Sunday, September 19, 2004

Evil Claims Another Victim

My wife gave me an article tonight from the Toronto Sun and written by Michael Coren. In it, Mr. Coren speaks of his "return" to the Catholic Church. Many of you have probably just said "So" if not out loud at least in your mind. Granted, from many perspectives this could seem to be an event worthy of little note outside of the people immediately affected such as Mr. Coren, his immediate family and of course, his priest. The truth is however that events like this deserve much more attention than they routinely receive. You see, Mr. Coren did not merely join the Catholic church, he returned to the church, not after falling away into sin and depravity but after accepting the truth of Evangelical Christianity. Mr. Coren had for ten years lived, preached, and accepted true biblical Christianity rather that the fallacies of catholicism. Granted, the possibility of his falling victim to their false teachings was greater than for the majority of Evangelical Christians. Apparently he had been baptized into the Roman faith some twenty years ago. With this background it is far easier for Satan to lure someone with such heresy when all he has to do is keep stirring up old memories.

Some may be asking "So, what's the big deal?" or "As long as he's sincere what does it matter which church he belongs to?" It's simple, when a person with access to the public on the scale of a paper the size of the Toronto Sun, then the danger comes in the number of falsehoods and lies he can spread to a massive and unsuspecting readership in the guise of religious "truth." For hundreds of years the Catholics have proclaimed themselves the only true church. That the pope is the only personal representative of Christ on earth. That the pope is the only one that can speak on behalf of God. The fact that not one of these claims has one word of scripture to prove them to be true seems irrelevant to them. Just the fact that they say it is supposed to be enough for all who hear.

These are but a few of the countless false teachings of the roman church. Beyond these they promote Madonna worship, bowing a knee in reverence to statues, and countless rituals that closer resemble cultic practices than scriptural truths. Beyond these there is much in the history of the followers of the pope that are nothing short of evil personified. During the crusades they had an evangelism methodology that was simplicity at its finest. Rather than actually preach the gospel they asked one simple question, "Would you like to be a Christian or be dead?" It seemed to save them a lot of work such as preaching the true gospel, demonstrating Christ's love through deeds and actions, or reaching out to people in need. During the inquisition they had another simple way of making sure people followed their teachings. They could either adhere to strict catholic doctrine or be executed. If anyone stepped over the fine line they expected all to adhere to, or was even accused of doing so, irregardless of proof, that person could be hung, burned at the stake, or some other "compassionate" method of ending a human life.

What of more recent history? We all remember of course the endless news stories of pedophile priests, of the cover up, the lies, but this is not the only evil practice of the pope's followers in recent history. As World War II came to an end in Europe, the roman church looked to Germany for those that had been a leader and participant in the slaughter of six million of God's chosen people. They didn't look on in outrage or disgust but rather with desire to help. Was it the survivors of the holocaust they desired to help? No, it was the Nazi leaders who survived that benefited from the pope's generosity. They served justice by giving these mass murderers money, false identities, transportation and whatever else they needed to escape justice and live a life of leisure in other parts of the world. As Christians we need to pray and pray and pray that God will keep the popish cult under tight control, that he will keep them from dragging any more victims into their pit of darkness. There is no doubt that every time a person is lured into their evil worship it is a tragedy of Biblical proportions.