The Doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church | Rapp Report Daily Wrap-up 0010 | Striving for Eternity

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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Welcome to the Rap Report, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications.

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This is a ministry of striving for eternity. This week as we wrap up the daily rap reports, we're gonna wrap up with looking at Roman Catholicism.

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And this week as we look at Roman Catholicism, we're gonna look at their view of an authority. We're gonna see what caused the

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Reformation, what was the central issue? We're gonna take a look at their view of Mary.

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Oh boy, do they have a love affair with her? And we see that they have a different view of man's sinfulness than the

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Bible. They have a different view of man's salvation than the Bible, and they even create a place called purgatory that's not in the

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Bible. But what we end up seeing is that the Roman Catholic Church, though they claim to be

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Christian, has a very different view of Christianity than that which is in the

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Bible. Now, we're gonna see that they don't have any problem with that because they think that there's more

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Scripture than just the Bible. They're gonna hold to things like tradition and the church.

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But mind you that we should be using this podcast as we look at Roman Catholicism not to beat up on Catholics, but please take it as an encouragement to learn so that you can go out and encourage

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Catholics to believe in the true Christ and Scripture alone. If you want to get more information on Roman Catholicism or other world religions,

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I encourage you to get my book, What Do They Believe? at whatdotheybelieve .com.

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This week, we're gonna take a look at Roman Catholicism, and what we first want to look at is what is their view of their authority.

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Now, they have three separate things that they would see as being equal in authority.

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First would be Scripture. Now, we would want to say that there should be nothing more important or higher in authority than Scripture, but that's not so for the

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Roman Catholic Church. In fact, this is what caused the Reformation because people said Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone, would be the argumentation.

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It actually started before Luther with a man named John Hus, even before him a little bit. But what we see is that they believe in tradition,

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Scripture, and the church or the magisterium. Now, the issue is is that they would say that their traditions are equal in authority with Scripture, but the reality is they argue that the church or magisterium are the only ones that can interpret

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Scripture. When you have anyone that can say they're the only ones to interpret

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Scripture, then by default, they become a higher authority than Scripture.

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So, the Roman Catholic Church actually sets itself up as being higher in authority than either

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Scripture or Tradition. And so, when they say that they're equal in authority, the reality they argue that the one interprets the others, therefore it's a higher authority.

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If you want to get more information, get my book, What Do They Believe, at whatdotheybelievebook .com,

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and get more information on Roman Catholicism and what they believe. As we're looking this week at the views of the

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Roman Catholic Church, there's the things we need to realize. They have a proper view of the

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Trinity and the deity of Jesus Christ. However, when we talk about Jesus Christ, they got a couple other things that come in there that we must look at, and that is the doctrine they have of Mary.

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That's right. Mary is raised to a position that she really shouldn't be.

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Now, in their Catholic Catechism, it says that through the centuries, the church has become even more aware that Mary, full of grace through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception.

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That is paragraph 491. What you end up seeing is that they believe that Mary must have been sinless to give birth to sinless

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God, and therefore, Mary being sinless, they end up saying that she was a perpetual virgin, that Jesus always submits to her, even now in heaven, that we could go through Mary and Jesus can't refuse anything that Mary says, because he would always honor his mother.

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And so they put Mary in a position she should not have. Now, the reality is, is that when you have this and you say

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Mary must have been sinless to give birth to a sinless being, you suddenly have a dilemma, because Mary's mother had to be sinless, too, to give birth to Mary, and so on and so on and so on, all the way to Eve.

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Unless, of course, you have one supernatural conception, that being Jesus Christ, God Almighty, born in flesh.

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That should be the immaculate conception. When we look at the view that the Roman Catholic Church has toward man's sinfulness, well, first off, we're gonna see one thing.

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They do argue for original sin, except for Mary, of course, because they say she never sinned, something only

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God can do, and would make Scripture kind of a liar, because it says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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Mary's not God. She is human. But that part aside, what they believe is that the human nature is wounded.

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It's a wounded nature, or has a weakness towards sin, and they end up teaching that the human nature is not totally corrupt.

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It's just wounded. You can look that up in the Catholic Catechism, paragraph 405. You end up seeing that this view of a wounded nature comes into play with their view of free will.

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This becomes a major issue, because they believe, after baptism, baptism washing away original sin, but after baptism, people have a free will to choose what is good and godly, and earning of salvation.

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We're gonna look at that tomorrow. But the fact is that essential to their doctrine is the idea that human beings have a free will.

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Now, we believe that the human beings have a will. The question is, is it free, or is it enslaved to sin?

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The Bible says that the human will is enslaved to sin until salvation. Catholic Church says otherwise.

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Remember, they say they're the authority over the Bible. When we get to the doctrine of salvation within Roman Catholicism, boy, do we see a difference between what the

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Bible says and what the Roman Catholic Church says. They believe, and mark this, because many

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Christians get this wrong, people will say that the Catholic Church does not believe in salvation by faith.

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They do believe in salvation by faith. The difference is, they do not believe in salvation by faith alone.

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That's the key. They believe it is faith plus works.

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So they believe that an infant must be baptized to remove the effects of original sin so that they can then have the ability to choose to do right.

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But they can do works that merit or earn them salvation. Some of these ways are through their seven sacraments that people can do, and these are methods of earning salvation.

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Anytime you have earning of salvation, you have a different gospel than the Bible. It's what Galatians says should be accursed.

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You want proof that they have a works -based salvation? Just look at what we'll see tomorrow in their view of purgatory, where people go to purgatory to earn their heavenly guest pass.

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It is a way of paying off the debt that they owe so that they can get into heaven and out of purgatory.

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That's the ultimate proof of works. If you want to get more about this, get my book

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What Do They Believe? When we look at the Roman Catholic view of end times, where will people spend eternity?

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Well, we see heaven. Well, everyone believes that there's a heaven. They also believe in a hell.

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Not everyone believes in that, but they do. But then they have a third place where people can go.

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It is a place called purgatory. Purgatory is a place in the Roman Catholic view where people go to work off their sins that they committed in this life.

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It is a place for the dead that will be a place of temporary punishment.

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After purgatory, some will be there for a very long time. Even the

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Catholic Pope must go to purgatory for at least ten days. And work off his sin.

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When all of the work is done, then they can go to heaven. I guess they just stay in purgatory or end up going to hell if they can't work it off.

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But the reality is, which the Bible says, is that the wages of sin is death.

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And that death is spoken of as an eternal death. That is the second death, where hell is cast into that second death.

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So what you end up seeing is that the Bible says this death will last eternity. They say it's just a temporary place, and then you can maybe go to a better place.

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Now the reality is, purgatory proves that the Roman Catholic Church believes in a workspace salvation.

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If you want to get more information, get my book, What Do They Believe, at whatdotheybelieve .com.

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This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry. For more content, or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.