Roman Catholic doctrine examined (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

The Authority of Scripture Over Tradition

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I think we're on the radio now for about six months. It's a real privilege to be on WVNE 760. Dave Reno, the producer, said to me, now this is not Auburn, this is Worcester.

And so I think I could throw a stone from the studio into Auburn, but I guess I stand corrected. So see here, even on No Compromise Radio ministry, we can be corrected when it comes to geography, when it comes to theology, we could be corrected there as well.

What we wanna talk about today is our ongoing series, Examining Roman Catholicism. I think I've said this before with even these exact sentiments. It goes without saying that if you want to make the argument that certain people that you know, maybe even you who are listening, believe certain things as a Roman Catholic, but they are different than what the church at large teaches, the church headquarters teach, there's not really much I can do with that.

I can't argue with that. I would be glad that that would happen. But what I'm trying to do here is to look at what the church claims. If you'd like to know what Bethlehem Bible Church stands for, then go to bbcchurch .org, read the statement of faith.

That would be better for you to do than to talk to people out in the parking lot and ask them theological questions. Some might know, some might not know. Some might agree, some might not agree. And my biggest problem, as I said last week with the Roman Catholic system, is their authority.

What is their source of authority? Is it the Bible alone? Well, it should be, but it is the Bible plus tradition, plus the magisterium. They have another source that is either equal to or over the Bible, and both are just as bad.

When you add to the Bible, you actually subtract from it. And when you are like the Pharisees in Mark 7, Jesus said, they neglect the commandment of God and they hold to the tradition of men. When you neglect the word of God, there's a vacuum that is made, and that vacuum then is filled with man's tradition.

Compromise leads to more compromise. And so there's this downward spiral pattern. You neglect the word of God, Mark 7, 8, then you reject it, Mark 7, 9. He was also saying to them, you nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

Well, you nicely set it aside. You do that with a purpose, in order. Here is their substitution. Here's their doctrine of substitution. Get rid of the word of God and keep your tradition. And then what you believe affects the way you live.

Your theology affects your methodology. First, you neglect the word of God, then you reject it, and then it is shown in the lives of the people. It's reflected in their lives. Verse 13 of Mark 7, thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down, and you do many things such as that.

Paul would go on to say in Colossians that you should not be taken captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men. If you're listening to the show today, I hope you're in agreement with me.

I hope you look at your Roman Catholic friends and say they're lost people. They're not our enemies. They're not our opposition. They're people who have souls, eternal souls that will live forever, and they need to be cleansed by the real Jesus, the Jesus of Hebrews 9 and 10, the priest who's also the sacrifice, the once-for-all sacrifice for the once-and-for-all delivered faith that we must contend for.

People don't like some kind of anti-radio. They want to be known for what they're for, not what they're against. Well, when people talk that way, they're just talking effeminately. I don't mind women talking effeminately.

I just mind men talking effeminately. That is clergy talking that way in this whole feminine culture of you've got to be transparent. You've got to be relational. You've got to have some community, and you can't talk bad about other people.

It is time for the men of God. Rise up, O men of God. The man of God, which is in the Old Testament, the preacher, the prophet, the proclaimer, to stand up and teach a sound doctrine. These are the true hygienic doctrinal facts of Christ, his person, his work, his first coming, his second coming, the eternal state in which he presides over.

We need to stand up for those things, and when you stand for something, you by default stand against other things, anything that would be contrary to sound doctrine. For instance, non-Trinitarian thought.

That would be opposite of what the Bible teaches, and so we need to do what Titus 1 says. Stand up for the word and stand against those that teach the opposite, and so that's what we do here at No Compromise Radio.

I find it that this would probably be a very weak show compared to 300 years ago, 100 years ago, 400 years ago, 2 ,000 years ago, but now it seems like I'm almost overbearing, too blunt, too forceful, too dogmatic, because the culture has so changed.

The Bible hasn't changed. Preaching in the Bible hasn't changed. Preaching from the Bible should not have changed, but the culture has changed the church. We've gone from a high view of church to a low view of church, and therefore preaching is right out the window, and so when we look at things like this, when you analyze the Roman Catholic Church, you ought not let your emotions get involved.

I can't say to myself, well, I'm gonna analyze Rome and the papacy, and I better think about my grandmother, Nona, and Nona was a Roman Catholic her whole life, and when I approached Nona and told her the truth, she was very, very offended, and if Nona died in her sins like I think she did, she is not in heaven.

She is not in heaven because she was baptized as a Catholic. She is not in heaven because she has received the sacraments as a Roman Catholic. She is not in heaven because she went to the mass. She's not in heaven for any of those things, because the only way there, the only hope for heaven is a complete reliance and trust, a volitional certainty and entrusting oneself to the God-man, Christ Jesus, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died a substitutionary atonement, who fulfilled his duty as he obeyed the law perfectly for God the Father, for us in our place, on our behalf.

When he died on Calvary and received our due wages, the wrath of God, even though he never sinned, he received that punishment in our place, and God confirmed that it was a wonderful transaction, that it was effective, that it worked by raising him from the dead.

That's how people get to heaven, by no church. You don't get to heaven by doing things at Bethlehem Bible Church. You get to heaven by trusting in Christ alone, and so the biggest problem I have, and every other problem, stems from that issue with the Roman Catholic Church, and that is when they trust in something besides the word of God.

Psalm 19 says, the law of the Lord, God's word, is perfect. The instruction of God is perfect. Did you know that word means that God's word lacks nothing, that it is complete, that it is exhaustive, that it is far away from being partial or incomplete or restricted?

And this word can restore the soul, can transform you. It can give you new life. So what we're talking about here is sola scriptura. The Bible is sufficient, and the Roman Catholic Church teaches that it is not.

We believe that the Bible gives us spiritual truth, and it is truth that is either taught explicitly or it is implicitly in Scripture. Westminster Confession of Faith defines sufficiency of Scripture like this.

The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added whether by new revelations of the Spirit or the traditions of men.

So I have to ask you, No Compromise radio audience, whether you're in the car or listening on iTunes or whatever kind of tunes you listen on, why are these things added to the Bible as church law now?

These things, tradition adds, even though they're not found in the Bible any place. And the list is lengthy. Prayers for the dead, not found in the Bible, but 300 AD added to what the church believes.

Making the sign of the cross, 300 AD. Veneration of angels and dead saints, not in the Bible, 375 AD. Use of images in worship. Well, that actually goes back to Bethel and Dan with Jeroboam and the split kingdom.

That goes back to the cow in Exodus. But here for the Roman Catholic Church, use of images in worship, 375 AD. Mass as a daily celebration, not in the Bible, 394 AD. The rising of Mary to exaltation, terms of mother of God, 431 AD.

Extreme unction, our last rites, 526 AD. Doctrine of purgatory with Gregory I, 593 AD. Every one of these has no basis in the Bible, but they're added by tradition, and now they are gospel truths for the Roman Catholic Church and leadership.

Like I said many times before, if you are a good Catholic, you'll believe these things. But if you're a good Catholic, there's no hope for heaven for you, because you need to believe opposite of what the Catholic Church teaches for the hope of heaven.

So I do believe there'll be Catholics in heaven, but not because of Catholicism, but they're bad Catholics and they believe what the Bible teaches, which means they'd be good Christians and bad Catholics.

Mary, prayers to Mary and dead saints, 600 AD. Worship of the cross and relics, 786 AD. Canonization of dead saints, 995 AD. Celibacy of priesthood, 1079 AD. The rosary, 1090 AD. Indulgences, 1190 AD.

We're up to number 14, I've got 12 more to go. Things that the Roman Catholic Church has added to the scriptures. The perfect scriptures, the sufficient scriptures, the authoritative scriptures, the infallible scriptures, the inerrant scriptures.

Why don't people stand up and say, you're adding to the Bible? Number 15, transubstantiation with innocent the third, 1215 AD. Confession of sins to a priest, 1215 AD. Adoration of the wafer, our host, 1220 AD.

Cup forbidden to the people at communion, not allowed to have the wine or the juice at communion time, 1414 AD. Purgatory, said this is dogma for purgatory, 1439 AD. Doctrine of the seven sacraments confirmed, 1439 AD.

Tradition declared of equal authority with the Bible, that's Council of Trent, 1545. Apocryphal books added to the Bible, 1546. The books like Bell the Dragonslayer and Maccabees and other books. Tobit, that would be in between Malachi and Matthew.

Immaculate conception of Mary, 1854 AD. Infallibility of popes in matters of faith and morals proclaimed by Vatican Council, 1870 AD. Assumption of Mary, I think we have a college here in Worcester as well, Assumption College.

Roman Catholic, bodily ascension into heaven shortly after her death, up goes Mary, 1950 AD. Mary proclaimed mother of the Roman Catholic Church, 1965 AD. Friends, it doesn't take a theological rocket scientist to figure out that what the Catholics believe does not completely come out of the Bible.

There's something wrong with that. There's a lot of things that are wrong with that. If you just look at an example, for instance, with the Apographa, those kind of hidden books. Did you know the Jews never received those books?

They were rejected by the Jews and they were rejected by all Christians until about 400 AD. Did you know Jesus never taught from the Apographa, never quoted from the Apographa? Did you know the Apographa that the Roman Catholic Church has as part of their Bible has historical errors, geographical errors?

In that book, in one of those books, Judith falsely states that Nebuchadnezzar reigns over the Assyrians, whereas he ruled Babylon instead. Judas has holonaries moving, that's easy for me to say, H-O-L-O-H-E-R-N-E-S, moving an immense army 300 miles in three days, chapter two, verse 21.

Ecclesiasticus, that's not Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus 3 .3, states that giving money forgives sins. What goes on with this? Josephus, the secular Jew, writes in 90 AD, here are 39 Old Testament books and the Apographa is not included.

But friends, if you've got to get purgatory in your system, you need to find 2 Maccabees 12, 40 to 45 and find Judas Maccabeus offering a sacrifice for soldiers who died while guilty of the mortal sin of idolatry because you need to get them out.

And so we've got to figure it out how to backtrack to make our theology work that our church has already adopted. Friends, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

If you're a pastor, Paul says to you, you've got your toolkit and it makes you adequate. Everything you need is found in the word of God. It rigs you out like a ship would be rigged out. We can't foresee all the different possibilities of danger out on the seas, but God spiritually knows everything.

He knows all our spiritual concerns rather, and he equips us thoroughly for a task, all contingencies considered for our spiritual journey. And God has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, 2 Peter 1, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his glory and excellence.

The Roman Catholic Church doesn't give birth to the word of God. The word of God gives birth to the church, James chapter one, of his own will, he made us born again, or he begat us with the word of truth.

And what I want the Roman Catholics to do is read your Bibles. Please, I dare you. I dare you to read the Bible. I dare you to do what Isaiah 8, 20 says, to the law and to the testimony, to the law and to the testimony.

And you'll begin to read the Bible and you'll say, the apographa does not ring true. It does not seem true. This is not the same authority as the book of Romans. And you'll see that the just came to die for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, and there's nothing we could do.

You'll realize how bad you are, and then you'll realize what kind of savior you need. My fourth major issue when it comes to the Roman Catholic Church, so far in the series, I've talked about celibacy, church discipline and dealing with sin in the church, dealing with the authority that is their source.

They do not believe the Bible alone. The fourth issue I want to talk about today, the remaining amount of time that I have, is how Roman Catholics consider heaven. How do you get to heaven? Salvificly, what does the church, the Roman Catholic Church, teach?

Roman Catholic Salvation, Baptism, and the Sacraments

Well, here they say, their own document, page 292, number 1129, Catechism. The church affirms that for believers, the sacraments of the new covenant are necessary for salvation. Now, if you write that in your statement of faith, as it were, if you put that in what you believe, then you better be ready to be called to task for that in light of Romans chapter four, chapter five, chapter three, Ephesians chapter two, for by grace you were saved through faith.

And that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Titus three, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing and the regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit.

We know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, Galatians chapter two. Well, what did the Vatican Council say? What did Vatican II say? Vatican II came up with all kinds of other crazy things.

Of course, the Catholics believe in unum sanctum, no one's saved outside the church. But when I read something like this, I'll read it again. The fruit of the sacramental life is that the spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only son, the Savior.

That part sounds pretty good, except it's prefaced with the church affirms that for believers, the sacraments of the new covenant are necessary for salvation. So for you to go to heaven, you have to have baptism, confirmation, mass or the Eucharist, penance, reconciliation, indulgences, extreme unction, last rites, marriage and orders, ordination.

Those things were formally decreed under the Council of Florence in 1439. And then the Council of Trent said, if you don't hold these positions, you are anathema, you are accursed. Catholic Catechism 1263, by baptism, all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins as well as all punishment for sin.

Now that's not spirit baptism placed into the body of Christ, that's water baptism upon infants. 1267, from the baptismal fonts is born the one people of God of the new covenant. 1265, baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte a new creature, an adopted son of God who has become a partaker of the divine nature, member of Christ and co-heir with him and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

1257, you say enough, enough, enough, enough. That's what I say. But friends, 80 of your neighbors here in New England believe this, or at least they believe this because that's where their old church was.

That's what the church teaches. They don't go there anymore except Eastern Christmas. I do find it very fascinating that if you talk to a Catholic that doesn't go to church at all, they're nothing, but then you say something bad about the Catholic church, their life says something bad that it's not true, because if it is true, they would keep attending.

So their life proclaims that it's not good and true and right and wholesome because they don't go there. But if you say something bad about it as a Protestant, they'll go ballistic on you. Why is that?

Well, because this is just such an insidious system that wraps around culture and family and relationships and the afterlife, thoughts of the afterlife. I better not believe something different than my great-grandma or else I'm never gonna see her again.

It is very, very deceptive. When the Roman Catholic Church teaches that baptism saves, then I'm gonna stand up and say that's not true. That's not true. You are not saved by water baptism. That is the error of baptismal regeneration.

1257, Catholic Catechism. The Lord himself affirms that baptism is necessary for salvation. The church does not know of any means other than baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude. This is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are reborn of the water and spirit.

God has bound salvation to the sacrament of baptism. It doesn't take you very long to go to a Catholic funeral and then have the priest proclaim in his priestly jargon that we know this particular person is in heaven based on their water baptism.

That is a wrong view of salvation. That takes away from Christ's perfect work. Christ didn't do everything because you've got to add something to what Christ did. And if you add something to what Christ did, you take everything away.

How many parts of works, how many parts of work do you add to grace before grace is nullified? How about one little part to nine billion parts grace? One part works, nine billion parts. That's kind of diluted.

It's not that bad. Well, it is bad. Romans 11, verse six makes it clear that if you add any part of works to faith, it's all works. And then you're bound to keep the entire law. The Roman Catholics are bound to keep the entire law of God to get to heaven, and we know they never could do it.

Even if they stopped sinning today and never sinned again the rest of their life, they would have enough sins to damn them. 8 .46, basing itself on scripture and tradition, the council teaches that the church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation.

So you need the church and you need baptism in the church. You say, well, I talked to my friend and they don't believe that anymore. That's the old school. Friends, you would be duped. You would be deceived.

You would want to believe that because who could teach this in today's day and age? But they haven't changed anything. They believe that all grace comes through the Catholic church. I believe that all grace comes through Jesus.

So, Jews, Catholic Catechism, 8 .19, Christ's spirit uses these churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic church.

All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him and are in themselves called to Catholic unity. Friends, there is salvation outside the Roman Catholic church, but there is salvation outside of no one, there's no salvation outside of Christ.

Jesus is the one. And if you haven't been baptized like the thief on the cross, you can still go to heaven because Jesus guarantees it. Oh, should you be baptized after you believe? Absolutely. But no works can be added to Christ's perfect works.

Do I believe you're saved by works? Yes, Christ works. You can't be saved by sinful works, tainted sinful works, because that mars that. So you need someone else's perfect works, Jesus Christ. We didn't get very far today.

It's Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. We're examining the claims of Roman Catholicism. And if you're a Roman Catholic, I'd rather have you be mad at me than indifferent. But I'd rather have you be mad at your own sin, mad at the leaders there, and trust in the Bible alone for salvation, who proclaims Christ Jesus as Lord and King, coming back soon.

God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.