Roman Catholicism

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Messages from Heaven
<a href="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1694135925255557653" target="_blank">http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1694135925255557653</a>

A Women Rides the Beast
<a href="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=2989771338920955977" target="_blank">http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=2989771338920955977</a>

Catholicism: Crisis of Faith
<a href="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-7116805989986440367" target="_blank">http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-7116805989986440367</a>

Please take the time to read these articles as they are well documented. If you are a Catholic. Please spend some time reading these. You owe to yourself and your family to atleast examine the evidence. You and their etertnal destiny depends on it. God bless.

THE TESTIMONY OF A FORMER IRISH PRIEST http://www.biblebelievers.com/XRCCPRIEST.html

The Testimony of a Former Roman Catholic Nun http://www.biblebelievers.com/SHooper1.html

The Papacy: Its History, http://www.biblebelievers.com/wylie/papacy/index.html

The Pattern of Papal Persecutions http://www.biblebelievers.com/bennett/bennett_papal_persecution.html

Chart showing the differences between Catholcism and the Bible http://www.biblebelievers.com/bennett/bennett_differences.html

The Cross and the Mass http://www.biblebelievers.com/bennett/bennett_true-false.html


Roman Catholicism.  Is It a Cult? http://www.rapidnet.com/%7Ejbeard/bdm/Cults/Catholicism/isitcult.htm

ARE WE BEING LED TO ROME? http://www.biblebelievers.com/Devries3.html

[afterdeathwhat]

The Plain Truth about the Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church claims to have started in Matthew 16:18 when Christ supposedly appointed Peter as the first Pope. However, the honest and objective student of the Scriptures and history soon discovers that the foundation of the Roman church is none other than the pagan mystery religion of ancient Babylon.

While enduring the early persecutions of the Roman government (65-300 A.D.), most of professing Christianity went through a gradual departure from New Testament doctrine concerning church government, worship and practice. Local churches ceased to be autonomous by giving way to the control of "bishops" ruling over hierarchies. The simple form of worship from the heart was replaced with the rituals and splendor of paganism. Ministers became "priests," and pagans became "Christians" by simply being sprinkled with water. This tolerance of an unregenerate membership only made things worse. SPRINKLED PAGANISM is about the best definition for Roman Catholicism.

The Roman Emperor Constantine established himself as the head of the church around 313 A.D., which made this new "Christianity" the official religion of the Roman Empire. The first actual Pope in Rome was probably Leo I (440-461 A.D.), although some claim that Gregory I was the first (590-604 A.D.). This ungodly system eventually ushered in the darkest period of history known to man, properly known as the "Dark Ages" (500-1500 A.D.). Through popes, bishops, and priests, Satan ruled Europe, and Biblical Christianity became illegal.

Throughout all of this, however, there remained individual groups of true Christians, such as the Waldensens and the Anabaptists who would not conform to the Roman system.

The Papacy and Priesthood

In the Bible there are no popes or priests to rule over the church. Jesus Christ is our High Priest (Heb. 3:1; 4:14-15; 5:5; 8:1; 9:11), and all true Christians make up a spiritual priesthood (I Pet. 2:5). Jesus Christ has sanctified all Christians who believe on Him (Heb. 10:10-11), so all priests today are unnecessary and unscriptural. Furthermore, the practice of calling a priest "father" is forbidden by Jesus Christ in Matthew 23:9. There is only ONE mediator between God and men (I Tim. 2:5).

The Catholic church teaches that Peter was the first Pope and the earthly head of the church, but the Bible never says this once. In fact, it was Peter himself who spoke against "being lords over God's heritage" in I Peter 5:3. Popes do not marry, although Peter did (Mat. 8:14; I Cor. 9:5). The Bible never speaks of Peter being in Rome, and it was Paul, not Peter, who wrote the epistle to the Romans. In the New Testament, Paul wrote 100 chapters with 2,325 verses, while Peter wrote only 8 chapters with 166 verses. In Peter's first epistle he stated that he was simply "an apostle of Jesus Christ," not a Pope (I Pet. 1:1). The Roman papacy and priesthood is just a huge fraud to keep members in bondage to a corrupt pagan church.

The Worship of Mary

Roman Catholics believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus and was sinless all of her life. She is worshiped in the Catholic church as the "Mother of God" and the "Queen of Heaven." St. Bernard stated that she was crowned "Queen of Heaven" by God the Father, and that she currently sits upon a throne in Heaven making intercession for Christians.

The Bible teaches otherwise. In the Bible, Mary was a sinner just like the rest of us. She said herself that she needed a "Saviour" (Lk. 1:47), and she even had to offer a sacrifice for her sins in Luke 2:24. Jesus was only her "firstborn" son, according to Matthew 1:25, because she later had other children as well (Mt. 13:55; Gal. 1:19; Psa. 69:. There's only ONE mediator between God and men, and it isn't Mary (I Tim. 2:5). The last time we hear from Mary in the Bible she is praying WITH the disciples, not being prayed to BY the disciples (Acts 1:14). The Bible never exalts Mary above anyone else. Neither should we.

Purgatory

The Catholic Church teaches that a Christian's soul must burn in purgatory after death until all of their sins have been purged. To speed up the purging process, money may be paid to a priest so he can pray and have special masses for an earlier release.

This heresy began creeping into the Roman Church during the reign of Pope Gregory around the end of the sixth century, and it has no scriptural support. In fact, Jesus warned us about this pagan practice in Matthew 23:14 when He spoke of those who devoured widows houses and made long prayers for a pretence. Psalm 49:6-7 tells us that a person couldn't redeem a loved one, even if such a place did exist: "They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:"

Peter addresses this issue in Acts 8:20 when he says, "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money." God's word is clearly against the doctrine of purgatory.

The Mass

By perverting the Christian practice of the Lord's Supper (Mat. 26:26-28; I Cor. 11:23-27), the Catholic Church has created the Mass, which they believe to be a continual sacrifice of Jesus Christ:

"Christ...commanded that his bloody sacrifice on the Cross should be daily renewed by an unbloody sacrifice of his body and blood in the Mass under the simple elements of bread and wine." (The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, Pg. 13, Article: "Mass, Sacrifice of")

Jesus never made such a command. If you'll check the above references in Matthew 26 and I Corinthians 11, you'll see for yourself that the Lord's Supper is a MEMORIAL and a SHOWING of Christ's death until He comes again. It is not a sacrifice. The Catholic Encyclopedia states the following:

"In the celebration of the Holy Mass, the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. It is called transubstantiation, for in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of bread and wine do not remain, but the entire substance of bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the entire substance of wine is changed into his blood, the species or outward semblence of bread and wine alone remaining." (Vol. 4, pg. 277, Article: "Consecration")

The Catholic Church teaches that the "Holy Mass" is a LITERAL EATING AND DRINKING OF THE LITERAL FLESH AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST. The priest supposedly has the power to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

Now, what does God's word say about such practices? If you'll read Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11-12, and Acts 15:29, you will find that God absolutely FORBIDS the drinking of blood all through the Bible.

Rome teaches that the Mass is a continual "sacrifice" of Jesus Christ, but God's word states that Jesus made the FINAL sacrifice on Calvary! This is made perfectly clear in Hebrews 10:10-12:

"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God."

The mass is unnecessary and unscriptural.

Image Worship

The Catholic religion is filled with all sorts of symbols, images, and relics. The Catechism of the Council of Trent states these words:

"It is lawful to have images in the Church, and to give honor and worship unto them..."

It's lawful to honor and worship images? Not according to God's word. Exodus 20:4-5 says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Image worship is unscriptural and will end with the eternal damnation of those who practice it (Rev. 14:11).

Salvation by Works

Through infant baptism, keeping sacraments, church membership, going to mass, praying to Mary, and confession (just to mention a few), the Catholic church has developed a system of salvation through WORKS. God's word says that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not through works:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8-9)

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Romans 4:5)

Jesus Christ came into this world to lay down His sinless life for YOU--to pay for your sins, because you couldn't. Jesus is your only hope for salvation. Only by receiving Him as your Saviour can you enter the gates of Heaven. There is no other way.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6)

The Lord Jesus Christ has come and PAID for your sins by shedding His own Blood on Calvary. By receiving Him as your Saviour, you can be WASHED from all your sins in His precious Blood (Rev. 1:5; Col. 1:14; Acts 20:28; I Pet. 1:18-19). Notice these important words from Romans 5:8-9:

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

Jesus PAID your way to Heaven for you! By receiving Him as your Saviour, you will be receiving God's ONLY means of Salvation for you. Are you willing to forsake YOUR righteousness and receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your ONLY HOPE for Salvation? Romans 10:13 says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:9 says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Are you willing to forsake your own righteousness, and trust Jesus Christ alone? He will save you just as He promised. Why not receive Him today and trust Him to give you a better way of life?
 

Copyright © 1998 James L. Melton

[afterdeathwhat]

http://www.chick.com/reading/books/160/160cont.asp
Here is a great online book called Understanding Roman Catholicism by Rick Jones. It lovenly compares the 1994 Cathecism with scripture. Chapters include:

Preface and Introduction
Who is The Final Authority?

37 Roman Catholic Doctrines

1 Salvation Through The Church
2 Salvation Through Good Works
3 The Church Forgives Sins
4 The One True Church
5 Baptism Saves
6 The Pope: Vicar of Christ
7 The Pope: Infallible
8 The Sacraments Save
9 The Sin of Presumption
10 Infant Baptism
11 Degrees of Sin
12 Transubstantiation
13 Eucharist: Preserves from Sin
14 Eucharist: Helps the Dead
15 Mary Saves
16 Mary: Saved from Birth
17 Mary: Perpetual Virgin
18 Mary: Source of Holiness
19 Mary: The Intercessor
20 Mary: Recipient of Prayers
21 Mary: Queen Over All Things
22 The Mass
23 Purgatory
24 Praying to Saints
25 Praying for the Dead
26 Statues
27 Confirmation
28 Confessing Sins to a Priest
29 Indulgences
30 Interpreting God' s Word
31 Catholic Prayer
32 Penance
33 Are Catholics Christ?
34 Could 850 Million Catholics be Wrong?
35 Reconciliation
36 Celibacy
37 Last Rites
Appendix 1 Confusion
Appendix 2 An Invitation
Appendix 3 God' s Plea
Appendix 4 Liberty or Bondage?

I have posted the Preface and Intorduction to the book below. Please take the time to atleast check into the claims of this book. God bless.

Preface

As a child growing up in a Roman Catholic home, I often wondered about the practices of the Catholic church. One example is "eating meat on Fridays." During my childhood years, this was a sin that would send you to hell. Then one day the church declared that it was now okay. Questions popped into my young mind like: "Did God change His mind?" "If so, why?" I asked myself, "Why was it sinful to eat meat on Fridays, but not on any other day?" I wondered, "How did God in heaven get word down to man that this practice no longer bothered Him?" I thought about the millions of people who had died and gone to hell for committing this sin, and asked myself: "Now that it's no longer a sin, will God release them from hell and bring them to heaven and apologize?"

Let me ask you... do you have questions about what your church teaches? If so, this book can help. Keep in mind, someday you will stand before God, and you won't be able to say, "See my priest... he takes care of my spiritual matters." You will give an account of your own life.

That's why this book is so important. Using plain, easy-to-understand language, it will answer those nagging questions that have bothered you for so long. With your eternal destiny at stake, nothing is more crucial.

May God richly bless you.


Introduction

In recent years, there has been a merging of Roman Catholicism with traditional Protestantism. Many on both sides now claim those in the other camp as their Christian brothers and sisters. This was unheard of several years ago, but today:

Roman Catholic clergy appear regularly on Christian television, promoting unity between Catholics and Protestants.
Christian radio stations broadcast Roman Catholic programs.
Christian bookstores carry a variety of material appealing to Roman Catholics.
Have the two sides, in fact, merged? Are they both now preaching the same message? Do both hold the same cardinal doctrines?

To discover the answer to these questions, I began an exhaustive study of the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church. Using this particular Catechism was important for two reasons:

1. This catechism is the official source for all Roman Catholic doctrine. No one can deny that it contains the actual teachings of the Roman Catholic church.

2. Published in 1994, this is the first new catechism in over 400 years. Therefore you can be assured that you are reading the current teachings of the Roman Catholic church, not what it may have taught three hundred years ago.

In this book, we will examine 37 of the most critical Roman Catholic doctrines, then let the facts speak for themselves.

You will not find personal opinions or philosophies presented here. This is strictly a declaration of true Roman Catholic doctrine and how those doctrines compare with the Bible. You must draw your own conclusions and make your own decisions.

Neither is this a book of judgment or condemnation. Its sole purpose is to help you better understand Catholic doctrine so you will be prepared when you stand before God for judgment, as we all must do after death:

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" Hebrews 9:27 

My heart breaks at the thought of anyone hearing Jesus proclaim the following words to them on that day:

"I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:23 

Yet the Bible reveals that the Lord will proclaim those very words to many religious people. Knowing this, it is vital that you not blindly follow anyone. Learn these Roman Catholic doctrines for yourself so you will be able to face God with confidence.

As you read, my sincere prayer is that God will reveal His truth to your heart and mind. God bless you.

[afterdeathwhat]

Read the online book. Answers to my Catholic Friends http://www.chick.com/reading/books/218/218cont.asp

[allstarboyscout]

for those people who are in the Philippines i recommend you the book "Truth Encounters" by Anthony Pezzotta its available in Philippine Christian Bookstore (PCBS) in S.M. malls or  Back to the Bible West Ave. Quezon City. Pezzotta is a former Catholic missionary priest in the Philippines. 

[afterdeathwhat]

Vatican Letter Warned Bishops on Abuse Policy
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

A newly disclosed document reveals that Vatican officials told the bishops of Ireland in 1997 that they had serious reservations about the bishops’ policy of mandatory reporting of priests suspected of child abuse to the police or civil authorities.

The document appears to contradict Vatican claims that church leaders in Rome never sought to control the actions of local bishops in abuse cases, and that the Roman Catholic Church did not impede criminal investigations of child abuse suspects.

Abuse victims in Ireland and the United States quickly proclaimed the document to be a “smoking gun” that would serve as important evidence in lawsuits against the Vatican.

“The Vatican is at the root of this problem,” said Colm O’Gorman, an outspoken victim of abuse in Ireland who is now director of Amnesty International there. “Any suggestion that they have not deliberately and willfully been instructing bishops not to report priests to appropriate civil authorities is now proven to be ridiculous.”

But a spokesman for the Vatican said that the document, while authentic, was further proof that past missteps on handling sexual abuse allegations were corrected by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a top official in the Vatican before he became the current pope, Benedict XVI.

The document, a two-page letter, was first revealed by the Irish broadcaster RTE and obtained by The Associated Press.

The letter was written just after a first wave of scandal over sexual abuse by priests in Irish Catholic schools and other facilities — a scandal so big it brought down the Irish government in 1994.

By 1996, an advisory committee of Irish bishops had drawn up a new policy that included “mandatory reporting” of suspected abusers to civil authorities. The letter, signed by Archbishop Luciano Storero, then the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio — or chief representative — in Ireland, told the Irish bishops that the Vatican had reservations about mandatory reporting for both “moral and canonical” reasons. Archbishop Storero died in 2000.

The letter said that bishops who failed to follow canon law procedures precisely might find that their decisions to defrock abusive clerics would be overturned on appeal by Vatican courts.

“The results could be highly embarrassing and detrimental to those same diocesan authorities,” the letter said.

Jeffrey S. Lena, a lawyer for the Vatican, said in a statement that the letter “has been deeply misunderstood.” He said that its primary purpose was to ensure that bishops used proper canonical procedures to discipline their priests so that the punishments were not overturned on technical grounds. He said the letter was also intended to question the validity of the Irish bishops’ policies, because they were issued merely as a “study document.”

Mr. Lena added, “In stark contrast to news reports, the letter nowhere instructed Irish bishops to disregard civil law reporting requirements.”

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that the letter represented an approach to sexual abuse cases shaped by a particular Vatican office, the Congregation for the Clergy, before 2001. That year, Pope John Paul II charged the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by the future Pope Benedict, with handling such cases.

“It refers to a situation that we’ve now moved beyond,” Father Lombardi said. “That approach has been surpassed, including its ideas about collaborating with civil authorities.”

He played down the idea that the letter was a smoking gun. “It’s not new,” he said. “They’ve known about it in Ireland for some time.”

But Mr. O’Gorman said that the letter was not known until its disclosure on Monday by RTE.

Martin Long, a spokesman for the Irish bishops, said that the revelation that the bishops had faced Vatican disapproval for resolving to report abuse cases to the police as far back as 1996 had prompted an outpouring of supportive e-mails and phone calls.

“The church in Ireland did receive a great number of public calls that reflected the public welcome for the fact that the Irish bishops have been so proactive for so long in working to improve child protection guidelines,” he said.

Mr. Long would not comment on the letter, but he reflected a widespread feeling among church officials that the Irish bishops had borne an unfair share of the recriminations that have been heaped on the church.

He noted that the Irish church had adopted a policy of mandatory reporting of all cases of child sexual abuse to the civil authorities in 1996, and said the policy had been progressively strengthened since then, despite the fact that mandatory reporting in such cases was not required by law in the Irish Republic.

An investigation by the Irish government that took nine years and was released in 2009 found that abuse was “endemic” in church-run schools and orphanages for decades, and that thousands of children were victims.

Pope Benedict sent a pastoral letter to the church in Ireland, accepted the resignations of some bishops and ordered an investigation, known as an “apostolic visitation,” of Irish seminaries and several dioceses. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who is in charge of the seminary visitation, announced that he would spend about three weeks from now until early February interviewing seminarians in Rome and in Ireland.

Rachel Donadio contributed reporting from Rome, and John F. Burns from London.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/world/europe/19vatican.html?_r=1