The Catholic Religion @ A Glance
“And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch.” (Matthew 15:14)
I can honestly say I have never met a Catholic I did not like. At the same time, it is not being anti Catholic to point out doctrine that is not supported by Scripture. While I am convinced that many Catholics have been born again and are Heaven bound, the Catholic Church has several basic flaws in its belief system. These flaw are readily apparent even for those who have a rudimentary understanding of the major tenets of Scripture. This Paper is focused on the most glaring and problematic discrepancies. The reader can compare Scripture with the doctrine of the Catholic Church and better understand why the Catholic Church has been ostracized from main stream Protestantism.
First, it is extremely important to understand the difference between Scripture, and a reinterpretation of Scripture. Those customs that Scripture says we are to observe, and those customs created over time by both well-meaning and in some cases nefarious men. Jesus continually castigated the Jewish religious leaders because of their slavish adherence to false Scriptural interpretations. Also for their endless customs and traditions they had attached to Scripture designed to cause worshipers to rely solely on priests and tithing in an effort to pay for salvation. He also preached against the idea that heritage and following family traditions could guarantee eternal. Jesus made it clear that neither reliance on meaningless customs, traditions, bad Scripture interpretation from priests, donations of money, repetitious praying, race affiliations nor good intentions guaranteed salvation. Salvation came only through faith in God plus nothing else.
Second, Scripture or the Word of God, comes to us in two parts. First there is the Old Testament which was written by prophets and men inspired by God. These men were transcribing what they were told by way of the Holy Spirt. The Holy Spirit was dictating to them what He was told by the Word of God. The Word of God was a preincarnation of Jesus who is the Christ or Saviour of mankind (John 1: 1-3). The second part of Scripture is the New Testament which is primarily a recounting of the ministry of the Word of God we call Jesus (John 3:13-17). The Bible, is the divine revelation of God through the transcribing of approximately forty divinely inspired men. It is the only teaching that man can rely on to bring salvation. While nature is a divine witness or reflection of the glory of God, it is only a creation as is mankind. Tradition, no matter how well intentioned, is also only a manifestation of creation. And if religious traditions are not Scripturally based or specifically sanctioned, then they can quickly become a distraction, or worse, thought of as having some powers in and of themselves when they are in fact manmade. Thus, including them as a sacred part of worship has introduced a meaningless symbol or action as if it has sacred powers which is untrue (Romans 1:21-28). Jesus tells us to beware of even a small amount of leaven {corruption} being mixed with Scripture (Matthew 16:6-12; Luke 12:1). With this in mind, we will now consider a number of Catholic interpretations of Scripture, and many beliefs and traditions based on those interpretations to see if they are supported by Scripture.
What Catholicism and Christianity Do and Do Not Agree On
The Roman Catholic Church and mainstream Christianity are in agreement on two of the main Biblical principles upon which to base their doctrines. First, the Bible is the true Word of God, His written revelation to mankind. Second, the Bible is inspired and inerrant.
But immediately the Roman Catholic Church introduces a fallacy into their doctrine. They teach that while there is only one revelation from God, it has two sources. The first source is the Word of God or the Bible. The second source is Traditions. The Catholic Church calls this collection of materials the Traditions of the Living Church (the Second Vatican Council).
So here we have a major contradiction. The Bible is the inspired infallible Word of God, however Catholics believe that the Word of God is equal in importance to other non-canonical writings and unscriptural supported traditions. Many of these writings have been declared by generations of protestant and secular scholars to be works of fiction written hundreds of years after the supposed events occurred. And many of the Catholic Church's Scripturally unsupported traditions and ceremonies have been proven to have pagan roots. Further, there are also numerous edicts that have been made by the Catholic Church that are based on erroneous interpretations of Scripture. In some cases, various traditions have been given precedence over Scripture if it helps to support the Catholic Church's goals. Where tradition and the Word fail to agree, the Roman Catholic Church chooses to accept their traditions and gloss over the Word of God. So, let’s now look at some of the many and varied ways the Church has quietly made these changes and discover how and why they have done so.
Mary’s Role in the Catholic Church
If you have ever attended a Catholic Mass, you are struck with the various images of Mary that are in the worship area as well as how many times she is called upon during a service. This is striking in that Mary is seldom mentioned in a protestant service except possibly at Christmas. To understand how Mary became the second most dominant figure in Catholic worship, we need to look at how the Catholics consider her as opposed to the way she is actually portrayed in Scripture.
Mary’s Parents and Her Early life
There is not a single mention in Scripture concerning Mary’s parents or her early life. All information on Mary and her parents come from two sources. The Protoevangelium or the Gospel of James, and the Gospel of Mary. Both of these manuscripts have been thoroughly studied for many centuries and the consensus has remained the same. Both of these works are pseudo biographical, non-canonical and unauthentic. Scholars see them as having been written primarily to enhance the role of Mary. In fact, these works were not even considered worthy to include in the Apocrypha. Thus, we have no historical evidence of any elements of Mary’s family including their names. The Catholic Church writes, “We (the Catholic Church) have no historical evidence of any elements of their lives, including their names. Any stories about Mary’s early life, father and mother, come to us through legend and tradition”.
So, there is no written nor oral evidence that Mary was immaculately conceived. Therefore, we can rightfully assume she was born just like all people. Because there is no mention in Scripture that God blessed her in such a way so that she had no proclivity to sin, we must assume she was born with original sin as are all people. In fact, Mary states that she did need a Saviour (Luke 1:47). The fictitious Gospel of James states she was born free from sin and then remained free from sin by being raised by Temple priests in Jerusalem. But this could not have happened as a child being raised by Jewish priests was strictly forbidden by Jewish Law. We also have no Scriptural evidence that Joseph was old to the point of being feeble when the two became engaged. In fact, Scripture only tells us that he was over the age of 19 or an adult when, by Jewish law, he married and registered himself and Mary during a Roman census. Finally, Scripture is clear that Mary did not remain a virgin after giving birth to Jesus. Instead, we are told that she created a family with Joseph by giving birth to four named boys and at least two unnamed girls.
The Conception of Mary vs Jesus
The conception of Mary is referred to by Catholics as The Immaculate Conception. This is a confusing title that bewilder many Catholics and all protestants. The word Immaculate means to be without spot or blemish. But the religious definition is to be without sin. In the history of mankind, only the physical body of Jesus was ever immaculately created. Adam was molded from the soil. Eve was created from some of Adam's DNA, and all children are created from the union of a man and a woman. Only Jesus was immaculately conceived by God the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, Mary became pregnant while still remaining a virgin.
The official Catholic Church doctrine is that Mary was conceived by the union of her mother, whose name is thought to have been Anne, with her father Joachim. However, they also teach that, from the moment of her conception, the Word of God or Jesus, granted her a “unique privilege” in that she did not inherit from Adam the predisposition to sin. To be absolutely clear, this doctrine is absolutely false. It is a total fiction with no Scriptural support. Incredibly, this idea was invented in 1854 and was declared official doctrine by the infallible Pope Pious IX. There was immediately a great opposition to this sudden pronouncement within the Catholic Church.
This doctrine flatly states that Mary was born without original sin. Her mother and father were born with original sin as are all people, but Mary was not. Normally Catholic theologians dig through the ancient non conical text files and find one that supports their needs, or that they can twist Scripture to support a fabricated doctrine. But in this case, there is no text in the history of the Church that even hints that this is true. So, Catholic theologians were forced to defend this doctrine by saying that God has the power to do this, so He did it. Full stop.
So now we no longer have a Trinity, we now have instead a quadrinity. The Catholic church looks at it this way. There is now God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and Mary the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven and Earth. The Bible does not remotely support this understanding, therefore, this doctrine is not of God. It is a false doctrine intentionally created by men to support a need. Mary could now be used as a recruitment tool to entices gentiles away from pagan worship and into Christian worship. Thus the old adage, "The ends justify the means".
Many Catholics believe that Mary was immaculately conceived as was Jesus. But official Catholic doctrine denies this. Catholic doctrine only states that Mary was uniquely born in that she did not have a predisposition to sin. The Catholic doctrine does not explain in what way she was uniquely born. It is most probable that the Church had to figure out how a person born with original sin in their blood could give birth to a child born without sin in its blood. Thus, this idea of Mary being without sin was allowed to become doctrine. When in fact, we now know biologically speaking that the mother’s blood never mixes with the child’s blood. Therefore Mary, with a sin nature, was able to give birth to a sinless Jesus. It seems God knew medically what the leaders of the Catholic church did not know.
Mary the Mother of God
The title Mary the Mother of God originated in 381 A.D. It was officially decreed by the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. And Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God in 1031 A.D. Prayers started to be directed to Mary as well as to Saints around 600 A.D.
Mary Raised In the Temple
Catholics believe that Mary was allowed by her parents to be raised by Temple priests in Jerusalem. However it is against Jewish law for any child to ever be raised by priests. Also, archeological evidence today shows that Mary was born in Nazareth and that her family home, now enshrined as The Church of the Annunciation, was across the street from the childhood home of Jesus now enshrined as The Church of Nutrition. So Mary and Joseph were childhood friends who, at a young age, fell in love and were married.
Joseph Was an Octogenarian
The church teaches that Joseph was in his eighties when he wed Mary. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that Joseph was an old man when he was engaged to Mary. Once again the Church had to find a way to insure that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth and remained a perpetual virgin. The church thought it unseemly that Mary would ever have carnal desires much less have sexual relations with her husband and produce a family. So they relied on, or perhaps created, a fictional writing, that Joseph was very old and only needed Mary as a helper in the final years of his life. According to the Jewish Talmud, Mary would have been about thirteen at the time of her engagement. This was the age most Jewish girls were engaged. Recently excavated first century Israeli grave stones show that Jewish women regularly married at the age of thirteen. Joseph, on the other hand, had to personally register for the Roman census in Bethlehem. According to Jewish law, in order to register as an adult, he had to be over the age of nineteen. Scripture is also clear that Mary and Joseph had four named boys and at least two unnamed girls after Jesus was born (Mark 6:3; Mark 15:40). Because the Catholic Church had declared Mary a “Perpetual Virgin” they were required to falsely translated the Greek term brethren or siblings to mean step brothers and sisters. But to all other Greek scholars, the word used infers biological siblings.
Hail Mary Full of Grace
This is the first mention of Mary in Scripture and one of the more famous misquotes of the Catholic Church. The actual quote is, “ Hail {Greetings or Hello} you that are highly favored, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women.”(Luke 1:28) Nowhere in Scripture is Mary ever referred to as “full of grace”.
So the actual expression as recorded in Scripture is, “Greetings Mary, you are highly favored as I {Gabriel} have been sent by God to you." She was not highly favored on her own, but instead God had found favor in her. “The Lord is with you", or ready to perform a miracle. “Blessed are you among {not above} women”. She was "Blessed among women" because God had decided to choose her to carry and raise His only begotten biological Son, Jesus who is the Christ or Messiah.
So, Mary was very blessed and very special, but not due to anything in and of herself. It was all due to her relationship with her son Jesus. And this is why we hear practically nothing about Mary before, during and after Jesus’ birth, ministry and resurrection. Mary was His birth mother, no more no less. And soon she would again be blessed by God through conceiving and giving birth to many other children who would care for her after Jesus ascended into Heaven.
But the Catholic Church was forced by the desires of political powers to create a different destiny for Mary. She was needed to become the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven and Earth. This was done in order to comply with a command from Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. The Emperor had declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and now he wanted to convert the empires pagans into Christians. So, in order to assist in this effort, the Church created these titles for Mary to help the pagans population more easily transition from a belief system in goddesses to one in which Mary was the one true goddess of the One True Creator God. Then, in order to establish the pedigree necessary for such lofty honors, the Church simply started her life story with an immaculate conception in order to create a continuous thread from her conception to her ascension into Heaven at her death. A story line that would end with her becoming as a goddess, now sitting at the right hand of Christ and worthy of praise.
Here is how the Catholic Church re envisioned her fictitious biography from a mortal human to an immortal goddess. Mary's biological father was said to be a wealthy retired Temple Priest. Because her mother Anne was infertile, the fact that she conceived was a miracle from God. This allowed the church to speculate that Mary was not necessarily immaculately conceived, but none the less, conceived in a "unique" unknown way. Therefore, she was born without original sin inherited from Adam. Then, at the age of three, her parents allowed her to be raised by Temple priests so as to be removed from the temptations of sin. Then, at the age of twelve or thirteen, the priests arranged her marriage to Joseph who was too old and infirmed to have sexual relations to create other children after Jesus was born. In order to remain a perpetual virgin, the church created the story that at His birth, Jesus passed through her “like ray of sunlight though a pane of glass”. She then remained a pure sin free virgin her entire life, and became a saint due to her producing miracles during her lifetime. At her death, and miraculously surrounded by all the Apostles, she was bodily raptured into Heaven. There she currently sits enthroned at the right hand of Christ the Son of God and reigns as the Mother of God {Jesus} and Queen of Heaven {birth mother of God the Father's child}. Today, it is taught by the Catholic Church that all the prayers of Catholics go to and through her as a mediator, and all forgiveness granted by God passes through her to the parishioner.
Every single part of this scenario is a complete work of fiction. While the Church can produce some ancient texts to corroborate some parts of this storyline, these texts were written hundreds of years after her death. And even the Catholic Church has officially acknowledged that they do not have any proofs that these recollections are in fact true. Incidentally, Jesus never called Mary mother in Scripture. He always referred to her politely as “madam”.
Scripture Verses About Mary
There are 49 verses in Scripture that concern Mary. But only four quote her as speaking. When she is meeting with the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:34-38). When she visits her relative Elizabeth to see if she is really pregnant. There she praises God for being blessed to give birth to the Messiah, an honor all Jewish women looked forward to (Luke 1:46-55). When she loses Jesus in the feast crowds of Jerusalem for three days, then finds and wrongly scolds Him in the Temple (Luke 2:48). And when Jesus refers to her as “woman” or madam at a wedding in Cana and at His Crucifixion (John 2:4; John 19:26-27). But fortunately, Luke obviously visited Mary to get her remembrances of Jesus’ conception, birth and childhood. He also cites her at the wedding in Canna where Jesus gently rebukes her for asking Him to solve the problem of a wine shortage. She would later visit Jesus out of concern for His mental state and safety only to be publicly referred to by Him as just one more of His followers (Matthew 12:48-50). She was there in Jerusalem for Passover when He was arrested and executed. She is cited as being at His execution and entombment, but was not at the tomb resurrection Sunday. Finally, she is cited in the Book of Acts as being one of the women in the room during a meeting of the disciples and seventy other followers. There is no further mention of her in Scripture. She is a figure of note but not on the level of an Apostle.
So we can say that Mary is remembered for being a law abiding Jewess, the loving and devoted mother of Jesus, and an early member of His church. On the cross, Jesus again referred to Mary as “madam” and asked His disciple John to take care of her. Jesus knew and prophesied that John would be the only disciple to live a long life and die in his nineties of natural causes (John 21:22).
What Happened to Mary
There is no mention of what happened to Mary in Scripture. This is because it is doubtful that any of the Apostles kept up with her. Luke, who interviewed her, did not mention what happened to her so she must have still been alive during his lifetime. After Pentecost, when the Apostles were indwelled with the Holy Spirit, many dispersed throughout the Middle East and foreign lands. They would have had no time to think about Mary. We may rightly assume that John looked after her until her death, but she is never mentioned in his writings. We might assume that the followers of Jesus were sympathetic to her and held her in some sort of reverence as the mother of the Messiah. But there are no writings to confirm this. Last but not least, because Scripture tells us that Mary and Joseph did have other children both males and females, we might rightly assume they took care of her until her death as some had become followers of their half brother Jesus (Matthew 13:55-56). Where exactly she was buried we will never know for sure. There are currently six locations cited as the burial place of Mary, one of which is in France.
The Cult of Mary Queen of Heaven and Mother of God
Apparently, during the second and third centuries of the early Church, a cult began to develop around Mary. While there was not much to work with Scripturally speaking, some could and did connect certain dots to come up with several startling conclusions. First, early Church followers were very familiar with pagan Greek and Roman god worship. Many of these gods had wives both human and goddesses. Many of these female goddesses were worshipped. It was not a far stretch to say that in the case of Jesus, God the Father had mated with a human female to create a Son. And, that this Son was both human and Divine. So what exactly was Mary’s relationship to God? Some deduced that in order for her to legitimately give birth to God’s Son, she was in some unique way the wife of God. This in turn meant that since God is the King of Heaven, she could rightfully be seen as the Queen of Heaven. And because she gave birth to a Divine godlike being, she would also qualify as the Mother of a God. In the third century, this unscriptural cult doctrine fit nicely with the reinvention of Mary as a pagan recruitment tool.
This train of thought was written down in two popular publications previously mentioned. One was titled the Gospel of James and the other the Gospel of Mary. Again, both of these works have been continually deemed by Biblical scholars as complete fictions based on vague oral traditions embellished by the authors.
What Happened to Mary’s Body According to the Catholic Church
This has been a somewhat complex issue for the Catholic Church. The Church’s official doctrine is that Mary’s mother Anne was not a virgin nor did she immaculately conceive in the same way as Jesus was conceived. This is a correct interpretation of Scripture. But there are still some Catholics that believe that Mary was immaculately conceived as was her Son Jesus. Again this is not Scripturally supported and not official Catholic doctrine.
Next we have Church stating that although Mary was not immaculately conceived, God granted her to be born without sin. This immediately created two problems one of which the church eventually developed a way to address.
First, Mary being born without sin created a deity as only a deity is without sin. This in turn replaces the traditional Triune Godhead with a Quaternity Godhead. The church addressed this issue by stating that Mary was not Divine only “unique”. But they admitted that her unique birth cannot be explained except that God could and did allow it to happen. This in turn allowed her to be able to birth a sin free Divine child. But this created a second problem concerning the disposal of her sin free corpse.
Scripture states that because Jesus was sin free, His body could not become corrupted or decompose (Acts 2:31). So what to do with Mary’s supposed sin free body as it would also remain in a non-decomposed state forever. The Church was in a bind yet adhered tenaciously to this doctrine despite irrefutable proof to the contrary. That proof took the form of Mary quoted in her own words as saying, “My soul {intellect} does magnify the Lord. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46-47). Here Mary is self-certifying herself to be human and a sinner as are all people.
So, as a way to dispose of her body, in 1950 Pope Pius XII pronounced the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. This doctrine, as with most of the non-conical traditions of the Catholic Church, was based on legends with no written recordings of events during the lifetime of Mary until hundreds of years after her death.
However, there are several versions of her death that one can choose to believe. Both were developed during the middle ages (500 A.D. - 1500 A.D.). One legend states that as she lay dying, she became frightened of death. It was at that time that God or Christ created a miracle by rapturing all the Apostles from their various locations into her room. There they surrounded her bed and assured her that she would pass into eternity peacefully. They were there praying for her when she died. They were then raptured back to where they had come from. Those attending her body decided to put her in a tomb similar to the one her Son Jesus was interred in. Then, after three days, it occurred to them that they should check on her body. When they entered the tomb, they found her body gone. They assumed she had been bodily taken up into Heaven to be with her Son. The second version is much more dramatic. Apparently, just before she breathed her last breath, she was bodily taken up or raptured into Heaven alive. The only thing she left behind was the sash she wore around her waist. The Catholic Church has no official opinion on whether Mary was alive when she ascended or was dead and resurrected. What it does agree on is that she was bodily taken into Heaven where she now sits at the right hand of Christ.
There are four glaring problems with this story. First, Scripture says nothing about Mary being born without sin. Second, it says nothing about her remaining a virgin. Instead, it plainly states that she gave birth to four named sons and at least two girls. Third, Scripture also says nothing about her death bed scene in which all the Apostles suddenly appeared. Surely the Apostles would have mentioned this miracle in their writings? Forth, Scripture is clear that only Jesus to date, has been resurrected from the dead and ascended into Heaven. No, the only truly remarkable thing about this fabricated tale was the unexpected announcement of it by the Vatican some one thousand nine hundred years after it supposedly occurred (ex-cathedra, 1950). This declaration by Pope Pius was initially resisted within the Catholic Church. But because the Pope had been declared infallible in 1870, this unscriptural legend became official doctrine in 1950.
Again, none of the events is recorded in Scripture. Instead, stories about Mary and the Apostles are only found in pseudo biographical accounts written by fiction writers basing their storylines on vague ancient hearsay recollections.
Mary the Queen of Heaven & Earth
We can trace this title back to the ancient pagan beliefs of Babylonian cults c. 2,200 B.C. The image of a mother and child were very popular in Babylon. The original image is known as Semiramis. It was worshiped as a symbol of sexual pleasure that brought about the miracle of children. This image was worshipped in Egypt, India and throughout Asia. In Rome it was called Fortuna and Jupiter, and in Greece Ceres and Plutus. This figure was also worshipped in China and Japan. So the worship of Mary is historically Babylonian in origin. There is absolutely no mention of this type worship in Scripture. It was added to the Catholic Church’s doctrine around 325 A.D. as a recruiting tool to convert pagans and bring them into the church. Now they could simply worship Mary and her Son instead of a pagan fertility goddess and her son. The Catholic Church bases this understanding on a verse by Paul who states that all believers, in eternity, will share in the image and glory of Christ who is King of Creation (Romans 8:28-30). Thus Mary, who ascended into Heaven, was crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. In 1954, the church established a feast on August 22nd to annually celebrate this understanding.
Mary as Mediator
Mary is considered by the Catholic Church to be the official mediator between the followers of Christ and Christ Himself. While this understanding is not official Catholic doctrine, many Catholics consider it an unwritten doctrine and it is taught under the title of Ordinary Teaching Authority of the Church. Mary is a universal intercessor who seeks God’s favors for all mankind. She is like a co-savior with Christ but subordinate to Him. The Catholic Church believes that no grace flows from God to any person without first passing through Mary. Catholics say this doctrine was tempered slightly during the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965. So, the Church has intentionally created yet another barrier between the individual and the Trinity. Most Catholics are also completely confused, or completely in the dark as to the unique individual members of the Trinity and their functions as parts of the united Godhead.
However, Jesus was clear when He said, “No person can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me to draw him” (John 6:43-44). So, according to the Bible, Mary has no part to play in the salvation of a person. For Catholics, Jesus is a wafer of bread, a cup of wine and a mother who stands between them and her son.
Do Catholic Worship Mary?
Catholics say they do not worship Mary. Instead, she only aids them in their worship of God and they prefer to say they venerate her. The definition of venerate is reverence, devotion or to idolize. And we must remember that the Catholics have been taught that Mary was born without sin, never sinned and remained a virgin after Jesus was born. Later she was raptured bodily into Heaven where, sitting at the right hand of Christ, she reigns eternally as mankind's mediator, the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven. It is clear that the Catholic Church has done all it can to make Mary worthy of worship in the eyes of its parishioners. So yes, Catholics worship Mary and in many ways. And because she stands between a worshipper and God, a prayer must be fully focused and directed to her. Catholics are worshiping God through Mary and every blessing that comes from God goes through Mary who they thank. This is why every Catholic church has a large statue of Mary front and center.
Scripture is clear, Christians are not to pray, worship or bow to any creation be it an image or person other than that of Christ the Creator. To bow to Him is to bow to God the Father (Leviticus 26:1; I Corinthians 6:9-10; I Timothy 2:5; Acts 4:12; Acts 10: 25-26; Revelation 22:8-9).
The Catholic Church Edits the 10 Commandments
Because the Catholic Church approved the worship of Mary and veneration of Apostles, saints, relics and sites connected to religious events, the original Ten Commandments became a doctrinal problem. The Second Commandment states, "You will not make any 'graven image' or any likeness {of anything} above, or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You will not bow down to them {worship} nor 'serve' them." The words 'graven image' means an idol or image worshipped as Deity or God. The word 'serve' means to give service or respect to, or to wait on, or to act as an inferior to a superior. So, the Second Commandment is crystal clear that mankind is not to worship or venerate any person other than Christ who is part of the eternal Godhead. You can respect a person, but not think of them as connected to the Eternal Godhead. This prohibition also includes all created things such as angels, stars, planets or unusual geographic locations such as rivers, mountains, springs, grottos, caves, rock formations, volcanos, etc. However, because this prohibition was in direct opposition to Church doctrine, the Catholic Church was forced to edit this Commandment out of the list.
To make up for this missing Commandment, the church took the last Commandment, "You will not covet your neighbors wife nor will you covet your neighbors house {property}." and made it into two Commandments. Thus, in the Catholic version, Commandment Ten became Commandments Nine and Ten. The church says they have the right to do this based on the writings of early church father Augustine. As you may have already guessed, Augustine was a great devotee of Mary and wrote that she was the "perfect Christian and Apostle". So here we have a flagrant example of the Catholic Church glossing over Scripture in favor of a manmade idea if it supports the church's objectives. The elimination of this commandment to reject the worship of any false idol or 'any likeness' of any creation allowed Catholics to bow before and pray to, statues of Mary, Popes and Saints. They can now also venerate relics made of iron, wood and body parts, along with crucifixes. It also allows them the use of hand gesticulations to express emotions in place of speech. They now can light candles and burn incense as part of prayer worship and as a way to venerate a saint to help their prayers receive special attention by Mary and Christ. They can also use candles and incense when praying to and venerating the dead. And last, but not least, it allows the Wafer of God to be venerated. This wafer is a thin cracker that Catholics believe has been turned into the actual body of Christ by way of a priest uttering an incantation over it. It is then that the cracker turns from the Wafer of God into the literal Flesh of Christ. And as such, it is worthy of a parishioner kneeling to it in veneration, and ingesting it so that their flesh and the flesh of Christ become one.
Catholics and Reading the Bible
When the printing press came into use in 1450 A.D., one of the very first books produced was the Bible (1455 A.D.). The Catholic Church was the first organization to make use of the press by having literally thousands of penitence’s printed and given out for prescribed donation amounts. However, the Church became irate and reacted with violent and harsh opposition at the idea that now anyone was able to purchase and read the Bible. Today, the official doctrine of the Church continues to be that worshippers are not to read the Bible without doing so in the presence of a priest. Only he can rightfully interpret the Church’s official understanding of Scripture. By downplaying the need to actually study Scripture, many priests and lay Catholics have very little in-depth knowledge about what the Bible actually says. Catholics are free to read the Bible, but few actually study the Bible. They rely mainly on Sunday homilies and the priests to inform them about Biblical teachings.
Speaking In Tongues
The Catholic Church does have what is known as Catholic Charismatics who claim to have received experiences of the Holy Spirit that enhance the written word of Scripture. But when a Catholic speaks in tongues, it is often exhorting followers to be more faithful to Mary. However, Scripture teaches the exact opposite in that the Holy Spirit will, though the speaking in tongues, only magnify Christ and early Church Doctrine (John 15:26).
Peter The First Pope
The Pope of Rome is considered the head of all Roman Catholic worship. The word Pope in Latin means Papa or Father. He is claimed to be the successor in the position to the Apostle Peter. According to the Catholic Church, Jesus personally appointed Peter as the first Pope. Peter then went to Rome where he served as Pope for twenty five or more years before he was martyred. The Catholic doctrine states that when Jesus blessed Peter, He made him not only the head of the Church but infallible in his teachings on matters of faith, morals and decision making.
But once again, Scripture is completely silent on Peter as the head of the Church much less a Pope and infallible. The early church (33 A.D.-300 A.D) never used or even knew the word Pope. This title was first used when referring to Pope Leo I (440-461 A.D.). The last Book in the New Testament was written around 95 A.D. by the Apostle John. And even John, the last living Apostle, does not mention the existence of Popes or heads of the Church being appointed anywhere much less in Rome. In fact, when the Apostles and Church Elders first met in Jerusalem to debate the first major doctrinal schism, it was James the biological half-brother of Jesus who was obviously in charge. Peter briefly spoke but not as head of the church (Acts 15: 7-11).
Also, there is wide spread disagreement among scholars as to how long Peter was in Rome. The Catholic Church says he was there from 41 A.D. to 66 A.D. However, it cannot produce any evidence that Peter was there during these dates, so it is only a theory. Some scholars believe he was never in Rome while others believe he was taken there to be tried and beheaded for causing a fiery uprising against Emperor Nero in 64 or 67 A.D. Even Paul never mentions Peter in the four long letters he wrote while in Rome over a two year period. In Scripture, Peter primarily ministered to the Jews of Jerusalem (Galatians 2:7). We know of only one letter Peter wrote while in Babylon, but not much else.
Only Christ is the head of the Church (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23). Christ has only ever been the head of the Christian Church. Peter himself said that Christ was the true cornerstone of the Church (I Peter 2:4, 6-8). The Catholics say that Peter was appointed head of the church when Jesus called him,” … the rock upon I will build my Church.” (Matthew 16:18-19) But just a short time later, the disciples asked Jesus who was the greatest among them (Matthew 18:1). Jesus did not say Peter. While Paul wrote one hundred chapters with 2,325 verses in the New Testament, Peter wrote only eight chapters consisting of 166 verses. And it was Paul who literally rebuked Peter for his beliefs (Galatians 2:11).
The early Church never used or even knew the word or title of Pope. In the original Biblical Greek texts, different words are used for Peter and rock. Peter is called petros referring to a pebble or small stone, while rock is petra which designates a huge boulder or stone cliff. So, Jesus was calling Peter a pebble and Himself an indomitable rock. And, that it was upon Peter’s recognition that Jesus was the Son of God, that He would build His Church. Peter would later refer to Jesus as a rock and His believers as stones (I Peter 2:5-8).
Therefore, it is clear that the Catholic Church wanted to create the position of High Priest {Pope} to serve as head of the institution. Knowing that many might have a problem with this decision, the Church intentionally took the word used by Jesus and falsely translated it to mean something it does not. They did this to try and give Scriptural authority to a man made position of authority. The problem is, if they wanted to create a position title to head the Church’s administration, that’s fine. But what is unconscionable is for a Church to knowingly twist Scripture in order to give a seemingly God ordained authority to that position.
The Pope Is Inerrant
The more Bibles became available to the common man, the more people were able to actually read Scripture for themselves. And the more they read, the more they began to question the doctrine, rituals and customs of the Catholic Church. To shut down this audacious questioning of Papal power, an official decree was issued by the Catholic Church in 1870. It stated that because the Pope was the Vicar of Christ, he received edicts that were based in truth directly from Christ. Thus, like Christ, the Pope was never in error. This doctrine was issued with the clause that those that questioned the Pope were questioning God. And this in turn would lead to persecutions, excommunication from the Church and eternity in Hell,
Some Popes More Inerrant Than Others
Pope Leo I Bishop of Rome (390-461) advocated the death penalty for heresy. Leo II (682-684) pronounced his predecessor Pope Honorius I (625-640) a heretic. Stephen II (752-757) encouraged the military conquest of Italy and accepted conquered lands as Papal property. Sergius III (904-911) had a mistress and their illegitimate off spring became Popes. John X (914-928) had multiple mistresses and was killed in the act of adultery by an irate husband. Boniface VII (984-985) murdered his predecessor. John XIV (983-984) bought his election as Pope. Benedict the IX (1032-1045) was made Pope at the age of 12. He committed murders, robberies and was driven out of Rome through public riots. From 1045-1181 there were seven rival Popes all claiming authority. The Inquisition started by Pope Innocent III in 1198, lasted five hundred years and executed almost twenty million Christians who dared to question the authority of the Catholic Church of Rome. The Inquisition’s purpose was to find heretics who would be tortured to death with their homes and land seized by the Church. So basically, dissenters were executed and the Church got rich.
How Catholics See Their Church
The Roman Catholic Church believes that it is the one and only true Church of Jesus the Christ. That all protestant churches are like petulant children who have gone astray and will remain lost without returning to their mother church. That only Catholics have a clear path to Heaven. The Pope is literally the Vicar of Christ and the head of the one true Church as personally founded by Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church is the visible presence of Christ on earth and is guided in all things by the Holy Spirit. The Church is infallible in its beliefs, traditions and as such will last until the end of time because of its inerrant stand in matters of faith and morals. It is superior to all other Christian denominations, and the only reliable interpreter of the Holy Bible. The Church is a living organism and the mystical body of Christ. Union with this organization is necessary for salvation. The Pope is the indisputable ruler of the Church, and that his authority runs from himself down through the Bishops to the priests and finally down to the average parishioner.
In contrast, Protestant Christianity sees the Church primarily as the universal and visible community of born again Christians. The Church’s mission has remained the same since the Pentecost of 33 A.D. when the Holy Spirit arrived and began to permanently indwell all believers in Christ. To witness to the world that faith in Jesus Christ is the only guaranteed way to salvation and eternal life. And that Biblical Scripture is inerrant and God’s plan for mankind. No writings from the second century onward have ever been deemed reliable enough by Christian scholars to be admitted into protestant New Testament doctrine.
The Role of Priests
The Catholic Church holds that all Popes are in direct succession from Peter. All priests are in direct succession from the Apostles. The Church supports this belief citing Matthew 16:17-19. But Jesus was clear that only He was the head and High Priest of His Church. And, that all believers were now equal in the important job of spreading the Good News of salvation and eternal life through Him. Also, because all Catholic priests are thought to be in the direct line of the first twelve Apostles, the Catholic Church holds that a person must obey a priest without question even if they believe it is wrong. And, should a priest turn out to actually be wrong, the parishioner cannot be found guilty of sin in the eyes of God. If a priests gives wrong advice or instruction, then the sin debt is on him. Thus, to suspend rational judgement and blindly obey a priest is to obey God.
In the protestant Christian church, there are no Popes and no priests or successors to the Apostles. All followers of Christ are expected to help spread the Gospel in some way, but are not to be thought of as priests. The role of the priest was forever eliminated on the day Jesus died on the cross. This was also true for the Jewish Temple priesthood. This practice of a High Priest and priests can be traced back to the earliest pagan practices since the time of Cain and Nimrod. The purpose of the Old Testament priest was to intercede for man so that he could obtain mercy and grace. But Christ eliminated the need for a middle man. Now, all people can turn directly to Christ who is their personal Saviour. There is no need for a human priest to transmit an appeal to God. And there is no need to perform a penitence given by a priest for sins committed. Christ has erased all mankind’s sin debt. So, there is nothing else that needs to be done by human hands. To confess sin and then be required to do something else is saying that Jesus did not die enough on the cross. That we need to become involved in some way to help better insure that one’s sin debt is completely paid in full. This is absolutely not true (Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 12:24). According to Scripture, the role of a priest is not recognized by God the Father and this position is not found anywhere in the New Testament. A priest is in effect intruding himself into a position of mediator for mankind and is thus usurping authority over the sacrifice of Christ. Timothy said it best, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all” (I Timothy 2:5-6).
How a Priest Forgives Sin
There is an official prayer recited by a priest when he is removing sin from those who request this service. “God the Father of mercies through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sin through the ministry of the church. May God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sin in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit”.
Here are the issues with this prayer. First error, it states that the Holy Spirit was sent for the “forgiveness of sin”. Scripture is clear that while the Holy Spirt was sent in part to convict a person of sin, it is not the function of the Holy Spirit to forgive sin (Acts 2:38). This then is an error in Catholic litany. The second error is that this prayer states that the Holy Spirit forgives sin “through the ministry of the Church”. Scripture is clear that the mission of the church, as it pertains to sin, is to announce the Good News that forgiveness of sin is available through faith in Christ plus nothing else. So the prayer is saying that forgiveness of sin is through, or requires, the assistance or approval of a middle man. In this case it is a religious organization. This is blatantly not true. A third error in this prayer is when it says “may God give you pardon and peace …” then immediately states, “…and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Once again, a priest jumps in between the parishioner asking God to forgive their sins and says," .. and I absolve you from your sins...". So the priest is saying that some how, he is pardoning sin on behalf of God? How did he get in the mix? So, a human priest who has a sin nature as do all people, apparently has authority from the Catholic Church, to interject himself between a person asking God in faith for forgiveness, and God forgiving that person. That without the priest's involvement, a person's sin cannot be forgiven? Totally unscriptural and an anathema to the most basic principle of Christian faith! One has to wonder who exactly is absolving the person? God the Father, Jesus the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Catholic Church, Mary, or the Priest in the name of God? Talk about a case of going around your elbow to get to your wrist!
Scripture clearly states that when a person in faith, asks God in the name of Christ to be forgiven of their sins, they are immediately forgiven. Period! No ifs, ands or buts, (or priests) about it.
Why Priests Are Celibate
The Catholic Church demands that the office of priest not be consistent with sexual relationships. The thought being that the role of a priest is too important to be distracted by domestic matters. However, celibacy is not supported in Scripture. It is against the laws of God and nature. Marriage was first instituted by God in the Garden of Eden. And, God commanded Adam and Eve to “replenish” the earth (Genesis 1:28). Also, if the Apostle Peter is the role model for all Popes, Scripture tells us that he and Paul were both married (Matthew 8:14-15). In fact, over the centuries, a number of Popes have been married. No, the actual purpose of celibacy is that Rome wants to have total control over the actions, labor, money and property of every Catholic priest, monk and nun. This means that should a priest or nun turn against church doctrine or decide to leave the church, they would have no worldly skill sets, no saved money to rely on, no home to go to and will be shunned by former family members, friends, colleagues and parishioners.
Confession
Confessing to a priest and having ones sins forgiven had its very beginnings in the second and third centuries. But by the time of Pope Innocent III (1215 A.D.) it had become an elaborate system. It was officially endorsed at the Council of Trent in 1551 A.D. Now a follower was commanded to confess to a priest at least once a year and perform penitence according to the amount and degree of sins committed. This is why confession starts with the confessor telling the priest how long it had been since their last confession. Without confession and sacraments (Mass) there can be no entrance into Heaven. This is a practice straight out of the Babylonian religious system. Forgiveness or salvation comes from an absolution from a priest after confession, penitence and Mass that includes the partaking of Communion. This is completely unsupported by Scripture!
Priests In the Age of Grace
The term priests (hiereus in the Greek) is used two ways in the New Testament. First, it speaks of priests in the Old Testament Temple order. Second, it speaks of all Christians being priests. There is no place in Scripture where elders of the Church or preachers are called priests. Scripture tells us that, “Jesus Christ…has made us {all} kings and priests unto God.” (Revelation 1:5-6)
The Need For Penitence
The first thing a Catholic is taught is that penitence is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Christ. This results in the salvation of mankind and allows one into Heaven. This Catholic doctrine states that Jesus gave His Apostles the authority to forgive or retain sin and that this authority has continued for two thousand years and resides exclusively within the Catholic Church. Priests are the only bona fide bearers with the power to forgive or not to forgive sin.
Now, for a sinner to receive forgiveness by the priest, they must confess their misdeeds. Then the priest decides and imposes a penitence or fine on the person such as three Hail Mary's and three Our Fathers at which time they are granted absolution. To keep the confession lines moving, the person must perform their penance on their own time. It is not clear if the forgiveness of sin comes at the moment of absolution or after the penance is performed. It is assumed that if the sinner does not perform the penitence, then the absolution is cancelled and the sinner returned to an unsaved condition. However, because death is always looming, it is assumed that a person pays their fine so as not to die in their sins.
The mandatory confession of sins by a Christian to a duly authorized priest, himself a sinner, is completely divergent from the clear understandings of Jesus in the New Testament. The need for a priest to require a person to confess their sins to him is so peculiar that it is almost perverse. It makes one wonder just how Scripturally uneducated, gullible and brainwashed a person has to be to not question this obvious attempt to keep a parishioner under the control of the church by way of the priesthood. This is accomplished by forcing followers to confess their innermost secrets to a priest, or not go to Heaven. One is reminded of the story in which Jesus healed a sick man and then forgave him of his sins. The shocked Pharisees exclaimed, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemes? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21)
Priests Can Forgive Sins
According to the writings of Thomas Aquinas (1224 A.D.- 1274 A.D.), the idea that a priest had the power to forgive sins was created about 1200 A.D. The Catholic Church refers to a quote by Jesus to support the practice that priests are authorized to forgive sin (John 20:21-23). They believe that Christ gave this power to His disciples, and this power was then handed down to their successors the Catholic bishops and priesthood. But is this really what Jesus meant?
First, Jesus used the perfect tense when speaking the words, “forgiven” and “retained”. This indicates action that has already been performed. So, the phrase actually reads, “if you forgive the sins of any, they have ‘already been’ forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, they have ‘already been’ retained”. In other words, faith in Christ immediately forgives the sin of a person in Heaven. When a person reject Christ, their sins are retained and this then is the unforgivable sin. It is unforgivable because they refuse to ask to be forgiven, thus no forgiveness is given.
Second, the Catholic church knowingly, or unknowingly, missed or ignored that Jesus was clearly speaking to a group of followers only some of which were His disciples. John actually states that not all the disciples were present at this time (John 20:24). Therefore, theoretically, both disciples and lay Christians would all have received this blessing. Thus, this authority was transmitted down to every Christian today. And, if such an unbelievable power was given only to the disciples, we should expect that the Book of Acts and the Epistles would address that this was in fact what the Lord intended … right? (John 20:18-24).
But alas, here is not one single word in all of Scripture of an Apostle forgiving sin in the manner practiced by the Catholic Church’s Rite of Reconciliation. The Apostle Peter did not give absolution to Cornelius (Acts 10). Paul did not give absolution to the Philippian jailer (Acts 16). No, the Apostles and religious elders all only preached forgiveness of sin and eternal life though faith in Christ plus nothing else. Peter said it best, “... to him Jesus give all the prophets witness, that through His name, whoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sin.” (Acts 10:43; I John 1:9).
There is only one case cited in all of Scripture where one person can forgive the sin of another. It is when an innocent person is wronged in word or deed, and that person generously forgives the person that has intentionally harmed him (Matthew 6:12-15; James 5:16).
Does this mean that all the sins confessed by Catholics have not been forgiven? No! If a Catholic has faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, they are saved and their sins forgiven. So, the moral of this story is that Catholics are dutifully performing manmade rituals that are not cited in Scripture, are unnecessary and serve no purpose. Instead, Scripture tells us to go into a private room, meditate on Christ as their Saviour, confess their sins to Him and know that they are forgiven as they were paid for in advance by way of Christ crucified (Matthew 6:6). He died for the sins of all people for all time. Period!
The Life and Death Importance of Mass
This is one of the more disturbing aspect of the Catholic Church. It centers around a quote in the Book of John, “Then Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:53-54) The Catholics take this saying literally. They teach that the bread and wine of Communion are literally transformed into the corporeal body and blood of Jesus Christ. But this belief can be easily shown to be utterly absurd. Jesus clarified this statement several verses later by saying, “It is the Spirit who quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are Life.” (John 6:63) So Jesus is making it clear that He is not talking literally but figuratively. He is also talking prophetically as He will soon institute Communion at the Last Supper. It was then that He reiterated that the broken bread represented His broken body and that the wine represented His blood spilled for the remission of the sins of all mankind. Apparently, the way the Catholic Church continues to support this and other fallacious doctrines is to have both priests and worshippers memorize certain, specific passages out of context. That way they appear to support Catholic doctrines while at the same time parishioners acquire little knowledge concerning the actual Word of God. They also have highly respected Catholic scholars that continually write books, articles and create videos to further indoctrinate priests and followers to not question Catholic doctrine and traditions.
Missing a Mass Can Lead to Hell
According to Catholic theology, it is a mortal sin to miss Mass on the Sabbath or on Holy Days of Obligation without a good reason. A mortal sin immediately consigns a person to Hell, until it is removed by participating in the Rite of Reconciliation which consist of confession, penance, absolution, and communion. The Church teaches that Mass is a sin removing sacrament or sacrifice as it is literally Christ sacrificed anew on the cross.
Who Can Participate in Communion
Only Catholics can participate in the Catholic Communion portion of Mass. A non Catholic can approach a priest and receive a blessing, but is forbidden to receive a wafer or wine. To do this, a non Catholic must approach a priest with their arms folded over their chest. The priest can then recognize them for who they are, as in worthy of a blessing, but not worthy of receiving Communion. Only Roman Catholics can receive Communion in a Roman Catholic Church. Even an ordained Catholic priest cannot receive Communion if they are not ordained as a Roman Catholic priest. In the protestant church, any parishioner who has faith in Christ as their Lord and Saviour is welcome to participate in Communion. Whereas, in the Catholic Church, it is assumed that the parishioner has faith in Christ but is also obeying all the church's rules, regulations and traditions. If they are not, that is what confession is for. There they are chastised by a priest, fined, perform penitence and forgiven.
Bread Becomes Flesh & Wine Turns to Blood
Not true. Scripture is clear that Communion is a simply a reenactment of the Last Supper. And at the Last Supper, bread did not become flesh nor wine become blood. Jesus did not say they would. Jesus did not create this type miracle. In fact, Scripture strictly forbids the drinking of blood (Acts 15:20). And, the laws of nature forbid one species consuming the flesh of the same species. Humans that consume human flesh develop what is known as Mad Cow Disease. This disease appeared during a time when cows were given feed that was fortified with the dried meat rendering from slaughter houses. This disease was first noted by Doctors Without Borders who observed these physical symptoms in tribes who practiced cannibalism.
Transubstantiation
The Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation is without question the most absurd doctrine ever imposed on a trusting yet gullible public. The Catholic Church doctrine states that at the Last Supper, when Christ said the bread was His body and the wine His blood, He was giving a command. Thus, a miracle occurred in which the bread actually became His flesh and the wine literally became His blood (Matthew 26:28). They believe this event set a precedent concerning the correct way Communion, pronounced Eucharist in Latin, should be observed. Therefore, during today’s Mass, it is believed that Christ literally descends into the priests hands during a mystical act known as transubstantiation. At this time the host, also known as the “Wafer of God”, is literally transformed into the body, blood, soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The bread might taste like bread and the wine like wine, but it is actually flesh and blood. This doctrine was established by the Council of Trent (1545 A.D.-1563 A.D.) Also, according to Catholic doctrine, a person can take communion on behalf of a dead person they are familiar with. But only if it is the expressed wish of the living person who agrees to pay specified sums of money to the church to help defray the costs associated with such Masses. The Church also teaches that the parishioners receive full benefits of the Mass by taking only the wafer, while the priest alone receives both the bread and the wine. If a person does not believe in the act of transubstantiation, they are considered lost souls destined for Hell.
Mass is a completes enigma to anyone outside of the Catholic Church. It is a blatant idolatrous misconstruing of Jesus’ words, meanings and actions at the Last Supper. Any protestant with only a rudimentary understanding of Scripture will rightfully ask, “How can such an outlandish misinterpretation of Jesus’ words and actions create anything good?” And, “How can such a complete delusion be the very bedrock of the spiritual lives of countless millions of educated Roman Catholics?” But to Catholics, they have been taught that Mass is a mystical and a profound reality. As they search for a personal relationship with Christ, they are taught to believe He is to be found in the consumption of His actual flesh in the form of a wafer, and His blood in the form of a chalice of wine. This process is a joint venture in that it can only occur in the presence of a priest. And it is the priest that must stick the wafer into the mouth of the parishioner and hold the cup of wine up to them to drink from. It is the priest that makes the wafer flesh and the wine blood. Once the parishioner partakes of communion, they must then sit and patiently watch as all the remnants or leftovers are slowly consumed by the priest. And, because the wafer and wine is the body of Christ, the presiding priest must eat every last crumb of left over wafer on the dish. And he must drink every last drop of wine in the chalice. This is because even a crumb of wafer is considered a bit of Jesus' flesh and even a drop of wine His blood. Therefore, they cannot be just thrown out. And, if there is a lot of wine and or wafers left over, everyone must sit, wait quietly and focus on the priest while he repeatedly eats and swallows wafer after wafer then, with head tilted full back, holds the golden chalice bottom up to get every last minute drop of blood.
To be clear, a priest does not have the power entrusted to him by God to transform bread and wine into literally the body and blood of Christ. In fact, you are now probably thinking, this is not really what the Catholics believe. Well, just ask a Catholic if the bread and wine of Communion is literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus. You will be amazed when they say, “yes!”. They believe that just as Jesus offered His body on the cross as a sacrifice to the Father, He continues to offer Himself every day but only in Catholic Churches on the alter through the power endowed to the Catholic priests to turn a wafer and wine into His body.
How the Last Supper Became a Continuous Sacrificing of Christ
History tells us that in the first century, Communion took the form of a simple meal of fellowship eaten as a memorial or thanksgiving to the death and resurrection of Christ. In the second century it was noticed that the meal of fellowship was not the somber meal as some thought the Last Supper was. So, the meal was organized and became a sacrificial ceremony in which Christ was present in the room therefore, a certain amount of decorum was required.
By the third century, Communion had become much more organized. The meal and the celebratory part was now fading, and an ordained priest now conducted the ceremony for the benefit of both the living and the dead. By the Middle Ages, the eucharist had become a re-sacrifice of Christ's original sacrifice on the cross.
By the fourth century, magical ideas appeared concerning the actual mystical transformation of bread and wine. It was now taught that when the words of the Last Supper were recited by a priest, the Holy Spirit arrived and the bread and wine changed into the visible representation of Jesus’ flesh and blood.
In the early 9th century, the idea of bread and wine literally and magically becoming flesh and blood, was now in vogue throughout Christendom. This idea was formalized by Paschasius Radbertus the Abbot of Corbey. It was given the name “Transubstantiation” by Hildebert of Tours in the early twelfth century. And it was made an official Article of Faith by the Lateran Council in the early thirteenth century.
This practice is opposed by Scripture. The bread or wafer and wine obviously remain physically unchanged in every way. So the idea that the bread has become flesh is only in the mind of the worshipper trying to adhere to the Catholic Church’s dogma. The bread and wine were and are simply a memorial to Jesus voluntarily sacrificing Himself in our place. However, the sacrificing of actual flesh and drinking of blood does have direct idolatrous connotations connected with it. This connotation is completely removed from Jesus’ intent as spelled out in Scripture (Hebrews 7:26-28). Paul wrote, “For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till He come.” (I Corinthians 11:26) Paul did not write you will eat His body or drink His blood. Paul was saying that when a believer eats a meal, they should take time to thank Christ for His sacrifice on their behalf. Paul also did not say, you will repeat the sacrifice of Christ until He comes. He said, “You do shew the Lords death.” The Greek word shew means to declare, preach, speak or teach. It does not mean to reenact or reproduce. Also, the words “drink this cup” are plural which means all the disciples and early church members partook of the cup, not just one individual or priest as it is today with the Catholic Mass.
For ex Catholics, the single most troubling aspect of leaving the Church is accepting the protestant understanding of Communion. For protestants, Communion is simply the reenactment of the Last Supper. Ex Catholics, can give up praying to Mary, seeing the Pope as the visible image of Christ on earth, and making regular confessions to a priest with the need for punishment so as to be forgiven for sins. However, it is extremely hard for them to give up the idea of eating the flesh of Christ at Communion. It is this act of actually ingesting His flesh that physically and psychologically brings them closer to Him.
The Act of Kneeling
Because the Catholics see the bread wafer as the actual body of Christ, and because there are always wafers in the vicinity of a chapel, this means that Christ is also actually in the chapel. This is the reason Catholics genuflect, touch a knee to the ground as they enter and leave the church, and make the sign of the cross with their hands. It is also why Catholic are silent in church and perpetually burn candles in the sanctuary. Jesus is thought to be present in the form of a wafer. The church also has expensive silver and gold bejeweled chalices and plates that hold the hosts or wafers. None of the chalices or plates or wafers are usually visible to the parishioners except during Mass. But parishioners are encouraged to come to the church at all hours to pray, adore and be comforted knowing the wafers and chalices are stored in the sanctuary. There are certain ceremonies where the wafer is paraded around the sanctuary enclosed in a glass box and enshrined in the middle of a golden sun burst. This procession includes dramatic music, priests chanting prayers and burning incense. The parishioner is encouraged to contemplate, kneel and adore the wafer as it is to be considered an actual piece of the flesh of Christ.
Actually, archeology and Jewish texts have confirmed that the cup Christ used at the Last Supper was not a chalice. Instead it was carved out of white limestone. This was the type cup required by Jewish law in the first century to be used for all feasts that involved drinking wine. So, the Catholic Mass with its priests in long robes, elaborate chanting, formalized rituals of kneeling and the burning of incense, transubstantiation of matter into flesh and bejeweled chalices, are as far removed from the Last Supper with its simple unleavened bread and stone cup of wine as one can get.
Indulgences
Indulgences are granted to Catholics by priests. Indulgences are reductions in the sentences imposed on Catholics in Purgatory or Hell. There, past sins which have been forgiven through confessions and penance in life, are personally atoned for by torment imposed by God. So an indulgence is said to be a church issued and God affirmed reduction in sentencing and suffering. Indulgences can be saved up for personal use after death, or they can be immediately credited to the sin account of loved ones who have died and are now in Purgatory. Because a person does not know how long they will be sentenced to Hell, it is considered prudent to save up as many indulgences as possible. Indulgence were at one time sold by the church to parishioners as a very successful fund raiser. This selling of indulgences was seen as an obscenity and a main component for the Protestant Reformation.
It was at that time that priests rejected the many false teachings of the Catholic Church. These protesting priests started new churches based on the actual doctrines of Scripture and a rejection of the unscriptural teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church. Because the priests were now free to interpret Scripture, these new Christian churches had slightly differing doctrines. This in turn created the various dominations we know today. Because the priests protested against the Catholic Church, these new churches were grouped under the word “Protest-ants”.
Of course the idea of indulgences is counter to Scripture which is clear that Jesus died for all the sin of all mankind for all time. It further ignores God’s vow, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17) Also, Jesus was clear that a person must make the decision to have faith in God in life. A person’s eternal fate is sealed at death. So the Catholic doctrine of indulgence to help the dead is totally unscriptural.
Saints
The Catholics believe that a godly Christian person who performs three documented miracles in life should be recognized as a Saint at death by the Pope. However, there is no understanding in Scripture that a person becomes as Saint when they die. In scripture, Saints are always living people who believe that Jesus is Lord. All who believe in Christ are Saints. This designation has nothing to do with documented miracles or the Pope. Only God can designate a person as a Saint. Paul makes this clear when he refers to all the people of the Christian Church as Saints (Ephesians 3:18-21; Philippines 1:1; Romans 1:7, 16:15; I Corinthians 1:2; II Corinthians 1:1).
Moral of the story, if you want a Saint to pray for you, simply find a Christian!
Trying to Contact the Dead
Anytime a person prays to a person or any created object, it is an exercise in futility and is a form of spiritualism. Scripture is clear that the dead cannot be contacted by the living, and the Bible severely condemns any attempt to commune with the dead (Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Isaiah 8:19-20). Any response from an attempt to contact the dead is either a prank or demonic in nature. The dead cannot be baptized or prayed out of Hell. A person’s spiritual fate and destination are sealed at death (Hebrews 9:27). The living have a past, present and future. The dying have the past and present. The dead only have the past and can only rely on their relationship with Christ for salvation and eternal life.
Miracles of Shrines
Nothing in the Word of God even hints that such a thing is possible. God has never performed a miracle using or through inanimate objects. To worship a created entity, physical being or idol is a grievous sin in the eyes of God. Scripture does mention that Paul once gave believers handkerchiefs that produced several healing miracles (Acts 19:12). But this was an isolate case and did not involve the venerating of an idol or image. People can and do become emotional at shrines and experience mind over matter cures. And a person of faith could pray at a shrine not to a shrine, and receive a miracle. But, they could just as easily do this in the privacy of their home or at church with the laying on of hands.
Worship of Mary and Saints
In the early 4th century, the official religion of Rome was Christianity. But the majority of Europeans still worshipped pagan deities, performed sacred mystical customs and observed pagan feast holidays. In fact the name Europe is derived from the pagan goddess Europa. So, in order to entice the pagan populations to consider Christianity, it was decided to incorporate similar pagan rites demanded by the general population into Christian doctrine. Thus the stage was set to start the slow merging of revised pagan beliefs and traditions into a revised Christian religion.
Because the population was accustomed to worshiping various gods with various powers, the Catholic Church decided to cater to these customs by introducing a wide roster of Christian Saints. While the Saints were considered to be lesser deities, never the less, they could help expedite the urgency of a worshiper’s prayers and get the attention of the one true Creator God. But Scripture tells us, “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and mankind, the Man is Christ Jesus.” (I Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 7:22-27) Still, the early Church believed the means justified the ends. Body parts of Saints now believed to have miracle working powers, were revered and installed in alters. Places associated with Saints were declared sacred and pilgrimages were instituted. Today, many churches in Europe and Canada have alters with glass inlays displaying the fingers and other body parts of some Saints.
The worship of Mary was established three years after Damascus became head of the Babylonian Cult in 381 A.D. Because the Babylonian Cult worshipped the Queen of Heaven along with her son, the Church knew it had a very convenient fit. Thus, the Church elevated Mary to divine status and crowned her as the true Queen of Heaven to be worshipped along with her Son. Pagan worshippers hardly noticed the difference and the Churches ranks of worshippers grew exponentially.
Reverence For Images
Worship and prayers to images was decreed by the Second Council of Nice in 787 A.D. In the 9th century, certain emperors attempted to abolish this pagan practice officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church. But by then, the practice was so entrenched with the public that it had become fundamental to worship. In 869 A.D. the Asynod or Council of Constantinople convened to decide the fate of the worship of created beings. The Muslim religion, established in 610 A.D., was growing very popular in the Middle East and its doctrine strictly forbid this type of pagan practice. Ultimately, the council decided to capitulated to public demand and image worship, a ancient heathen practice forbidden even by Muhammad, was allowed to continue in the Catholic Church. This is why today, Muslims are taught that Christians are blasphemers as they pray to three Gods. God the Creator, Jesus a prophet and Mary his mother. Please see related, "The Muslim Religion @ a Glance".
Saints and Martyrs
The Roman Catholic Church claims all Saints as their own since they are the first and only true Christian Church. Therefore, Protestantism has no Saints, no miracles and no martyrs. The truth is, for the first three hundred years after the ascension of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church did not exist. All the miracle and martyrs of the early church belong to the Christian Church. There is no possibility that the Saints and martyrs over the first three hundred years accepted and practiced the beliefs and traditions of the Catholic Church as it exists today. The Catholics claim that the great standard bearers and witnesses of the early church such as St Clement, St Ignatius, St Theophilus, St Polycarp, St Iranaeus, and St Gregory among others, were Roman Catholic in faith. They were not.
These men of God had no resemblance to, nor connection with, Roman Catholicism. Their beliefs were solely based on the writings of the New Testament. They fashioned no images of Saints nor did they kneel before an idol while offering prayers. There is not even a hint in early church writings that anyone prayed to the virgin Mary, or sought her intervention, or recited prayers to her. There was no priesthood and no confession to a priest. There was no Mass offered to the dead. There were no indulgences bought and sold, and there was no understanding of a Pope nor bishops that were infallible. No, all early church fathers were evangelical and had no association with what is today known as the Catholic Church.
The Creation of Protestantism
In the second century, a loose confederation of Christian churches began to organize with a common core of beliefs much like the Apostles’ Creed. They called themselves the Catholic Church, the word "catholic" meaning universal. But even at this time, there were many other churches who differed from the core beliefs of the Catholic Church. Still, only a statement of faith in Christ was the test for membership. But soon individuals were required to document their Christianity by accepting a specific church doctrine, not by simply their submission to Christ.
Then in 313 A.D., Constantine required the Christian churches to standardize their creeds and create a single unified organization that would serve as the official church of the Holy Roman Empire. This was known as the Edict of Milan. This church organization developed an administrative staff that for the first time had rankings such as Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons who were elevated far above church members. Eventually the office of Bishop was magnified to the point they had the authority to establish doctrine. Then a sacrificial connotation became attached to the Lord’s Supper and the clergy started to officiate this ritual and be referred to as priests. Clergy was encouraged to practice celibacy and focus on solely on their church duties. As several churches were built in a town, it was deemed best for one Bishop to oversee them all for doctrine continuity. Bishops in major cities were perceived as of higher status than Bishops of villages. In the 5th century, Augustine proposed a doctrine which taught that the first Bishops of the church were appointed by the Apostles who had received the gifts of the Holy Spirit from Christ for the care of the Church. The Apostles, in turn, passed this right and power on to their successors. The first Bishops were initially appointed to protect the original faith plus nothing doctrine of Christ (Genesis 15:6). Now they had the authority to define Christian practices which would insure salvation for parishioners. And so came the understanding that only the Catholic Church was the possessor of an apostolic succession tradition that served as the foundational mechanism for delivering authentic salvation to parishioners. Augustine was not the first to teach this, but he worked diligently for its acceptance by the Church.
In the third century, St Hippolytus along with other lay Christians, began to protest Catholic Scriptural interpretations, teachings and traditions that they felt had been wrongly incorporated into doctrine. Martin Luther was not the first protestor that the Church referred to as a protestant.
Contraception
Officially, the Catholic Church is against any form of contraception. Anything a person, male or female might do to prevent conception is against Catholic doctrine. This includes the rhythm method, prophylactics and the day after pill. A Guttmacher 2022 poll revealed that ninety eight percent of Catholic women practice birth control.
Purgatory
The Catholic Church teaches that all people exist in one of three categories. Those on Earth, those in Heaven and those in Purgatory. Those on Earth are in a struggle to achieve salvation and are known as the Church Militant. The Saints in Heaven are through with suffering and are known as the Church Triumphant. And those in Purgatory are passively suffering to satisfy the demands of Divine justice for temporal sins. However, this suffering is only seen as a way to become perfectly purified from the effects of sin. These people are known as the Church Suffering.
And what does the Word of God say about Purgatory? Nothing! A person who believes that Jesus died for their sins is immediately a Child of God. At death, their intelligent spirit is immediately with Christ (II Corinthians 5:8). There is no excuse for this bizarre understanding of a believer paying off a sin debt by passively suffering when this idea does not exist in Scripture. In fact, the term or place Purgatory does not exist in Scripture. Jesus tells us that there is a place down in the earth known as Sheol in Hebrew, Hades in Greek and Hell in English. But it is a place where the departed spirits of the unrepentant dead go to await the Great White Throne Judgement.
Summery
So, is the Catholic Church the true church in the world today? The idea that Christ established the Roman Catholic Church as it exists today is a total fabrication. The salvation and eternal life of a person is not dependent on the external acceptance of a particular denomination or church. It is only dependent on an internal belief that forever alters the conscience of a person. The first century Apostles said it best, “…then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
The Catholic Church today is a mix of evangelical doctrines as preached by Christ and His Apostles combined with pagan sacrificial rituals. Error entered its doctrine riding on the back of truth. The corruption took place little by little over almost two thousand years. But the major impetus was the desire to absorb, by imperial decree, the entire pagan population of the Roman Empire. These pagans insisted on the pomp and pageantry they experienced and enjoyed in their various temples with all their mystery rites, ceremonies, rituals and customs. These were slowly cut and pasted into Catholic doctrine. While they were not Scripturally supported, they were carefully reworked to fit Christian practices. Gradually, other doctrines were altered and twisted to be favorable to the financial interest of the church. These traditions all started around 325 A.D. with prayers for the dead, burning of candles and the use of various religious hand signs. All of these traditions had their roots in ancient pagan practices. The use of wax candles, incense and memorized chanting to add ambiance to services started about 330 A.D. By 1931 when Mary was reconfirmed as the Mother of God, no less than twenty major false, Scripturally unsupported doctrines, had been introduce into Catholic traditions.
Any Catholic priests will insist that these rituals and doctrines are either Bible based, or came from authentic ancient texts written hundreds of years after Christ. Or, they were created from the great minds of early Christian scholars inspired by God on certain subjects. And that today, modern Catholic scholars continue to defend these practices. Further, while these ancient texts are not included in Scripture, they are nonetheless still trustworthy stories carefully passed down through the generations. They will insist this must be true because the Church’s doctrine is infallible, and the revealer of Divine revelation in the name of the Bible. Also, the Church has the authority from God to declare apocrypha texts not in Scripture as articles of faith by way of her creeds (i.e., The Apostles, the Nicene and the Athanasian) and also through her councils such as the Council of Constantinople, and the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 A.D. Further, the priests teach parishioners that the Word of God can only be rightly interpreted by the Bishop or the priesthood. This is because a lay Catholic does not have the training and knowledge to correctly understand scripture by simply reading it.
Still, some Catholics do realize that some of the Church’s doctrines and traditions are not founded on Scripture and are outdated. So today, the majority of Catholics pick and choose to follow those practices that they agree with and ignore the rest. Yet all Catholics have great peace of mind following what they suspect are possibly false traditions. This is because they have been taught that, if there is something wrong with a Catholic doctrine, it is not their fault. Instead, God will hold the Church and its priests responsible not parishioners. This pledge by the church to be held responsible for any false teachings reminds one of a disturbing quote from the Book of Revelation concerning End Time events.
Many Bible scholars believe that it is the present day or future Catholic Church that the Apostle John is writing about in the Book of Revelation. It describes an enormous but aberrant world system with her headquarters located on seven mountains (Rome). This organization has vast control over her people and riches gained through her alliances with the political powers of the earth. Further, this institution has shed the blood of countless Christians by way of her persecutions. The Apostle John then writes, “….come out of her, my people, that you will not be partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.”(Revelation 17:9; Revelation 18:4) We do not know for certain that John is speaking of the Catholic Church. Only time will tell.
The Catholic Church teaches that she is the one and only true Church of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. She teaches that no one can be truly saved without some association with her. While the Second Vatican Council admitted there was a possibility that a non-Catholic might be saved, they did not specify in what way this unlikely event might be brought about.
Finally, the Catholic Church’s plan for salvation is in line with all the other world religions. You can only expect eternal life through their church, following their rules and their traditions, and through works of the flesh. The road to salvation in the Catholic Church is paved with faith in Christ, faith in the Pope, faith in the Virgin Mary, faith in ones priest, faith in church traditions, and faith in the power of the works of the flesh. And like all the other world religions, at death you will still be judged to see if your good works outweigh your bad. And, like all other world religions, in all probability you will end up in Hell, or at the very least spend some time there.
While the Catholic Church does believe that a person must have faith in Christ, this faith is no more or less important than faith in the authority of Popes, priests, the Virgin Mary, traditions and works. It is an unwavering faith in these five authorities that all true knowledge of Christ flows and makes salvation possible.
As opposed to the protestant church that simply teaches: Faith in Christ plus nothing else brings salvation and eternal life. There, that was easy?
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