Happy New Year!
His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 Great is Thy FaithfulnessGreat is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be. Refrain Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided; Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Refrain Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! Refrain ___________________________________________ May we all have a happy new year, marked by a commitment to God and His Word the Bible. In His fellowship, Brother John
 
A Very Nice Present
My wife Rose gave me a very nice set of books this Christmas. All eight volumes of Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Systematic Theology are contained in four handsome books. I know I will enjoy them for many years to come. This could be her way of saying it’s time to recycle.
The Compass of the Caribbean
Believe it or not I took my family to see The Pirates of the Caribbean; Dead Man’s Chest. (This was before Levi was born.) There was a compass that I wish everyone could have. It would point to the greatest desire of the holder’s heart. Capt. Jack Sparrow (the hero of sorts) somehow became the possessor of this amazing compass. Whenever he looked at it though, it spun around this way and then that way, never pointing in a clear direction. It was assumed by the damsel of this story that Capt. Jack sparrow, didn’t really know what he wanted. My son Elliot made an interesting observation that was not mentioned in the film. “I think the compass kept spinning around because Capt. Jack Sparrow was so greedy that we wanted everything this world could offer. It wasn’t until his ship was sinking that he realized that his ship was his greatest desire.” In Matthew 16:26; Jesus was speaking and said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”This brings to mind the exchange between the Pharisees, the Sadducees and Jesus, remember? Then a so called expert of the law asked Jesus a question. “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40 Capt. Jack sparrow had his desires pointing in many directions. What about you? If you had “the compass of the Caribbean” what direction would the arrow point? Would you get distracted by the things of this world like Capt. Jack Sparrow? Or would you have clear direction? Do you love the Lord your God?
Books I Recomend
Have you ever wondered what books the Earnest Contender would recommend for those who wish to begin building a good library? Here are a few books and works that I recommend for anyone to begin building a respectable theological library. These will aid the learner and the teacher with good tools to enhance the pursuit of Theological enrichment. Feel free to opine. In His Fellowship, Brother John *Ryrie's Study Bible
Scofield's Study Bible
The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (Zodhiates)
*The Webster’s Dictionary
*Baker’s Dictionary of Theology
Unger’s Bible Dictionary
The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times (Gower)
The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church
*Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
Halley’s Bible Handbook
The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the O.T. (Walvoord & Zuck)
The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the N.T. (Walvoord & Zuck)
Commentary of the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown)
Thru the Bible (five book commentary) (McGee)
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary
Evidence that Demands a Verdict (McDowell)
*A Survey of Bible Doctrine (Ryrie)
Elementary Theology (Bancroft)
Christian Theology (Bancroft)
Basic Theology (Ryrie)
Systematic Theology (Chafer)
*Basic Bible Interpretation (Zuck)
Hermeneutics (Virkler)
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (Scofield)
Dispensationalism Today (Ryrie)
Dispensationalism: Mining the Treasures of God's Word (Pickering)
Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility (Fisk)
Knowing God (Packer)
The Genesis Flood (Whitcomb/Morris)
Jesus was a Jew (Fructenbaum)
The Holy Spirit (Ryrie)
Angels Elect and Evil (Dickason)
Here I Stand (DeCourcy)
Doctrine and Administration of the Church (Jackson)
In Pursuit of Purity (Beale)
Biblical Separation (Pickering)
Things to Come (Pentecost)
Foot Steps of the Messiah (Fruchtenbaum)
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (Nestle/Marshall)* If you are a new Christian or are having a hunger to learn, these are the ones that I would obtain and begin using first.
It's a Boy!
Be sure to visit Rose's Reasonings for all the details.
Theology Proper 1
A Study of Systematic Theology Theology Proper or The Doctrine of God (Primarily God the Father) In Theology Proper I plan to affirm some basic ideas for getting to know and understand our Lord in a closer more intimate way. That's what Theology is all about! I will cover several aspects of Theology Proper if God permits. The introduction will help to fine tune our reception and focus on the reality of the God of the Bible. It will be an expansion of these earlier posts on Prolegomena: Blogging on ProlegomenonProlegomenon: Introduction to Systematic Theology 1Prolegomenon: Introduction to Systematic Theology 2Prolegomenon: Introduction to Systematic Theology 4Prolegomenon: Introduction to Systematic Theology 5The existence of God will pertain to certain arguments, and views concerning the existence of God. Do you think you heard them all before? Maybe you have so you may as well join the discussion when we get there. We will work our way through to the attributes of God, here we will draw attention to God and offer some practical applications that correspond with each one of His attributes. You did know that theology is practical didn't you? We will then examine Trinitarian doctrine, both true and false views. You wont want to miss this one, it should give you the tools needed to tenderly refute Unitarian and Polytheistic philosophies among others false ideas about the Trinity. Finally I will round off this section of Systematic Theology highlighting six facets of the Fatherhood of God. The aim is to bring us to a place where we not only get to know our God better but also provide tools to continue our journey in desiring God more and more in our life. When we realize the gift we Christian's possess why wouldn't we want to tell others about it? Brother John
This is My Father's World
“The world is Mine, and all that is in it.” Psalm 50:12 Words: bio("Maltbie D. Babcock","b/a/b/babcock_md") Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901, alt. While a pastor in Lockport, New York, Babcock liked to hike in an area called “the escarpment,” an ancient upthrust ledge near Lockport. It has a marvelous view of farms, orchards, and Lake Ontario, about 15 miles distant. It is said those walks in the woods inspired these lyrics. The title recalls an expression Babcock used when starting a walk: “I’m going out to see my Father’s world.” Music: Terra Beata, traditional English melody, arranged by bio("Franklin L. Sheppard","s/h/sheppard_fl") Franklin L. Sheppard in his Alleluia, 1915 lmn("t/e/r/Terra%20Beata") ( MIDI, score). fot("Franklin Sheppard") If you have access to a photo of Franklin Sheppard that we could put online, please click here. The Cyber HymnThis is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas; His hand the wonders wrought. This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise, The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise. This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair; In the rustling grass I hear Him pass; He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done: Jesus Who died shall be satisfied, And earth and Heav’n be one. This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face. I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.” This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above, The Beloved One, His Only Son, Came—a pledge of deathless love. This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad? The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad. This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound, For dear to God is the earth Christ trod. No place but is holy ground. This is my Father’s world. I walk a desert lone. In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known. This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam Whate’er my lot, it matters not, My heart is still at home. ___________________________________________________ This is one of my favorites. It is a great reminder is it not, that our God is the heavenly Father who is our Creator? I will begin posting on Theology Proper soon and thought this to be very fitting.
How the Church Got To Where It Is Today pt.7
Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy.
In His fellowship,
Brother John How the Church Got To Where It Is Today
By Fred Whitman One last thing, and then I would like to stop for questions. Is the Catholic Church changing? Is it not the same anymore? Is it not the same in America? Well, if it's not the same in America, why is it not the same? First of all, in America you have religious freedom and liberty, and NO religion can force people to do what it wants to in America. That is not the case in countries where the Roman Church is in the majority. Living under that cloud of fear, people are afraid to talk; they are afraid to invite you, a "Protestant," into their home, just because you are not with their church. It is unbelievable. Well, the Roman Church has not changed. The basic way of salvation in a Roman Church, as what they declare officially in the Council of Trent, is salvation by works plus faith. And the means of grace is the sacraments. Never use the word sacrament talking about the Lord's Table or Baptism. The word sacrament means "A means of participating in grace." If we are not saved when we get baptized, we're not going to be saved when we come out of that water. The word sacrament, a means of obtaining grace, however, is what the Roman Church teaches as the way their people will be saved.
Baptism, first of all, is when a baby is very, very young; it is baptized, sprinkled with water. At that moment, the Church teaches that they are born again. So when you talk about people that say they are born-again Catholics, find out what they mean by that. In most cases, they'll say, "Well, I was born again when I was baptized, and then later I came to a real knowledge of Jesus in my life." Okay, so be careful about that term, "born again."
Confirmation is when a child actually receives the Holy Spirit. The Bishop comes to church, and all the children go up front, and the Bishop puts his hands on the children, and communicates, gives to them the Holy Spirit. That's confirmation.
Confession is when people come to confess their sins to the Priest. He forgives them in the place of God, and then he says, "Now you need to go repent." And this varies to any number of things that they'd self-inflict or suffer or go without something. That’s Confession.
Communion is the end of the mass when the Priest holds up the round little Host and says, "The Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world," In that instant, he is re-sacrificing the Lord Jesus. His death is being renewed at that moment. And so communion is taken, that Host has been blessed, and now the body of Jesus is given to people; they believe they are eating the pieces of the body of Christ. The cup is blessed; it becomes the blood of the Lord Jesus and by doing that, they are participating in salvation by participating in the death of Christ.
Last Rights, of course, is when a Priest is called as a person is dying. They call him in; of course the person could be in a coma and not understand a thing, but the priest will take a little piece of this blessed Host, put it in their mouth, and that's like a spiritual food for their trip into the afterlife. They get to go to purgatory. A Roman Catholic who has done everything (baptism, confirmation, confession, communion, last rights, orders, or possibly even holy marriage) can only hope to go to purgatory when he dies. Heaven may come later after he has suffered sufficiently for his sins.
Orders are when a person becomes a priest or nun, and they're married to the church. The priest receives the power to create the body of God out of the Host as well as crucify it anew as the sacrifice for sin. That is why they call it "the sacrifice of the mass."
Marriage is where they get married IN the church and promise the church that their children born will be raised in the doctrines of the Roman Church. When a person has done ALL those things, he dies, as they would say, in a state of grace, so that he can go directly to purgatory.
For years I have heard priests say at funerals, "Ah, our beloved so-and-so is now with the Lord." But that's not true! Their doctrine does not allow it! If they were with the Lord, they would be saints. Only saints are with the Lord. So, just before I came home from a funeral of the grandmother of my daughter-in-law, and for the first time I heard a priest be totally honest. In this funeral, he said, "Our dear sister who is here before us is now suffering in purgatory, and we need to pray for her so that she'll be able to get out of there soon."
So, in their salvation of works plus faith, the best that their church can do for them is purgatory. They will suffer there until enough people pray for them, enough people buy mass cards, whatever they have to do to give them that push to go into heaven. So, the Roman Church has not changed. The people have tried to interpret different ways, but the official teachings are these, and we know what God teaches and how we need to share what God can do for a person if they would come to Him by faith alone. The End
How the Church Got To Where It Is Today pt.6 of 7
Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy.
In His fellowship,
Brother JohnHow the Church Got To Where It Is Today
By Fred Whitman
Let's take a quick jump to 1948, when the Ecumenical Movement began. First, the liberal denominations wanted to unite. They invited the Catholic Church as an observer. Now there's a saying that goes, "Don't ever let a camel get his nose inside a tent or he'll tear the whole thing down." In 1948, the Catholic Church came in as an observer. Today the Roman Catholic Church is leading the Ecumenical Movement for everybody to come back to Rome. Now remember that the Counter - Reformation began and they were killing Protestants because they wanted to force them to come back into the Catholic Church. They wouldn't do it, so they killed them. Now, with the Ecumenical Movement, they are bringing many of these Protestants back into the Catholic Church, into fellowship with the Pope, under the leadership of the Pope, and they're basically accomplishing the same thing they had hoped to do back then by physical force, but they weren't able to.
At the second Vatican Council in 1961, all the Protestants were called heretics, or separated brethren. From that point, Pope John XXIII really started pushing, inviting all these Christians to come back into the fold. In 1986, Pope John Paul II called the first interfaith prayer meeting for peace at Assisi - Italy, just 20 minutes from our house. He invited liberal Baptists and liberal Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, among other groups. All the religious groups of the world were there to pray together for peace. And it is interesting that when it was happening, I saw a news report on the television. They gave a different church to every religious group to meet in, and then they all came together to the Pope at the end to celebrate mass together in the church that they had given to the Buddhists, the Church of St. Peter. They went in and cleaned off the altar. Now what does that mean? Well, there's a little box called the Tabernacle (I call it the God Box). That's where the Blessed Host, the body of Jesus is stored. They put the host in the little Tabernacle, which means, "dwelling place of God." In the Church of St. Peter, they moved that God Box off, they took the Crucifix off, they cleaned everything off, and on that altar in this Catholic Church they put a statue of Buddha. That happened in 1986.
Well, then in 1994, the Church came out with a new catechism. For all these centuries, everything the Catholic Church printed bore the name: The Apostolic Roman Church. When this catechism came out, what does it say? It says The Catechism of the "Catholic Church." Why Catholic? The word Catholic means universal. They don't want the stigma of being an Apostolic Roman Church. They want people to all come back and all be together with a new catechism. Actually, this book is about 800 pages. I've read through it a couple of times. We have actually taught a number of courses in our Sunday school class on its contents, which clearly identify this church as a cult.
In 2002, the Pope called again all the religions of the world together. It will make goose bumps on your arm if you think about it. The book of Revelation talks about all of the religions uniting in a great super church, which is not, by the way, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, because His believers will be persecuted by the Church.
If you've never read this book, A Woman Rides the Beast, by A. Hunt, you must. You may not find it in a Christian bookstore, but they can order it. It is the most excellent book about the history of the Roman Church. It helps you understand how it all fits into prophecy right now.
(To be continued, just one more to go.)
How the Church Got To Where It Is Today pt.5 of 7
Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy.
In His fellowship,
Brother JohnHow the Church Got To Where It Is Today
By Fred Whitman The Pope proclaimed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary to be dogma, so a person claiming to be a Catholic absolutely has to believe it. There was a struggle then in church because there was another problem in Italy. Garibaldi! He had a thousand soldiers, and they were marching up to Italy, defeating all the independent states, because they wanted a unified Italy. One of the biggest obstacles was the Papal States of the Roman Catholic Church. They owned about a quarter of all the landmass of Italy. Right in the center, they owned the whole thing. Abraham Lincoln sent money, a ship, and troops to help Garibaldi in his fight against the Pope. As you know, a little bit of history, in 1865 the Civil War had ended. The only foreign government that ever officially recognized the confederate states was the Vatican. Among other things, there was a plot on the life of Abraham Lincoln. On April 14, 1865, he was murdered. Most of the people directly involved in that assassination were Roman Catholics. Many of them escaped into French Quebec and never faced Justice, and so it would seem to link Pope Pius IX directly with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
I was just there at Ford's Theater/ and I was talking to the orator who just retired, I said, "In all your reading/ did you ever find anything that talked about Pope Pius IX involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln?" He replied/ "Oh, yes." In 1871, the Roman Church was in danger of a seism over the new dogma of the Immaculate Conception, so Pope Pius IX called the first Vatican Council. It's interesting, there was a separate council being held at that time, too, by a bunch of dissidents, and I actually have a copy of the letter that Giuseppe Garibaldi actually wrote to these dissidents that were meeting, encouraging them in their fight against the Roman Church on this point What came out of the first Vatican Council? One thing: the Pope is infallible. This is dogma. Anything he says about religious, spiritual, or moral things cannot be wrong. He is infallible. And why do you think he had to do that? Well, because so many of the people were ready to leave this church and Pope Pius IX because they didn't follow this thing about the Immaculate Conception of Mary. To prove he was right and to defend himself, he said, "You have to believe that because I said it," and he proclaimed himself infallible. That's what came out of the first Vatican Council.
(To be continued)
How the Church Got To Where It Is Today pt.4 of 7
Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy.
In His fellowship,
Brother John
How the Church Got To Where It Is Today
By Fred Whitman
Let's take a jump up to the 1800s. Pope Pius IX was Pope in a very interesting time period. There was the Civil War. Before, that, I'll back up a little bit. There was a priest out in Illinois. His name was Charles Chiniquy. He was sent by the Chicago diocese down to Kankakee, St. Anne, Illinois to start a colony of the French-Canadian Catholics. He went down there and built a huge Catholic church. But as he was teaching, he came to a knowledge of salvation by grace through faith. When he got saved, he started preaching the Gospel from the altar in Kankakee. At a certain point he told the people, "Look, I have no choice. I am leaving the Roman Church. I cannot stay here with what I know. If any of you want to leave with me, please rise to your feet." And this entire congregation of this huge church that he built in the 1850s, all stood to their feet. And he said, "Wait a minute. Maybe you don't understand." Then he went on to talk to them about how he would be persecuted and was going to suffer for the Lord, and do all that. And he said, "If you, however, want to stay with me, we'll start a Bible-believing church, please be seated." And the entire congregation sat down. What they did was they took all the statues out of the church. This church became a Bible-preaching Presbyterian church. This church in Kankakee has been rebuilt in the 1800s. I have been there. I don't know if they preach the Gospel now or not, but they did for many, many years. During that time period, Charles Chiniquy was accused by the Catholic church of adultery and all kinds of things because they wanted to ruin his name. They couldn't stand this very well known priest becoming an evangelical, and so Chiniquy found himself in Court. He was defended in Court by a young Prairie lawyer by the name of Abraham Lincoln. I have read these Court accounts in the Springfield, Illinois library - the original newspapers from that time period - and how Lincoln defended Chiniquy and made the clerics look like absolute fools in the victory in Court. However, it was not due to Lincoln's prowess.
The night before the final hearing, Abraham Lincoln came to the hotel room .of Chiniquy to express his concern for the way the trial was going. The Roman Church had sent in many false witnesses, and it didn't look like the judge would rule in favor of Chiniquy. Abraham Lincoln told his client to pray for a miracle, as only God could turn things around. During the night a lady arrived by train who had been a witness to the Priests plotting the destruction of Chiniquy. When the news got out that she was in town, the priests all fled rather than facing charges of perjury.
The next morning the judge called Court to order, but not one of those who accused Chiniquy were present. He had no choice but to rule in favor of Mr. Chiniquy, and thus the charges were dropped. Mr. Lincoln also refused to charge Chiniquy; he was so pleased with this victory over the Roman clerks. The charges against Chiniquy were dropped, but he warned Lincoln that they would not let him go for this. On many occasions, Chiniquy warned Lincoln that the Roman Church was going to get him.
In 1854, some children in Europe saw a vision (remember Galatians 1 where Paul talks about visions) of a beautiful woman who appeared, and she said to them, "I am the Immaculate Conception." From that, Pope Pius IX claimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
I grew up in New York with a lot of Catholic friends. I always thought that the
8th of December, the Immaculate Conception was talking about Jesus, and I couldn't figure out how the Immaculate Conception was on December 8th and Christmas was on December 25th. Then I found out that the Immaculate Conception was Mary. They teach that SHE was conceived and born without sin.
(To be continued)
How the Church Got To Where It Is Today pt.3
Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy.
In His fellowship,
Brother John
How the Church Got To Where It Is Today
By Fred Whitman
The Bible was outlawed, for over 300 years the Bible was actually outlawed by the Roman Church. People want to rewrite history. They want to say, "Did that really happen?" Well, I have my proof. It’s a little Testament that I found in an antique bookshop in Italy. It was printed in Holland in 1665, probably brought down into Italy by some reformed missionary. This little Testament looks just like new. Now, how could a New Testament be 350 years old and be like new? Well, on the flyleaf of this New Testament is written the word "Proibito." This Bible was confiscated. Who knows where the owner ended up, but this is a testimony of this terrible time when in the Council of Trent, the Bible was outlawed. I should add that for about 1,000 years, any translation outside of Latin was prohibited. Very few common people would understand Latin. In the Council of Trent was designed the Counter — Reformation. How could the Church fight what was going on? A new order was formed, the Jesuit Movement. Ignatius Loyola became the head general of these soldiers for Jesus, responsible only to the Pope.
Their purpose was to eliminate the heretics. In fact, I have another book I picked up that was printed in the 1600s, printed by the Roman Church, The Inquisition, explaining how to identify, prosecute, and eliminate heretics. Now a heretic could be a word for a believer, like us, it could also be a Jew, or it could be an atheist. They didn't care. But it was a terrible, terrible time for fear and persecution coming out of the Council of Trent. That lasted for 300 years. It's interesting; 300 years were at the beginning in which the church was grouped under the persecution of the pagan Roman emperors, and 300 years now under the Counter - Reformation emanating out of Rome under the direction of the Popes. New groups were springing up all over the place. Of course, we can thank the Counter - Reformation for the fact that we're Americans irt this country, because the Pilgrims came here to get away from that. They wanted to find a place where they could worship the Lord in peace and tranquility. And that's why they came to America, founding a new nation.
Another important decision at the Council of Trent was there were some additional books of the Bible added that were never, never included in inspired writ; never, by Jews or by Christians. But they were added in the Council of Trent, because one of these books talked about purgatory, one of these books talks about when a person is dead, and some of these things. What happens is, they are sincerely looking, and they read the Catholic Bible, and they read our Bible, and they say, "Hey! These Bibles say the same thing!" Then they read the bottom of the page where the Catholic Bible explains everything, and they say, "Well, that explanation has nothing to do with what that verse says," and then they read the Bible, hi my opinion, the key (KEY) book for dealing with Roman Catholics is the book of Hebrews. It is a difficult book, and maybe if you get somebody to read it together with you, you can share your faith. It talks about the priesthood of the Jews, replaced by our eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ. There are so many parallels from the book of Hebrews that are drawn over into what the Lord Jesus actually did on the Cross and has accomplished through us.
(To be continued)
How The Church Got To Where It Is Today pt. 2
Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy.
In His fellowship,
Brother John
How the Church Got to Where it is Today by Fred Whitman
Around the year 1200, the church came up with the idea of celibacy. It was forced celibacy for the priests and nuns. I could go into a lot of detail about that, and you know where that has taken us, and what's all coming out now, here in America, which is NO news. It's nothing new. It's been like that for a long time. It's just that frightened people are having the courage to stand up and talk about it. Sure someone chooses celibacy for the kingdom of God, to not marry, but in course of history, how many single men and women have left for the mission fields for God? It's not brought against that, but the point was, Paul said to Timothy that it isn't necessary. Pastors should be the husband of one wife, his children are in submission, and so if he doesn't know how to rule his own house, how could he rule a church? The biblical teaching is so plain, but then the Bible wasn't in the language of the people. In fact, it was against church law to translate the Bible into any language. According to church law, the only "inspired" version was Jerome's Latin Vulgate. That is the reason why the Roman Church was so much against Tyndale and Huss. Their having to put the Bible in the language of the people was their biggest problem with the Catholic Church and why they were persecuted and burned. Actually, Wycliffe’s bones were dug up and re-burned. Their problem was that they translated the Bible into the language of many people, and the Roman people did not want that.
Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic Augustinian Monk. He went to Rome. He had been teaching the book of Romans in his church in Wittenberg. That's a good place to start if you want to learn about God and salvation. He got to Rome and saw the moral decay, and he was amazed. He was appalled. He couldn't believe it when he saw how the Pope and Bishops and the Roman Cardinal were living. One of the things he did when he was in Rome was to go to the church of the Holy Stairs. The church is still there today. You can still go there, and when you walk in the front door, you'll see a sign on the wall. These steps were supposed to be brought to Rome by Helen, the mother of Constantine, from Palestine steps from Pilate's judgment hall that the Lord walked up. On these marble steps, there are a few spots that are red like red blood, and they put a glass cover over them. The sign says that if you go up these steps on your knees in a prayerful attitude, and say you're Rosary, you will earn one year and eleven days out of purgatory.
Martin Luther went in there and he was going up those stairs on his knees, and as he writes in one of his commentaries, while he was going up those steps on his knees, he came to the realization of salvation by grace, not by works. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God." He realized all those external things that he had been preaching and that he had been doing were totally vain before a holy and righteous God.
He went back to his church in Germany and wrote out what is called the 95 Thesis, in which he listed 95 conflicts between Roman doctrine and practice and the Bible. And I have to say that today, with all the changes that we talk about, that about 75% of them are still absolutely practiced in the Roman Church. As this document was printed and spread over Europe, it was like a flame that ignited dry timber in that time period. Soon after, in 1525, the Anabaptist Movement began in Switzerland. This was a great movement, and people were leaving the Roman Church in droves. It was very, very scary. Almost as scary as today when they have been paying off so many millions in lawsuits for all these accusations against the priests, and they are scared about what they're going to do for money. So what did they do? They called the Council of Trent. Trent was a city in the mountains between Italy and Austria. So, the church leaders came from Northern Europe and on down, and those from the south in Italy came up to this city of Trent. Four basic things happened there. They defined the Roman Catholic doctrine. You may think it strange, but it is true. Although St. Thomas Aquinas and others had written their own thoughts on doctrine, the Roman church had never formulated its own statement of faith in all of these years. And how they were forced to do it was that all the Reform movements were writing their catechisms, their statements of faith. We can still get copies and translations of their statements of faith, their confessions. These confessions were written by Reformers. Well, the Roman Church found itself in a corner, and they actually wrote their doctrinal statement in a reaction to the little tiny groups scattered around Europe with their Bibles.
Something else came out of this council. The Bible was outlawed. They came up with a list of books that were absolutely causing them a lot of problems. They did not want people to read these books. Among these books, on a list called The Index was the Bible. It's hard to believe, but for over 300 years the Bible was actually outlawed by the Roman Church. (to be continued)
How The Church Got To Where It Is Today
Fred Whitman is a missionary supported by our local church. He is the Founder and president of a fundamental radio station in Italy. He also planted and pastors a Baptist church there as well. The following is a booklet that he wrote and gave away to those who wanted it. I am presenting it here essentially untouched and unedited. It may take several installments. My hope is that others will find his thoughts insightful and be blessed. Pray for Brother Fred and his family as they ministers to those in Italy. In His fellowship, Brother John How The Church Got To Where It Is Today by Fred Whitman
In A.D. 29, the Lord died on the Cross and rose again, and the Church was founded at Pentecost. You say, "29 A.D.? Why is that? I thought the Lord lived 33-Vi years of earthly ministry." Well, He did, but the fact is, a Friar in about the 5* century, who was trying to figure out the exact date of things, calculated the length of emperors and kingdoms and so on to come up with the exact date, because we can really pinpoint very closely the time when Jesus was born according to what is in the Bible. (Everybody thinks they can just change their calendar for the day when Jesus was born and start at zero.) The only problem was that the Friar had made a mistake of about four years. So Jesus was born 4 B.C., according to our calendar, the way we have it today.
In the first three centuries of Christianity, there was terrible, terrible persecution. It is interesting; in the book of Revelation, John talks about ten days of persecution, and it is very easy to look at those ten days in respect to ten Roman emperors starting with Nero. Nero was unbelievably wicked. To illuminate his garden parties on the Palestine Hill above the Forum, he would snatch up Christians and hang them up there and cover their bodies with pitch and burry them, and that is how he illuminated his garden parties. This was Nero. He was responsible for Paul's martyrdom by decapitation and probably Peter's martyrdom by crucifixion.
And we come to 313, Emperor Constantine. In Galatians 1, the Apostle Paul says something very important. He was very concerned about the Church and its future and the temptation that it would be to add new doctrines to the Church. In Galatians 1, he says that if an angel from heaven or even one of the apostles should give you a new doctrine that is not what we have taught, then let them be anathema.
So we have to say that from the closure of Scripture/ God is not speaking through specific Revelation, so when Constantine, in 313 saw a cross in the sky, and he heard a voice that said, "In this sign you will conquer," I personally do not believe that was his conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Because what happened at that point? At that point, the "Church" became united to politics, Church-State together, and we know that was NOT the teaching of the apostles. At that point things started to move in a wrong direction, and I look at that as the beginning of the end of the organized Roman church as far as it being the Church of Jesus Christ.
That united the church and government. Actually, about 150 years later, there was a Pope who took the title Pontefix Maximns, which means High Priest. This was the title that was given to the pagan High Priest of Rome. There was a pagan religion in Rome and there was the "Christian" religion in Rome, and at this point, the two merged. Talk about Ecumenism! That was the beginning of it right there.
There were good people all throughout history. Around 450, a man by the name of Jerome lived in a cave outside of Bethlehem with his pet lion. For 19 years, by candlelight, he translated the O.T. Hebrew into Latin and the N.T. Greek into Latin. That translation came to be known as the Latin Vulgate. That translation has been the basis for the Roman Catholic Bible ever since. In fact, later on, the persecution against a lot of reformers was not so much on the doctrinal factor that was important, but their major problem was that they had translated the Bible into the language of the people, and although that's what Jerome had done in the 5th century, successively the Roman church did not Want the Bible put in their language.
Around the year 900, the Rosary was invented. By that time the Roman Church was teaching salvation by works. A part of these works were the prayers said for penance. And you had to keep track. The Rosary was developed. One Our Fatter, ten Hail Mary’s, one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s, and so on the prayers go. But the Rosary wasn't designed by the Roman Church. Three centuries earlier, the Muslims had developed prayer beads. You can sometimes see, in the Mid-East, ladies standing outside with little prayer beads; they're not Catholics. Some of them could be nuns, but most of them are probably Muslims. They have prayer beads like the Rosary, and that's where it started.
(to be continued)
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