The Blasphemies of the Catholic Catechism and its Traditions

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Dear Reader,

I have been discussing Roman Catholic views with some members of the SDAIssues forum who converted from Seventh-day Adventism to Catholicism.  I will interject comments after some of the statements of the following Catechism.  I will make my statements and/or questions in blue font.  I will highlight certain statement by David W. Cloud in this color.

 

The New Catholic Catechism

 

By David W. Cloud

 

The Roman Catholic Church published a new Catechism in 1992 in Latin and the English translation was completed in 1994. The following excerpts demonstrate without question that the Roman Catholic Church is apostate and cursed of God. Bible-believing people are commanded by God to separate from those who preach a false gospel. Some counter that not all Roman Catholics believe the following false doctrines. That might be so, but the fact is that the following is the most recent and most official declaration of true Catholic belief in print. If a professed Catholic does not agree with the following dogmas, he should not claim to be a Roman Catholic, because this IS Roman Catholicism.

 

The blasphemous dogmas of this official Catholic catechism reveal the blindness and wickedness of those "evangelicals" who are calling for closer relationships with Romanism.

 

It is interesting, in passing, to note that all Scripture references in this new catechism are cited from the Revised Standard Version or from the New Revised Standard Version. The fact that the chief Apostate "church" has put such an unhesitating stamp of approval upon the critical text and the modern versions thereof is evidence that those versions are corrupted.

 

We turn now to the Catechism itself:

 

Introduction by John Paul II

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the result of very extensive collaboration; it was prepared over six years of intense work ... The project was the object of extensive consultation among all Catholic Bishops, their Episcopal Conferences or Synods, and of theological and catechetical institutes. As a whole, it received a broadly favourable acceptance on the part of the Episcopate. It can be said that this Catechism is the result of the collaboration of the whole Episcopate of the Catholic Church ... the harmony of so many voices truly expresses what could be called the "symphony" of the faith.

 

Ron’s Question:  Brandon, when you asked me about “authority” in the SDA church, and I told you that it was the General Conference in Session, unless that Session was controlled by a small group of men, you wanted Biblical support for such rule of a majority vote.  Since the above emboldened text says that the “…Catechism is the result of the collaboration of the whole Episcopate of the Catholic Church… the harmony of so many voices truly expresses what could be called the “symphony” of the faith,” how does this differ from the SDA General Conference in Session as regards an input of a large group of men?

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, lastly, is offered to every individual ... who wants to know what the Catholic Church believes.

 

These statements put the lie to the popular idea that there is no one true Catholic dogma and that Romanism has no symphony of faith. It also proves that it IS possible for one to know and understand what Catholicism believes without being a trained Catholic theologian. Following are the heresies of the Roman Catholic Church which are reaffirmed in the new catechism:

 

TRADITION EQUAL WITH SCRIPTURE

 

80 Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other.

 

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.

 

BIBLE INTERPRETATION THE SOLE RIGHT OF POPE AND BISHOPS

 

100 The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.

 

Ron responds:  I was led to believe that it was the Pope acting solely.  The Catechism says that the bishops are so entrusted as well.

 

MARY, SINLESS, PERPETUAL VIRGIN, MOTHER OF GOD, QUEEN OF HEAVEN, CO- REDEMPTRESS WITH CHRIST

 

491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854...

 

Ron comments:  Of course there is no Scripture to back this.  

 

494 ... As St. Irenaeus says, "Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race." ...

 

Ron comments:  This is pure, unvarnished blasphemy.  There is one Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

495 ... the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).

 

Ron comments:  God is without beginning.  He has no mother.  Christ is without beginning.

 

508 From among the descendants of Eve, God chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of his Son. "Full of grace," Mary is "the most excellent fruit of redemption" (SC 103): from the first instant of her conception, she was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.

 

Ron comments:  Thus, Jesus would not have a nature like ours.  He would not have come in the likeness of sinful flesh as the Bible says He did.  This is blasphemy.  This is Satan’s device to try to make man think that Christ has an advantage over us as far as overcoming in His humanity is concerned.  All SDA’s who agree that Christ had an advantage, are really touting Roman Catholicism.  Christ overcame by the same process we may overcome—by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, His Divine Nature Holy Spirit.  That is the great leveler.  When we partake of that gift of all gifts of the Spirit, we are at no disadvantage, especially since we never have the sins of the entire world laid upon us, having to deal with the temptations of those sins.  Christ was tempted in all points by those sins being laid upon Him.

 

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

 

2Jo 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

 

964 Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death"; it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion. ... enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her ...

 

Ron comments.  The Holy Spirit is the life and Soul of Jesus Christ, says Ellen G. White and Scripture.  The role of Jesus Christ is as Saviour, another Comforter (the Holy Spirit), and Redeemer from sin.  Mary is not a Saviour and/or Redeemer from sin.  Ellen White said that Christ divested (emptied) Himself of His Holy Spirit at His Incarnation.  That Spirit was bequeathed to the Father as a gift to mankind for the purpose of regeneration (redemption) of man back into the image of God.  The Holy Spirit became a third person at the Incarnation although He had always existed as the One Eternal Spirit of the Father and the Son.  This is part of the mystery of the Godhead.  The One Eternal Spirit makes all three persons ONE GOD.

 

966 "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son ..." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection ... "In giving birth you kept your virginity... You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death" (Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion, Feast of the Dormition, August 15th.).

 

Ron’s comments:  Mary came from a line of worst sinners.  Why?  So that Christ could prove that we can overcome as He did, thru moment by moment dependence on His indwelling Holy Spirit Divine Nature.  The doctrine of the Immaculacy of Mary runs counter to the fact that Scripture says that Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh.  Where did He have any semblance of “sinful flesh” if it was not from Mary His mother?  Christ never sinned, by Ellen White says that He had all the affects of the deterioration of sinful flesh caused by four thousand years of sin.

 

968 "In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the Saviour's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace."

 

969 "... Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us gifts of eternal salvation. ... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."

 

Ron’s comments:  The Bible says that there is one Mediator, Intercessor, Advocate, Helper, Comforter, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit.

 

ROSARY AND PRAYERS TO MARY

 

971 "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honours "the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. ..." The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.

 

FULLNESS OF SALVATION ONLY THROUGH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

 

The Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism explains: "For it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God."

 

846 Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation ... thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

 

ALL GRACE COMES THROUGH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

 

819 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 calls to "Catholic unity."

 

834 Particular Churches are fully catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church of Rome "which presides in charity." "For with this church, by reason of its pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is the faithful everywhere, must necessarily be in accord" (St. Irenaeus, Adv. Haeres, 3,3,2:PG 7/1,849; cf. Vatican Council I: DS 3057).

 

Ron’s Comments:  The above statement demonstrates the hierarchical structure of the church.  This means that all particular churches are in full league with the Headquarters of the church and under its authority.  Hierarchical structure is like a theocracy, the theocracy of Israel.  There is corporate responsibility in all such structures, and the Seventh-day Adventist church is organized under the same structure.  The converse to such structure is congregationalism, whereby an independent church is not responsible to any higher authority than its immediate minister and congregation.

 

NO CHRISTIAN UNITY APART FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

 

820 Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose ... The desire to recover the unity of all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.

 

Ron’s Comments:  But we all know that there is dissension in the ranks of Catholicism all the way up from members to the ruling leaders.

 

SALVATION INCLUDES THE MUSLIMS

 

841 The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day.

 

Ron’s Comments:  This is pure, unadulterated blasphemy, because the Muslims do not believe in Jesus Christ, but rather Muhammad, as their god and saviour.  This particular belief of Catholicism will go far in the pope’s effort to broach a peace treaty with the president of Turkey.  The pope has a meeting with the Turkish Arab leader this coming November, 2006.  Turkey controls the Mosques in Israel, the most notable being the one that sits on the Dome of the Rock, where the Jewish Temple once stood.  The pope and Satan will both rule from there one day for a short time.  The pope will rule first and then Satan himself will set himself up on that only spot where God honored sacrifices of ancient Israel.

 

SUPREMACY OF THE POPE

 

882 The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful." "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."

 

Ron’s Comments:  The only head of the church is Christ.  When men usurp that position with a president or a pope, Christ is dethroned as the leader of His church.  In 1901, Ellen White and the lesser committee voted that a committee of 25 men should replace the office of president in the SDA church.  The 25 man committee exists today, but in 1903, the church still retained the office of President in spite of Ellen White’s counsel.  The rule or ruin kingly power which Ellen White denounced, continued in the SDA church and does so to this day.

 

891 The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful -- who confirms his brethren in the faith -- he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. ... The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium," above all in an Ecumenical Council. ... This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.

 

Ron’s Comments:  There is one that is perfect and infallible, the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.  That Word mixed with man’s tradition is not infallible!

 

PRAYERS OF THE DEAD

 

956 "Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. ... They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus. ... So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."

 

Ron’s Comments:  The above belief establishes the act of praying to the Saints as an intermediary advocate, when there is ONE MEDIATOR, the Lord Jesus Christ.  This act is an insult to the Holy Spirit.

 

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD

 

958 "In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honoured with great respect the memory of the dead; and `because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins' she offers her suffrages for them." Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.

 

Ron’s Comments:  Luk 24:5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down [their] faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

 

SALVATION THROUGH BAPTISM

 

1263 By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin.

 

1257 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 water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism...

 

Ron’s Comment:  By this condition, the thief on the cross would not be saved, nor any person and/or all little children who had not had the opportunity to be baptized.

 

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.

 

1267 ... From the baptismal fonts is born the one People of God of the New Covenant...

 

PENANCE NECESSARY FOR SALVATION

 

980 It is through the sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God and with the Church: "Penance has rightly been called by the holy Fathers `a laborious kind of baptism.' This sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have not yet been reborn" (Council of Trent (1551): DS 1672; cf. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 39, 17: PG 36,356).

 

Ron’s Comments:  As though we can buy God or atone in any way for our own sins!

 

THE CHURCH CAN FORGIVE SINS

 

982 There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. ... Christ who died for all men desires that in his Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin.

 

Ron’s Comments:  There is a sin that no church can forgive.  In Jeremiah 11:9-15, God defines that type of sin. Also, any man who curses the Holy Spirit commits the unpardonable sin.  There is a sin unto death.  Jeremiah 11:9-15 is an example of a sin unto death, as is Isaiah 8:9-13, which amounts to the same thing.  Many SDA’s are committing this sin willfully, knowingly via ecumenical liaison with Babylon, God’s enemies.

 

1Jo 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin [which is] not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

 

PURGATORY

 

1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

 

Ron’s Comments:  Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

 

Luk 24:5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down [their] faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

 

Hbr 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:  

 

After we die there remains only the judgment.  It does not say after death men are purified and perfected.  Those who become eleventh hour converts will grow up in Christ during the Millennium when they will be taught by the 144,000.

 

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Council of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire. "As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire."

 

Ron’s Comments:  Brandon Ogden upbraided me for saying that the SDA General Conference in Session was to be the voice of God WHEN IT IS NOT CONTROLLED BY A FEW MEN.  He asked me where in the Bible there is any mention of rule by majority vote.  Where in the Bible is there sanction for any council, such as the Counsel of Trent, to dream up doctrines like Purgatory?

 

INDULGENCES AND GOOD WORKS FOR THE DEAD

 

1032 From the beginning the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.

 

Ron’s Comments:  Contrary to the fact that men are often “bought,” God cannot be bought!

 

SACRAMENTS AND LITURGY COMMUNICATE GRACE

 

1084 By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they [the sacraments] make present efficaciously the grace that they signify.

 

1131 The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.

 

SACRAMENTS NECESSARY FOR SALVATION

 

1129 The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. ... 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 Saviour.

 

Ron’s Comments:  The Sacraments as practiced by Roman Catholicism include the doctrine of Transubstantiation.  This is heresy and does total despite to the Incarnation Sacrifice made by the Son of God, by which He emptied Himself of His Divine Nature in order to give it to us as a bequeathed “greatest good” “crowning gift for the purpose of regeneration back into the image of God.  I have covered the blasphemy aspects of the Eucharist bread or host teaching of transubstantiation in the following

document:  https://omega77.tripod.com/trintrans.htm

 

sac·ra·ment    Audio pronunciation of "sacraments"( P )  Pronunciation Key  (s k r -m nt)
n.

  1. Christianity. A rite believed to be a means of or visible form of grace, especially:
    1. In the Eastern, Roman Catholic, and some other Western Christian churches, any of the traditional seven rites that were instituted by Jesus and recorded in the New Testament and that confer sanctifying grace.
    2. In most other Western Christian churches, the two rites, Baptism and the Eucharist, that were instituted by Jesus to confer sanctifying grace.
  2. A religious rite similar to a Christian sacrament, as in character or meaning.
  3. often Sacrament
    1. The Eucharist.
    2. The consecrated elements of the Eucharist, especially the bread or host.
    3.  

INFANTS BORN AGAIN THROUGH BAPTISM

 

1250 Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God ... The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.

 

Ron’s Comments:  The doctrine of Original Sin is not biblical.  God says that we are not responsible for the sins of our ancestors.  All men are made culpable to sin because of Adam’s sin, but we are not born sinners.  Thus, Ellen White said that the destiny of a baby that is not of baptizable age will be determined by the destiny of the parent(s).

 

20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Ezekiel 18:20.

 

THE MASS A RE-SACRIFICE OF CHRIST

 

1414 As sacrifice, the Eucharist is also offered in reparation for the sins of the living and the dead and to obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God.

 

Ron’s Commentary:  We cannot sacrifice for the sins of the dead or the living.  After death, the judgment.

 

1365 Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice. ... In the Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross, the very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

 

Ron’s Comments:  Thus the body of Christ is crucified over and over.  https://omega77.tripod.com/trintrans.htm

 

1367 The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: ... "In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner."

 

THE MASS IS A CONVERSION OF BREAD AND WINE INTO THE VERY CHRIST

 

1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring "... by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."

 

1413 By the consecration the transubstantion of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is brought about. Under the consecrated species of bread and wine Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1640; 1651).

 

Ron’s Comments:  The evil of transubstantiation doctrine is explained in the following document:  https://omega77.tripod.com/trintrans.htm

 

1374 ... In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained."

 

PRIEST HAS THE POWER TO CONVERT BREAD AND WINE INTO CHRIST

 

1375 It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. ... The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered. ... The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed.

 

MASS CONDUCTED IN COMMUNION WITH THE DEAD

 

1370 ... In communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice.

 

ELEMENTS OF THE MASS TO BE WORSHIPPED AND CARRIED IN PROCESSIONS

 

1418 Because Christ himself is present in the sacrament of the altar he is to be honoured with the worship of adoration.

 

1378 Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord. ... reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession.

 

ALL SINS MUST BE CONFESSED TO A PRIEST

 

Ron’s Comments:  Psa 32:5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

 

Rom 14:11 For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

 

1493 One who desires to obtain reconciliation with God and with the Church, must confess to a priest all the unconfessed grave sins he remembers after having carefully examined his conscience. The confession of venial faults, without being necessary in itself, is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church.

 

1456 All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue. ... those who fail to do so and knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest, `for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know.'

 

Ron Comments:  Two devout converts to Catholicism, from Seventh-day Adventism, Marsha Adams and Brandon Ogden, are on the SDAIssues forum, and they adamantly maintain that the law is done away with, but the Catechism says that violation of the last two precepts of the Decalogue must be confessed.  Why?  If they have been done away with?

 

1497 Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

 

FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND ESCAPE FROM PURGATORY THROUGH INDULGENCES

 

1471 An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints. ... Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead.

 

1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who ... intervenes in favour of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the punishments due for their sins. ...

 

1479 Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.

 

Ron’s Comments:  As though God can be bought!  First, the church has denied the human sinful flesh Christ partook of as an example to us that we can overcome in the same sinful flesh.  That encourages sin by the inference that we cannot overcome as Christ did—that He had an advantage.  Then the church collects indulgences as payment for sins that have already been forgiven.  The motive here is all too apparent.  This is the type of mammon production that built the luxurious Cathedrals of Catholicism.  Christ and His disciples had no such provisions.  They met in home churches.

 

SALVATION THROUGH THE GOOD WORKS OF THE "SAINTS"

 

1475 In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others ... Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin.

 

Ron’s Comments:  No man can atone for another’s sins.  This horror of blasphemies suggests that the holiness of one can profit or atone for another’s sins.  This is an abomination of abominations.

 

1476 We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church's treasury....

 

1477 This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints. ... In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.

 

VENERATION OF RELICS

 

1674 Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful ... such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.

 

VENERATION OF IMAGES

 

2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons -- of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.

 


 

[The above material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1995. David W. Cloud. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0.]

 


 

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