Recently I was asked to explain why Roman Catholicism fell under the umbrella of a heretical cult rather than a Christian Religion. While it is true that they have a thin veneer of Christian terminology and practice, under the cloak lies blasphemies so foul that it is no wonder God used Rome as a metaphor for the Whore of Babylon in Revelation. Here was my response to the question. I’m honestly hoping that Cut and paste will work here without me having to type in scores of HTML coding.

For the record, my list is actually sequential with the most heretical reasons being at number 1 and proceeding down from there. So Number 1 really is the Number 1 reason why Rome fails as an honest Christian endeavor.

(1) Above all else — denial of the sufficiency of Christ’s substitutionary death. One only has to review the doctrine of the Mass to understand what I mean here. To the Catholic system — Christ died to BEGIN a system of DAILY sacrifices upon the ALTAR of the MASS. Thus they claim that Christ’s death wasn’t sufficient for us — Blasphemy of blasphemies…. to tell Jesus that his death wasn’t enough.

(2) The placing a man at the head of Christ’s Church — The pope did not die for the sins of the world, neither does he supplant Christ in role of leadership. A body can only have ONE head. That is Christ, as rightly defined by Scripture.

(3) Idolatry. Be it Mary or saints. Be it graven images or apparitions. The dominant theme recurring in the Roman Catholic Heresy is the idolatrous worship of CREATED things in place of God. They even worship the wafer they assume carries the physical properties of Christ…. and tell men that this is right, holy and just for men to do and if you disagree — Curse you to hell.

(4) The replacement of salvation by faith through Grace with a works based system. No man can buy off God no matter how many Hail Mary’s he has performed. (Pssst….. Mary doesn’t hear your prayers by the way…) Ephesians 2:8-10 should easily dispel any question, but if you must, then review Galatians 3 & 4… for some real eye-openers on works based religions.

(5) The rejection of scripture as the sole basis of attaining a knowledge of God. Gaze deeply into yourself and listen for the voice of God…. yeah…. right. The Catholic mystics are a demonically inspired lot if ever there was one. God calls us to look to Scripture to hear his calling upon us, as well as for us to learn who He is and what He desires of us.

(5.1) The rejection of the AUTHORITY of Scripture upon the believer. In it’s place they would assume the AUTHORITY of the Church, it’s priests, Bishops, Cardinals & Popes.

(5.2) The rejection of the FINALITY of scripture, as written. Sorry, When the Pope speaks Ex Cathedra, it’s meaningless to the true child of God. The Pope would do well to remember the warnings of Revelation 22:18-19.

(6) The reinstatement of the Jewish priestly system, complete with daily sacrifices. Why else do you think they put so much stock into their priests and Mass. Christ did away with the whole matter when he said “It is finished” and sat down at the right hand of the Father. Now we are A-L-L priests, and there is no need for repeated sacrifices. Catholics would do well to read the book of Hebrews and 1 Peter.

(7) Purgatory…. the damnable heresy that men have a second chance after death, despite Hebrews 9:27. I wonder how many billions of deceived men and women will sadly awaken to find that that lake of fire is eternal…. not temporary.

(8) The placement of Mary into the position of affecting our salvation. Forget all the other Mary-dolatry…. this one thing alone is the gravest. For there is ONE MEDIATOR between God and man, Christ Jesus. To deny this —- is to deny the honest means of our salvation. To place a human between Christ’s atoning work and our acceptance before the Father is utter blasphemy.

That’s the top 10…. but I’m sure the list could be expanded greatly.

Rome hasn’t changed — because — Rome believes it’s self to be perfection… and you don’t change perfection. Thus when the Vatican 2 Council sat — they changed nothing of the anathemas called down upon honest Christians from the Council of Trent. All they did was change the language.