Today is Sinulog. It breaks my heart how the idolatry of another Jesus is in the hearts of Cebuanos, the Jesus that "never grew up", the Señor Sto. Nino. I would often be called a bigot. However, I love Roman Catholics, and I want them to hear the Gospel. If we're going to look into the problem of Roman Catholicism, we need to look into the Bible (I will quote from the Good News Translation, often used by Roman Catholics) to show the problem behind this "other Gospel".
Galatians 1:6-10
6 I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ,and are accepting another gospel. 7 Actually, there is no “other gospel,” but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell! 9 We have said it before, and now I say it again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, may he be condemned to hell!
10 Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God's approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ.
The context of Galatians is that of the Judaizers. The Judaizers didn't deny Jesus' deity. The Judaizers, however, denied that what Jesus did was enough and that people needed to add their own contribution. Roman Catholicism claims to have this "strong foundation" as a three-legged stool. However, in reality, the foundation is confused. By putting the Magisterium (church authority) equal to tradition and Scripture, rather than putting the church authority and tradition under Scripture.
Mystery Babylon, Roman Catholicism, admits this in her teachings. The Dei Verbum, by the late Paul VI, one of the previous papal antichrists, writes this:
9. Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.(6)
The problem is that it has put tradition equal to Scripture rather than the other way around. This was created the problem of how Canon Law from Roman Catholicism says the following:
Canon 11. If anyone says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins, excluding grace and charity which is poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit and inheres in them, or also that the grace which justifies us is only the favour of God, let him be anathema.
Canon 12. If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema.
Canon 24. If anyone says that the justice (righteousness) received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of the increase, let him be anathema.
Canon 30. If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.
Canon 32. If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified; or that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ (of whom one is a living member), the justified does not truly merit an increase of grace, and eternal life, provided that one dies in the state of grace, the attainment of this eternal life, as well as an increase in glory, let him be anathema.
Roman Catholicism admits we are saved initially by faith. However, Roman Catholicism contradicts itself with the Canon Law. It makes you wonder what the source of the final authority is? Roman Catholicism loves to brag that it gave the world the Bible, while well-documented history has proven she has forbidden Bible reading for some time. How can an institution that claimed to be founded in 33 A.D. actually forbid people from reading the Bible, when the Lord Jesus Himself said, "Search the Scriptures"? Paul even wrote in Romans 11:6 that we can never be saved by both faith and works. Galatians 2:21 says if righteousness were gained by human effort, then Christ died for nothing. It's like throwing used menstrual clothes at the finished work on Jesus on the cross!
The Gospel Roman Catholics have offers no assurance. They have used verses like Philippians 2:12, Ephesians 2:10, James 2:14-26, and some Catholic jokers say Protestants are just afraid of those verses. However, when I ask for expository preaching or verse-by-verse preaching, they wouldn't want it. The priestly short homily is more appealing to them! It's no surprise, given their total depravity, that the true Gospel, which requires repentance of sin and humility, is utterly distasteful. The humbling Gospel gives no one the right to boast!
The Roman Catholic "gospel" becomes dependent on:
- Sacraments are a way to secure salvation rather than grace for sanctification, therefore confusing salvation with sanctification. Sanctification doesn't save, but salvation will inevitably lead to sanctification. This is one way to enslave people by making them believe that priests save souls. In reality, it has become a blackmail engine.
- Absolute submission to the Roman pontiff for salvation. This was from the Unam Sanctum of Pope Boniface VII, where obedience becomes more needed for salvation than salvation producing obedience.
- Telling people they aren't good enough to go to God directly. This creates a complicated network that in order for you to pray for others, you must pass through Mary or the saints, the priests, etc. The priest is operating in Ex Opere Operato and In Persona Christi, where the ritual becomes more important than the lifestyle of the priest in practice.
Roman Catholics must ask themselves, "Will I believe the priest and those traditions over the simple written Word of God?" Thankfully, God has called out His elect from Babylon (Revelation 18:4). When God calls His people, they will get out of any sinister world system, including Mystery Babylon!