The Pope and the Bible

Many people - many CHRISTIAN people - live with the erroneous assumption that as long as you go to church you're in good shape. After all, there are vast numbers of people who don't go to church at all. So, their reasoning follows, if you go to church, you must be doing ok. The truth is that it makes a great deal of difference where you go to church. While we were in Louisiana a church was exposed as nothing more than a sex cult! I really don't think any sane person would say it's ok to go to a church that abuses children and women! I don't really know many people who would go to a church where one person (someone like a cult leader) had the finally authority on what was taught and what was done. Well.....there is something to be said about the differences between Roman Catholics and protestants.

The Roman Catholic Church upholds tradition and the magisterium (the teaching office) on the same level as Scripture. In other words, they follow the Bible, their tradition and their teacher. The phrase that rang clear in the Protestant Reformation was Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone. The Reformers issued that cry because because the Pope was selling indulgences (basically a church sanctioned license to sin) and allowing other things that were not condoned or in some cases even forbidden in Scripture. These reformers turned their attention to what the Bible said and when they read God's Word they saw the error of the church's tradition and the power of the pope.

Many of the reformers were killed by order of the church or the civic authorities in an effort to silence their cry for a return to the Bible. Did you know that the pope is consider infallible in all that he says in an official capacity as far as it relates to doctrine of the church? That doesn't mean that he is infallible in everything he says, but when he speaks ex cathedra or as the teaching authority of the church, what he says is considered infallible. To date, the pope has only used this function twice. First, Pope Pius IX declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. Basically, he decreed that Mary was conceived in such a way as to be preserved from original sin. In 1950, Pope Pius XII declared the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. Basically, he decreed that Mary was assumed into heaven. Some maintain that she never died and others hold that she died and was resurrected like Jesus. In both instances, there is no support - ZERO - biblical data to support those claims; yet, they are church teaching.

I want to ask a simple question. Do you submit to the authority of God's Word or do you submit to the teaching of man? At first glance, you may shout that you submit only to God's Word and not the teaching of man, but do you? How many of you read your Bible? Do you know what your Bible says about Mary? Do you know what your Bible says about anything? or Do you take your preacher's word for it? It may be that the reformers purchased the right for us to read God's Word on our own only for us to desire a pope instead of God's Word? Let me encourage you to know what you beleive and why you believe it. If you don't, you'll be open to whatever anyone tells you.