Gary Kasparov, one-time chess champion and now political activist, says, “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust . . . critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”
Kasparov’s thinking on the dangers of authoritarianism is easily applied to the Roman papacy’s understanding of truth. Followers of the Roman Church are the victims of religious propaganda that subverts truth and destroys critical thinking. The complexity of the Church’s teachings, rituals, and laws weakens the thinking capacity of anyone who submits himself in obedience to the faith.
The Church’s claim to infallible authority renders Catholics unable to comprehend truth for themselves. A good Catholic submits to authority mindlessly. Truth is truth because the Church says so. Consequently, the religious experience of the individual Catholic is merely a reflection of something out there, not something in the heart.
Of course, millions of Catholics have authentic faith in Jesus, but this faith occurs in spite of the Church, not because of the Church. In Catholicism, salvation occurs when an infant is baptized by the Church. But infants are not mature thinkers! They make no choices. They cry, laugh, coo, burp, and mess their diapers. While God watches over them, protects them, enables their growth, infants are unable to respond in authentic worship. Catholics for the most part remain spiritual infants because of the Church.
The Church claims to know everything. And it commands everything, and pretends to provide salvation. The Church owns salvation and provides it when it deems fit. For the typical Catholic, there are motions to go through, gorgeous sights to see, complex rituals to perform, and compelling words to hear. But true holiness is the preserve of priests, bishops, and popes. Of saints on high. Of the Virgin Mary. Of the “religious.” These are the “holy” ones. The average lay Catholic? Doomed to Purgatory.
One need only study the Catechism of the Catholic Church (available online at the “Holy See” website) to understand these facts. Doctrinal statements numbers 2032-2040 assert the God-like claims of the Roman hierarchy, a group of men who claim doctrinal infallibility and control the very portals of heaven. The Church mediates, or comes between, every aspect of salvation offered by God in the Bible.
Consider this quotation from Catholic canon law (emphases supplied): “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls.”
And this: “The ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him teach the faithful the truth to believe, the charity to practice, the beatitude to hope for.” The “beatitude to hope for” is the ultimate happiness and fullness offered by God in eternal life. With no hesitation or doubt, the Church claims to control, and provide to the faithful, the happiness of eternal life.
Then this: “The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charisma of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed.”
There’s more: “The authority of the Magisterium extends also to the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the Creator, is necessary for salvation.” The Church is, in essence, the “god” of nature. If this were not true, then the hierarchy would be itself under natural law, but it is not–no more than God Himself is subject to nature.
Martin Luther believed that man indeed had a sense of natural law, but that human nature is hopelessly sinful, unable to contribute anything to human salvation. Thus, the doctrine of righteousness by faith alone through Christ alone is absolutely necessary for humanity. Sinful men and women bring nothing to the salvation process. Luthur’s position is at the heart of the Protestant Reformation.
And finally: “[The] conscience of each person should avoid confining itself to individualistic considerations in its moral judgments of the person’s own acts. As far as possible conscience should take account of the good of all, as expressed in the moral law, natural and revealed, and consequently in the law of the Church and in the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium on moral questions. Personal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church.”
This teaching destroys the individual conscience, assuming control over the very thing that makes a person an independent being. God Himself never forces the human conscience. God informs consciences through His Spirit and through His Word, but allows individuals complete freedom of thought.
The Bible contradicts the outrageous claims of the Roman hierarchy. The Magisterium is worthless in comparison to the “traditions” already fully in place by the end of the first century when John completed the Book of Revelation, and thus, the canonical Scriptures. (See references to “tradition” in these texts: I Cor. 11:2; I Cor. 15:3: 2 Thess. 2:15: 2 Thess. 3:6.)
Paul refers to tradition already set in place in his time, tradition connected to Peter and the other apostles. What Paul taught was not to be rejected. It was the Truth. If Paul had already established Truth (tradition), and if the Word of God supported his teachings, then Peter did not represent a tradition in conflict with Paul’s tradition.
The New Testament Church was either in agreement with the Old Testament plus the teachings of Paul, Peter, James, John, and the other writers, or it was not. Any teachings beyond the traditions established by 100 A.D. (the canon of Scripture) must be examined in light of that tradition. The Roman Church has no special claim to truth beyond the Holy Scriptures.
It is for these reasons that Roman Catholicism’s claims of authority independent of the Bible are false and represent a deadly poison for her followers. This is why Christ calls to His people: “Come out of her.”
May God be merciful to all His saints around the globe. God is indeed holding back the four winds of strife on earth to preserve His people from the coming destruction of Rome and her children.