Church of Christ Sermons and Lessons for 2011
Speaker	Sermon/Lesson Title   (Right Click to Download)	Audio Video  Text	Category	Date Added	Lesson
Bobby Stafford	Catholicism   (Audio) (Video)		Denominationalism	June 26, 2011	Sunday PM Sermon

The Catholic Church

Introduction:

• Recently we received an e-mail asking us to present a lesson on the Catholic Church.  This religious organization has a membership of several hundred million worldwide, so we will certainly have contact with its members.
• So what is the origin of this church and what are its main beliefs?

 Body:

  I. Origin

• There is no specific date or location for the Catholic Church.  Some give its date as 606 A.D. when Boniface III was elected the first pope.  Acts 2:1  “Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”  Acts 2:14  “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.”   Acts 2:41-42  “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.  And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”                   Acts 2:47  “praising God and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”  NKJV
• According to: A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, there can be no Roman Catholic Church without a pope.

  II. The Pope

• The pope is called the “Bishop of Rome”, “Vicar of Christ”, and the “Visible Head of the Church.”
• Note the following quote:

“. . .in matters of jurisdiction [the pope] enjoys supreme, universal and immediate jurisdiction over the whole Church and every member of it.  This supremacy is not given by the cardinals who elect him, but immediately by God.  The Pope is the Church’s supreme and infallible teacher, its supreme legislator, and its supreme judge.” (Bertrand Conway, The Question Box, San Francisco:  Catholic Truth Society, 1929, p.158).

• There is no authority in the New Testament for a pope or universal bishop.  Each congregation had two or more bishops.  They had no authority over any other church.  Acts 14:23 “So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”  NKJV
• Contradiction to the prior statement –

     The Catholic Church believes Peter was the founder of the church

     and was its first Pope.  “A Catholic Dictionary”

• Based partly upon Matthew 16:16-18, Jesus clearly distinguishes between Peter and his confession.  There are two different Greek words used.  Christ’s church was founded upon the fact that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’                   Matthew 16:16-18  “And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’  Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.  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.”  NKJV
• Jesus is the foundation, not Peter.  I Corinthians 3:11  “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  NKJV

 III. Priests

• Catholic priests are called “Father”.  Matthew 23:9  “Do not call anyone on earth your father; ‘for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.”  NKJV
• Priests are treated as mediators between God and man.                  I Timothy 2:5  “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,”  NKJV
• Marriage is prohibited for priests.  I Timothy 4:1-3  “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”  NKJV
• Peter was married.  Matthew 8:14  “Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever.”  NKJV,  I Peter 5:1  “The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:”  NKJV

  IV. Worship of Mary 

• This began sometime around the fourth century.
• Mary is considered to be a co-redeemer.                            Galatians 3:13  “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us(for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree’),  NKJV
• She is believed to be a perpetual virgin.                              Matthew 13:55-56  “Is this not the carpenter’s son?  Is not His mother called Mary?  And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?  And His sisters, are they not all with us?  Where then did this Man get all these things?”  NKJV

   V. Mass

• Christ is sacrificed over and over.  It is his literal body and blood at each mass.  The New Testament teaches that He was offered only once.   Hebrews 9:28  “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.  To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” NKJV
• Also I Corinthians 11:24-26  “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’   In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood.  This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”  NKJV Jesus was physically with them, not his literal body and blood!

  VI. Purgatory

• “The place and state in which souls suffer for a while and are purged after death, before they go to heaven, on account of their sins.”  This allegedly gives people a second chance.
• Read Hebrews 9:27.  “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”  NKJV Also read an account of the rich man and Lazarus in  Luke 16:19-31.

 VII. Authority

• Catholicism states, “not all truths revealed for us by God are found in the Bible, some are found only in Devine Tradition.  By Divine Tradition is meant the revealed truths taught by Christ and His Apostles, which were given to the Church only by word of mouth and not through the Bible, though they were put in writing, principally by the Fathers of the Church.  Divine Tradition must be believed as firmly as the Bible because it also contains the word of God.” (Ibid)  A Catechism of Christian Doctrine
• The Bible teaches that the New Testament is the final and complete revelation from God.  Jude :3  “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”  NKJV,          Galatians 1:6-9  “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you let him be accursed.  As we have said before, do now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”  NKJV

 Invitation:

• We have shown in this lesson that the Roman Catholic Church is not the church founded by Christ in the first century.
• Also, we have seen that many of its teaching contradict God’s Word.
• The good news is that the one church of which Christ is the head, is in existence today and you can be a part of it.

Bobby Stafford

June 26, 2011

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