The Appeal of Rome

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. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry.

Michael Abendroth here at the helm and gauge. We are here at the No Compromise studios in beautiful downtown Burbank, California. Yes, that's right. We've changed our locations. We're at Buena Vista Street now, allegedly.

No, it's actually in real time. It's the first day of spring, and we just got about another foot of snow a couple days ago. So, welcome to New England. The New England-es. I heard somebody at the library say yesterday at the copy machine, oh, you can go in front of me if you'd like.

I've got a lot of copies to make. And the lady who she said this to had a lot of copies too, and she said, no, that's okay. So don't I. So don't I have a lot of copies to make. Translation, I too have a lot of copies to make.

So do I, except they say so don't I. So, I think that's a song written maybe by Twyla Parris. So don't I, so don't I, Eric, you're coming. Okay. What do we have going on today? Today, since I'm boycotting guests, I have to be the guest and the host at the same time.

Pastor, PCA pastor, Christopher Faria, F-A-R-I-A, writes an article, I pulled it up on the Aquila Report blog. You should read that blog. He is a DEMIN Ph .D., retired Army chaplain and PCA teaching elder, church planter at Westminster Presbyterian Fellowship in Falcon, Colorado, Colorado, is the way my grandpa would say it.

So don't I. Daniel Block said something like, I know 10 biblical Semitic-type languages and Eric Aircom and Adonai, you know, Adonai is, of course, sovereign or lord, but he said that Eric Aircom and stuff, he said, I don't know what that is.

I think it's speaking in tongues. Amy Grant sang that, but I think Twyla Parris wrote that. But I could be wrong. Who the hell, who's the other lady that sings a lot, writes a lot of those songs? I don't know.

Steve Cooley, where are you? Earth to Steve, engage. Eight Reasons Why Rome Still Calls. Now this was written March 18th, and so this is right after all the potpourri and the pageantry and the papacy and the new pope, Pope Francis, humbly called the humble pope.

Eight Reasons Why Rome Still Calls. And so he gives reasons why, as a former Catholic, Rome is appealing to people who have left Rome. Now here in New England, at least, I think the numbers are in the high 70s, people that would consider themselves, if they had to pick something Roman Catholic.

That doesn't mean they're practicing Roman Catholics on a weekly basis. I think the number's much lower for the practicing Roman Catholics. But most of the people here in New England, they have a Catholic background, at least.

And of course, if you want to talk to them about Protestant stuff or being born again or this or that, then they'll dig their heels in. But day-to-day living, it doesn't really do much for them. So here he writes, he meaning Christopher Faria, why Rome, or ways Rome appeals to those who have left.

And so I'm thinking about people who go back to Rome. I know some of those people. Some are more prominent people and some are more local people. And so I'm going to give you this list here today, one through eight.

And so the good news is, if you get really mad at me and you think I'm a Catholic basher, then you can just email ChristopherFaria at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I'd have Christopher on, but I'm tired of guests.

That's the new thing here around No Compromise Radio land. We're boycotting guests. Since Steve is on sabbatical, we now boycott all guests, all external sources. We go straight to primary sources, which is me reading somebody else.

The Religion of My Youth and Catholic Community

Number one, first reason why Rome still calls. It represents the religion of my youth. I grew up Catholic, attended Catholic grammar school in high school. I was a member of a Catholic youth group. The Columbian Squires, I thought it was the Columbian Squares for a second.

And the state chief squire of California. Wow. My friends, family, and social group were all Catholics. There's a strong sense of common values and community in the local Catholic church that is often rarely duplicated in the local Protestant church.

And so that's the first reason ChristopherFaria says that Rome still calls. This is what I grew up with. And of course, these days we get reminiscent and we like to go back to old school and old times, old days, old paths.

And certainly, I think the sense of community in an evangelical church is greater. One of the anecdotal proofs that I have is if you go to a Roman Catholic mass and watch what people do afterwards, frankly, lots of people get the Eucharist and then skedaddle out.

They don't even stay for the last hymn, which they don't really sing like they mean. And then afterwards, how many people talk and fellowship and converse? It isn't very often that you see a lot of healthy one another's going on at the end of a service.

Actually, I think that's a sign of a healthy church is when you can't get the people out because they're talking to people and encouraging one another and admonishing, etc., etc. So when I go to a Roman Catholic mass, people can't wait to get out of there.

And so off they go. But here, Christopher Faria is talking about more family, more grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, aunts, aunts, uncles, etc., etc., fusillage, fusillade. Number two, it pulls on my legalism, and of course, this is a big one.

This is maybe the biggest one. And this is why Rome calls people who left Rome, and Rome calls other people, too. It pulls on my legalism. Faria says, our fallen natural setting is that of works. I'd say that's our default.

As Michael Horton has said, the entire ceremony of the mass is designed as a theology of approach. Theology of approach. From the act of confession prior to the mass, dipping the hand in holy water, genuflection, up to the moment of consecration of the Eucharist, it is all designed to purify the parishioner to make him worthy of receiving Christ.

It gives me something to do. I'll repeat that. It gives me something to do. One last time. It gives me something to do. The mass is the quintessential do-better meal. Now, because of the fall, this is the way we are built.

Works, do, earn, wage, merit. That is how we think we approach God. And of course, Romans has a lot to say about that, as well as many other parts of the Bible, but I'm studying Romans now. And by the works of the law, no one will be justified.

We have to uphold the law, but we can't get righteousness from the law ourselves because the law just condemns. Frankly, we, even as Christians, have a hangover where we want to do something to make ourselves presentable to God.

And here, Rome plays on this legalistic tendency that is in the heart of every person, and especially the religious person. I have to do things. And so, it's perfect because there's plenty to do through the Roman Catholic Mass.

And here, even from hand-dipping and confession to consecration—easy for me to say—consecrated—concentrated—concentrated consecration. Oh, number three. Third reason why Rome still calls, according to Christopher Faria, it draws on my idolatry.

It draws on my idolatry. Christopher says, all eyes were on Rome with the election of a new pope. We long and sighed for a worshipful connection to God, ever since being booted from the garden from our self-worshiping idolatry.

Augustine said, our hearts are restless until we find rest in Thee. Our legitimate, God-ordained mediator is Jesus Christ, but our fallen hearts are temporarily satisfied with a flesh-and-blood man in white, with red shoes, as the vicar of Christ.

The problem comes when the mediator retires. No idol ever promised, I'll never leave you or forsake you. I did wonder, when the pope retired, we had a mediator-less universal church. How does that work?

And now, does the pope have a pope? Which pope has the pope? Who's the top pope? Who's the double pope? It's my own conjecture that Benedict, before he was voted in, since he was older, was told, you can, you know, at 70-something, become the new pope, but when you're too old, you're going to need to retire.

This is in, again, my opinion, response to John Paul, who was a younger pope and then had a lot of power, and they needed to pick an older pope so he wouldn't have as much power because he'd have a shorter tenure, and then this pope got really sick, so the pope, the mediator, the vicar of Christ, had to just step down.

How does that work? What would that mean when he has to step down? I will never leave you nor forsake you, I thought the real vicar of the church said. Number four, it mesmerizes my eyes. Oh, doesn't it so?

It mesmerizes my eyes. Now, I'm going to tell you a story about the book of Hebrews in just a moment. Farias said, in the postmodern emergent post-Christian church, hungry, post-Christian church, hungry to try and connect with first century Christianity.

I've often said we should stop monkeying around with all the candles and just go back to Rome if we're going to this route. Rome has better sets, costumes, props, and scripts. I've been in the Sistine Chapel, and it is a feast for the eyes.

There's a sense from the movie The Godfather 2, there's a sense. I can't read today, I can't do much today. There's a scene from the movie of Godfather 2 where a priest goes through an old neighborhood with the elevated monstrance, essentially a holder for the consecrated Eucharist, and the worshippers follow, fawn, and kiss it.

Believe it or not, this harkens back to my childhood many times when I actually thought Jesus was inside of it. So, we've got a lot of emergent people and a lot of people who know better, who've got emergent tendencies, spiritual disciplines, kind of people with labyrinths and prayer mazes and contemplative prayer and smells and bells and incense and prayer rugs, prayer mats.

There's a very tactile part of new Christianity. Well, I understand it. It's false, but I understand it. And so, what Christopher Faria says, if you want that stuff, stop playing games in the shallow end of the emergent pool.

Stop playing games in your evangelical church named, I don't know, what do people call church now? The journey, the conversation, the truth, the mesmer, frank mesmers. I don't know what people call churches anymore.

Eagle's Nest, that's old. That's old and charismatic. But here, we have sights and sounds. Now, let's go back for a minute to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews, Jesus is enough. If you've got Jesus, you've got everything.

If you don't have Jesus, you've got nothing. And the writer of Hebrews is trying to say how Jesus is, He's greater than the angels. He's greater than Aaron. He's greater than Moses. He's greater than the old priesthood.

He is greater, the great Jesus Christ. So, imagine you've got some Hebrews, Hebrew people who are believing in the Lord Jesus or close to or professing. And here they are huddled in some small room 2 ,000 years ago, being persecuted, chased.

And you can imagine them thinking back to the temple. And the temple with the priests, with the trumpets, with the basins, with the choirs, the smell, the gold, with the pillars. I mean, this was the temple.

Forget the Sistine Chapel. This is the temple. And so, the writer of Hebrews basically says this, I know that you have this appeal to go back to this sensational temple and all of the stuff that it contains, which for many years was right and served its purpose.

But now Jesus has come. And so, even though you're persecuted, even though there's six of you huddled in this basement, you have everything. You have Christ. But once you get your eyes off of Christ, then you've got to have all the external, beautiful, wonderful architecture.

I'm all for beautiful things and architecture. But you get my point. Number, oh, you know what? This is number four, and then it's got another number four. Eight reasons, and this guy needs a spell check.

He had an R for an hour, but now he's got nine reasons, he should say, but he's got two fours, so let me give you number four that's really number five. It appeals to my lack of faith, reasons why Rome still calls.

Faith is the evidence of things hoped for for the substance of things not seen. Rome's posture is exactly opposite of this. In arguing with Catholics over images, priests told Calvin that images help people who cannot read to understand the Bible.

Calvin said, teach them to read. Growing up Catholic, I, Christopher, saw Jesus on the cross every Sunday, St. Patrick in the school hallway, Mary stepping on a snake. I never saw that. Baby Jesus with a small globe.

They were just part and parcel of my youth. You don't need faith to be a Catholic. It is literally right in front of your eyes. Number six that he's got is number five. It teeters on the mystical. Why do people want to go back to Rome?

Why do other people want just mystical experiences? Let's see what Christopher says. The smells and bells, the elevation of the Eucharist, the sparkly priestly robes. He needs a spell check on here. The twinkle of the candles, hark back to a time when people actually believed in something holy.

A remarkable thought in our present day profane society. And this taps into the postmodern value of one's experience is what is true. A recapturing of Eden, of what seems now to be lost to us. If you want mystical, Rome's got mystical.

I think there's something in all of us that we want mystical. I grant that. Oh, he doesn't have six here. He skipped six, now we're back to eight total. Okay, number seven. It permits my autonomy. Auto, self, namas, law or rule, self-rule, self-law.

There's the official Roman Catholic doctrine reflected in church councils and in the catechism, papal decrees and such. Then there is what the average Catholic believes. Isn't that true? I can't remember how many Roman Catholics do not follow the teachings of the church when it comes to birth control.

It's in the 90s, I believe. And the gap between the two is wider than the Grand Canyon. Ever since the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church has essentially lost its teeth to enforce its doctrine. So the average Catholic, oh yeah, I think Nancy Pelosi and somebody else just received communion at the Vatican.

How about that? So the average Catholic can believe whatever he or she wants, appealing to a plethora of saints or not, divorcing and remarrying for a fee. I know because this happened to my parents. I can be a good Catholic and virtually believe whatever I want, mix in whatever I want and stay in the good graces of the church.

Now how does that work? How does that work? I'll tell you how that works. You're just a huge organization of 1 .2 billion people or however many people are in it. And you, like a large amoeba, just absorb everything around you.

That's what happens. You don't have a bunch of sects and denominations and schisms and fissures and all that stuff because the Roman Catholic Church just absorbs it all and essentially says, you believe whatever you want.

We're not going to change our doctrine. We're not even going to fight this problem. You can just believe it, but this is the official Roman Catholic doctrine. Like it or lump it. Mr. Limp It. And number eight, which is the true number eight.

True number eight here for eight reasons why Rome still calls VCA pastor and former Catholic on the ways Rome appeals to those who have left, written by Christopher Faria. Number eight, it legitimizes my isolation.

No matter how long I stay away, I can always come back. Official Catholic doctrine states that I am one of the separated brethren. Rome's current thrust is seen in their program, Catholics come home. The door is open.

And like the old commercial for Motel 6, we'll leave the light on. The only problem is that there is darkness inside. Well, why did I read this blog post today? Because pretty much I believe what he wrote.

Well, there might be a little nuance here or there, but I believe what he wrote. And I believe that we need to tell our Catholic friends that Jesus Christ's sacrifice was once for all, and they can have assurance of salvation.

Every priest stands daily, Romans Hebrews 10, at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. That sounds like it's a Roman Catholic priest that the writer of Hebrews is talking about, but of course it's Old Covenant priesthood.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of the faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Don't you love that? With a full assurance of the faith. Friends, if you're a good Catholic, if you're a Catholic at all, you know that something is very elusive, and that is assurance of faith. How can you know that you know that you know that you're going to heaven when you die?

Answer, if you're a Roman Catholic, well, you might just wish upon a star, I guess. Hope against hope. But the true doctrine of the Catholic Church is you can't know. Because if you do know, then maybe you're going to run wild.

Maybe you're going to run amok. Maybe you're going to say, where grace abounds, sin might abound even more, and I've got to do some other things. Because once you teach justification by faith alone, and that God declares sinners righteous based upon the Son's keeping of God's law perfectly, and then also dying on behalf of sinners' sins, and then being raised from the dead, then all hell could break loose if you teach that to people.

You can't control the masses. You can't control the hordes. You need laws, and you need duties, and you need imperatives, and you need sacrifices, and you need to control the folks. What they don't know, though, is if you really have been redeemed, and you really have been justified, you'll be so thankful that that's true of you, that you don't have to pay for your sins, that Jesus bore your sins on His body at Calvary.

You won't want to sin. You won't want to sin. My challenge to every Roman Catholic that's listening today, do you have assurance of faith? Don't you want assurance? And if you answer no, that's the party line.

Every person wants to know. Lots of times I travel to California, and I just have a one-way ticket, because with Virgin and JetBlue, you just get them one way, and then later you get the other way. There's something about flying someplace with a one-way ticket that's fairly unnerving.

And so to have the round-trip ticket in hand, there's a peace of mind to that. There's assurance. Some people pay a little bit more just to get the round-trip. Here we have assurance. You're a sinner, and you need to know for sure where you're going.

It's the most important question of the world. Have you honored God by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? Not adding baptism, not adding consecration, not adding any of these other things. So, my name is Mike Abendroth.

Today we've talked about why Rome still calls people. It is a very, very influential religion, and you can tell by the way people were super excited with the new pope and the people surrounding the place that this is a place for the masses to celebrate Mass.

And I don't want that to happen. I want you to have free justification, sovereign grace, and that is through belief only in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in the Bible who sacrificed himself once for all to bear the sins of many.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .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.