THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
DR. D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES
Westminster Chapel, London.
A Sermon published in The Westminster
Record, May 1963
"Put on the whole armour of
God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Ephesians 6:11
There are certain things happening at the present time
which make it imperative that every intelligent Christian should know something
about Roman Catholicism. There are movements afoot, and meetings taking place,
which are trying to bring a kind of rapprochement between Roman Catholicism and
Protestantism. And there are people who are rejoicing in this and saying that
it is a wonderful thing that we are beginning to draw together again, and that
we can co-operate in certain respects, and that this is a wonderful
manifestation of the Christian spirit.
Now that kind of thing makes it imperative that we should
understand something about what is happening; and as you look into the future
the matter becomes urgent, for there are certain possibilities which must be envisaged.
I understand from the statistics that there are certain countries in the world
which, if the modern trends continue, will have a great majority of Roman
Catholics in them soon; so if we continue with the democratic principle of
deciding our form of government by counting heads, there will be a Roman
Catholic majority. It is not difficult to envisage certain possibilities that
may result from that. Indeed, that may even happen in this country, given a
certain number of years. So from all standpoints it is imperative that we
should look at this position and at this fact, this great fact which is
confronting us.
Whether we like it or not it is something that we have to
do. I personally have never done this before. I do not belong to any
"Protestant Society" as such. I have never spoken on such a platform.
My view has always been that the only final answer to Roman Catholicism is the
positive preaching of Christian Truth and the great Reformed doctrines. Nothing
else has ever been able to deal with this, nothing else will ever be
able to deal with it. Negative protests, it seems to me, are of very little
value. They have been going on now for a number of years, but the facts are
that this Roman Catholic body is increasing in every country practically, and
all the negative protestations seem to be of no value.
My contention is that the increase in Roman Catholicism
is due to one thing only, and that is a weak and flabby Protestantism that does
not know what it believes. That is why I spend my time in giving positive
teaching. But our text compels me to deal with this – the "wiles of the
devil," the activities of the principalities and powers, the world rulers
of this darkness, the spiritual wickedness in high places.
Very well, then what do we find? Let me make it
abundantly clear that I am not concerned about individuals. There are, of
course, individuals who are both Roman Catholics and Christians. You can be a
Christian and yet be a Roman Catholic. My whole object is to try to show that
such people are Christians in spite of the system to which they belong, and not
because of it. But let us be clear about that; it is possible to be an
individual Christian in the Roman Catholic Church.
I am not considering individuals, nor am I considering
the matter mainly from the political standpoint. I do not mean for a moment by
that that the political aspect is not important. I have just been giving
evidence to show that it can be tremendously important. We know the record of
the history of this institution, we know what happens politically, we know its
claim to be a political power, and therefore even from that aspect it is
important. But I am not concerned about that now. That is the business of
Christian laymen, it seems to me, and Christian statesmen. I am concerned
rather with the spiritual aspect, because that is the thing which the Apostle
puts before our minds.
ROMAN ORTHODOXY
What, then, are we looking at? We are looking at a
system; and I would not hesitate to assert that this system, known as Roman
Catholicism, is the devil's greatest masterpiece! It is such a departure from
the Christian faith, and the New Testament teaching, that I would not hesitate
with the Reformers of the 16th Century to describe it as
"apostasy."
Now let us be clear about this. We defined apostasy as a
kind of total departure from the Christian Truth. "Well," says
someone, "are you saying that about the Roman Catholic Church?" We
have to be most careful here. If we say that Roman Catholicism is apostasy we
must be clear as to the sense in which that is true.
Let me put it like this therefore, Here it is not so much
a matter of "denial" of the Truth, but rather such an addition to the
Truth that eventually it becomes a departure from it. Let me explain – and this
is where the whole subtlety comes in, where the wiles of the devil come in. In
one sense, and if you look at it casually, you might well think that the Roman
Catholic Church is the most orthodox in the world. If you are considering
something like the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ there is no question as to
the orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church believes
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Eternal Son of God; it believes in the Virgin
Birth; it believes in the Incarnation; it believes in His miracles; it believes
in His substitutionary work upon the Cross and His resurrection physically.
There is no question about that. It believes in His Ascension, in His heavenly
Session.
On the question of the Person of our Lord the Roman
Catholic Church is absolutely orthodox – alas, much more orthodox, one
sometimes thinks, than most Protestants. That is what makes this position so
appalling. In the same way, if you are concerned about the work of our Lord
there is no question about her orthodoxy. If you are concerned about the
principle of grace, as such, it is one of
their central tenets. If you are concerned about the divine inspiration and
authority of the Scriptures, they hold it and believe it is the Word of God. Again, alas, much more so than most Protestants.
So that if you merely look at her in that general manner
you might well come to the conclusion that this is the most orthodox body in
the world. But at this point the subtlety comes in and the difficulty arises. To all that she "adds," with a damnable
plus, things which are utterly unscriptural and which, indeed, become a denial
of the Scripture. So she lands us eventually in a position in which, if we accept her teaching, we are
believing a lie! In other words, her dogma is a counterfeit; she is, as the
Scripture puts it, "the whore."
THE SUBTLETY OF ROME
Now this matter is extremely subtle, but our theme is the
"subtlety," the "wiles" of the devil. If you really want to
know something about subtlety you have but to read the literature of the Roman
Catholic Church. She can appear to be everything and all things to all men. Her
system is so vast and her subtlety is so great that she almost seems to be
quite impregnable. You must have noticed that.
I take one instance at random. You must have noticed this
many times. You have heard it said that the Roman Catholic Church does not
countenance divorce, and that if any of her members are divorced they shall be excommunicated.
And then you suddenly read in the newspapers of the divorce of some Roman Catholic
nobleman or woman, and you ask, "Well, now, how can that happen?" Ah
well, they are well able to explain it. They say that there never really was a
true marriage! They can explain everything, there is no difficulty. Their system
of casuistry is such, and their developed argument is such, and they appear to
be facing in all directions at the same time.
THE MANY FACES OF ROME
Or, to put it in another way. How many faces has the Roman Catholic Church
in reality? I mean this. Look at her in this country, then look at her in Ireland, Southern
Ireland. Look at her in the United States of America, then look at her in one of
those Latin states in South America, and you find it very difficult to believe
it is the same institution. Look at her in countries like Spain and Italy and
other similar countries, and contrast her as she appears in Germany or
somewhere similar – so she is quite different. You would not imagine that it
was the same institution. But it is. She is able to change her colour and her
appearance and her form. She is, I say, all things to all men everywhere; she
is everything.
You remember that the Apostle has told us that it is one
of the characteristics of the devil himself that he can transform himself into
an angel of light. So can this Church. There is no limit, there is no end to
the various "guises" in which she can appear.
Here in this country she appears as highly intellectual
and encourages her people to read the Bible; in other countries she prohibits
their doing so, and is not only not
intellectual but encourages superstition quite deliberately. Here she seems to
be tolerant, ready to listen and to argue and to concede and to be friendly; in
other backward countries she is utterly intolerant, vicious and vile in her persecuting zeal – but still the
same body, the same institution, the same people. That is my evidence for
saying that she is surely the devil's masterpiece.
Here is a great body, an institution, that has from time
to time throughout the centuries – and still is doing this very thing –
manifested the wiles of the devil in all its subtlety, and deceitfulness,
"with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" as the Scripture puts
it.
All this is clearly prophesied in the Scriptures. You
will find it in the second chapter of Paul's Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians. It is not the only explanation of that passage; but it is one of
them. It may be that there you have this system "raised," as it were,
to the ninth power, but that is what the system has already been doing. You
have it depicted also in the second beast in the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation; and I
suggest that it is also in the 17th chapter of the Book of Revelation, in the
picture of "the great whore" sitting on those seven hills, as Rome
does and always has done.
All this has shown itself in history. It did so in this
way. Here is something that came in and at one time monopolized virtually the
whole of the Christian Church. It came in slowly, subtly and worked its way in
and eventually became almost universal in its control.
What has she done? It would take us months to deal with
this adequately. All I am concerned to try to do in this one sermon is to give
some of the main headings which show that my contention is true. So I divide it
into three main headings.
1. IDOLATRY AND SUPERSTITION
The first is to show the way in which she has been guilty
of introducing idolatry and superstition. Now there is nothing that is so
condemned in the Scripture as "idolatry." We are not to make
"graven images." But the Roman Catholic Church is full of images. She
teaches her people to worship images; they worship statues and forms and
representations. If you have been to any of their great cathedrals you will have seen people doing
so.
Go to St. Peter's in Rome and you will notice that there
is a sort of monument to the Apostle Peter, and if you look at one of the toes
you will find that it is smooth and worn away. Why? Because so many poor
victims of Roman Catholic teaching have been there kissing this toe! They bow
with reverence and they worship images, statues and relics. They claim to have relics of certain saints, a bit of bone, something he
used, and it is put in a special place and they worship it and bow down before
it. This is nothing but sheer idolatry. There is nothing that is so denounced
in the Scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament, as idolatry, but Roman
Catholicism deliberately encourages idolatry.
2. COMES BETWEEN THE SOUL AND CHRIST
The second great charge is that her whole system and
teaching come between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the most terrible
charge in many ways. For instance, the Church herself comes between us and the
Lord Jesus Christ. She claims that she is essential to salvation. Outside the
Church – "extra ecclesiam" – there is no salvation – "nulla
salus." She is absolutely essential. She puts herself between my soul and the Lord
Jesus Christ. She arrogates that position to herself. You do not find anything
like that in the New Testament; but you find it in Roman Catholicism. She alone
knows what Truth is, she claims. She describes it and she alone can define it
and interpret it.
Over against that, of course, Protestantism teaches the
"universal priesthood of all believers" and the right of every man to
read the Scripture for himself, and to interpret it under the illumination of
the Holy Spirit. Rome denies that completely and absolutely. She, and she alone, is able to understand and
to interpret the Scripture and to tell us what to believe.
2.1 ADDS TO SCRIPTURE
She says this partly because she claims that she has
received "continuing revelation." She does not believe, as
Protestants do, that revelation ended with what we have in the New Testament.
She claims a continuing and a continuous revelation. She therefore does not
hesitate to say that you must add to the Truth in the Scriptures. While saying
that the Bible is the Word of God, she claims that her tradition, which she
adds on, is equally authoritative and equally binding. And that is the way in
which she takes from the Bible, because she says things in what she adds on in
her tradition that deny Biblical teaching and take from it. That is where the
subtlety comes in.
In the end it comes to this, that she claims our
totalitarian allegiance. She claims to govern us in what we believe and in what
we do. She claims to be responsible for our soul and its salvation. We must
therefore submit utterly and absolutely to what the Church tells us and what
the Church teaches us. She has a totalitarian system. There is no question but
that she binds the souls of her people absolutely, as much so as Communism,
as much so did Hitler under his horrible system. It is a totalitarian system.
The Church is supreme and thus stands between us and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2.2 THE PAPACY
A second manifestation of this, and a logical outcome of
course, is the Pope, and all that they teach about him . He is said to be the
Vicar of Christ. He is said to be a direct spiritual descendant of the Apostle
Peter – Apostolic succession – who has all the authority of the Apostle Peter.
I must not allow myself to be side-tracked to query even the position they
attribute to Peter himself, but that is their claim, and that thus this person,
whom they call the Holy Father – though the Scripture tells us specifically
not to call any man "Father" on earth because there is only one
Father, the Father Who is in heaven – is the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ.
And they say that, speaking ex-cathedra in his council of cardinals, he is
"infallible." They defined that doctrine in 1870; they believed it
long before.
But now, as thus defined, his pronouncements are claimed
to be infallible, as infallible as the Word of God, as infallible as Christ
Himself, for he is the Vicar, and the Representative of Christ. And thus, you
see, the power of the Church is headed up in this one man who speaks, as 2
Thessalonians 2 says, "as God." He is worshipped by people; they bow
down before him, and they express to him a sense of adoration that should be
given to no one but the Almighty God Himself.
2.3 THE PRIESTHOOD
The third manifestation is to be found in the priests.
The priests in the Roman Church are a very special people. They do not believe
in the universal priesthood of all believers. The only people who are
"priests" are those whom the Church herself has trained, and who have
been ordained, and who receive something of this authority which comes
from the "Apostolic succession." But 1 Peter 2:9 tells us that we are
all priests: "Ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood." In other
words, "a kingdom of priests." No, says Rome, you are the laity, you
are not priests; these alone are priests.
Then they attribute to these priests certain unique
powers, such as that of working miracles. Here we come to a very central and
crucial matter. They claim that the priest is able to change the water that
they use in Baptism so that grace enters into it. They claim that the priest is
able to work a miracle in connection with the Bread and the Wine at the Lord's
Supper, that he is able to work this miracle of what they call
"transubstantiation." They say that the bread is no longer bread but
becomes the body of Christ; that the accidents of colour and so on remain but
that the substance has been changed into the body of Christ, and that that
miracle was worked by the priest who has the power to work such a miracle.
The Sacraments
That in turn brings in their whole doctrine concerning
the Sacraments. They have seven sacraments, but I am concerned particularly
about Baptism and the Lord's Supper, where they do not hesitate to teach that
in those sacraments a miracle is worked. Their theory is, that this miracle
having been worked by the priest in the water and the bread and the wine, these
are now charged with the grace of God in a special manner,
and so they work more or less automatically. Their phrase is that they work
"ex opera operato." In other words, it is no longer just water, it is
charged with the grace of God, and therefore when it is put upon that child a
miracle is worked in the child. Or when you take the Bread in the Communion
Service – and, incidentally, they do not let you take the Wine – you are really
taking the Body of Christ Himself.
Confession
This, you see, is all a manifestation of this subtlety of
the devil, of the wiles of the devil. All this is added, there is not a word
about all this in the New Testament. But before we leave the priest we have to
remember this, that he is also one to
whom we must go and confess our sins, because he has power to pronounce absolution
and to grant us forgiveness of sins. Nobody else can do it except this
priesthood, these people to whom they allocate these special powers.
So the people are taught to go and confess to them. There
is not a word of that in the Scripture. We confess our faults to God and to one
another in the Christian Church; but not to a "priest." So, there is
another manifestation. I am showing you the ways in which this system comes
between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I, as Christians, go to Him to confess;
they go to the priest.
2.4 THE CULT OF THE VIRGIN MARY
Let us go on to the fourth manifestation – and this is
one of the most alarming and extraordinary things of all. The cult of the
Virgin Mary in Roman Catholicism is increasing rapidly in an alarming manner.
What do they teach? Well, they say that she is the Queen of Heaven, and that
she is the one to whom we should go primarily. In many of their churches you
will find that she is placed in front of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is almost hidden
by her somewhere in the background. Why?
This is what they say, that she being human is much more
loving and tender than He is; that He is so great and powerful and
authoritative, that He is so stern – this is what they teach, this is the whole
explanation of the cult of the Virgin Mary – that He is such that we cannot go
to Him directly. Ah, but fortunately she is there, and she is loving; and after
all, she was His mother and she can influence Him.
So we should pray to the Virgin Mary and ask her to intercede
on our behalf. She is right there between us and the Son of God, the Saviour of
our souls. And increasingly they have been adding to her power. They began in
1854 to teach the "Immaculate Conception," which means not that the
Lord Jesus Christ was born free from sin, but that Mary was also. Then recently
they have announced the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, that she never died
like everybody else and was buried, but that she literally ascended up to heaven
as her Son did. And this, you see, so builds up the Virgin Mary, and makes her
so prominent that Christ Himself is hidden out of sight.
2.5 THE SAINTS
Lastly, you add to the Virgin Mary, the saints. Roman
Catholic people are taught to pray to the saints. How does this come to pass?
Well, their teaching is this. They believe in Perfectionism in this life, and
they say that some of these saints have lived a perfect life. The result of
this is that they have acquired and built up so much "merit" that
they have much more than they need for themselves; so they have a
superabundance of merit.
The result is that you and I, who may be failing and who
are so lacking in merit, can go and pray to the saints and ask them to give us
a certain amount of their superabundance. They call this the work of "supererogation,"
that the saints can intercede for us, and can even impart some of their
overplus of merit to us to make up the deficiency and the lack which is to be
found in us. So you have worshipping of the saints, prayers to the
saints, and a dependence upon the saints. You see, the merit of Jesus Christ is
not enough, you must have something extra; it needs to be supplemented.
I have simply picked out five of the main ways in which
this whole system and institution come between the believer and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Remember that it is done by people who attribute to Him full deity and
who are quite clear about the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth and all these things.
That is where "the wiles of the devil" come in. On the one hand they seem
to be saying everything that is right; but then they add all this which is so
wrong that you begin to wonder what is left of that which is right.
3. JUSTIFICATION
But let me go on to the third thing, which is the way in
which they not only rob Him of His position, but detract from the glory and the
perfection and the completeness of the great salvation that He offers us and
gives us. What do I mean? Take the first example of this, their teaching with
regard to the question of justification – justification by faith. As Luther
said, this is "the test of a standing or a falling Church" – the
whole glory of Protestantism, the thing that brought it into being. Look at
their teaching with regard to justification. We know what ours is – [or] do we?
I sometimes wonder whether we do, many of us Protestants. It is not surprising
that Roman Catholicism is increasing when Protestants do not know what
justification means. Roman Catholicism is bound to succeed while Protestants
think that merely to live a good life is enough. It is not surprising that
Roman Catholicism is sweeping through the countries and the nations.
Roman teaching is that good works, meritorious works are
possible in man, in sinful man; that man can contribute something to his own
justification. They believe that and teach that. We teach that "there is
none righteous, no, not one," that "all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags," or as the Apostle Paul puts it in writing to the
Philippians, [are] "dung" – refuse, worthless. No, no, they say,
there is value in it and it will count, it will help.
But still more serious is that ultimately they teach that
justification is the result of baptism. That is where it all links up. In
baptism, they teach, not only are your sins forgiven, but a righteousness is
infused into you at your baptism, you are made righteous by your baptism.
Though you were an unconscious infant it does not matter, you are given this
righteousness, your original sin is cancelled there and you are given this
positive righteousness.
Incidentally, it is not the righteousness of Christ,
according to them, it is a righteousness which is made by God for those who are
baptised. They are not "clothed with the righteousness of Christ" but
they are made righteous in the sight of God. And the result is that they
denounce as dangerous heresy the Protestant teaching of justification by faith
only.
You see how it works – everything in their teaching makes
you dependent upon the Church. Are you saying that you can repent and go to
Christ and believe in Him and be saved? No, you must have this operation worked
upon you by the priest through your baptism. All along it makes the priest and
the Church absolutely essential. You are helpless without them, you are bound to
them. There is no direct trafficking with Christ; you have always to go through
these intermediaries. The Bible says that there is only one Mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Not so in Rome – Mary, the Pope, the priests
and all the hierarchy and all the underlings, all these are necessary. So on this vital doctrine of justification
they teach a lie.
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Then you come to the question of the Christian life. Here
is another serious matter; the emphasis is not so much upon holy living as upon
our observation of ceremonies and rites. They teach their people not so much to
strive after holiness and to understand the New Testament teaching about sanctification;
they teach the people to attend Mass and go and confess to the priest. There is
none of this direct responsibility and exhorting them to practice it. No, the teaching is that you have to conform
to the rules of the Church.
You watch the ceremonies, you do what they tell you; you
fast at certain times and you do this and don't do that, and you attend your
priest and make your confession. You come to the Mass and then go and do what
you like almost. You are covered, you are put right again and on you go.
Instead of holy living in its simplicity as we have it in the Scriptures, you
have ceremonies and rites and observance.
DENIAL OF ASSURANCE
Another serious error is that it completely denies the
doctrine of "Assurance of Salvation." There is nothing more glorious
than the doctrine of Assurance of Salvation. There is a magnificent statement
of it in the eighth chapter of Romans, verse 16: "The Spirit beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Do you know
what that means? There is nothing more wonderful than that; but the Roman Church denies it
completely. There is no such thing as certainty in this life. Why?
This is her argument, and it is quite logical (that is
where the system is seen to be so devilish; no one less than the devil could
have worked it all out with this extraordinary ingenuity). It works like this.
In your baptism your original sin is cancelled and you are made righteous and
you are right with God. Ah yes, but what about post-baptismal sins, what about
the sins that are committed after baptism? Your baptism has got nothing to
do with that. What are you going to do about that? That is the problem.
Protestant teaching is that the blood of Jesus Christ
still cleanses us from all sin and unrighteousness; that what He did on the
Cross covers my past sins, my present sins, my future sins. The one act was
enough. No. no. says Rome, it is not enough. The problem of your post-baptismal
sins is a different one. What do I do about them? I must go and confess to the
priest; he alone can deal with them.
But even he cannot deal with them all, so I may come to
the end of my life, and here I am with these post-baptismal sins threatening me
with hell and damnation. The priest alone can do that for you, they say. So you
have the sacrament of penance, you make an unusual confession and you are given
an absolution.
Does that guarantee that I am right? No, not even that!
That takes you most of the way, but there will still be some sins that are not
forgiven. What do I do about them? Well, fortunately, there is a place, they
tell us, which is called Purgatory, and I am allowed to go there to get rid of
this remaining sin which is unforgiven, this post-baptismal sin that is
unforgiven.
What happens to me there? Well, my relatives who are
still left are praying for me and they are paying money as they do so. So you
have all the "indulgences" and all the "prayers for the
dead," and all your candles and the money paid. The more you pay the
sooner will this person be allowed to go on. You see nothing about that in the
Bible anywhere, do you? Of course you do not! That is part of the further
revelation they claim to have had, this is all addition.
The work of Christ is not enough [they say], it has got
to be supplemented in all these ways. Am I going too far therefore when I say
that this is apostasy?
DIRE CONSEQUENCES
What is the result of it all? Their people are kept in
ignorance and in a state of superstition. Not only that, it leads to a type of
life and living which we in this country have sometimes called "the
Continental Sunday," which means this, that if you go to Mass on Sunday
morning you can do anything you like – during the rest of the day. You can make
the day the same as every other day, with sports and pleasure. It leads to that, and it
is not surprising that it does so, because the individual does not count and is
not appealed to.
All he has to do is to obey what the Church tells him, to
hand himself over, and the Church will look after his soul. So it leads to all
that, and the terrible persecution of the true way that has ever been a
manifestation of this system. They have had the blood of martyrs, and are still
doing so wherever they can venture to do so.
I ask, as I close, have we been wasting our time? Need we
be concerned about all this? Ought we to be rejoicing that there is a new
approach to Roman Catholicism? Should we not all be rejoicing in the fact that
it is possible for us all to stand together as Christians as over and against Communism?
That is the question you have to face. For myself I do
not hesitate about the answer. This system is altogether more dangerous than is
Communism itself, because this is a counterfeit, this does it in the
"name" of Christ. This is the "scarlet woman," this is the
most horrible, foul deception of all, because it uses His name. The other is
open and obviously atheistical godlessness.
PROTESTANT REFORMERS
No, the Protestant Reformers were not just bigoted
zealots, they were not just fools. These men had their eyes opened by the Holy
Spirit. That is what happened to Luther, that is what happened to Calvin, that is what happened to Knox, that is what
happened to all of them. These men had their eyes opened, they saw it, they saw
this horrible monstrosity depicted in the Bible in the warnings against it, and
at the risk of losing their lives they stood up and they protested.
They said that that was not true. So they began to assert
justification by faith, the supreme, final, adequate authority of the
Scriptures, the universal priesthood of all believers and so on. They were
ready to die for those truths, and many did die for them!
Let me warn you very solemnly that if you rejoice in
these approaches to Rome you are denying the blood of the martyrs! Never go
near Smithfield if you believe that kind of thing. Those men were burnt at the
stake there in Smithfield, John Bradford and the rest, because of their
denunciation of Roman Catholicism. You are denying them, you are going back on
them, you are saying they were wrong, that they were mistaken. Realize what you
are doing, and do not be taken in by those specious arguments.
ROME NEVER CHANGES
The problem has become acute because of the wireless
[radio] and the television. You see these men appearing; how polite, how kind
they are, how nice they are, how accommodating. They often seem to be much
nicer than our people! Foolish, ignorant Protestants are saying things like
that, and are ready to swallow the bait!
"Ah, but," you say, "has not the Roman
Catholic Church changed? You are simply looking back, you are speaking as if
you lived in the 16th Century – don't you realise you are living in the 20th
Century?" My answer is quite simple. The proudest boast of the Roman
Catholic Church is this, that she never changes. "Semper eadem." How can she change?
If she changes she will be admitting that she was wrong
in the past – but she was saying then that she was infallible, and that the
Pope is the Vicar of Christ and that she cannot make a mistake. If she says
that she is capable of change she is denying her central claim!
She does not say that she is changing, and she never
will. The Church of Rome remains the same. If anything, she is even worse. She
has "added" things to what she taught in the 16th century, such as
Papal Infallibility, etc. No, there is no change in the Church of Rome. And if
ever there is one great world Church it will be because the Church of Rome has
absorbed all the rest and swallowed them in their ignorance!
There is no difficulty about this; this is a counterfeit,
a sham; this is prostitution of the worst and most diabolical kind. It is
indeed a form of the Antichrist, and it is to be rejected, it is to be
denounced; but above all it is to be countered.
And there is only one thing that can counter it, as I
said at the beginning, and that is a Biblical, doctrinal Christianity. A
Christianity that just preaches "Come to Christ" or "Come to
Jesus" cannot stand before Rome for a second. Probably what that will do
ultimately will be to add to the numbers belonging to Rome. People who hold
evangelistic campaigns and say, "Ah, you Roman Catholics, go back to your Church," are denying New
Testament teaching. We must warn them.
There is only one teaching, one power, that can stand against this horrible counterfeit;
it is what is called here "the whole armour of God." It is a Biblical,
doctrinal, theological presentation of the New Testament Truth. That was how it
was done in the 16th century. Luther was not just a superficial evangelist, he was a mighty theologian; so
was Calvin; so were all of them: It was that great system of Truth, worked out
in its details and presented to the people, that undermined and even shook the
Church of Rome. Nothing less than that is adequate to meet the present
situation.
Christian people, your responsibility is terrible. You
must know the truth, you must understand it, you must be able to counter false
teaching. There are innocent people who are being deluded by this kind of
falsity, and it is your business and mine to open their eyes and to instruct
them.
Not only that, it is as we stand foursquare for the Truth
of God that we shall be entitled to pray with fervour and with confidence for
the blessing of the Holy Ghost upon us. It is as we stand on the Scripture and
its Truth that the Spirit of God, I believe, will descend upon us in a mighty
revival. And nothing less than such a revival can shake that horrible
institution, that great "Whore" which calls herself "The Church of
Rome."
May God give us enlightenment and understanding of the
times in which we are living, and awaken us ere it be too late.
END
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