This learned Jesuit priest Mitch Pacwa is on EWTN for his Tuesday night show telling Roman Catholics that Vatican II didn't change any of the church's teachings. Baloney. It totally accepted ecuminism, which was totally rejected by the church prior to Vatican II. (See required-for-salvation teaches of various popes below).
Then "Father" Mitch Pacwa launches into the ecumenical teachings of Vatican II- and tells everybody that Protestants can be saved because, according to Vatican II, they have "elements of truth" in their churches--such as baptism. Then Mitch reminds us that Vatican II tells us that the Orthodox Church has true priests and sacraments and though neither of these share in the "fullness" of the Catholic Church (Roman Pope and those in communion) they can be saved.
Of course, he (Mitch) fails to mention that numerous popes thoughout the history of the church have soundly condemned to hell Protestants, Eastern Orthodox and all others who are outside the Catholic Church. In other words, believe Jesuit "Father" Mitch and his heretical Roman Catholic Church at your own peril--according to many of his own popes throughout the ages....who issued the following required-for-salvation teachings:
Whoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress – Pope Leo XIII
Only Catholics can be considered Christians – Pope Pius VI D. 1500
Heretics such as Protestants, Jews, and Muslims are completely separated from the Body of Christ – Pope Eugene IV
Catholics must anathematize (condemn to hell) all heretics – Pope St. Martin 1
It is not against the will of God to burn heretics – Pope Leo X
Protestants have not the Trinity, life or salvation. – Pope Leo XIII
Outside the Church there is no true worship of God – Pope Gregory XVI
Non-Catholic worship is a disgrace and forbidden – Pope Clement V
The State must forbid non-Catholic religions – Pius IX
To be Christian, one must believe in the Papacy – Pius VI
One is not the child of God the Father, unless he takes the Church for his mother – Leo XIII
Whoever is outside the Catholic Church is not our brother. – Pope Leo XII
Outside the Church there is absolutely no salvation. – Pope Leo X
Heretics are the gates of Hell – Pope Vigilius
Ecumenism can meet with no kind of approval among Catholics – Pope Pius XI
To foster ecumenism is to reject the true religion – Pope Pius XI
Civil authority must be subject to the Church’s authority – Pope Boniface VIII
Those who die in mortal sin are destined for Hell – Pope Benedict XII
Only Catholics worship God – Pope Gregory XVI
The Catholic Church condemns all contrary opinions – Pope Eugene IV
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
ELCA - real Christian church?
I must ask, how is it that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which claims to be Christian, would ever have in good standing anyone such a Tiller who so easily destroyed lives in thousands of wombs. The fact that the ELCA permitted such moral hypocrisy within its doors is a demonstration of its own apostasy.
Jesus said in Matt. 7:3-5, "And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."
Our obligation as Christians is to first clean our own house and then look outward. If the Christian Church is not strong enough to expel the ungodly from its own doors, it will never be able to be a light to the unbelievers. And we will lose the cultural and moral war -- and with that, we will lose this country. Therefore, pray that the Lord God would clean the Christian Church.
But, I warn you. Praying for such a thing often brings what we are not prepared to accept: persecution. Persecution has been throughout the centuries one of the chief means by which God purifies his Church. We need purification and might be that persecution is how we are to be purified. So, if you desire the Church to be purified, pray that it be done according to God's will and that, if possible, persecution would be avoided. Rather, pray that God would send his Spirit and bring repentance to this nation.In the meantime, pray for the purification and strengthening of the body of Christ.
Matt Slick http://www.carm.org/
Jesus said in Matt. 7:3-5, "And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."
Our obligation as Christians is to first clean our own house and then look outward. If the Christian Church is not strong enough to expel the ungodly from its own doors, it will never be able to be a light to the unbelievers. And we will lose the cultural and moral war -- and with that, we will lose this country. Therefore, pray that the Lord God would clean the Christian Church.
But, I warn you. Praying for such a thing often brings what we are not prepared to accept: persecution. Persecution has been throughout the centuries one of the chief means by which God purifies his Church. We need purification and might be that persecution is how we are to be purified. So, if you desire the Church to be purified, pray that it be done according to God's will and that, if possible, persecution would be avoided. Rather, pray that God would send his Spirit and bring repentance to this nation.In the meantime, pray for the purification and strengthening of the body of Christ.
Matt Slick http://www.carm.org/
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
annulment concerns
The first of this year, the pope expressed concern about the number of annulments that were being granted and renewed calls for better guidelines.
Novusordowatch characterized the pope's concern as nothing more than "crocodile tears" :
'Pope' expresses concern over annulmentshttp://www.novusordowatch.org/archive2009-1.htm"The Holy Father focused his remarks on questions concerning mental incapacity in causes of nullity of marriage, which were raised by John Paul II in his addresses to the Roman Rota of 1987 and 1998. John Paul II's words, he said, 'give us the basic criteria, not only for studying the psychiatric and psychological examinations, but also for the judicial definition of the causes.'"
Novusordowatch Comments: The explosion of annulments ('Catholic divorces') after Vatican II has been such a scandal that on occasion Novus Ordo 'Popes' have felt compelled to feign concern. There is a very good reason that yearly figures for decrees of nullity went from under 1000 worldwide prior to the advent of the counterfeit church to a near-incomprehensible 50,000+ in the United States alone, and this reason is that dubious new causes of nullity were introduced (such as immaturity)―causes that had no precedent in the history of the Church―that made virtually any marriage a potential casualty. In millions of cases since the end of the Council, perfectly valid marriages have been declared null and families torn asunder.
Benedict, following the example of John Paul II, each January voices concern over the annulment scandal, but proceeds to do nothing whatsoever that would defend the sacrament.
No true Pope remotely concerned about the salvation of souls would for a moment permit such a state of affairs to continue, one that puts souls at risk in a twofold manner: 1. Assists the breakup of spouses, who are by the marital bond obliged to aid each other in the path to eternal life, and 2. Divides the family in such a way that the children, too, are at greater risk of damnation by being raised in a needlessly broken home. (Granted, in some cases there are situations that call for separation of spouses, but that does not involve trauma of a permanent and irreparable severing of marriage.)
Again, the falsity of Benedict's supposed concern, just like that of John Paul II, is unmistakable by his utter lack of action. Let no one be deceived by the rhetoric; this man is no friend of families.---Novusordowatch.org
see 29-January-2009 -- Vatican Information Service
The pope focused his remarks on questions about the mental incapacity in cases of nullity of marriage, which were raised by John Paul II in his addresses to the Roman Rota of 1987 and 1998.
John Paul II's words, he said, "give us the basic criteria, not only for studying the psychiatric and psychological examinations, but also for the judicial definition of the causes".
Novusordowatch characterized the pope's concern as nothing more than "crocodile tears" :
'Pope' expresses concern over annulmentshttp://www.novusordowatch.org/archive2009-1.htm"The Holy Father focused his remarks on questions concerning mental incapacity in causes of nullity of marriage, which were raised by John Paul II in his addresses to the Roman Rota of 1987 and 1998. John Paul II's words, he said, 'give us the basic criteria, not only for studying the psychiatric and psychological examinations, but also for the judicial definition of the causes.'"
Novusordowatch Comments: The explosion of annulments ('Catholic divorces') after Vatican II has been such a scandal that on occasion Novus Ordo 'Popes' have felt compelled to feign concern. There is a very good reason that yearly figures for decrees of nullity went from under 1000 worldwide prior to the advent of the counterfeit church to a near-incomprehensible 50,000+ in the United States alone, and this reason is that dubious new causes of nullity were introduced (such as immaturity)―causes that had no precedent in the history of the Church―that made virtually any marriage a potential casualty. In millions of cases since the end of the Council, perfectly valid marriages have been declared null and families torn asunder.
Benedict, following the example of John Paul II, each January voices concern over the annulment scandal, but proceeds to do nothing whatsoever that would defend the sacrament.
No true Pope remotely concerned about the salvation of souls would for a moment permit such a state of affairs to continue, one that puts souls at risk in a twofold manner: 1. Assists the breakup of spouses, who are by the marital bond obliged to aid each other in the path to eternal life, and 2. Divides the family in such a way that the children, too, are at greater risk of damnation by being raised in a needlessly broken home. (Granted, in some cases there are situations that call for separation of spouses, but that does not involve trauma of a permanent and irreparable severing of marriage.)
Again, the falsity of Benedict's supposed concern, just like that of John Paul II, is unmistakable by his utter lack of action. Let no one be deceived by the rhetoric; this man is no friend of families.---Novusordowatch.org
see 29-January-2009 -- Vatican Information Service
The pope focused his remarks on questions about the mental incapacity in cases of nullity of marriage, which were raised by John Paul II in his addresses to the Roman Rota of 1987 and 1998.
John Paul II's words, he said, "give us the basic criteria, not only for studying the psychiatric and psychological examinations, but also for the judicial definition of the causes".
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Apparitions and Roman Catholic Doctrine
By Timothy F. Kauffman for http://www.trinityfoundation.org/
Editor's note: This essay was written as Roman Catholicism prepared to mark the 150th anniversary (in 2008) of the appearance of a Marian Apparition at Lourdes, France to an illiterate peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous. Since that time, Lourdes has been a destination for millions of Roman Catholics who seek both healing and salvation.
In 2007 Benedict XVI established regular airline flights from Rome to Lourdes and offered plenary indulgences to the Roman Catholic faithful in order to encourage pilgrimages to the site of the Apparition. He eventually proclaimed the Jubilee of Lourdes. We here offer an essay about these Marian Apparitions at Lourdes and the role they have played in the development of Roman Catholic doctrine.
Timothy Kauffman was reared from birth as a Roman Catholic, and he became a Christian in 1991 when he was 24 years old. He was trained by his mother from his youth to follow the Apparitions of Mary, pray the rosary, and wear his scapular and the Miraculous Medal. He now works as an engineer in Huntsville, Alabama, where he lives with his wife and three children.
He has written and published several books since his conversion, including Quite Contrary: A Biblical Reconsideration of the Apparitions of Mary; Graven Bread: The Papacy, the Apparitions of Mary, and the Worship of the Bread of the Altar; and Geese in Their Hoods: Selected Writings on Roman Catholicism by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
As meaningful quips go, it is hard to compete with Julius Caesar's brief summary of his exploits at the battle of Zela: Veni, vidi, vici: I came, I saw, I conquered.
If not its equal, then at least in the same league, is Sir Charles James Napier's alleged 1843 report that he had taken control of the Indian province of Sindh: Peccavi, or, literally, I have sinned. Sir Francis Drake joins their ranks with his report of the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588: Cantharides, the name of an aphrodisiac, here used cleverly as a proposition: The Spanish fly.
These statements (some of which may be apocryphal) have achieved notoriety because so much meaning was packed into so few words. The semantic density was prodigious, each statement being made even more meaningful by its timing and context. They are brought to the fore here because, as Marian Apparitions go, the message from Lourdes stands out for its brevity and its content among Roman Catholic theologians the same way Caesar's, Napier's, and Drake's do among historians.
Apparitions typically arrive with extensive messages for popes and pilgrims alike. The Marian Apparition at Paris in 1830 gave Roman Catholics the devotion and design of the popular "Miraculous Medal." The Marian Apparition at La Salette in 1846 gave explicit, and sometimes secret, messages to the children, some of which were addressed to and sent directly to the pope. The Marian Apparition at Fátima in 1917 had months of meetings with visionary Lucia Abóbora, coupled with public and private messages for the pope, culminating in a dramatic display of light.
The (officially unapproved) Marian Apparitions at Medjugorje since the 1980s have provided more than 30,000 messages, so many that they have since been compiled concordance-style into a tome called Words from Heaven, along with more secrets for the visionaries and for John Paul II. In these and many, many more occurrences of Apparitions, the visionaries have been encouraged to write down the messages (or images) and pass them on to others.
Marian Apparitions at Lourdes, France, 1858
But the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes were different. At the third of 18 appearances, illiterate Bernadette brought pen and paper asking the Apparition to write a message for her. The Apparition responded, "There is no need for me to write down what I have to say to you." Aside from an occasional imperative directing pilgrimages and a chapel, and a few secret messages for Bernadette alone, there were no messages of any substance for anyone else. The Lourdes Apparitions were almost wholly silent on matters of doctrine. Almost.
After weeks of public pressure for Bernadette to identify the Apparitions, the vision finally provided a name. At the 16th Apparition, when Bernadette asked once again for her name, the woman of the visions replied: Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou, or, I am the Immaculate Conception. The timing and context of the message was of monumental significance to Roman Catholics. The implications of this reply are better left to them to describe (emphases added):
The proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gave back vigor, in the mid-nineteenth century, to an exhausted Church…. And it is amazing that, four years after the proclamation of the dogma, on February 11, 1858, Our Lady appeared in Lourdes calling herself the Immaculate Conception, confirming the dogma. (1)
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was of some political importance to nineteenth-century Catholicism.… [It] was to most people as unapproachable as th e idea of the Trinity itself. Nevertheless, enthusiasm for the baffling new dogma was an important part of the French clergy's attempts to lead a nineteenth-century religious revival. Bernadette could hardly have provided a more welcome, or a more unexpected, name. (2)
This message [of Lourdes] can be summed up in the following four points [only the first of which is listed here]:
1. It is a heavenly confirmation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception that had just been defined by the Church a few years before. (3)
These are just a few citations from Roman Catholic sources. There are many more. The point is this: In 1854 Pius IX proclaimed a "baffling new dogma" that Mary was conceived without sin, and when the resulting controversy was in full bloom, the Apparition at Lourdes in 1858 confirmed that the dogma was true. Thus, an Apparition known largely for its brevity is believed to have played a role in confirming a controversial Roman Catholic doctrine, and at the same time confirming the authority of a pope to speak infallibly, simply by uttering five words in=2 0illiterate Bernadette's native dialect. What timing. What substance. As quips go, this was one for the record books.
Thus Lourdes enjoys and deserves a place of prominence among all Marian Apparitions, for it was the culmination of decades of its influence on the papacy, and also set the stage for two more of the most arrogant Roman Catholic doctrines of all time: the Infallibility of the Pope and the Bodily Assumption of Mary.
The Immaculate Conception of Mary
The belief that Mary was conceived without sin was not a new one, but nowhere is it recorded in the Scriptures, and nowhere had the church spoken unequivocally on it in all of its 1800 years. It certainly was not an article of faith. But in 1830, appearing to Catherine Labouré, the Apparition asked that a medal be struck in honor of Mary, explicitly referring to the immaculate conception:
At this moment, where I was or was not I do not know, an oval shape formed around the Blessed Virgin, and on it were written these words in letters of gold: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Then a voice was heard to say: "Have a medal struck after this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces; abundant graces will be given to those who have confidence." (4)
This would come to be known as the Miraculous Medal, and again, those who know of and study the Apparitions understand from this just how influential an Apparition can be in the Roman Catholic religion. The Apparitions do not merely reinforce existing beliefs; they actively introduce and influence new Roman Catholic teachings and practices:
While it is generally acknowledged that the great popularity of this "Miraculous Medal" helped prepare the way for Pope Pius IX's proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, it would seem that it also contributed substantially to the Church's formal approval of the authenticity of Catherine's visions. (5)
Apparitions and the Papacy
This extraordinary liaison between the papacy and the Apparitions is what makes Lourdes so important. Nowhere has the reciprocity between the Apparitions and the papacy been more clearly displayed than in the declaration of the Immaculate Conception doctrine:
Indeed, it is certain that the Apparitions of the Miraculous Medal to C atherine Labouré in 1830 hastened the solemn declaration of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, just as the Apparitions of Lourdes, wherein Our Lady declared: "I am the Immaculate Conception," set the seal of Heaven's approval on it. There was great joy in France in 1858 when it became known that Mary had appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, a peasant girl of the French Pyrenees. No one was happier than Catherine Labouré. "You see," she exclaimed, "it is our own Blessed Mother, the Immaculate!" (6)
Though it is not official Roman Catholic dogma that Marian Apparitions directly influence Vatican policy and teaching, it is clearly official Roman Catholic history. It is also very clearly a beloved and enthralling concept held by laity and clergy alike. Take for example the instructions from the Marian Apparition at Fátima in 1917. Visionary Lucia Abóbora explained: "What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one special day. If this is done, she will convert Russia and there will be peace." (7)
On March 2 5, 1984, John Paul II performed the consecration as the Apparition had instructed, making no secret of the fact that he was "responding to what Our Lady had requested at Fatima." (8)
Likewise, the Marian Apparition at La Salette sent secret messages to Pius IX in 1846. (9)Twenty-four years later, just five months before the first Vatican Council would proclaim the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, Pius IX received visionary Don Bosco in a private audience. Bosco had received certain "revelations" from an Apparition about the advancement of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility and needed desperately to relate the vision to the pope. The Apparition had provided directions for Pius IX to proceed with the doctrine even if he had only two bishops supporting him. (10) On July 18, 1870, the Vatican Council proceeded with the vote and Pius IX accomplished his desired infallibility, (1 1) showing that the Apparitions were intimately involved in the formalization of the infallibility doctrine, as well.
Keeping in mind that clergy and laity concur that the Marian Apparitions influenced the proclamations of the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility, it must be pointed out that these two dogmatic achievements by Pius IX led necessarily to the next "infallible" proclamation. In 1950 Pius XII proclaimed the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. In the preamble to the proclamation of the new dogma, Pius XII referred both to Mary, who was immaculate in her conception, and to the authority of the papacy, which was infallibly enabled to proclaim such a doctrine. (12) Thus, the Assumption Dogma rested on two very significant pillars that the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes had helped erect, pillars which simultaneously demanded the proclamation of the dogma and made the proclamation possible: Mary was assumed bodily into Heaven, without decay or corruption, because she was immaculate; and the papacy could proclaim the Assumption, because it was infallible. The Marian Apparition at Lourdes was central to them both, so significant was its simple utterance in 1858: Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou.
Demonic Apparitions
Not surprisingly, almost as soon as Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption, the Apparition began a new campaign for yet another Marian dogma to be declared. (13) But for its simplicity and its profound effect on Roman Catholic teaching, the Lourdes Apparition accomplished more, and said less, than practically any other speaking Apparition in history. On that note, what cannot be omitted in any discussion of the Marian Apparitions is that, in addition to being on speaking terms with both clergy and laity, they are also categorically demonic, something of which the papacy is apparently not aware. The extent to which the papacy and the Apparitions have communicated with each other is documented in this writer's other works, (14) as have their many teachings that show the Apparitions to be enemies of Christ. For example, the Marian Apparition at Fátima explicitly denied the finality of Christ's sacrifice, teaching that we should endure sufferings from God in order to pay for the sins of others:
Do you wish to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the suffering that He may please to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and to ask for=2 0the conversion of sinners? ...Pray, pray a great deal, make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to sacrifice and pray for them. (15) The Marian Apparition at La Salette taught that Mary suffers in our place, and that Mary serves as mediatrix to protect us from the wrath of her Son:
For a long time I have suffered for you; if I do not want my Son to abandon you, I am forced to pray to Him myself without ceasing. You pay no heed. However much you would do, you could never recompense the pain I have taken for you. (16)
If my people will not obey I shall be compelled to loose my Son's arm. It is so heavy, so pressing that I can no longer restrain it. (17)
Note that it is Jesus' arm, Jesus' wrath, Jesus' righteous indignation that would destroy us were it not for Mary's suffering, Mary's intercession, and Mary's offering of our sacrifices. This is the diabolical subtext of the Apparitions' teaching that Mary saves us from Jesus' wrath: God is enraged at the wounds inflicted on his Son and seeks repayment from us for the atrocity. The Marian Apparition at Medjugorje taught, "Dear children, this evening I pray that you especially venerate the Heart of my Son, Jesus. Make reparation for the wound inflicted on the Heart of my Son. That Heart is offended by all kinds of sin." (18) This statement portrays Christ's sufferings as the cause of our separation from God, when in fact Christ's sufferings are the cause of our reconciliation to God.
These evil tea chings are so un-Biblical that any schoolboy could refute them with the Scriptures: "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:17-18). "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). "He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). "When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Romans 5:10).
That the Apparitions could be so plainly wrong on the Gospel indicates their true origins. In Galatians 1:8 the Apostle Paul wrote: "But even if we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." There is therefore a simple message to be taken from the Marian Apparition at Lourdes, but it is not that Mary was conceived without sin, nor that the pope is infallible, nor that Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven. Rather, the true message of the Marian Apparitions is deduced from Matthew 16:18: "And I say also unto you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
The Marian Apparitions are from Hell itself, and they have had their way with the Roman Catholic Church, leaving Rome i n the damnable position of promulgating doctrines of demons. The conclusion cannot be avoided:
1. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against Christ's Church.
2. The gates of Hell have prevailed against the Roman Catholic Church.
3. Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church is not Christ's Church, and the pope is not His spokesman.
Otherwise intelligent men (James Dobson, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Charles Colson, Joel Osteen, and many, many more) have ignored this simple truth. But the Reformers knew it, embraced it, and even died for believing it. Let us hold fast to the faith of our forefathers, and recognize the passing of the 150th anniversary of the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes by acknowledging an inescapable truth: Hell has the ear of the Roman Catholic Church and speaks through her Magisterium. Ephesians 5:11 requires this of us saying, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Caesar, Napier, and Drake sent messages about famous battles, warfare, and shipwrecks. Let us be sure that our spiritual descendants hear a good report from us as well:
This charge I commit unto you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before you, that you by them might war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck [1 Timothy 1:18-19].
Acknowledging the truth about the Apparitions at Lourdes is a great place to start.
1. Vincenzo Sansonetti, in an interview with ZENIT, "Dogma of Immaculate Conception Opened a New Era," Rome, January 7, 2005.
2. Patrick Marnham, Lourdes: A Modern Pilgrimage. New York, 1980, 4, 8-9. Brackets added for clarity.
3. (Bishop) Donald Montrose, The Message of the Virgin at Lourdes, cited from CatholicCulture.org.
4. Ann Ball, A Litany of Mary. Huntington, Indiana, 1988, 73.
5. Sandra L. Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary. New York, 1991, 26.
6. Joseph Dirvin, D.M., Saint Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal. See http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/CATLABOU.htm.
7. William Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fátima. New York [1947] 1954, 221.
8. ZENIIT.org, "John Paul II Again Entrusts World to Mary, Renews Act of Consecration of 1984," March 24, 2000.
9. Zimdars-Swartz, 177-179.
10. Dreams, Visions & Prophecies of Don Bosco, Eugene M. Brown, editor. New Rochelle, New York, 1986, 114.
11. Vatican Council, Session IV, Chapter IV, July 18, 1870.
12. Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, AAS 42 (1950):761.
13. Zimdars-Swartz, 257-258.
14. See, for example, Quite Contrary: A Biblical Reconsideration of the Apparitions of Mary.
15. Walsh, Our Lady of Fátima, 51-52, 120.
16. Zimdars-Swartz, 30. Message of September 19, 1846.
17. Bob and Penny Lord, The Many Faces of Mary: A Love Story. Westlake Village, California, 1987, 70. Message of September 19, 1846.
18. Words from Heaven: Messages of Our Lady from Medjugorje, fifth edition. Birmingham, Alabama, 1991, 162. Message of April 5, 1985.
Editor's note: This essay was written as Roman Catholicism prepared to mark the 150th anniversary (in 2008) of the appearance of a Marian Apparition at Lourdes, France to an illiterate peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous. Since that time, Lourdes has been a destination for millions of Roman Catholics who seek both healing and salvation.
In 2007 Benedict XVI established regular airline flights from Rome to Lourdes and offered plenary indulgences to the Roman Catholic faithful in order to encourage pilgrimages to the site of the Apparition. He eventually proclaimed the Jubilee of Lourdes. We here offer an essay about these Marian Apparitions at Lourdes and the role they have played in the development of Roman Catholic doctrine.
Timothy Kauffman was reared from birth as a Roman Catholic, and he became a Christian in 1991 when he was 24 years old. He was trained by his mother from his youth to follow the Apparitions of Mary, pray the rosary, and wear his scapular and the Miraculous Medal. He now works as an engineer in Huntsville, Alabama, where he lives with his wife and three children.
He has written and published several books since his conversion, including Quite Contrary: A Biblical Reconsideration of the Apparitions of Mary; Graven Bread: The Papacy, the Apparitions of Mary, and the Worship of the Bread of the Altar; and Geese in Their Hoods: Selected Writings on Roman Catholicism by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
As meaningful quips go, it is hard to compete with Julius Caesar's brief summary of his exploits at the battle of Zela: Veni, vidi, vici: I came, I saw, I conquered.
If not its equal, then at least in the same league, is Sir Charles James Napier's alleged 1843 report that he had taken control of the Indian province of Sindh: Peccavi, or, literally, I have sinned. Sir Francis Drake joins their ranks with his report of the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588: Cantharides, the name of an aphrodisiac, here used cleverly as a proposition: The Spanish fly.
These statements (some of which may be apocryphal) have achieved notoriety because so much meaning was packed into so few words. The semantic density was prodigious, each statement being made even more meaningful by its timing and context. They are brought to the fore here because, as Marian Apparitions go, the message from Lourdes stands out for its brevity and its content among Roman Catholic theologians the same way Caesar's, Napier's, and Drake's do among historians.
Apparitions typically arrive with extensive messages for popes and pilgrims alike. The Marian Apparition at Paris in 1830 gave Roman Catholics the devotion and design of the popular "Miraculous Medal." The Marian Apparition at La Salette in 1846 gave explicit, and sometimes secret, messages to the children, some of which were addressed to and sent directly to the pope. The Marian Apparition at Fátima in 1917 had months of meetings with visionary Lucia Abóbora, coupled with public and private messages for the pope, culminating in a dramatic display of light.
The (officially unapproved) Marian Apparitions at Medjugorje since the 1980s have provided more than 30,000 messages, so many that they have since been compiled concordance-style into a tome called Words from Heaven, along with more secrets for the visionaries and for John Paul II. In these and many, many more occurrences of Apparitions, the visionaries have been encouraged to write down the messages (or images) and pass them on to others.
Marian Apparitions at Lourdes, France, 1858
But the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes were different. At the third of 18 appearances, illiterate Bernadette brought pen and paper asking the Apparition to write a message for her. The Apparition responded, "There is no need for me to write down what I have to say to you." Aside from an occasional imperative directing pilgrimages and a chapel, and a few secret messages for Bernadette alone, there were no messages of any substance for anyone else. The Lourdes Apparitions were almost wholly silent on matters of doctrine. Almost.
After weeks of public pressure for Bernadette to identify the Apparitions, the vision finally provided a name. At the 16th Apparition, when Bernadette asked once again for her name, the woman of the visions replied: Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou, or, I am the Immaculate Conception. The timing and context of the message was of monumental significance to Roman Catholics. The implications of this reply are better left to them to describe (emphases added):
The proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gave back vigor, in the mid-nineteenth century, to an exhausted Church…. And it is amazing that, four years after the proclamation of the dogma, on February 11, 1858, Our Lady appeared in Lourdes calling herself the Immaculate Conception, confirming the dogma. (1)
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was of some political importance to nineteenth-century Catholicism.… [It] was to most people as unapproachable as th e idea of the Trinity itself. Nevertheless, enthusiasm for the baffling new dogma was an important part of the French clergy's attempts to lead a nineteenth-century religious revival. Bernadette could hardly have provided a more welcome, or a more unexpected, name. (2)
This message [of Lourdes] can be summed up in the following four points [only the first of which is listed here]:
1. It is a heavenly confirmation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception that had just been defined by the Church a few years before. (3)
These are just a few citations from Roman Catholic sources. There are many more. The point is this: In 1854 Pius IX proclaimed a "baffling new dogma" that Mary was conceived without sin, and when the resulting controversy was in full bloom, the Apparition at Lourdes in 1858 confirmed that the dogma was true. Thus, an Apparition known largely for its brevity is believed to have played a role in confirming a controversial Roman Catholic doctrine, and at the same time confirming the authority of a pope to speak infallibly, simply by uttering five words in=2 0illiterate Bernadette's native dialect. What timing. What substance. As quips go, this was one for the record books.
Thus Lourdes enjoys and deserves a place of prominence among all Marian Apparitions, for it was the culmination of decades of its influence on the papacy, and also set the stage for two more of the most arrogant Roman Catholic doctrines of all time: the Infallibility of the Pope and the Bodily Assumption of Mary.
The Immaculate Conception of Mary
The belief that Mary was conceived without sin was not a new one, but nowhere is it recorded in the Scriptures, and nowhere had the church spoken unequivocally on it in all of its 1800 years. It certainly was not an article of faith. But in 1830, appearing to Catherine Labouré, the Apparition asked that a medal be struck in honor of Mary, explicitly referring to the immaculate conception:
At this moment, where I was or was not I do not know, an oval shape formed around the Blessed Virgin, and on it were written these words in letters of gold: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Then a voice was heard to say: "Have a medal struck after this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces; abundant graces will be given to those who have confidence." (4)
This would come to be known as the Miraculous Medal, and again, those who know of and study the Apparitions understand from this just how influential an Apparition can be in the Roman Catholic religion. The Apparitions do not merely reinforce existing beliefs; they actively introduce and influence new Roman Catholic teachings and practices:
While it is generally acknowledged that the great popularity of this "Miraculous Medal" helped prepare the way for Pope Pius IX's proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, it would seem that it also contributed substantially to the Church's formal approval of the authenticity of Catherine's visions. (5)
Apparitions and the Papacy
This extraordinary liaison between the papacy and the Apparitions is what makes Lourdes so important. Nowhere has the reciprocity between the Apparitions and the papacy been more clearly displayed than in the declaration of the Immaculate Conception doctrine:
Indeed, it is certain that the Apparitions of the Miraculous Medal to C atherine Labouré in 1830 hastened the solemn declaration of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, just as the Apparitions of Lourdes, wherein Our Lady declared: "I am the Immaculate Conception," set the seal of Heaven's approval on it. There was great joy in France in 1858 when it became known that Mary had appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, a peasant girl of the French Pyrenees. No one was happier than Catherine Labouré. "You see," she exclaimed, "it is our own Blessed Mother, the Immaculate!" (6)
Though it is not official Roman Catholic dogma that Marian Apparitions directly influence Vatican policy and teaching, it is clearly official Roman Catholic history. It is also very clearly a beloved and enthralling concept held by laity and clergy alike. Take for example the instructions from the Marian Apparition at Fátima in 1917. Visionary Lucia Abóbora explained: "What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one special day. If this is done, she will convert Russia and there will be peace." (7)
On March 2 5, 1984, John Paul II performed the consecration as the Apparition had instructed, making no secret of the fact that he was "responding to what Our Lady had requested at Fatima." (8)
Likewise, the Marian Apparition at La Salette sent secret messages to Pius IX in 1846. (9)Twenty-four years later, just five months before the first Vatican Council would proclaim the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, Pius IX received visionary Don Bosco in a private audience. Bosco had received certain "revelations" from an Apparition about the advancement of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility and needed desperately to relate the vision to the pope. The Apparition had provided directions for Pius IX to proceed with the doctrine even if he had only two bishops supporting him. (10) On July 18, 1870, the Vatican Council proceeded with the vote and Pius IX accomplished his desired infallibility, (1 1) showing that the Apparitions were intimately involved in the formalization of the infallibility doctrine, as well.
Keeping in mind that clergy and laity concur that the Marian Apparitions influenced the proclamations of the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility, it must be pointed out that these two dogmatic achievements by Pius IX led necessarily to the next "infallible" proclamation. In 1950 Pius XII proclaimed the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. In the preamble to the proclamation of the new dogma, Pius XII referred both to Mary, who was immaculate in her conception, and to the authority of the papacy, which was infallibly enabled to proclaim such a doctrine. (12) Thus, the Assumption Dogma rested on two very significant pillars that the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes had helped erect, pillars which simultaneously demanded the proclamation of the dogma and made the proclamation possible: Mary was assumed bodily into Heaven, without decay or corruption, because she was immaculate; and the papacy could proclaim the Assumption, because it was infallible. The Marian Apparition at Lourdes was central to them both, so significant was its simple utterance in 1858: Que soy era Immaculada Conceptiou.
Demonic Apparitions
Not surprisingly, almost as soon as Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption, the Apparition began a new campaign for yet another Marian dogma to be declared. (13) But for its simplicity and its profound effect on Roman Catholic teaching, the Lourdes Apparition accomplished more, and said less, than practically any other speaking Apparition in history. On that note, what cannot be omitted in any discussion of the Marian Apparitions is that, in addition to being on speaking terms with both clergy and laity, they are also categorically demonic, something of which the papacy is apparently not aware. The extent to which the papacy and the Apparitions have communicated with each other is documented in this writer's other works, (14) as have their many teachings that show the Apparitions to be enemies of Christ. For example, the Marian Apparition at Fátima explicitly denied the finality of Christ's sacrifice, teaching that we should endure sufferings from God in order to pay for the sins of others:
Do you wish to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the suffering that He may please to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and to ask for=2 0the conversion of sinners? ...Pray, pray a great deal, make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to sacrifice and pray for them. (15) The Marian Apparition at La Salette taught that Mary suffers in our place, and that Mary serves as mediatrix to protect us from the wrath of her Son:
For a long time I have suffered for you; if I do not want my Son to abandon you, I am forced to pray to Him myself without ceasing. You pay no heed. However much you would do, you could never recompense the pain I have taken for you. (16)
If my people will not obey I shall be compelled to loose my Son's arm. It is so heavy, so pressing that I can no longer restrain it. (17)
Note that it is Jesus' arm, Jesus' wrath, Jesus' righteous indignation that would destroy us were it not for Mary's suffering, Mary's intercession, and Mary's offering of our sacrifices. This is the diabolical subtext of the Apparitions' teaching that Mary saves us from Jesus' wrath: God is enraged at the wounds inflicted on his Son and seeks repayment from us for the atrocity. The Marian Apparition at Medjugorje taught, "Dear children, this evening I pray that you especially venerate the Heart of my Son, Jesus. Make reparation for the wound inflicted on the Heart of my Son. That Heart is offended by all kinds of sin." (18) This statement portrays Christ's sufferings as the cause of our separation from God, when in fact Christ's sufferings are the cause of our reconciliation to God.
These evil tea chings are so un-Biblical that any schoolboy could refute them with the Scriptures: "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:17-18). "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). "He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). "When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son" (Romans 5:10).
That the Apparitions could be so plainly wrong on the Gospel indicates their true origins. In Galatians 1:8 the Apostle Paul wrote: "But even if we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." There is therefore a simple message to be taken from the Marian Apparition at Lourdes, but it is not that Mary was conceived without sin, nor that the pope is infallible, nor that Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven. Rather, the true message of the Marian Apparitions is deduced from Matthew 16:18: "And I say also unto you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
The Marian Apparitions are from Hell itself, and they have had their way with the Roman Catholic Church, leaving Rome i n the damnable position of promulgating doctrines of demons. The conclusion cannot be avoided:
1. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against Christ's Church.
2. The gates of Hell have prevailed against the Roman Catholic Church.
3. Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church is not Christ's Church, and the pope is not His spokesman.
Otherwise intelligent men (James Dobson, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Charles Colson, Joel Osteen, and many, many more) have ignored this simple truth. But the Reformers knew it, embraced it, and even died for believing it. Let us hold fast to the faith of our forefathers, and recognize the passing of the 150th anniversary of the Marian Apparitions at Lourdes by acknowledging an inescapable truth: Hell has the ear of the Roman Catholic Church and speaks through her Magisterium. Ephesians 5:11 requires this of us saying, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Caesar, Napier, and Drake sent messages about famous battles, warfare, and shipwrecks. Let us be sure that our spiritual descendants hear a good report from us as well:
This charge I commit unto you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before you, that you by them might war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck [1 Timothy 1:18-19].
Acknowledging the truth about the Apparitions at Lourdes is a great place to start.
1. Vincenzo Sansonetti, in an interview with ZENIT, "Dogma of Immaculate Conception Opened a New Era," Rome, January 7, 2005.
2. Patrick Marnham, Lourdes: A Modern Pilgrimage. New York, 1980, 4, 8-9. Brackets added for clarity.
3. (Bishop) Donald Montrose, The Message of the Virgin at Lourdes, cited from CatholicCulture.org.
4. Ann Ball, A Litany of Mary. Huntington, Indiana, 1988, 73.
5. Sandra L. Zimdars-Swartz, Encountering Mary. New York, 1991, 26.
6. Joseph Dirvin, D.M., Saint Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal. See http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/CATLABOU.htm.
7. William Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fátima. New York [1947] 1954, 221.
8. ZENIIT.org, "John Paul II Again Entrusts World to Mary, Renews Act of Consecration of 1984," March 24, 2000.
9. Zimdars-Swartz, 177-179.
10. Dreams, Visions & Prophecies of Don Bosco, Eugene M. Brown, editor. New Rochelle, New York, 1986, 114.
11. Vatican Council, Session IV, Chapter IV, July 18, 1870.
12. Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, AAS 42 (1950):761.
13. Zimdars-Swartz, 257-258.
14. See, for example, Quite Contrary: A Biblical Reconsideration of the Apparitions of Mary.
15. Walsh, Our Lady of Fátima, 51-52, 120.
16. Zimdars-Swartz, 30. Message of September 19, 1846.
17. Bob and Penny Lord, The Many Faces of Mary: A Love Story. Westlake Village, California, 1987, 70. Message of September 19, 1846.
18. Words from Heaven: Messages of Our Lady from Medjugorje, fifth edition. Birmingham, Alabama, 1991, 162. Message of April 5, 1985.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Antichrist and the substitute gospel
"What is so plausible about the work of Antichrist is that he uses that which is otherwise good as his clever substitute gospel. Under the guise of honoring the Third Person of the Trinity, Antichrist brings in another gospel, for he substitutes the gracious work of the Spirit in us for the vicarious work of Christ for us as the ground of our justification unto life eternal.
"The work of the Holy Spirit in us is a great and glorious work (2 Corinthians 3:18). But it is not to be put in the place of the Gospel. We must not confuse the work of the Second and Third Persons of the blessed Trinity. Christ’s work was substitutionary. It was done for us--without our participation. We had no part in that righteousness. Furthermore, that work, being complete, is the only ground of our acceptance with God."
--The late John Robbins, Trinity Foundation
For complete essay, go to
http://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=137
"The work of the Holy Spirit in us is a great and glorious work (2 Corinthians 3:18). But it is not to be put in the place of the Gospel. We must not confuse the work of the Second and Third Persons of the blessed Trinity. Christ’s work was substitutionary. It was done for us--without our participation. We had no part in that righteousness. Furthermore, that work, being complete, is the only ground of our acceptance with God."
--The late John Robbins, Trinity Foundation
For complete essay, go to
http://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=137
Monday, May 11, 2009
Making Mary a god
This is the month that Roman Catholics "honor" Mary, the mother of Christ. They offer her their "adoration" in many ways including so-called crowning ceremonies, where she is "adored" (the word used in place of worship) as the "Queen of Heaven." Some Jews also pursued a heretical worship of a so-called Queen of Heaven in the Old Testament. Look up "queen of heaven" at biblegateway.com. Note God's reaction to this heretical tradition.
In the 1800s, the Roman Catholic Church declared Mary the "Immaculate Conception" which means she lived her life without sin. Who is without sin but one who is God? This is essentially their declaration. They reject Paul's biblical declaration that all have fallen short. They have declared that one creature, Mary, did not fall short, did not sin. Yet they claim she still needed a savior. Oh yeah? Why?
They have declared Mary divine. Really want to be a Roman Catholic?
In the 1800s, the Roman Catholic Church declared Mary the "Immaculate Conception" which means she lived her life without sin. Who is without sin but one who is God? This is essentially their declaration. They reject Paul's biblical declaration that all have fallen short. They have declared that one creature, Mary, did not fall short, did not sin. Yet they claim she still needed a savior. Oh yeah? Why?
They have declared Mary divine. Really want to be a Roman Catholic?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)