Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21).

While discussing the apostate Roman Catholicism in his classic work The Pursuit of God A.W. Tozer, considered by many as a “20th Century Prophet,” states a sad fact when he rightly concludes:

Today, the trend in conservative circles is back toward that bondage again. It is said that a horse after it has been led out of burning building will sometimes, by a strange obstinacy, break loose from its rescuer and dash back into the building again to perish in the flame. By some such stubborn tendency toward error, fundamentalism in our day is moving back toward spiritual slavery. The observation of days and times is becoming more and more prominent among us. Lent and Holy Week and Good Friday are words heard more and more frequently upon the lips of Gospel Christians. We do not know when we are well off.

Men and women even though Tozer wrote this years ago, largely through Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, the trend “back toward spiritual slavery” has spread from the Fundamental camp right on over into rapidly apostatizing evangelicalism today. One need only to consider the abysmally “soft” stance regarding the Roman Catholic Church, and even by more and more conservative “Gospel Christians” today. This is quite evident from the June 2005 issue of Christianity Today.

The Ecumenical Road Back To Rome

From the section WHERE WE STAND “CT’s View on Key Issues” we find an editorial called “We Are Brothers.” Did you catch that? Christianity “Astray”, an alleged evangelical Protestant publication, in “where we stand CT’s view on ‘Key Issues’” the article “We are brothers.” So now I ask to consider this: Where do you suppose this “evangelical” publication–which Billy Graham himself helped to found–stands in regard to the Church of Rome?

Well, let me show you as here 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 (28).

Now I must stop here for a moment. I admit, I’m a bit overwhelmed, posibly in awe at all this talk of “the papal apartments”; “the famous Swiss Guard”; “the pomp”; the chatting like “long-lost friends”; the “swapping” of “photos” and “gifts” and “travel stories.” Why it strikes me just how amazingly similar all of his pomp around His alleged “Vicar” is strikingly similar to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, isn’t it? I mean you really can picture the Master if you meditate upon it long enough.

So we contemplate that there’s Jesus with his good ol’ buddies the Pharisees just chuckling together back at the Temple palace as He’s swapping stories about how they will have Him crucified all the while feasting together as the poor are starving right outside on their doorstep. Why I can just see it so vividly in my mind? I tell you it’s almost like we’ve been transported back in time, isn’t it? O yes, can’t you just see how much the late Holy Father himself–God on earth according to the Church of Rome–John Paul II (1920-2005), the Vicar of Christ, the Head of the entire Body of Christ was just so much like Christ Himself?

Why if you can just stop and take a moment to fully grasp this scene in your mind; the lavish Vatican apartments and those lush papal robes, no doubt the resemblance will become so strong for you that you will just about be able to actually see Jesus Himself. So I have must tell you it truly is amazing. Yeah, it’s amazing alright! Amazing that a leading evangelical “Protestant” statesman could be taken in by all this skubalon! By the way, I didn’t say I agree, but Billy Graham has definitely been a leading Christian spokesman and even though Karol Wojtyla is gone both of these two men are without question religious icons.

But the editorial I cited above continues on to reveal something quite interesting about Graham’s message:

[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.”

Billy Graham Plays The Pope’s Puppet

Ah, and then we 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 (ibid., emphasis mine).

So I’m guessing here that the great Southern Baptist evangelist Reverend Billy Graham wasn’t doing a whole lot of preaching of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ to these other two men. And let us also keep in mind Cushing’s above “encouraging” comes but seven years after Graham’s famous New York City crusade where he made the specific decision to involve the Roman Catholic Church. Now consider something Charles Haddon Spurgeon, known to many evangelicals as “the Prince of Preachers,” had to say concerning apostate Rome.

The following quote is from Spurgeon’s sermon on Nehemiah 4:10, “Rubbish” (No. 1156):

Soon after apostolic times there came the old
Roman rubbish, which in the end proved a
worse hindrance to the gospel than all the
errors which had preceded it.

This Popish rubbish was found in layers; first
one doctrinal error, and then another, and then
another, and then another, and then another,
until at this time the errors of the Church of
Rome are as countless as the stars, as black
as midnight, and as foul as hell.

Her abominations reek in the nostrils of all
Christian men. Her idolatries are the scorn
of reason and the abhorrence of faith.

The iniquities of her practice, and the
atrociousness of her doctrine, almost
surpass belief.

As the gospel is the masterpiece of God,
“Popery” is the masterpiece of Satan!

There can scarcely be imagined anything of
devilish craftiness or Satanic wickedness
which could be compared with her.

She is the unparalleled queen of iniquity!
Behold upon her forehead the name, Mystery,
Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth.

The church of Rome and her teachings are a
vast mountain of rubbish covering the truth.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. (Romans 1:17-19)

So again I find myself asking evangelical leaders yet again: “What has changed?”

See also:

BILLY GRAHAM’S APOSTASY IS OLDER THAN YOU THINK

THE DECEIVERS OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM

HAS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH REALLY CHANGED?