Roman Catholicism: The One True Church?

For years, growing up as a Roman Catholic, we were taught that we were members of the one true church. It was impressed upon us regularly by the parish priest during Mass while giving his homily; by the nuns all throughout my Catholic parochial school years of second through seventh grade.

It was impressed upon us during our preparation to receive for the first time the sacraments of Penance, Communion and Confirmation. And while attending CCD classes all the way through high school. (CCD is the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, an association established at Rome in 1562 for the purpose of giving religious education, normally designed for children.)

It was an established fact that we understood and we never questioned the validity of it. And to be honest, it was a matter of pride, that we were privileged enough to be members of the correct church, while all others had belonged to something else that didn’t quite measure up to the status of the Roman Catholic Church.

After all, how could it be possible that Roman Catholicism is not the one true church?

Look at what Rome has to offer: It has the priests, the nuns; the bishops; the cardinals; and of course, the Pope. They have the Sacraments; the statues; the holy water; the incense; the Stations of the Cross; the Eucharist - in which Chris supposedly physically manifests Himself into the wafer after the consecration by the priest during the Mass; the Marian apparitions—which appear mainly to Roman Catholics.

And they have the Vatican, where the Vicar of Christ (who they believe is Christ’s representative on earth), governs the faithful and makes infallible proclamations and doctrine. How can this not be the one true church? No other organization on the face of the earth comes close to offering to its flock what Rome provides for its faithful.

But, of course, to be true, one must adhere to what has been established as truth and not teach or practice what is contrary to the truth. We read in Scripture a few passages that declare what is truth and what is not. Jesus proclaimed in John 14:6:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.”

... into a full-blown doctrine.

My Prayer to Our Mother Mary

Hail and praise be unto thee, Mary, whom God Almighty has exalted above all of his other servants!!

God has entrusted us unto your care and graciously grants any request that you make of Him on our behalf, if it is in accordance with His Divine Will.

Our hearts burn with zeal as we honor you, Our Mother.

We love you as a child loves a mother and you love us as mother loves her children.

Please guide us, your little ones, to our Eternal and Almighty Father God through our prayers and through your love for us.

Many in this world may slander and degrade you while still claiming to exalt God, please forgive them and pray for them for they may dishearten your devoted children.

May we be made worthy of the promises of Christ through your prayers.

You love us so freely and we are so unworthy of it.

You love us because God and Christ loved us first.

Mary, Mother, I love you.

Amen.

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Well; since being drunk did NOT get condemned here (only the time of day...) what can we determine about drinking??

Acts 2:1-16

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

⁵Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. ⁷Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,^[b] ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” ¹²Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

¹⁴Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!

In conclusion let us summarize this grand key, these “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, for our salvation depends on them.

1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.
3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4. The prophet will never lead the church astray.
5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus Saith the Lord,” to give us scripture.
7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.
9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The prophet may advise on civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency—the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The prophet and the presidency—the living prophet and the First Presidency—follow them and be blessed—reject them and suffer.

I testify that these fourteen fundamentals in following the living prophet are true. If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord then let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain—how close do our lives harmonize with the Lord’s anointed—the living Prophet—President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency.

Ezra Taft Benson

(Address given Tuesday, February 26, 1980 at Brigham Young University) http://www.lds.org/liahona/1981/06/fourteen-fundamentals-in-following-the-prophet?lang=eng

. But first a short summary of his journey,

To damnation. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

“By the time I finished my Ph.D., I had completely revised my understanding of the Catholic Church. I saw that her sacramental doctrine, her view of salvation, her veneration of Mary and the saints, and her claims to authority were all grounded in Scripture, in the oldest traditions, and in the plain teaching of Christ and the apostles.

Meaning he found what he wanted, despite her view of salvation by merit, so that must be spend an indeterminate time in postmortem purifying torments until they become good enough (and atone for sins) to enter Heaven;

, her veneration of Mary and the saints

While Prots do venerate Biblical saints, such as Paul, and men and women of faith, Cath veneration includes bowing down to statues of such and praying to them in Heaven, which is never ever commanded or seen in Scripture, except by pagans making supplication and offerings to the only "Queen of Heaven" in Scripture. (Jer. 44)

One would have a hard time in Bible times explaining kneeling before a statue and praising the entity it represented in the unseen world, even with adulation, attributes, glory and titles never given in Scripture to created beings (except to false gods), including having the uniquely Divine power glory to hear and respond to virtually infinite numbers of prayers addressed to them, and beseeching such for Heavenly help, and making offerings to them. Which would constitute worship in Scripture, yet Catholics imagine by playing word games they avoid crossing the invisible line between mere "veneration" and worship.

Instead they should do what Mary and every believer in every prayer to Heaven did (and I should do more of), which was to pray directly to the Lord, not secretaries. But they must truly become born again for that.

Moses, put down those rocks! I was only engaging in hyper dulia, not adoring her. Can't you tell the difference?

Instead Caths basically say,

As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes... (Jeremiah 44:16-17)

her claims to authority were all grounded in Scripture, in the oldest traditions, and in the plain teaching of Christ and the apostles.

Meaning as defined by Rome, with tradition being made equal as needed. Mormons claim and do likewise, and as with them, the RC claim to be Scriptural is based upon the premise that Scripture (etc.) only consists of and means what she says in any conflict. However, the manifest reality is that there is a whole list of RC inventions it has accumulated in its progressive deformation, from infant regeneration and justification thru sprinkling or water, to ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility, to the Lord's Supper being that of offering the "real" but not bloody body of flesh and blood of Christ as a sin offering, and literally consuming this as in order to obtain spiritual life, to a separate class sacerdotal believers distinctively titled "priests" since they uniquely engage in the former practice, to praying to created beings in Heaven, to becoming good enough to enter Heaven thru purgatorial torments, etc.

“Scripture teaches that the Church is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12). Evangelicals tend to dismiss this as mere metaphor, but the ancient Christians thought of it as literally, albeit mystically, true. ...“For He was made man that we might be made God” (De incarnatione, 54.3)...I saw that salvation itself is nothing other than union with Christ and a continual growth into His nature.

Somehow Anders missed the classic teaching that the church is indeed the body of Christ, thus by persecuting the church Paul was persecuting Christ, (Acts 9) while he adds what is missing from Scripture, that Christians become God by union with Christ and a continual growth into His nature.

That Christians are to progressively become partakers of the Divine nature in becoming more Christ-like in character and virtue, and will one day be conformed to Christ in glorified body, with rewards, is evangelical teaching such as classic commentaries (Matthew Henry, Adam Clark, etc.) exhort. But which Anders seems to have missed, likely under liberal profs.

Like other evang. converts to Rome i have read, this one also seems to have been an evangelical in name only, not regeneration.

“This realization also made sense of the Church’s sacramental doctrine.

Meaning error begats error. Once he lent his mind to Rome for indoctrination, he progressively become like a brainwashed cultist.

Jesus meant it when he said: “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55 NAB).

Therefore, keeping with the literalistic interpretation of Jn. 6:53ff, it is an unequivocal necessity that one believing in the Cath "real presence" and consume it in order to obtain spiritual life. Which is nowhere taught in the rest of Scripture, nor is literally eating anything ever a means of obtaining spiritual life.

The ancient Christian doctrine of the Church also made sense of the veneration of saints and martyrs...By invoking their intercession,

Thus despite over 200 prayers to Heaven in Scripture, all of which are directly addressed to God, and not a single supplication being made to any created beings except by pagans; And in which communication btwn created beings requiring both to be in the same realm, and only God being shown to have the ability to hear the multitudinous prayers directed to Heaven, and Christ is specifically stated to be the only heavenly intercessor btwn man and God, and uniquely qualified to be so, (1Tim. 2:5; Heb. 3,4) this willingly brainwashed fool believes Cath teaching which is foreign to Scripture.

And attempted support for which is based upon specious extrapolation, wrongly presuming a correspondence btwn earthy relations and those btwn the Heavenly and earthly realm that Scripture nowhere examples of teaches.

It is the Protestants who limit the reach of Christ’s saving work by denying its implications for the doctrine of the Church.”

Mormonic theology claims the same, with men becoming Gods, and a heavenly mother, and effectively infallible head, and extraScriptural revelation being above Scripture.

As I continued my investigation of Augustine, I learned that this “Protestant hero” thoroughly embraced the veneration of saints.

Luther was also too Catholic, and which is a another reason why we are "not to think of men above that which is written." (1Cor. 4:6) Somehow this sppsd evangelical missed that and thus became a deceived devotee.

“Once I understood the Catholic position on salvation, the Church, and the saints, the Marian dogmas also seemed to fall into place.

More testimony to progressive error begetting error.

If it is appropriate to venerate the saints and martyrs of the Church, how much more is it appropriate to give honor and veneration to her who made possible our redemption?”

But the Holy Spirit fails to do so after the Catholic manner, for while recording Mary as being a holy worshipful virgin vessel for the body God had provided, and whose Spirit-filled beatitudes are inspiring, the Holy Spirit fails to exalted Mary as the almost almighty demigoddess of Catholicism , while giving far more press to the labors of Paul in birthing Christians and churches, while the Lord made all who do the will of His Father to be His mother and brethren, "missing" a prime opportunity to exalt Mary as per Caths.

No wonder the papacy and forgeries of Rome which supported it were so useful.

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