Flagellator Pope!

There is an ongoing process within the RC Church to have the previous pope, John Paul II, canonised. The Church of Rome has no living saints. They have first to die and then two miracles have to be attributed to them as a result of people praying to them for healing or some other deliverance. Eventually, after the case is investigated by the relevant authorities, including a "devil's advocate", the person is raised to sainthood and Romanists are encouraged to pray to them.

This whole business is completely contrary to the Bible. The Scripture clearly teaches that true saints are those who have repented of their sins and trust in Christ alone for salvation. Hence, the Apostle Paul when addressing the people in the various churches addresses them as saints.

Nowhere in Scripture are people exhorted to pray to the departed. To do so is nothing short of necromancy, which is strictly forbidden by God. Is it not strange that Evangelicals can get very concerned about spiritism and Free Masonry, and rightly so, but fraternise with papists without a qualm.

However, to get back to John Paul II and his supposed saintliness: two Polish nuns who looked after his domestic needs have spoken of the fact that they often heard him whipping himself, especially before performing the hocus pocus of the mass. There is a belief among Romanists that inflicting bodily pain can mortify the flesh. In the Middle Ages there was a widespread movement which practised group flagellation. They were condemned by the Pope, not for flogging themselves but because they had, according to Rome, heretical beliefs.

Flogging oneself, for that is what it is, may not be as common as it once was, but many Romanists wear hair shirts next to their skin and tie sharp pointed metal objects around various parts of their bodies. Members of the sinister Opus Dei movement are said to adhere to such practices.

Public processions of flagellants still take place in Italy and the Philippines, where some go so far as to have themselves nailed to crosses. Oh how dark is the religion of Rome! Muslims also whip themselves, especially Shiites, as they mourn the death of Ali whom they regard as the true Caliph. It was also practised by ancient pagan idolaters.

Many of Rome's religious beliefs have their origin in paganism. I would encourage the readers of this article to get hold of a copy of a book entitled "The Two Babylons". It clearly reveals the link between Roman Catholic beliefs and ancient Babylon, the fountainhead of all idolatry. In reading this it will become obvious as to what system the Apostle John is referring to in Revelation chapter 17.

The Manhattan Declaration.

On November 20, 2009, a group of people, describing themselves as Christians, issued a declaration to join together to combat the evils of the present time: evils such as abortion, sodomy, promiscuity, the breakdown of marriage and the culture of death. That such evils are rampant in society is undeniable and that they should be opposed and confronted is indeed a worthy objective. But, and its a very big but, the basis upon which this declaration is founded is fatally flawed and is, therefore, doomed to failure.

In the preamble to the declaration the differences between Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Greek Orthodox are glossed over as "the shortcomings and imperfections of Christian institutions." In other words, the tortures and massacres carried out at the behest of successive popes using the instrumentality of 'The Holy Inquisition,' and Roman Catholic inspired religious wars, as a result of which between fifty and sixty million people of all ages and both sexes perished, is merely because of imperfections and shortcomings! Oh how the Evangelicals of today, having swallowed the Jesuit invented interpretation of prophecy, namely Futurism, totally ignore the bloody doings of the Church of Rome down the centuries.

It is said that during Victorian times three books were to be found in most Protestant homes, namely, the Bible, Pilgrims Progress and Foxe's Book of Martyrs. One thing is for certain nowadays and that is the fact that most Evangelicals are totally unaware of Foxe's Book of Martyrs and know precious little of church history, especially when Rome was in the ascendency.

The preamble goes on to declare how that monasteries preserved the Bible. While it is true that manuscripts were to be found in monastery libraries, the Bible was unknown to people and priest alike. For a time, the Bible was placed on the index of forbidden books by the Church of Rome, which church strove with might and main to prevent the Scripture being translated into the vernacular declaring that for the common people to have access to the Bible in their mother tongue would be the cause of great evil.

According to the preamble, papal edicts were issued against slavery in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This was the period when the Inquisition was at its height as Rome sought to keep all people in its sphere of influence enslaved in spiritual darkness. It was also during this period that the Conquistadores of "His Most Catholic Majesty," and Jesuits were enslaving and massacring thousands of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas.

The preamble ends by stating that Christians today, like those who have gone before, are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. One wonders what is meant by "costly grace?" Perhaps the terminology 'free grace' would be offensive to papist ears.

The Declaration begins with a false statement in that it declares that Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Evangelicals are all Christian. It goes on to declare that "We act together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness and love......" It then makes the astonishing assertion that "We set forth this declaration in the light of the truth that is grounded in Holy Scripture, in natural human reason and in the very nature of the human person." Leaving aside the fact that human reasoning is, at best, flawed, and that human nature is depraved, neither Roman Catholicism nor Greek Orthodoxy base their beliefs on the Bible alone, they themselves being witnesses.

I intend to deal only with Roman Catholic errors, especially in regard to salvation. If an organisation, calling itself Christian, is wrong in regards as to how a sinner becomes reconciled to God, it doesn't matter if it is correct in all other areas. The Church of Rome teaches a different way of salvation than that laid down in Holy Writ, therefore, its adherents, believing in the Roman way of salvation are not Christian and are under the anathema pronounced by the Apostle Paul in Galatians Chapter 1. It is for this reason that I assert that the whole project is doomed to failure because its is not based upon the solid foundation of Scripture.

The Church of Rome does not receive the Bible as being the sole source of authority for what it teaches. Listen to what the RC Church declares in its "Catechism of The Roman Catholic Church." 'Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal. Each of them make present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own 'always to the close of the age'.

'Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit'. 'And {Holy} Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching.'

As a result, the Church to whom the transmission and interpretation of Scripture has been entrusted, 'does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the Scriptures alone. (My Emph.) Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.'

I could draw attention to many teachings of Rome which are contrary to Holy Writ; teachings such as Papal Infallibility, auricular confession, priestly absolution, the veneration of saints and Mary, purgatory, indulgences and the blasphemous dogma of Transubstantiation, to name but a few. But the one which I wish to draw the readers attention is Rome's attitude to justification by faith alone. This doctrine, as Luther rightly said, is the one by which a church stands or falls.

A perusal of the RC catechism reveals that they confuse justification with sanctification. They do not see justification as an act but a process. The Council of Trent, which is regarded as infallible by the Church of Rome in Canon 12 sates the following. "If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone which justifies him, let him be anathema."

These Evangelicals who are teaming up with Rome addressing them as their brethren in Christ should take heed as to what this church has to say about their faith. According to Rome they are accursed! But do these evangelicals really believe in justification by faith alone in Christ alone? If they do why do they then address those, who vehemently deny this foundational truth, as Christian? Do these people really believe in this doctrine or do they pay lip service to it? Do they believe there is more ways than one by which a sinner can be justified? Rome teaches a different way to that which is revealed in the Bible and anathematises those who believe what the Bible clearly teaches. They cannot both be correct.

The greatest danger to the true Church is, and always has been, from false teachers within. Both Christ and the apostles solemnly warned the early Christians to beware of such. People, such as Charles Colson, are a greater danger to the truth in that they call themselves Evangelical but their actions speak otherwise. They are yoking together with the Harlot Church headed up by the Anti-Christ to combat the evils of our times. Satan cannot be defeated by yoking with his dupes. He is quite willing for his false church to oppose some evils while all the time his greater purpose, namely, the damnation of men's souls goes on unopposed by those who ought to know better.