Faulty Foundations
Many religious
denominations have a founder, who unquestionably enforced their own views upon
their followers. Needless to say, the foundation of each of these denominations
is built upon sand. A church cannot look to one man as its “founder” due to our
sinful nature. We will explore who founded some of the major denominations of
Christianity, and then explore what caused all of these denominations:
Catholicism, all of which are founded on faulty foundations.
Many believe
that the Baptist Church
was founded by Roger Williams, who also founded Rhode
Island. Williams was a controversial figure because
of his views on worship. The Lutheran
Church was founded by Martin Luther
who broke away from the Catholic Church by nailing the ninety-five thesis to
the door of the Cathedral. Lutherans still keep many Catholic rituals with the
exception of worshipping Mary and having a priest. The Methodist
Church was founded by the Wesley
family. Methodists believe in a triune God and that good works are a sign of
faith. The Anglican Church was founded by King Henry VIII, whose beliefs on
salvation were similar to the denominations mentioned before. The Mormon Church
(which should not be considered Christian) was founded by Joseph Smith, who
flat out made things up about God. The story goes that a magician influenced
Joseph Smith into believing that magic stones could be used to locate lost
treasures. The crux of the matter is that all of these denominations were
founded by a man. Another interesting point to notice is that many of these
churches have similar beliefs which would suggest slightly different variations
of one religion. That religion is Catholicism.
Catholicism is
the root of the tree that we call Christianity. The problem with this tree is
that the root is rotten and infested with worms. This religion will cause many
to lose their opportunity to get salvation; it is a venomous snake that has
poisoned the minds of countless humans around the world. Perhaps the most
baffling area of this religion is that God has exposed its corruption a
countless number of times. They used to kill Protestants in the name of God;
recently many Catholic priests were accused of molesting young boys. The Roman
Catholic Church, headquartered in Rome, Italy,
has its own powerful City-State: The Vatican, and claims over 968 million
members worldwide and 60 million in the United
States and Canada.
This Church, in its pagan form, unofficially came into being in 312 AD, at the
time of the “miraculous conversion” to Christianity by the Roman Emperor
Constantine. Prior to the time of Constantine’s
“conversion” Christians were persecuted not for their profession of faith in
Christ, but because they would not include deities in their faith as well.
Then, with Constantine’s emphasis
on making his new found Christianity palatable to the heathen in the Empire,
the “Christianization” of these pagan deities was facilitated. For example,
pagan rituals and idols gradually took on Christian meanings and names and were
incorporated into “Christian” worship (e.g. “saints” replaced the cult of pagan
gods in both worship and as patrons of cities; mother/son statues were renamed
Mary and Jesus; etc), and pagan holidays were classified as Christian holy days
(e.g., the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of purification of Isis became the
feast of Nativity; the Saturnalia celebrations were replaced by Christmas
celebrations; an ancient festival of the dead replaced by All Souls Day,
rededicated to Christian Heroes [now Hallowe’en] etc.). As you can see, a
transition had occurred—instead of being persecuted for failure to worship
pagan deities; Christians who did not agree with the particular orthodoxy
backed by the Emperor were now persecuted in the name of Christ. “Christianized”
Rome had become the legitimate
successor of pagan Rome. This is
why Catholicism is so dangerous; it is no more than ritualism and idol worship.
There is even more condemning information. They use the Apocryphal books, which
were added to their Bible in 1546 AD (e.g. 1st and 2nd
Macabees, the Apocryphal books were written during the period that we call “The
400 years of silence” so they cannot be legitimate). They even proclaim Mary as
the “Co-Redemptress” and the mother of the Catholic Church. As you can see,
there are dangerous gaps in this religion.
So what
happened? Why are there all of these interpretations and denominations of the
Bible? The answer is simple: people simply do not read their Bible. There are
very few Catholics that know their Bible. People gave over to the priesthood,
the right to study the word, depended on the priest and the pope—who were
teaching in Latin, so no one knew what they were saying. This created a mystic
admiration over the sermon. When you do not know the Bible for yourself, you
really have no foundation—this is still the tradition today. Everyone depends
on their priest for answers as opposed to the word of God. It is easy for
someone to call themselves a Christian today, but have no understanding on what
they are saying. Once again, the whole foundation was built upon sand, and the
doctrine is in essence worthless.
Hopefully, this
essay has opened your eyes on what faulty foundations these “Christian”
denominations were built upon. Many will fall because of this great deception.
If you have learned anything, take this: know the Bible for yourself, because
if you do not, you may end up making your own religion.
Sources
www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/Catholicism/istitacult.htm