The Catholic Church
Another Gospel
Why do you think it’s so important to stay true to the gospel of God, Christians?
The answer is so that we do not fall victim to false doctrine.
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:1, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”
He says in Galatians 1:6-9, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”
Paul damned anyone, to include any angel, who brought a gospel contrary to what was preached and what we have in our Bibles today.
And Peter, who the Catholics proclaim as the first Pope, says this in the book of 1 Peter 2:1-3, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
With this being said, the current Pope recently said in a recent video that “Every religion is a way to arrive at God…There’s only one God in each of us [but] there are different paths.”
What he said is as close to denying the Master, in his own words, as a person can get without openly blaspheming.
How is it that the Pope, of all people, would lie to the world by saying that there are many ways to God when the scriptures he says he believes say that there’s only one way? John 14:6, a well known quote from Jesus himself says, “…I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
This is partly because Catholicism elevates apostolic succession over the authority of the scriptures. This is why there was a reformation. The Protestants recognized the deviation of the Catholic Church from the writings of God’s word and were martyred for their faithfulness to God’s word by the Catholic Church.
Why does it matter now?
Well, the fact that Paul was teaching against false gospels and doctrines as early as 48 AD, and Peter in the early 60’s AD, is an indication that the corruption of man was being dealt with at the birth of Christianity and this is nothing new. Since the Catholic Church claims to be the original church, they view themselves as unable to fall, yet here, the Pope preaches a false gospel.
It may come to some as a surprise that the Catholic Church still holds to the Counsel of Trent which damns/ed any believers that said/say “that by faith alone the impious is justified (Canon 9),” “that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them (Canon 11),” “that a man, who is born again and justified, is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate (Canon 15)”, and “that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (Canon 30).”
What does the Bible say about each of these canons from the Counsel of Trent?
Canon 9: Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Canon 11: Romans 3:23-25, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Hebrews 9:24-26, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Ephesians 1:13-14, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
Canon 15: Ephesians 1:3-6, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
And Canon 30: Hebrews 10:10-14, the establishment of the New Covenant by Jesus the Messiah, “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
The trend of the Catholic Church against the gospel of God is not a good one or a new one, easily demonstrated from the earliest years of the establishment of that sect. The warnings of false gospels and doctrine have existed since the beginning of our faith, even from their earliest Pope. The Apostles urged the early churches to be good stewards of the faith and loyal overseers of churches. The truth of it all is that man is still fallen; man is still susceptible to sin and disobedience to God’s ways for momentary power, but the Word of God never changes. The importance of biblical literacy and godly discipline for the average Christian rings ever true.
Don’t lose sight of the gospel.
Final scripture to cap it all off.
Ephesians 4:11-16, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Be warned: The modern “evangelical” church is not in the clear from some of this with the emergence and establishment of what’s called the “New Apostolic Reformation” by churches like Gateway church, Church of the Highlands, and Bethel, which have their own mess of false doctrines to untangle.
I will address them at a different time.
Until then,
Be blessed and Be Encouraged.