"As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed," Galatians 1:9.
It is common place anymore to go to a "reformed" blog or website and seeing the heresies of Rome peddled openly and unapologetically. Whether it is Tim Keller promoting the reformer torturing heretic Ignatius Loyola or a recent blog singing the praises of Father Damien or any number of reformed minded people peddling Henri Nouwen, Brother Lawrence or any number of mystical papists peddling prayer and popery. We have reached the end of faithful gospel proclamation by the "evangelical" church in America. Even people who are prominent in things like the Gospel Coalition, which seeks to proclaim the unvarnished gospel, don't have a clue it seems what the gospel is!
Let's be clear here. The Catholic Church is apostate. If all someone has to go on is the gospel according to Rome, that gospel will lead them to Hell and is no gospel, good news, whatsoever. If, as occasionally happens, a Catholic hears the true gospel and responds in repentance and faith, they are saved by Christ even if they continue to attend Mass faithfully. Here I make a non exhaustive list of obvious heresies of the Catholic Church:
1) The Mass is a sacrifice for sins. This is an obvious denial of Jesus Christ's statement from the cross, "It is finished." This is why I refuse to attend a Mass, as attending Mass is a sin unto itself, unless allowed to preach the gospel like I was able to do at a funeral once.
2) Purgatory is the belief that those who do not go to Hell must be purged for a time to be made holy before entering Heaven. C.S. Lewis also promoted this heresy. This is also a complete denial of Christ's sufficiency.
3) They believe in something called, the immaculate conception. This has nothing to do with Christ's virgin birth but in Mary's birth being sinless. They believe Mary was without sin and never had any children by Joseph, she was a perpetual virgin. This is a denial of Romans 3:23 and means that Mary did not need her Son and His atoning death on the cross in order to obtain salvation.
This is just a start, feel free to add more, but we are seeing in the reformed movement a total lack of discernment and a full scale promotion of so many false teachers in the Roman tradition. We are seeing people drawn to piety and not to the purity of the gospel. They seek to build a bridge I fear, to a false religion that has no desire to cross the waters with them. The Catholic Church has made no attempt to draw near to the true gospel in the 500 years since the Reformation and has, in fact, retreated from the five sola's to an alarming degree! I have family practicing indulgences now!
What is the Bible's response to false teachers? It is not a gooey sentimentality that begs us to consider the piety of certain "saints". No, Paul says, "let them be accursed". Jesus told them a thing or two Himself. He has a special place for false teachers who lead His flock along the wide road of piety, moralism, tradition and idolatry, "I never knew you: depart from Me you who practice lawlessness." Jesus sends such to Hell and I fear that many "reform" minded evangellyfish are widening the narrow path and many sheep will follow the path they have laid out. Friends, let's not promote this evil, the days are short, we need to build our lives upon the rock of God's word. We need to pray for revival in the church and that our Romish tendencies would be purged and that we would not turn back to that old, dead gospel that has been preached since the snake in the garden. Friends, let's learn, live and love the true gospel, preached by Paul and given down to us!
I repost this in light of Parchment and Pen's continuing push for papist promotion.
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