ARE YOU MY MOTHER? ~ EXPOSING HYPOCRISY ~ Part 12

Many practicing Roman Catholics falsely believe that the Roman Catholic Church was the first true church. There are other denominations who would also hold on tightly to this exclusive claim as their own. But the Roman Catholic Church teaches that its origins were the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ in approximately AD 30. Theirs supposedly is the church Christ died for which was established by the apostles.

 

The Apostles’ Creed was written approximately 150 years after the apostles had died. It is called the Apostles’ Creed because it is supposed to be the record of what the apostles taught. The following is the Apostles’ Creed: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

 

This is a good summary of Christian doctrine and most denominations within Christendom would have no trouble standing upon the words in this Creed. But two notable clarifications must be made. This, once again, is where definitions are important. Jesus did not literally go to hell between His death and resurrection. You can read more here:

Jesus Did Not Go To Hell

Suffice it to say that Jesus went to sheol or the realm of the dead, the grave—not hell. The second definition that needs to be made in light of our current study is the phrase: the holy catholic church. The word catholic simply means “universal”. The true “catholic” church is all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

 

The papacy, veneration of Mary (including the immaculate conception of Mary, the perpetual virginity of Mary, the assumption of Mary, Mary as co-redemptrix and mediatrix), petitioning the saints in heaven for their prayers, apostolic succession, sacraments, infant baptism, confession of sins to a priest, purgatory, indulgences, and equal authority of church tradition and Scripture all belong to the Roman Catholic Church but were in no way teachings handed down by Jesus or His Apostles. So where did they originate?

 

For the answers, we need to look at a brief history of the Church. For the first 280 years of its history, Christianity was banned through the Roman Empire. At that time, Christians were horribly persecuted. When the Roman Emperor Constantine purportedly was “converted”, his Edict of Milan in AD 313 called for religious tolerance which lifted the ban on Christianity.

 

Who was Constantine the Great? I highly recommend reading the following article about this man. Constantine-the-Great

In summary of all that is said in this article: “Ultimately, whether Constantine was a committed Christian, a shrewd, Christian-friendly politician, or something in between is an open question. Without doubt, he ended centuries of persecution and greatly enhanced the social standing of Christianity. He committed resources to churches and Christian education, and his leadership helped to clarify important Christian doctrines. However, Constantine’s actions resulted in some negative complications. Free from persecution, the church naturally attracted more false converts. The melding of Christian themes with secular politics set a pattern that contributed to later disasters such as the Inquisition and the Crusades. Constantine’s blending of pagan, building-and-priest-centered worship with Christianity also contributed to the rise of Roman Catholicism.”

 

Constantine believed Christianity could be the religion that could unite the Roman Empire which was beginning to see some severe fractures within it. While he continued to believe pagan ideologies and engaged in their practices, Constantine’s “Christianity” became a mixture of true Christianity and Roman paganism.

 

So how did the teachings of Christ and the Apostles’ teaching differ from the teaching brought into the Roman Catholic Church? We can briefly look at a few examples with a more in-depth look to come later.

 

Mariology—The Bible ascribes nothing to Mary like that which the Roman Catholic Church teaches and the worship they engage in coming from this false teaching. Where did it come from? When we looked at the Tower of Babel, I hinted at many myths of different heresies that were taken with the people who were scattered throughout the world. One of these heresies is the mother-goddess religion that came out of Egypt. The Roman Catholic view of Mary has a lot more in common with the worship of Isis of Egypt than apostolic teaching.

 

The following is something I have written in my Bible that has been compiled of many “myths” handed down. Take what you will with the disclaimer that this is NOT entirely backed up with Scripture, but it makes a lot of sense to me. (My mother gave me a book in the early 90’s that had a lot of this information. I refused to give it back to her because it was a valuable resource to me. We often joked about it, and I later found it after it was no longer in print and bought my own copy. I am not referencing it here because with all that I believe was valid within the book, there was a lot that can easily be distorted legalistically.)

 

After Nimrod’s death:

1. Queen Semiramis claimed he was now the Sun-god, god of fertility (Baal) (For more about Semiramis, go to this link: Who is Semiramis?

2. She gave birth to an illegitimate son and claimed that he, Tammuz, was Nimrod reborn.

3. Queen Semiramis claimed Tammuz was supernaturally conceived and that he was the promised seed.

4. Tammuz was worshiped as was his mother, even more.

5. False religion filled the world.

 

Golden calf—symbol of Tammuz, son of the Sun-god

 

6. When men were scattered all over the earth, they took their worship of the Babylonian family and its mystery symbols with them.

7. Even today we find evidence of the religion of Babylon in all the false religions of the earth.

8. True Babylon was the “Mother” —the originator—of false religion and the idolatry that has spread throughout the earth.

 

All nations drank from her cup of false doctrine (Jeremiah 51:7; Revelation 18:3).

 

When Rome became a world empire, she assimilated into her system the gods and religions from the various pagan countries over which she ruled.

 

During this time, Jesus was born, lived among men, died, rose again, and sent back the Holy Spirit and the New Testament church was established.

 

Attempts to merge paganism into Christianity (Jude 1:3,4)

Persecution of true Christians.

Constantine, Emporer of Rome, ‘conversion’.

Church began to receive worldly recognition and power.

Compromises with paganism. Instead of “Church” being separate from the world, it became part of the world system allowing pagans to continue their worship of the Great Mother—only in slightly different form and new name.

 

This mixture of paganism originating in Babylon and ‘Christianity’ produced the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Baalti—female deity of the Phoenicians = ”My Lady” in Latin

Mea Domina—Italian (or in its corrupt form Madonna)

Mylitta—Also Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Astarte — One of the Mother Goddesses of the Babylonians (means “The Mediatrix”)

 

“Queen of Heaven” was used in Scripture many centuries before Mary was ever born!

 

Isis— “Mother of God” The picture of Isis standing on the crescent moon with twelve stars surrounding her head was adopted by the Catholic Church.

 

Interestingly, Wikipedia says: A circle of stars often represents unity, solidarity, and harmony in flags, seals, and signs, and is also seen in iconographic motifs related to the Woman of the Apocalypse as well as in Baroque allegoric art that sometimes depicts the Crown of Immortality. In Catholic tradition she has been identified with the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially in connection with the Immaculate Conception. Mary is often pictured with a crown or Circle of Stars. In ancient Egypt, the crown of justification was a wreath placed on the deceased to represent victory over death in the afterlife, in emulation of the resurrecting god Osiris. From the Early Christian era the phrase "crown of immortality" was widely used by the Church Fathers in writing about martyrs; the immortality was now both of reputation on earth, and of eternal life in heaven.

 

The European flag, first adopted by the Council of Europe, consists of 12 golden stars in a circle on a blue background. The stars symbolize the ideals of unity, solidarity and harmony among the peoples of Europe. The number of stars has nothing to do with the number of member countries, though the circle is a symbol of unity. The Zodiac is an ancient circle of stars where some stars are symbolically combined into 12 star signs also known as constellations.

 

 

Picture of Euro coin

 

The first hints of Catholic Mariology occur in the writings of Origen who lived in Alexandria, Egypt (AD 185-254), which happened to be the focal point of Isis worship.

 

While so much more could be said here, this is just one instance of extreme heresy within the Roman Catholic Church. I have known many Catholics who have told me that they “don’t get into all the worship of Mary stuff”. But there is one point which no Catholic would dare dispute, and that is their view of the Lord’s Supper.

 

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that in the Lord’s Supper, the congregants consume the literal body and blood of Jesus. This is not taught in any way in Scripture. Transubstantiation (literal bread and wine being miraculously transformed into the literal body and blood of Jesus) is NOT biblical. Several ancient pagan religions, including Mithraism (popular in the Roman Empire) had some sort of “theophagy” (eating of one’s god) as a ritualistic practice.

 

I tell a story in my book, Living Beneath the Tapestry and Within the Veil, of how a friend urged me to call upon Saint Anthony who was supposedly able to help me find my lost keys one day. An awkward conversation for me, she was sincere. The Roman pantheon of gods had a god for every need, so the Catholic Church has a saint who is “in charge” over many categories to which one can pray to in order to gain a specific blessing. This, also, has no biblical context.

 

Got Questions.com says “the Roman Catholic Church denies the pagan origin of its beliefs and practices disguising those pagan beliefs under layers of complicated theology and church tradition. Recognizing that many of its beliefs and practices are utterly foreign to Scripture, the Catholic Church is forced to deny the authority and sufficiency of Scripture.”

 

And therein lies the biggest problem. The question we must each ask ourselves is what is our authority for truth? The answer means eternal life or death, literally. Scripture alone defines for us who it is we are to rest the full weight of our faith upon. Scripture alone is God’s revelation of Himself to us.

 

When Constantine “Christianized” the pagan religions and “paganized” Christianity, he erased all distinctions between truth and error. Much like what many in the evangelical church are trying to do today by making the Church attractive to the world hoping to “win the world for Christ”, the Catholic Church drew in the idolatrous people of the Roman Empire in droves. This is always what happens when the lines of biblical doctrine are blurred. This is how the Roman Catholic Church became the supreme religion in the Roman world for centuries apostatizing from the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the true proclamation of God’s Word.

 

The truths of Scripture are essential and relevant for all times. The nature of man never changes either unless one is given a new nature in Christ. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 is as true today as it was in Paul’s day. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

 

Catholics often call the RCC “Holy Mother Church”. Wikipedia says this: The Church is considered to be a mother to her members because she is the Bride of Christ, and all other churches have had their origin or derived from her. Got Questions.com says: Protestants and others are seen as children who have “strayed” from their mother and are admonished to return “home” to Catholicism.

The first true church is the one recorded in the New Testament. The New Testament church is the “original church” or the “one true church”, and the New Testament does not teach the practices of Roman Catholicism. As we have seen, Roman Catholic doctrines and practices among early Christians sprang up in the second, third, and fourth centuries because those in the second, third, and fourth centuries did not have the complete New Testament. The early church had portions of the New Testament and passed on the teachings of the Apostles through oral tradition and limited availability to the written form of the Word of God. The full Bible was not available to the common people until after the invention of the printing press in A.D. 1440. It was in the Protestant Reformation followed with the Bible put into the common languages of the people. Once people began to study for themselves, it became clear just how far the RCC had departed from the church described in the New Testament.