Grant Swart

Roman Catholic doctrine steeped in pagan tradition, and the Roman Catholic Pope, also known as the Bishop of Rome, should present every Christian saved by the grace of God with good reason to get angry. Angry? Really, should a Christian get angry over this?

Certainly, very angry indeed, as our Lord instructs. The three articles which follow below will explain. In the light of the fact that tolerance of all religious systems is taking precedence over truth, millions, if not billions of people are being duped into believing that there are many roads which lead to God, and that all religions worship the same God. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When it comes to defending the truth of the Gospel, Christians should stop being such limp-wristed, quivering, overly cautious, meek little men, uttering whimpered politically correct complaints. We have the protection of the One Almighty Omnipotent Father God, we partake in the nature of the bravest of Sons ever to walk the earth, we have the examples set by those early saints who stood immovably for the Faith and who were martyred in the most gruesome ways imaginable, so why are we so sickeningly tolerant of the world which is clearly in opposition to our Faith? Speak up, man, get angry, be a courageous Follower of Christ, not Arminian will-worshippers, use the Scripture which is your sword, stand squarely and immovable.

The “human right” to worship all forms of false gods, has become globally regarded as an essential element in most of society. This is known as interfaith pluralism and it is from the depths of hell itself. As a matter of fact, equality of religions is written into most constitutions today, and there are man-made laws which enforce this delusion of “equal human rights”. All men should certainly enjoy equal rights among men, but to believe that the same rights apply to all men before a sovereign God, is a lie from the pit of hell. Of course, once one capitulates to the secular pressure of accepting that approach as being correct, one is stripped of the singular possibility of ever entering God’s presence. In essence, one would have been better off never having been born.

Christians need to get angry, because the only way to salvation, the only way to life, the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work on the Cross is being destroyed by that most evil of deceptions. Closer to home, it is known as ecumenism which promotes a closer unity between different belief systems within what is regarded as greater Christianity. In an attempt to remove Christ from Christianity, a marriage between Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity and other splinter groups is proposed by ecumenism. 

Throughout the largely secular world, Roman Catholicism is perceived to be representative of Christianity, and has the largest number of adherents in that religious category. Popery and Romanism does not represent Christianity, it never has. Roman Catholicism is opposed to Christianity to an even larger degree than Islam, Hinduism or Bhuddism is opposed to Christianity, because Roman Catholicism actually claims to be Christianity. Most other major religions clearly do not, neither do they misrepresent Christ, they simply deny Christ, as Christ is absent from their faith. Roman Catholicism, the Pope or the Bishop of Rome at the head of that group, and Roman Catholic doctrine, is not Christianity.

I have adapted this article by Miles McKee, which explains why Christ alone is the only True High Priest, into three parts, to make for easier blog reading. If, after reading all three, you are not angry about the blasphemous deception posed by the Bishop of Rome, his silly little red shoes and magic biscuits, you should certainly take another look at the directions to eternal salvation. And, don’t bother checking your embarrassing little GPS for those directions, they are not on there. Directions are in the Word of God.

At the time of the writing of these articles, Pope Benedict XVI, was still in charge of the Roman Catholic church. He has since stepped down and has been succeeded by Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, who chose to be known by the name of Pope Francis.

Link here to Part 1 of this article: https://fortheloveofhistruth.com/2013/04/10/get-angry-its-the-deeply-         offensive-bishop-of-rome-part-1/  

 

Part 3 of this article will be published tomorrow.

Christ the True High Priest

By Miles McKee, from a sermon preached on July 31st 2008 at the AFEC conference on Roman Catholic Evangelism

Have you ever read the book of Hebrews? The purpose of the book of Hebrews is to declare that the Old Covenant has been divinely annulled. In doing so, the writer demonstrates the superiority of Christ.

Christ Jesus, we learn, is greater than Moses,
Greater than Aaron
Greater than the Levitical priesthood whose High Priest offered up sacrifices for his own sins and only then for the sins of the people.

We learn from the book of Hebrews that, because of the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice, the Old Testament priesthood has been done away. We learn that today, in the New Covenant, there exists no priesthood that makes sacrifices for sin.

To claim, as does Rome, that there is yet a sacrificing priesthood, headed by the chief priest of Rome, the Pope actually removes those who claim such a ministry from the New Covenant. Why so? The reason is that, in the New Covenant there is but one priest who has offered Himself once for sin.

The priests of Rome can claim to offer bloodless sacrifices all they like, but their masses are not recognized in the New Covenant. In the New Covenant we have One High Priest and one only—The Lord Jesus.

Jesus offered Himself Once;
He entered in Once into the holy place;
He appeared Once in the end of the world to put away sin;
He was Once offered to bear the sins of many;
and He offered Himself Once for all.

The moment when Jesus said: “It is finished,” Mercy and Truth met together, Righteousness and Peace kissed each other, redemption was accomplished and hell went into a panic! There is no further need for sacrificing priests!

Let’s get this clear, the momentous events of Calvary can be remembered but can never be repeated. We read, “But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”– Hebrews 9:26

Notice ——Sin has already been put away! A supposed continual offering of Jesus as a sacrifice in the Mass, therefore, does not put sin away—And why not? Because the work of putting sin away has already been finished. There’s no need for the sacrificing priests of Rome. The sacrifice for sins was made and accepted 2000 years ago and by that one sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, redemption was accomplished.

If sin was not put away back then, it certainly has not been put away since, nor can it ever be for there remains no more sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:26). However, hear the good news; Christ has already put away sin by the sacrifice of himself!

The priestly office of Jesus is connected to His sacrifice. They go hand in hand. He, as our priest, has made a sacrifice for sins by offering Himself. 1 Peter 1:18-20 says,

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Look at the cross-see the spotless Lamb of God—his arms are outstretched—–that’s a sign of welcome— Would you rather receive the welcome of Jesus than the welcome of the Bishop of Rome? Look at the perfect lamb, your High Priest. There He is upon the cross, His head is pierced with thorns, His hands are fastened to the wood by nails, his feet are pierced through, His side is bleeding! Why? It’s because He, as our high priest, offered Himself for our sins. His head was pierced and wounded for all the wicked godless views I have held, for all the mischief I have planned and for all the anti Christ thoughts I have spawned. His hands were pierced because of all the wicked things my hands have done. His feet were fastened and pierced because my feet were swift to run after sin and His side was pierced near the heart because of all the times I have given my heart to false gods.

Is this not enough? Why then do I need the supposed ministry of the Bishop of Rome and his legion of priests to make a bloodless sacrifice for my sins? —Christ Jesus is enough!

Look at Him there on the cross bearing our guilt – You see, Christ not only bore our sins at the cross, He bore our guilt. This is an important matter to grasp. Just imagine with me for a moment that there is a very wicked person who is condemned to die. However, before his execution takes place, another man steps forward and volunteers to become that man’s substitute. Now let’s suppose that this proposition is accepted by the courts and the substitute is now put on death row and you go to visit him. You say to the man, “You are dying in the place of that criminal. How does it feel to be a man guilty of such terrible crimes? He would say to you, “I may be the substitute and I’m going to die for that man, but I’m not guilty of those crimes! The other man is!”

I want you to understand something, Jesus Christ, as our substitute, is entirely different from this! He is our substitute who not only payed for ours sins, He took our very guilt upon himself. Let me ask you, who was treated as the greatest adulterer who ever lived? It was Jesus! Who was treated as the greatest thief, murderer, pornographer and blasphemer?-It was Jesus—-

“But he was holy harmless undefiled” —yes He was—So how then can he be all those horrible things?—I’m talking about the cross! He was reckoned as guilty because on the cross He took our guilt—He became chargeable for our crimes against God and was treated as the greatest and vilest criminal who had ever lived.

Hallelujah, what a savior! I don’t need another high priest, thank you very much! I’m going to stick with Jesus-He is enough-I need no other!

“No other priest in Heaven I need,
No other priest on earth to plead,
His wounded feet and hands and side,
Exclude all other need of priests beside.
Thus I enjoy through Him alone,
Glad fellowship with yonder throne!”

2 The Lord Jesus is the ONLY ONE suitably qualified to be our Great High priest. Christ Jesus has come and has manifested Himself as the uniquely qualified High Priest. He alone has the qualifications necessary to redeem man. Here are some of his qualifications as our priest!

First of all, He is man. “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Hebrews 5:1. As humans, we need a human priest, not an angel, to redeem us.

The priest must enter into the redemptive work with the same nature that caused the havoc of sin—Well you say, the Pope is a man, so if all that is needed is to have a human nature then the Pope could well qualify as the High Priest. But wait a minute—I wasn’t finished with the qualifications! To redeem us perfectly, our priest had to be a perfect man! He had to be a sinless man! He cannot be in any way guilty of the calamity that has befallen man! He must be holy, harmless, undefiled: He must be sinless. This brings us to the second qualification.

Second Qualification: Christ’s Sinlessness. Christ is the only sinless man who has ever lived. He was a perfect man. Only a sinless sacrifice could redeem sinful men. A sinful priest needed to make atonement for himself before he could sacrifice for others. A sinful priest cannot save anyone, for he himself needs a Savior. We needed a perfect, sinless high priest, and we have one in Jesus Christ.

But, how do we know he was sinless? Ask His friends—Peter what do you have to say about it? You lived with him and observed him for three years-And Peter says, “He was the lamb without spot or blemish” 1 Peter 1:19

“Anything else Peter?” Yes, He was the holy One, the just one, Acts 3:14

John what do you have to say about it? John says, “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin” 1 John 3:5

‘Yes but His friends are likely biased’ —-OK, let’s ask his enemies—“Judas, what do you have to say about this matter?” And Judas says, “I have betrayed innocent blood” Matthew 27:24

Jesus was sinless! That the sinless, spotless Lamb of God had to offer Himself as our substitute should show us something of the horror of our sin. Now, because of Calvary, the shed blood of Christ is the only meeting-place between unholy sinners and the all- holy God. The law proclaims that the wages of sin is death, but the shed blood tells us that these wages have already been paid. This is good news!

Our only appeal for continued acceptance before God is the person and work of our great High Priest, Christ Jesus our Lord. Yes indeed, the one and only ground of our acceptance is the Christ who shed His precious blood on our behalf. We may be in Christian service and ministry but we are never accepted because of our service. We must always remember that the only acceptance we have before God is Christ crucified and His blood!

For acceptance, therefore, before God we need the Christ and His finished work plus nothing. It is not Jesus plus the ministry of the Roman priest which saves, it is Christ alone who saves. It is not Christ plus the ministry of the Pope that saves, it is Christ alone who saves!

Third Qualification, He is the appointed mediator 1 Timothy 2:5 “there is one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus.

To be an effective mediator He must be both man and God! To be a mediator, one has to be able to understand both sides. And this is why Jesus is uniquely qualified to be the mediator for in Christ both God and man meet. In Jesus man encounters God. Jesus is the exegesis of God; He is God spelling Himself out in clear and unambiguous language. So in Christ, man meets God! But not only so, in Christ, God meets man. Christ is man as God intended man to be. He was perfectly obedient, worshipful, and prayerful and He delighted to do the will of God.

Now I want you to notice something more of the qualifications of Jesus to be the high priest.

Fourth Qualification: He is qualified to be our High Priest because he was set aside from eternity for this task.

We have already read how Peter tells us that Christ was, “foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,” 1Peter 1:20. But let me draw your attention to Romans 3:25. Romans 3:25 also shows us the purposes of God from all eternity to establish Jesus as our High Priest. It says, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”

“God hath set forth”—this was no secondary plan, this was no accident. According to both Vine and Vincent, the Greek language in this verse reveals that God purposed and determined to set Christ forth as our propitiation.

The cross was no accident. It has been foreordained from the foundation of the world and was fulfilled in time! We are now living in the day and age when God’s redemptive plan has already BEEN FULFILLED-THERE IS NO NEED TO SUPPLIMENT IT OR AUGMENT IT. It is finished.

That Christ would be our high priest and that He would perfect the work of redemption was the purposed plan of God from eternity.The eternal plan was Jesus and His Finished Work, not the Pope and his ever-sacrificing priests! There is now, therefore, no further need for other priests to obtain or apply redemption to us. There is no need to repeat or continue Christ’s sacrifice for the Father looks at the work of the Son and is satisfied.

Those who suppose they offer Him often as a bloodless sacrifice are in great and awful error! There is neither need nor rational that He should be offered continually for our sins. Nor indeed does any man have the ability to command Him off His heavenly throne and sacrifice Him once again for the sins of men.

(See also Parts 1 and 3 of this article.)

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