Response to Candace Owen's Video on Catholicism

welcome to truth in my days where we defend the word of God against the challenges of men hello folks my name is John Taurus of Truth in my days apologetics Ministry welcome to the first of all we hope will be many many helpful videos on apologetics topics today our first ever video is dedicated to Candace Owens many of you may know of Candace Owens for those of you who don't she's a popular conservative political commentator she's published books and uh podcasts and I believe she does a show on The Daily wire now so why are we doing a program for Candace Owens well I came across this video from her on YouTube the other day it's not the usual political commentary it's called part one my husband George farmer debates protestantism with Ali Beth Stuckey premiered on May the 5th 2023 and what is this about well let's hear it from Candace herself and that we are having today I get so many questions from you guys back at home about where I'm at when it comes to my personal faith journey and it's been a tricky one since getting married I you will hear me say this in this discussion between Ali Stuckey and my husband but I do very much believe that the mentally the household when it comes to Faith my husband was raised Catholic I was race Protestant and of course we have a lot of discussions surrounding faith I am attending Catholic church services more and more obviously because I bring my children for celebrations at the Cathedral and where my husband attends church well this wouldn't be a problem at all if Roman Catholicism were just another flavor of Christianity then it really wouldn't matter which church you're going to but if it's not if what evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism teaches are two fundamentally different things to the point where their different gospels then it matters a great deal then your soul is actually at risk now Candice said something very interesting at the beginning of this clip and that's what will be addressing here today and I think that will allow us actually to address a a broader variety of topics as we go through it more than this initial issue what is this initial issue canis race well here it is and discussions have gotten interesting because my husband planted a seed in my head that won't go away and I would not yet describe me as being in a place where that seed has fully bloomed but it is a question that I am struggling with as somebody with Protestant beliefs and what he essentially said to me he was also formerly Protestant and now he's a Catholic was do I believe that in the 1500 years following Jesus Christ leading up to Martin Luther stapling his Theses that nobody went to heaven so essentially Jesus saved us and then for about 1500 years nobody went to heaven until Martin Luther stapled his Theses and corrected things I don't believe that I struggle with that question and it has been something that I have been sitting with for a very long time of course because that would almost imply in my mind that Martin Luther is the savior and not Jesus do I believe that in the 1500 years following Jesus Christ leading up to Martin Luther stapling his Theses to the door of that church in Wittenberg in 1517. do we believe that nobody went to heaven in all that time in those 1500 years so essentially Jesus saved us and then for about 1500 years nobody went to heaven until Martin Luther came along with his Theses and corrected things well what that is is the Roman Catholic picture of what evangelicals believe I'm going to use the term evangelicals I don't care for the term Protestants or protestantism that's not how we Define ourselves I prefer the term Evangelical that's all we'll use Candace uses the term protestantism for the purposes of this video they mean the same thing here so this is then the Roman Catholic picture of what we evangelicals believe and if it's accurate then I'm not surprised she finds this problematic imagine 1500 years from Jesus until Martin Luther during which time no one went to heaven no one was saved but is this an accurate picture does this represent reality let's take a look this picture here will kind of show this view what they mean by that here is ad33 Jesus death Resurrection Ascension into heaven and then you have the time running through those centuries all the way up to 1517 Martin Luther and during this time the gospel of Roman Catholicism is being taught steadily through all those centuries from Jesus up until 1517 and then at 1517 Martin Luther comes along and he's now teaching something different and it's so different that uh Luther and evangelicalism would say that this is a different gospel from this one and from then on they've been teaching that until now Roman Catholicism continues to teach its doctrines so according to this picture you can see nobody saved here this is a different gospel this one therefore doesn't save so for 1500 years we're told nobody was saved is this a fair and accurate picture it only works it's true that evangelicals and Roman Catholics teach a different gospel if it's not then it really doesn't matter there'll be no issue of who can get to heaven and when but is that an accurate picture because if it is then yes the evangelicals would be in trouble that's what we have to start out with we have to start out seeing whether the gospels are different what do they actually teach what is the Roman Catholic view of how to get to heaven as Candace puts it or how to be saved what is the Evangelical picture of it as well let's look at this what must I do to be safe that's the question what is the Roman Catholic answer to that well to figure that out this is what we will go to this is the catechism of the Catholic Church uh this was published by the Vatican teaching office in 1992 was their first updated catechism in about 500 years it was written by Joseph Cardinal ratzinger who was at the time head of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith that might be a clumsy kind of mouthful of a title you might know it better and it's a Regional Title which was the office of the Holy Inquisition now known as the congregation for the doctrine of the faith it was put together by the head which was as I said Joseph Cardinal ratzinger and then it was endorse was published by the then Pope John Paul II cardinal Joseph ratzinger then went on to become Pope Benedict XVI so this is the authoritative teaching catechism nobody can really look at this and say this is wrong unless you're going to say you understand Catholicism better than Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI these Vicars of Christ on Earth as Roman Catholicism believes them to be you haven't gotta like to stand on this is the official teachings besides this we'll look at the uh decrees of Council of Trent and first Vatican Council and Vatican II all of which then we're told in paragraph 891 that whatever came out of those councils in fact all councils have to be accepted so they don't stand against these they're not teaching something different from what's in here so now according to these authoritative resources what must I do to be saved what is the Roman Catholic answer well you must be baptized that's in paragraph 1256 in this book you have to keep the Ten Commandments paragraph 2068. you have to do good works uh paragraphs 2010 and 2016. you have to partake of the mass regularly paragraph 1405. you have to keep the sacraments according to this book The sacraments are quote necessary for salvation it's paragraph 1129 and do understand only priests can perform the sacraments and since only priests can perform the sacraments and the sacraments are necessary to your salvation it means that human priests are necessary for your salvation you cannot get to heaven without these human priests and those are in the catechism sections 14 24 1448 1456 1493 and 1495. that's quite a bit of things you need to do to be saved is are there other things well yes there are you have to confess your sins to a priest regularly in order to receive from him absolution to the sacrament of penance and confession well why is that because baptism you see removes your original sin and all the sins that you have committed to that point but after that as you live your life you're trying to accumulate Grace in your soul which is done through your good works your sacraments your mass and so on but every time you commit a mortal sin Your Grace all that you if you've accumulated to that point is put in a bands and you are on your way to hell it doesn't matter at this point what you believe if you have unabsolved sin in your soul you will go to hell and the only way to stop that to to roll that back is to have the sacrament of penance and confession the priest will absolve you of your sin that's in paragraphs 1452 1449 1456. 1484 1486. once the priest the human priest has absolved you of your sin you are now back on your way to purgatory we'll get to that in a moment what Purgatory is the Candace mentioned about nobody going to heaven well very few Catholics actually make it straight to heaven your best hope generally is that you'll make it to purgatory so now you're on your way to Purgatory until you commit another mortal sin once you've committed another mortal sin you are now again on your way to hell and you will go there regardless of what you believe and the only way to stop that is again the sacrament of penance and confession when that's done you're back on your way to Purgatory until your next immortal sin and that's the way your life is lived if you have heard of the sacrament of extreme unction or the so-called last rites you wonder what that is that is a sacrament of penance and confession that is administered to you just before you die as close as possible to your death so that you're back to having sanctifying Grace in your soul and the hope is that you died before you commit another mortal sin what are mortal sins well one of them is missing Mass on a holy day of obligation do you know which days are holy days of obligation uh probably 999 out of every one thousand Catholics couldn't tell you but if you miss going to mass on one of these days you will go to hell until and unless that sin is absolved by a priest so just to be clear even if you put your faith in Christ if you have no human priest doing these things for you there is no salvation and those who say this is not what Catholicism teaches again I've given you the references it is on here it is what Catholicism teaches is that enough well no you also are required to believe everything the Catholic Church says that you have to believe uh decrease of the first Vatican Council session 3 chapter 3 sections eight to nine wherefore by Divine and Catholic faith all those things are to be believed which are contained in the word as found in scripture and tradition and which are proposed by the church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed whether by her solemn judgment or in her ordinary and Universal magisterium since then without faith it is impossible to please God and reach the fellowship of his sons and daughters it falls that no one can ever achieve justification without it neither can anyone attain eternal life unless he or she persevere to the end so you are required to believe everything that the Catholic Church tells you to believe you have no freedom of thought on these things these would include things like the Immaculate Conception of Mary you are required to believe that Mary was created free from the state of original sin and then kept sinless for her entire life this is a Dogma this is something you must believe to be saved it was pronounced Dogma in 1854. 1854 was nobody saved for 1854 years or or did these doctrines come up later the Assumption of Mary that Mary was taken up bodily into heaven didn't die that's also Dogma you're required to believe it that was proclaimed Dogma in 1950 which somehow the church missed it for 1 900 years but these are the things you have to do now if you do all of these things then you've succeeded in dying with sanctifying Grace in your soul and then unless you've been very very very holy you have achieved enough Grace to save yourself and have some left over to save others super irrigation they call it but most of you must go to purgatory and what is purgatory it is a place where you have to expiate your own sins you have to pay punishment for the sins you've done your temporal sins if you thought Jesus Paid It All for you if you thought faith in Jesus there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus no he didn't he he paid Eternal consequences but you still have to pay your own temporal consequences and According to some sources you pay this off by burning in fire of a pain that is so great it's worse than any the worst pain you can encounter in this life you can buy time off some of it through what's called indulgences you have to exped your own sins but you don't really have to if somebody gets you an Indulgence after you're dead or if you get some while you're still alive masses for the dead and so on will uh will buy you time off and this is actually the first thing that set off Martin Luther about the Catholic church when when Johann tetzel came to Wittenberg raising money for the Catholic Church who needed to pay back the foogers bank from whom they borrowed a great deal of money to rebuild Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome they sent out an army of indulgence salesmen uh and Luther rightly thought this is absurd so that then is is pretty much a summary of how you get to heaven according to the Catholic version you might have Catholic friends who will argue and say this is not really what we believe and some of them might be sincere they don't even know because the sacraments in normal Catholicism are exopera operators long as the priest does them right they're effective but as far as the argument goes that this is not what Catholicism teaches read it it is what Catholicism teaches did you know that Candace this this is what uh is being dangled before you now let's look at the other side what is the Evangelical answer to the question what must I do to be saved our answer is belief on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved it's pretty much that simple now there are con commitments in that obviously believe on the Lord Jesus Christ what has to be the real Lord Jesus Christ it has to be Jesus Christ of the Bible you can just take anybody and slap the name Jesus on it you can't say oh I'm trusting in Michael the Archangel but we'll call him Jesus no the Jesus that you have to believe it has to be the Jesus of the Bible fully God the second person of the Triune godhead fully man who died and rose again from the dead for Romans 10 9 and the Catholic Church also has the same picture of Jesus and we'll also say You must add no other requirements for salvation besides faith alone because in Galatians chapter 5 1-4 Paul having gone through this entire letter very upset because this community of Christians in Glacier had false teachers coming and saying you know what faith isn't enough it's not enough you need to have to work just one work circumcision that's all that's all we're asking for one extra work and the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul says if you do this if you got even one work requirement you are estranged from Christ you are fallen from Grace Christ will profit you nothing so this then is the Evangelical answer to the question what must I do to be saved believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved so we do see that the gospel taught by Rome is indeed very different from the gospel taught by evangelicalism let's let's put this up on our diagram now so here we go then the gospel taught by Rome the gospel taught by evangelicalism believe on the Lord Jesus Christ the second person of the Triune godhead fully God and fully man who died and rose again from the dead add no Works requirements that's it Catholic version be baptized keep the Ten Commandments do good works partake of the mass regularly keep the sacraments have your sins regularly absolved by a human priest who is necessary for your salvation without whom you cannot be saved and cannot go to heaven but will go to hell no Roman Catholic priests no salvation believe everything the Catholic Church tells you you have to believe and if you succeed in dying with sanctifying Grace in your soul you then will have to expiate your own sins in purgatory and or via indulgences so indeed these are very different gospels are they not so here's the problem then the gospels are different if Martin Luther brought this correction in 1517. what was happening in that 1500 years that's when Catholicism was being taught and this is the problem this is the seed that Canada's husband planted in her and that she can't quite Shake if the Catholic Gospel is false how can that be was nobody safe for 1500 years well let's see is that picture accurate it's got the steady line going from ad33 all the way up to 1517 the Catholic uh teaching steadily teaching this message all the way from the beginning but is that really true is that what the church taught from the beginning well Roman Catholic apologists will tell you oh yes that's what they taught from the beginning they will take you through quotations from the early church fathers and by early church fathers they mean the the Christian writers and and church leaders who followed after Jesus now some of these early church fathers really aren't all that early when you think about it if you go to something like Augustine we're talking about somebody 400 years after Jesus the idea that somehow he's his knowledge or understanding of the Gospel is greater than ours because he's only 400 years removed from Jesus doesn't really make a lot of sense when you think about it we're about as far removed from King James time or Jamestown Captain John Smith and Pocahontas so if I wanted to know about Jamestown I want to know about Captain John Smith and Pocahontas I would be going to the original sources written by those people I won't be going to my buddy who's well you're only 400 years removed from John Smith tell me about him personally because you tell me that somebody told you and somebody told him and somebody told him and so on to know what was the Gospel that was taught by Jesus and the apostles we need to go to the sources okay the New Testament sources we'll start out with Jesus what did Jesus say about how to be saved well he addressed this many times the clearest I think the quickest we can look at is John 3 16 to 18 it's 18 well 16 and 18 where Jesus said that famous line for God so loved the world I'd love the world in this way that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life that's John 3 16. there's also the flip side in verse 18 He Who believes in Him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God so here Jesus approaches it from both sides if you believe you're saved if you don't believe you're condemned because you didn't believe that's all there is to it there's no whoever believes but didn't have sacraments is condemned whoever believes but wasn't baptized is condemned whoever believes but doesn't believe every single thing the Roman Catholic Church doesn't have to believe is condemned no very clear what Jesus said and he said it repeatedly in John 6 28-29 for example people come to him and then they said to him what shall we do that we may work the works of God Jesus answered and said to them this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent yeah very clear that's the only work Jesus asked for so this is what Jesus taught what about the apostles the ones that he personally picked and trained and then sent out on the Great Commission to to spread the gospel well I always see it as chapter 2 Apostolic preaching to him all the prophets witnessed that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins and there you go the exact same message all you need to do is believe and your sins are remitted uh acts 13 later on in the same book again the apostolic preaching therefore let it be known to you Brethren that through this man is preached to you the Forgiveness of sins and by him everyone who believes is Justified acts 13 38. uh act 16. uh Paul and SAS have been miraculously delivered from prison uh the Philippian Jailer is about to commit suicide because he will be executed for letting the prisoners Escape Paul costume says don't harm yourself we're all still here and then we read this in Acts 16 30 to 31a and he brought them out and said sirs what must I do to be saved well that's a significant question it's the one we're looking at and here's here's the point where he's asked flat out what must I do to be saved that Paul must give the actual gospel answer what do we read so they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved That's all folks believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ be baptized do good works keep the Commandments partake of the mass etc etc it's very simple leave on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved as we go through the Epistles these people who are giving us the scriptures of the New Covenant the scriptures through which we are to be taught and to know and to understand they're very clear on the same message Romans 3 28 for example therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law Romans 4 5 but to him who does not work but believes on him who who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness okay he who does not work remember that the Catholic Gospel says yeah you have to do good works you have to keep the Commandments hear the word of God says to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness in Romans 11 6 and if by Grace then it is no longer of works otherwise Grace is no longer Grace but if it is of works it is no longer Grace otherwise work is no longer work it's a little bit uh complicated but as this point is really clear if you're saved by grace it cannot require Works one's once it requires works it's not Grace anymore it's not free you've earned it you've worked for it Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 knowing that a man is not justified by works of law but by faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of law for by works of law no flesh shall be justified so we see that this is the clear what evangelicals believe today is what Jesus and the apostles and the New Testament consistently teach us now the Roman Catholic Church will tell you that well let's look at the early church fathers and they want you to believe that the early church fathers had a uniform completely undivided view of the Gospel that matches what Roman Catholicism teaches today that all of these things went back to the very beginning and they will pick quotes from certain of these early church fathers some of whom as I said are not really very early at all and Lead You by the nose through them so that you can say oh yes that's what the early church taught it's false if we look here this is uh what's called the apostolic fathers this is actually the earliest Christian writers right after the New Testament see the absolute earliest the ones that that would be perhaps close enough to have known the apostles uh is this 16 or so books in there letters so on you've got the first Clement second Clement I've got the letters of Ignatius Bishop of Antioch the letter of polycarp to the Philippians the martyrdom of polycarp the dadaje the Epistle of Barnabas The Shepherd of hermas the epistle to diagnatus and the fragments of papius so these are the earliest Church fathers these would be sub Apostolic right after the apostles and these are very early my first Clement is usually put to around the year 95 in the first century I think he actually goes back to about the year 70. um and then polycarp is around year 107 to 110. these are early ones and the interesting thing is if you read through them you read through the entire Corpus of the Apple stock fathers you will not find Roman Catholicism in there anywhere absolutely not sometimes Roman Catholic apologists will try to pretend that you do I say oh looking Ignatius talks about uh about Bishops as if somehow that proves that they've got a Roman Catholic polity Church government but they don't uh Ignatius is very clear that that Bishops are local leaders there is no Universal leader over them this there's no Archbishop there's no Cardinal there's especially there's no Pope there's no one guy running everything the idea of having Bishops which really is just from the Greek word episcopos mean overseer those titles are in the New Testament that this is what uh Paul tells people like Timothy to a point and gives uh requirements for them in first Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 to 13 and Titus Chapter 1 verses 6 to 9. the church leaders they're not there's no Universal Pope over them Peter is not a pope uh in First Peter 5 when he identifies himself as I am a fellow Elder that's all he saw himself as and you see nothing different in the uh in these Apostolic fathers interestingly enough one of the requirements that comes up in both of those passages is that the overseer the episcopos the bishop has to be married and Married With Children not what the Roman Catholic Church will tell you as we go through the apostolic fathers are they giving us what evangelicals do or are they giving us what uh what Roman Catholicism does let's look at polycarp for example writing around the year 107 to 110 in his letter to the Philippians 1.3 though you have not seen him you believe in him with an inexpressible Joy which many desire to experience knowing that by Grace you have been saved not because of works but by the will of God through Jesus Christ Clement of Rome as we said perhaps as early as ad70 making it clear that through the blood of the Lord Redemption will come to all who believe and hope in God it's a first Clement 12 chapter 12 verse 7 be first Clement 52 he says the master Brethren has no need of anything at all to require nothing of anyone except that he make a confession to him that's the God for David the chosen one says I will confess to the Lord and that confession if you look at how that's used the New Testament the confession refers to confessing that Jesus is lord it's not about confessing your sins so what we see in the airport stock fathers we do not see any of the Catholic distinctives what we do see is their teaching salvation by grace alone not works so that early church was continuing to teach what is taught in the Bible this idea that there's some kind of universal agreement on doctrines among all the church fathers and their correspond to Catholicism is not true these various ideas develop very slowly across a long period of time and not really until the 4th Century I might talk about in more detail about these things in later programs but here's the question then if we go back to this picture now we see that up until the dawn of the 4th Century none of these things that Roman Catholicism teaches as necessary to be saved it was not there none of it was there none of it was there for the first 300 years what we see is what was there in that time matches what evangelicals taught so Candice here's the problem if you are concerned with the idea that nobody was safe for the first 1500 years because the Catholic Gospel is wrong if the Catholic Gospel is right why did nobody teach it for the first 300 years did they immediately forget it right after Jesus ascended did the apostles forget that kind of leave it out in Apostolic preaching that seems to me to be a bigger problem than the supposed seed that your husband planted in you why was nobody teaching the Roman Catholic Gospel for the first 10 years why were they teaching the gospel that evangelicals believed today so when that Martin Luther started bringing back in that seems to be a more serious issue isn't it and the Roman Catholic Church didn't Suddenly at the dawn of the fourth Century suddenly oh we've got all these teachings these came in very very gradually and for a long time there were groups and people who did believe continue to believe the Evangelical gospel that Roman Catholic gospel developed slowly and across time as we showed the idea of the Assumption of Mary wasn't Dogma until 1950. the Immaculate Conception of Mary wasn't dog mental 1854 these ideas developed slowly and they all developed after the start of the 4th century doesn't mean that nobody taught errors before some some did the church fathers did argue about some of these things what is it that happened in the 4th Century what would suddenly cause this shift well you know history for the first 300 years or so of church history Christianity was illegal it was a persecuted religion originally it was persecuted vigorously by Jewish people who didn't believe the gospel you can read about that in the book of Acts eventually the Romans got in on the ACT uh particularly Nero in the year 64 when the great fire struck Rome and people blame Nero for it and was looking for scapegoat and he fastened the guilt upon uh the Christians and their their mentions in Roman historians takatists and suetonius about about these is about how Jesus was was crucified under Pontius pilot how the Superstition broke out in Rome again how Nero fastened the guilt on the Christians the persecution wasn't non-stop it wasn't continuous it wasn't the same in every place through the Empire but the religion was illegal and then what happened at the start of the fourth century was the conversion of Constantine who was one of the four Roman emperors that existed at the time technically two Emperors and two Caesars he did he convert to Christianity historians are divided on that he claimed to become a Christian there are some historians who believe that this was just a pragmatic move the Roman Empire was was headed into collapse morally especially families were falling apart things were going very badly for the Empire this immorality everywhere families were breaking down divorce was rampant infanticide was rampant and the only group as Constantine could see the only group in the Empire that had their acts together had strong families and maintained moral principles with the Christians and some think he just decided you know what we should rebuild the Roman Empire on this basis not because he necessarily believed it but because he thought it would be good like a number of the deists were involved in the the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution now at that point Christianity became not just legal but favored the tax monies that used to go into the Imperial Cults uh supporting various Pagan deities was now going to the church this is where the emperor and his buddies were going and of course yeah you want to be on the good side of the emperor that's what you're going to do historical demographers will tell you that at that time 313 when Constantine legalized Christianity anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of the entire Empire's population had converted to Christianity which was the most amazing non-coerced growth of any movement in history but it still meant that seven eight or nine out of every 10 people in the empire were not Christians and they were suddenly flooding into the churches including Pagan priests who'd made a living in the past by telling people I stand between you and God you need me therefore I have power over you there's something out of a job your preoccult is crashing and now they're entering the church that's obviously going to cause confusion and then in the year 380 theodosius emperor he issues a new edict and it's not long I'll read it to you Emperor's gracian valentinian and Theodosia segusti edict to the people of Constantinople tossed out of the capital of the Roman Empire Constantinople it is our desire that all the various Nations which are subject to our clemency in moderation should continue to profess that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the Divine Apostle Peter as it has been preserved by faithful tradition and which is now professed by the pontiff damasus and by Peter Bishop of Alexandria a man of apostolic Holiness according to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel let us believe in the one deity of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit an equal majesty and then the Holy Trinity and this is the part where it gets good we authorize the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians but as for the others since in our judgment they are foolish Mad Men We decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of Heretics and shall not presume to give to their con conventicals the name of churches they will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the Divine condemnation and in the second the punishment of our Authority which in accordance with the will of Heaven We Shall decide to inflict because you understand that with the the this declaration Edict of theodocious everybody in the Empire now has to be and professed to be a Catholic Christian or else he will be persecuted so suddenly 100 of the Empire are now Christians even though you know maybe 30 percent of most were actual Christians who's going to run the church now is it going to be the Christians or not well I think the answer is pretty obvious and we begin to see what happens Roman Catholic church has power and they as per that edict Crush all opposition and the doctrines continue to develop in such a way every one of them is designed to give the church power over people that gospel that Jesus brought where you put your faith in him and you're saved where you have direct access to God through Christ you don't need any other priest where we boldly approach the throne of grace in time of need it's all gone the priest now stands between you and and the Lord you have no way to be saved without the priest doing his uh sacraments for you and what happened then we go back to our picture what is going on in this period where the Roman Catholic Church holds Sway and we're supposed to believe this was the church and who was saved in that time I would say that what's going on here is there were people being saved there were people who held to the true gospel in that time we know some of them many of them have been lost to us through the years our own Catholic Church did a pretty good job of uh canceling these people out but there were for example the politicians group in the 7th century is considered to to believe that the biblical gospel Claudius of Turin in the 9th century and got shock of or base these are the ones we know about the waldensions from the 12th century onwards uh marcilius of Padua and the 13th 14th century and of course John Wycliffe and the LawLers in the 14th century 1415 who was burned at the stake by the Catholic church because challenging their power they were still there and if you want a precedent for that you don't have to go any further than the Old Testament do you remember that God gave the people Covenant at Mount Sinai with a priesthood and a temple was built and this was the official religion of the nation but you know what happened after the time of Solomon and the splitting of the Kingdom from then on until the Babylon captivity what you had mostly was apostasy in Judah the kingdom of Judah there were periods when when there were revivals and good Kings but you had long long periods of apostasy worshiping of false gods in the northern king of Israel you never had any Revival you had constant false teaching the official Church of the day was in the hands of false teachers now who in his right mind would say well but but they must have had it right because they were the official Church hear what happens with with Elijah after he faces down the prophets of ba'al Jezebel threatened so many girls running away and he's very depressed and God speaks to him and he asks him what are you doing here Elijah we're reading from uh First Kings chapter 19 starting in verse 13. what are you doing here Elijah and he said I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel have forsaken your Covenant torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword I alone am left and they seek to take my life then the Lord said to him go return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus and when you arrive anoint has King over Syria also you shall anoint your who the son of nimshi as king of Israel and Elisha the son of shafat hola you shall anoint as prophet in your place it shall be that where whoever escapes the sort of hazelia who will kill and whoever escapes the sword of yahu Alicia will kill and then the key Point Verse 18 yet I have reserved 7 000 in Israel all whose knees have not bowed to ba'al and every mouth that has not kissed him okay so here we have a situation very much parallel later in European history you had an official priesthood an official church that was in complete apostasy teaching falsehood he had very few True Believers left to the point where where Elijah thought there was he was he thought he was the last one he wasn't the last one God told him I've this yet seven thousand but out of that population as near as we can figure out that feels like 0.57 percent of the population of Israel that's all we're faithful I think through these years you had a small number of people all along just like in the time of Elijah and onwards and a small number of people who believe the true gospel you always had that and then what happened uh I mean the Catholic Church tried its level best to destroy the true gospel where we came up burning on us at the stake trying to stop people from reading the Bible the Bible and the vernacular languages people could understand was put on the index libero prohibitorum books you weren't allowed to read death penalty to translate the Bible into languages people could understand what happened when Luther came along they didn't correct it he returned it to what the Bible taught what the New Testament taught what Jesus taught what the apostles thought what the early church taught and believed as others had before Wycliffe who's this time the Catholic Church couldn't crush it for a variety of reasons they could not crush it anymore and that's why it spread and they still try to do it you still had killing people like Tyndale for translating the Bible into English for people you had in in France for example that's the infamous Saint Bartholomew Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 maybe 30 000 Protestants massacred worked very effectively in countries like France and Italy where the the Reformation was extirpated didn't work so well in other countries uh they couldn't crush it anymore the true gospel came to the Forefront again in many countries and so that's what really happened it was not the case that for 1500 years nobody was saved until Luther came along people were saved by that gospel message that was taught by Jesus and by the apostles and by the early church and when you're found to this this period of apostasy under a false gospel a clearly false gospel you still had people being saved maybe not many but that's what Jesus said would happen the way that leads to life is narrow and few find it but they were being saved and what happened with Luther but the Reformation is not a new gospel it's not a correction it's making it Unstoppable as it had been at the beginning and that's the true story history so where you're being given this seed that oh how is it that nobody was saved for 15 years nobody got them for 59 years that's not at all the reality of what's going on I think we've shown exactly what's happened that time Candace it is not true and it's a like so many other tropes in a Catholic apologists will bring up that sounds so convincing when you start digging into it you find that it is utterly false now the true gospel is the one that you see in a new testament the one that was taught by Jesus and the apostles it is the only one that saves the only one that says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved this kind of gospel that requires you to be baptized to do Works to obey Commandments to believe everything the Catholic Church tells you to have sacraments to have human priests human priests necessary for your salvation that you cannot be saved without them doing this that is a false Doctrine a false gospel that was invented to give the church power over people please do not be taken in by and go back to our picture again we see there's this complete continent the early church taught what what the evangelicals teach today there was a complete continuity there yes it was repressed in the Middle Ages it was but it was always there it remains a true gospel and the only one that can save you do not throw away your Eternal destiny by accepting the claims and false Gospel of Roman Catholicism thank you for listening folks thank you for your attention I do hope it was helpful yeah I hope it reaches you Candace feel free to contact us if you want any follow-up

Channel: Truthinmydays

Views: 312

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Id: WE1jbZyblE0

Length: 51min 23sec (3083 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 10 2023