As of 03/01/2009 Medjugorje is still not an approved apparition of the Church -

Queen of Peace
 
( As of 03/01/2009 Medjugorje is still not an approved apparition of the Church -
 

Everything Seen, Said and Done should be discerned with the Holy Spirit's guidance.)

 

THE POSITION OF THE CHURCH - NO OFFICIAL STATEMENT - Still Investigating

I went to Medjugorje in 1991 to see for myself if the Queen of Heaven - Mary the Mother of My Lord Jesus Christ was appearing.  

 What I saw was the battle between good and evil being fought right here on earth. 
 

Is Mary present in Medjugorje - yes she is... but just as she is present -- Satan was also present...

There was a battle of good and evil occurring there.  

People gathered to seek forgiveness in the long lines of confessions, people were finding redemption for previous sins, celebrating the life of Christ and rediscovering God. 

 People were reading the bible, saying prayers such as the Our Father and Hail Mary, receiving communion and finding peace.

 But The Devil was also there, trying to confuse the message, radicalism was present on both the ethnic and religious side causing an intentional blurring between what was man made and what was god made.

Today, that battle between good and evil continues... and it rages well beyond the valley where the apparitions first appeared.  Many "cult like Groups" have formed which have turned on the Catholic Church and it's leaders for not approving the apparition in a more expeditious manner.

 Let there be no doubt - these groups represent good intentioned individuals who have become ensnared in the Devil's work. 

 For Christ, would never turn against his own church. 

 It was Christ himself who said, a house divided can not stand. 

 These groups should be avoided at all costs. 

 But keep in mind, there are also many other responsible groups who have been formed who remain obedient to the church, and who responsibly spread the news and messages of our Lady who seems to be appearing there. 

The fact that Satan himself has taken so much interest and has personally gotten involved in these apparitions and the controversy surrounding them, makes me personally inclined to believe that our Lady did indeed appear with a dire warning for all of us. 


 It's time to come home to Christ. 

 It's time to put aside your selfish ways, your sinful lives and repent... for the kingdom of God draws near.

Soon after the apparitions started, a terrible war ensued, tens of thousands of people lost their lives in a Genocide of unspeakable horror.  Ethnic Cleansing in our modern times.  It reminds me of the warning in Kibeho, Africa - Rwanda - a couple of years before the genocide occurred there. Mary, our beloved mother, worries about us and tries to warn us, to help us before its too late.

So I beg of you to discern the events of Medjugorje,

 The Messages being provided with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

 Remember, Mary is NOT GOD.

Mary's sole purpose is to bring her human family closer to Christ - her son. 

 She is an intervener, and as our mother, she lovingly petitions the good Lord for mercy and forgiveness for all of us.

Anything which puts Christ second - is not sacred.  If it brings you closer to him - it is good.

Patrick j Miron--an idoit quote “If you choose not to live what you believe , you will end up believing what you chose to live.”

A thought provoking quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen:




“If you choose not to live what you believe [one’s Faith], you will end up believing what you chose to live.”

Almost right -almost wrong commentary 
by patrick j miron




Lessons on mis -application and understanding of scripture--




See if you can find the miss application of scripture there are about 250 examples of corruption of understanding

examples of how scripture interpretation is subject to one's "private" interpreation



Seven  Unities God Grants His Catholic Church
The Ties that Bind Christ to His One Church and we to Christ
by Pat Miron

Matthew 7: 21, 24 - 27


"Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven,

 but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.


 "Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

Eph. 2:19-20 “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”


 [Note please the exclusive use of the Singular tense]


this is a clue to personal perversion- of scripture



Christ is a Perfect God, and knew precisely the intent, the meaning and the future-implications of the  language He used in choosing Peter as the “Rock” to build His new Church  upon…. Yes, Christ is the Cornerstone that holds it all together; and prevents it’s collapse. But Peter; “the ROCK” is the “building’s”  foundation, then, now, and always.

There IS continuity in the bible, because there MUST BE, in order to insure that Christ Message of salvation be clear, concise, understood, and [with grace]: acceptable. ….

 Therefore No one part of God’s Word can contradict another teaching is the most elementary Rule of RIGHT Understanding of God’s Inspired Biblical WORDS. …


. This is an unfailing, infallible truth.

The message that I hope to share with you today is in many ways the same message that Jesus was relating in the above passages of Matthews Gospel. It will likely be more clear to those who mostly don’t need to hear it [because they are already doing it], and may quite possibly be missed, or ignored, or misunderstood by those who Do NEED to hear it, WHO Do NEED to understand it, and WHO  Do NEED to respond to it.


Still I am firmly convinced that God is ever-present and remains FULLY in charge. So we leave the responsibility of understanding to you and the Holy Spirit.

LET US PRAY

Holy Spirit; Almighty God who influences our thoughts; who grants true Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding, we pray to you for the promised fruits of a TRUE and Lively Faith. Open our minds, our hearts, and move or wills to, in humility, accept, learn and love what you, the Father and the Son  have always and everywhere taught, with unfailing consistently, and held as one of the many singular truths of your  Divine Will. Enflame is us a powerful desire us to know what your Holy Bible actually teaches. We ask this through Jesus Our Lord. Amen!

“Let those “who have ears hear”
Matt.13:9-12 “He who has ears, let him hear." Then the disciples [Apostles] came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”  For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  [Jesus speaks here of true Faith and Right Understanding.]

2nd. Peter 1: 17-21  “You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,  because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

2nd. Peter 3: 14-17  “Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability”

In order to, God willing, improve the odds of those needing to get this message, actually being able to grasp its importance,

 I will be extremely blunt and clear. PLEASE do not take offense to what I am saying.

My tone is NOT accusatory; rather it is shared out of a sincere love of you, (ha ha idoit)

my neighbors; our brethren in the non-Catholic, Christian communions.  And a deep concern for the salvation of all-possible souls.

God Teaches  and permits ONLY of one each of the Seven signs of unity. “Seven” is a biblical number signifying “Perfect.”

1. One Body = Church, One single Faith organization
2. One Spirit = Love of God, self and neighbor as ourselves
3. One Hope = Salvation, which is a process of many essential-components
4. One Christ = Redeemer and Savior: Are not synonymous terms
5. One Faith= Only What God Actually teaches in its totality
6. One Baptism= Water and the Spirit, Desire, and or Blood
7. One God =Triune: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Shown below is an amazing biblical summary-confirmation of what God has always held too as key elements of the singular truths necessary for anyone’s salvation. It expresses the essential unity and doctrines that relate most directly to the broad issue of “salvation.”  It is in a nearly complete  “outline” form, of what each of us must know the details of, then accept and live  fully, if our “hope” of our own and others salvation is to bear the fruit of reality.


 Each of the elements has a direct, irrevocable connection to today’s  Catholic Church, led of course by the


Roman Catholic Church, as the “keeper of the Key’s”, those men that God Himself chooses, like Peter, to Lead and to teach to “the ends of the earth” [Mt. 28:16-20] , all that Christ has Ordained and commands.

Eph.4 Verses 1 to 24
“ I [Paul]  therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, [Christ]  one faith, one baptism, one God and Father [Triune] of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.”

The use of  the number  “One,”  is made even more significant by its repetition,  and is highly reflective of Paul’s  extensive training as a Scholar  of “The Jewish-Law.” As a  trained Pharisee, Paul knew intimately, the  Pentateuch. The first five books of the Bible taken collectively, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, written from about 1400 to 1300 B.C.” In his pre-called” to apostleship position Paul would also have known all of the hundreds of added “LAWS” that were expected to be kept in fulfilling the Jews commitments to Yahweh. I mention this because “numbers” were of extreme importance in the Old Testament Bible. They in a sense had meanings, often far beyond the actual numerical indication given. I‘d like to share from the agapebilblestudy.com ,  site, the meanings of the numbers “ONE“ and the number “SEVEN.” This understanding is highly significant to our present discussion.

ONE: In sacred Scripture "one", ehad, in Hebrew represents unity and is the quintessential number of monotheism, the worship of one God.

This concept of one as a unity of one God is expressed in the opening lines of the first profession of faith found in Scripture, the Shema: "Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is One" [Deuteronomy 6:4].
One as a cardinal number symbolizes Unity. The number One is indivisible and not made up of any other number representing the unity of the One true God in which there is no division
One as an ordinal number denotes primacy, sovereignty, divine completeness or perfection.
Christians recognized the number "one" in Scripture as symbolic of the First Person of the Most Holy Trinity, God the Father.

SEVEN: Spiritual perfection and fullness or completion. It is the number of Covenant and of the Holy Spirit.

7 is the second perfect number.
In Hebrew 7 is shevah (shebah) from the root shava (shaba or sheba), to be full.
God rested on the seventh day (Saturday) after creation [Genesis 2:2]
To swear an oath in Hebrew is "to seven oneself"
There are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (CCC#1831; Isaiah 11:1)
The sacred Menorah has 7 branches, six on each side of a central shaft, and 7 cup shaped lamps for the olive oil
There were 7 classes of furniture in the Tabernacle: Bronze Altar, Bronze Laver, Golden Menorah, Golden Table of the Bread of the Presence, Golden Altar of Incense, Ark of the Covenant, and the Seat of Atonement
The Tabernacle was built in 6 days and dedicated on the 7th [Exodus 40:17]
It took Solomon 7 years to build the Temple in Jerusalem. [ 1 Kings 6:37-38]
There are 7 holy annual feast days in the Sinai Covenant [Leviticus 23:1-44]
The Feast of Passover is the 1st month of the liturgical year but the 7th month of the civil year. [Exodus 12:1-2]
The Feast of Tabernacles completes the cycle of Holy Days on the 7th month of the liturgical year.[Leviticus 23:33-43]

So when Paul uses “numbers” we need to reflect and ask is there a significance beyond what  seems evident to today’s readers of the bible? Clearly in the repetition of the Number “One,”
Paul is conveying a meaning of VERY GREAT significance. The “common denominator” which is used “SEVEN” times, of the seven nouns Paul uses  in conjunction with the number “One,“ is “UNITY.” But not simply “unity,” but a “Perfect Unity.” Unable to be divided, unable to be split, unable to be multiplied.

This then becomes Thee key  to  “The Key” given to Peter by Christ.  Notice the similarity of the singular terms carefully chosen by God. The very fact that the Bible is at the same time God’s OWN words, and the Divinely Inspired and guided language of those God choose to author the Bible is NOT to over be looked. Also NOT to be overlooked in the fact that Matthews  Gospel is the FIRST to be written. When God is involved, we can and we MUST rule out coincidences as a possibility.

Matthew 16: 15-19 “He [Jesus] said to them, [Plural] "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, [Singular] "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I [Singular] tell you, [Singular] you are Peter, and on this rock [Singular] I will build my church, [Singular] and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. [Singular]. I will give you [Singular] the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you [Singular] bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you [Singular] loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Allow me now to share and apply what we have just learned to the Seven Unities. Addressing  briefly what is the meaning and implications of each “Unity.” I would also like to point out that time and grace have permitted me to accept, and partially understand [I KNOW God is behind it], why so many different understandings of what is written in the bible exist. The One issue that I personally continue to struggle with however, is the Obvious Fact that in the totality of the Bible; God never so much as hints at being willing to accept belief in more than One God, or His One set of Faith Beliefs, as taught by those He personally puts in charge. I am strangely able to recognize the differences in understanding [pride-filled-human nature], but unable to grasp how it is not obvious that God has always, consistently and constantly permitted only One set of faith beliefs. The very foundation for other faith-beliefs being acceptable to God is to me somewhat of a mystery. YES, I know: they think we are the ones who are wrong. BUT we were here some 1,500 years before they “became right?”

1. One Body = Church, One single Faith organization

The New testament alone has over 100 references to but One Church, meaning one set of Faith beliefs, confined in a single faith-organization. God Choose only “One” Church influenced by Divine Prudence, Justice and Fairness. Any more than one would increase the potential for error. Would permit a double jeopardy. 1. The choice of knowing and loving God or hating God. 2. A possibility of “loving God” in a manner NOT consistent with His Divine choosing,  is Quite possibly insufficient for ones personal salvation?

2. One Spirit = Love of God, self and neighbor as ourselves

Here, Paul is speaking of “the New Commandment.” [John 13:34] “Love one another as I [God] Love you“. This implies more than what is at first evident. Because in fulfilling this AGAPE Love, one must be humble enough to accept everything that is taught by the Commandments, and ALSO those God has placed over us to teach, guide, guard and protect our souls. The Magisterium of our Catholic Church. That friends means ALL those in authority who align themselves with our Pope. Catholism, mimicking the practice of the Old Testament Jewish- faith, allows for no picking and choosing. Agape love MUST strive for perfection, which is attainable only in fullness of humility, obedience and application.

3. One Hope = Salvation, which is a process of many essential-components

This one is easier to understand. It flows naturally from the other two and through the remaining four.

There is only one unforgivable sin man can freely choose. That being NOT to freely choose to Know, Love, Obey and serve our God, through His [our] faith. This is the First Commandment. Every other wrong, incomplete, or imperfect act, can, with God’s help and intervention, be corrected and forgiven. That friends is why; no matter how bad, or desperate things appear to us we ought never loose HOPE, as we always have access to our God. Amen!

I would be in grave error if I failed to point out that ALL Salvation must and does flow through the Catholic Church. Further, those outside Her Embrace, who have been offered this information, and then choose to deny, ignore or try to reinvent it, do so at great personal risk to there souls. Man-made, innovative and easier ways to attain assurance of salvation, taught by so many faiths, are myths, false-hopes, and of no salvation value.

4. One Christ = Redeemer and Savior: Are not synonymous terms

Both Independent actions, clearly are in, by, from, and through Jesus Christ. This “One” is as stated above, seemly easy for all of Christianity to accept. The problem is that nearly half of us [the non-catholic-Christians] have often an overly optimistic , simplistic, unrealistic and incorrect understanding of both terms. Their hope is [biblically and factually] unfounded and therefore salvation is very clearly  and definitely not assured.

Redemption is for “all-humanity.” Past, present and future. It is a fully accomplished act.  BUT The FACT that we ARE “Redeemed,” does not imply or guarantee that anyone of us has assured or “attained” salvation.  Nor may we believe that any one or two things will be sufficient for our salvation. If what we choose to believe does not conform to what God commands, such beliefs are worthless.

Salvation is a PROCESS that always and every time must include grace, faith, Christian Baptism, complete obedience to ALL of the Commandments and ALL that they entail [the ten being only categories of sins; not the list of], and as stated earlier, also to the Church and the authorities God makes us subject too. And we are also required to do good works as a condition of salvation. And YES, each of these is biblically supportable.

5. One Faith= Only What God Actually teaches in its totality

Here I shall be brief. [IMO]…  There is absolutely to record, no reference, no tradition that our God ever, EVER, permitted more than only His One set of faith-beliefs. Given the multitude of biblical evidence for Only One Church, the lack of any historical, traditional or even logical evidence that God somewhere along the line changed His mind cannot be proven. The idea that mortal men can come along 1,500 YEARS later, and claim without evidence beyond there own opinions, that despite abundant biblical proof that God Himself warrants what His One Church teaches [Jn. 14:16-17; Jn. 17:15-19; Jn. 20: 19-22, Mt. 16:15-19, Mt. 18:18, Mt. 28:16-20], and then still insist on knowing more or knowing better that what God Himself Ordained, implemented, protects and guides, is quite amazing. Very HUMAN, and truly astonishing.

6. One Baptism= Water and the Spirit, Desire, and or Blood

As this is NOT a lesson on the sacraments, I’ll leave this alone. Know that the norm is “by water and the Spirit.” And that God himself is the judge of the effectiveness of the other two forms, which are required because of the Divine Nature, Justice and Fairness of God Himself.

7. One God =Triune: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Again there is no debate on this Critical issue. [THANK GOD!] Nor is there room for one. It is  true  and also FACT. Amen!

Eph.4 Verses 1 to 24 CONTINUED: “…. “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,  to equip the saints [WHICH IS WHAT GOD DESIRES FOR EACH OF US] for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, [Singular] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, [Singular] joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.

This my friends, defines, and explains OUR Personal Mission, and the Mission of “The Church “ [Singular.] It is in this very sense that “WE ARE Thee Church.”  SHE; “Mother Church” exist For us, and if we are truly joined to Her; by us; and through us to Christ.

Eph.4 Verses 1 to 24 CONTINUED: “….   “Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, [Meaning non-catholic-Christians as well as unbelievers] in the futility of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. You did not so learn Christ!”

Paul, like me in this lesson is getting tired [physically that is]. The list he supplies is to include ALL of the Commandments and full Obedience to Church Teachings. The root of each of these articulated sins can be attributed to Satan’s favorite tool: man’s pride. Pride is the lead -  in to all Seven Capitol Sins [also a separate lesson.].

Eph.4 Verses 1 to 24 CONTINUED: “….     “assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”  Amen!

What a truly amazing and informative chapter. God willing, you now also have gained some insight as to why it is dangerous to trust your own understanding of what the Bible ACTUALLY is teaching. The test is: “If it does NOT fully conform to what the Catholic Church teaches; quite simply; it is wrong.

May God Continue to Bless, Guide and Protect you andall those you LOVE!

Love and prayers,
Pat

Dumbest family ever- alvin glombowski and patrick j miron

Top 5 stupid answers on Quiz shows human logic with patrick j miron

#5 Happy Father's Day with patrick j miron and Alvin Glombowski

Gee what do you think about the brother's of holy cross?-- ya right -- they will cross you -- out-- and back stab you

Interesting Delusion of Patrick j Miron #8765

Resolutions

Reform was high on the agenda. On the issue that had sparked the Reformation—the selling of indulgences—the council abolished indulgence sellers and halted some of the worst abuses. 

In addition, the council passed numerous measures to halt clerical corruption. Acknowledging that Luther’s revolt had been prompted by the “ambition, avarice, and cupidity” of clergy, it called for leaders to avoid “even the smallest faults.” Many abuses were condemned, such as holding several cathedral churches, offering favors to relatives, and having mistresses.

 Interesting Delusion of Patrick j Miron #8765

 [Never forget dear friends that we MUST ALWAYS separate “the Church” {Mother Church ‘ the Bride of Christ} from Her members.  

WE CAN SIN; the CHURCH CANNOT! “One Holy” -Catholic Church is the reality and the foundation of our faith-beliefs.

The Council of Trent defined what the church would be for four centuries. Not until Vatican II, in the 1960s, did a major reexamination take place.” END part 3

The Council of Trent defined what the church would be for four centuries. Not until Vatican II, in the 1960s, did a major reexamination take place.” END part 3 with  patrick j miron

We now have 500 years of seeing the limited success that the roman catholic church received- by persecution the bible believing Christians--

and we can see the limited "fruit" of the roman catholic expansion

Conflicting Interests

In 1537, Paul III called for a council, but political squabbles postponed its opening for eight years. The council finally began, in the northern Italian city of Trent, in 1545. The council held a number of meetings, with the three main sessions occurring in 1545–7, 1551–2, and 1562–3. The drawn-out sessions, and long delays between them, meant that representatives changed over the course of the council. And attendance was small; the opening session attracted only 34 leaders, and the largest meeting of the third session had only 255.

The council brought together a variety of competing agendas. Some churchmen, particularly members of the papal curia, resisted any reforms that would hinder their lifestyles. Bishops from Spain and France wanted a stronger, independent role.

 The Jesuits, on the other hand, stood firmly for papal supremacy. 

Some council delegates, like Emperor Charles V (who faced a Protestant challenge in his realm, the vast Holy Roman Empire), wanted Protestants and Catholics to reach a compromise. 

(Under his pressure, the council allowed Protestants to attend the second session, and informal talks were held. 

But when Protestant demands were not put on the agenda, the Protestants left, in 1552.) In a few instances, the delegates came to blows.

Resolutions

Reform was high on the agenda. On the issue that had sparked the Reformation—the selling of indulgences—the council abolished indulgence sellers and halted some of the worst abuses. 

In addition, the council passed numerous measures to halt clerical corruption. Acknowledging that Luther’s revolt had been prompted by the “ambition, avarice, and cupidity” of clergy, it called for leaders to avoid “even the smallest faults.” Many abuses were condemned, such as holding several cathedral churches, offering favors to relatives, and having mistresses.

 Interesting Delusion of Patrick j Miron #8765

 [Never forget dear friends that we MUST ALWAYS separate “the Church” {Mother Church ‘ the Bride of Christ} from Her members.  

WE CAN SIN; the CHURCH CANNOT! “One Holy” -Catholic Church is the reality and the foundation of our faith-beliefs.

The council dealt extensively not only with morality, but also with doctrine. 

It reaffirmed the traditional medieval understanding—

and rejected contemporary Protestant teaching—on nearly every subject.

The council held that there are seven sacraments, not two as the Protestants claimed, and that these are necessary for salvation.

 All the Protestant interpretations of Communion were condemned, and transubstantiation (the belief that the bread and wine become in substance the body and blood of Christ) was re-affirmed. 

Protestants were worshiping in their own languages, but the council upheld the Latin Mass, and it defined more precisely the sacrificial understanding of the Mass.

On the critical issue of justification, the council could not support the Reformation understanding of salvation by faith alone. It affirmed that no person can know for certain he or she is justified, and that good works do contribute to a right standing with God.

On the issues of Scripture and authority, the Catholic church moved further from Protestants. Reformers such as Luther had been translating the Bible into the common language of the people. The council held instead that the only official version of the Bible was the Latin Vulgate, and that no private interpretations of Scripture could depart from the church’s teachings. It also rejected the Protestant view of “Scripture alone” and declared that along with the Scriptures, tradition as preserved by the church was a source of authority.

Results

The Council of Trent helped to bring much-needed reform to the Catholic church. It also refined the church’s structure and marshaled its forces for the years ahead.

On matters of doctrine, however, the council made the gulf between Catholics and Protestants deep and lasting. Any remaining hopes of reunion were dashed.

THE INQUISITION: A Study in Absolute Catholic Power--TRENT An In depth Study part 3

THE INQUISITION:
A Study in Absolute Catholic Power

Arthur Maricle, Ph.D.

"And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." {Revelation 17:6}

Those who classify themselves as Christians can be divided into 2 broad groups: those who have chosen to allow the Bible to be their final authority and those who have chosen to allow men to be their final authority. For sake of simplicity, I shall refer to the first group as "Bible believing Christians." The latter group has always been best represented by Roman Catholicism, by far its largest, most powerful, and most influential component. The Roman Catholic hierarchy has always boldly stated that it is not dependent upon Scripture alone, but also accepts tradition as another pillar of truth -- and where a conflict exists, tradition receives the greater acceptance. Being its own arbiter of what is to be accepted as truth, it accepts no authority as being higher than itself. This explains why the Catholic belief system has been constantly evolving over the centuries.

“Responding to the Reformation, [READ AS: Protestant Revolution] the council charted the Catholic church's course for the next 400 years.

This also explains why a fierce antagonism has always existed between Bible believing Christianity and Roman Catholicism. Rome's frequent spiritual innovations excites the passions of Bible believers, who react adversely to religious modifications that are at odds with the eternal, changeless Word of God.

 Harboring a supreme confidence in the Book, a trust which reflects their trust in the Holy Spirit who authored the Scriptures, the Bible believers boldly challenge the suppositions of the Catholic hierarchy. 

 In the course of this spiritual warfare, Catholic people are frequently converted from trust in Rome's complex religious system to a childlike faith in the Saviour and a simple reliance on His Word. Many such converts ultimately leave the Church of Rome to join local, New Testament churches. Frequently in history, the trickle of individuals who were making this remarkable transformation turned into a flood. Such ruptures cannot go unchecked by the Catholic hierarchy. As with any bureaucracy, its primary interest is its own protection and propagation.

The nature of its response to the inroads made by spiritual challengers is dictated by its cultural surroundings. The more Catholic the culture, the more severe the response. In past centuries, when Rome's ecclesiastical power was virtually absolute throughout Europe, the intensity of the attacks by the papists upon their spiritual enemies could be equally absolute. Ignoring the injunction of II Corinthians 10:4 ("For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal..."), Catholicism built its own philosophical system to justify the use of carnal (fleshly, human, physical) means to achieve spiritual ends.

Having divorced herself from Biblical absolutes, Catholicism adopted a theology in which she sees herself as the church founded upon the Apostle Peter by Jesus Christ, and alone empowered to bring salvation to the world. Further, she believes herself assigned the daunting task of bringing Christ's kingdom to fruition on earth. With those dogmas forming her philosophical foundation, she seeks her power in the political sphere as well as the religious realm. To whatever degree she achieves political power, to that degree she feels compelled to use her secular influence as a weapon against her spiritual adversaries.

 Thus, down through the centuries, we see that in those countries in which Catholicism had achieved absolute power, the pope's followers have not hesitated to brutally subdue the enemies of "the Church". 

Although Jews, Moslems, pagans, and others have felt the wrath of Rome, her special fury has always been reserved for her bitterest and most effective challengers -- Bible believing Christians. 

Only as the political climate changed in recent centuries did the Catholic hierarchy see it expedient to change tactics and appear to be more tolerant. Yet, to this day we see persecution continuing in those places on the globe dominated by Catholicism. The degree of the persecution is determined by the degree of control.

To what lengths is the Catholic hierarchy prepared to go in its drive to repress opposition and achieve its goal of instituting the kingdom of Christ on earth? To find the answer, one must look to the pages of history.

When the Roman Catholic Church was founded by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., it immediately achieved expansive influence at all levels of the imperial government. 

As Bible believing Christians separated themselves from the Church of Rome, which they saw as apostate, they represented a formidable potential threat to the official new imperial religion. Persecution in varying degrees of severity was instituted over the centuries following.

By the 11th century, in their zeal to establish Christ's kingdom, the Roman popes ("pope" is an ecclesiastical office that is the very antithesis of the New Testament ideal of a local church pastor) began utilizing a new tool -- the Crusades. At first, the Crusades had as their object the conquering of Jerusalem and the "Holy Land". Along the crusaders' paths, thousands of innocent civilians (especially Jews) were raped, robbed, and slaughtered. In time, however, the crusade concept was altered to crush spiritual opposition within Europe itself. In other words, armies were raised with the intent of massacring whole communities of Bible believing Christians. One such group of Bible believing Christians were known as the Albigenses.

[Pope] Innocent III believed that Bible believing dissidents were worse than infidels (Saracens, Moslems, and Turks), for they threatened the unity of ... Europe. So Innocent III sponsored 4 "crusades" to exterminate the Albigenses. Innocent (what a name!) called upon Louis VII to do his killing for him, and he also enjoined Raymond VI to assist him.

The Cistercian order of Catholic monks were then commissioned to preach all over France, Flanders, and Germany for the purpose of raising an army sufficient to kill the Bible believers. All who volunteered to take part in these mass murders were promised that they would receive the same reward as those who had sallied forth against the Moslems (i.e., forgiveness of sins and eternal life).

The Albigenses were referred to in Pope Innocent's Sunday morning messages as "servants of the old serpent". Innocent promised the killers a heavenly kingdom if they took up their swords against unarmed populaces.

In July of 1209 A.D. an army of orthodox Catholics attacked Beziers and murdered 60,000 unarmed civilians, killing men, women, and children. The whole city was sacked, and when someone complained that Catholics were being killed as well as "heretics", the papal legates told them to go on killing and not to worry about it for "the Lord knows His own."

At Minerve, 14,000 Christians were put to death in the flames, and ears, noses, and lips of the "heretics" were cut off by the "faithful."^A

This is but one example from the long and sordid history of Catholic atrocities committed against their bitter enemies, the Bible believing Christians. Much worse treatment of Bible believers was forthcoming during that stage of bloody Catholic history known as the Inquisition.

It is vital, though, that we here define what is meant by the term "heretic". According to Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary, this is a heretic: "One who holds or advocates controversial opinions, esp. one who publicly opposes the officially accepted dogma of the Roman Catholic, Church." Or, as one author has put it, "Heresy, to a Catholic, is anti-Catholic truth found in the Bible."^B Another summarized the official stance as this: "Every citizen in the empire was required to be a Roman Catholic. Failure to give wholehearted allegiance to the pope was considered treason against the state punishable by death."^C

From 1200 to 1500 the long series of Papal ordinances on the Inquisition, ever increasing in severity and cruelty, and their whole policy towards heresy, runs on without a break. It is a rigidly consistent system of legislation: every Pope confirms and improves upon the devices of his predecessor. All is directed to the one end, of completely uprooting every difference of belief... The Inquisition ... contradicted the simplest principles of Christian justice and love to our neighbor, and would have been rejected with universal horror in the ancient Church.^D

Pope Alexander IV established the Office of the Inquisition within Italy in 1254. The first inquisitor was Dominic, a Spaniard who was the founder of the Dominican order of monks.

The Inquisition was purely and uniquely a Catholic institution; it was founded far the express purpose of exterminating every human being in Europe who differed from Roman Catholic beliefs and practices. It spread out from France, Milan, Geneva, Aragon, and Sardinia to Poland (14th century) and then to Bohemia and Rome (1543). It was not abolished in Spain until 1820.^E

The Inquisition was a terrifying fact of life to those who lived in areas where it was in force. That domain would eventually include not only much of Europe, but also the far-flung colonies of Europe's Catholic powers.

The Inquisition, led by the Dominicans and the Jesuits, was usually early on the scene following each territorial acquisition of the Spanish and Portuguese empires in the 16th and 17th centuries. The methods used, which all too often were similar to those used by Serra in California or the Nazi-backed Ustashis in Croatia, sowed the seeds of reaction and aversion that have proved to be a barrier for true missionaries ever since.

Albert Close writes of the Jesuit mission to Indonesia in 1559 that "conversion was wonderfully shortened by the cooperation of the colonial governors whose militia offered' the natives the choice of the musket ball or of baptism."

Everywhere it existed, the "Holy Office" of the Inquisition spread its tentacles of fear.

When an inquisitor arrived in an area he called for reports of anyone suspected of heresy, sometimes offering rewards to spies who would report suspected heretics. Those suspected were imprisoned to await trials. The trials were held in secret and the inquisitor acted as judge, prosecutor, and jury. The accused had no lawyer. It was often simpler to confess to heresy than to defend oneself, especially since torture was often employed until the accused was ready to confess.

Because church and state had not been kept separate, the church powers could call upon the government to use its power against the convicted heretics. Anyone who fell back into heresy after repentance was turned over by the Inquisition to the regular government to be put to death. Most of those condemned to death were burned at the stake, but some were beaten to death or drowned.

The Inquisition was called the sanctum officium (Holy Office) because the church considered its work so praiseworthy.^F

Even after the death of a victim, his punishment was not ended. The property of condemned heretics was confiscated, leaving his family in poverty.

It is important here to emphasize Rome's role in the brutality of the Inquisition. Roman Catholic apologists are quick to point out that it was the state that put heretics to death. This is an alibi meant to excuse the Vatican's role in the atrocities. However, Dollinger, the leading 19th century Catholic historian, stated: "The binding force of the laws against heretics lay not in the authority of secular princes, but in the sovereign dominion of life and death over all Christians claimed by the Popes as God's representatives on earth, as [Pope] Innocent III expressly states it."^G

In other words, the secular arm of the state acted only as it was pressured to do so by the popes. Even kings who hesitated to commit genocide on their own populaces were spurred into action by their fear of papal excommunication or subversive Catholic activities within their kingdoms.

Dollinger continues: "It was the Popes who compelled bishops and priests to condemn the heterodox to torture, confiscation of their goods, imprisonment, and death, and to enforce the execution of this sentence on the civil authorities, under pain of excommunication,"^H

Will Durant informs us that in 1521 Leo X issued the bull Honestis which "ordered the excommunication of any officials, and the suspension of religious services in any community, that refused to execute, without examination or revision, the sentences of the inquisitors." Consider Clement V's rebuke of King Edward II: "We hear that you forbid torture as contrary to the laws of your land. But no state law can override canon law, our law. Therefore I command you at once to submit those men to torture.^I

The methods used by the Inquisition ranged from the barbaric to the bizarre.

When the inquisitors swept into a town an "Edict of Faith" was issued requiring everyone to reveal any heresy of which they had knowledge. Those who concealed a heretic came under the curse of the Church and the inquisitors' wrath. Informants would approach the inquisitors' lodgings under cover of night and were rewarded for information. No one arrested was ever acquitted.

Torture was considered to be essential because the church felt duty-bound to identify from the lips of the victims themselves any deviance from sound doctrine. Presumably, the more excruciating the torture, the more likely that the truth could be wrung from reluctant lips. The inquisitors were determined that it was "better for a hundred innocent people to die than for one heretic to go free".

"Heretics" were committed to the flames because the popes believed the Bible forbade Christians to shed blood. The victims of the Inquisition exceeded by hundreds of thousands the number of Christians and Jews who had suffered under pagan Roman emperors.^J

This wanton slaughter of innocent people was justified by Catholic theologians such as "Saint". Thomas Aquinas, who said, "If forgers and other malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for putting to death one convicted of heresy." In 1815, Comte Le Maistre defended the Inquisition by advocating: "The Inquisition is, in its very nature, good, mild, and preservative. It is the universal, indelible character of every ecclesiastical institution; you see it in Rome, and you can see it wherever the true Church has power."^K Such a viewpoint could only be expressed by one so brainwashed as to think that the cruel, torturous deaths of dissidents to Catholicism is preferable to the survival and propagation of those who would challenge the Vatican's authority.

Yet, not all Romanists have been comfortable with the totalitarian nature of their "church". Even Jean Antoine Llorente, secretary to the Spanish Inquisition from 1790-92, was to admit: "The horrid conduct of this Holy Office weakened the power and diminished the population of Spain by arresting the progress of arts, sciences, industry, and commerce, and by compelling multitudes of families to abandon the kingdom; by instigating the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors, and by immolating on its flaming shambles more than 300,000 victims."^L Historian Will Durant stated, "Compared with the persecution of heresy in Europe from 1227 to 1492, the persecution of Christians by Romans in the first 3 centuries after Christ was a mild and humane procedure. Making every allowance required by an historian and permitted to a Christian, we must rank the Inquisition, along with the wars and persecutions of our time, as among the darkest blots on the record of mankind, revealing a ferocity unknown in any beast."^M

Catholic apologists attempt to downplay the significance of the Inquisition, saying that relatively few people were ever directly affected. While controversy rages around the number of victims that can be claimed by the Inquisition, conservative estimates easily place the count in the millions. This does not include the equally vast numbers of human beings slaughtered in the various wars and other conflicts instigated over the centuries by Vatican political intrigues. Nor does it take it account the Holocaust wrought upon the Jews by the Nazis, led by Roman Catholics who used their own religious history to justify their modern excesses. As one secular history explains, "As the Germans instituted a bureaucracy of organized murder, so too did Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor, a worthy of predecessor of Heydrich and Eichmann."^N

Because her basic doctrinal premises remain in place, Rome can yet again rise up against her spiritual enemies at some future date when she again wields exclusive ecclesiastical control of a region. In fact, the "Holy Office" of the Inquisition still exists within the Vatican (known today as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), awaiting the day in which it can stamp out "heresy". As recently as 1938, a popular Catholic weekly declared:

Heresy is an awful crime against God, and those who start a heresy are more guilty than they who are traitors to the civil government. If the state has a right to punish treason with death, the principle is the same that concedes to the spiritual authority the power of life and death over the archtraitor.^O

The Inquisition proved how Catholicism will react when it has possession of absolute power. Is it any wonder that in the 1880s, Dr. H. Grattan Guinness preached the following:

I see the great Apostasy, I see the desolation of Christendom, I see the smoking ruins, I see the reign of monsters; I see those vice-gods, that Gregory VII, that Innocent III, that Boniface Vlll, that Alexander Vl, that Gregory XIII, that Pius IX; I see their long succession, I hear their insufferable blasphemies, I see their abominable lives; I see them worshipped by blinded generations, bestowing hollow benedictions, bartering away worthless promises of heaven; I see their liveried slaves, their shaven priests, their celibate confessors; I see the infamous confessional, the ruined women, the murdered innocents; I hear the lying absolutions, the dying groans; I hear the cries of the victims; I hear the anathemas, the curses, the thunders of the interdicts; I see the racks, the dungeons, the stakes; I see that inhuman Inquisition, those fires of Smithfield, those butcheries of St. Bartholomew, that Spanish Armada, those unspeakable dragonnades, that endless train of wars, that dreadful multitude of massacres. I see it all, and in the name of the ruin it has brought in the Church and in the world, in the name of the truth it has denied, the temple it has defiled, the God it has blasphemed, the souls it has destroyed; in the name of the millions it has deluded, the millions it has slaughtered, the millions it has damned; with holy confessors, with noble reformers, with innumerable martyrs, with the saints of ages, I denounce it as the masterpiece of Satan, as the body and soul and essence of antichrist."^P

The challenge I give to Bible believing Christians is to respect the heritage we have been given by those who suffered for Biblical truth, that we may be prepared to suffer ourselves. Ours is the generation that may yet again be afflicted for the faith once delivered to the saints. If such is to be our privilege, let us face our trials with this promise of our Lord fresh upon our hearts: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." {Matthew 5:10}

The challenge I give to Roman Catholics is to take up the New Testament of the Bible and allow the Holy Spirit of God to speak to your hearts. If a Catholic remains skeptical about this brief treatise on the Inquisition, he is certainly welcome to examine for himself the record of history. If he remains unmoved by my conclusions, he is welcome to draw his own. But of far greater import is his need to examine the teachings of his church in the light of God's Word. Jesus leaves you with this warning: "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." {John 12:48} You to whom the Bible was so accessible will not be able to plead ignorance in that terrible day of judgment.