"ITS NOT HOW YOU START THE RACE ITS HOW YOU FINISH"

This is a copy of the picture which appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner 04TH JUNE 2010

DAVE HUNT - MYSTERY BABYLON

Mystery Babylon Identified

By: Dave Hunt

(Dave Hunt’s 14 reasons Rome is Mystery Babylon)



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About twenty-five hundred years ago God gave the prophet Daniel a vision of four strange beasts representing the four world empires which are now history: the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman. Yes, there were other large empires based in Egypt, China, Central and South America and Arabia, but Scripture gives them no prophetic significance because they will not rise again, only Rome will. Symbolic of the Roman Empire, the fourth beast retained characteristics of the three empires which preceded it, yet it was far more "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured" (Dan 7:7) the known world, breaking and trampling all that opposed it.

This fourth beast had ten horns corresponding to the ten toes on the huge image seen in Daniel chapter two, an image which depicted the same four world empires. The image's two legs foretold the split of the Roman Empire: politically, when Constantine moved his capital to Constantinople in 330 A.D.; and religiously, between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, when in 1054 Pope Leo IX in Rome excommunicated Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople. The ten toes of iron mixed with clay signified ten kings who must reign when "the God of heaven [shall] set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed" (Dan 2:44).

Nearly 700 years after Daniel, around 95 A.D., the Apostle John was given three further prophetic visions of this terrible fourth beast as recorded in Revelation 12, 13, and 17. At that time, the world empires represented by the first three beasts had come and gone exactly as Daniel had prophesied. The fourth beast-the Roman Empire-was then at the height of its power. It, too, would fall, but unlike its three predecessors and exactly as the Bible foretold, it would not be conquered by a successor. No fifth empire would arise to take its place.

Instead, Scripture foretold that the Roman Empire itself would be revived in a more powerful form to control all of earth just before Christ's Second Coming. Numerous Scriptures indicate this. Since the Roman Empire was never ruled by ten kings at one time as foreseen in the image's ten toes and the fourth beast's ten horns ("ten kings that shall arise" - Dan 7:24), it must be revived worldwide di-vided into ten regions under separate sub-rulers accountable to Antichrist. Ten nations in Western Europe could hardly represent the revival of an empire which included far more in its day. Moreover, we are clearly told that "power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him..." (Rev 13:7-8). Interestingly, today's world has already been divided into ten regions by the Club of Rome. Only when Antichrist's position and power have been fully established will the Second Coming take place with Christ returning to destroy Antichrist and his kingdom and to set up His own Millennial reign over this earth from Jerusalem: "whom the Lord shall destroy... with the brightness of his coming..." (2 Thes 2:8-9).

Chapters 12, 13, and 14 of Zechariah prophesy quite clearly not a gradual take-over of the world as some teach, but a cataclysmic intervention by Christ from heaven. So did Daniel: "...a stone [Christ] was cut out without hands, which smote the image... [which] became like the chaff of the summer threshing floor; and the wind carried [it] away... and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain [Christ's kingdom], and filled the whole earth" (Dan 2:34-35). This unprecedented event known as the Second Coming can only take place "in the days of these [ten] kings..." (2:44).

John saw this fourth beast three times: first as a red dragon seeking to destroy Israel: "...and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads..." (Rev 12). In chapter 13 this dreadful beast appears again representing the revived Roman Empire whose "deadly wound was healed"-and also its ruler, the Antichrist whom "all that dwell upon the earth shall worship." Notice, "the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority." So the "red dragon," who is Satan, is actually building his kingdom and using Antichrist to his own ends.

John expresses no shock at the sight of the beast; but in his third vision of this scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns he is staggered (Rev 17:6) when he sees a woman on its back. A WOMAN RIDES THE BEAST! And not as in a rodeo on a creature which is trying to buck her off, but sitting relaxed and comfortable, holding the reins, obviously a key player in the unfolding drama of Antichrist's rule over the revived Roman Empire! Who is this woman? John's vision provides at least fourteen specifics which identify her beyond question.

FIRST OF ALL, she is a city (v 19). Some authors have identified the United States as MYSTERY BABYLON, but that is clearly erroneous because the USA is a country and the woman is a city.

SECONDLY, the city sits on (i.e. is built on) seven hills (v 9). Several cities sit on seven hills. John's vision, however, eliminates all but one as we shall see. That the seven heads also signify seven kings does not take away from the fact that they, too, represent seven hills upon which the woman/city sits.

THIRDLY, emblazoned on her forehead is her name, MYSTERY, BABYLON. Saddam Hussein has been rebuilding Iraq's ancient city of Babylon, headquarters of the first world empire. The Woman could not be that city, however, rebuilt for the Antichrist, for several reasons. It is the fourth Empire headquartered in Rome which is to be brought back to life, not the Babylonian Empire. The ten toes and ten horns belong to Rome. And Babylon was not built on seven hills, nor does it meet any of the other identifying criteria. Rome, however, was and has universally been known as the city of seven hills. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: "It is within the city of Rome, called the city of seven hills, that the entire area of Vatican State proper is now confined."

Charles Dyer counters, "The seven heads are associated with the beast, not the woman... it does not identify the location of the prostitute because she is not an organic part of the beast." Nor is any cowboy an organic part of his horse. The seven heads are associated with the woman: they represent seven hills on which she sits. That's location. No organic relationship is required.

Interestingly, Rome was also known as Babylon. In his book, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Catholic apologist Karl Keating writes: "Babylon is a code word for Rome. It is used that way six times in the last book of the Bible [so he acknowledges that the woman in Rev 17 is Rome!] and in extrabiblical works such as Sibylling Oracles (5, 159Q, the Apocalypse of Baruch (ii, 1), and Esdras (3:1). Eusebius Pamphilius, writing about 303, noted that ...Peter ...referr[ed] to [Rome] figuratively as Babylon [in 1 Pe 5:13]." The Bible often addresses a person or city under another name. For example, Jerusalem is called "Sodom and Egypt" (Rev 11:8) and Satan is addressed as the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14 and as the prince of Tyrus in Ezekiel 28.

Could Rome be the Woman on the Beast? That would make good sense because the Beast she rides is the revived Roman Empire.

FOURTH, this Woman is called "the great whore... with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication..." (vs 1-2). While Ninevah (Nah 3:4) and Tyre (Isa 23:16-17) were associated with prostitution because of their rampant sexual immorality, literal whoredom and fornication would be impossible for a city. Spiritual fornication, however, would be possible for a city if it were a spiritual entity.

Jerusalem is such a city. It's called the "holy city" and the "city of God," having been chosen by God to represent Him to the nations. Tragically, Jerusalem violated that relationship and was repeatedly accused by God's prophets of spiritual harlotry and adultery. Isaiah said of Jerusalem: "How is the faithful city become a harlot" (1:21)! (See also 2 Chr 21:11; Jer 3:9, Ezek 16:1-15, etc.) Jerusalem, however, can't be the woman riding the Beast because it wasn't built on seven hills nor does it meet any of the other criteria in John's vision.

There is one other city in the world-and only one-which is a spiritual entity and could there-fore commit spiritual fornication with the kings of the earth. And it is built on seven hills. Again that city is Rome, the headquarters of Roman Catholicism, which claims to be the true Christianity. Its Pope claims to be the Vicar of Christ. Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church claims that its members have taken the place of Israel as the true people of God and that Rome is therefore the New Jerusalem. Catholic Rome claims the very titles God gave to Jerusalem: "the Holy City" and "the City of God" and even "the Eternal City."

Let me state right now that I have no desire to attack Catholics. I'm not a Catholic "basher" as I've been accused of being. I love Catholics and want them to know the truth. Let's set the record straight. The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, which Vatican II re-proposed, contain more than 100 anathemas damning me and every evangelical Christian for our beliefs and our unwillingness to accept Catholic dogmas and authority. So who is really "bashing" whom? Let's face the facts honestly from history and the Bible-whatever they may be

We've already discovered from John's vision that these four criteria-being a city, known as Babylon, built on seven hills, that committed spiritual fornication with earth's rulers-have ruled out every city on earth except Rome. We are, of course, not talking about political/civil Rome, but about religious Rome and more specifically, the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church as the worldwide leader of a false and antichrist "Christianity." The pope is currently leading the greatest ecumenical movement in history in order to unite all religions under Rome's leadership.

As only one example, in 1986, Pope John Paul II gathered in Assisi, Italy the leaders of the world's major religions to pray for peace. There were snake worshipers, fire worshipers, spiritists, animists, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, North American Indian witchdoctors. I watched in astonishment as they walked to the microphone to pray. The Pope said they were all praying to the same "God" and that their prayers were creating a spiritual energy that was bringing about a new climate for peace. On that occasion John Paul II allowed his good friend the Dalai Lama to put the Buddha on the altar in St. Peter's church in Assisi and with his monks to have a Buddhist worship ceremony there, while Shintoists chanted and rang their bells outside. The prophesied world religion is in the process of being formed before our eyes and the Vatican is the headquarters of the movement. Is this not spiritual fornication such as no other city either has or could commit?

The objection is raised that Vatican City is only a small part of Rome and is not itself built on seven hills. Historically, however, the Popes ruled as kings over all of Rome and the surrounding area, as well as over large territories across Italy known as the papal states. Pope Innocent III abolished the Roman Senate and placed the administration of Rome directly under his control. It wasn't until 1870 that Rome and the other Vatican-controlled territories were finally captured by the army of the newly united Italy, the Jews were liberated at last from Rome's shameful ghetto and Pope Pius IX took refuge in Vatican City, which has been the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church ever since.

Today, the Vatican owns about one-third of Rome and its influence is everywhere through its monuments, churches and other institutions scattered throughout the entire city of seven hills. That Church proudly identifies itself as the Roman Catholic Church. A recent article in the National Catholic Reporter, titled "Rome, where the pontiff is supreme," declared: "No city comes close to being so suffused with religious culture as Rome is with Catholicism. What has emerged over the centuries is unmistakably a culture of the papacy." The article goes on to refer to the monuments to Roman Catholicism found everywhere in Rome and states: "All roads lead, sooner or later, down the via della Concilizione to the Vatican .... Rome is... the world's spiritual crossroads." Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encyclopedia adds: "...hence, one understands the central place of Rome in the life of the Church today and the significance of the title, Roman Catholic Church .... Since the founding of the Church there... Rome has been the center of all Christendom." World's spiritual crossroads ...center of all Christendom! This is the one city in the world built on seven hills and known as Babylon which is undoubtedly a spiritual entity.

Has spiritual Rome violated its claimed relationship with Christ and thus been guilty of spiritual fornication? The popes have repeatedly engaged in partnership and thus spiritual fornication with emperors, kings and princes. Claiming to be the Bride of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church has been in bed with godless rulers down through history. Hundreds of examples could be given, not just from centuries past but from recent times as well.

Consider the alliances with Mussolini and Hitler. The Vatican literally put Mussolini into power. Pope Pius XI and his cardinals praised Mussolini as a man chosen by God and forbade Roman Catholics to oppose him politically. In turn, Mussolini signed the Concordat with the Vatican in 1929, making Roman Catholicism the sole religion of Italy. The Vatican received 750 million lire in cash and 1 billion in state bonds. Four years later in 1933 came a similar Concordat with Hitler, resulting in the Vatican's reception of hundreds of millions of German marks from the Nazi regime all through World War II. Similar concordats with many other governments have made the Roman Catholic Church the only religion allowed in those countries and have brought persecution and death upon thousands of evangelicals. One could not ask for clearer examples of "fornication with the kings of the earth"! Ancient Babylon doesn't meet this criteria, nor does any other city.

Christ never joined forces with Caesar nor did Peter or Paul. But the Roman Catholic Church has continually engaged in adulterous relationships with secular rulers right up to the present. The cover of Time magazine for February 24, 1992 declared: "HOLY ALLIANCE: How Reagan and the Pope conspired to assist Poland's Solidarity movement and hasten the demise of Communism." The alliance between Reagan and Pope John Paul II, between the CIA and the alleged Vicar of Christ, could only be called spiritual fornication. It violated everything Christ taught about His church not being of this world. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig acknowledged that "the Vatican's information was absolutely better and quicker than ours in every respect." Vatican liaison to the White House, Arch-bishop Pio Laghi, kept reminding American officials, "Listen to the Holy Father. We have 2000 years experience in this." Two thousand years is an exaggeration, but there have been centuries of political intrigue at which the Vatican is clearly the master! And this is the true Church? No, this is the whore!

Mikhail Gorbachev has called the pope "the highest spiritual authority on earth." Gorbachev paid tribute to the earthly power of the Roman Catholic Church when he wrote in his syndicated column: "Pope John Paul II played a major political role in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe ...the events in Eastern Europe might not have been possible without the presence of this pope, without the great role... which he knew how to play on the world scene." Such praise could never have been given to Christ or His Apostles who were martyred by the secular world which the popes have embraced in spiritual fornication and have even dominated.

FIFTH, this city on seven hills "rules over the kings of the earth" (v 19). In John's day it was the Rome of the Caesars that ruled the world. After the Caesars lost their power the popes ruled in their place and over wider territories and often more ruthlessly. Christ said that His kingdom is not of this world and His servants are not to fight. In direct disobedience, the popes, who included some of the greatest military commanders in history (Innocent HI, who "held all Europe in his net," never lost a battle), fought with armies and navies in the name of Christ to build a huge kingdom, an unrivaled worldwide empire of property, wealth, and political influence which is very much of this world. Papal worldly power has been wielded for centuries in fulfillment of John's remarkable vision-while ancient Babylon has been in ruins. Hundreds of examples could be given. Here are a few.

Pope Alexander II decreed that Harold, the lawful King of Eng-land, was a usurper, excommunicated him and his followers and gave the throne to William, Duke of Normandy. With the Pope's blessing, William the Conqueror killed Harold in battle, took over England and was crowned in London on Christmas Day in 1066. He accepted the crown of England "in the name of the Holy See of Rome." As the Pope's agent, William the Conqueror, now their king, was required to teach the English people "due obedience to Christ's Vicar" and to pay their taxes to the Pope punctually.

Pope Alexander Ill excommunicated the Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarosa. The latter came for revenge with his armies against the pope and was soundly defeated. Frederick I, the emperor, came to Venice where he grovelled at the pope's feet with his face in the dust, begging forgiveness. The pope put his heel on the emperor's neck while the cardinals chanted, "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder ...." Papal Rome has ruled the kings of the earth!

Pope Gregory VII's claim to be "King of kings" was no idle boast! In 1077, Gregory forbade Henry IV, heir of Charlemagne (who had been crowned emperor by Pope Leo Ell) and supreme head of the Holy Roman Empire, to rule the kingdoms of Italy and Germany and threatened to excommunicate anyone who would serve him as king. In fear for his life, Henry journeyed across the Alps in winter to beg the pope's forgiveness. The humbled emperor had to stand 3 days in penitence, barefoot and in a haircloth shirt outside the Pope's castle at Canossa before he was granted an audience to express his repentance.

In 1155 Pope Adrian IV gave the crown of Ireland to the King of England, consigning the Irish to the merciless cruelties of Henry II. A later King of England, John Lackland, tried to break free from Rome, and Pope Innocent III forced him to surrender his crown, thereafter allowing him to rule only as a vassal of the Holy See. One 18th-century Catholic historian counted 95 popes who claimed to have divine power to depose kings and emperors. Historian R.W. Southern declared: "During the whole medieval period there was in Rome a single spiritual and temporal authority exercising powers which in the end exceeded those that had ever lain within the grasp of a Roman emperor."

Pope Gregory XI's papal bull of 1372, In Coena Domini, claimed papal dominion over the entire Christian world, secular and religious, and excommunicated all who failed to obey the popes and to pay them taxes. That bull was confirmed by subsequent popes and in 1568 Pope Pius V swore that it was to remain an eternal law.

Surely no other city at the present or in history can rival the way in which Rome, especially Catholic Rome, qualifies as being a city reigning over kings! Again these are but a few of hundreds of examples that could be given covering centuries when Babylon lay in ruins. Nor is empire building an abandoned feature of the past. The Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium on November 21, 1964 declared that "the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods under Christ..," meaning, of course, under the Pope, Christ's alleged Vicar.

THE SIXTH POINT: Not only is Babylon the code name for Rome, but Rome's connections to Babylon go much deeper. Ancient Babylon drew its Semitic name, Bab-ilu ("gate of god") from the Tower of Babel around whose ruins it was built. That tower, designed to reach heaven, was the headquarters of the first world religion, just as Rome will be for the coming world religion of Antichrist. Furthermore, just as Babel's tower and city ("Let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven" - Gen 11:4) united church and state, so the popes wielded both civil and religious authority; and in like manner the Woman and the Beast she rides unite the coming world government and world religion.

With its attempt to reach heaven by steps of its own making, Babel/Babylon was the ultimate works religion. And so it is in Roman Catholicism: salvation is unquestionably by works. Vatican II declares: "To gain indulgences the work prescribed must be done .... From the most ancient times in the church good works were also offered to God for the salvation of sinners .... [A]II men may attain to salvation through faith, baptism and the observance of the commandments."

The Council of Trent as reproposed by Vatican II decreed: "If anyone says that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary for salvation... and that without them... men obtain from God through faith alone the grace of justification ...let him be anathema." Clearly good works play a key role in earning salvation in Catholicism as the average Catholic would testify. Thus by its practice of salvation through good works and ritual, Catholic Rome, once again, fits the description of the Woman whose name is Babylon.

THE SEVENTH identifying feature: John tells us that the name BABYLON emblazoned on the Woman's forehead is preceded by the word, MYSTERY. Here again Rome qualifies: mystery is the very heart of Roman Catholicism. Pope Paul VI's encyclical on the Eucharist is titled, Mysterium Fidei. Vatican II refers repeatedly to "the mystery of the Eucharist." The Vatican's new universal catechism declares that all of the church's liturgy is "mystery" and that its aim is "to initiate souls into the mystery of Christ (It is mystagogy)." By claiming to be the custodian of a "mystery" which only its priests and bishops can mediate, the Roman Catholic Church keeps its members dependent upon it rather than upon Christ for their salvation, which it has historically sold for money and still does so today (Mass cards and indulgences, for example) and thus trades in the "souls of men" (Rev 18:13).

THE EIGHTH POINT: John notes that the Woman on the Beast is clothed "in purple and scarlet" (v 4). These were the colors of the Roman Caesars, became those of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and remain so today. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia declares: Cassock (also called Soutane) - The close-fitting, ankle-length robe worn by the Catholic clergy as their official garb .... The color for bishops and other prelates is purple, for cardinals scarlet." Perhaps this seems like a small point, but as one identifying feature after another falls into place the case becomes overwhelming. No other city meets all criteria as does Rome.

THE NINTH identifying feature: The woman is wealthy beyond calculation: "decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand..." (Rev 17:4). The Roman Catholic Church is by far the wealthiest institution on earth. Every cathedral has its "treasury" where priceless objects are displayed. The value of innumerable sculptures by such masters as Michelangelo, paintings by the world's greatest artists and countless other art treasures and ancient documents which she possesses (not only at the Vatican but in cathedrals around the world) is beyond calculation. Nino Lo Bello, former Rome correspondent for Business Week, calls the Vatican "the tycoon on the Tiber" because of its incredible wealth and worldwide enterprises. His research indicates that it is probably the largest holder of stocks and bonds in the world, to say nothing of its ownership of industries from electronics and plastics to airlines and chemical and engineering firms. There is no church, no city which is a spiritual entity, no religious institution past or present which even comes close to possessing the incalculable wealth of the Roman Catholic Church.

The rich clothing adorning the woman reflect the fact that the robes worn by popes and the regalia used in pomp and cermony were inherited from the Caesars. One Catholic historian has written: "...the Bishop of Rome looked like Constantine, lived like him, dressed like him, inhabited his palaces, ruled over his lands, had exactly the same imperial outlook... the popes had become obsessed with power and possessions. Peter's [alleged] successors [became] not the servants but the masters of the world. They... dress in purple like Nero and call themselves Pontifex Maximus."

TENTH, the woman riding the Beast has a golden cup in her hand. This is the holiest instrument in Roman Catholicism: the golden chalice used in the Eucharist or Mass. The Roman Catholic Church possesses literally hundreds of thousands of solid gold chalices.

ELEVENTH, John perceives that this golden chalice is filled with the "filthiness of her abominations," reflecting the Bible's view of the sacrifice of the Mass, the very heart of Roman Catholicism. Such was the conviction of hundreds of thousands of Christians throughout history who were burned at the stake for refusing to participate in the Mass, which they earnestly believed was the greatest abomination conceivable. Why? Because it claims to be the literal sacrificial offering again and again of the body and blood of Christ, whereas the Bible clearly says that Christ's sacrifice upon the cross was completed once and for all, never to be repeated again.

Catholicism claims that when, at the Last Supper, Christ said, "This is my body... this is my blood," He had to be taken literally: the bread and wine He held in His hands had, with those words, become His literal body and blood; and when the priest speaks those words today the bread and wine become again Christ's literal body and blood to be sacrificed endlessly on Catholic altars as truly as Christ was sacrificed on the cross. Yet no one takes it literally when Christ said, "I am the door, I am the light of the world, I am the Good Shepherd" or when He called His disciples sheep. Christ was obviously speaking figuratively when He referred to bread and wine as His body and blood. There is no way that the bread could literally be His body when He was sitting there in His physical body holding the bread! Much less can millions of tiny wafers each be simultaneously Christ's literal body and blood, soul, personality, divinity, whole and entire as Catholicism claims. That is not literalism but mysticism, the MYSTERY emblazoned on the Woman's forehead.

There is another grave error involved. Vatican II declares, "Our Savior at the Last Supper... nstituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood ...." The Council of Trent agrees that Christ at the Last Supper "offered up to God the Father His own body and blood under the form of bread and wine ...." If so, then He was sacrificed for the sins of the world at the Last Supper before He went to the cross! Indeed, He wouldn't have to go to the cross at all if Catholic priests, as they claim, can truly turn bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Christ and offer it as a propitiatory sacrifice on their altars! This is the great MYSTERY at the heart of Catholicism!

The Pocket Catholic Dictionary states: "The Mass is a truly propitiatory sacrifice" by which "the Lord is appeased, He grants grace... and He pardons wrongdoings and sins ...." The Council of Trent declared, "regarding the great mystery of the Eucharist... it is the true and only sacrifice." Then the cross is unnecessary!

Of course, Catholicism teaches that the cross is essential, yet it reduces the cross to the same level as the Mass, declaring that Christ's sacrifice upon the cross is only effective in its repetition in the Mass, and then only partially each time the Mass is repeated. It takes many repetitions of the Mass to take a soul to heaven; nor can the Pope himself tell how many Masses may be needed. As the Pocket Catholic Dictionary explains:

Finally the Mass is the divinely ordained means of applying the merits of Calvary. Christ won for the world all the graces it needs for salvation and sanctification. But these blessings are conferred gradually and continually since Calvary and mainly through the Mass ....

The priest is indispensable, since he alone by his powers can change the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ... the more often the sacrifice is offered the more benefit is conferred.

In other words, Christ's sacrifice is not yet complete but is still in process through the Mass. Vatican II says: "For it is the liturgy through which, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, 'the work of our redemption is accomplished." But the Bible says redemption has already been accomplished. Hebrews 9:12 assures us that "by his own blood [Christ] obtained eternal redemption for us." Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14 both state, "In whom [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins ...." Yet Vatican II insists: "For in the sacrifice of the Mass Our Lord is immolated... the Mass is... a sacrifice in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated." The Pocket Catholic Dictionary explains that in the Mass Christ "offers himself... as really as he did on Calvary." Then what did Christ mean when He cried in triumph, "It is finished!"? Indeed, that golden cup is "full of abominations" (v 4).

Contradicting itself, Catholicism explains that Christ is not really being sacrificed over and over but His sacrifice on the cross is being "represented" or made present. Such a statement is meaningless. An event that was completed in the past cannot be made present. Moreover, if the past event accomplished its purpose then there is no reason for wanting to perpetuate it in the present even if that could be done. For example, if a benefactor pays a creditor the debt someone owes, the debt is gone forever. It would be meaningless to speak of representing or reenacting or perpetuating the payment in the present. The debt has been paid by a transaction that was effected and completed in the past. One could well "remember" with gratitude the payment that was made, but no reenactment would have any virtue since there no longer remains any debt to be paid.

Yet the new Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "As sacrifice, the Eucharist is also offered in reparation for the sins of the living and the dead and to obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God." (par 1414, p 356) That is like trying to pay more installments of a debt that has been paid in full. Clearly the Mass is a denial of the sufficiency of the payment Christ made for sin upon the cross!

The Roman Catholic Church claims to be in the process of procuring through its rituals the redemption/salvation which the Bible says Christ has already accomplished. In order to carry on the "work of redemption," the Catholic priesthood claims to perform the miracle of transubstantiation: turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ "under the appearance of remaining bread and wine." This MYSTERY is supposed to be a great miracle even though the wafer and wine remain unchanged in physical qualities. There is no such "miracle" in the Bible. Did Christ ever give a blind man his sight "under the appearance of the man remaining blind"? Did He ever raise a dead man to life "under the appearance of the man remaining dead"? Under those circumstances it would not be unbelief but common sense to deny that the alleged miracle had occurred at all!

Suppose the water turned to wine by Christ at the wedding in Cana had been this kind of "miracle"! The servants pour it out to the governor of the feast and he exclaims, "I asked for wine. This is water!" The servants insist, "Sir it is wine." Angrily the governor shouts, "It looks like water, tastes like water, it is water!" "You need faith," the servants insist. "This is a miracle! Christ turned water into wine-but under the appearance of remaining water." "That's not a miracle, that's a fraud!" would be the governor's response. And he would be right. And so it is with transubstantiation! The golden cup is "full of abominations."

The dogma of purgatory is another abomination in the golden cup. Vatican II says that although Christ suffered to bear our eternal punishment, we must personally suffer to to bear our eternal punishment, we must personally suffer to expiate the temporal punishment due for our sins: "Sins must be expiated ...through the sorrows, miseries and trials of this life... [or] in the next life through fire and torments or purifying punishments... in purgatory the souls of those 'who died in the charity of God and truly repentant for their sins and omissions' are cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt." Yet Peter himself declared that Christ has "once suffered for sins, [He] the just for [us] the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 peter 3:18) not to purgatory.

There is a further contradiction. Although Catholicism says we must personally suffer, it also says we don't have to. Masses and rosaries can be said, even after one's death, to reduce one's suffering in purgatory. For those who die wearing the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and fulfill certain other obligations, she promises to go into purgatory the Saturday after their death and take them out to heaven. So they don't have to personally suffer. Christ's sacrifice on the cross was not sufficient, but its alleged repetition in the Mass, if done enough times, will eventually get one to heaven. Moreover, good Catholics may offer their sufferings to release souls from purgatory. Padre Pio manifested the stigmata for 40 years to pay the penalty for the sins of the world so that souls could be released from purgatory. Of such alleged saints, Vatican II says, "They have carried their crosses to make expiation for their own sins and the sins of others. They were convinced that 'by their suffering' they could help their brothers to obtain salvation from God ...." Catholicism has indeed filled that golden cup with abominations! 35:25

For centuries the payment of money brought deliverance from purgatory. That practice eventually troubled Martin Luther's conscience and sparked the Reformation. Who can forget the infamous sales pitch of the Dominican Friar Tetzel, commissioned by Pope Leo X to reap a fortune for Rome: "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs"!

This was nothing new. Rome had consistently sold salvation for centuries. Again we say, she has "made merchandise of...souls of men" (Rev 18:13). Popes published lists of every crime from incest to piracy to murder with a price for which the Church would give absolution for each. For example, a deacon guilty of murder could be absolved for 20 crowns. The "anointed malefactors" as they were called, once pardoned by the Church, could not be prosecuted by civil authorities because the Church reigned supreme. Here is a further abomination filling the Woman's cup: selling tickets to heaven which actually send people to hell!

Similar practices continue in Roman Catholicism to this day. One may obtain a Mass card from any mortuary. When the names of the deceased and the donor have been filled in and an offering given to the church, the priest will place the card on the altar during Mass, allegedly reducing the time of suffering for the deceased in purgatory. Of course, the Church makes no guarantee how much the suffering will be shortened nor how many more Masses must be said before the gates of heaven can be opened. Consequently, multiple Masses are purchased hoping that eventually enough will have been celebrated. A friend's father died recently and he told me that $2,000 in Mass cards were purchased at the funeral.

Some Catholics claim they don't believe in indulgences; but Vatican II declares: "The Church... teaches and commands that the usage of indulgences-a usage most beneficial to Christians and approved by the authority of the Sacred Councils-should be kept in the Church; and it condemns with anathema those who say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have the power to grant them." There are 20 complex rules governing indulgences. Rule 17 explains that the use of a crucifix, rosary, scapular or medal "can gain a partial indulgence. But if this object of piety is blessed be the Pope or any bishop, the faithful who use it with devotion can also gain a plenary [full] indulgence o the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul ...."

Here is another abomination filling that gold chalice. What kind of "God" grants favors depending upon whether a priest or a bishop has blessed some scapular or medal and whether it is used on a feast of Peter or Paul-and favors, remember, which the sufferings of Christ upon the cross could not procure!

TWELFTH, the Woman is called "the mother of harlots." As well as spiritual harlots, Roman Catholicism has created literal harlots by the millions. Throughout history, and today, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes without number who claimed to be celibates have had their lovers. There were popes who were the sons of supposedly celibate popes: Pope Sylverius was fathered by Pope Hormisda and John XI by Sergius El. The list of bastards who ruled the church includes Popes Boniface I, Gelasius, Agapitus, Theodore, Adrian IV and others. No wonder Pope Pius II, who himself fathered illegitimate children, said that Rome was "the only city run by bastards." For centuries it was a favorite joke that Rome had more prostitutes than any other city because she had the most celibates.

The sexual exploits of supposedly celibate priests and nuns, once hushed up, are , are increasingly coming out in the open. For example, the National Catholic Reporter recently stated: "Seven French women ... companions of priests who... are forced to 'live clandestinely, for a lifetime, the love they share with a priest' [and who] represent thousands of women in similar relationships... arrived at the Vatican Aug. 20. [They] asked the pope to... look into the reality faced by 'thousands of priest's companions who live in the shadows, often with the approval of church superiors, and by the children who... are raised by their mothers alone or are abandoned."

The Archbishop of Vienna recently stepped down after being charged with sexual abuse of minors. The Bishop of Basel, Switzerland, too, resigned after admitting to an affair with a woman whom he made pregnant. The resignation of Ireland's Prime Minister and collapse of its government was recently precipitated by exposure of 40 years of the Catholic Church and Catholic government officials covering up the continued sexual abuse of a pedophile priest. Homosexual priests are dying of aids worldwide, with estimates that as many as 70% of priests in some seminaries are practicing homosexuals. The Roman Catholic Church in America has paid out an estimated 1 billion dollars in the past few years in out-of-court settlements to cover up its clergy's sexual abuse. The Franciscan Seminary in Santa Barbara, California recently had to shut down because of the sexual involvement of its priests. The Milwaukee archdiocese is in serious financial trouble due to payments it has had to make for out-of-court settlements involving its priests' sexual affairs. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico is on the brink of bankruptcy because of the lawsuits against it for priestly sexual abuse. I have a file nearly two inches thick of news articles involving sexual immorality of Roman Catholic clergy just within the past two years. It is not that Catholic priests and nuns are any more lustful than the average person they may have started out with higher ideals-but they have had imposed upon them the unbiblical rule of celibacy which becomes a burden too great to bear. The woman is indeed and literally "the mother of harlots."

THIRTEENTH, the Woman is drunk "with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (v 6). For centuries, to disobey the popes was heresy punishable by death. J.H. Ignaz von Dollinger, a leading nineteenth century Catholic professor of Church History, confessed: [S]ince 1183, the view of the Church had been ...[that] every departure from the teaching of the Church ...must be punished with death, and the most cruel of deaths, by fire.

For 1,000 years before the Reformation there were Christians who refused to give allegiance to Rome and who were slaughtered by the millions. Everyone knows of the Crusades to retake the Holy Land, but few know that even larger and more numerous crusades were fought to exterminate Christians all over Europe who, out of conscience to God and obedience to the Bible, would not submit to the authority of the popes or embrace Rome's heresies.

The popes promised instant entrance to heaven for those who died in this slaughter of the "heretics." It took about a century to exterminate the Albigensian Christians who at one time were the majority of the population of southern France. Among the cities wiped out by Pope Innocent ifi was Beziers, France-60,000 massacred there, including women and children, in 1208 AD, which the pope called "the crowning achievement" of his papacy. In the infamous St. Bartholemew's massacre in August 1572, 70,000 Huguenots were killed, another 200,000 slaughtered over a period of months, causing 500,000 to flee to Protestant countries for refuge. The Waldenses were all but exterminated as were the Hussites. Here is part of Pope Martin V's letter commanding the King of Poland in 1429 (100 years before the Reformation) to exterminate the Hussites: Know that the interests of the Holy See, and those of your crown, make it a duty to exterminate the Hussites. Remember that these impious persons dare proclaim principles of equality... that all Christians are brethren... that Christ came on earth to abolish slavery; they call the people to liberty .... While there is still time, then, turn your forces against Bohemia; burn, massacre, make deserts every where for nothing could be more agreeable to God or more useful to the cause of kings, than the extermination of the Hussites.

We haven't time to mention the horror of the tortures and murders of the Inquisitions which terrorized Europe for centuries. There is no city on earth which even comes close to having shed as much blood both of Christians and Jews as has Rome. Pagan Rome's killing of Christians during periodic persecutions in the first three centuries was nothing compared to the slaughter of both Christians and Jews by Catholic Rome. Historian Will Durant writes candidly: "Compared with the persecution of [alleged] heresy in Europe [by the Roman Catholic Church] ...the persecution of Christians in the first three centuries after Christ [by pagan Rome] was a mild and humane procedure." Yes, this Woman is indeed "drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus" and no other city even comes close to Rome in this regard.

FOURTEENTH, the fact that it is a WOMAN who rides the Beast also points to Roman Catholicism. Its main figure is a woman, a false sinless, perpetually virgin and all-powerful "Mary" whom Rome has invented and worships. Catholics deny they worship Mary and insist that the devotion and honor they give her is of a lesser quality than that given to God and Christ. Perhaps in theory, but not in practice. There are thousands of large and ornate shrines to Mary around the world (nearly 1,000 in France alone) visited by hundreds of miserably. Obtain for me, then, the pardon of my sins ...."

The Catholic Mary is not the Mary of the Bible, but the Woman who rides the Beast. She is appearing around the world in thousands of apparitions, offering her peace plan for the world and millions are believing in her instead of in Christ.

Revelation 17 and 18 refer to the same city, which was and is both religious and commercial. By pointing out the similarities, Dyer established that last year. I consider these chapters to be among the most remarkable prophecies in the Bible, foretelling with absolute accuracy the rise of this city to world dominion and its religious abominations.

The woman riding the beast cannot be the literal city of Babylon being rebuilt in Iraq for many reasons. While Babylon could seem to meet some of the criteria in Rev 17, she falls far short of meeting them all. She has been in ruins for 2000 years meeting none of the fourteen criteria given to John, while the Vatican has been fulfilling them all. Even if, as Dyer argues, Babylon has never been completely without inhabitants, she has certainly not played any role in world affairs during that time.

Furthermore, that a rebuilt ancient city would somehow become such a great city as to rule the world (it's not the Beast that is said to rule the world at this point, but the woman riding it) in a brief time and make up for having been in ruins ever since John penned these lines is rather far-fetched. It also would seem to argue against imminency for the rapture, considering the great length of time it would take not only for ancient Babylon to be rebuilt but to be inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people and to become dominant in world affairs. That it would happen to a city in Iraq makes it even more unlikely.

What we have attempted to show from the Bible and history is not some new theory lately dreamed up but has been the conviction of untold numbers of evangelical Christians who down through the ages existed independently of Rome and would not give allegiance to her and were therefore slaughtered by the millions. Martin Luther referred to them when he said, "We are not the first to declare the papacy to be the kingdom of Antichrist, since for many years before us so many and such great men (whose number is large and whose memory is eternal) have undertaken to express the same thing so clearly and plainly."

Of these martyrs, historian Will Durant wrote, "The Roman Church, they were sure, was the Whore of Babylon ...." Such was the opinion even of many leading Roman Catholics in the Middle Ages. For example, St. Bonaventure, cardinal and general of the Franciscans, said that Rome was just like the harlot of the Apocalypse. The Reformers were certain of this and it was written into their creeds. Thus D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones declared, "I would not hesitate with the Reformers of the 16th century to [say that Roman Catholicism] is, as the Scripture puts it, 'the whore." One could hardly come to any other conclusion from John's vision. This has been the view of the evangelical church for 1500 years, yet that opinion is lately being abandoned by evangelicals in the interests of ecumenism.

JOHN R RICE

Religious but Lost





by Evangelist John R. Rice (1895 - 1980)




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"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name done many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity." - Matt. 7:21-23.

Multitudes of people who expect to go to Heaven will go to a Hell of torment. Thousands of "good" people, "moral" people, church members, even church workers - yes, and, alas, even prophets, priests and preachers - will find themselves lost when they expected to be saved, condemned when they expected approval, cast out of Heaven when they expected to be received into eternal bliss. That is the explicit meaning of the words of our Lord quoted above.

Newspaper columns sometimes carry stories of "Life's Most Embarrassing Moment," but nothing in life could ever bring the horrible humiliation, disappointment and blame that is here described and awaiting multitudes who think they are safe but lost. They claim salvation; they shall receive damnation. They are self-satisfied under a delusion, a false refuge ; before Jesus Christ they will be horrified to hear that He never knew them.

Mark you, this is not a warning that people should beware lest they lose salvation. Jesus did not say He would turn against those He once knew, that He would reject those He once knew, that He would reject those He had once accepted. Rather, to multitudes of professing righteous people He solemnly warns that He will be compelled to say to them, "I never knew you. You never were saved; you never were born again."

Many of those who say, "Lord, Lord," will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. Many of those who have done wonderful deeds, even claiming to have done them in Jesus' name, will fail to be received in Heaven. They are professors without possession. They are church members, perhaps, but not Christians. They are reformed but not reborn. They have lamps but no oil. They are dwelling under the delusion that they are all right when really they have wicked hearts covered with sin and dwell under the wrath of Almighty God!



Many Preachers, Church Workers, Many Who Have Successfully Cast Out Devils, Many Who Call Jesus "Lord," Will Yet Wake Up in Hell!
How terrible is this warning to those who have prophesied, to those who have really preached and taught and worked in Jesus' name! Yet the dear Saviour will be compelled to say to them, "I never knew you"! - Preachers who really got people converted, workers who literally cast out devils, some who actually spoke in Jesus' name - not modernists, not heathen people, but many of those who actually called Jesus "Lord," - will be barred from the kingdom of Heaven and will hear Jesus say, "I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity"!

Doubtless Judas worked miracles in Jesus' name. Doubtless he, like other apostles, preached the Gospel and had people saved. He was sent out with the rest of the twelve to preach and heal and cast out devils (Matt l0). He was a preacher, a prophet, an apostle, a worker in Jesus' name, a church member. He was religious, but he was lost and he went to Hell. I beg you, however religious you are, MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAVED!

In the same seventh chapter of Matthew, read verses 13 and 14:

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate: and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Here is a startling and sad truth. In the words of Jesus Christ, more people are going to Hell than are going to Heaven. More people are lost than are saved. It is a narrow road with a strait gate that leads into life, and few there be that find it. But it is a broad road and wide gate that leads to destruction and many go in thereat, says Jesus. According to our Saviour, relatively few people out of the millions of earth will be in Heaven. A majority of the people in the world are poor, lost, deceived, deluded, and condemned sinners, bound for Hell.

People sometimes say, concerning different denominations or churches, "We are just going to Heaven by different roads." But that is not true. Jesus said that there is only one road to Heaven, and that a very narrow one, and the gate is strait, or narrow. There is only one way to Heaven. Many who say, "Lord, Lord," will not get to Heaven, but only those that do the will of the Father as regards the plan of salvation. Those who take His plan of salvation are saved by His blood. Those who depend upon their good deeds, their morals, their church membership or ceremonies or feeling or experiences are on the broad road that leads to destruction, and at death or at the second coming of Christ they face the tragic awakening when Christ will tell them, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Most of the population of the earth have a hope of some kind. Most claim some kind of religion. Many are Catholics, or Jews, or Protestants. Many have hope in the philosophies of Buddhism or Hinduism. Many seek a sense of security in their doctrines of morality, Unitarianism or evolution. Many, like so-called Christian Scientists, say there is no such thing as sin. Multitudes deny that there is a Hell. Uncounted millions depend upon some religious ceremony to save them, while millions of others count upon a life of good deeds and morality to keep them from the wrath of God. But according to the plain words of Jesus Christ, the great majority of the human race live under a false hope and will die rejected by Christ and will be tormented in flames as workers of iniquity who never knew Christ as a personal Saviour!

As kindly and tenderly as I know how, I urge every reader to make sure of his salvation. Millions who claim to be saved are lost. You may be one of them. Millions of church members are unconverted, unregenerated sinners living under the wrath of God. Perhaps you are one of them. In Hell today there are countless millions of good Methodists, or faithful Presbyterians, or orthodox Baptists - orthodox in doctrine, baptized or confirmed, respected members of churches who have gone to the place of despair, never having been truly saved. No doubt many Lutherans, Episcopalians, Seventh-Day Adventists, Catholics, Christian Scientists, and Disciples or Church of Christ people, or those of many other faiths, definitely have missed the Way, have had a false hope and are now in torment. Some of them read their Bibles, attended church regularly, gave to the poor, gave their tithes, observed fast days, went to confessional, perhaps, or attended prayer meetings. Doubtless many were faithful in "church work." But these found, when they came to face Christ, that He would not receive them, that they were in His sight workers of iniquity, and so commanded to depart into everlasting shame and torment! I tell you now, and solemnly that this is a serious matter, and that if you do not know that you are saved, you had better make sure about the question today.

Remember that even Judas Iscariot, an apostle of Jesus Christ, died a lost man and went "to his own place" (Acts 1:25).



Many Such Warnings In Bible
In recent years I have been greatly concerned to find many, many church members, and many outside the churches, who show no evidence of ever having been born again, who can give no definite testimony to their faith in Christ, yet are content and untroubled about the future. I read in the Bible again and again plain warnings to those kind of people. From the many times this question is brought up in the Bible, it is evident that there is a real and terrible danger of one's being deceived and depending on a false hope, only to discover at last that he is eternally lost.

The Saviour said, "Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away" (Matt. 13:3-6). Clearly the seeds falling on stony places represent those who have heard the Gospel and were somewhat moved by it but not genuinely converted. Jesus explained that class of hearers in these words: "But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended" (Matt. 13:20, 21). Here are pretended Christians but with no root in themselves. They have received the Word with joy temporarily but had no real work of grace in their hearts, no new birth, no actual regeneration. Jesus in this parable mentioned two classes of unsaved people - those who carelessly let the Word of God pass by without concern, and those who receive the Word gladly and make some claim as Christians and have some hope of Heaven but are never truly saved, having no root in themselves. This indicates that the Saviour knew multitudes would claim to be saved who were not.

It would appear from the words of our Saviour that some would be at the very gate of Heaven, expecting to sit down to the wedding feast with all the saints, then be cast outside. In Matthew, chapter 22, Jesus tells of "a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding." When they refused to come, then all were invited. Servants gathered all they found, bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests. But the Saviour said that "... when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt. 22:11-14).

Here was a man who expected to attend the wedding supper, even came into the house with others who had on the wedding garments. Doubtless the man was well satisfied with his own garments. They seemed to him white enough, I suppose, but they did not meet the strict requirements of the King. The man without the wedding garment was speechless before the King and was cast outside into outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth by those who longed to enter but could not! Surely Jesus meant that many will desire Heaven but will miss it. Many have false hopes and are deluded even while they are damned. You may have heard God's invitation, you may have felt that you are all right. Possibly you have compared yourself with other church members and are sure that you live a better life than they. Perhaps, even, that is true. At the same time, if you do not have the required wedding garment, you will be cast outside when God the Father makes the wedding feast for His Son, Jesus Christ, and when all the redeemed are caught up in glory to the wedding supper. Are you sure that you are saved? Do you know, are you absolutely sure, that you have on the wedding garment of Christ's righteousness?

Again Jesus warned about this matter in the parable of the ten virgins. In Matthew 25 He tells of "... ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps." While the bridegroom tarried, and all the girls slumbered, the wicks which had no oil burned out. The five wise virgins who had oil in their vessels with their lamps, slumbered, and found their lamps needed trimming. But when the wicks were trimmed, the light was clear and strong again. But the foolish virgins had no light because they had no oil and their lamps went out. The foolish virgins then went to buy oil. But when they returned, others had entered in to the marriage and "the door was shut." The bridegroom said to them, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not."

Again, surely Jesus meant to show us that multitudes expect to be saved who will not be saved. Many have lamps with no oil. Many have hopes, but their hopes are not well founded. Many hide themselves behind a refuge of lies and say, "Peace," when there is no peace. There are many lost people mixed in with the saved. If Jesus should come today, it would be a startling and horrible disappointment to millions to learn that they would be left behind, unsaved, unregenerate sinners who never had the oil of salvation!

And so it is again and again in the parables and teachings of Jesus. He told about a net let down into the sea which gathered up good fish and bad. The good fish were taken and the bad fish were thrown away. Notice that the point of the story is not that there were bad fish in the sea, but that bad fish got in the net with good fish (Matt. 13:47-50). Jesus told about wheat, and tares planted in the wheat, so that men could not tell the difference. Both alike were left to stay until the harvest and then would be separated. So we are told, "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels" (Matt. 13:39). At the end of the age God and His angels will separate the saved and the lost. Notice there that Jesus was not speaking about tares out in the pastures, nor in the fence corners, nor in the weed patch, but tares in the field with the wheat! There are many lost people in the churches. There are some deceived, unregenerate sinners posing as children of God who will be brought to the horrible disillusionment one day to learn that they are lost forever. I beg you as kindly and tenderly as I know how, make sure you are saved. Settle it for certain today. Every preacher should search out his own heart until he can know beyond any doubt that he is a child of God. Preachers have been deceived and have died unsaved, as did Judas Iscariot. Jesus said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" (Matt. 7: 22). Surely, since so many religious workers will be found unconverted, you ought to see again to your foundation and know whether your hope is a false hope. If again you find the sweet certainty, the double assurance that you are a born-again child of God, you will have cause for rejoicing anew. Jesus said, "Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). But if you should find yourself unsaved, then how important that you find it out now before it is too late!

No wonder the Apostle Peter under divine inspiration wrote: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure" (II Pet. 1:10). And again the beloved Paul was moved by the Holy Ghost to write, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves" (II Cor. 13:5). If you will read the book of Hebrews, you must be struck with the repeated exhortations, the warnings to those who might think themselves saved but are deceived.

Jesus told of two men who went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisee thought he was all right, in fact, said he was all right. He prayed, he tithed, he fasted, he lived a good moral life, yet he went down to his house lost. Paul held the garments of those who stoned Stephen, and went about breathing out threatenings and slaughter. As he started down to Damascus, Paul would have said that his soul was safe. Later on he tells us that after the strictest sect he had lived a Pharisee and had tried to live blameless according to the law. But when the Lord Jesus appeared to him from Heaven in a light shining brighter than the sun, Paul found that he was nothing but a poor, lost sinner persecuting Jesus Christ! I tell you, you had better be warned by the Scriptures and make sure that you are saved.


Remarkable Examples of People Who Were Lost but Thought Themselves Saved
In the first revival I ever attempted to conduct in a little country church near Decatur, Texas, I remember a man for whom his wife and daughter prayed. One night as the invitation song was being sung under the little brush arbor, I heard someone call for me. In a thicket of plum bushes beside the tabernacle, the daughter and a girl friend knelt beside the gray-haired man. He said to me, "Brother Rice, tell these girls to leave me alone. I am all right."

I told him that if he was really all right, it was strange that his wife was so burdened about him, that his daughter was continually praying and crying about his salvation .

He replied, "Why, Brother Rice, I used to be superintendent of a Sunday school. I have prayed in public. I am as well off as these other church members."

"But that does not make a Christian," I said. "Praying in public, doing church work, living a good moral life is not enough. You are a lost sinner if you have not been saved."

"I have never done much of anything wrong," he said. "About all I have ever done is to cuss a little bit. I am as good a Christian as the others are."

I told him that he might just as well say that he had only killed a few men as far as being a lost sinner was concerned. That seemed to astonish him, and I asked him plainly, "Now I am not asking you whether you live a good life, whether you are a moral man. I am asking you whether you have ever been born again. Did you ever trust Jesus Christ to change your heart and to forgive your sins and make you a new creature?"

Very gravely be looked me in the face and then he answered, "No, I guess I never did!"

"Then don't you think it is time you got that settled?"

He assented and came with me to the front. There he knelt down on the oat straw under that simple brush arbor, and by the light of gasoline torches, lifted up his face and with tears said, "O God, if You will forgive me and save me, I will do anything You want me to do!" He was happily saved and had the assurance in his heart that God had forgiven him just as He promised in His Word to forgive all who trust in Christ. But I have often wondered if he might not have gone until death and then have discovered himself eternally lost had I not pressed the question into his heart that night!

In Dallas, Texas, in 1932 in an open air revival, a woman in a great crowd sent me a note. "Brother Rice, I have been a member of a church twenty-two years. Most of that time I have known I was never converted. I am not a child of God. But I cannot stand the shame of confessing that I have been in the church unsaved. It would break my husband's heart. He would think I have been a hypocrite, and perhaps I have."

I sent her word that both she and her husband had better have the shame over with now, that she had better confess her lost condition and turn to Christ for mercy and salvation now, rather than wait until she faced the Lord Jesus Christ and hear Him say, "I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

The next night she came weeping to trust in Christ. She told me that she had been in the church unsaved. She was baptized and has made a happy Christian.

In Fort Worth, Texas, some years ago in a great revival service, a young woman came weeping to say, "My name has been on the church roll, but I think it has never been written in the Lamb's book of life." How happy that she found it out in time!

I remember another who came to tell me, "I have been baptized, but now I want to be born again!"



Not Those Who Say, "Lord, Lord," but Those Who Do the will of God About Salvation Are Saved
In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." The complaint that Jesus has against those who too late will seek to enter Heaven is that with their mouths they have honored the Lord, saying, "Lord, Lord," but such people have never done the will of the Father. Of course, this Scripture does not mean that only those who have perfectly done the will of the Father in all things are saved. That would mean that only those could be saved who were sinless and perfect. That would make of no effect the blood of Christ. That would be salvation by man, and not by God; salvation by works and not by God's grace. No, Jesus meant that those are saved who do the will of God concerning Christ and salvation - that is, those who trust Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who died for our sins and so depend upon Him for forgiveness and salvation.

What works are pleasing to God? That question came up and was very clearly answered by our Saviour in John 6:28, 29:

"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God ? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."

There it is! "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent"! Not those who do good works, who join churches, who pray, who tithe, who preach; no, no, those are not the will of God as a plan of salvation. The way to work the works of God is to believe on the Saviour that He has sent. The only way one can be saved is to trust the matter wholly with Jesus Christ. It is not prophesying, not casting out devils, not doing many wonderful works that opens the door of Heaven. It is trusting in Jesus Christ, who came into the world to die for sinners. That is God's plan of salvation. One who depends upon Christ and receives Him as Saviour thus does the will of the Father. It is God's will that all should believe on His Son and receive everlasting life. Those who expect to be saved any other way do not do the will of the Father.



A Refuge of Lies
The Prophet Isaiah brought this same warning to the people of Israel in his day.

"Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it." - Isa. 28:15-18.

"For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it, " - Isa. 28:20.

Are you, dear reader, like those who said, "We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves"? Do you have a false hope of salvation? If you do, then God promises that "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place." The scourge of God's judgment will come, and you will be trodden down by it if you make lies your refuge! There is only one true hope of Heaven and that is in Jesus Christ, "a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation." One who trusts in Him will never be ashamed, will never be left embarrassed and ruined by a false hope. Every other refuge is a refuge of lies, a delusion of Satan, a false hope that will lead you to the torment of the damned.



What Is Your False Hope?
There is one road to Heaven, a strait and narrow way. Also there is one road to Hell, according to the Bible, and it is a broad way, and many people go in thereat. But nevertheless it is essentially one. That must mean that whatever false hopes people have, they all center up in human goodness, human righteousness, human organizations. The narrow way is God's way, salvation offered freely through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ who died for sinners. Only those who trust Him are saved. It is a strait gate, and few there be that find it, out of the earth's population. But more people are willing to depend on themselves, on their righteousness, their good deeds, on their church, and so more people go in at the wide gate and travel the broad road that leads to destruction. Many who say, "Lord, Lord," are not saved because they do not do the will of the Father, that is, follow God's plan of salvation by simple trust in Jesus Christ.

Today when I asked a man, "Are you a Christian?" he answered rather hesitantly, "Well, I try to live it. I do the best I can."

But I assured him that trying to live a good life was not being a Christian . Remember the Pharisee who went up into the Temple to pray. Doubtless he lived a better life outwardly than any man who reads this. He fasted twice a week. He tithed all his possessions. He went to church. He prayed, even prayed in public. He was not unjust, not an adulterer. Really, he was a wonderfully good man - that is, outwardly. He was a mighty good man in men's sight; yet he went down to his house lost. And to Pharisees like that Jesus said: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt. 23:25-28).

To people like that the Lord Jesus will say, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Some people boast that they do the will of God, and they depend upon that for their salvation. But if it is good works that they are depending upon, they have not done the very first thing that is in the will of God for every sinner - they have not confessed themselves hopelessly lost and condemned sinners and trusted in Jesus Christ who died for sinners to be their Saviour and Redeemer. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29).

All who trust in good deeds have too shallow a remedy. They patch up the outside of the life where men can see. The best they can they make a good appearance. But they cannot touch the filthy heart which is so black it must bring upon them the wrath of God. The trouble with the Pharisees was that they made clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they were full of extortion and excess. They appeared outwardly righteous unto men, but within they were full of hypocrisy and iniquity, Jesus said. And so are you, poor sinner who reads this, if you are depending upon your own good life, your morality, your good deeds to get you to Heaven. God's Word says that your righteousness is only as filthy rags in His sight (Isa.64:6). You appear good to men, but you are not good. Your outward goodness covers over an unregenerate, wicked heart. That guilty heart must be cleansed, your sins must be forgiven, your nature must be changed before you can ever meet God in peace. Many there be that will say to Jesus, "Lord, I have done many good deeds in Your name. I have given to the poor, I have gone to church, I have treated my neighbors well. I have provided for my family. I have made a good name . I have paid my debts." But to all such who depend on their own righteousness, Jesus will say, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:23).

Men do not want to acknowledge their sin. Men do not want to admit that their case is hopeless without Christ. Men do not want to admit that their poor rotten hearts must be changed or they must spend eternity away from God.

That was the trouble with the Jews in the time of Paul. He said concerning them, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:1-3). That is the trouble. Instead of doing the will of God about salvation and trusting Jesus Christ and His blood which has already been shed to pay for every sin; instead of accepting God' s righteousness which is offered free and imputed to the believer, men go about to establish their own righteousness. Men want to get to Heaven on their own goodness. They want the credit for it. They want to exalt self instead of humbling self. They want to ignore sin instead of confessing it and condemning it. That is simply a part of the wicked rebellion of carnal man. The natural heart is not willing to confess its sin, not willing to bow the knee to Jesus Christ as man's only Saviour. The man who went to the wedding feast without a wedding garment was simply a picture of those who choose to depend upon their own righteousness instead of the pure righteousness of the sinless Saviour who died for us.



Depending on Church or Religion
It is a sad and shocking fact that many religious people are in Hell. Remember that there are many religions besides the true religion of Jesus Christ. Religion is no guarantee of salvation. The Pharisees were religious but they crucified Christ. They were wicked in their hearts though outwardly they appeared to men to be righteous. Remember that Cain was religious. He offered sacrifices, but God was not pleased with them. He prayed, but God did not hear favorably. So Christian Science, so-called, is a religion - a religion without confession of sin, a religion without blood atonement, a religion without the new birth. So Spiritualism is a religion a false religion, putting people at the mercy, often, of evil spirits. Many Catholics are very religious and very devout, but know nothing about peace in heart and the new birth. Some Catholics surely, we believe, have trusted in Christ alone for salvation, but how many there are who bow before idols and depend upon the church and its ordinances, on confession, on the prayers, on the intercession of Mary and the saints and of masses said by the priests! Clearly, one can be very religious but be utterly lost. Those who say, "Lord, Lord, open unto us," will be very religious, but religion does not keep people out of Hell. Saying prayers, going to church, giving money, being baptized, observing the Lord's supper - these are religious exercises but they do not save the soul.

It is a part of man's wicked self-righteousness to look to human ceremonies for salvation instead of to the blood of Christ alone. Man depends upon self - something he can do, something he can buy, something he can earn for salvation instead of depending upon the mercy of a great God who loves sinners.

You remember that Cain brought an offering, but it was an offering of the fruits of the ground, an offering after his own choice and not after God's choice. It had no blood in it. Cain did not believe in the blood atonement of Christ. He had no faith in God's Lamb who would take away the sin of the world. He is a type of all those religious men who depend upon religious ceremonies to save them, though their hearts are still black, and their sins are still unforgiven.

You say "But I was baptized." And what if you were? If you depended , upon baptism, you went down into the water a dry sinner, and came up a wet sinner. The water does not change the heart. Water will not save - it takes blood! Perhaps you were sprinkled as a baby, and someone else took your vows for you. Do you believe that could change the nature of your heart with all its inherent taint of sin? As a baby you were kept safe by God's mercy, but when you became an accountable sinner, you were lost, and nothing but the blood of Christ can save you. It may be that you were confirmed. It may be that some preacher or priest told you that your sins were forgiven. But I tell you now earnestly and prayerfully that you need more than the word of any man for this. You need the absolute certainty of God's own Word and the sweet assurance of the Holy Spirit within.

Someone else tells me, "Well, I am a Mason. If a man lives up to the rules of Masonry, he will get by." That is what Masonry tells you, but Masonry is a false religion. It teaches men they can save themselves by good deeds, but the Bible says, "Without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb.9:22). Peter said in Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Doubtless there are multiplied thousands of lodge members in Hell. They may have been honest lodge members, moral and upright lodge members, but if they depended upon their lodge to save them, or their own good deeds, their works of righteousness, then they were utterly lost. I say to you again that not those who say, "Lord, Lord," will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but those that do the will of the Father about salvation, that is, those who trust in Jesus Christ, God's Son whom He has sent into this world to save sinners.



"My Religion Might Do to Live By, but It Would Not Do to Die By!"
At Roosevelt, Oklahoma, in a big tent revival some years ago a young woman came to me deeply distressed and in tears wanting to know what she must do to be saved. I showed her that Christ had died for sinners, that her debt was all paid, that now she must confess herself a guilty sinner and look to the blood of Jesus Christ to cover all of her sins. I told her that now she had simply to receive Jesus and trust Him to have forgiveness of her sins and peace in her heart. But she began to say, "But Father told me ---." At first I thought she referred to her father, then learned that she meant the Catholic priest. He may have been ever so kind and sincere a man, as Catholic priests often are, and I mean no reflection on him when I tell the truth in this typical case. This girl had started out to be a good Catholic. She learned her prayers, and prepared for confirmation. She told me that the day she was to have been confirmed all confirmations were postponed by an order from the Bishop or some higher authority, for some reason. By the next Sunday she was desperately ill. A physician came, later others were called in consultation, and finally she was given up to die. They told her her time was limited. She told me that she was desperately afraid and said, "I saw then that my religion might be good enough to live by, but it certainly would not do to die by. I prayed and asked God to give me another chance, and that I would learn what He wanted me to do and how to be saved." She said she told the Lord, "I am afraid, I am a sinner, and I am not fit to die, and I don't know how to be saved. But if You will get me well, I will learn how and get ready to meet God!"

God heard her prayer. She got well and immediately came to the tent revival seeking the Lord. I saw her speak with tears to her younger sister and heard her say, "Don't go at this thing lightly. This is serious. Your soul's eternal welfare hangs upon it. Get the thing settled right!"

How earnestly she listened, and how her eyes burned as her mind sought the truth! When she finally saw that the way was all opened, that her sins had been paid for on the cross, and that God was ready to receive her if she would receive Christ as her Substitute, her Saviour, her Redeemer, her Lord, how gladly she accepted Him! She followed Him in beautiful baptism to show the world openly that she claimed Him as Saviour.

Dear friend, your religion may suit you all right now, but I will tell you frankly, unless you are in the narrow way, unless you entered by the strait gate which is Christ Himself alone, then yours is a false religion. If you are depending on your good deeds, on baptism, on church membership or morality, then I earnestly plead with you to hear me, for you are doomed and lost!

Your life suits you, you say? You are very well satisfied with your self-righteousness? So was the man who had not on the wedding garment! He was well pleased with his own clothes, his own coverings, and he did not accept the wedding garment offered by the King. But I'll tell you now that when you face Jesus Christ you will be speechless as he was before the King. And all such will be cast out into the outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

In Jesus' name, then make sure. Cast away every hope that you have leaned upon unless it be Jesus Christ alone. He died for sinners. He loves you. He said, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). You need not be deceived.

You can be sure if you can find a verse of Scripture that gives the plain promise of God. Try God out on John 3:16, on John 3:18, or John 5:24. If you trust in Jesus Christ for mercy, then you already have everlasting life according to the plain Word of God.



How You Can Be Saved Forever and Know It
"What must I do to be saved?" you ask. Here is God's answer given in Acts 16:31: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Many are deceived, yet they should not be. It is not hard to be saved if one sincerely wishes to come God's way. To do the will of the Father means simply to trust Jesus Christ His Son who died to save you. He paid for all your sins. God is satisfied with the price Jesus paid, and offers free pardon to all who depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy. All through the Bible that blessed truth is given. Claim these blessed promises today:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16.

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." - John 3:18

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." - John 5:24.

By turning to Christ in your heart and trusting in Him alone for forgiveness and a new heart and everlasting life, you do exactly what the Father requires you to do. That is simple. It can be done in a moment. But you must depend upon Christ to do the saving and not expect to be saved because of your good works or because you are "religious." Follow the example of the poor publican who prayed, "God be merciful to me a sinner." If it is mercy you want, you can have it. If it is a sinner that you admit you are, then it was for you that Christ died. If you are willing to throw away your garments of self-righteousness, like poor, blind Bartimaeus cast away his garment when he arose and came to Jesus to be healed (Mark 10:50), then you surely will find a happy reception. The Lord Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. He died to save sinners. I would make sure today that I was not depending on anything else in the world except that Christ died for me, and that God promised me forgiveness when I trusted Him.

Then I would so thoroughly surrender myself to the will of Christ that the Holy Spirit would give me full joy and assurance. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:16). When you trust the Saviour, abandon yourself to Him. Claim Him openly, boldly. Follow Him anywhere He says. Be never content until in your heart there is the full assurance amounting to a certainty that your sins are forgiven and your soul is saved. That assurance will be brought by the Spirit of God who will shed abroad in your heart the love of God. He will bear witness with you. He is the Comforter. He will make Christ real. Today make sure you are saved! Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin, And be washed in the blood of the Lamb; There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean, O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!

DR MARTYN LLOYD JONES

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

DR. D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES,

Westminster Chapel, London.

A Sermon published in "The Westminster Record", May 1963

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"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Ephesians 6:11


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There are certain things happening at the present time which make it imperative that every intelligent Christian should know something about Roman Catholicism. There are movements afoot, and meetings taking place, which are trying to bring a kind of rapprochement between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. And there are people who are rejoicing in this and saying that it is a wonderful thing that we are beginning to draw together again, and that we can co-operate in certain respects, and that this is a wonderful manifestation of the Christian spirit.


Now that kind of thing makes it imperative that we should understand something about what is happening; and as you look into the future the matter becomes urgent, for there are certain possibilities which must be envisaged. I understand from the statistics that there are certain countries in the world which, if the modern trends continue, will have a great majority of Roman Catholics in them soon; so if we continue with the democratic principle of deciding our form of government by counting heads, there will be a Roman Catholic majority. It is not difficult to envisage certain possibilities that may result from that. Indeed, that may even happen in this country, given a certain number of years. So from all standpoints it is imperative that we should look at this position and at this fact, this great fact which is confronting us.


Whether we like it or not it is something that we have to do. I personally have never done this before. I do not belong to any "Protestant Society" as such. I have never spoken on such a platform. My view has always been that the only final answer to Roman Catholicism is the positive preaching of Christian Truth and the great Reformed doctrines. Nothing else has ever been able to deal with this, nothing else will ever be able to deal with it. Negative protests, it seems to me, are of very little value. They have been going on now for a number of years, but the facts are that this Roman Catholic body is increasing in every country practically, and all the negative protestations seem to be of no value.


My contention is that the increase in Roman Catholicism is due to one thing only, and that is a weak and flabby Protestantism that does not know what it believes. That is why I spend my time in giving positive teaching. But our text compels me to deal with this - the "wiles of the devil," the activities of the principalities and powers, the world rulers of this darkness, the spiritual wickedness in high places.


Very well, then what do we find? Let me make it abundantly clear that I am not concerned about individuals. There are, of course, individuals who are both Roman Catholics and Christians. You can be a Christian and yet be a Roman Catholic. My whole object is to try to show that such people are Christians in spite of the system to which they belong, and not because of it. But let us be clear about that; it is possible to be an individual Christian in the Roman Catholic Church.


I am not considering individuals, nor am I considering the matter mainly from the political standpoint. I do not mean for a moment by that that the political aspect is not important. I have just been giving evidence to show that it can be tremendously important. We know the record of the history of this institution, we know what happens politically, we know its claim to be a political power, and therefore even from that aspect it is important. But I am not concerned about that now. That is the business of Christian laymen, it seems to me and Christian statesmen. I am concerned rather with the spiritual aspect, because that is the thing which the Apostle puts before our minds.




ROMAN ORTHODOXY

What, then, are we looking at? We are looking at a system; and I would not hesitate to assert that this system, known as Roman Catholicism, is 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 16th Century to describe it as "apostasy."


Now let us be clear about this. We defined apostasy as a kind of total departure from the Christian Truth. "Well," says someone, "are you saying that about the Roman Catholic Church?" We have to be most careful here. If we say that Roman Catholicism is apostasy we must be clear as to the sense in which that is true.


Let me put it like this therefore, Here it is not so much a matter of "denial" of the Truth, but rather such an addition to the Truth that eventually is becomes a departure from it. Let me explain - and this is where the whole subtlety comes in, where the wiles of the devil come in. In one sense, and if you look at it casually, you might well think that the Roman Catholic Church is the most orthodox in the world. If you are considering something like the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ there is no question as to the orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church believes that Jesus of Nazareth was the Eternal Son of God; it believes in the Virgin Birth; it believes in the Incarnation; it believes in His miracles; it believes in His substitutionary work upon the Cross and His resurrection physically. There is no question about that. It believes in His Ascension, in His heavenly Session.


On the question of the Person of our Lord the Roman Catholic Church is absolutely orthodox - alas, much more orthodox, one sometimes thinks, than most Protestants. That is what makes this position so appalling. In the same way, if you are concerned about the work of our Lord there is no question about her orthodoxy. If you are concerned about the principle of grace, as such, it is one of their central tenets. If you are concerned about the divine inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, they hold it and believe it is the Word of God. Again, alas, much more so than most Protestants.


So that if you merely look at her in that general manner you might well come to the conclusion that this is the most orthodox body in the world. But at this point the subtlety comes in and the difficulty arises. To all that she "adds" with a damnable plus, things which are utterly unscriptural and which, indded, become a denial of the Scripture. So she lands us eventually in a position in which, if we accept her teaching, we are believing a lie! In other words, her dogma is a counterfeit; she is, as the Scripture puts it, "the whore."




THE SUBTLETY OF ROME

Now this matter is extremely subtle, but our theme is the "subtlety," the "wiles" of the devil. If you really want to know something about subtlety you have but to read the literature of the Roman Catholic Church. She can appear to be everything and all things to all men. Her system is so vast and her subtlety is so great that she almost seems to be quite impregnable. You must have noticed that.


I take one instance at random. You must have noticed this many times. You have heard it said that the Roman Catholic Church does not countenance divorce, and that if any of her members are divorced they shall be excommunicated. And then you suddenly read in the newspapers of the divorce of some Roman Catholic nobleman or woman, and you ask , "Well, now, how can that happen?" Ah well, they are well able to explain it. They say that there never really was a true marriage! They can explain everything, there is no difficulty. Their system of casuistry is such, and their developed argument is such, and they appear to be facing in all directions at the same time.




THE MANY FACES OF ROME

Or, to put it in another way. How many faces has the Roman Catholic Church in reality? I mean this. Look at her in this country, then look at her in Ireland, Southern Ireland. Look at her in the United States of America, then look at her in of those Latin States in South America, and you find it very difficult to believe it is the same institution. Look at her in countries like Spain and Italy and other similar countries, and contrast her as she appears in Germany or somewhere similar - so she is quite different. You would not imagine that is was the same institution. But it is. She is able to change her colour and her appearance and her form. She is, I say, all things to all men everywhere, she is everything.


You remember that the Apostle has told us that it is one of the characteristics of the devil himself that he can transform himself into an angel of light. So can this Church. There is no limit, there is no end to the various "guises" in which she can appear.


Here in this country she appears as highly intellectual and encourages her people to read the Bible; in other countries she prohibits their doing so, and is not only not intellectual but encourages superstition quite deliberately. Here she seems to be tolerant, ready to listen and to argue and to concede and to be friendly; in other backward countries she is utterly intolerant, vicious and vile in her persecuting zeal - but still the same body, the same institution, the same people. That is my evidence for saying that she is surely the devil's masterpiece.


Here is a great body, an institution, that has from time to time throughout the centuries - and still is doing this very thing - manifested the wiles of the devil in all its subtlety, and deceitfulness, "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" as the Scripture puts it.


All this is clearly prophesied in the Scriptures. You will find it in the second chapter of Paul's Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. It is not the only explanation of that passage; but it is one of them. It may be that there you have this system "raised," as it were, to the ninth power, but that is what the system has already been doing (2 Thess. 2). You have it depicted also in the second beast in the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation; and I suggest that it is also in the 17th chapter of the Book of Revelation in the picture of "the great whore" sitting on those seven hills, as Rome does and always has done.


All this has shown itself in history. It did so in this way. Here is something that came in and at one time monopolised virtually the whole of the Christian Church. It came in slowly, subtly and worked its way in and eventually became almost universal in its control.


What has she done? It would take us months to deal with this adequately. All I am concerned to try to do in this one sermon is to give some of the main headings which show that my contention is true. So I divide it into three main headings.




1. IDOLATRY AND SUPERSTITION

The first is to show the way in which she has been guilty of introducing idolatry and superstition. Now there is nothing that is so condemned in the Scripture as "idolatry." We are not to make "graven images." But the Roman Catholic Church is full of images. She teaches her people to worship images; they worship statues and forms and representations. If you have been to any of their great cathedrals you will have seen people doing so.


Go to St. Peter's in Rome and you will notice that there is a sort of monument to the Apostle Peter, and if you look at one of the toes you will find that it is smooth and worn away. Why? Because so many poor victims of Roman Catholic teaching have been there kissing this toe! They bow with reverence and they worship images, statues and relics. They claim to have relics of certain saints, a bit of bone, something he used, and it is put in a special place and they worship it and bow down before it. This is nothing but sheer idolatry. There is nothing that is so denounced in the Scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament, as idolatry, but Roman Catholicism deliberately encourages idolatry.




2. COMES BETWEEN THE SOUL AND CHRIST

The second great charge is that her whole system and teaching come between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the most terrible charge in many ways. For instance, the Church herself comes between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. She claims that she is essential to salvation. Outside the Church - "extra ecclesiam" - there is no salvation - "nulla salus." She is absolutely essential. She puts herself between my soul and the Lord Jesus Christ. She arrogates that position to herself. You do not find anything like that in the New Testament; but you find it in Roman Catholicism. She alone knows what Truth is, she claims. She describes it and she alone can define it and interpret it.


Over against that, of course, Protestantism teaches the "universal priesthood of all believers" and the right of every man to read the Scripture for himself, and to interpret it under the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Rome denies that completely and absolutely. She, and she alone, is able to understand and to interpret the Scripture and to tell us what to believe.




ADDS TO SCRIPTURE

She says this partly because she claims that she has received "continuing revelation." She does not believe, as Protestants do, that revelation ended with what we have in the New Testament. She claims a continuing and a continuous revelation. She therefore does not hesitate to say that you must add to the Truth in the Scriptures. While saying that the Bible is the Word of God, she claims that her tradition, which she adds on, is equally authoritative and equally binding. And that is the way in which she takes from the Bible, because she says things in what she adds on in her tradition that deny Biblical teaching and take from it. That is where the subtlety comes in.


In the end it comes to this, that she claims our totalitarian allegiance. She claims to govern us in what we believe and in what we do. She claims to be responsible for our soul and its salvation. We must therefore submit utterly and absolutely to what the Church tells us and what the Church teaches us. She has a totalitarian system. There is no question but that she binds the souls of her people absolutely, as much so as Communism, as much so did Hitler under his horrible system. It is a totalitarian system. The Church is supreme and thus stands between us and the Lord Jesus Christ.




THE PAPACY

A second manifestation of this, and a logical outcome of course, is the Pope, and all that they teach about him. He is said to be the Vicar of Christ. He is said to be a direct spiritual descendant of the Apostle Peter - Apostolic succession - who has all the authority of the Apostle Peter. I must not allow myself to be side-tracked to query even the position they attribute to Peter himself, but that is their claim, and that thus this person, whom they call the Holy Father - though the Scripture tells us specifically not to call any man "Father" on earth because there is only one Father, the Father Who is in heaven - is the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ. And they say that, speaking ex-cathedra in his council of cardinals, he is "infallible." They defined that doctrine in 1870; they believed it long before.


But now, as thus defined, his pronouncements are claimed to be infallible, as infallible as the Word of God, as infallible as Christ Himself, for he is the Vicar, and the Representative of Christ. And thus, you see, the power of the Church is headed up in this one man who speaks, as 2 Thessalonians 2 says, "as God." He is worshipped by people; they bow down before him, and they express to him a sense of adoration that should be given to no one but the Almighty God Himself.




THE PRIESTHOOD

The third manifestation is to be found in the priests. The priests in the Roman Church are a very special people. They do not believe in the universal priesthood of all believers. The only people who are "priests" are those whom the Church herself has trained, and who have been ordained, and who receive something of this authority which comes from the "Apostolic succession." But 1 Peter 2:9 tells us that we are all priests: "Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood." In other words, "a kingdom of priests." No, says Rome, you are the laity, you are not priests, these alone are priests.


Then they attribute to these priests certain unique powers, such as that of working miracles. Here we come to a very central and crucial matter. They claim that the priest is able to change the water that they use in Baptism so that grace enters into it. They claim that the priest is able to work a miracle in connection with the Bread and the Wine at the Lord's Supper, that he 'is able to work this miracle of what they call "transubstantiation." They say that the bread is no longer bread but becomes the body of Christ; that the accidents of colour and so on remain but that the substance has been changed into the body of Christ, and that that miracle was worked by the priest who has the power to work such a miracle.




THE SACRAMENTS

That in turn brings in their whole doctrine concerning the Sacraments. They have seven sacraments, but I am concerned particularly about Baptism and the Lord's Supper, where they do not hesitate to teach that in those sacraments a miracle is worked. Their theory is, that this miracle having been worked by the priest in the water and the bread and the wine, these are now charged with the grace of God in a special manner, and so they work more or less automatically. Their phrase is that they work "ex opere operato." In other words, it is no longer just water, it is charged with the grace of God, and therefore when it is put upon that child a miracle is worked in the child. Or when you take the Bread in the Communion Service - and, incidentally, they do not let you take the Wine - you are really taking the Body of Christ Himself.




CONFESSION

This, you see, is all a manifestation of this subtlety of the devil, of the wiles of the devil. All this is added, there is not a word about all this in the New Testament. But before we leave the priest we have to remember this, that he is also one to whom we must go and confess our sins, because he has power to pronounce absolutism and to grant us forgiveness of sins. Nobody else can do it except this priesthood, these people to whom they allocate these special powers.


So the people are taught to go and confess to them. There as not a word of that in the Scripture. We confess our faults to God and to one another in the Christian Church; but not to a "priest." So, there is another manifestation. I am showing you the ways in which this system comes between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I, as Christians, go to Him to confess; they go to the priest.




THE CULT OF THE VIRGIN MARY

Let us go on to the fourth manifestation - and this is one of the most alarming and extraordinary things of all. The cult of the Virgin Mary in Roman Catholicism is increasing rapidly in an alarming manner. What do they teach? Well, they say that she is the Queen of Heaven, and that she is the one to whom we should go primarily. In many of their churches you will find that she is placed in front of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is almost hidden by her somewhere in the background. Why?


This is what they say, that she being human is much more loving and tender than He is; that He is so great and powerful and authoritative, that He is so stern - this is what they teach, this is the whole explanation of the cult of the Virgin Mary - that He is such that we cannot go to Him directly. Ah, but fortunately she is there, and she is loving; and after all she was His mother and she can influence Him.


So we should pray to the Virgin Mary and ask her to intercede on our behalf. She is right there between us and the Son of God, the Saviour of our souls. And increasingly they have been adding to her power. They began in 1854 to teach the "Immaculate Conception," which means not that the Lord Jesus Christ was born free from sin, but that Mary was also. Then recently they have announced the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, that she never died like everybody else and was buried, but that she literally ascended up to heaven as her Son did. And this, you see, so builds up the Virgin Mary, and makes her so prominent that Christ Himself is hidden out of sight.




THE SAINTS

Lastly, you add to the Virgin Mary, the saints. Roman Catholic people are taught to pray to the saints. How does this come to pass? Well, their teaching is this. They believe in Perfectionism in this life, and they say that some of these saints have lived a perfect life. The result of this is that they have acquired and built up so much "merit" that they have much more than they need for themselves; so they have a superabundance of merit.


The result is that you and I, who may be failing and who are so lacking in merit, can go and pray to the saints and ask them to give us a certain amount of their superabundance. They call this the work of "supererogation," that the saints can intercede for us, and can even impart some of their overplus of merit to us to make up the deficiency and the lack which is to be found in us. So you have worshipping of the saints, prayers to the saints, and a dependence upon the saints. You see, the merit of Jesus Christ is not enough, you must have something extra; it needs to be supplemented.


I have simply picked out five of the main ways in which this whole system and institution come between the believer and the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that it is done by people who attribute to Him full deity and who are quite clear about the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth and all these things. That is where "the wiles of the devil" come in. On the one hand they seem to be saying everything that is right; but then they add all this which is so wrong that you begin to wonder what is left of that which is right.




3. JUSTIFICATION

But let me go on to the third thing, which is the way in which they not only rob Him of His position, but detract from the glory and the perfection and the completeness of the great salvation that He offers us and gives us. What do I mean? Take the first example of this, their teaching with regard to the question of justification - justification by faith. As Luther said, this is "the test of a standing or a falling Church" - the whole glory of Protestantism., the thing that brought it into being. Look at their teaching with regard to justification. We know what ours is - do we? I sometimes wonder whether we do, many of us Protestants. It is not surprising that Roman Catholicism is increasing when Protestants do not know what justification means. Roman Catholicism is bound to succeed while Protestants think that merely to live a good life is enough. It is not surprising that Roman Catholicism is sweeping through the countries and the nations. Justification by faith!


Roman teaching is that good works, meritorious works are possible in man, in sinful man; that man can contribute something to his own justification. They believe that and teach that. We teach that "there is none righteous, no, not one," that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," or as the Apostle Paul puts it in writing to the Philippians, is "dung" - refuse, worthless. No, no, they say, there is value in it and it will count, it will help.


But still more serious is that ultimately they teach that justification is the result of baptism. That is where it all links up. In baptism, they teach, not only are your sins forgiven, but a righteousness is infused into you at your baptism, you are made righteous by your baptism. Though you were an unconscious infant it does not matter, you are given this righteousness, your original sin is cancelled there and you are given this positive righteousness.


Incidentally, it is not the righteousness of Christ, according to them, it is a righteousness which is made by God for those who are baptised. They are not "clothed with the righteousness of Christ" but they are made righteous in the sight of God. And the result is that they denounce as dangerous heresy the Protestant teaching of justification by faith only.


You see how it works - everything in their teaching makes you dependent upon the Church. Are you saying that you can repent and go to Christ and believe in Him and be saved? No, you must have this operation worked upon you by the priest through your baptism. All along it makes the priest and the Church absolutely essential. You are helpless without them, you are bound to them. There is no direct trafficking with Christ, you have always to go through these intermediaries. The Bible says that there is only one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Not so in Rome - Mary, the Pope, the priests and all the hierarchy and all the underlings, all these are necessary. So on this vital doctrine of justification they teach a lie.




THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Then you come to the question of the Christian life. Here is another serious matter; the emphasis is not so much upon holy living as upon our observation of ceremonies and rites. They teach their people not so much to strive after holiness and to understand the New Testament teaching about sanctification; they teach the people to attend Mass and go and confess to the priest. There is none of this direct responsibility and exhorting them to practice it. No, the teaching is that you have to conform to the rules of the Church.


You watch the ceremonies, you do what they tell you; you fast at certain times and you do this and don't do that, and you attend your priest and make your confession. You come to the Mass and then go and do what you like almost. You are covered, you are put right again and on you go. Instead of holy living in its simplicity as we have it in the Scriptures, you have ceremonies and rites and observance.




DENIAL OF ASSURANCE

Another serious error is that it completely denies the doctrine of "Assurance of Salvation." There is nothing more glorious than the doctrine of Assurance of Salvation. There is a magnificent statement of it in the eighth chapter of Romans, verse 16: "The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Do you know what that means? There is nothing more wonderful than that; but the Roman Church denies it completely. There is no such thing as certainty in this life. Why?


This is her argument, and it is quite logical (that is where the system is seen to be so devilish; no one less than the devil could have worked it all out with this extraordinary ingenuity). It works like this. In your baptism your original sin is cancelled and you are made righteous and you are right with God. Ah yes, but what about post-baptismal sins, what about the sins that are committed after baptism? Your baptism has got nothing to do with that. What are you going to do about that? That is the problem.


Protestant teaching is that the blood of Jesus Christ still cleanses us from all sin and unrighteousness; that what He did on the Cross covers my past sins, my present sins, my future sins. The one act was enough. No. no. says Rome, it is not enough. The problem of your post-baptismal sins is a different one. What do I do about them? I must go and confess to the priest; he alone can deal with them.


But even he cannot deal with them all, so I may come to the end of my life, and here I am with these post-baptismal sins threatening me with hell and damnation. The priest alone can do that for you, they say. So you have the sacrament of penance, you make an unusual confession and you are given an absolution.


Does that guarantee that I am right? No, not even that! That takes you most of the way, but there will still be some sins that are not forgiven. What do I do about them? Well, fortunately, there is a place, they tell us, which is called Purgatory, and I am allowed to go there to get rid of this remaining sin which is unforgiven, this post-baptismal sin that is unforgiven.


What happens to me there? Well, my relatives who are still left are praying for me and they are paying money as they do so. So you have all the "indulgences" and all the "prayers for the dead," and all your candles and the money paid. The more you pay the sooner will this person be allowed to go on. You see nothing about that in the Bible anywhere, do you? Of course you do not! That is part of the further revelation they claim to have had, this is all addition.


The work of Christ is not enough, it has got to be supplemented in all these ways. Am I going too far therefore when I say that this is apostasy?




DIRE CONSEQUENCES

What is the result of it all? Their people are kept in ignorance and in a state of superstition. Not only that, it leads to a type of life and living which we in this country have sometimes called "the Continental Sunday," which means this, that if you go to Mass on Sunday morning you can do anything you like -during the rest of the day. You can make the day the same as every other day, with sports and pleasure. It leads to that, and it is not surprising that it does so, because the individual does not count and is not appealed to.


All he has to do is to obey what the Church tells him, to hand himself over, and the Church will look after his soul. So it leads to all that, and the terrible persecution of the true way that has ever been a manifestation of this system. They have had the blood of martyrs, and are still doing so wherever they can venture to do so.


I ask, as I close, have we been wasting our time? Need we be concerned about all this? Ought we to be rejoicing that there is a new approach to Roman Catholicism? Should we not all be rejoicing in the fact that it is possible for us all to stand together as Christians as over and against Communism?


That is the question you have to face. For myself I do not hesitate about the answer. This system is altogether more dangerous than is Communism itself, because this is a counterfeit, this does it in the "name" of Christ. This is the "scarlet woman," this is the most horrible, foul deception of all, because it uses His name. The other is open and obviously atheistical godlessness.




PROTESTANT REFORMERS

No, the Protestant Reformers were not just bigoted zealots, they were not just fools. These men had their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit. That is what happened to Luther, that is what happened to Calvin, that is what happened to Knox, that is what happened to all of them. These men had their eyes opened, they saw it, they saw this horrible monstrosity depicted in the Bible in the warnings against it, and at the risk of losing their lives they stood tip and they protested.


They said that that was not true. So they began to assert justification by faith, the supreme, final, adequate authority of the Scriptures, the universal priesthood of all believers and so on. They were ready to die for those truths, and many did die for them!


Let me warn you very solemnly that if you rejoice in these approaches to Rome you are denying the blood of the martyrs! Never go near Smithfield if you believe that kind of thing. Those men were burnt at the stake there in Smithfield, John Bradford and the rest, because of their denunciation of Roman Catholicism. You are denying them, you are going back on them, you are saying they were wrong, that they were mistaken. Realise what you are doing, and do not be taken in by those specious arguments.




ROME NEVER CHANGES

The problem has become acute because of the wireless and the television. You see these men appearing; how polite, how kind they are, how nice they are, how accommodating. They often seem to be much nicer than our people! Foolish, ignorant Protestants are saying things like that, and are ready to swallow the bait!


"Ah, but," you say, "has not the Roman Catholic Church changed? You are simply looking back, you are speaking as if you lived in the 16th Century - don't you realise you are living in the 20th Century?" My answer is quite simple. The proudest boast of the Roman Catholic Church is this, that she never changes. "Semper eadem." How can she change?


If she changes she will be admitting that she was wrong in the past - but she was saying then that she was infallible, and that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ and that she cannot make a mistake. If she says that she is capable of change she is denying her central claim!


She does not say that she is changing, and she never will. The Church of Rome remains the same. If anything, she is even worse. She has "added" things to what she taught in the 16th century, such as Papal infallibility, etc. No, there is no change in the Church of Rome. And if ever there is one great world Church it will be because the Church of Rome has absorbed all the rest and swallowed them in their ignorance!


There is no difficulty about this; this is a counterfeit, a sham; this is prostitution of the worst and most diabolical kind. It is indeed a form of the antichrist, and it is to be rejected, it is to be denounced; but above all it is to be countered.


And there is only one thing that can counter it, as I said at the beginning, and that is a Biblical, doctrinal Christianity. A Christianity that just preaches "Come to Christ" or "Come to Jesus" cannot stand before Rome for a second. Probably what that will do ultimately will be to add to the numbers belonging to Rome. People who hold evangelistic campaigns and sav, "Ah, you Roman Catholics, go back to your Church," are denying New Testament teaching. We must warn them.


There is only one teaching, one power, that can stand against this horrible counterfeit; it is what is called here "the whole armour of God." It is a Biblical, doctrinal, theological presentation of the New Testament Truth. That was how it was done in the 16th Century. Luther was not just a superficial evangelist, he was a mighty theologian; so was Calvin; so were all of them: It was that great system of Truth, worked out in its details and presented to the people, that undermined and even shook the Church of Rome. Nothing less than that is adequate to meet the present situation.


Christian people, your responsibility is terrible. You must know the truth, you must understand it, you must be able to counter false teaching. There are innocent people who are being deluded by this kind of falsity, and it is your business and mine to open their eyes and to instruct them.


Not only that, it is as we stand foursquare for the Truth of God that we shall be entitled to pray with fervour and with confidence for the blessing of the Holy Ghost upon us. It is as we stand on the Scripture and its Truth that the Spirit of God, I believe, will descend upon us in a mighty revival. And nothing less than such a revival can shake that horrible institution, that great "Whore" which calls herself "The Church of Rome."


May God give us enlightenment and understanding of the times in which we are living, and awaken us ere it be too late.