SUMMARY:
The Roman Catholic Jesus is said to return physically to the earth every day but in a totally different way and in reference to sin. In the Eucharist, “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (CCC, 1374).
The priest “reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of saints and angels. The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows his head in humble obedience to the priest’s command”.
By MIKE GENDRON
PAUL the apostle wrote:
For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached ... you bear this beautifully —
2 Corinthians 11:4.
This verse impacted me recently when I engaged a Roman Catholic friend about his faith. He told me he was a Christian because he loves Jesus. When I asked him to tell me about the Jesus he loves, he said “The same Jesus you love!”
I realised we needed to make sure we were talking about the same Jesus.
So I brought up the name of a mutual friend whom we both admired. I began describing some of his attributes by saying he is short, bald and slender with a gorgeous girl friend.
My Catholic friend stopped me and said “Wait a minute, he’s tall and muscular with lots of hair and married; we’re obviously not talking about the same person”.
When I asked, “Does it really matter?” He gave me a bewildered look, and said, “Of course it does!” I said, “Then it also matters that we talk about the same Jesus”.
We must know who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, what He offers, what He commands, what He promises, and what He warns us about.
What follows is a description of Jesus, as He is revealed in scripture, contrasted with the Jesus whom Catholics have been taught to trust. The Lord Jesus, who is the truth can only be known in truth by those who seek the truth (2 Thess 2:13).
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The church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the only head. Yet Roman Catholics submit to another head — the Roman Pontiff. |
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Jesus is Head of the Church
He is the head over all rule and authority. For in him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily —
Colossians 2:9.
The Lord Jesus has sovereign authority over the church, over all physical and spiritual life, over death and creation, and over the eternal destiny of all people. He gives life to whom He wishes.
For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them; even so the Son quickens whom he will —
John 5:21.
The church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the only head.
Yet Roman Catholics submit to another head — the Roman Pontiff. As the so called Vicar of Christ, he is said to be the pastor of the entire church. According to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church (CCC), the pope “has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered” (CCC, paragraph 882).
Jesus is the only Saviour
Peter declared:
There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved—
Acts 4:12.
The Psalmist wrote:
No man can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever —
Psalm 49:7-8.
Yet Roman Catholics deny Jesus is the only hope of their salvation. “In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints…
In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time co-operated in saving their brothers” (CCC, 1477).
Pope John Paul said, “All who seek God ... including those who do not know Christ will enter God’s kingdom” (VIS, 12/6/00).
The Roman Catholic plan of salvation also includes the Muslims who deny Jesus is God and Saviour (CCC, 841).
Jesus saves forever
The scriptures declare that Jesus
“is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (
Hebrews 7:25).
To those God justifi es, Jesus promises: He will lose not one (
John 6:39); He will not cast them out (6:37) and they will never perish (
John 10:28).
The Roman Catholic Jesus does not save forever.
The Catechism teaches that a Catholic, once “justifi ed” by the sacrament of baptism, who dies in a state of mortal sin, will suffer the punishments of hell’s eternal fi re (CCC, 1035). The Roman Catholic Jesus provides only conditional life.
After the sacrament of baptism each Roman Catholic is placed on probation and must strive to remain in God’s favour.
This produces uncertainty, fear and doubt instead of the peace and assurance given to believers.
Jesus paid sin’s complete penalty
The Lord Jesus went to the cross for all believers for the purpose of forgiving all our transgressions and cancelling out the certifi cate of debt consisting of decrees against us.
He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross (
Col. 2:13-14). The redemption of a sinner’s soul requires an infi nite payment because the debt for sin is the eternal lake of fi re
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fi re.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fi re —
Revelation 20:14-15.
It is utterly impossible for a fi nite man to pay an infi nite debt. Only the eternal God could pay the eternal debt for sin. Jesus paid it in full.
Again we see another Jesus in Roman Catholicism, a Jesus who failed to cancel the sin debt.
As a result, the sinner must…do penance to make amends for his sin: he must “make satisfaction for” or “expiate” his sins (CCC, 1459). Catholics can also obtain indulgences, which are said to remit temporal punishment, for themselves or for the dead (CCC, 1471).
Jesus shed His blood to purify sin
The Bible teaches that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (
1 John 1:7).
When He had made purifi cation of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high —
Hebrews 1:3.
There is no other way our sins can be purged away because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (
Hebrews 9:22).
Rather than trusting the blood of Christ, Roman Catholics rely on fi re for the purifi cation of their sins. Instead of trusting the person of Christ they trust a place called purgatory.
“All who die…imperfectly purifi ed…undergo purification (through a purifying fire), so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (CCC, 1030-31).
Jesus fi nished His redeeming work
Moments before He gave up His Spirit the Lord Jesus proclaimed,
“It is fi nished” (
John 19:30).
Three days later He entered heaven “having obtained eternal redemption” (
Hebrews 9:12).
From scripture we know Jesus offered Himself once to bear sins (
Hebrews 9:28).
His offering is not to be done again and again (
Hebrews 9:25).
His offering made perfect forever those who are sanctifi ed (
Hebrews 10:14).
His offering is suffi cient; there is no more offering for sin (
Hebrews 10:18).
Yet the Roman Catholic Jesus is offered daily to continue that which Jesus said was fi nished!
“The sacrifi ce of Christ and the sacrifi ce of the Eucharist are one single sacrifi ce:
The victim is one and the same. In this divine sacrifi ce the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner.” (CCC 1367)
How can it be?
The actual suffering and death of the genuine Jesus on a cross, which resulted in the shedding of real blood, failed to remit the complete punishment for sin, but a bloodless re-presentation of a “Jesus” in a transubstantiated wafer can?
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Rather than trusting the blood of Christ, Roman Catholics rely on fi re for the purifi cation of their sins. Instead of trusting the person of Christ they trust a place called purgatory. |
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It is unconscionable that Roman Catholics would want to participate in His ongoing immolation after He endured such unspeakable agony once to completely satisfy the divine justice sinners deserve.
May God help Catholics to see they have been outrageously deceived!
Jesus redeemed sinners from the curse of the law
Since it is impossible for man to obey the law perfectly, we are all under a curse. Those who stumble at one point are guilty of breaking the whole Law.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all —
James 2:10. But Christ has redeemed believers from the curse of the law, having become a curse for them
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them. —
Galatians 3:13.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that obedience to the law is a requirement for salvation (CCC, 2068). By ignoring the words of Paul “no one is justifi ed by the Law” Roman Catholics remain under the curse of the law.
But that no man is justifi ed by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith —
Galatians 3:11.
Jesus will return to earth in glory
Jesus shall appear a second time, without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him (
Hebrews 9:28).
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: (30) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory —
Matthew 24:29-30.
The Lord will return the same way He went to heaven
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; who also said, You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven — Acts 1:10-11. The Roman Catholic Jesus is said to return physically to the earth every day but in a totally different way and in reference to sin.
In the Eucharist, “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained” (CCC, 1374).
The priest “reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man.
It is a power greater than that of saints and angels.
The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows his head in humble obedience to the priest’s command”.
[The Faith of Millions: the Credentials of the Catholic Religion by John Anthony O’Brien. Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Indiana, USA. Date published: 1974 ISBN 0879738308].
The consecrated Eucharist is lifted up to be worshipped as the “Body of Christ.” Yet Jesus said,
“If anyone says to you, ‘behold here is the Christ’...do not believe him for false Christs…will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (
Matthew 24:23-24).
As preposterous and unthinkable as this may sound, most Roman Catholics believe Christ appears over 200,000 times each day on Catholic altars throughout the world.
Jesus is the only sinless mediator
Paul unambiguously proclaimed there is only one who is qualifi ed to be “the mediator between God and men”. He is God’s perfect man and man’s perfect God — Christ Jesus our Lord.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testifi ed in due time —
1 Timothy 2:5-6.
He is holy, innocent, undefi led and without sin.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infi rmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin —
Hebrews 4:15.
For it is fi tting that we should have such a high priest who is holy, harmless, undefi led, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens—
Hebrews 7:26.
Only in Him can those who were formerly far off, be brought near by the blood of Christ (
Eph. 2:13). Only in Christ can the sin, that separated us from God, be removed (
Isaiah 59:2).
Only in Christ, can believers be permanently reconciled to God forever. Nothing can ever separate the redeemed from the Redeemer (
Rom. 8:31-39).
Roman Catholics put their faith in another sinless mediator who is Mary, the “perpetual virgin” mother of Jesus.
As Mediatrix, she “did not lay aside this saving offi ce but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation” (CCC, 969).
“Without a single sin to restrain her…she became the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race” (CCC, 494).
We can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive, but if we are wrong about which Jesus to trust, we will pay for that mistake for all eternity.
Jesus said “unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).
The true Jesus is revealed in scripture. He is the all-suffi cient Saviour who saves sinners completely and forever.
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Appeared in Issue CETF 34 November 2005
"...contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" -- Jude v3
© Copyright 2006 Christian Witness Ministries, except where noted. All rights reserved
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-Last revised-
Monday, October 09, 2006
