Author: hillturnfs

In their 1994 catechism the Roman Catholic church clearly claims that the Pope is the head of the church and not Jesus Christ. The catechism says only the Pope can interpret the truth of the holy Scriptures and establishes that all Roman Catholic church rituals and traditions take precedence over anything said in God’s Word. I will list some of the Scriptures in the Bible that declare Jesus Christ is the head of the church but which the Roman Catholic church says are null and void:

Colossians 1:18 – And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence.

Ephesians 1:22 – And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.

Ephesians 4:15 – But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ.

Ephesians 5:25 – Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.

Ephesians 5:2 – And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

In the New Testament Jesus reviled the Pharisees as a, “brood of vipers!” because those Jewish religious leaders exalted the traditions of men above the worship of God. The modern day Roman Catholic church clergy is equivalent to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. If Jesus were walking the earth today he would excoriate the Roman Catholic clergy in the same manner.

Matthew 15:3 – (Jesus speaking) – Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

Matthew 15:8-9 – (Jesus speaking) – These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

Don’t bother to look for additional Bible verses that confirm Peter as the sole arbiter of the earthly church established by Jesus Christ. There aren’t any. However, there are numerous Bible verses that establish Jesus Christ as the Rock upon which the Christian church is to be built. That means the Roman Catholic church has no right to claim their church is the only way to heaven. The Roman Catholic church doesn’t have the right to usurp Jesus as the head of the church and arbitrarily declare the Pope is now the head of the church. Catholicism has no spiritual right to say who is and who isn’t a Christian. That is for God alone to decide because only God knows the hearts of men. You can either believe the church of God was built by Peter and those Popes who came after him, all sinful men, or you can choose to believe Jesus himself built his church on the eternal truth that the Son of God came to die on the cross in our place for our sins.

Psalm 118:22, 1 Peter 2:7, Acts 4:11 – The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

Psalm 18:31 – For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?

Psalm 62:1-2 – Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation; He is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

Psalm 94:22 – But the Lord has been my defense, and my God the rock of my refuge.

1 Corinthians 10:4 – And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

Ephesians 2:20 – Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.

Deuteronomy 32:3-4 – For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.

The latest catechism of the Roman Catholic church (1994) contains the doctrines of the church which all Catholics are to believe and follow. Catholicism teaches that the Roman Catholic church is the one true church of God and salvation is only granted to those who are members of the Catholic church. Catholics believe Jesus Christ set up his church on earth through the Apostle Peter based on the Scriptures in Matthew 16:15-19. Since the Catholic church claims Peter as their first Pope they claim the divine mandate falls to the Roman Catholic church alone as the way to eternal life.

When I previously discussed Bible interpretation I stated it’s not a good idea to pull out a verse or verses of Scripture and use that as the basis for establishing doctrine. Even more so when those verses are ambiguous and the exact meaning is not clear. I also mentioned that Bible doctrine is usually very clear and repeated many times to make sure we get it. You should always use Scripture to interpret Scripture because God will invariably explain himself in other parts of the Bible which will then help interpret the ambiguous verse. The Catholic church didn’t do that here. They found the verse that fit their narrative and locked onto it without verifying it with other Scriptures. In the verses referenced above Jesus is speaking to his disciple Peter and Jesus asked him who he thought he was. Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Catholics base their authority as the only church of God solely on Jesus’ response in Matthew 16:18.

Matthew 16:18 – (Jesus speaking) – And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.

It’s unclear in this verse if the rock Jesus is referring to is Peter or the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ and Son of the living God. Nowhere else in the Bible is Peter identified as the sole conduit through which Jesus will establish his church on earth. However, there are numerous Bible verses that establish Jesus as the eternal rock of our salvation as Christ, the Son of God. When you use Scripture to interpret Scripture it’s easy to see Jesus was referring to the belief in him as the Son of God as the key to eternal life and overcoming the forces of darkness.

The message of the entire Bible is about the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins through faith in him. The Bible is not about a church set up by human beings who will then decide who gets to go to heaven while God is placed in a supporting role. That’s absurd! When you have the choice of going to heaven through the devices of a human being (Peter and all the Popes who follow him) or by listening to and following the commands of God himself the wise man should choose God. Choosing God will lead you to heaven while following man will lead you to straight to hell.

As a Southern Baptist I understand that different Protestant denominations came about because of minor differences of opinion about doctrine that caused them to break away. The Protestant denominations all held onto the core belief in the gospel of Christ which ensures the salvation of all believing Protestants. Being unfamiliar with what Catholics believe I just assumed the 1.5 billion Catholics were similar to the 1.0 billion Protestants since we’re all called Christians. I thought our differences must be minor doctrinal issues. It wasn’t until I started studying the Catholic faith that I realized Catholicism and Protestantism are totally different. It’s wrong to lump both groups together as Christians. Christianity is Christ. Protestants worship Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of our faith and head of the church. Protestants accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and pray directly to Father God in Jesus’ name. Protestants believe the Bible is the unerring Word of God and look to the Bible as the supreme authority in their lives.

Virtually every tenet of the Catholic church is just the opposite of what Protestants believe. In Catholicism Jesus is given lip service and then relegated to being a cookie during communion. In Catholicism the Pope is head of the church and his views take precedence over Jesus and what the Bible says. The Catholic faithful are taught to pray to to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and to totally bypass Jesus. Catholics are not taught to obey the commands of God or Jesus and are instead instructed to obey the traditions of the church. Jesus is called Lord in name only and his honor and glory are usurped at every turn. Jesus is not truly worshipped as God. The Catholic faithful don’t believe the work of Jesus on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of sins. Instead they confess their sins to not to God or Jesus but to another human being, a Catholic priest sitting in a box who is himself full of sin and has no power to forgive sin.

Only God is divine and only God can forgive forgive sin. In Catholicism what the Pope says takes precedence over what God says in His Word and the Pope is the supreme authority in the lives of all Catholics. When you have virtually every tenet of the Catholic faith just the opposite to what God commands in His Word it can’t be by chance. It has to be by design and since it’s in opposition to what God says it can only be coming from Satan. There is no other logical answer. The fruit produced by the Catholic church is evil. That’s how I know the Roman Catholic church is controlled by Satan. If you don’t believe me look at the evidence yourself and you’ll come to the same conclusion. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck!

In the ancient world polytheism was commonplace. Most people worshipped many gods and bowed down to idols made of wood, metal and stone. Ornate pagan shrines and temples were everywhere, especially in Rome which was the largest city in the world. Pagan priests usually wore fancy costumes and conducted solemn rituals called sacraments. All this pomp and circumstance was meant to convince worshippers they were being favored by the gods and it covered up the fact their religions were fake and lifeless. If you can sell the sizzle you don’t need the steak.

In Old Testament times only the Jews were monotheistic. The Jews worshipped Jehovah, the one true God. In the first century the expected Messiah, Jesus Christ, came down from heaven, took on flesh, and died on the cross for our sins. Jesus was buried and on the third day rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven where he sits at the right hand of God as our Advocate and Mediator. The Christian church was born on Pentecost in 33 AD when God sent His Holy Spirit to indwell all believers. The followers (disciples ) of Jesus became known as Christians. Christianity means “Christ’s men.” Christians were persecuted for several hundred years until the Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire in 313 AD.

The pagan priests in Rome were in the business of religion and any religion would do. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome they had no problem converting to Christianity and changing their temples into houses of Christian worship. Unfortunately the pagans brought their style of worship with them to include fanciful dress and pagan sacraments like holy water and goddess worship. Pagan temples were ornate for show and that was passed on to the Catholic church. Pagan temples were full of statues, sculptures and graven images and this also found its way into the Catholic church even though God’s word forbids it.

Within a few hundred years the Christian church in Rome became totally corrupted and all honor and glory was stripped from Jesus Christ within the church. The leader of the church became the bishop of Rome, who would later be called the Pope when his influence and power extended worldwide. Instead of following the Word of God the leaders of the church chose to establish traditions and rituals (sacraments) that were unscriptural. The Pope shifted authority in the church away from God and to himself as the sole source of salvation. Satan was responsible for the corruption of the Roman Catholic church and satanic forces have ruled the Catholic church for the last 1500 years.

What is Christianity? Who qualifies as a Christian? Christianity is Christ! First, to be a Christian you must believe in the gospel of Christ. Jesus Christ came down from heaven, took on flesh, and died on the cross for the sins of all men, past, present and future. Jesus was born, led a sinless life, had his ministry, was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead on the third day before ascending back to heaven where he sits at the right hand of God. Jesus is God. Even Satan and the demons believe this. Second, all Christians must accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Savior means we have faith that Jesus has forgiven our sins (saved us from hell) by giving us eternal life in heaven in his presence. Lord means Jesus is our master and we are slaves of Christ. As bond servants and disciples of Christ we are commanded to obey the commands of God as spelled out in His Word, our Holy Bible.

Anyone who accepts God’s grace unto salvation may inherit eternal life but if they don’t also obey the commands of God in their lives then Jesus is not really their Lord and they’ll be on spiritual milk all their lives and ineffectual as servants of God. They were just paying lip service to God when they called Jesus Lord and either had no intention of being obedient to God in the first place , or if they did intend to be obedient to God they had it beaten out of them by the traditions of men. During the last 1500 years of Christianity the Roman Catholic church has become more and more corrupt. Instead of following the sacred Scriptures they exalted church doctrine and traditions established by men over God’s Word. The church declared Pope’s to be sinless and without error in deciding matters of faith instead of looking to God’s Word for guidance.

The Roman Catholic church declared the only way to heaven was as a member of the church and not by faith alone. Free passes to heaven were given in exchange for sums of money (indulgences) and the church became fabulously wealthy. Wanting to hold onto their power and wealth the leaders of the church created sacraments to keep the faithful in bondage to the church. Tired of these church abuses, Martin Luther ushered in the Protestant reformation in 1517 because he believed salvation was by faith alone and not something to be decided by the church. The church required continuous monetary contributions and other good works in order to be allowed into heaven and Luther rejected that as an abuse of church power. These “protesters” were persecuted by the church for years as heretics before they were finally accepted as part of the body of Christ. Protestants were and always will be a threat to the power of the Roman Catholic church over the lives of the uneducated common man.

Was Jesus crucified in 32 AD or 33 AD? It’s important to know because much of the timeline of eschatology is tied to the date of Jesus’ death. Most Bible scholars believe Jesus died on Friday April 3rd in the year 33AD. However, there are a significant number of historians who believe Jesus died one year earlier in 32 AD. Let’s examine the evidence and see where it leads us. Lets start with the evidence for 33 AD since I’m a believer in this date. Historical records show Jesus died during the priesthood of Caiaphas who served as high priest from 18 AD to 36 AD. According to the Bible and Roman records Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea who had Jesus crucified and he served from 26 AD to 36 AD. Scripture also says the ministry of Jesus was after the 15th year of the rule of the Roman emperor Tiberius Caesar which would be 29 AD.

We’ve narrowed the dates of Jesus’ crucifixion to between 29 AD and 36 AD. Scripture says Jesus was crucified on a Friday morning at 9:00 AM and he died at precisely 3:00 PM with Passover officially starting at sundown Friday, the same day he was crucified. Jewish festivals are based on lunar cycles so the actual start date for festivals varies from year to year. Between the years 29 AD and 36 AD Passover started on a Friday only in 30 AD and 33 AD. 30 AD for the date of Jesus’ death is out because if Jesus started his ministry after 29 AD and it lasted 3 1/2 years then that pushes the date of Jesus’ crucifixion well past 30 AD and even past 32 AD. The only possible date for Jesus’ crucifixion is 33 AD.

What other evidence do we have? Scripture says there was darkness for three hours after Jesus died and there was a great earthquake. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) maintains a database of historic earthquakes. From 1 AD to 50 AD only one significant earthquake occurred in Israel and it happened in 33 AD according to five sources. On April 3, 33, five planets aligned to form what looked like Jesus on the cross which occurs once every 333 years. The prophet Joel foretold that when Christ died there would be three hours of darkness and there would be a blood moon. It just so happened that on the day Jesus died there was a partial lunar eclipse that lasted three hours and because it was low on the horizon it made the moon appear red.

What’s also amazing is the prominence of the number 3 in regards to the death of Jesus. The number 3 means completeness, but to a lesser degree than 7. Jesus prayed 3 times in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was placed on the cross at the 3rd hour and died at 3 PM. There was 3 hours of darkness. Jesus was in the earth 3 days and 3 nights. Jesus died on April 3, 33 at age 33. The planetary alignment that day occurs every 333 years. The lunar eclipse lasted 333 minutes and the was 66 (33 X 2) degrees on the horizon. God is precise in everything He does and numbers are significant in God’s economy.

Since we’re going to be talking about end time dates let’s start by explaining the world dating system. BC means “before Christ,” I always assumed AD meant “after Christ” but I was wrong. AD actually stands for the Latin phrase “anno domini,” which means, “in the year of our Lord.” After all, there was a 33 year period after Jesus’ birth and before his death that had to be accounted for. The new BC/AD dating system wasn’t implemented and accepted for several centuries after the death of Jesus. When the dates were first calculated they made a mistake. Scholars later discovered Jesus was actually born around 6-4 BC, not AD 1. To me the numbers still don’t add up. What’s important is the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the turning point in world history. It’s fitting, therefore, that Jesus Christ is the separation point of the “old” and the “new” world.

Philippians 2:10-11 – That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.

One day all the Muslims who shout death to Christians and our God will kneel before Jesus. The Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Scientists, along with all the other cult religions and atheists will also also bend their knees to Jesus. Those in hell and even the demons will bow low before Jesus on the last day. Today there is an assault on Christianity as our increasingly political correct culture is trying to replace the world dating system with BCE and CE to denote “before common era” and “common era.” The new designation is to be devoid of religious connotations so as to not offend other cultures and religions that may not see Jesus as “Lord.” They aren’t fooling anyone. The dating system will still be based on the life and times of Jesus Christ.

Based on the biblical, “Law of Proportion,” we can tell the importance of a subject in Scripture by how much space is devoted to it or how often it’s mentioned in the Bible. One third of the Bible is prophecy so prophecy is important and much of prophecy is about the end times. In the Old Testament there are over 1800 references to the return of Christ which is eight times more than the first coming of Christ is mentioned. In the New Testament there are over 300 references to the Lord’s return. 23 of 27 New Testament books highlight the Second Coming of Christ. Both the proportion and prominence of the prophetic theme in Scripture argue for its importance. Obviously the Second Coming of Christ is the climax of the Bible.

The Bible begins and ends with Israel. We need to understand God’s love and care for His chosen people. Understanding God’s promise to Abraham is the key to understanding the rest of the Bible and the end times. The last 39 chapters of Genesis focuses on Abraham and his family because they are the centerpiece of God’s salvation plan for man. God will reconcile Himself with man through Abraham in what we refer to as the Abrahamic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant was a threefold promise from God to Abraham. First, god promised Abraham a land for him and his descendants forever. Today Israel possesses only a small fraction of the land that belongs to them. During the Millennium Israel will finally occupy all the land that is theirs by birthright.

Second, God promised Abraham a seed. Here was a man who was 75 years old and childless. Sarah, his wife, was barren. Through the miraculous birth of his son Isaac Abraham became the father of a great nation whose descendants would be innumerable. Third, God promised Abraham that through him all of the families of the earth will be blessed. This is great news for us Gentiles. God was promising that one of his descendants would be the Savior of the world who would remove the curse of sin and death. This promise was a clear prediction of the coming of Jesus Christ, a descendant of Abraham through David, through whom we Gentiles are blessed with eternal life through faith in Him as our Lord and Savior. We Gentiles owe a debt of gratitude to the Jewish people through whom we have salvation. Thank God for His love, mercy and grace toward all men.

You’re in mortal danger if you don’t find Jesus Christ and make him the Lord and Savior of your life. You’re also in peril if you choose the wrong Messiah. The Lord Jesus warns us that in the last days, there will be many, “false Christs,” and they will deceive many professing Christians into placing their faith in them.

Matthew 24:3-5- Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age.” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’ and will deceive many.”

Many people think Mormonism is a Christian denomination but it’s not. The “Jesus Christ” of the Mormons is one “god” among many “gods” and the Book of Mormon is not the Word of God. The “Jesus Christ” of the Jehovah Witnesses is Michael the Archangel. Christian Scientists believe “Jesus Christ” is just a Divine Principle. To the Jewish people “Jesus Christ” is a prophet but not their long-awaited Messiah. The Jews are still waiting for the wrong Messiah, not knowing He has already come and gone in the person of Jesus Christ.

The “Jesus Christ” of the Roman Catholic Church has been reduced to a cookie. To Catholics Jesus Christ never died for all our sins and we must keep on paying alms, doing good works and earning merits to get to heaven – beginning with Baptism, to the partaking of the Mass, the Confessional, Penance, and finally culminating in the Extreme Unction. Even with that, the poor penitent must necessarily go to purgatory to pay for his “unpaid sins.” All of these “Jesus Christs” share the same name but they are not the “Jesus Christ” of the Bible. As a result, these religionists and cultists have no salvation.