Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)

“The papacy is unbiblical; it is unbiblical. There’s not one tiny shred of evidence in Scripture for the papacy, nor is there any evidence for cardinals, bishops, priests, nuns. It’s all an invention of men and demons to create an illusion of spirituality and an illusion of transcendence. It was all developed by evil people, satanically led to create a false religion that would be the enemy of the Truth.” Dr. John MacArthur

Protestants Who No Longer Protest

In my article We Are Brothers I discuss the June 2005 issue of Christianity Today, and in particular the section WHERE WE STAND “CT’s View on Key Issues” we find an editorial which itself is called “We Are Brothers.” The point is that here in “where we stand CT’s view on Key Issues” we have this alleged Evangelical Protestant publication in agreement with the late John Paul II’s statement to Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham, “We are brothers.”

In this section of CT, as previously pointed out we read:

Billy Graham had never met a pope until John Paul II invited him to Rome in 1981. Ushered into the papal apartments by the Vatican’s famous Swiss Guard, Graham marveled at the pomp. He and the pope chatted like long-lost friends for half an hour, swapping photos, gifts, and travel stories.

This editorial also informs us that – “[Graham was] Ushered into the papal apartments by the Vatican’s famous Swiss Guard, Graham marveled at the pomp. He and the pope chatted like long-lost friends for half an hour, swapping photos, gifts, and travel stories. Before Graham left, John Paul II reached over, clutched Graham’s thumb, and told him, ‘We are brothers.’ ”

And then we also find out:

In 1964, Richard Cardinal Cushing, the renowned [Roman Catholic] archbishop of Boston, shook up the Catholic Church by praising Billy Graham. Encouraging Catholics to hear the evangelist, Cushing remarked that he would stop worrying about the Catholic Church’s future in America if they had half a dozen men like Graham. [Roman] Catholic and evangelical efforts toward fellowship have largely followed the Cushing-Graham model.

This is pretty solid evidence that Rev. Billy Graham couldn’t have been doing a whole lot of preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ to these men. The CT editorial then goes on to praise Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Ut Unam Sint for fueling “the ecumenical momentum started at the Second Vatican Council by inviting debate about [Roman] Catholic doctrine.” But what they don’t tell you is what I have been demonstrating in my writings here at Apprising Ministries–and from their own sources I might add–that naïve Evangelicals can debate with the apostate Church of Rome from now until Christ Himself returns but the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church are “irreformable.” As in can never be changed!

Beloved the goal for the true child of God who has been saved through God’s Grace alone; through faith alone; in Christ alone is to follow in the footsteps of men like Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989). When he first started doing evangelism in the twisted world of non-Christian cults in the late fifties Dr. Martin was everything but welcomed by the Church. “This is too controversial was the cry.” But before there was his classic The Kingdom of the Cults Martin released his book The Maze of Mormonism which carried numerous quotes from official Mormon sources thus exposing their true doctrines to public scrutiny. Dr. Martin would go on to say:

Remember now, David cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword. And one day we will watch the wiggling corpse of Mormonism fall, it’s head severed with its own archives.

And Lord willing here at AM we will help see to it that the wicked Roman Catholic Church as well will go to her own death in the very same way! Finally CT’s “We Are Brothers” tells us:

The document [Ut Unam Sint] acknowledges for the first time in papal history that Vatican authority hinders cooperation between church traditions. John Paul II believed that truth would emerge through engagement. “By engaging in frank dialogue, communities help one another to look at themselves together in the light of the apostolic tradition,” he wrote in Ut Unum Sint. “This leads them to ask themselves whether they truly express in an adequate way all that the Holy Spirit has transmitted through the apostles.”

The Papal Roadblock

Can you believe the nerve of this heretic John Paul II! Was he serious? “Vatican authority hinders cooperation between church traditions!” No kidding. Perhaps one just might have heard of the Protestant Reformation? Are we to believe John Paul II was not quite familiar with Canon 331 from the Code of Canon Law for the Church of Rome? Well, here it is directly from the Vatican website:

Can. 331 The bishop of the Roman Church, in whom continues the office given by the Lord uniquely to Peter, the first of the Apostles, and to be transmitted to his successors, is the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the [universal] Church, which he is always able to exercise freely. (emphasis added)

Or how about “Can. 756 §1. With respect to the universal Church, the function of proclaiming the gospel has been entrusted principally to the Roman Pontiff and the college of bishops.” (emphasis added) I offer that prior to their “proclaiming the gospel” it would be a good idea if these men would learn just what the Gospel actually is. Now consider this from the May 2005 issue of CT, John Paul II the “pope who in his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint invited input from non-Catholic Christians on the primacy of the office of Peter, is the same man whose Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1999 declared the primacy of Peter ‘immutable’ [which means unchangeable!] (David Scott, “The Pope We Never Knew,” Christianity Today, May 2005, 38, emphasis added).

And–even in Ut Unam Sint as I point out in my work The Deceivers–Pope John Paul II said:

I myself intend to promote every suitable initiative aimed at making the witness of the entire Catholic [universal] community understood in its full purity and consistency,… This is a specific duty of the Bishop of Rome as the Successor of the Apostle Peter. I carry out this duty with the profound conviction that I am obeying the Lord,… (emphasis added)

Harbinger Of A New Reformation

I must ask again: Just how is it that the Church of Rome continues to bewitch the Evangelical Protestant? She will never change on the authority of the papacy, for that my brothers and sisters is her sole reason to exist in the first place! And still yet another Evangelical is bedazzled by the pomp and pageantry of Rome for later on in this same June 2005 issue of Christianity Lite there is an article called “The Promise of Benedict XVI” praising the latest papal pretender. It was written by an executive director of CT, Dr. Timothy George, who is founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and is also reputed to be “a leading Reformation scholar.” Yet–believe it or not–George says, “John Paul II will long be remembered as the greatest pope since the Reformation. His successor, Benedict XVI, may well turn out to be the harbinger of a new reformation.”

Do you realize that this just might actually come true? “Benedict XVI, may well turn out to be the harbinger of a new reformation.” Already through the new Gnosticism of her Contemplative Spirituality Rome’s daughter the Ecumenical Church of Deceit currently has the reversal of the Reformation well underway. So yes, Satan may yet pull off his biggest coup since the Garden of Eden and actually entice Evangelical Protestants right back into the Church of Rome! Amazingly enough more and more Evangelical Christians are already beginning to dance to the siren song of Rome, so this is a sorry situation that may actually happen. Just imagine God’s children wishing to go back into the spiritual bondage of the Roman Catholic Church just as A.W. Tozer talked about in his The Pursuit of God.

The following passage of Holy Scripture now comes to mind at this point in our discussion:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

In January of 1873 Charles Haddon Spurgeon, widely known as the “Prince of Preachers,” wrote an article which appeared in the Sword and Trowel called The Religion of Rome where he said, “Essence of lies, and quintessence of blasphemy, as the religion of Rome is, it nevertheless fascinates a certain order of Protestants, of whom we fear it may be truly said that ‘they have received a strong delusion to believe a lie, that they may be damned.’ ” You recognize of course that this is a reference to 2 Thessalonians 2:11 quoted above. Spurgeon concluded:

Seeing that it is so, it becomes all who would preserve their fellow-immortals from destruction to be plain and earnest in their warnings. Not in a party-spirit, but for truth’s sake, our Protestantism must protest perpetually… (emphasis added)

Reaching Unbelievers Is The Christian Mission

Perpetually that is, I guess, until 1994 when the initial overt sign of compromise began to rear its ugly head in the Evangelical Protestant camp when the first ECT document came out. It’s actual title is Evangelicals And Catholics Together: The Christian Mission In The Third Millenium. The vital question we need to ask here is: Since when did God include unbelievers in the Great Commission that He gave to His Christians? Today I tell you in the Lord it’s simply an incontrovertible fact that when you measure what the great men of God have preached in the past concerning Roman Catholicism by what you hear from the pulpits of our Evangelical leaders today it simply does not measure up. And I can’t help but be reminded of this warning from our Lord:

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. (Matthew 24:10-13).

Now we finish up with what Dr. George was telling us about the new so-called Head of the entire Body of Christ without whose authority we cannot be saved, the supposed Pastor of all the pastors of all the Christian churches and the Vicar of Christ on earth. So I wonder; hmmm, just what in the world could ever bother the true Christian about all of this? O I dunno, maybe the thought of an unregenerate human being shepherding the entire flock of God; the very Bride of our Christ! Yet in CT Dr. George says, “I do believe [Pope Benedict XVI’s] pontificate will be one of great moment for the Christian church, not least for evangelicals. Here are five reasons why evangelical Protestants, and orthodox believers of all persuasions, should be pleased at the election of Pope Benedict XVI.” (emphasis added)

I will spare you all five. Here is “2. His theology is Bible-focused…,” and Dr. George further points out, “John Paul II was trained as a philosopher, but Benedict XVI is a theologian par excellence” (emphasis added). Well good, Dr. George then he should be able to see–from the Bible–that Peter was not the first Pope; and then Benedict should know–from his theological studies–that the Lord will not share His Glory with another, no matter how big a hat he wears or how many so-called Protestants like Billy Graham set such a nauseating example while bowing down to pacify a papal puppet of Satan and kissing his ring. And then finally Dr. George ends his own litany of compromise by telling us, “Benedict has indicated that one of the major concerns of his pontificate will be the unity of all Christians.” (emphasis added)

There Can Be No Peace With Rome

Well, thank you Benedict Arnold. Why how magnanimous of you. You’d like to unite “all Christians.” Then first O most unholy father, I would suggest that you renounce your blasphemy and become a Christian yourself by following Christ’s command in John chapter 3 – Ye must be born again (v.7). Fortunately for Benedict, since we’re told his theology is Bible-focused–although Bible-based would be wiser still–but since Benedict is such a theologian “par excellence” then he just might actually stumble across this truth. Absolute Truth which was only spoken by God’s living Word and then frozen for all time in God’s written Word. I’d dare say that our Lord must consider this “born-again” concept rather important. After all, it even happened to Dr. Martin Luther while he was a priest in the Church of Rome. And as any true Christian should he then left this front for the kingdom of Satan!

And Dr. George perhaps in your 16 audio tape lecture series entitled The Theology of the Reformers, based on your 337 page book by the same title, you may have missed a little statement by this same Martin Luther: “There can be no peace with Rome until the Pope abolishes his papacy.” Yet somehow Evangelical scholars still continue to fall for the skubalon of the Roman Catholic Church. Now however, we leave this with Dr. John MacArthur, whom I quoted at the outset, one of the few men in our Lord’s Church today with the intestinal fortitude to speak the Truth boldly. MacArthur puts what will prove to be the defining issue of this tepid generation in proper perspective when he says:

In an article that followed [ECT] up in Christianity Today, J. I. Packer said, ‘We should acknowledge as brothers and sisters in Christ, anyone who lives to the highest ideals of their communion.’ My response to that is the opposite. I…could [possibly] fellowship with a bad Roman Catholic, that is, one who has rejected the system, but was still in the church and came to know Christ. But one who holds the highest ideals of Roman Catholicism–on what grounds do I have spiritual unity? (Irreconcilable Differences: Catholics, Evangelicals, and the New Quest for Unity – Parts 1- 6, Part 2, transcript on file).

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. (1 Kings 18:21)