Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
1 John 4:1-3
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver
and an antichrist.
2 John 1:7
Antichrist;
The Gospel Of Christ
Versus
The Gospel Of Rome
Through sin man has separated himself from God, and his fallen nature is opposed to the divine will; therefore he cannot by his own effort live a godly life, nor can he change his own heart. (Isaiah 59: 1; Romans 8: 7; Jeremiah 13: 23; John 15: 5) Only through Christ, our Mediator, can man be rescued from sin, and again be brought into connection with the source of purity and power.
But in order to become such a connecting link Christ had to partake both of the divinity of God and of the humanity of man, so that He with His divine arm could encircle God, and with His human arm embrace man, thus connecting both in His own person. In this union of the human with the divine lies the "mystery" of the gospel, the secret of power to lift man from his degradation. "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3: 16. The "mystery," or secret of power to live a godly life in human flesh, was manifest in the life of Jesus Christ while on earth. (And "Christ in you" is the secret of power to conquer sin. Colossians 1: 27.)
But mark! It was fallen man that was to he rescued from sin. And to make contact with him Christ had to condescend to take our nature upon Himself (not some higher kind of flesh). " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same. . . . Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren." Hebrews 2. 14, 17. This text is so worded that it cannot be misunderstood. Christ "took part of the same" flesh and blood as ours; He came in "the" flesh. To deny this is the mark of Antichrist. (1 John 4: 3; 2 John 7.) To bridge the gulf that sin has made, Christ must be one with the Father in divinity, and one with man in humanity, and thus connect again earth with heaven.
God revealed this truth to the Patriarch Jacob that lonely night at Bethel. When he feared that his sins had cut him off from heaven, God showed him that mystic Ladder, connecting earth with heaven, which Christ explained to be "the Son of man." (Genesis 28:12; John 1: 51.) Modernism has tried to cut off the upper part of this ladder by denying Christ's divinity; while the Roman Catholic Church cuts off the lower rounds by teaching that the Virgin Mary was born without sin, and that therefore Christ did not take upon Himself our kind of flesh and blood, but holy flesh, so far above us that He does not make contact with our humanity. For this reason the poor sinner cannot come to Him directly, they say, but must come through Mary, saints, popes, and priests, who will mediate for him. This has opened the floodgate for all the idolatry of the Catholic Church. Here is this "dogma" presented in authentic Catholic works:
`We define that the Blessed Virgin Mary in the first moment of her conception . . . was preserved free from every taint of original sin.'
"Unlike the rest of the children of Adam, the soul of Mary was never subject to sin. "Faith of Our Fathers," Cardinal Gibbons, pp. 203, 204. Baltimore: 1885.
The Sainted Doctor Alphonsus de Liguori says:
"The merits of Jesus, shall be dispensed through the hands and by the intercession of Mary. "Glories of Mary," p. 180, New Revised Edition. New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1888.
"God has chosen to bestow no grace upon us but by the hands of Mary." - Id., p. 180.
"Whoever asks and wishes to obtain graces without the intercession of Mary, attempts to fly without wings.' - Id., p. 189.
"Mary is all the hope of our salvation." - Id., p. 195.
"Thou art the only advocate of sinners." - Id., p. 129.
"All those who are saved, are saved solely by means of this divine mother; . . . the salvation of all depends upon preaching Mary" - Id., pp. 19, 20.
"We ask many things of God and do not obtain them; we ask them from Mary and obtain them." - Id., p. 150. Much more could be cited.
A Protestant may ask if the merits of Christ's sacrifice on the cross are not sufficient, so that we can receive grace directly from Him. To this the Catholic Church answers:
"The merits and virtue of the sacrifice of the cross are infinite; but that virtue and these merits must be applied, and this can only be done by certain means." - "Doctrinal Catechism," S. Keenan, p. 129. New York: Kenedy and Sons, 1846.
"The priest has the power of the keys, or the power of delivering sinners from hell, of making them worthy of paradise and of changing them from the slaves of Satan into the children of God. And God himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of His priests. . . . 'The Sovereign Master of the universe only follows the servant by confirming in heaven all that the latter decides upon earth." - "Dignity and Duties of the Priest," St. Alphonsus de Liguori, pp. 27, 28. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1888.
We now have before us the only means of salvation in the Roman Catholic gospel, as presented by men of unquestionable authority among them. This throws light on the reason why the Catholic priest has such a hold on his people. They dare not oppose him, because he represents their only means of contact with heaven. Cut off from the church, they feel they are lost; for they do not know of a Christ who has come all the way down to the lost sinner's side, to whom they can come personally and receive forgiveness through grace alone. The divine ladder has been cut off, and Mary, saints, and priests have been substituted. But the Bible knows of only "one Mediator," Jesus Christ. (1 Timothy 2: 5; Psalm 49: 7, 8)
But we have not yet gone to the depth of this substitute mystery." Let us now take the next step. Having removed the living Christ from contact with the sinner, they had to substitute something else to satisfy the longing of the human heart for the indwelling presence of Christ. And that substitute is the "Sacrifice of the Mass." The Roman church teaches that the priest in the mass changes the little wafer into the real Christ, which they then fall down and worship, after which they eat Him, believing that they become partakers of Christ and receive the forgiveness of sin. Thus they have substituted a man-made Christ for a living Christ. Liguori says:
"If the person of the Redeemer had not yet been in the world, the priest, by pronouncing the words of consecration, would produce this great person of a Man-God. 'O wonderful dignity of the priests,' cries out St. Augustine; 'in their hands, as in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, the Son of God becomes incarnate.' Hence priests are called the parents of Jesus Christ. . . .
"Thus the priest may, in a certain manner, be called the creator of his Creator. 'He that created me without me is Himself created by me!'" - "Dignity and Duty of the Priest," pp. 32,33.
"In obedience to the words of his priests - Hoc est Corpus Meum - God himself descends on the altar. . . . he comes wherever they call him, and as often as they call him, and places himself in their hands. . . . They may, if they wish, shut him up in the tabernacle; . . . they may, if they choose, eat his flesh, and give him for the food of others.' - Id., pp. 26, 27.
Then priest and people worship the Christ thus created:
"Elevating a particle of the Blessed Sacrament, and turning towards the people, he [the priest] says: 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world.'
"And then says three times: Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed. . . .
"This pure and holy Sacrament. Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen." - "The Key of Heaven," Right Rev. J. Milner, D. A, approved by Cardinal Gibbons, pp. 126, 127. Baltimore: J. Murphy and Co., 1898.
In the following quotation the Catholic Church explains why she believer, this worship of the wafer (host) is not idolatry:
"Now turn for a moment to the Catholic altar. The holy Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered up. The bell has given the signal that the most solemn and awful moment of consecration is at hand. As yet there is only bread in the hand of the priest, and wine in the chalice before him. To worship these lifeless elements would be the grossest idolatry. But suddenly, amid the silence of the breathless multitude, the priest utters the divine life-giving words of consecration; and that which was bread and wine, is bread and wine no longer, but the true Body and Blood of our Lord Himself. It is that same Body that was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that died for us upon the cross, that was raised again to life, and that even now sits at the right hand of God the Father. . . .
"Now in this mystery the power of the creation appears as much as in the mystery of the incarnation." - "The Holy Mass: The Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead." M. Muller, pp. 174, 175. New York: 1876.
Pastor Charles Chiniquy, a former Catholic priest, says:
"No words can give any idea of the pleasure I used to feel when alone, prostrated before the Christ I had made at the morning mass, I poured out my heart at His feet. . . . I may say with truth, that the happiest hours I ever had, during the long years of darkness into which the Church of Rome had plunged me, were the hours I passed in adoring the Christ whom I had made with my own lips. . . .
"In fact, the Roman Catholics have no other Saviour to whom they can betake themselves than the one made by the consecration of the wafer. He is the only Saviour who is not angry with them, and who does not require the mediation of virgins and saints to appease His wrath." - "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome," chapter 17, pars. 29, 31.
In the thirty-sixth chapter of his book Pastor Chiniquy tells how he was led to question seriously this worship of Rome's wafer-god, the "host." In the spring of 1840 . . . Father Daule [an old, blind priest, was residing with him at Beauport, Quebec.] One morning when the old priest was at the altar, saying his mass, [and had just changed the wafer into the real Christ, and was reaching for it, it was gone. He called to Chiniquy] with a shriek of distress: 'The Good God has disappeared from the altar. He is lost!' [Chiniquy, remembering how often rats had tried to get the wafer while he himself had officiated there, knew what had happened, and in his consternation replied:] 'Some rats have dragged and eaten the Good God!' [The sorrow of the old priest knew no bounds, but Chiniquy declared.] 'If I were God Almighty, and a miserable rat would come to eat me, I would surely strike him dead."' - Id., chapter 86, pars. 7, 18, 24.
But Catholics deny that the Papacy is Antichrist, for, say they, Antichrist is to come in the last days. To this we answer: It is true that both Paul and John speak of the activity of Antichrist at the time of Christ's second coming, but they also speak of its already having begun in their day. (1 John 2: 18; 2 Thessalonians 2: 7) There is a beautiful harmony in this when we look at it in the light of Revelation 13: 3, 5, 10 and 17: 8, where it is stated that this power will continue forty-two prophetic months, or twelve hundred sixty literal years, after which it is "wounded to death" and lies dormant for a time, till its deadly wound is healed, and all the world will again follow it in wonder and admiration, and finally it will be destroyed at Christ's second coming. So the Antichrist of the last days is simply the Papacy restored to power. See "Romanism and the Reformation," by H. Grattan Guinness, F. R. G. S., and "The Papacy," by Dr. J. A. Wylie.
"The Romanists themselves shame you in their clear sighted comprehension of the issues of this question. Cardinal Manning says, 'The Catholic Church is either the masterpiece of Satan or the kingdom of the Son of God.' Cardinal Newman says, 'A sacerdotal order is historically the essence of the Church of Rome; if not divinely appointed, it is doctrinally the essence of Antichrist. In both these statements the issue is clear, and it is the same. Rome herself admits, openly admits that if she is not the very kingdom of Christ, she is that of Antichrist. Rome declares she is one or the other. She herself propounds and urges this solemn alternative. You shrink from it, do you? I accept it. Conscience constrains me. History compels me. The past, the awful past, rises before me. 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 VIII, that Alexander VI, that Gregory X111, that Pius IX; I see their long succession. I hear their insufferable blasphemies, I see their abominable lives. I see them worshiped by blinded generations, bestowing hollow benedictions, bartering lying indulgences, creating a paganized Christianity. 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 wrought 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." - "Romanism and the Reformation," H. Grattan Guinness, pp. 158,159. London: 1891.
1943 CE, FAFA 204-210