Against Idolatries

The Error of Rome 

Kelly P. Gallagher

The Idolatry of Eucharistic Devotion

The Eucharist is the key to world religion unity.  Morals & Dogma, Albert Pike, Masonic Key Book.  “The fraternal supper of bread which nourishes and of wine which refreshes and exhilarates symbolical of the time which is to come when all men will be one harmonious brotherhood.”

In the book, “In the Presence Of Our Lord” by Father Benedit J. Groeshcel, C.F.R. and James Monti, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, Huntington, Indiana, 1996, the authors effective show the idolatry of Eucharistic devotion while trying to prove that indeed latria, or worship directed to God alone, is appropriate for the Eucharist. First, in the introduction, the authors state, “For at least a thousand years, a popular and spiritually effective response to the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, the mystery by which all who are saved come to eternal life (even those who innocently do not know Him), has been the devotion to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.” Page 12.

This is the heart of idolatry and false religion!  We are not saved by devotion to or partaking of Eucharist.  We are saved by faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, believing that his death atones for our sins.  Romans 10: 9,10 states that when we believe in our hearts that God has raised Christ from the dead and confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, we shall be saved.  We are born again, by the word of God, not the Eucharist. 

St. Paul, when asked by the Phillipian jailor, “what must I do to be saved?” did not respond by saying, ‘believe in the real presence of the Eucharist and you shall be saved.’

He said, Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

These are the only two verses in the Bible with the words, thou shalt be saved.  Nothing about the Eucharist, or faith in the Eucharist are mentioned.  We are saved apart from works, including taking communion, baptism, etc.  All we must do is believe. 

The question may be asked, “If God can create the world out of nothing, why can’t He change the substance of the bread into the body of His Son?”  This question was asked by John Henry Newman, named Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. 

God can do anything, except violate His word.  He would not create a scenario where the invisible God is worshipped in the form of the temporal. 

2 Cor 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

We can clearly see that anything visible to the human eye is temporal, which means it does not last forever.  No matter how much sophistry and argumentation the Roman Catholics come up with, God would violate His Word if He allowed something seen to be worshipped as God.  The rebuttal to this might be the instance where Jesus is worshipped as God.  However, Jesus was God manifest in the flesh - this is scriptural.  No where does scripture say that the bread of the Eucharist is God manifest in bread.  Knowing the tendency of the human heart to deception and idolatry, God forbids any graven image to be created as one of the ten commandments.  Also, He forbids the worship of any created thing, which bread obviously is.  Does the bread cease to be a created thing, wiped out of existence, yet remain in appearance to be completely transformed into the body of Christ?  This takes more faith than to believe in the resurrection. 

On page 27, the one of the authors describes being told by his dad that “Jesus lived in the golden box in the center of the altar, and that in a few years I would be able to receive Him in Holy Communion.”

We are told by Jesus that if any man says that Christ is on earth in this or that location, do not believe him. 

The Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter 24

23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 

24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

We are told by New Agers that the “Christ Consciousness” of Jesus lifted from him after he died.  This is a lie.  There will be no other Christ save Jesus Christ.  His body is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father.  If any man, including Popes, Cardinal, etc. say “here is Christ” hidden in a box or secret chamber, do not believe him.  Augustine believed that the second coming of Christ was to be bit by bit as the Eucharist is received around the world.  This is contrary to scripture and so the Eucharist is a another Jesus.  Teaching that salvation is by Eucharistic devotion, or taking the Eucharist over and over, is another gospel.

The authors quote the usually quoted verse, John 6:53, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…”  Using proper biblical hermeneutics, we must let scripture interpret scripture.

Trent states, “there is, therefore, no room left for doubt that all the faithful of Christ..offer in veration the worship of latria (the act of adoration) which is due to the true God, to this most Holy Sacrament.”  The council says, “if anyone says that the adorers are idolaters: let him be anathema.”  Sources of Catholic Doctrine, Denzinger, page 268, 271.

The First Epistle of John, Chapter 5

 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

To believe is to eat.  We believe that Jesus is the son of God and we are saved.  We have eternal life, therefore, when we believe, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus and therefore have life in us. 

On page 41, the authors quote St. Cyril of Jerusalem (around 315-386 A.D.).  “The bread and wine of the Eucharist were simple bread and wine before the invocation of the holy and adorable Trinity, but when the invocation has taken place the bread becomes the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ…”

“The seeming bread is not bread even though it is sensible to the taste, but the body of Christ, and the seeming wine is not wine, even though the taste will have it so, but the blood of Christ.”

This is magic, not faith!  God does not require us to deny our senses to come to faith in Him.  It is He who said, “Come let us REASON together.”  Food is SANCTIFIED by the word of God and prayer, not transformed.  If this be so, then every meal we eat where we pray and use the Word of God, which we are commanded to do, must become the body and blood of Jesus. 

The authors also quote Saint John Damascene,  “…Let us approach with ardent desire and receive the Body of the Crucified with our hands held in the form of a cross; taking it to our eyes and lips and foreheads, let us partake of the Divine Coal... in order that we may be inflamed and DIVINIZED by our share in the divine fire.  Isaiah saw this.”

This is blasphemy!  We are never divinized, or turned into God.  We partake of the Divine nature, but we are not made into God.  This idolatry of the bread leads to idolatry of the mere men who partake of it, for if God can make bread God, can’t he make men God also?

Again, St. Augustine is quoted on page 44,  “not only do we become Christians, we become Christ.”  This is blasphemy and idolatry of man.  We will never become Christ, who is God and will not give His glory, that of being God, to another. 

On page 53, the authors state, “The Christ we believe in is God and man, and so we have with us on our journey not only the Word of God but also the human Jesus.”  Saint Paul tells us, however, that the human Jesus, who walked the earth is not to be our focus anymore:

2 Cor 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

For the same reason that God forbids images, we are not to focus on the human Jesus, or any man after the flesh.  If we are eating His literal flesh, how can this verse be reconciled with the truth.  Therefore, the communion is symbolic bread of the risen Lord, who is the bread of life to those who believe in him.  We are to remember that He died for us, not the flesh of the earthly Jesus. 

On page 55, the authors hit the nail on the head.  “Christ said not, ‘Here is my body’ but ‘This is my body’ for the latter proposition would be false were the substance of bread still present.  Moreover, the worship the Church gives this sacrament would be altogether misguided if the consecrated elements contained a created substance which ought not to receive adoration.”

The authors know that worship of a created thing is idolatry.  Logically, therefore, it is imperative that the bread ceases to exist and that even the appearance of the bread is illusion.  All that is left is the body of Christ, or else idolatry takes place.  This is why the council of Trent anathematizes all who even believe that the bread exists along with the presence of Christ, because it would expose the adoration of the Eucharist for what it is:  idolatry.

St. Thomas Aquinas is held as a great promoter of the Eucharist.  In one of his hymns, he says this:

“O sacred banquet in which Christ is received, the memory of his passion cultivated, the heart filled with grace, AND THE PLEDGE OF FUTURE GLORY GIVEN US!”

This is a false statement.  To those who are truly born again by faith in Jesus, the pledge of our future glory is the HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US. 

2 Cor 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

2 Cor 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

It is the sealing of our spirit, by the Holy Spirit of God which is the pledge of future glory and inheritance in the kingdom of God.  The communion is not our salvation, but it is the false assurance of the Roman Catholics. 

The authors say that the devils have handed out a similar thing to the Eucharist in the mysteries of Mythras, but there is a total difference between the two religious events.  However, since Catholicism took the pagan rites of  Rome and “Christianized” them, it is very possible that this is the origin of Eucharistic devotion.

The bread and wine do not change, however, the RC church teaches that it does, counter to the senses and logic.  “Such a change takes place must be recognized by faith; how it takes place we must not curiously inquire.”  In other words, don’t ask any questions and don’t believe your lying eyes and taste buds. Catechism of the Council of Trent, p. 239.

To literally eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood would be unlawful.  Leviticus 17:10-14 forbids drinking of blood.  This is also commanded to the New Testament church in Acts 15:29.  The Lord is spiritually omnipresent, but only one place with his body…at the right hand of God (Hebrews 1:3)

John 4:24 - God is a Spirit and we must worship in spirit and truth.  Since spiritual communion is the goal, we do not need the body of Christ to be present.

The Idolatry of Mary

 Mary is called the Mother of God.  According to Jesuit Priest, Mitch Pacwa, to deny that Mary is the mother of both the human and divine nature of Christ is to deny the two natures of Christ and to commit the heresy of Arianism.

St. Agnes had a vision where Jesus told her, “Were it not for the prayers of my Mother, there would be no hope for mercy.”  The glories of Mary, Alphonse Ligouri St. Bonaventure, “Mary so loved the world that she gave her only begotten Son.”

St. Thomas Aquinas, “Mary gave birth in miraculous fashion without opening of the womb and injury to the hymen, and consequently also without pains.”  Summa Theologiae, 3.28.2

In 1854, Pope Pius IX, in the bull, “ineffabilis Deus” pronounced infallible the following doctrine to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful:  “The Most Holy Virgin Mary was in the first moment of her conception, by an unique gift of grace and privelege by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin.”  Densizer, SCD, #1641, p. 413.

In 1950, the RC church spoke ex cathedra to proclaim infallibly that “just as the glorious resurrection of Christ was an essential part and final evidence of the victory, so the Blessed Virgin’s common struggle with her son was to be completed with the ‘glorification’ of her virginal body.”  Denzinger, SCD, #2332, p. 648.

Pope Leo XIII in “Magnae Dei Matris” says, “Nothing of that immense treasure of all the graces, which the Lord brought us... is granted to us save through Mary, so that, just as no one can come to the Father on high except through the Son, so almost in the same manner, no one can come to Christ except through his Mother.”  Quoted in PiusX, 28; cited in Miller and Samples, Cult of the Virgin, p. 50.

To call Mary “Queen of Heaven”, knowing that this very phrase comes from an old pagan idolatrous cult condemned in the Bible (Jer 7:18), only invites the charge of Mariolotry, which is idolatry.

Alphonse de Liguori, the Glories of Mary, states, “Shall we scruple to ask her to save us, when “the way of salvation is open to none otherwise than through Mary.”  Many things are asked of God, says Nicephorus, and are not granted:  they are asked of Mary, and are obtained.  At the commands of Mary all obey-even God.”  Pp169,180,137.

Quote by Thomas Aquinas on why Mary was ever-virgin, “It would have been “extreme presumption” for Joseph to have attempted to violate Mary, whom he knew had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Summa Theologiae, Part 3.

She is co-redemptrix.  “Mary suffered and, as it were, nearly died with her suffering Son: for the salvation of mankind she renounced her mother’s rights and, as far as it depended on her, offered her Son to placate divine justice; so we may well say that she with Christ redeemed mankind.”  Inter Sodalicia, Pope Benedict XV.

She is Reparatrix and Dispensatrix:  “And from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world and Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our Saviour pruchased for us by His Death and by His Blood.”  Ad Diem, Pope Pius X.

Pope Leo XIII, Octobri Mense, “nothing is imparted to us except through Mary.”

“the most Holy Virgin, united with him by a most intimate and indissoluble bond, was, with him and through him, eternally at enmity with the evil serpent, and most completely triumphed over him, and thus crushed his head under her immaculate foot.”  Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX

“The Catholic Church has always and with justice put all her hope and trust in the Mother of God.  She who is associated with him in the work of man’s salvation has favor and power with her Son greater than any other human or angelic creature has ever obtained or ever can obtain.”  Supreme Apostolatus, Pope Leo XIII.

“While Peter has the keys of heaven, Mary has the key to God’s heart.” Pope Pius XII April 21, 1940.

Pius 12th “Receive, O Most Sweet Mother, Our humble supplications, above all obtain for us that on that day, happy with YOU, we may repeat before YOUR THRONE that hymn which is sung today around YOUR altars.  YOU are all beautiful, O, Mary.  YOU are the glory.  YOU are the joy.  YOU are the honor of our people.”  This is WORSHIP.

Jesus said, Luke 11:27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.

Luke 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

Matthew 12

47 Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.

48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 

50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

The Idolatry of Self

The Roman Catholic Church believes that the individual is not saved by the merits of Christ alone, but by his own works in addition to the merits of Christ. 

The council of Trent states that, “If anyone shall say that man’s free will moved and aroused by God does not cooperate by assenting to God who looses and calls. Let him be anathema.”  Anathema is a decree of excommunication, not automatic damnation.

Trent also states, “if anyone shall say that the good works of the man justified are in such a way the gift of God that they are not also the good merits of him who is justified, or that the one justified by the good works... does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of eternal life (if he should die in grace), and also and increase of glory; let him be anathema.”

Trent also states, “if anyone shall say that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary for salvation, but are superfluous, and that, although all are not necessary individually, without them or without the desire of them through faith alone men obtain from God the grace of justification: let him be anathema.”  Denziner, Souces of Catholic dogma, no 847, p. 262.

The Idolatry of the Pope 

Vatican I states, “If anyone, therefore, shall say that blessed Peter the Apostle was not appointed the Prince of all the Apostles and the visible head of the whole Church militant; or that the same directly and immediately received from the same our Lord Jesus Christ a primacy of honor only, and not of true and proper jurisdiction: let him be anathema.” 

And again, “If, then any should deny that it is by institution of Christ the Lord, or by divine right, that blessed Peter should have a perpetual line of successors in the Primacy over the universal church, or that the Roman Pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter in this primacy: let him be anathema…This is the teaching of the Catholic truth, from which no one can deviate without loss of faith and salvation”

The RC church teaches that the Pope is infallible when he speaks “ex cathedra” which means “in the chair” of Peter, the first Pope to RCs.

They will admit that some Popes were heretical, such as the monothelite heresy taught by Pope Honorius (he was condemned by the Sixth General Council for teaching this heresy that there was only one will in Christ)  The RC church admits that some Popes were sinful and may even be in hell.  However, when three things occur, a Pope is infallible.  1- he speaks to the entire church.  2-he speaks on matters of faith and morals.  3- he must say that he is speaking ex-cathedra.  When these three occur, he is infallible.  Even the most wicked Popes were supposedly kept by the power of God by making any ex-cathedra statement that is wrong. 

For example, the council of Trent 1546, made the Apocrypha a part of the inspired Word of God.  This proclamation came 1500 years after the books were written and in an obvious counterattack to Protestantism.  The books supporting prayers for the dead are highly suspect, coming only a few years after Luther protested against this very doctrine.

They anathematize anyone who does not accept the canonicity of the apocrypha.  Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 2:81. 

Roman Catholic authorities define infallibility as “immunity from error, i.e., protection against either passive or active deception.  Persons or agencies are infallible to the extent that they can neither deceive nor be deceived.”  Avery Dulles, “Infallibility: The Terminology,” in Teaching Authority, p. 71.

Vatican I, proclaimed that all the faithful of Christ must believe, “that the Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff hold primacy over the whole world, and that the Pontiff of Rome himself is the successor of the blessed Peter, the chief of the apostles, and is the true vicar of Christ and the head of the whole Church and faith, and teacher of all Christians, and that to him was handed down in blessed Peter, by our Lord Jesus Christ, full power to feed, rule, and guide the universal Church, just as is also contained in the records of the ecumenical Councils and in the sacred canons.”  Denzinger, “Sources of Catholic Dogma” pp. 455-56

Vatican I also stated, “the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, this is, when carrying out the duty of the pastor and teacher of all Christians in accord with his supreme apostolic authority he explains a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the Universal Church, through the divine assistance promised him in blessed Peter, operates with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer wished that His church be instructed in defining doctrine on faith and morals; and so such definitions of the Roman Pontiff from himself, but not from the consensus of the Church, are unalterable.”  Denzinger, page 457

Even Pope Gregory I (A.D. 590-604) indignantly reproached Patriarch John the Faster of Constantinople for calling himself the universal bishop; Gregory did so to defend the rights of all the bishops, himself included, and not because he wanted the title for himself.

Augustine denied the primacy of Peter or the Popes to come, “On this rock, therefore, He said, which thou has confessed, I will build my church.  For the Rock (petra) is Christ; and on this foundation was Peter himself built.”  Augustine, on the gospel of John, Tractate 12435.

Peter denied that he was pastor of the church when he called himself only a fellow presbyter or elder. (Ipet 5:1-2)

The reason Peter is singled out for restoration, being asked three times by Jesus, “Do you love me more than these (other disciples)? Was that only Peter denied the Lord three times and so only Peter needed to be restored.  Thus Jesus was not exalting Peter above the other apostles, but bringing them up to their level.

If a Pope can be fallible on one doctrine, then why not others.  There is no infallible test to know when he is speaking infallibly.

Another thing, the Pope speaks infallibly only rarely.  The Pope has spoken ex cathedra only one time this whole century (on the bodily assumption of Mary).

A catholic source claims that Galileo Galilei was an embarrassment to the church, but they use logical gymnastics to deny that it was an infallible pronouncement of the Pope.

In addition, the Pope is to be obeyed even when he does not speak ex cathedra; “This loyal submission of the will and intellect must be given, in a special way, to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, even when he does not speak ex cathedra in such wise, indeed, that his supreme teaching authority be acknowledged with respect, and that one sincerely adhere to decisions made by him…” Second Vatican Council  Dogmatic Constitution of the Church #25.

The Idolatry of Tradition

A quote from the council of Trent, “we receive and hold in veneration with an equal affection or piety and reverence all the books of the Old and of the New Testament, since one God is the author of both, and also the traditions themselves, those that appertain both to faith and to morals, as having been dictated either by Christ’s own word of mouth, or by the Holy Spirit.”  Council of Trent, session 4.

Some great teachers (like Aquinas) opposed the immaculate conception of Mary while others (like Scotus) favored it.  This very fact makes it impossible to trust tradition, as the question arises, who of the opposing sides should be accepted.?  Also, there is no unanimous consent on many of the doctrines of the Catholic church proclaimed to be infallibly true.  In some cases, there is not even minority consent!

Following Augustine, Aquinas wrote, “We believe the successors of the apostles and prophets only in so far as they tell us those things which the apostles and prophets have left in their writings.”  Thomas Aquinas, De vertiateZiV, 10, ad 11.

The RC church puts tradition on a level equal with the Word of God, “Sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God, which is entrusted to the Church.”  Second Vatican Council  #10 Dogmatic Revelation.

Also, “the Church does not draw her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scripture alone.  Hence, both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal feelings of devotion and reverence.”  Vatican II #9 Dogmatic Revelation.

The Idolatry of the Church

The fourth Lateran Council (A.D. 1215) declared that “the universal Church of the faithful is one outside of which none is saved.”  Densizer, Sources of Catholic Dogma, page 169.

Pope Pius IX declared that, “outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved; that this is the only ark of salvation; that he who shall not have entered therein will perish in the flood.”  He did go on to say, “it is necessary to hold for certain that they who labor in ignorance of the true religion, if this ignorance is invincible, are not stained by guilt in this matter in the eyes of God.”

The RC church places the Magesterium above the Bible, “..the teaching office of the Church is more important than the Bible: only an infallible Church can tell us what books belong to Scripture, and only an infallible Church can interpret the true meaning of Sacred Scripture; no one can do this for himself.  Thus the Catholic can read only one Bible, the Bible which is published by the Church.  In other words: The immediate and highest rule of faith is the living office of the Church.”  Dogmatic Theology for the Laity, Father Matthias Premm. P. 29.