The Menace Of Catholicism
On every hand we are informed of the menace of Communism to the freedom of the world. We are persuaded that in most instances the warnings we have heard are justifiable. However, those who sometimes speak the loudest in warning against Communism, countenance, with apparent approval, a religio-political power equally as destructive of the freedom of the world. Reference is made to Roman Catholicism. We do not say that all Catholic people are immoral, or that they are even aware of some of the high pretensions of the hierarchy of that body. The fact that many Catholics do not know some of the matters that will be cited herein does not remove them from the realm of actual. Nor will their denial of them meet the need.
Catholicism Is A Menace To Our American Way Of Life.
The constitution of our nation guarantees to every American the right to teach the religion he conceives to be right. It guarantees the right to worship according to the dictates of one's own conscience. This we call academic freedom of religion. It assures us that no one should be coerced into a religion and that he shall be allowed to voice his opinion without molestation. The Catholic inspired persecution of Jesse Lewis in Philadelphia was a travesty on American freedom. The pressures exerted by Catholics in Italy, where freedom of worship is guaranteed in the constitution, is but a sample of what they will do where they have sufficient numbers to exert pressure. At Beaufort, South Carolina, this year, Brother Bob Bunting was put off the radio station because of a threatened boycott of the station by Catholics. His preaching was beginning to strike home. A few years ago the Catholics in Camden, New Jersey, warned a former Catholic priest, who had learned the truth and was telling why he left the Catholic Church, that he would be killed if he came to Camden to preach.
"And although in the extraordinary conditions of these times the church usually acquiesces in certain modern liberties, not because she prefers them in themselves, but because she judges it expedient to permit them, she would in happier times exercise her own liberty." Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, 158. What this says is simply this: the church permits certain liberties which she does not prefer. In happier times she would not permit them. We have but to look at her history to determine what is meant by "happier times." These times are simply the circumstances that enable her to exercise her power to abolish any liberty or power that stands opposed to her. Thus the popes have referred to the Dark Ages as the "Golden Age." This was the time when "heretics" were slain by the thousands, ignorance was at a premium and the scepter of the Roman Catholic Church dripped with the blood of those who were called heretics. She courted the favor of the tyrants, Mussolini and Hitler, because it was to her advantage. Do not be deceived by her high pretensions. Given the necessary power, she will exercise the same dominion here in America. She is well on the way already.
Catholicism Is A Menace To Bible Knowledge.
The claims Catholics make to defending the word of God are so much talk. Hear these statements from official Catholic sources: "The very nature of the Bible ought to prove to any thinking man the impossibility of its being the one safe method to find out what the Saviour taught." Question Box 67, 1913 edition.
"The Bible was not intended to be a text book of the Christian religion." Catholic Facts, 50.
"In other spiritual books the truths of the Bible are presented more fully, and in a more modern and familiar style, so that we can hardly wonder that they are, as a rule, preferred; and that though Catholic families generally have the Bible, it is more venerated than read." Plain Facts, 154.
"As it has been clearly shown by experience that, if the Holy Bible in the vernacular is generally permitted without any distinction, more harm than utility is thereby caused, owing to human temerity; all versions in the vernacular, even by Catholics, are altogether prohibited unless approved by the Holy See, or published under the vigilant care of the bishops, with annotations taken from the Fathers of the church and learned Catholic writers." Leo XIII, in Great Encyclical Letters, 412, 413 — a recent publication.
Catholicism Is A Menace To Morality.
This statement does not mean that all Catholic people are profligate, or that they have no sense of decency. Certainly the greater portion of Catholic people lead clean, respectable lives. What is meant is simply that Catholic philosophy is often immoral in its tendencies and thereby a menace to morality. Whether or not some Catholic priest is a drunkard, or an adulterer is not germane. Some gospel preachers have brought reproach upon Christ and his church by unseemly conduct.
The following excerpts from approved Catholic sources indicate immoral tendencies in philosophy.
In answering the question on what causes excuse theft, this explanation was given. ". . . Extreme necessity, when a person takes only what is necessary, and does not thereby reduce to the same necessity the person whose property he takes." Manual of Christian Doctrine, 153. How very different from Paul's statement in Ephesians 4:28, "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."
Their teaching on 1 Corinthians 9:5 is immoral in tendency. To escape the force of Paul's statement about Cephas leading about a wife, they counter by saying that when he became pope he had to leave his wife and that the word wife simply meant "woman." Hence, Peter left his wife but took another woman around with him that was not his wife. Now if it is permissible for the "vicar of Christ" to take up with some woman that was not his wife, what respect could the average Catholic, informed of this philosophy have toward marriage and yet endorse this teaching.
To further show their disrespect for marriage notice this: "And one who takes the vow of celibacy does not break it by sinning against the sixth commandment, he is true to it until he weds." Explanation of Catholic Morals, 149. Thus, it is possible to commit adultery and still keep the vow of celibacy! But, marriage, violates it!
Quotation after quotation could be adduced to show official endorsement of profanity, gambling, murder, and drinking. In fact, the Catholic church operates a distillery in Italy where monks produce the famous Chartreuse liquor. The yellow is 86 proof and the green 140 proof! Advertisements of it have appeared in official Catholic newspapers.
Catholicism is a menace then to our hard won liberties, to Bible knowledge, and to morality. Although other charges could be made and substantiated, these are sufficient to challenge every soldier of the cross to keep his armour buckled on and to meet the foe in every quarter until its bold pretensions are unmasked before the world and it stands in all the hideousness of full grown apostasy, in the light of open day.
Every preacher ought to get O. C. Lambert's book, Catholicism Against Itself, from which some of the quotations in this article are taken.