worst and most diabolical kind... a form of Antichrist... to be rejected and denounced." (To be accurate, the scripture does not point to the Pope as Antichrist, but calls him the False Prophet, who supports and gives his endorsement to the Antichrist - read Revelation 13.) And so, we finally get back to the real ROOT of the problem with the Catholic Church. Historically, Rome was a ruthless, vicious enemy of Christianity. Millions of early-church saints were killed by the powers of the Roman Empire. Romans crucified Jesus Christ. They crucified Peter and beheaded Paul. Romans, led by Titus, General and Emperor, destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD. He ransacked and completely annihilated the great Jewish Temple. The stolen wealth from Jerusalem's downfall paid for the construction of the famous Colosseum in Rome, where great multitudes of early church Christians were thrown to the lions and otherwise brutally tortured and murdered. By the turn of the third century, the church that Jesus founded underwent a treacherous tide of doctrinal changes in the twelve congregations that were meeting in the city of Rome.  Justin Martyr Unknown to most modern Christians, a theological revolution began with the fervent apologetics of a man named Justin Martyr, then preaching and teaching in Rome. Justin Martyr introduced a concept unheard of among earlier Christians, namely that Jesus Christ was "in the second place" to the Father. Second place?? What did he mean by that? NOBODY had EVER suggested that Jesus was in second place to the Father. What could this statement suggest? An understudy of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, added to the confusion, stating that "the Son of God became the Son of Man." This was a completely new concept, that INSTEAD of Jesus being the INCARNATION of the Father, He was only the INCARNATION of an eternal Son. This was never before taught in the first 150 years of the early church. None of the Apostles ever made a statement of that kind. Thomas called Him, "My Lord, and my God!" For a Jew, that meant that Thomas believed He was the Father in the flesh. The suggestion was that Jesus was an eternal son - an impossible concept. Think about it. How can anyone be an eternal son? Sonship, by definition, requires a beginning. Jesus became a son when He was born of Mary. Before the son was born of a virgin, only the Father existed. There had been no son in heaven. Moses never mentioned it. Moses taught the children of Israel, "The LORD our God is ONE!" None of the Old Testament prophets taught that God was two or three persons - only ONE. To be sure, God in Christ has two natures. God is Spirit. Son is human. God is greater. Son is lesser. But NOT two distinct persons, and certainly not two identical deities; not co-equal; not co-eternal. ONE. Sonship is human. God never replicated His spirit. There had been no spirit son, only the singular, eternal spirit of God forever. God did not replicate His eternal nature into another co-equal person. Rather, He incarnated His deity in a MAN. The FULLNESS of GOD was in CHRIST. Not one-third or one-half. The man is the Son. And the man, the Son, was not from eternity past, except in the MIND of God. Paul preached that Jesus was the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Jesus declared that when we see Him, we see the Father (not a likeness, but the actual Father!) (John 14:9). God Himself had declared, "My glory will I not give to another," (Isaiah 42:8). That simply means that there never was and never will be anything co-equal or co-eternal with the Father. Jesus, in His day, said, "My Father is greater than I," (John 14:28). So, there you have it. Jesus is NOT co-equal, or co-eternal with the Father. He is the man in whom God dwelt. He is the physical manifestation of the invisible God. His spirit is the Father; His body is the Son. When you read in the Bible of a conversation between Jesus and His Father, you are not reading a conversation between two equal members of a godhead. You are reading a conversation between a MAN and GOD. GOD is only ONE PERSON, but He has TWO NATURES. Deity and humanity. The deity can speak to the human, and the human can speak to the deity, but both natures comprise ONE GOD, not two co-equal deities. Messiah! Iranaeus' statement introducing the concept of an eternal son plainly contradicted the Apostles' premise that the Son was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the "fullness of time" and "made of woman" (Galatians 4:4). The idea of an eternal son had never been preached in the early church. Jesus was the FULLNESS of God bodily. Not one-third of a trinity! From that error proceeded another erroneous teaching; that since Jesus proceeded from the Father, the Holy Ghost also subsequently proceeded from the Son, and was therefore in THIRD PLACE in the Godhead. Now we have a third deity equal to the first (Father) and second (eternal Son). Hence, this triune deity supposedly consisted of three co-equal, co-eternal men. NO!! A thousand times NO!! God is A Spirit. Singular. One LORD. One person.  Within a few short years, these errors were codified into the doctrine of the Trinity, that God exists in three persons; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Is the Holy Ghost the Father? Here is a real dilemma for the Trinitarian theory. In Luke 1:35, the angel appeared to Mary and said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." This tells us that the Holy Ghost came upon Mary and conceived Jesus Christ. Therefore, the conception was carried out by the Holy Ghost. Since that is the case, then the Holy Ghost is the Father of Jesus Christ. If, however, the Holy Ghost is the THIRD PERSON of the alleged trinity, then the THIRD PERSON is the FATHER! If the THIRD PERSON is the FATHER of Jesus Christ, WHO IS THE FIRST PERSON? There is only one answer. The Father IS the Holy Ghost. God is only ONE SPIRIT. THE LORD IS ONE. God the Father IS the Holy Ghost in Jesus. One Spirit. One Lord. One Man in whom God dwelt. It is the INCARNATION. The Father is in the Son. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. If you see Christ, you see the Father. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. No man can see the Spirit, but when you see Jesus, you see the glory of God in His face! Rome Usurped The TRUE Church in a Coup d'etat, Creating the Roman Catholic Church - The Great Whore Curiously, in short order, the Roman Emperor Constantine stopped persecuting Christians and elevated the Roman Catholic Church to the status of the state religion. It is quite amazing that as soon as the doctrine of God was thoroughly corrupted, Rome no longer hated the church. Tertullian (who was one of the first to use the word "trinity" in reference to God) and Hippolytus of Rome succeeded in changing the mode of water baptism from being performed "in the name of Jesus Christ" to use of the titles "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," thereby abandoning the "only NAME given among men whereby we must be saved" in baptism. Water baptism by total immersion in water in the name of Jesus Christ was a primordial, core doctrine of the twelve apostles. Read the New Testament for yourself. You will see it clearly. Every baptism recorded in the New Testament was performed in the name of the Lord Jesus. But in the newly redefined Roman Catholic Church, the name of Jesus was extirpated, excised from water baptism. Furthermore, baptism was no longer a burial, or a full submersion in water. Artwork from the earliest periods, on display in the Vatican, show some of the first Catholic paintings depicting John the Baptist pouring a bowl of water on Jesus' head. How outrageous can you get? The Catholics completely eliminated baptism by immersion. It ceased to exist in the RCC. Only sprinkling was employed, and that was WITHOUT calling upon the saving name of Jesus. Only the generic titles - common nouns; Father, Son, Holy Spirit - were articulated, rendering the entire doctrine of water baptism a completely nameless, powerless, impotent, ritualistic farce - not a baptism at all!! It is as facetious as sprinkling dirt on a corpse and calling it a burial. The Catholic Encyclopedia, II, page 263, says, "The baptismal formula was changed from the name of Jesus Christ to the words Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by the Catholic Church in the second century." Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, 1963, page 1015, says, "The Trinity... is not demonstrable by logic or by Scriptural proofs,...The term Trias was first used by Theophilus of Antioch (c AD 180), ...(The term Trinity) is not found in Scripture." The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, I, 275, says, "It is often affirmed that the words in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost are not the ipsissima verba [exact words] of Jesus, but...a later liturgical addition." In "A Collection of Evidence Against the Traditional Wording of Matthew 28:19," Clinton D. Willis quotes from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics to expose how Matthew 28:19 "...is the central piece of evidence for the traditional (Trinitarian) view. If it were undisputed, this would, of course, be decisive, but its trustworthiness is impugned on grounds of textual criticism, literary criticism and historical criticism." "The obvious explanation of the silence of the New Testament on the triune name, and the use of another [Jesus' name baptismal] formula in Acts and Paul, is that this other formula was the earlier, and the triune formula is a later addition." Edmund Schlink, in "The Doctrine of Baptism," page 28, says, "The baptismal command in its Matthew 28:19 form cannot be the historical origin of Christian baptism. At the very least, it must be assumed that the text has been transmitted in a form expanded by the [Catholic] church." Wilhelm Bousset, in "Kyrios Christianity," page 295, says, "The testimony for the wide distribution of the simple baptismal formula [in the Name of Jesus] down into the second century is so overwhelming that even in Matthew 28:19, the Trinitarian formula was later inserted." It is too conspicuous that once the Roman Catholic Church succeeded at supplanting Jesus' name baptism and institutionalized the false Trinitarian doctrine, (and thus effectively silenced the truth that the Father God was in Christ), the Roman Empire stopped fighting the church and began embracing it. When they stopped baptizing converts in the name of Jesus Christ, and replaced it with generic titles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Rome was no longer opposed to it. Rome effectively drove Jesus Christ out of the church. Make no mistake about it. The true early church did not apostatize. It was killed off by the Roman Catholic "Church" - not a church at all, but a diabolical, fraudulent impostor. Once the true church was driven off the scene, the Roman government decided to declare the new false church the official world religion, and set out to eliminate all conflicting points of view.  William Chalfant, in the book "Ancient Champions of Oneness" records that "in 312 AD, Caesar himself, the Emperor Constantine, became a Catholic" and by 325 AD, at the Council of Nicea, a canon was drafted that specifically named a notorious group of Jesus' name baptized Pentecostals based in Rome, and ordered them to be re-baptized.  The Roman Catholic Church demanded the death of true Christians. Some time in the fifth century, probably around 430 AD, a creed was written, now mistakenly called the "Athanasian Creed," which said, "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith, Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity." After much additional verbiage, the conclusion of the Athanasian Creed is this: "...the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. ...He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity."  Two centuries later, the Roman Catholic Church issued the Justinian Code of 529 AD, that declared DEATH for two heresies in general:     (1) Anti-Trinitarianism, and      (2) Rebaptism" (outside Roman baptism). Countless multitudes of ancient Spirit-filled, Jesus' name-baptized Christians were then murdered by the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholicism did not stop the doctrinal perversion with water baptism.  With the prevailing beliefs running throughout the entire Protestant church of the last century, isn't it then SHOCKING to say the least that so many of the preeminent evangelicals of our time have turned around and returned to the RCC.   Fundamentalism Retrogresses Billy Graham (ever heard of Billy Graham?) said, "I've found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of orthodox Roman Catholics." This is nothing less than SHOCKING! Statistics show that Billy Graham has done more than any other evangelical to fill the pews of Roman Catholic Churches. Any Catholic who signed a conversion card in a Billy Graham crusade was immediately referred BACK to the Roman Catholic Church for membership. Neither Billy Graham nor the Roman Catholic Church bears much resemblance to Biblical Christianity. While both have expended great efforts in the past forty years to be ecumenical, the realities show that their beliefs are less ecumenical than they are downright outrageous and devoid of Biblical legitimacy. Billy Graham was interviewed on television by Robert Schuller on May 31, 1997. Graham revealed his utterly non-Christian beliefs. Here is a transcript of portions of that interview: Robert Schuller: Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity? Billy Graham: Well, Christianity and being a true believer - you know, I think there's the Body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not, they're members of the Body of Christ. And I don't think that we're going to see a great sweeping revival that will turn the whole world to Christ at any time. I think James answered that, the Apostle James in the first council in Jerusalem, when he said that God's purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name. And that's what God is doing today - He's calling people out of the world for His name, 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've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don't have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think that they are saved and that they're going to be with us in heaven. Robert Schuller: What, what I hear you saying is that it's possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they've been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you're saying? Billy Graham: Yes it is, because I believe that. I've met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations, that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, and never heard of Jesus, but they've believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they've tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived. So Billy Graham believes you can go to heaven without being born again, without obeying or even KNOWING the gospel of Jesus Christ, or without ever even hearing the NAME OF JESUS!! So, how does that correspond to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church? Well, the Pope himself does not teach or believe in the New Birth according to the true doctrine of the New Testament. The Catholic Church does not teach the doctrine of the New Birth. Both are phony Christians. Impostors. Deceivers. Neither preaches the plan of salvation preached by the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The late W.A. Criswell, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention said, "I don't know of anyone more dedicated to the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity than the Catholics." WHAT?? Paul Crouch, President of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the largest TV network in the world, said, "I'm eradicating the word Protestant even out of my vocabulary... I'm not protesting anything... it's time for Catholics and non-Catholics to come together as one in the Spirit and one in the Lord." You've got to be kidding! Robert Schuller, Hour of Power author, Pastor of the Garden Grove Community Church said, "It's time for Protestants to go to the shepherd (the Pope) and say, 'What do we have to do to come home?'" HOME? Since when is the Roman Catholic Church the home of true Christianity? Benny Hinn said that Roman Catholic doctrine is of no concern, for after all, Catholics "Love Jesus." I'm sorry, Benny, but the RCC doesn't know who Jesus is. The Great Whore, Mother of Harlots I am proposing to you that all of evangelical Protestantism is returning to its mother, the RCC, because they never truly left it! Because their baptism was never corrected, they never truly protested. Even in protesting the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther nevertheless incorporated the Athanasian Creed into the Lutheran Church, and it continues to be recited on Trinity Sunday throughout Lutheranism. This core Catholic doctrine persists among all the harlot daughters of Catholicism. The protest was superficial. They are still the harlot daughters of the mother whore that John the Revelator saw in Revelation 17: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Is the Roman Catholic Church the repository of the Spirit of Truth? I think not! Is there a spirit in the RCC? Yes. But it is not the Spirit of God. If not, then it must be an evil spirit.  Yes. The RCC is full of evil spirits. The Scarlet Colored Beast of this passage (on which the Great Whore sits) is the Socialist New World Order. The Woman dressed in scarlet is the Jesuit-driven, Marxist Socialist, Liberation Theology-teaching Roman Catholic Church who has fornicated, and continues to fornicate, with all the kings of the earth. The seven heads are seven mountains historically recognized as the seven hills of the city of Rome, Italy. She is drunk on the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus Christ because of the multitudes of ancient true Christians who were put to death under the RCC's despotic authority. Throughout its evil history, the Roman Catholic Church has conducted various kinds of "inquisitions," brutally and mercilessly torturing and murdering its opponents in nations around the world. For over 1,000 years, more than seventy-five Popes ordered the wholesale slaughter of no less than eight million non-Catholics for "heresy" - refusal to convert to Roman Catholicism. Many believe the numbers are more accurately around FIFTY MILLION dead, maybe even as high as 125 million. I don't have the time or space to treat this topic here. Do a web search on "inquisition," then sit back and fasten your seatbelt. It is APPALLING how sinister and demonic this "church" is! There is NO WAY on earth I could EVER call anything about the Roman Catholic Church "holy!" Lucifer dwells in the heart and soul of this organization. The RCC has been a powerful driving force in the evolution of the New World Order/One World Government (the Pope has been the only international religious leader to address the United Nations). But God has plans for its extinction. The prophecies state that the New World Order will finally rise up against the RCC and destroy it. Jesus, Himself will tend to casting the Pope into the lake of fire after Armageddon. Revelation 17:16-18 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. The Pope is the False Prophet of Revelation 13. He will be destroyed at Armageddon by Jesus Christ, along with the Beast/Antichrist. Read Revelation 18:1-19:2 and you will see the fall of Mystery Babylon. It is the demise of the Roman Catholic Church and all her colleagues, ultimately including the New World Order. Anyone who truly desires to be saved should heed the admonition of Revelation 18:4-5: And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. The true plan of salvation is NOT found anywhere in the Trinitarian, Mystical Babylon religions. It is found in the following scriptures: John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. Luke 24:46-49  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Acts 2:38-40 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Every true believer must repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and receive the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking with other tongues as the entire early church did. If the Catholic Church wants to legitimately claim Apostolic succession to Peter, then the Pope should first throw out all its false doctrine, then start preaching Peter's message, baptize according to Peter's instructions, and advocate the Pentecostal experience of the early church of speaking in other tongues as the Holy Spirit gives the utterance.

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