Today we will consider Roman Catholicism. We want to expose its idolatry as well as its persecution of genuine believers. We have to help the new ones to know Roman Catholicism. Such knowledge will help them know how to deal with it and will save them from much frustration. Revelation 17:4 says, "And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication." If we consider today's Catholicism in the light of this verse, we must admit that this woman refers to the Roman Catholic Church. In the Roman Catholic Church there is purple and scarlet in every corner. The cardinals' robes are scarlet. The Catholic Church is full of precious stones, gold, and silver. The pope has two crowns, one representing his religious power and the other his secular power. Both crowns are made of gold. The one that represents his secular power has one hundred forty-six large diamonds, five hundred forty pearls, and seven levels of gold. This is the true picture of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations." Abominations refer to the idols. Deuteronomy 7:25-26, Daniel 9:27, 2 Chronicles 33:2, and Ezekiel 20:7-8 all say that idols are abominations. Please note the crucial items in Revelation 17:4. First, the woman is holding a golden cup. Second, the cup is for serving wine to others. Outwardly the cup is golden, seemingly divine. Gold signifies the divine nature. Yet this cup is filled with abominations. These abominations are the idols. They are introduced to all the world for worship by Roman Catholicism. The Catholic Church worships Mary because all other world religions have goddesses. Christianity is the only religion that does not have a goddess. Roman Catholicism brought in the idea of a "goddess" from paganism. It created Mary as a "goddess" and teaches men to worship her. We have to know this fact and have to help new ones understand that idolatry is an abomination in the eyes of God. A Christian cannot defile himself with any kind of idolatry.
Mary began to be exalted in the fifth century. The title "mother of God" was applied to Mary at the time of the Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. There is a book called The Glories of Mary, written by a bishop called Alphonsus Maria De Liguori, in which he describes in detail how the Catholic Church exalts and worships Mary. Part I, Chapter VI, Section III of that book says that "Mary is the Peace-maker between Sinners and God." Chapter II, Section I says "Mary is our Life, because she obtains for us the Pardon of our Sins." Chapter V, Section I speaks of "The Necessity of the Intercession of Mary for Our Salvation." Elsewhere it says that those who fail and fall do so because they have not sought the help of Mary. It tells us that "the Holy Church charges all men to reserve a special place of worship for Mary"; a man can receive many things from Mary which he cannot receive from God, because as Chapter VIII, Section I says, "Mary delivers her Clients from Hell." She has dominion over all the kings of demons.
In Chapter VIII, Section III Mary is said to "lead her Servants to Heaven." No one can enter the blessed kingdom except through her. The way of salvation is open to man only through Mary. Since our salvation lies in the hand of Mary, those who are under her protection are saved, while those who are not will perish. Salvation is linked to Mary. To Catholics, Mary is intimately related to the Lord. She is eternally grateful to the Son for choosing her to be His mother. But at the same time, He is eternally grateful to her for giving Him His humanity. He has to repay what He owes her by glorying in her and honoring her in a particular way. He does this by answering her prayers and requests.
The book also said that Christ's authority has been given to Mary. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to you [Mary]." Everything (including God) has to obey Mary. God has subjected the entire church under Mary's dominion. Chapter VI, Section I says that "Mary is an Advocate who is able to save all." Whatever she decides to do, she is able to do it. It claims that Mary is almighty. It argues that the authority of the mother is as great as the authority of the Son. If the Son is almighty, so must be the mother. Some have even claimed that the whole church is not only under her grace but under her authority also.
Chapter VI, Section III says that Mary is a Messenger of peace, that she is a "Peace-maker between Sinners and God....Many times we receive answer to our prayer quicker by invoking Mary's name than by invoking Jesus' name....She is our salvation, our life, our hope, our counselor, our hiding place, and our trust." The book mentions a story: A little bird was once taught to say the words "sea gulls" and was told that these words mean "all hail Mary." One day a large fowl preyed on the little bird. The little bird cried "sea gulls," and the large fowl dropped dead immediately. The book then explains by saying that even a senseless bird can receive answer and deliverance through calling on Mary's name. If a man calls on her name, he surely will be saved. The book also says that even the heretics at times cannot help but cry to Mary for hope. It says that everyone who holds any office in the holy Catholic Church should raise his voice every day to call on the name of Mary because she is the hope of all men.
In Chapter III Section I, it says that the Bible teaches us that in His love, the Father gave us the Son to die for us. One saint said that we can say the same thing about Mary. Liguori said that Mary is the savior of sinners, that beside her there is no salvation. He described an imaginary scenario: a man heavily laden with sin saw two ladders hanging from heaven. One was red, with the Lord standing on top of it. The other was white, with the most holy mother standing on top of it. The man climbed up the red ladder. When he saw the angry face at the top of the ladder, he fell down. In his despair he heard a voice that said, "Try the other ladder." He did as he was told and was surprised to find that it was very easy to climb up. On top of that ladder the blessed Mary was waiting for him, ushering him into heaven, and presenting him to Christ. What a great joke!
One Roman Catholic said, "Who are the saved ones? Who are those who are reigning in heaven? They are those for whom the merciful Queen has made supplications." He went on to explain that Proverbs 8:15 speaks of Mary when it says, "By me kings reign/And rulers decree justice." Through her intercession the soul can reign and take control of one's own lust and can thus be qualified to reign in heaven. In summary, heaven is run by Mary and its gates are opened according to her will. This is the "glories of Mary." The book even claims that it is through God's will that the heaven, the earth, and the lights were created, but it is through Mary's will that God became a man to be like us. Roman Catholics believe that the virgin Mary has become the mother of God and has been uplifted to the same status as God in His Godhead. They have almost replaced all the works of the Lord by Mary. They teach that no one can be saved apart from Mary. One of them was even so foolish as to say that God ordains that no grace be dispensed unless it be dispensed through the hand of Mary.
From such a heresy, one can see how fallen Roman Catholicism has become. We have to show new ones what Mary said in Luke 1:46-47 in regards to herself, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God my Savior." Mary's soul magnified the Lord. She needed the Savior just as we do. We can only come to God through the Lord Jesus. In effect, the Catholic Church has made the Lord the Father and Mary the Son. In reality a man passes through the Son to go to the Father. The entire gospel has been scrambled by the Roman Catholic Church. The Lord says that He is the way and the truth. He is the door of the sheep. Today the Lord is sitting on the throne of grace. But the Catholic Church has put Mary on the throne, and, as such, the Lord has to step down from His own throne. This is heresy. Romish heresy centers around Mary. It demands that men worship Mary, and it proclaims that this worship is our rightful duty!
Once a friend of D. M. Panton went to Rome and saw many people worshipping before Mary. Some say that the Lord is in charge of our salvation, while Mary is in charge of our intercession. This means they have usurped the Lord's place and given it to Mary. The truth is that the Lord is our only Savior before God and the only One who can intercede for us. In Rome idol worship can be found in countless numbers of places. Men worship the statue of Mary and the statue of the Father. On the Father's statue is the inscription: "This is God, the Almighty and the Eternal." There are statues for the Son, statues for the twelve apostles, for the saints, and for many believers. Worshippers can worship these images. They teach that there are two qualifications for a saint to be worshipped. First, he must have performed miracles, and second, he must have lived a holy and godly life. These saints are said to have accumulated enough merit to have a surplus of merit. They can exercise their power to bestow on us their surplus. This is the reason we should worship them. It is amazing that heresies such as these and many others can be accepted and believed by so many!
During the thirteenth century, a very famous man in the Catholic Church by the name of Thomas Aquinas said in his books that the saints have accumulated excess merits. They are compassionate, and they can channel these merits wherever they want under the church's direction. Of course, such boundless merits can also be shared partly by the believers to meet their needs. Such merits can take care of our sins; they also have the power to save us from such sins. Those who say such things are indeed ignorant of the Lord. They do not realize that no sin is so great that the Lord cannot forgive, and no sin needs the aid of the so-called saints. Is there any grace which we are not qualified to receive, and which we need to seek help from Mary? Do not forget that the cup of Catholicism is full of abominations.
Revelation 17:6 says, "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus." It is a gruesome thing to drink human blood until one is drunk, but this is the very characteristic of the Roman Catholic Church. There is extreme cruelty in the Catholic Church; it is willing to resort to any means to annihilate genuine believers. The Lord charges us only to bless, not to curse. But the Roman Catholic Church is full of curses. It pronounces anathemas on all kinds of beliefs. It considers all believers of heresies to be accursed. When it calls someone a heretic, it means he is a believer of the Bible. At the Council of Trent one archbishop stood up and said, "We anathematize everything that is different from us." All the other bishops echoed by saying, "Let it be accursed!" They did this at the end of every meeting. What a pitiful situation!
Luke 9 says that as the days were being fulfilled for Jesus to be taken up, He steadfastly set His face toward Jerusalem. When they reached a village in Samaria, the people there did not receive them. James and John, His two disciples saw this, and they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" The Lord said, "You do not know of what kind of spirit you are" (vv. 51-55). This means they did not know what they were saying. When the disciples saw evidences of persecution, their spirits reacted strongly. They wanted to curse, but the Lord stopped them. With the Roman Catholic Church, however, every Thursday evening the pope reads twenty-seven anathemas. Everything that is different from Catholicism is anathematized. These twenty-seven anathemas are further divided into finer points. Hence, in reality there are more than twenty-seven clauses. After the pronouncement, the anathemas are set on fire, and the fire is cast into the earth with the words: "To die eternally, as this fire." Fulota (?) said that the end of those who believe in heresy is death, while Kerdiluma (?) said, "We will never have mercy on those who hold different beliefs than we do. We have to try them and consider them as Sin incarnated."
Before the Reformation, there was the Inquisition. Countless numbers of people from many countries died under its hand. Those taken before the Inquisition were subjected to all kinds of torture. The Catholics thought that pain was the only way to recover these ones. They erected many gallows and wrenched the tormented ones with ropes until all the bones in their bodies were broken. Sometimes they nailed men's feet to the floor, hung their upper bodies from the beams, and then wrung them with ropes until all their bones were dislocated. At other times they poured boiling oil into men's mouths. We can never imagine the cruelty our brothers in ancient days suffered.
In Madrid during the first twelve months of the persecution, 10,220 people died. At that time the church did not kill anyone; it merely ordered the local government to execute the killing. Thomas Aquinas believed that the church had the authority to hang the heretics and put them to death in order to preserve the purity of the church. He said, "On the one hand we must not tolerate the heretics, and they should receive just recompense for their sins. But we should also be merciful to them and exhort them twice. Perhaps they can be brought back to the faith of the church. If after the second admonition they still persist in their errors, they must not only be excommunicated but must be destroyed by handing them over to the secular officers." The church would not execute the murder; it handed the job to local officials. The Roman Catholic Church openly claims that the words of Aquinas are the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. After the time of Martin Luther, all the bishops had to swear to do their best to persecute those who held different beliefs. All the bishops had to make such a vow before the pope. The Roman Catholic Church canon law says that five popes have ordered the secular rulers of all countries to destroy those who hold different beliefs.
In 1872 the London Times reported that the Roman Catholic Church believed that anyone who killed under the instruction of a priest was not considered a murderer. On July 13, 1895, the same newspaper reported a speech by the pope in which he said that it was a good deed to kill a Protestant. Such an act could absolve the murderer of the sin of killing a Catholic. The Catholic Church set up cellars in Madrid, in which they packed men with dissenting beliefs. Some had just died, while others could only be identified by their skeletons. There were young men and women, as well as old people. Some were chained in complete nakedness. Within the cells were all kinds of torture instruments. One of the great and spacious halls there was filled with human bones.
In 1848 someone discovered a great building in the city of Rome which was full of human bones. There were also two incinerators, beside which were the remains of unburned human bones. One picture of a torture instrument will suffice to show the extent to which the Catholic Church went to deal with Protestants. The church would hang a culprit by his two feet upside-down and lay him on an inclined bench. Very fine ropes would then be tied tightly to the legs and the body. The ropes would then be gradually tightened until they would sink into the flesh and disappear into it. At the same time water would trickle from the ceiling to the man's mouth, which was gagged with a piece of cloth. This would choke the man and would make it difficult for him to breathe. From 1540 when the Jesuits were formed until 1940, the Inquisition murdered 1.9 million people. This is the number of people accounted for. There are still countless numbers of unaccounted-for victims.
In 1901 Pope Leo XIII gave a speech in Rome in which he proclaimed that the church received power from God to confiscate all the properties of the heretics. In Spain, even today, believers are being persecuted. The number of dead cannot be numbered. The number of living believers amount to only about two thousand five hundred. The condition will worsen towards the end of this age. One brother said that great persecutions will arise, and they will come mainly from Rome. The Bible prophesies that the Roman Catholic Church will be revived one day.
Revelation 18:4 says, "And I heard another voice out of heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people." The Lord wants us to do our best to avoid it, lest we partake of its sin and suffer its sufferings. We must not only pay attention to this word but must tell new ones about it. Every child of God, whether he is a student or a worker, must depart from it. The Catholic Church is violent enough in itself in persecuting the Protestants. But there is something worse — the Jesuits. Since 1540 the Jesuits have been writing and propagating Catholicism on the one hand and murdering people on the other hand. They murdered many people, yet at the same time they set up schools all over the world. They try to remove true believers in three ways. The first is direct persecution, the second is propagation of theology, and the third is promoting education. One pope said that no priest would be condemned for lying, cheating, or killing, if these were done in the name of protecting the church. We have to warn all of God's children not to attend the Catholic schools. Our brothers and sisters should not try to associate themselves with them. They should not read their books. If anyone comes to you to introduce their teachings and acts, you should tell him that you know them all already. You must never be cheated by them. May the Lord be merciful to us and spare us of such troubles.
