THE WORD OF GOD

VS

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

(Boldface type below are quotations from Roman Catholic literature. See footnotes for references.
All scripture references are from the Confraternity-Douay Version of the Bible.
Scripture locations in parenthesis indicate the KJV location.)

1. “...it was the church that formed the Bible, not the Bible the church.”¹

When Rome wants to attempt to offer credentials that they are the true church, they quote from the scriptures as though the Bible is the authenticating authority. At the same time, the Roman church claims it is the authority that authenticates the Bible! This is cyclical reasoning. (The truth of what authenticates the scriptures will be considered under item 9 later.)

While it is correct that the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ began before the completion of the full text of the scriptures, it is nevertheless imperative that we examine the scriptures in order to gather the identifying marks of the true church. As we will see, the Roman church does not match up with the various identifying marks of the church that Jesus Christ established.

2. “...he [Jesus Christ] never instructed anyone to write a book. If he meant the Bible to be the Christian's sole rule of faith, he would have said so — but he never did.”

3. “Catholics believe that even the Bible itself comes to us through the Tradition of the Apostles, and that, therefore, SCRIPTURE and TRADITION are the two sources of God's revelation to us.”

4. The Roman Catholic church attempts to contradict 2Timothy 3:6-17 by quoting 2Peter 1:20 as follows: “Above all, remember that no one can explain by oneself a prophecy of Scripture.”

5. “Note, too, that the New Testament wasn't designed as a catechism. Its various parts were written to people who already were Christians, so it couldn't have been intended as the sole source of religious teaching. After all, these people did not become Christians by reading the New Testament — it didn't exist yet!”

6. “...to refute the Catholic understanding that “rock” in Matthew 16:18 ('You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church') refers to Peter, Fundamentalists list as many verses as they can in which “rock” refers to God. They don't bother to look at Matthew 16:18 in itself, and they forget that the whole point of the verse is precisely that Peter was being given a title usually reserved for God and that the name signified something important about his new status.”

7. Now this same power of pardoning, Christ promised to Peter and the other apostles when He said: (Matthew 18:18) “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Even more specific and in a manner more impressive than above, was the action of Christ after His resurrection in solemnly conferring upon His apostles this power of pardoning: (John 20:21-23) Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”

8. The Apocryphal books. “After the third century, Jewish Bibles did not include these books, so the Reformers decided, in the sixteenth century, to reject them as well.”

9. “What is your authority for deciding what books belong to the Bible? It can't be the Bible itself, because in no book of the Bible are the contents of the Bible listed. So it must be an authority outside of the Bible itself, and the only possible authority is the church established by Christ.”

10. What is necessary to be saved? You have to be baptized, belong to the Church established by Jesus Christ, obey the Ten Commandments, receive the Sacraments, pray, do good works and die with grace in your soul.”

11. John 20:23: “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

12. John 6:54: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life everlasting and I
will raise him up at the last day.

13. The Roman Catholic Mass
“SUMMARY: From the beginning of time sacrifice has been offered to Almighty God to acknowledge His sovereign dominion over man and all creatures. Cain offered fruits, Abel offered sheep and Melchisedech offered bread and wine, foreshadowing the sacrifice of the New Law. All (including Cain's offering???…italics ours) these were but preparations for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary, of which He is both priest and victim.”