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)