Exodus from Rome Volume 1: A Biblical and Historical Critique of Roman Catholicism

By Dr. Todd D. Baker

Written by a former Roman Catholic of eighteen years and former candidate for the Roman
Catholic priesthood, Dr. Todd Baker objectively and honestly examines the grandiose
claims of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church in the critical light of Scripture and
the evidence of history to show where Rome has greatly erred. This multi- volume work
provides a controversial overview on the basic doctrines distinctive of Roman Catholicism so
the open Catholic can learn how these beliefs, practices, and traditions of Rome contradict
Scripture and do not have the support of a consistent, uniform history from the days of
Jesus, the apostles, and the first three centuries of the early church and on. With over 1
billion adherents to the Roman Catholic Church, it is incumbent for the Bible believer to
know the difference between the real Gospel of Scripture versus the Gospel of Rome and
how they are not one and the same Gospel in the end. In a day of man-pleasing, ecumenical
compromise with Rome, this book is sorely needed to remind the Protestant church that the
real differences between Rome and the Bible have not changed since the Reformation, and
must be reiterated and defended today on the exclusive ground of Scripture alone being the
supreme authority in faith and practice for every Christian believer!
Dr. Todd D. Baker is president of Brit Hadashah Ministries and Pastor
of Shalom, Shalom Messianic Congregation in Dallas, Texas. He holds
a Bachelor of Science degree in biblical studies, a Master of Theology
degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy
and Apologetics from Trinity Seminary under the auspices of Liverpool
University at Liverpool, England. He is the staff theologian and writer
for Zola Levitt Ministries and has appeared on the television program
Zola Levitt Presents several times. With his extensive experience in Jewish
evangelism, he conducts Gospel outreaches to Israel three times a year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491724712

Dr. Todd D. Baker

Dr. Todd D. Baker is president of B’rit Hadashah Ministries and Pastor of Shalom, Shalom Messianic Congregation in Dallas, Texas. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biblical studies, a Master of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Apologetics from Trinity Seminary under the auspices of Liverpool University at Liverpool, England. He is the staff theologian and writer for Zola Levitt Ministries and has appeared on the television program Zola Levitt Presents several times. With his extensive experience in Jewish evangelism, he conducts Gospel outreaches to Israel three times a year.

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Copyright © 2014 Dr. Todd D. Baker.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-2470-5 (sc)

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iUniverse rev. date: 05/09/2014

CONTENTS

Chapter 1   Exodus From Rome

Chapter 2   The Doctrine Of The Papacy

Chapter 3   The Papacy Of Peter In Rome And New Testament Chronology

Chapter 4   The Ecumenical Church Councils And The Papacy

Chapter 5   The Papacy And Temporal Power

Chapter 6   The Pagan Origin Of The Papacy

Chapter 7   The Infallibility Of The Pope

Chapter 8   The Pope And The Magisterium

Chapter 9   The Roman Catholic Priesthood

Chapter 10   The Mass And The Sacraments, Part 1

Chapter 11   The Mass And The Sacraments, Part 2

Chapter 12   Purgatory, Papal Indulgences, And Prayers For The Dead

"Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Galatians 4:16).

Special thanks goes to David Violente and Aaron Levitt for their editorial and research contributions.

CHAPTER 1

EXODUS FROM ROME

The following examination of Roman Catholicism from Scripture, Church history, and reason is not designed to purposely offend, insult, or mock those who sincerely believe and follow the teachings of Roman Catholicism, but is written by a born-again Christian and former Roman Catholic deeply concerned for the perishing souls of men and women caught, entangled, and confused in the labyrinthine web of Roman Catholicism. We speak the truth from Scripture in love (Ephesians 4:11); that they might be saved by the true Gospel of grace alone (Acts 20:24) and may "come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" through the manifold errors of Romanism (2 Timothy 2:26). How does Roman Catholicism differ from biblical Christianity? To answer that would take volumes to write, which many have done before us. But suffice it to say that this writer will highlight the main differences between this counterfeit religious system of salvation and the single way of salvation; between righteousness by works and the righteousness of faith; between myopic devotion to the Popes, priests, and sacraments of Rome versus salvation in the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

The author is thoroughly acquainted with the religion of Roman Catholicism. He was trained, indoctrinated, and prepared for entrance into the priesthood for eighteen years, attending both seminary and parochial schools in the process. But to distill any remaining doubts in some of our readers’ minds, the author will digress here and briefly give a detailed account of his personal experience and involvement with the Church of Rome. His motive and intent for doing this is the same as the Apostle Paul’s in Romans 10:1. There, Paul’s earnest desire and prayer to God was that Israel would find salvation in the Messiah Jesus. So too, in the same way, it is my heartfelt desire and prayer that Roman Catholics would be truly saved and born-again in Christ alone. Being raised in a moderately conservative Roman Catholic home, I naturally was taught by the priests and nuns of Rome, that if I followed the rules of the Church to the best of my ability, I would be saved from hell and probably end up in a place called purgatory after death, like most average Catholics, and, then, would undergo temporal punishment for the venial sins committed in this life. Only those canonized as Saints by the Roman Catholic Church went directly to heaven.¹

One good thing in my training was instruction in the basic doctrines of Christian Orthodoxy—the Bible is God’s word, the deity of Christ, the Trinity, the Atonement, eternal judgment, the resurrection of Christ, the Second Coming, and so on. Sadly, however, some of these fundamental truths were and are grossly superseded and eclipsed by numerous error filled, extra biblical doctrines that require faithful adherence by the observant Roman Catholic. The priests further taught me that the Roman Catholic Church was the only genuine Church Christ first established through Peter and his successors, the Popes. Outside of this Church, there was no hope of salvation. Thus, there emerged and was formed in my mind, over a period of time, the inevitable conclusion, reinforced by the clergy, that salvation in the church of Rome required an active compliance of what she commanded through the Magisterium, the decrees of the Popes, and an ongoing participation in the sacramental system. This included the weekly attendance of Mass and participating in practices like: reciting the rosary (prayers to Mary), wearing scapulars and medals, worshipping the Blessed Sacrament (wafer host), going to confession, saying prayers to the departed saints—all of which were added to gain merit and approval before God.

This all translated into the grace denying doctrine of salvation by good works. The more I attempted to earn divine approval through the rites and rituals of Roman Catholicism, the more I was acutely aware of my own impotence and utter depravity before a perfect, righteous, and holy God of Whom I could not consistently keep the many conflicting requirements of Rome. I was then under guilt and the fear of condemnation. Guilt, because I was not perfectly law abiding as Rome required, and fear, because if out of utter frustration I stopped practicing the rituals and rites Rome prescribes for meriting salvation, I would die in a state of mortal sin and condemnation. This moral dilemma is a common feature and experience all sincere and devout Roman Catholics seem to exhibit and walk under simply because they, and all fallible humans alike, cannot obey God’s Law, or any law perfectly without fault (see Romans 3:20-23; Galatians 3:11).

The demand to keep the law perfectly, whether by the Mosaic Law, or the codified system of Rome, only intensifies the knowledge of one’s inability, sinfulness, and moral weakness in not keeping the law and reinforces the sense of alienation from God (see Romans 7:7-13). Catholicism does teach nominal grace, but attaches works along with it as a precondition for final salvation. True salvation is always by God’s free grace alone apart from human work or merit (Ephesians 2:8-9); and adding or subtracting from it by requiring works with it makes it a nullity. The one great work required alone from all people by God is simply to believe and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation (John 6:29). This truth is not the theological product of the oversimplified reductionism of Protestant fundamentalism, as some Roman Catholic defenders would accuse, but are the very words of Christ Himself when asked by the Jews what good work one must do to have the favor of God. 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" (John 6:27-28). No mention here of the Mass, the rosary, or the seven sacraments being required by the Lord for salvation—only faith in Jesus Christ. Saving grace is ineffectual in any religious system that demands more than this for salvation. But within any religious system that relies on works for salvation, there are those who become self-righteous. The Roman Catholic Church has its share of these types of people who see nothing wrong with themselves that think they are justified and saved before God based on what they do as practicing Roman Catholics instead of what Christ alone did for sinners on the cross two thousand years ago.

It was this same controversy of good works, as opposed to divine grace, that Paul addressed, when he sternly wrote Galatians 5:4. His words of warning there, certainly applies to those under the yoke of Rome and all other religions that stress something more is needed other than divine grace through faith in Christ alone for God’s acceptance, justification, and salvation of the repentant sinner. Herein is the tragedy of many Roman Catholics: In trying to attain heaven by doing all that Rome requires, they fail to receive the salvation Christ offers that is by grace (God’s unmerited favor) alone received through faith alone. Unmerited grace is the sole basis on which God sovereignly saves any of us, apart from any good and righteous deeds we do before or after becoming Christians. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us is the emphatic declaration of the Holy Scriptures in Titus 3:5. Tragically, millions in the works-system religion of Roman Catholicism are perishing in hell, and many more will follow, because they did not properly receive salvation according to the clear teaching of Scripture, wishing, instead, to earn or merit such through their own self effort as dictated by Rome, in lieu of receiving it directly from Jesus Christ in simple faith that rests alone on the accomplished work of His cross without adding or taking away from it by assisting God in their salvation.

The plain teaching of Scripture is that good works come after faith, not as a condition or reward for salvation but, rather, as a natural consequence and practical outflow of saving faith already present and expressed (see James 2:14-20). This is the fundamental teaching in the Epistle of James and does not contradict the teaching of Paul in the book of Romans which states that faith alone justifies the sinner before God, apart from any kind of meritorious works done by the sinner (see Romans 3:26-27). James simply adds that real faith, if true and saving, will be active and therefore consequently evinced by good works (more on this will be discussed under the subject of the Roman Catholic system of salvation in contrast to the biblical teaching on salvation). Martin Luther best summed up the proper relationship between works and salvation when saying, A man is not saved by doing good works, but a saved man does good works.

It was only after attending an all boys Catholic parochial boarding school under the supervision of Benedictine monks and priests in Arkansas, that I realized much of the Roman Catholic clergy were secretly base and immoral, albeit in the public eye they were reputed by the laity on the outside as noble, chaste, and righteous men (see Matthew 23:27-28). However, those like me, who lived with the priests and monks as a student, witnessed on a daily basis they were far from saintly and angelic, but were full of hypocrisy and iniquity within. Those sympathetic to the priesthood would say here this is an unfair appraisal, and that they were only human in the end, and being this way, had faults like anyone else. This maybe true of non-Christians, but those who profess faith in Jesus Christ will habitually exhibit a transformed lifestyle of moral purity and rectitude. True Christians will not habitually live in vice or some form of immorality as a settled lifestyle that is excused or justified (see 2 Timothy 2:19; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11). This is unequivocally not the case with many of the clerics of Rome. Some, if not a considerable number of them, were given over to shameful drunkenness and had a constant supply of the intoxicating poison from the vineyards they carefully gleaned behind the Abbey. Others had not only been imbibing, but were actually involved in homosexual perversions as well.

One particular priest, who was a math instructor of the school, would frequently enter class in an inebriated state accompanied with an overpowering stench of alcohol on his person. He would customarily make arrangements to help students after school with their homework. When a student came to his office later he would motion him to come in and stand by him behind his desk. He then proceeded to help the young man with his difficult homework while he simultaneously put his hands down the front of the boy’s pants pressing firmly in the area of the groin while looking up at the bewildered student with a drunken glazed over smile. The author saw and was horribly subjected to this repeated occurrence in shock and disbelief. Often times the student would be paralyzed with great fear. Later on, to cope with the traumatic experience, he would, along with his fellow students, make sport of this poor debauched soul with all sorts of verbal slurs and slang terms for the homosexual and alcoholic condition the pitiful priest was bound in. The numerous reports now coming out in the media of children being molested by priests in the last several years makes this account all the more believable.

There was another occasion were two drunken monks cast their monastic habits aside one late night and climbed the water tower together in the dark totally in the nude. Several students saw this ungodly spectacle. They could not make out what they were doing up there since there were a large cluster of trees in front of the water tower blocking their view. After waiting for an hour, the students left the scene at the strong request of a priest. They went away mocking these two unholy monks, who apparently stayed up there all night doing unspeakable acts. Nothing was said or done the next morning, or for that matter any time after that. There were also credible reports of other monks and priests engaging in acts of sodomy, bestiality, and fornication. Were these moral aberrations solely limited and confined mainly to this Abbey school, or is it merely a microcosmic indication of the moral degeneration Romanism breeds and germinates within her clerical ranks on a larger scale?

The annals of Papal Rome’s sordid history among the nations she has resided in abundantly confirms this to be the case. Space does not permit us here to give a detailed account of the various Popes who raped, sodomized, murdered, and instituted mass execution campaigns all in the name of Christ, or the many of her clergy steeped in vices much too horrid to describe here for the sensitive reader. The preponderant fruit from Romanism’s false doctrines is spiritual want, religious bondage, idolatry, political and religious tyranny, mass bloodshed, drunkenness, homosexuality, pedophilia, fornication, heresy, and doctrinal deception—all of which ultimately leading to damnation (for a historical review of the moral corruptions of the Roman Catholic Church see the book Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church written by former Franciscan Priest Emmet McLoughlin, New York: Lyle Stuart, 1962). If the Roman Catholic or ecumenical Christian chafes at what has just been said, we appeal to the objective history of past and present. Visit Mexico, Central and South America, parts of the West Indies, Spain, France, Italy, and some of the Eastern European countries which are predominately Roman Catholic, where Rome has the preeminence and you will see these things in abundance coupled with an epidemic ignorance of biblical truth. Missionaries of biblical Christianity who are in these very countries are often shunned, silenced, threatened, and persecuted by the Roman Catholic hierarchy of bishops and priests and their fanatically devoted lay-people.

By applying the test of Scripture to this vile and wicked system, we see that Rome’s conduct and content, generally speaking, can be conclusively determined to be reprobate and evil. Because the core is rotten and depraved, so will be the fruit. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:16-20). And so in the future Tribulation period the Vatican will be engulfed in the fiery furnace of God’s wrath because she stubbornly refused to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance (see Revelation 2:21-23; 17:16). Proclaiming these harsh and difficult truths is not to deny that there have been many individuals in the Roman Catholic Church—both in the past and present—who have been genuinely born-again by the Spirit of God—for even now there is at the present time a saved remnant according to the election of God’s sovereign grace (Revelation 2:24-25). However, it is important to point out that they are not saved by following the dictates of Roman Catholicism for earning salvation, but are saved in spite of them, because they wisely chose to put their trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and justification. God, however, commands these very people who are His in Christ to depart from this Babylonian system of vain ritual, priest craft, sacramental magic, and idolatry (see Revelation 18:8).

After attending the parochial boarding school for two years, I was extremely disillusioned with the Roman Catholic system. Because I was taught from early childhood this was God’s institution, I mistakenly equated God with it, and out of intense bitterness, embraced a militant atheism, instead. Satan had cleverly deceived me into believing God did not really exist in the face of so much immorality among those claiming to represent Him, nor was He just, moral and righteous as indicated by the moral bankruptcy of the Roman Catholic clergy. Several years past before I was to encounter the Church of Rome again on another level as a born-again Christian, who had, indeed, met the real Jesus that is revealed in Scripture. Due to limited writing space, I pass over the four years of my hellish descent into atheism and my habitual use of drugs. Rather, I will resume the narrative from the days after the Risen Christ was supernaturally revealed to me according to the Scriptures, and my subsequent entrance into a Roman Catholic seminary.

Being a spiritual babe in Christ for only a few months, I had an unquenchable love for God and a deep desire to devote the rest of my life in service to Him. Naturally, given my prior religious background, I assumed that could only be done by becoming a priest of the Roman Catholic Institution whereupon I entered a Roman Catholic seminary in Ohio. This time I reentered Romanism as a spirit-filled regenerated Christian. In addition to my discovery, a few years earlier, that the Roman Catholic institution was morally corrupt, I was to soon discover in seminary that what Roman Catholicism taught was diametrically opposed, in many cases, to what the Word of God teaches. The primary text we used in the first six months of seminary was not the Bible, but the Vatican II Council book. Not once in all that time did we ever crack open a Bible the entire semester I was there, nor was the plan of salvation clearly explained from the Scriptures! The religious man-made traditions of Rome were given the exclusive preeminence! Indeed, never once in the seminary did I hear the priests of Rome explain the clear Gospel plan of salvation; neither did I hear it during any Mass I had attended during the entire eighteen years I was in the Roman Catholic system! Jesus commands all people to first search the Scriptures that point the way to eternal life through its inerrant testimony about Him (John 5:39).

The priests in the seminary told us that what the Church taught through the Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, priests, Vatican approved theologians, ecclesiastical traditions with the voice of the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Church), existed on an equal plane with Scripture! But this resulted, as it always does, in placing these things above the authority of Scripture. The instructors at the seminary proceeded to attack the veracity of Scripture by teaching the following blasphemies: Adam did not literally exist; the historical account of Jonah being swallowed by a whale is untrue and a mere myth or allegory to teach a moral lesson; the existence of the devil is questionable; evolution is a scientific fact; the genealogies of Christ are contradictory and historically inaccurate; Moses and the Hebrews walked through the ankle deep reed sea and not through the miraculously parted Red Sea; the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2 are mythical, untrue, contradictory, and irreconcilable with ‘science’ and evolution. Ironically, they viewed Holy Scripture through the apostate Protestant lens of the liberal theory of Form Criticism based on the anti-supernatural hermeneutic of Rudolf Bultmann and other liberal theologians, which Rome, since the Vatican II Council, has allowed to infect and permeate many of their seminaries and religious institutions. All this was just a small sample of the infidelity and heresy being taught against the truth of God-inspired Scripture in this Roman Catholic seminary I attended for a brief time.

Fortunately, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I was able to see through their falsehood and unbelief towards the Word of God. Sovereignly, the Lord was good enough to put me together with Bible believing born-again Christians outside the seminary whom a fellow seminarian, disillusioned with Rome also, introduced me to. The Bible study group lovingly and gently encouraged me to begin an in depth study of the Bible comparing its teachings with the claims of Roman Catholicism. By the Holy Spirit’s ministry of illumination of the Word to me, I immediately recognized the serious errors of Romanism from my own exposure to the Word of God. The Lord was beginning to open my spiritual eyes to see the real truth about the Roman Catholic Institution. Like the great reformer, Martin Luther, I realized with profound and shocking disillusionment that the Roman Catholic Institution was a colossal counterfeit universally accepted as the one true Church of Christ for the last 1,600 years or so. But Satan sorely tried to dissuade me from this truth by whispering in my ear, Surely all these people can’t be wrong and you right; what great arrogance! But that cunning voice of doubt was forever silenced when the appeal to the final authority for determining truth came not from myself, nor from the Church, or from Tradition and the pompous papacy, but from, Thus says the Lord found in the inerrant Word of God that stands above all human and religious authority, church councils, Popes, creeds, and traditions.

The sufficiency of Scripture alone (taken from the great Reformation principle Sola Scriptura) was the supreme principle the Holy Spirit emblazoned on my mind and heart to follow and live by when following the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures plainly and explicitly contradict the many traditions of Roman Catholicism, as this work will show. I cannot thank the Lord enough for opening my blind eyes to see the truth liberating me from the yoke of Roman Catholic legalism into the glorious Gospel of free grace given in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who remain in the Roman Catholic system out a false sense of security, allegiance, fear or complacent satisfaction will no doubt take offense at what has been said in this chapter, and for the rest of this book, for that matter, and will angrily differ and smugly dispute. But in the face of Christ’s finished work of redemption on Calvary obtaining eternal life and heaven for me when I believed because of what He accomplished alone for me, I say to them, Let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4). Furthermore, to confirm the truth in my mind about this earth-shaking discovery not being self concocted or a satanic deception, the Lord gave me an admonitory vision while laying on my bed, whether awake or in a semi sleepy state, I cannot tell (See Job 33:14-17).² I seemed to be conscious, yet in a type of trance. In this vision God clearly warned and showed me the true spiritual state of the place and religious institution I was in and of those living there. The vision also warned me that if I did not depart from there soon great spiritual harm would come.

The vision went like this: I was in the dining hall of the seminary and around me were the priests who taught at the seminary and the students with them. They were all in a state of drunkenness and sleepiness groping as if in the dark. Their drunkenness, though, was not induced by wine or any other alcoholic beverage. I had an open Bible in my hand and went to one of the learned priests who taught philosophy and asked what the general content of the Bible means. He answered curtly, I don’t know, it is a closed Book, and I doubt God even exists. I can remember his comment striking me in an odd way. For here was a man of the Roman Catholic clergy, an avowed minister of the Church, who did not believe in the existence of God, and therefore failed to understand the basic message of God’s Word! I then asked another student the same question about the meaning of Scripture. His response was that he was not educated enough to answer. After the priest’s apathetic and somewhat agnostic response, I knew I had to immediately leave and get sound counsel from the Scriptures somewhere else. I was the only sober one in the group in this vision who realized what was going on. When I looked away from this ungodly sot, I saw a lighted stairway leading out of that foul place of inebriation. As I climbed up the stairs, another seminary student attempted to keep me from leaving, but I resolutely left up the lighted staircase never to return to that spiritually dark place again.

The student in the vision was the same exact one who came to me several months later at the seminary and tried to convince me not to leave the Roman Catholic Institution! When I gave him Scriptural grounds for doing so he could say nothing, but instead promised me a position in his parish located in beautiful Hawaii if I finished seminary and became a priest of Rome. This was obviously a ploy of the devil to seduce me into staying in the Roman Catholic Church oppressed and frustrated by her inconsistent, anti-scriptural teachings. I realized later this vision pointed to what was to unfold several months ahead. Two weeks later, after praying for a biblical interpretation of this unusual visitation, the Lord gave me the prophetic interpretation based on Isaiah 29:9-13, which says: "Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;

 And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, Read this, please. and he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, Read this, please and he says, I am not literate. Therefore the Lord said: Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men.

God was saying through the prophet Isaiah the same thing in the vision He gave me; that these religious counterfeits of the Roman Catholic clergy, and their students, were moral drunkards, spiritually blind, somnolent, and walking in darkness because they pushed aside the premium importance of knowing God’s Word and practically applying it, in favor of placing the vain philosophical and religious precepts of men (as formulated in the many doctrines of Romanism) in its place. Consequently, this prevented them and their myopic followers from arriving at the correct meaning of God’s Word. Though they gave verbal assent and nominal respect to the Holy Scriptures in the liturgy, the writings of the Popes, and Church Tradition, they really treated it in the vast perspective of life as an insignificant book that is sealed, closed, and far too mysterious for the average person to understand. Their hearts had an arrogant disdain and disregard for the supreme authority, all sufficiency, and profound simplicity of the Scriptures alone. They, like their religious hypocritical counterparts in Isaiah’s day, placed man-made tradition above the Word of God!

After this the Holy Spirit impressed on me, more than ever, that the Roman Catholic Institution was the greatest spiritual counterfeit perpetuated in the name of Christ ever to be passed off onto the hearts and minds of men. Romanism erected a vast monolithic image from the ruins of the old Roman Empire begun by the unholy fusion of church and state initiated. Such an unholy fusion began with the Roman Emperor Constantine who was devoted to political aggrandizement and power to be later clothed in the guise of the Roman Catholic Papacy.³ This fatal compromise set in motion the rise of Papal imperialism centuries later with Roman Catholicism being the dominant religion over the civilized world by the eighth century for indeed,

The cost of Constantine’s ‘conversion’ to Christianity was the loss of innocence. His cynical use of Christ, in which everyone, including the Bishop of Rome, acquiesced, meant a profound falsification of the Gospel message and the injection of standards alien to it. From then on, Catholicism flourished to the detriment of Christianity and of Jesus who wanted no part in the world of power and politics, who preferred to be crucified rather than to impose his views on anyone. By the time Stephen III became pope, the church was thoroughly converted to the Roman Empire.⁴

In the past, we will discover that Papal Rome has destroyed those bold enough to denounce her from Scripture and expose her damnable heresies, and if given that same power today, would do so again, now, and in the future. A few months after this vision, I was bound and determined by the Spirit of the Lord to leave Mother Church behind to attend a Christian Bible college devoted to teaching the Bible as the supreme authority and guide for Christian faith and practice. The priests, who knew that I rightly contended and believed in the inerrancy of the Bible being literally true in its scientific, theological, and historical content, caustically labeled me a Fundamentalist, and treated me with haughty intolerance and condescension because I had the audacity to test what they were theologically claiming by the examining light of Holy Scripture.⁵

From spending time at this Catholic seminary, I carefully deduced from the Word of God by the illumination of the Holy Spirit’s guidance, that the priests and Popes of Rome were not teaching sound doctrine according to the Scriptures, but rather, they would take certain Scriptures out of context to support their false doctrine. In truth, they were not of Christ, nor did they have his light within them for the simple reason that the Scriptures were not the supreme rule and conduct for their faith (see Isaiah 8:20). Much of what they taught for Rome, at that particular seminary, was contrary to the Bible, and in fact both harmfully added and subtracted from the Word of God (i.e., the Apocrypha and Church Tradition).

The penalty for doing this will earn God’s anathema and expose those who do so to be liars (see Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18-19). In the following chapters of this book, we will closely and carefully examine the major doctrines that make up Roman Catholicism under the critical light of Scripture. We will demonstrate that Rome’s doctrines blatantly contradict what the authors of Sacred scripture had intended for us to know and understand. In the course of this study, we will also analyze and address how the defenders of Rome typically answer from history, Scripture, and tradition to refute the factual allegation that the Bible and Romanism are contrary one to the other. This book will rebut the claims of Rome and her defenders, and demonstrate from both Scripture and church history that the grandiose claims of Roman Catholicism are spurious, anti-scriptural, and against the unmerited grace of God.

CHAPTER 2

THE DOCTRINE OF THE PAPACY

The issue and subject of authority is one of great concern to both Bible believing Protestants and Roman Catholics. This is where the similarity over the issue of authority quickly begins and ends with both groups who clearly answer the issue differently. How one answers this question will determine and influence the belief system, theology, and world-view that person maintains. Where do we go to find such a reliable authority to trust in concerning matters of faith, practice, and explanation? The most important question to ask and ultimate decision to make is in which authority do we trust with our eternal destiny? For Roman Catholicism, the issue of authority in the Church is found in the Papacy and the Popes who proceed from this hierarchical institution. The Roman Catholic system stands or falls with the Papacy. Disprove the validity of it from Scripture, and the rest of the convoluted system of Romanism, collapses to the earth as an invention of men, and not from God. Rome claims that the institution of the Papacy is indeed found in the New Testament passage Matthew 16:17-19 where we read:

Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Here in the Gospel of Matthew, the Roman Catholic Institution claims to be the one and only true Church Jesus Christ founded and built upon Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. And this same apostolic headship over the Church has been consecutively passed on to his successors the Popes. Section 159 of the Adult Baltimore Catechism states,

The true Church is apostolic because it is the Church Christ founded upon the Apostles, and especially upon Peter whom He called the rock on which the Church would be built. The supreme power of St. Peter in the Church has been passed down through the unbroken lives of his successors in the see of Rome.⁶

The Vatican II Council formally decreed,

The Lord made Peter alone the rock-foundation and the holder of the keys of the Church (cf. Mt. 16:18-19), and constituted him shepherd of his whole flock (cf. Jn. 21:15ff).⁷

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also reiterates the same.⁸ The official name for this teaching that Christ established the Apostle Peter and his successors, the Popes, as the visible head and ruler of the Church on Earth, is called Apostolic Succession. It is viewed as the bedrock upon which the Papacy and the exclusive claims of the Roman Catholic Church are built. Rome has assigned various names for this teaching: The Primacy of Peter, the Petrine Confession, Apostolic Succession, the Holy See, and the Papacy. Apostolic Succession, as viewed by Rome, is one of the two great pillars upon which the whole edifice of the Papacy is built. The other pillar is Temporal Power. The Papacy bases Apostolic Succession on the main text of Matthew 16:17-19 and how they interpret the word rock in verse eighteen. Roman Catholics are taught to believe by the teachings of the Vatican that Jesus proclaimed His Church would be built upon Peter the rock—with the living and the dead under his jurisdiction as symbolized by the keys of dominical authority given to him by Christ. All the other Apostles were therefore subject and subordinate to Peter, including the Apostle Paul. Furthermore, this delegated authority is transmitted to Peter’s patrimonial successors—the Popes. The Popes are called the Vicars of Christ on Earth" and as such act as His representatives on Earth as the visible head of the church. Official Catholic teaching affirms that,

The Lord made Peter St. Peter the visible foundation of his Church. He entrusted the keys of the Church to him. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal church on earth.⁹

The word vicar comes from the Latin word vicarius, from whence we derive the English word vicarious from. The word simply means to take the place of someone while that person is absent. According to official Roman Catholic dogma, the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, and thus is the divinely appointed representative of Jesus Christ on Earth as the visible head of the Church while He is currently absent. The Popes in this inherited role have authority over the living and the dead. This was formally adopted as Roman Catholic Dogma by the Council of Trent, and reaffirmed by the Vatican Councils II and I. Cardinal Gibbons voices this teaching as official Roman Catholic doctrine to be believed by all faithful Catholics with unquestioning obedience. He writes:

The Catholic Church teaches that our Lord conferred on St. Peter the first place of honor and jurisdiction in the government of his whole Church, and that same spiritual supremacy has always resided in the Popes, or bishops of Rome, as being successors of St. Peter. Consequently, to be true followers of Christ all Christians, both among the clergy and laity, must be in communion with the See of Rome, wherein Peter rules in the person of His successors (Emphasis mine).¹⁰

Any who deny the supremacy of the Pope as sole ruler over the entire church, and any who refuse to accept the Pope as the true successor of Peter, are brazenly placed under the eternal damnation of God, according to the Vatican Council I.

If, then, anyone shall say that it is not by the institution of Christ the Lord, or by divine right, that blessed Peter has a perpetual line of successors in the primacy over the universal Church; or that the Roman Pontiff is not the successors of Blessed Peter in this primacy; let him be anathema.¹¹

The particular term anathema means to invoke the curse of the eternal condemnation of God on any person who rejects and disagrees with this essential doctrine of the Papacy. The defenders of Rome, in their attempt to blunt the force of this presumptuous malediction, claim that the term is limited only to excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church and nothing more. But is that all that happens when anyone is anathematized by the Pope? We discover that in the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, when the Catholic Church anathematizes someone under the category of major excommunication, the Pope ritually puts curses on him or her. There is a solemn written ritual for doing this. The Catholic Encyclopedia article describes the ritual in detail, including extensive quotations from it. In pronouncing the anathema, the Pope wears special vestments. He is assisted by twelve priests holding lighted candles. Calling on the name of God, the Pope pronounces a solemn ecclesiastical curse. He ends by pronouncing sentence and declaring that the anathematized person is condemned to hell with Satan, his angels, and all the reprobate. The priests’ reply, Fiat (Let it be done!), and throw down their candles!¹² Pope Innocent (1198-1216), not Peter, was arguably the first Pope who claimed to be the universal Vicar of Christ with both apostolic and temporal powers, and during his pontificate declared on the person who disagreed with him, We excommunicate, anathematize, curse and damn him.¹³ For a lapsed Catholic, or Bible believing Protestant, to reject the Papacy is to then invite God’s damnation down upon them according to the Papal Councils of Trent and Vatican I, which were both reaffirmed by Vatican II!

Upon every coronation of a Pope the following ceremonial pronouncement is said, Take thou the tiara adorned with Triple Crown, and know that thou art the father of princes and kings, and art the governor of the world. Rome further believes and proclaims that the recognition and submission to the Papacy is essential for salvation! Roman Catholics must submit to the Pope in all matters to be saved. Not only is the Pope considered the successor of Peter, but is reputed as God sitting on St. Peter’s chair in the Vatican. Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) declared in his Papal bull Unam Sanctum,

The Roman Pontiff judges all men, but is judged by no one. We declare, assert, define, and pronounce: To be subject to the Roman Pontiff is to every human creature altogether necessary for salvation…. [that which was spoken of Christ, "Thou hast subdued all things under His feet, may well seem verified in me…I have the authority of the King of kings. I am all and above all, so that God Himself and I the Vicar of God, have but one consistory, (Church) and am able to do all that God can do. What therefore, can you make of me but God?]¹⁴

In his encyclical, The Reunion of Christendom issued in 1885, Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) pompously claimed that he holds upon this earth the place of God Almighty. Do some Roman Catholics today still think the Pope is like God? When Pope John Paul II was shot in May of 1981, Time magazine reported a Roman Catholic bystander saying, It’s like shooting God!¹⁵

The Papal claims quoted in the last few previous paragraphs from Rome’s Popes and Church Councils are nothing short of rank blasphemy to the highest degree. And these claims will only be trumped by those of the future Anti-Christ of whom the Pope is a definite historical type and shadow (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). Are we giving way to blind prejudicial anti-Catholic sensationalism or gross exaggeration as Rome’s defenders routinely allege ad nauseam in affirming this? No, let the mouth of the Papists impugn themselves on this point. For they not only ascribe to the Pope a divine-like quality, but also the divine titles of the Trinity. The Pope is revered and addressed as, Holy Father,¹⁶ This divine name belongs to God the Father alone. The name is so holy, exclusive, and reverend that the Lord Jesus Christ used it only once for His heavenly Father in John 17:11.

Christ clearly forbids His followers to call any man by the spiritual title Father be he Pope or priest of Rome. Do not call anyone on earth you father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven (Matthew 23:9). Only God is truly holy in the perfect sense, for all men are sinners unholy, and unjust by nature. For there is not a man upon earth, that does good and sins not (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:11-18). This most certainly includes the Pope, even more so than other men since he blasphemously takes to himself the names of God. Hence, he has much more in common with the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 than with the divine Man of Sorrows found in the holy Gospels. Of all men, only Jesus is inherently sinless (Hebrews 7:26). At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel informed Mary that Jesus was a holy offspring begotten of the Holy Spirit of God (Luke 1:35). However, the Pope derives neither his holiness nor exaltation of office by God. The Lord will not share his divine glory with another (Isaiah 42:8). The Pope sits as Christ in the Vatican publicly proclaiming to be his sole representative on Earth. The following was solemnly addressed to Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) at the Vatican I Council on January 9, 1870: The Pope is Christ in office, Christ in jurisdiction, and power…we bow down before thy voice. O Pius, as before the voice of Christ, the God of truth, in clinging to thee, we cling to Christ. But the New Testament teaches that the presence of Jesus Christ is manifested to all born-gain believers through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:23; 2 Corinthians 6:16).

Christ said that where these true believers of His gather together, He is there spiritually present in them making them His individual and corporate representatives on Earth. "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26). Having the presence of the indwelling Messiah is a right and privilege given every born-again believer. This indwelling presence is not obtained through submission to the Popes of Rome, but is received by believing the Gospel. Every true Christian is therefore Christ’s representative on Earth; each serves as His messenger and ambassador to preach the Gospel of salvation to all nations until He comes again. These believers collectively comprise the church of Jesus Christ, with Him as their one, true, and single Head, Who is seated at the right hand of the Father (see Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Corinthians 5:20). The Pope usurps the role of the Holy Spirit by claiming he uniquely acts or speaks for Christ in the role of His supreme Vicar while Jesus is physically absent from Earth. Roman Catholic teaching asserts that when presiding over an ecclesiastical council and pronouncing dogma or doctrine with the words, Ex Cathedra, the Pope speaks for God in the place of the Holy Spirit.¹⁷

Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower every Christian after He ascended to the heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit was to consequently represent, act, and minister to and through the believer for Christ in His absence (see John 14:16-18; 15:26-27). The Holy Spirit is the true Vicar of Christ representing the Lord Jesus in His stead on Earth. The Holy Spirit has been ministering in a variety of ways to every born-again Christian ever since the day of Pentecost, and will continue to do so until the Lord’s physical return for His Church. Therefore, one looks in vain through the pages of the New Testament to find a human agent like the Pope solely functioning as the supreme Vicar of Christ. However, Rome attempts to give other biblical justification for the Primacy of Peter in addition to the passage found in Matthew 16. They claim the Papacy is validated because of the following reasons: the Scriptures show the preeminence of Peter; for Peter is listed first as an Apostle of Christ throughout the Gospels (Matthew 10:1; Mark 1:16; Luke 6:14); Peter alone was first given the keys of heaven to open the way of salvation to both Jew and Gentile (Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:14-51; 10:25-48); he received his papal authority over the whole Church when Christ said to him, Feed My sheep (Luke 22:31-32; John 21:15-17); in the choosing of Matthias, Peter made the final decision (Acts 1:15-17); and lastly, it was Peter who made the opening statement at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:7).

The best argument, however, against the teachings of Roman Catholicism is the simple truth of Scripture, which not only disproves the Papacy, but all their false and misleading doctrines. Former Roman Catholic priest Joseph Zacchello affirms exactly the same when writing, The best book against Romanism was not written by a Protestant or a former priest, but by God. It is the Bible.¹⁸ We will address the meaning of the keys later, but our main focus here is on the meaning of Rock. The Roman Catholic interpretation of the rock meaning Peter in Matthew 16:18 is dead wrong for several reasons. To determine the meaning of a particular text in Scripture, the student of the Bible must first determine the context that text, verse, or passage is found in. The context of Matthew 16:13-20 concerns itself with a central, challenging question Jesus asks His disciples at a critical point in His ministry. That question was centered on the real identity of who Jesus is. For He asks, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? (Matthew16: 13).

Peter correctly gives the ultimate answer to the ultimate question all humans must answer about Jesus when the Apostle confessed of Him, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16). The revelation of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah was a supernatural insight Peter received from God, and would lead Jesus to use a play on words declaring, You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (Matthew 16:18). Therefore the context of this passage favors a Christocentric meaning on who Jesus is—the Messiah and Son of God. The answer Peter gave, argues for interpreting this rock as referring back to the revelation and its content. In other words, the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16) would be the solid rock upon which the Christian faith would rest. Every doctrine and practice of the Church would be founded upon Him. Every true believer would hold to a common conviction: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16).¹⁹

The rock of Matthew 16:17-19 is not Peter, but rather Peter’s confession concerning the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, with Jesus being the true Rock²⁰ Peter could never have been that immovable and infallible Rock, for in verse twenty-three of the same chapter Jesus rebukes him, calling him Satan. Surely, Jesus would not address the first of his holy Popes as Satan. The rock metaphor, when traced throughout the Bible, is never used symbolically of man, but always of God. To that end, the Scripture speaks of God as the only Rock there is (see Psalm18: 31). The Old Testament unanimously assigns the rock image to the God of Israel. There is no one holy like the Lord; Indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any Rock like our God? (1 Samuel 2:2). To claim otherwise would be to, in effect, proclaim a rival god, to which the word of God proclaims, Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none (Isaiah 44:8). King David called the Lord, the Rock of His salvation (2 Samuel 22:47). The Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament repeatedly call the Messiah a Rock. (See Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Zechariah 3:9).

In Matthew 16:18, the word rock appears twice in the original Greek, with two different genders indicating two different meanings. Peter (Petros) is in the masculine singular, and rock (Petra) is in the feminine singular. Therefore, when Jesus refers to Peter in Matthew 16:18 He does so in the second person, addressed as you, but when Jesus refers to this rock in the same verse, He uses the third person. In grammatical terms, the two uses of the word rock do not point to the same referent. The Greek text of Matthew 16:18 literally reads, You are Peter (petros or Petros as transliterated in English). Petros is in the masculine gender and actually means a small rock, or stone that might be thrown or easily moved. And upon this rock I will build My church—rock, here, in the second use, is petra (Petra as transliterated in English), which is feminine in gender and denotes a massive rock, like a foundation or bedrock (as distinct from Petros).²¹ The eminent Doctor William Cathcart accurately explains the true meanings these two words (petros and petra) convey in the passage of Matthew 16:18, unequivocally demonstrating that Rome’s erroneous interpretation is exegetically wrong:

The Greek word Petros, or Peter, is not the word translated rock: that word is petra. It is very manifest, that if the Savior meant Peter to be known as the rock upon which He was about to build His Church, that He would have said: "Thou art Petros, and upon this Petros (su ei petros kai epi toutw tw petrw) I will build My Church. But instead of that He says: Thou art Petros, and upon this Petra (epi tauth th petra) I will build My Church." Petra is a noun in the feminine gender; the pronoun this, in the Greek, is a noun in the feminine gender, agreeing with gender of the noun Petra; Petros, or Peter, is in the masculine gender. Petra then MUST refer to something different from Peter. There would have been Petros on two occasions in this verse, instead of Petros and Petra, if Peter had been the rock. Besides, Petros is a stone, a movable stone; Petra is a rock, a mass of rocks, a cliff. The one, such a stone the maidservant in the hall of judgment might upset; the other the Rock of ages—the confession that Peter made that Christ was the Son of the living God.²²

The Lord Jesus Christ is always referred to as the Rock in the New Testament. The Greek word Petra, that is used in Matthew 16:18, is the same word used elsewhere in the New Testament for Jesus Christ. Not once, in this regard, is the term used for Peter or any other person! Thus, the writers of the New Testament, including Peter himself, understood Petra to mean Jesus Christ. Surely if Peter were that rock (petra) he would have plainly stated so in his two epistles; instead we find the Apostle Peter calling the Lord Jesus "the rock (petra) of offence" in 1 Peter 2:18. The Apostle Paul also states the same thing in Romans 9:33 using the Greek word Petra for Christ when saying, He is "a rock (petra) of offence" over which the unbeliever stumbles. Again, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul tells us that Christ was the rock (petra) that followed the Israelites into the wilderness. Both Peter and Paul identified Christ as the Rock with the very same word for rock (petra) found in Matthew 16:18.

Roman Catholic apologists, in their vain attempts to not honestly deal with the Greek text of Matthew 16:18, traditionally deny this meaning and assert that in the Aramaic, there is only one definition for the word rock. So by Rome’s conjectural reading, Jesus simply called Peter by his Aramaic name for rock (Kepha or Cephas. See John 1:42) and therefore, Matthew 16:18 really says: "You are Kepha, and upon this kepha (Cephas) I will build My Church." But this is mere speculation without substantial support from any first century Aramaic manuscripts of a complete Gospel of Matthew. It is an historical fact of biblical paleography that the Greek texts of the New Testament precede and antedate any Aramaic text of the same by several centuries. The Greek text came first and the Aramaic and Syriac texts of the third and fourth centuries (the Peshitta) were largely translated from it. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, who inspired the writers of Scripture to record God’s Word without error, would have preserved such Aramaic manuscripts or at least import the word into the Greek text, especially since Peter’s Aramaic name, Cephas, is found six times in the New Testament (John 1:42; 1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:5; Galatians 2:9). If the Papacy rests upon such textual proof, and if submitting to its office is necessary for salvation, why then is there no clear indication of it; and instead the opposite is found throughout the New Testament!

The Roman Catholic claim for the non-existent ancient Aramaic manuscript reading of Matthew 16:18 to mean Peter as the rock, is simply not possible because the majority of qualified translators of the ancient Church would have most certainly noted the sameness in gender and meaning from the Aramaic into Greek. But they chose not to, and instead preserved the differences that are reflected in the extant Greek manuscripts with regards to both meaning and gender of the word rock. Jerome (347-420) preserved this very distinction in the Latin Vulgate—the standard Bible text of the Roman Catholic Church for over one thousand years.²³ Jesus was essentially saying in Matthew 16:17-19 that I am the massive Rock (Petra) upon, which, you, Peter, as a little rock (Petros), by your profession of faith in Me as the Messiah, the Son of God, will be supported and built upon the foundation of Who I am. The foundation of the Christian Church is built on Jesus Christ Himself, not Peter. On top of this foundation are the Apostles and Prophets, and the structure on which it supports are the lively stones of all true believers in Christ during the present age (see Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:5-7).

Any first century Orthodox Jew familiar with the Tenach (what Jews call the Old Testament Scriptures), like Peter or Paul, knew that the God of Israel identified Himself as the Rock of salvation in Israel’s divine history, and would never have taken it to mean anything else (Deuteronomy 32:18; 2 Samuel 22:2, 32, 47; Psalm 31:3; 94:22). The New Testament consistently teaches that Jesus Christ alone is the foundation upon which His Church is built. There is no other as Paul writes, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). This sure foundation does not consist solely of Peter, but is built upon God’s revelation given to the Prophets and Apostles with Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). Peter, the alleged first Pope of Rome and Rock of the Church, tells us that all Christians are a spiritual house built upon the foundation of "the Chief Cornerstone" Jesus Christ as "lively stones" to make up His spiritual temple (see 1 Peter 2:5-7). Every follower of Jesus Christ, like the Apostle Peter, who therefore trusts by divine revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is being added to the Body of Christ (the spiritual house), which is His Church.

The Roman Catholic Church actually admits the teaching of Peter’s primacy is not found in Scripture—the Catholic Encyclopedia states: It (the primacy of Peter) cannot be in any way proven directly from the New Testament (Emphasis mine).²⁴ Rome further admits that Roman supremacy in the Church was not claimed in Peter’s name before the fourth century.²⁵ It was Pope Damasus I (366-384), not Peter, who was the first Bishop of Rome to make claims for the Roman Papacy based exclusively on a misinterpretation of Matthew 16:18, which same claims are adhered to this very day by Rome’s misguided Magisterium. Damasus confirmed this belief during the Roman Synod of 381 A.D.²⁶ One of Rome’s most famous Popes, Gregory the Great (590-604), disclaimed Peter’s primacy as Universal Bishop over all the churches. In his epistle to the Emperor Maurice, Gregory passionately wrote:

St. Peter is not called Universal Apostle, the whole Church falls from its place when he who is called Universal falls. But far from Christian hearts be that blasphemous name. I confidently affirm that whosoever so calls himself or desires to