by Rev. J. A. T. van Dorp
Nations and empires come and go. One of the greatest empires to disappear from the face of the earth was the pagan Roman empire. The historian Edward Gibbon remarked that so “rapid, yet so gentle, was the fall of Paganism, that only twenty-eight years after the death of Theodosius the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the legislator.” This was quite according to the prophetic word of the apostle that “he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” (2 Thes. 2:7). The fall of pagan Rome reminds us a bit of the fall of communism in eastern Europe not so very long ago. It was also very sudden and generally unexpected. Whilst surprise is no doubt a main element in the reaction of unbelievers it ought not to be so in the experience of believers. After all they have for many long years prayed for the destruction of communism in the exercise of faith so that when the answer comes it ought not to be a matter of great amazement. Rather it is a matter of praise and thanksgiving for something that was sure to happen for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Christian sects seem to have much more tenacious existence. The errors of Arianism, Pelagianism, semi-Pelagianism and Socinianism are rife within sects as well as in denominations that claim to be within the mainstream of Christian religion. Yet, these sects and heresies will also have an end in spite of their longstanding tradition.
In this country, New Zealand, many professing Christians have gone will beyond Arius, Socinus and Pelagius in departing from the faith once delivered to the saints. In a recent article in a religious column a distinction was made between mainline churches and sects on the basis of size and influence on society. The mainline churches included the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian churches. There was no reference to scriptural principles.
The scriptural meaning of sect suggests departure from the faith. The church is the body that sets forth the whole of the truth. Any departure from the truth is essentially sectarian. When such departure from the truth involve separation the world is faced with the birth of a new sect. Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventism and the cult of the Watch Tower and Tract Society are easily recognised as sects. Few however recognise the so-called mainline churches as sects although in the present day religious climate they are hotbeds of sectarian elements. What denomination can claim catholicity when she allows the resurrection of Christ to be denied by her religious teachers?
The greatest sect however is undoubtedly the world-embracing Church of Rome. Of all sects she is the most subtle, the most bloodthirsty, the most dangerous, the most blasphemous, the most prestigious and the most numerous.
THE CHURCH OF ROME IS THE MOST SUBTLE SECT.
It has been called the masterpiece of Satan. There is no sect that is more subtle than this organisation that is so widely accepted under the name of the church. When one considers how brimful of error the Roman Church is this is a truly amazing fact. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he already had to warn that “the mystery of iniquity doth already work”. It took another two hundred years approximately before prayers for the dead and the sign of the cross began to be recognised as acceptable practices. Since then more than forty further unscriptural doctrines and practices were introduced, including transubstantiation, the mass, auricular confession and the Bible placed on the index of forbidden books: not to mention the hundreds of curses directed by the Council of Trent against any that disagree with their pronouncements. In spite of these departures she has been successful in selling herself as a church, or rather THE CHURCH, ie The Catholic Church, of apostolic origin. This is no mean feat, considering that not only the Bible but also history is against these claims. There is only one noted writer and commentator that I have heard of that was prepared to grant the apostolic origin of the papacy. However that concession was only made on the understanding that the papal apostolic chair is not that of Peter but that of Judas. If one enquires into the reasons for such resounding successes in gaining acceptance over the past forty years we must be guided by the scriptures. Paul clearly speaks of the mystery of iniquity that would make its appearance when “he that letteth” i.e. hindereth, the pagan Roman empire, “be taken out of the way”. He also points out that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.” (2 Cor. 11: 14, 15).
THE CHURCH OF ROME IS THE MOST BLOODTHIRSTY SECT.
The people put to death runs into untold thousands. “The number of Netherlanders who were burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive, in obedience to his edicts, and for the offence of reading the Scriptures, of looking askance at a graven image, or of ridiculing the actual presence of the body and blood of Christ in a wafer, have been placed as high as one hundred thousand by distinguished authorities, and have rarely been placed at a lower mark than fifty thousand”. (Motley in THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC). Add to that the figure of the martyrs in other European countries at the time of the reformation and the total number becomes absolutely staggering. The objection may of course be made that this slaughter occurred in the 15th Century and that times have changed. That is true, the times have changed. The Church of Rome however prides herself in the fact that she does not change: her motto is SEMPER IDEM. This blood-thirstiness has continued through the ages wherever Rome had power to exercise this beastly character trait. During the Second World War there occurred one of the most cruel episodes in history — the massacre of Eastern Orthodox Serbs by Roman Catholic Croats, in an effort to make the province of Croatia solidly Roman Catholic. Dr Loraine Boettner states that “so hideous were the massacres that they surpass even those of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands and those of St Bartholomew’s day in France.” The Ustashi leader, Ante Pavelitch, and the Roman Catholic archbishop of Zagreb, Stepinac, with the goodwill of Hitler and the Pope, secured the “conversion” of 244,000 Serbs to Roman Catholicism. Stepinac declared this to be the work of the Lord and to celebrate this event he had a TE DEUM sung in his church in February 1942. Presumably no mention was made of the more than half a million Serbian men, women and children that resisted “conversion” and as a consequence lost their lives at the hands of the Ustashi.
THE CHURCH OF ROME IS THE MOST DANGEROUS SECT.
Her priests profess to speak in the name of Christ. Her chief-priest, the Pontifex Maximus, the Bishop of Rome, claims to have the gift of infallibility. Contact with this system seems to have an intoxicating influence so that “the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Rev. 17: 2) i.e. “the wine by which she enticed them to commit idolatry with her. By this wine are meant honours, riches, preferments, pleasure, the gaudery of her worship, the magnificence of the apostolic see, their pretended antiquity, unity; in short, whatsoever specious arguments papists use to entice persons into the idolatrous communion of their church.” (Matthew Poole Com.) Paul in 2 Thes. 2: 10 and 11 points out that some “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.” The great attraction no doubt is that nowhere can one sin at such a cheap rate and still entertain hopes of being in the favour of God. That is why the God-given designation of the Bishop of Rome is “the man of sin”. (2 Thes. 2: 3). Whilst it is true that the elect are led to heaven in the use of the divinely-appointed means of grace it is also true that sinners persist in sinful ways that lead them to destruction in the use of soul-destroying habits. The idolatrous worship of popery is no doubt one of these ways. That is why it is also called the “mystery of iniquity”. The wickedness is managed under a cloak of the Christian religion and is therefore not easily discerned by those devoted to her worship.
THE CHURCH OF ROME IS THE MOST BLASPHEMOUS SECT.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary states that to blaspheme is “to speak profanity about, to revile”. Vine’s expository dictionary defines it as “speech defamatory of the Divine Majesty”. Every heresy no doubt violates and reviles what is holy, whether one or more truths, and consequently the revealer of those truths. When heresy is tolerated within a denomination, blasphemy is tolerated. The defamation of the Divine Majesty is tolerated. Whilst mainline churches, as well as sects, are full of heresies, the situation is by far the worst in the Church of Rome which claims that outside of her there is no possibility of salvation. Not only does she claim the title of “Holy Father” for her earthly head but she has gone far beyond that heresy in allowing him the claim to infallibility. It is the opinion of some commentators that the fifth vial (Rev. 16: 10) was poured on the seat of the beast at the time of the Reformation. Yet this judgment did not result in repentance but “they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven”. One would think that for a mere man to claim the divine attribute of infallibility would be the height of blasphemy. It certainly would be if there was not a greater blasphemy practised in the Roman Church, i.e. that of worshipping a bread god as the living and true God. The doctrine of transubstantiation decisively changed the divinely-appointed ordinance of the Lord’s Supper from a memorial of Christ’s death into a sacrifice of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Roman Catholics pay divine homage to the “changed” piece of bread or wafer, called the host. The Council of Trent denounces with an Anathema any person that will say there is an error in the canon of the Mass. This form of idolatry goes far beyond anything that is practised in paganism. It is sad that such vast numbers of people have become intoxicated by the outward splendour of this giant deception. This of course is just another feature of Rome’s tenacious existence.
THE CHURCH OF ROME IS THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS AND NUMEROUS SECT.
Considering her bloody history, as well as her record of oppression, bigotry, perversion of the truth and financial dealings, it is remarkable the amount of prestige this sect has been able to build up. Kings, queens, prime ministers and ambassadors have worn a track to Vatican city to pay homage to the man of sin. Much of this activity is entirely of a political nature and lends a great deal of worldly prestige. Would the politicians be so keen to visit the city on the Tiber if the bishop of Rome was a true scriptural pastor engaged in the normal pastoral work of visiting the flock and expounding the scriptures? Where do we read in the scriptures that a pastor must sit in state and receive foreign ambassadors and other dignitaries? Where do the scriptures teach that the church must have another head than the Lord Jesus Christ? The Bishop of Rome acts as if he is a king and he does not only act that way, he also claims that power and dignity. His “coronation” ceremony prescribes the following declaration: “receive the tiara adorned with three crowns, and know that thou art the Father of Princes and Kings, Ruler of the World the Vicar of our Saviour Jesus Christ. . .” All that pomp is propped up by the golden pillars forged by the financial dealings and dealings of the Vatican Bank and its subsidiaries. The Saviour said “My kingdom is not of this world”. Jonathan Edwards expressed the opinion that the Euphrates river of gold would be dried up to prepare the way of the kings of the east preparatory to the downfall of this New Testament Babylon. (Rev. 16: 12).
John Bradford was one of the many martyrs who sealed his testimony with his blood in the year 1555. This is part of his testimony: “If I say, we behold the face of the popish church, Lord how it glistereth, and gorgeous it is in comparison of Christ’s true church which is discerned in these days but by the word of God truly preached, the sacraments purely ministered, and some discipline nothing so much as hath been, might be, and should be. Whereas the popish church wants nothing to set herself forth to the show — as he that considereth the persons (pope, cardinals, legates, archbishops, bishops, suffragans, abbots, priors, deans, prebendaries, archdeacons, canons, monks, friars, parsons, vicars, subdeacons etc., and a thousand more), the power, riches, honours, promotions, lands, houses, fair services (as singing, saying, ringing, playing, censing, etc.), implements (crosses, chalices, relics, jewels, basins, copes, cruets, vestments, books, bells, candles etc.) — he I say that considereth these things, he cannot but with Samuel, thinking Eliab had been he whom God had chosen, think this to be the catholic church and spouse of Christ. But this sentence (Ps. 45) saith, the beauty of God’s paramour is ‘within’: and therefore this may be suspected to be the rose-coloured whore St. John speaketh of in the Apocalypse, for whom her ministers watch night and day, how to maintain their mistress and whore-madam, with endowing her with the riches, power, and pleasures of the earth”. (The Hurt of Hearing Mass).
This system thankfully is doomed to destruction. The Saviour has already destroyed him that has the power of death. The devil’s chief agent will also be destroyed “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” (2 Thes. 2: 8).
When in God’s providence we have so recently seen such a remarkable deliverance in many countries from communism, there is now much encouragement to ply the throne of grace for the downfall of the Roman sect. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”