And blessed be his glorious name for ever:
and let the whole earth be filled with his glory;
Amen, and Amen.
Psalm 72:19 (King James Bible)
RC “Year of Faith”
Unfaithful to Christ and His Gospel
By Richard Bennett and Timothy
F. Kauffman
At a Synod of Bishops in Rome in October, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI
inaugurated the “Year of Faith” that he had announced in his Apostolic Letter
called “Motu Proprio Data.” The Year of Faith commencement date of October
11, 2012, was chosen because it is both the 50th anniversary of the
Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the publication
of the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic
Church.[1] In the Motu
Proprio Data, Pope Benedict affirmed John Paul II’s conviction that
Vatican II remained “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth
century,” and is “a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century
now beginning.”
The teachings of Vatican Council II on ecumenism are indeed “a sure
compass” by which to read the Papacy’s current actions – for the “new”
outreach of the Catholic Church, as outlined there, is nothing short of a grand
design to ensnare the true church of our Lord Jesus Christ. At its center, the goal is to lure
unsuspecting believers away from biblical Christianity, to remove any and all
“obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical communion,” and bring them all under the
yoke of Roman Catholicism.[2] To summarize the Synod of Bishops and the
inaugurated Year of Faith, there is no better statement than that offered by C.
H. Spurgeon when he wrote, “Essence of lies, and quintessence of blasphemy, as
the religion of Rome is, it nevertheless fascinates a certain order of Protestants…”[3] As we shall see, “fascinating a certain order
of Protestants” is precisely what this Year of Faith is intended to do.
The
50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council
The main reason for commemorating the Second
Vatican Council during the Year of Faith is because its ecumenical overtures
have been so successful. Formally, the
Council moved from a position of separation from other religions to a new
two-pronged strategy of acceptance to win the world back to Rome.
First, the pagan religions of the world such as Islam, Buddhism, and
Hinduism were formally designated as acceptable to the Papacy.[4] Second, the Council addressed Evangelicals in
particular. “Separated brethren” was the
new term the Council coined for those who before were always considered heretics. In the Council’s Document No. 42, the methods
of ecumenism were carefully prescribed, the most important of which was to use
“dialogue” to make incremental advances into Evangelical and Bible-believing
churches. The purpose of dialogue, clearly
stated by the Roman Catholic Church, is to “transform modes of thought” and
“little by little” gather all professing Christians together “in a common
celebration of the Eucharist” under the Pope:
“…[ecumenical dialogue] serves to transform
modes of thought and behavior and the daily life of those [non-Catholic]
Communities. In this way, it aims at
preparing the way for their unity of faith in the bosom of a Church one and
visible: thus ‘little by little, as the
obstacles to perfect ecclesial communion are overcome, all Christians will be
gathered, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, into that unity of the one
and only Church which Christ bestowed on His Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, dwells in the
Catholic Church as something she can never lose…’”[5]
One
thing made clear at the October 2012 Synod of Bishops is that this program of
ecumenical dialogue, now fifty years in the works, has proved to be tremendously
successful. One
can see this by a change in the use of language by the Catholic Church
in the documents that are intended for consumption by non-Catholics,
particularly Evangelicals. Although much
more Scripture is used and serious attempts are made to imitate Evangelical
patterns of thought and speech, the intent is simply to provide cover for the
traditional, unbiblical, and uncompromised
Roman Catholic doctrine. Behind the curtain of this new showpiece from Rome is merely a reiteration
of the same old dogmas that have been ruthlessly imposed upon Catholic people for
centuries. Fifty years of
“ecumenical dialogue” makes visible a tremendous Catholic infrastructure
devoted to the success of their Trojan horse – which some leading Evangelicals
in particular have been so willing to haul into their churches.
Celebrating
the 20th Anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The main reason for commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the 1992 Catechism during
the Year of Faith is to highlight the fact that it also
“includes the ecumenical dimension as part of the basic teaching for all
the faithful of the Church.”[6] Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger),
under the authority of the then Pope John Paul II,
was responsible for the publication of the 1992 Catechism. This was the
first universal Catholic catechism in nearly 500 years. Even in that ecumenically focused catechism,
Benedict affirmed that the Pope has universal power over the Church, and is the
pastor of all:
“…the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office
as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and
universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise
unhindered.”[7]
Baiting the Snare with an Alleged Gospel
It is clear then, that the Year of Faith is
nothing else than an effort to continue the marketing and repackaging of Roman
dogmas that was started at the Second Vatican
Council. This is explicitly stated in Instrumentum Laboris, the document from
the October 2012 Synod describing “The New Evangelization” techniques. Thus, it is
stated,
“The Church feels the responsibility to
devise new tools and new expressions to ensure that the word of faith, which
has begotten the true life of God in us, be heard more and be better
understood, even in the new deserts of this world.”[8]
In other words, they have devised “new tools”
and “new expressions” to convey the same old errors. Yet we note that the Year of Faith is
attended with all the typical trappings of Roman bondage: Papal indulgences to reduce the Purgatorial
pains of the dead, Mariolatry, and the abomination and idolatry of the Eucharistic
sacrifice. For example, Pope Benedict
has declared a Plenary Indulgence for the Year of Faith stating that,
“During the Year of Faith … Plenary
Indulgence for the temporal punishment of sins, imparted by the mercy of God
and applicable also to the souls of deceased faithful, may be obtained by all…”[9]
The Papal indulgence is purportedly granted
to all who attend lessons or meditate on the declarations of Vatican Council II
or the Catechism and those who embark
on pilgrimages to sacred sites, including “minor basilicas and shrines
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” or those who make a “pious visit to the
baptistery, or other place in which they received the Sacrament of Baptism.”[10]
Additionally,
at the Mass for the claimed canonization of new saints at the Synod, Pope
Benedict invited participants “to turn to the ‘Virgin Mary, the One who is
Queen of all Saints,’ … then turned his
thoughts to Lourdes and the Grotto of the Apparitions of Our Lady … [and] entrusted
to the Virgin ‘the missionaries — men and women, priests, religious and lay
people — who sow the good seed of the Gospel in every part of the world’”[11] Further, October 13th
in the Year of Faith “will focus on the presence of Mary in the Church,” and June
2nd will be set aside for a day of global Eucharistic Adoration, the
idolatrous practice of worshiping the communion bread of the Roman Mass. Thus, Papal Rome decrees that, “On 2 June,
[the feast of] Corpus Christi,
the Blessed Sacrament will be adored at the same time all over the world.”[12] Clearly the dogmas of The Council of Trent (1545-1563) together with the superstitious
medieval Mariolatry and the idolatrous practice of Eucharistic adoration yet
persist in Papal Rome today, and the Year of Faith is simply intended to make
it more palatable to Bible Christians.
Examples of the Roman Catholic “new
expression” of Rome’s
Supposed Gospel
In Section 18 of Instrumentum Laboris to inaugurate the
Year of Faith, the RC Synod stated,
“The Christian faith is not simply teachings,
wise sayings, a code of morality or a tradition. The Christian faith is a true encounter and
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Transmitting the faith means to create in every place and time the
conditions which lead to this encounter between the person and Jesus
Christ. The goal of all evangelization
is to create the possibility for this encounter, which is, at one and the same
time, intimate, personal, public and communal.”
As
Monsignor Paul McPartlan, of American Catholic
University acknowledged,
this subtle shift in language allows for the use of the Eucharist as an ecumenical
tool, thus he stated,
“…ecumenical agreement on the Eucharist is
being found by acknowledging that the Eucharist is not just my personal
encounter with Christ in a re-enactment of the Last Supper, it is also a
celebration of the Church, empowered
by the Holy Spirit, in a foretaste of
the future heavenly banquet. Now, these complementary emphases are very
prominent in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, and we can therefore immediately note the ecumenical value
of this new resource.”[13]
(Emphasis in original)
We notice immediately that in this polished
ecumenical language, Rome claims that this “personal encounter
with Christ” takes place through the Eucharist, as the Catechism teaches,
“The Church and
the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of
love. Let us not refuse the time to go
to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends
for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease.”[14]
Recasting the Eucharist as a
“personal encounter with Christ” is a way of cloaking the fundamental error of
Roman Catholic dogma of salvation. That
is to say that Papal Rome has interposed herself between the Savior and the
sinner, arguing that saving grace comes through the sacraments, and therefore,
through the Church. Thus, the Catechism teaches this explicitly,
“Forming ‘as it were, one
mystical person’ with Christ the head, the Church acts in the sacraments …
[which] are necessary for salvation.”[15]
“Without the liturgy and the
sacraments, the profession of faith would lack efficacy, because it would
lack the grace which supports Christian witness.”[16]
Thus, the Roman Church attempts to rob God, namely, the Holy Spirit,
of His distinctive work as the Sanctifier by attributing His work to Rome’s sacramental
rituals. This official teaching is a
straightforward denial of Person of Christ and His Gospel of grace! Therefore, we
reiterate what the Apostle Paul declared, “As
we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you
than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”[17] On the authority of Scripture alone, salvation
is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Therefore, on the authority of Scripture
alone, the claimed Papal gospel of faith plus “the liturgy and the sacraments”
is accursed. Nevertheless, the Catholic Church teaches and
performs such unfaithfulness to the Gospel of Christ.
An
Evil Effect Becomes Evident
That Rome’s
ecumenism has indeed “fascinated a certain order of Protestants” is evidenced
by the fact that the Baptist World Alliance sent a representative to the Papal
Synod. Thus,
the Associated Baptist Press news on October 3, 2012 announced the following
under the title “Baptist present at Catholic synod”:
“Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity
School, will represent the Baptist
World Alliance (BWA) at the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
Oct. 7-28 in Rome. Timothy George, dean and professor of divinity,
history and doctrine at Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford
University in Birmingham, Ala., will represent the Baptist World Alliance at
the conference themed The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the
Christian Faith... ‘The BWA is pleased
that eminent Baptist theologian, Dr. Timothy George, has agreed to represent
the worldwide Baptist family at the synod...’”[18]
Back on February 20, 2007, Timothy George
addressing his Baptist denomination, admonished them with a question “[I]s
Jesus a Baptist? Some people in our
tradition have thought so, pointing out that Jesus was not baptized by John the
Methodist, or John the Presbyterian, and certainly not by John the Episcopalian,
but by John the Baptist. But surely, as
they say in French, this is un question mal posée. The question is not: Is Jesus a Baptist? but rather: Are Baptists
Christian?”[19] When speaking at the
Synod in Rome,
however, he did not dare to ask, “Are Catholics
Christian?” In fact,
while he attended the Synod, he presupposed that indeed they are, addressing
the Pope as “Holy Father,”[20] and
addressing bishops, priests and Catholic laity as “brothers and sisters in the
Lord.” Thus,
Timothy George swallowed Rome’s
New Evangelization lie as he went on to state,
“Dear Holy Father, Venerable Fathers of the
Synod, brothers and sisters in the Lord …The first paragraph of the Instrumentum laboris reminds us that the
Christian faith is ‘not simply teachings, wise sayings, a code of morality or a
tradition.’ Rather, it is ‘a true
encounter and relationship with Jesus Christ, the Good News and great gift of
God to humanity.’”[21]
His acceptance of Roman Catholic bishops, priests, and nuns as brothers and sisters
in Christ can mean only one of two things.
Either Timothy George thinks the Pope and his followers do not believe
their own teachings, or he thinks salvation can be by faith plus works. The latter, we hasten to add, would
constitute a material denial of the Gospel of Christ. Well might we ask Timothy George the scriptural
question: “Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and
fresh.”[22]
The Year
of Faith’s New Evangelization Moves into New Media
Encouraged by the advances seen from fifty
years of ecumenical dialogue, and no doubt strengthened by Timothy George’s compromise, the Year of
Faith website informs us that now we can expect to see a “tsunami of new media
evangelizers.”[23] These “New Evangelizers” responded quickly
with a Website that aggregates six Roman Catholic ministries under a logo that
lauds their worship of the Eucharist and total consecration to Mary. This is the same old darkness masquerading as
light in the new media. As it further
goes on to explain,
“Greg Willits and his wife Jennifer, Catholic
parents of five children, have been responsible for the distribution of over
2.5 million hand-made rosaries all over the world through their non-profit
‘Rosary Army.’”[24]
The Rosary is not new in fact, its disturbing origin goes back to those dark Middle Ages. The
Rosary concludes with the prayer, “Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life,
our sweetness and our hope!” referring to Mary as “our most gracious
advocate.” The origins of this
sacrilegious incantation stretch back to the
ancient sacrilege of placing one’s life and hope in “the queen of heaven.”[25] The New Evangelizers web page continues,
“Greg Willits recently built a stylish,
user-friendly new website that keeps it all organized under one virtual roof,
and adds several new, exciting elements.
‘New Evangelizers’ invites readers to
‘Know Your Faith, Live Your Faith, Share Your Faith’ and offers ‘Tools and
Resources for the New Evangelization.’ …
‘It was always our intention that our site would be The Resource for
finding out what’s happening with New Evangelization.… I’m actually looking for
someone to do this – to cull through everything being published and printed
about New Evangelization, and let people know what is being said at the Vatican
and throughout the Catholic world.’”[26]
Christians, in actual fact, are not called to spread “what is being
said at the Vatican,”
or to send out millions of Rosaries to teach people to call upon Mary. Rather, true believers are to look “unto
Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...”[27] The true Jesus Christ is found in the
Scriptures, not in Rome’s
sacraments. Rather than evangelizing
with “what is being said at the Vatican,”
Scripture proclaims that “the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth,” each one “being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus.”[28] Thus,
that which is called the “tsunami of new media evangelizers” is, in fact, just the ancient and persistent
Roman denial of biblical Christian faith.
Conclusion
The Year of Faith is claiming to
focus on faith, but instead it draws people ever deeper into Rome’s work’s based salvation. Spurgeon’s warning is as timely today as it
was 139 years ago. To his concern that Rome “fascinates a certain
order of Protestants,” he added this:
“Dignitaries of the papal
confederacy are just now very prominent in benevolent movements, and we may be
sure that they have ends to serve other than those which strike the public
eye. A priest lives only for his church;
he may profess to have other objects, but this is a mere blind...The sooner we
let certain Archbishops and Cardinals know that we are aware of their designs,
and will in nothing co-operate with them, the better for us and our
country. Of course, we shall be howled
at as bigots, but we can afford to smile at that cry, when it comes from the
church which invented the Inquisition.
‘No peace with Rome’
is the motto of reason as well as of religion.”[29]
Spurgeon could well have written
that in October 2012 as last century.
The “Year of Faith” not only is unfaithful to the Lord and His Gospel,
but it also intends to seduce Christians into being unfaithful to Jesus
Christ. Christians can fall prey to Rome’s seductive power
simply because they do not recognize what is happening. The power greater than the Pope and the
Papacy is the power of the written Word of Jesus Christ! Once Evangelicals go down the ecumenical path
into Rome and
its rituals, it is difficult to resist her deceptions, except by the Word of
God. The Year of Faith proposes a
mystical Eucharist instead of a communion table. Traditions are taught in place of scriptural
doctrine. Sacraments are upheld instead of saving
grace. This is not a church based on
God’s revelation but rather an
institution based on the rule of the Pope. Therefore, we voice the Lord’s own
exhortation, “Hearken unto me now therefore, o ye children,
and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go
not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her
house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”[30] Christians and Evangelicals must not succumb
to this latest innovation from Rome. Only in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the
living God, is found truth and eternal life!
Believe on Him and Him alone “and have no fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”[31] May our exalted Lord Jesus Christ through His
Gospel of grace expose the craftiness of the pernicious papal Year of Faith and
bring it to naught. We rejoice over the
Lord God’s everlasting love, eternal redemption, and the everlasting life that
is found in His Gospel of grace. Such grace
and love engages our hearts in an ever-deepening
gratitude so that we proclaim with our whole heart, “Blessed be his glorious name
for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen,
and Amen.”[32]
¨
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[1] www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20111011_porta-fidei_en.html
[2] Vatican Council II Document No. 32, “Decree on
Ecumenism,” 1964, Para. 4
[3] Spurgeon, C.H., “The Religion of Rome,” from the January 1873 Sword and Trowel
[4] Vatican Council II Document No. 56, Nostra Aetate, 1965
[6] Pontificium Consilium Ad Christianorum
Unitatem Fovendam, Directory For The Application Of Principles And Norms On
Ecumenism, Paragraph 2 http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/general-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19930325_directory_en.html 11/09/2012
[8] The
New Evangelization For The Transmission Of The Christian Faith, Instrumentum Laboris, www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20120619_instrumentum-xiii_en.html Para. 8. 11/09/2012
[9] Plenary Indulgence for the Year of Faith, ,
http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en/news/indulgentia.html
[10] Ibid.
[11] How to Be
Evangelizers, www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en/news/23-10-2012.html,
10/23/2012
[12] Year of Faith
Presentation, www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en/news/21-06-2012.html,
6/21/2012
[13] McPartlan, Paul,
The Spirit, the Catechism and Primacy
(London Ecclesiology Forum, 1995)
[14] Catechism, Para.
1119, 1380
[15] Catechism, Para 1129
[16] Catechism, Para 97. Emphasis not in the original document.
[17] Galatians 1:7-9
[19] George, Timothy, Plenary address at the conference on ‘Baptist
Identity: Convention, Cooperation, and Controversy,’ Union
University, Jackson, Tennessee,
February 20, 2007 (http://beesondivinity.com/isjesusabaptist)
[20] To use such a
title blatantly breaks Jesus Christ’s command “call no man your [spiritual] father upon the earth: for One is your
Father, which is in heaven.” Matthew
23:9
[21] Remarks by Timothy George to the General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops on “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”
Vatican City,
October 16, 2012, (http://www.beesondivinity.com/fromthedean )
[23] http://catholic-year-of-faith.com/?p=597,
“Evangelisers,” European spelling has been changed except in quotes.
[26] http://catholic-year-of-faith.com/?p=597 8/25/2012
[27] Hebrews 12:2
[28] Romans 1:16;
Romans 3:24
[29] Spurgeon, C.H., “The Religion of Rome,” from the January 1873 Sword and Trowel
[31] Ephesians 5:11
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