RCC: King of the Cults

By NiteOwlDave
niteowldave@gmail.com

Call this outrageous if you like, but I struggle to understand

why the Roman Catholic Church can be considered a
Christian institution, despite its statements, symbols and
size.
That must sound massively bizarre. After all, Roman Catholicism
fixes largely on the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, resurrection, and mostly on
His atonement.
I am aware that the RC church has a 1,700-year history and boldly
claims to be the only true church of Jesus Christ. It claims to have been
founded by the Lord Himself who, according to the RCC, crowned the
Apostle Peter as His go-to first pope.
Having said that, let me stir the fire by suggesting that the Church of
Rome is a false cult of massive proportions. It ranks down there with the
Jehovah's Witnesses and The Church of the Latter Day Saints (the
Mormons).
Like the JW's and the Mormons, the RC church solidly fits the true
definition of a cult.
The commonly held definition of a cult is simply a belief system.
But more correctly, a cult is a group led by a dictatorial leader who
demands unquestioning adherence to his doctrines which are generally
taken from or based upon the Scripture, but out of context or twisted to
fit a styled teaching. A cult also allows for "new revelations of truth."
This is so true of the Roman Catholic Church. The RC Church is
headed by the Pope who, at times, claims to speak for almighty God.
Papal edicts must be obeyed, without question, for its followers to crack
Heaven's gate when they die.
 RC Church leaders say that after Jesus returned to Heaven, the
Apostles taught early church doctrines through inspiration of the Holy
Spirit.
This is true. They say their added doctrines are God-inspired too.
No. Many of the central gospel planks taught in the Bible have been
horribly changed by the Church of Rome under what it bills as holy
traditions.
Here's what the RCC proclaims about its position on traditions:
"And (Holy) Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which
has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy
Spirit."
The RCC, therefore, declares that both Scripture and tradition must
be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and
reverence. Huge error there.
The problem with this theology is that many of the teachings and
traditions of the Roman Catholic Church are blatantly in opposition to
what the Bible proclaims.
In the event of a suggested contradiction between tradition and
Scripture, which wins? The church's traditions do every time. As one
wise old Bible teacher used to put it, "This is playing with fire!"
The Bible insists that a doctrine, to be valid, MUST conform to the
Word of God, and it alone. Isaiah 8:20 in the Old Testament says, "To
the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it
is because there is no light in them."
This is sadly ironic because the 27 books of the New Testament
were approved by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Hippo
in North Africa in 393 AD after much work in previous councils.
Nowhere in the Bible does it suggest God will ship us more inspired
writings or teachings.
It goes without saying that God road shotgun over which books
would be considered Canon-worthy and which writings would be
rejected at Hippo. God is not about confusion. He would not give us a
faulty manual.
What does the Bible say about bowing to traditions?
Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through
hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the
basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." In other words, if a
belief is not supported by the Bible, it must be shunned.
 Jesus was no fan of churchy traditions. While on earth, He always
dismissed the fake Temple priests and quoted the Old Testament as His
source of truth.
Here are some other Bible verses that address traditions.
Matthew 15:1-3 states, "Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law
came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 'Why do your disciples break the
tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!'
"Jesus replied, 'And why do you break the command of God for the
sake of your tradition'?"
Matthew 15:6 says, "…Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake
of your tradition."
Mark 7:8 says, "You have let go of the commands of God and are
holding on to the traditions of men."
Let's examine a few Roman Catholic beliefs and practices based on
tradition and which fly directly in the face of what Holy Scripture teaches.
These teaching are heresies to the max degree.
______________________

1. The Bible portrays the blessed mother Mary as the earthly mother
of The Lord only, not the "Queen of Heaven" as the Roman Catholic Church
proclaims.
Mary was not sinless, as Rome insists. She confesses that she was a
sinner - who would need the same salvation cleansing that we all do by
the atoning blood of Jesus - when she referred to Jesus, in Luke 1:47, as
"God my Savior." A sin-less person would not need a savior.
The Bible does not teach Christians to devote themselves to Mary as
the Popes demand, especially these days.
Nowhere does it suggest we seek her as our advocate or go-between
before God. To the contrary, the Bible points out in 1Timothy 2:5 that
"There is one God, and one mediator (go between) also between God
and men, Christ Jesus."
(More on Mary: http://home.cogeco.ca/~wwjs/dts45.html)
2. Paying to have a priest pray for the soul of someone who is dead
is traditional bunk but is a grand cash cow for the Vatican. Reformer
Martin Luther thundered loudly against this practice that is still carried
on today. Cha ching!
11 Corinthians 5:8, which applies to the born again Christian only,
mentions no sin-cleansing Purgatory: "To be absent from the body is to
be present with the Lord."
 3. The Latin language was imposed as the language of prayer and
worship in churches by Pope Gregory I, 600 years after Christ. In
Corinthians 14:9, God forbids praying and teaching in an unknown
tongue. "Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will
anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the
air."
4. The worship of the cross, images and relics is given the green
light by the Roman Catholic Church. It is severely condemned and
called idolatry in the Bible. Exodus 20:4 says, "You shall not make for
yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the waters below.
5. Canonization of dead saints was first declared by Pope John XV
in 995 AD. The Bible says every believer and follower of Jesus Christ is
a saint. Rom. 1:7 says, "To all in Rome who are loved by God and
called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 9: 32 says. "As Peter traveled about
the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda."
6. The Roman Catholic Mass was developed gradually as a sacred
sacrifice. Attendance was made obligatory in the 11th century. The
Bible teaches that the sacrifice of Christ was offered once and for all,
and His death is not to be repeated, but only commemorated in the
Lord's Supper.
Hebrews 9: 26-28 says, "Unlike the other high priests, he does not
need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for
the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he
offered himself.
"Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the
creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end
of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he
will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to
those who are waiting for him."
7. Is infant baptism, a RCC ceremony where God through a priest is
said to wipe away a child's inherited sin, biblical? No. It's a tradition It
is not supported by the Bible. Interestingly, Jesus was baptized at age 30
and He had no sin.
Mark 1:9 says, "And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came
from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan."
 8. Do regular church attendance, confession of one's sins to a priest,
and participation in a Mass, put us on the right road to Heaven? No.
The Bible teaches that the church is not something we go to. Rather,
the church is the people of God, the worldwide collective of the Body of
Christ.
The Bible teaches that we are to call no man on earth "Father", and
that the bread and wine services are in "memory of" rather than the RCC
Mass practice of literally re-sacrificing Jesus and eating His literal flesh
and drinking His literal blood. Jesus said in Luke 22:19,"This is My
body which is given to you; do this in memory of Me.
9. Is praying the rosary mentioned in the Bible or was it made up by
the RC Church? It's made up. As pointed out above, the Bible does not
say that Mary whispers messages into the ears of Jesus.
Rosary prayers don't make it to the ceiling. Jesus teaches us that
repeating prayers, like the rosary, over and over again is of no value.
Matthew 6:7 says, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as
the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much
speaking."
10. The Roman Church teaches that the condition of our soul at the
moment of death affects our eternal destiny. This teaching is blind
tradition. Jesus said that those who belong to Him would never be
condemned to Hell.
John 10:28 states, "I give eternal life to them, and they shall never
perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand."
11. The celibacy of the priesthood was decreed by Pope Hildebrand,
Boniface VII in 1079. Jesus imposed no such rule, nor did any of the
apostles. On the contrary, St. Peter was a married man, and St. Paul says
that bishops were to have wife and children.
Matthew 8: 14-15 says, "When Jesus came into Peter's house, he
saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand
and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him."
12. The Inquisition of "heretics" and the slaughter of many was
instituted by the Council of Verona in 1184. Jesus never taught the use of
force to spread or to protect His gospel.
Matthew 10:14-15 say, "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor
hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the
dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for
the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that
city."
 The following is from two historical accounts of unholy aggression.
"In the middle of the fifth century, Pope Leo the Great
commended the Emperor for torturing and executing heretics
on behalf of the Church…Anyone in Villaro who declined to go
to a Roman Catholic mass was liable to be crucified upside
down, but there was some variation in the manner of killing in
other towns.
"Some were maimed and left to die of starvation, some
had strips of flesh cut off their bodies until they bled to death,
some were stoned, some impaled alive upon stakes or hooks.
Some were dragged along the ground until there flesh was
scraped away.
"One at least was literally minced. Daniel Rambaut had
his toes and fingers cut off in sections: one joint being
amputated each day in an attempt to make him recant and
accept the Roman faith."
13. Confession of sin to a priest at least once a year was instituted by
Pope Innocent III., in the Lateran Council in 1215. The Bible does not say
anything about our need to pray to or through a priest or pastor. We are to
confess our sins directly to God.
1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
14. The Scapular was invented by Simon Stock, an English monk. It is
a piece of brown cloth, with the picture of Mary and it is supposed to contain
supernatural virtue to protect from all dangers to those who wear it on naked
skin. Ya, that flies! This is fetishism.
15. In 1229, reading the Bible was forbidden to laymen and placed
in the Index of forbidden books by the Council of Valencia. Jesus and
His disciples said the Scriptures should be read by all.
11 Timothy 2:15 says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth."
16. The Council of Trent, held in the mid 1500s, declared that
tradition is of equal authority with the Bible. Tradition is human
teachings. The Pharisees believed the same way, and Jesus bitterly
condemned them, for by teaching human tradition, they nullified the
commandments of God.
Mark 7:7-9 says, "They worship me in vain; their teachings are but
rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are
 holding on to the traditions of men. And he said to them: 'You have a
fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your
own traditions'!"
Col. 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through
hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition
and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

Personal Observations:
The majority of murals displayed by the Roman Catholic Church
depict the blessed Mother Mary as the head, mothering the helpless
baby Jesus or grieving over the dead Jesus. Very rarely does one see a
rendering of Mary with the grown man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
backwards.
Protestants, by and large, hold that the Bible is the stated one-and-
only Word of God. Most reject man-made traditions. Sadly, many
Protestant pastors do not - as the Bible demands - preach a clear
salvation message of the atoning blood of Jesus alone. Too many sadly
serve up thin soup focused on social betterment.
All this church stuff aside, what does the Bible say we each must do
to qualify for Heaven?
I think that the majority will agree that there can be only one truth.
God did not create chaos nor many ways to Heaven.
Jesus states flatly in John 14: 6: "Jesus saith until him, I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
It's Jesus way or the highway. Salvation is through Him alone. It is
not by church affiliation or good works, although church membership and
good deeds are noble.
The words Protestant nor Roman Catholic (or any other churchy
handle) are not mentioned in the Bible. Jesus emphasized, "I am the Way."
Jesus taught that to get into Heaven one must be "saved", "born again",
"receive", "accept." They all mean the same thing.
Simply put, the Bible says we are ALL sinners facing an eternity in
Hell unless we asked to be saved.
How do we get saved? It's quite easy, actually. Jesus made it so
simple that even a kid can become a Christian.
In a private, honest, one-on-one prayer to God we must:

1. Confess to God that we have sinned;

2. Choose to believe that when Jesus died and rose again He paid for
ALL our sins in full.
 If we receive or accept Him and what He did, we WILL be saved. It's
a one-time thing, like taking out citizenship. We do not gain-lose-gain our
salvation. If we honestly believe, our salvation is sealed.
What do we pray? Well, something like this…

Dear God:
I am a sinner.
Others have sinned greater than I have. But, nevertheless, I
stand before you now as a lost sinner, deserving of Hell.
I choose to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who
became a man.
I choose to believe He allowed Himself to be put to death, arose
again on the third day, and is alive today.
The Bible says our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus
Christ, and I believe that.
Father I want to be cleansed of all my sins right now.
I know I am not right with God, and I want to be. I want to go
to Heaven when I die.
Right now at (date and time)______________, I bow at the foot
of the cross of Jesus Christ, and I am dumping all of my sins there. ALL of
them!
I ask that the blood of Jesus Christ wash away all my sins - past,
present and future.
I am sorry for my sin, and I accept your forgiveness.
Right now I declare that I am a Christian.
I ask, Father, that you will make me aware of when I want to
sin, and give me the courage to say No.
I ask, too, that you will help me understand the Bible, and to
make the rest of my days on earth count for eternity.
I pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ - my new Lord and
Savior - amen.

I believe the one thing that most people miss in their search for truth is
personally responding to the offer of free salvation through Jesus Christ.
Any gift must be received.
Let me suggest it is the above "Sinner's Prayer" which crystallizes
our pledge and understanding.
Got a question? E-mail me at niteowldave@gmail.com
My website http://www.niteowldave.com/

My blogsite http://niteowldave.blogspot.com/