The Leaven of Popery

"The bitterest enemies against the doctrine of election are the Papists. This is exactly what might be expected, for the truth of election can never be made to square with the dogma of human merits—the one is diametrically opposed to the other. Every man who loves himself and seeks salvation by his own works, will loathe sovereign grace, and seek to load it with contempt. On the other hand, those who have been effectually humbled by the Holy Spirit and brought to realize that they are utterly dependent upon the discriminating mercy of God will have no hankerings after, nor patience with a system which sets the crown of honour upon the creature. History bears ample testimony that Rome detests the very name of Calvinism. “From all sects there may be some hope of obtaining converts to Rome except Calvinism,” said the late “Cardinal” Manning. And he was right, as our own degenerate age bears full witness, for while no regenerated Calvinist will ever be fatally deceived by the wiles of the Mother of Harlots, yet thousands of “Protestant” (?) Arminians are annually rushing to her arms.

It is an irrefutable fact that as Calvinism has met with less and less favour in the leading Protestant bodies, as the sovereignty of God and His electing love have been more and more crowded out of their pulpits, that Rome has made increasing progress, until today she must have both in England and in the U.S.A. a greater number of followers than any single evangelical denomination. But saddest of all is that the vast majority of those now occupying so-called Protestant pulpits are preaching the very things which further Rome’s interests. Their insistence upon the freedom of fallen man’s will to do good must fill the papist leaders with delight—in the Council of Trent she condemned all who affirmed the contrary. To what extent the leaven of Popery has spread may be seen in that “Evangelical Protestants” (?) who oppose the doctrine of election are now employing the self same objections..." —A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Excerpt taken from a article titled "The Doctrine of Election" published October, 1939 in "Studies in the Scriptures" by A. W. Pink (1886–1952)

Blast from the Past

With all the media coverage of the Pope being in America this week, I thought I would actually sit down and see what takes place during the mass at Yankee Stadium today. To be honest I found it to be extremely disgusting to see so much praise and honor going out to a mere sinful man in the name of Christ as the Cardinal who welcomed the Pope called him the Holy Father a number of times and once he even called him the Supreme Shepherd. So with all this attention I thought it would be appropriate to bring up a post from the past with some media coverage of my own by Dr. John MacArthur discussing "The Pope and the Papacy" brought to you by Way of The Master Radio.

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"We must have no truce, no treaty with Rome. War! War to the knife with her! Peace there cannot be. She cannot have peace with us—we cannot have peace with her. She hates the true Church, and we can only say that the hatred is reciprocated. We would not lay a hand upon her priests; we would not touch a hair of their heads. Let them be free; but their doctrine we would destroy from the face of the earth as the doctrine of devils. So let it perish, O God, and let that evil thing become as the fat of lambs. Into smoke let it consume: yea into smoke let it consume away." —C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

The Ineradicable Taint of Sin

I was reading "God's Way of Holiness" by Horatius Bonar and I came across this quote and just had to share it.

"Romish devotees, with fastings and flagellations, in addition to earnest words, have tried to extirpate the wrong and nourish the right. Groping after righteousness, yet not knowing what righteousness is, nor how it comes to us, they have built themselves up in self-righteousness. Professing to seek holiness, without understanding its nature, they have snared themselves in delusions which bring no purity. Bent, as they say, upon "mortifying the flesh," falsely identifying "the flesh" with the mere body, and working upon the theology which teaches that it is the body which ruins the soul, they lay great stress on weakening and macerating the corporeal frame, not knowing that they are thus feeding sin, fostering pride, making the body less fit to be the helpmeet of the soul, and thereby producing unholiness of the darkest type in the eye of God. By rules of no gentle kind: by terror, by pain, by visions of death and the grave, by pictures of a fiercely flaming hell, by the denial of all certainty in pardon, they have sought to terrify or force themselves into goodness. By long prayers, by bitter practices of self-denial, by slow chants at midnight or early morn in dim cathedrals, by frequent sacraments, by deep study of old fathers, by the cold of wintry solitude, by multiplied deeds of merit and will-worship, they have thought to expel the demon, and to eradicate "the ineradicable taint of sin."" —Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

Christless Christianity

This is a must read article by Dr. Michael Horton of Modern Reformation and host of The White Horse Inn, titled Christless Christianity.

"Jesus was not revolutionary because he said we should love God and each other. Moses said that first. So did Buddha, Confucius, and countless other religious leaders we've never heard of. Madonna, Oprah, Dr. Phil, the Dali Lama, and probably a lot of Christian leaders will tell us that the point of religion is to get us to love each other. "God loves you" doesn't stir the world's opposition. However, start talking about God's absolute authority, holiness, wrath, and righteousness, original sin, Christ's substitutionary atonement, justification apart from works, the necessity of new birth, repentance, baptism, Communion, and the future judgment, and the mood in the room changes considerably."

Religion of Monsters

From the year 500 to 1500 roughly, is the period known as the Dark Ages during that period guess who ruled the western world? The Church, the Holy Roman Catholic Church ruled the world yet it is called the Dark Ages. It is estimated that millions of Christians died for their faith during the Dark Ages at the hands of the Papacy. Here are just a few quotes from historical Christians on the subject of the Pope and the Papacy.

"We here are of the conviction that the Papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist. I owe the Pope no other obedience than that I owe to Antichrist." —Martin Luther (1483-1546)

"The Papacy is the very Antichrist, the Pope being the son of perdition of whom Paul speaks." —John Knox (1505-1572)

"The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian church. And in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness on them." —Cotton Mather (1663–1728)

"It is the bound and duty of every Christian to pray against this Antichrist and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the popery in the church of Rome, there’s nothing in the world that can be called by that name." —Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

"As a nation, what have we done? We have cherished in our bosoms the serpent Popery; and it is at the present moment endeavouring to sting us to death." —William Howels (1778-1832)

"Wherefore, my beloved, flee from Idolatry, flee from Popery; take heed of that Religion that brings forth so many Monsters." —Thomas Watson (1515-1584)

"The church of England is the creature of the bishops, the bishops derive their authority from the pope, and the authority of the pope has come from the devil." —John Lilburne (1614-1657)

"Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Pontiff Antichrist, but those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself after whom we speak and whose language we adopt. I shall briefly show that Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2 are not capable of any other interpretation than that which implies them to the Papacy." —John Calvin (1509-1564)

"There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalted himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God." —The Westminster Confession, 1647

"Dost thou hear me, pope of Rome? Thou art the greatest sinner of all: thy throne is not suspended from heaven, but fixed to the gate of hell. Who gave thee power to set thyself above thy God, and trample under feet His precepts and commandments?" —Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Proud Nonsense

"We have some who preach Calvinism all the first part of the sermon, and finish up with Arminianism, because they think that will make them useful. Useful nonsense!—That is all it is." —C.H. Spurgeon

"Hence it is, that natural men are generally so fond of Arminian principles. "Do and live," is the native language of a proud, self-righteous heart." —George Whitfield

"If you don’t believe that God is the Sovereign One who is determining who is being saved, then you must believe it’s your job. I’d be out of the ministry if I was an Arminian. I don’t want that responsibility." —John MacArthur

"There are many would have peace with the destroying of truth; peace with Arminian, Socinian, Antiscripturist. This is a peace of the devil’s making." —Thomas Watson

"If we sum up the evidence that has been given, we shall find its amount to be, that Arminianism came from the Church of Rome, and leads back again to the pit whence it was digged." — Augustus Toplady

"I have not discovered half the poison contained in the Arminian doctrine concerning God’s decrees, I will in brief present to your view the opposition that is in this matter betwixt the word of God and the patrons of free-will." —John Owen

"So that let Arminians turn which way they please with their notion of liberty, consisting in the Will determining its own acts, their notion destroys itself." —Jonathan Edwards

"[Arminianism is] the Pope's Benjamin, the last and greatest monster of the man of sin; the elixir of Anti- Christianism; the mystery of the mystery of iniquity; the Pope's cabinet; the very quintessence of equivocation." —Alexander Leighton

"What are the new Arminians but the varnished offspring of the old Pelagians, that makes the grace of God to lackey it at the foot, or rather, the will of man? that makes the sheep to keep the shepherd?" —Christopher Ness

"Arminianism is thus guilty of confusing doctrines and of acting as an obstruction to a clear and lucid grasp of the Scripture; because it mis-states or ignores the eternal purpose of God, it dislocates the meaning of the whole plan of redemption. Indeed confusion is inevitable apart from this foundational truth [of election]." —C. H. Spurgeon

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So if you would allow me to paraphrase.

"Arminianism is a half poisoned self righteous man of sin who's heart is full of proud nonsense that is of the devil's own making which leads back to the pit of Rome and produces a confusing offspring of the old Pelagian monster that destroys itself and truth in the mystery of iniquity."

That may have been a bit over the top.

His Absurdness

There are so many disturbing comments coming from the Pope in this article at MSNBC that I'm at a loss of where to start. I guess I'll just let you make the connection. I can't imagine a Christian in their right mind that would take spiritual advice from a man who thinks that the clash between creationism and evolution was an "absurdity," and also claims that evolution "enriches our understanding of life". When I compare those two statements with the Word of God written in the Bible, its the Pope who is left looking absurd!

"This obedience to the voice of the Earth is more important for our future happiness ... than the desires of the moment. Our Earth is talking to us and we must listen to it and decipher its message if we want to survive." - Pope Benedict XVI

Who is this Pope?

With all the recent attention to my post on the "Pope and The Papacy" I thought it would be fitting to let you hear just what Mr. Spurgeon really thought of the Pope.

"Who is this pope of Rome? His Holiness? Call him not so, but call him His Blasphemy! His Profanity! His Impudence! What are he and his cardinals, and his legates, but the image and incarnation of Antichrist, to be in due time cast with the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire?" - C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Excerpt taken from the "Treasury of David" Psalm 108 by Charles H. Spurgeon

Pope and The Papacy

If it wasn't for copyright infringements I would post every John MacArthur sermon I have ever bought for you to download which is about 100 but Acts 24:16 teaches me to keep a clear conscience before God and men, with that said The Way of The Master radio has published one of my favorite sermons by John MacArthur on the subject of The Pope and The Papacy in two parts with some commercial and comment breaks. This is a powerful message that exposes the truth that is behind the Pope and his office and I am sure it will anger many.

"We must have no truce, no treaty with Rome. War! war to the knife with her! Peace there cannot be. She cannot have peace with us—we cannot have peace with her. She hates the true Church, and we can only say that the hatred is reciprocated. We would not lay a hand upon her priests; we would not touch a hair of their heads. Let them be free; but their doctrine we would destroy from the face of the earth as the doctrine of devils. So let it perish, O God, and let that evil thing become as the fat of lambs. Into smoke let it consume: yea into smoke let it consume away." - C. H. Spurgeon

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