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Archive for the ‘Roman Catholicism’ Category

Must Christians Defend the Inquisition?

Posted in Politics, Roman Catholicism, tagged , , , on February 16, 2015| 12 Comments »

InquisitionIn last week’s post Must Christians Defend the Crusades?, I pointed out a common apologetical error of contemporary Evangelicals.  When the discussion turns to the obvious, gross sins committed by the Roman Catholic Church-State during the course of the Crusades and the Inquisition, rather than taking the opportunity to denounce these activities for what they are the evil fruit of the papal Antichrist, too often Christians implicitly or even explicitly defend them.  Take for example the following video of Southern Baptist minister Dr. Robert Jeffress on the O’Reilly factor from 2/6/15 program.  At about the 2:12 mark Jeffress begins his  comments on the Inquisition.

Jeffress’ words were, “The Inquisition lasted 450 years; there were 2,200 people who died.  That’s about 5 a year.  More people died on 911 in one day at the hands of Muslim terrorists than in all of the Inquisition.” In fairness to Jeffress, he is not attempting to argue that the Inquisition was a good thing.  But in his discussion with O’Reilly, Jeffress made at least two critical mistakes.  First, failed to draw any distinction between Roman Catholicism and Christianity, and thus left Evangelicals on the hook for the sins of Inquisition.  Second, he attempted to minimize the evil of the Inquisition, what was one of the most heinous crimes ever carried out by any organization in history.

And this was not some momentary slip by Jeffress.  In his 2/10/15 interview on Fox News with Gretchen Carlson, Jeffress was even more explicit in identifying Christianity with Romanism.  At about the 1:30 mark, he made the following comment, “Christians have done some terrible things in the past, but nothing compared to radical Islam.  For example, the President brings up the Inquisition [Jeffress is here referring to Obama’s comments at the National Prayer Breakfast, the same ones he discussed with Bill O’Reilly].  Did you know that in the 450 years of the Inquisition there were about 2,200 people killed.  That’s about five a year.”  By his claim that, “Christians have some terrible things,” once Jeffress identified the Inquisition with Christianity, thus putting himself and other Evangelicals in the awkward and unnecessary position of having to answer for the sins of Rome.

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Antichrist and the EPA: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Posted in Politics, Roman Catholicism, tagged , , on February 2, 2015| 2 Comments »

Gina McCarthy at the Vatican

Environmental Pretection Agency (EPA) administrator Gina McCarthy listens to reporters’ questions during a meeting with the media in the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See residence in Rome, Friday, Jan. 30, 2015. The Obama administration is seeking to hitch its climate change message onto that of the ever-popular Pope Francis, whose upcoming environmental encyclical has drawn more speculation than any papal document in recent memory. The head of the Environmental Pretection Agency met Friday with senior Vatican officials who helped draft the document, which is expected to be released in June or July. (Alessandra Tarantino, AP/AP)

For the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is not enough oppress Americans with the mere authority of the US federal government.  No, it had to go and up the ante by teaming up with the papal Antichrist.

According to an article from the Associated Press,

Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy met with Vatican officials working to draft Pope Francis’ climate change encyclical on Friday, applauding The Holy See for engaging Catholics on the issue.

The article continues,

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters that her aim in visiting was to show the Vatican how aligned President Barack Obama and Francis are on climate change.

The UN globalists have been pushing the bogus man-made climate change meme for twenty years.  Of course, during that time, they’ve changed their story.  First, it was global warming.  When that was exposed as a sham, they simply repackaged their hooey as climate change.  Now that the ultimate globalist has joined their crusade against cheap, plentiful energy, economic prosperity and freedom, politicians are quick to seek the blessing of Antichrist to provide cover for them to do what they wanted to do in the first place.

This and other trips to the Vatican by high US government officials raises the question, whatever happened to the separation of church and state?  Apparently, it depends on what church one is talking about.  God help the municipality caught with a copy of the ten Commandments on public property.  As one of the plagues of Egypt, the ACLU will be quick to descend upon them with its team of high-powered lawyers all for the purpose of ensuring that never again will the good citizens of said community have their consciences pricked by exposure to the law of God.   On the other hand, making a pilgrimage to the Vatican to kiss the pope’s ring raises nary an eyebrow.

Of course, pilgrimages to the Vatican are not the only way the Obama administration cooperates with the Roman Catholic Church-State.  According to an article in the Hill, when in Rome,

McCarthy met with [Vatican] officials to discuss working with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and nongovernmental organizations to put a spotlight on the need for action on climate change, according to a readout of the meeting from EPA.

Not that it is any surprise given the Roman Catholic Church-State’s long-running hatred of, and war against, capitalism, but the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been pressing the EPA to get on board with legislation to limit carbon emissions.  For example, in his 2014 letter to Gina McCarthy, the Most Reverend Thomas G. Wenski of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development wrote,

As bishops and people of faith, we do not speak as experts on carbon pollution or on the technical remedies to address climate change.  We are pastors in a faith tradition that teaches, as Pope Francis recently stated, “Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.

The best evidence indicates that power plants are the largest stationary source or carbon emissions in the United States, and a major contributor to climate change.  Power plants have often been located near low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.  Air pollution from these plants contributes to respiratory problems, especially in the young and the elderly.

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Vatican Hot Air

Posted in Roman Catholicism, tagged , on January 19, 2015| 2 Comments »

Time_Ice Age_1977This may sound strange to the ears of those under 40, but once there was a time, and not that terribly long ago either, when the big fear talked up in the media was the threat posed by a new Ice Age.  Seriously.  It was going to be all blizzards in June, icicles in August, and the end of the world as we know it.  The fear of a new Ice Age may strike many today as laughable.  But as the 1977 Time cover shows, this was a widespread concern in the late 70s.

But somewhere in the 80s, the narrative changed.  It was not advancing, but rather retreating glaciers that came to be seen as the premier threat to life on planet earth.  Global warming had come of age, and the globalists were quick to promote it.  From the mid-eighties until 2009, it was all global warming all the time.  But that all changed with Climategate.  As a result of the release of emails belonging to researchers at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, people came to understand that climatologists had been pulling the wool over their eyes all along.  The term global warming was quickly dropped down the memory hole.

At that point, one might have supposed that the globalists would give up on using the environment as a platform to promote their socialism.  But such was not the case.  Physics has something called the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed:  it can only be transformed from one state to another.  Apparently politics has a parallel idea.   For instead of slinking off the world stage with permanent shame of face, the globalists simply changed their marketing strategy.  The global warming brand name had been sullied beyond repair.  New packaging was needed.  And it didn’t take long for the world’s clever propaganda meisters to come up with something new.  Thus was the world graced with the  new globalist meme, climate change.

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Mary: Ever Virgin?

Posted in Roman Catholicism, tagged on December 22, 2014| 2 Comments »

Teachings about Mary, the so-called Marian doctrines, are prominent dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church-State. Even those not from a Roman Catholic background are aware of this. But even though Evangelicals have a general sense of the importance of Mary in Romanist teaching, most are uncertain about the specifics. As a result, they become easy prey for ecumenists, both of Protestant and Roman Catholic variety, who never cease from their common goal of overthrowing the Reformation.

One such recent example is Rick Warren, who recently has gone on record as saying, “We [Roman Catholics and Protestants] have more in common than what divides us.” If by this statement Warren is referring to Protestant ecumenists such as himself, then his statement undoubtedly is true. As John Robbins once commented, about the only thing today’s Protestants protest is Biblical Christianity. But if by his statement Warren intends to suggest that the historic Protestant faith has a broad base of agreement with Rome, he is merely putting on display his ignorance of both the teachings of Scripture and of the Roman Catholic Church-State.

In light of the efforts of Warren and others of his ilk, it is worth taking a more detailed look at the afore mentioned Marian doctrines. According to Rome, there are four Marian dogmas – 1) Divine Motherhood (Mary is the Mother of God), 2) Perpetual Virginity (Mary remained a virgin her whole life, even after the birth of Christ), 3) Immaculate Conception (Mary was born without original sin), and 4) The Assumption (Mary did not die, but was bodily taken into heaven) – all which are false. The focus of this short essay is on the second of these dogmas, Mary’s perpetual virginity.

For Protestants unfamiliar with Rome’s Marian doctrines, it may seem incredible that anyone could seriously argue that Mary spent her whole life as a virgin. After all, does not Scripture plainly tell us that Jesus had brothers and sisters (Mark 6:1-3, Matt. 13:55)? In Matthew 1:25 we read, “And [Joseph] knew her [Mary] not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus.” But for these and other arguments from Scripture, the Romanists have ready answers. Let’s look at them.

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Eating Flesh, Drinking Blood

Posted in Roman Catholicism, tagged on November 17, 2014| 4 Comments »

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” – John 6:54

Occasionally, I’ve had the opportunity to discuss this passage with other Evangelicals. During our conversation I have mentioned that Rome uses this passage as a proof text for its doctrine of Transubstantiation. Transubstantiation, Rome asserts, occurs when the priest consecrates the bread and wine during the Mass. At that time, the bread and wine are changed into the actual body and blood of Christ. Rome teachers that, when its adherents partake of communion, they are eating and drinking the actual body and blood of Christ. I’ve said these things supposing that Rome’s teaching on transubstantiation is at least somewhat understood by Evangelicals. As it turns out, I was wrong.

But not only was I surprised to find that, at least in some cases, Protestants did not realize just how radically the Romanist position on the Lord’s Supper differs from what the Bible teaches, I also found a fairly deep-seated unwillingness on the part of Evangelicals to believe what Rome, by its own admission, has taught for centuries.

For a non-Catholic, grappling with Roman Catholic doctrine can be more than a little frustrating. Part of this is Rome’s historic practice. The Church is fond of making thunderous dogmatic statements. But when asked to back them up, the questioner is often met with double-talk and obfuscation. For example, Rome has declared in no uncertain terms that the pope is infallible when speaking ex-cathedra. But ask Rome for its list of infallible papal statements, and you’ll get the runaround. But this is not so in the case of transubstantiation. Rome has made quite clear what she believes on this subject, and there really should be no question about it in the minds of Evangelicals. Consider the following statements from Rome,

If anyone shall deny, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are verily, really, and substantially contained the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but shall say that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be anathema.

– Council of Trent, Session 13, Cannon I.

If anyone shall say, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the wine into which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation; let him be anathema.

– Council of Trent, Session 13, Cannon II

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Tools of the Inquisition

Posted in Roman Catholicism, tagged on November 7, 2014| 1 Comment »

Futility. For many, the sight of poor Charlie Brown’s failure to kick the football is the very image of it. Ever trusting, he was always Lucy’s tool .

Ecumenical Evangelicals are a lot like Charlie Brown. They just never get it. The Vatican announces its latest ecumenical conference on this or that hot button issue and, zip, like moths to a flame, or Charlie Brown to Lucy’s siren song, the ecumenical tools come a running.

The latest Vatican con job is a confab called An International Interreligious Colloquium on The Complementarity of Man and Woman. And the ecumenical tools of the hour are Southern Baptists Russell Moore and Rick Warren. The conference, to be held in the Vatican Nov. 17-19, is described by its organizers thus,

The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Colloquium is a gathering of leaders and scholars from many religions across the globe, to examine and propose anew the beauty of the relationship between the man and the woman, in order to support and reinvigorate marriage and family life for the flourishing of human society.

Witnesses will draw from
 the wisdom of their religious tradition and cultural experience as they attest to the power and vitality of the complementary union of man and woman. It is hoped that the colloquium be a catalyst for creative language and projects, as well as for global solidarity, in the work
 of strengthening the nuptial relationship, both for the good of the spouses themselves and for the good of all who depend upon them.

The Colloquium is sponsored by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and
 the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. (emphasis added)

The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. It sounds innocent enough. But like so much the emanates from the Vatican, a little digging reveals things are not what they seem at first. As it turns out, The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is a new name for an old organization within the vast bureaucracy of the Roman Catholic State-Church. Prior to 1985, this same body was known as The Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. This was itself a new name for an organization that from 1904 until 1965 was called the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.

What, you may ask, was the name of this august body prior to 1904? From its founding by Pope Paul III in 1542 until 1904, it was known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. Yes, you read that right. Evangelicals are going to a conference, the host of which is none other than the Inquisition.

Ignoring the command of the voice from heaven in Revelation 18 which enjoined, “Come out of her [the Roman Catholic Church State], my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues,” Russell Moore believes he can too join in ecumenical alliance with Antichrist and not suffer loss. In this, he evidences a serious lack of discernment.

The decision by Moore and Warren to attend this Vatican conference represents an enormous betrayal of Christ and his Gospel. Not that this is anything new for high profile Evangelical leaders. But to allow themselves to be used as a tool of the Inquisition shows a truly remarkable lack of discernment on the part of these men. By comparison, Charlie Brown looks like a genius.


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From One Socialist to Another

Posted in Economics, Roman Catholicism, tagged on March 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

When President Obama met today with Pope Francis I, part of their agenda involved the giving of gifts. The president presented the pope with seeds of the sort used in the White House vegetable garden in a box made with wood reclaimed from the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The pope returned the favor by giving Obama two medallions and a copy of Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Francis’ heavily socialist Apostolic Exhortation released in November 2013.

Doubtless, the gift was warmly received.

For all the whining and posturing of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding the contraceptive provisions of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), they must be delighted with the socialist tone of the current administration, which jibes nicely with historic Roman Catholic Church-State social teaching.

The only question seems to be, which will run out first, the pack of vegetable seeds or the US Treasury from paying for Roman Catholic inspired, socialist health care?

Please click here for a link to a New York Times article on the meeting.

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An Invite to Antichrist

Posted in Politics, Roman Catholicism on March 17, 2014| 7 Comments »

During the 1960 presidential campaign John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism was a big deal to American voters. It was thought by many that a Roman Catholic president would have divided loyalties, that he would attempt to do what Jesus said could not be done: serve two masters. In this case, the Constitution and the pope. This was such an issue that Kennedy felt compelled to give a speech on this topic to a group of Protestant ministers in Houston, in which he stated his belief that the separation of church and state was absolute. Referring to this speech during the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Rick Santorum said he almost threw up when he first read the speech and that Kennedy had thrown, “his faith under the bus.”

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House to House and Field to Field

Posted in Economics, Roman Catholicism on January 21, 2014| 4 Comments »

Woe to those who join house to house; they add field to field, till there is no place where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!. – Isaiah 5:8

Isaiah’s thundering indictment of Judah rivets the reader’s attention right from the beginning of the book bearing his name. The accusations fall like hammer blows from the prophets pen. Everything has become twisted, everything perverted: Worship, “I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting” (v13); Civil Society, “righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers” (v21); Business, “Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water” (v22); Civil Government, “Your princes [are] rebellious and companions of thieves” (v23); and the Judiciary, “Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them” (v23).

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Misreading the Pope

Posted in Economics, Roman Catholicism on January 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle. ― George Orwell

Whether motivated by honest confusion, a sense of embarrassment, or a desire to misrepresent it is hard to say, but much of the public commentary on Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Exhortation, is considerably wide of the mark. By Francis’ own admission, the economic statements in EG line up with the historic economic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church-State, but many commentators today, especially if they happen to be economically conservative Catholics, seem shocked and dismayed by the document’s blatantly anti-capitalist language. “The pope didn’t really mean to attack capitalism, only is abuses,” or, “the pope isn’t talking about the United States,” they are wont to say. But the history of Rome is against them. In fact, given Rome’s long-standing hatred of free markets and free men, it is safe to say that the pope without a doubt intended to attack capitalism and most certainly had in mind the United States when he made his comments. It’s simply a case of Rome being Rome. Unfortunately most Americans, and perhaps most especially most American Evangelicals, are ignorant of both Biblical economics and Rome’s longstanding war against it. And being ignorant of Rome’s doctrines on this subject, they are easy targets for propaganda campaigns designed to mislead them about the principles, history and ultimate intentions of Roman Catholic social teaching.

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