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Hey everybody, welcome back to another
episode of ATP, Ask the Pastor.

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I am still Pastor Joshua Sullivan at Holy
Cross Lutheran Church in Kerrville,

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Texas.

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Today's question, Dear Pastor Sullivan,
why or why not is the papacy still the

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Antichrist?

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Alright, this is always a fun topic to
talk about.

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The term Antichrist in popular usage is
used in the wrong way.

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My experience with this, typically today
when people mention the Antichrist,

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they're usually talking about a being of
pure and unadulterated evil with no

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religious connotations at all,
with no relationship to the church.

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So it's not uncommon for people to label
their least favorite politician as the

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Antichrist.

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But right off the get-go, we have to say
this isn't what Scripture is talking about

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when it teaches about the Antichrist.

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The Scriptures are actually pretty clear
about this.

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So if we go to 1 John 2 verse 18,
St. John writes, Little children,

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it is the last hour, and you have heard
that the Antichrist is coming.

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Even now many Antichrists have come,
by which we know that it is the last hour.

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So John says that there is the Antichrist
who is coming, but there are also many

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Antichrists.

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He says something similar in 1 John 4
verse 3.

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He says, Every spirit that does not
confess that Jesus has come in the flesh

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is not of God, and this is the spirit of
the Antichrist.

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Now what he means there, what he's saying
is that all the heretics, whether they

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deny Christ as the Son of God in the
Incarnation, or if they deny the effects

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of the Incarnation, they are Antichrists
because they're teaching contrary to

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Christ either in his person or in his
work.

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Now, while there are many Antichrists,
and everyone who is a heretic then has the

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spirit of Antichrist, the scripture also
teaches, as we saw there in 1 John 2 verse

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18, that there is one preeminent
Antichrist.

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Now he's not a political ruler as much as
some people would like him to be.

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Rather, he's a ruler of the church.

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So if we look at 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, St. Paul writes that the Antichrist,

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now this is in verse 4, he opposes and
exalts himself above all that is called

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God or that is worshiped so that he sits
in the temple of, excuse me, as God in the

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temple of God, showing himself that he is
God.

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Now, two main points can be drawn out from
this.

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First, the Antichrist has set himself up
in the place of God and opposes God.

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We'll get to that in a moment.

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The second, and to what we're dealing with
here at first, the Antichrist is someone

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who then will rule in the church as he,
Paul says, sits in the temple of God.

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Now, let's get back to that first point.

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How does one oppose God and exalt himself
above all that is called God or that is

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worshiped?

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Well, by teaching doctrines that are
contrary to Christ, that are contrary to

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the gospel, and in doing so, assuming
divine authority for oneself.

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So to be Antichrist is to be set against
the gospel, to be set against Christ,

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and demonstrating this by teaching
doctrines which detract from who Christ is

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or, more specifically, from what he does,
from his saving work.

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And generally then, you do that by
substituting human works in the place of

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the work of Christ's merits and atoning
work upon the cross.

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Now, it's all of these things that led the
Lutheran reformers to identify the papacy

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of the Roman church as the Antichrist.

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And there are several reasons for doing
so.

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Let's walk these out a little bit.

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So why did the Lutheran reformers think
that the Pope was the Antichrist?

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Well, first, the Pope claims to rule all
Christianity by divine right.

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By that, I mean that the Pope claims that
according to scripture, according to what

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God has told us, he rules the entire
church.

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All churches, all ministers.

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The thing is, there's no word of God
anywhere in the scriptures that

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establishes the Bishop of Rome as the
supreme ruler of the church.

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Now, the papacy's chief proof text for
this, which is Matthew 16-18, doesn't

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specifically speak to this at all.

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In fact, if you've got more questions
about that, I've dealt with that topic

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specifically in another ATP video entitled
Does Jesus Establish the Papacy in Matthew

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16-18.

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So I highly recommend checking that video
out as well.

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Now, in fact, it's quite the opposite.

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Throughout the New Testament scriptures,
what we see is the equality of ministers

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and churches by divine right.

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Now, so that's the first thing.

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He puts himself by human right over all
churches and all ministers.

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Second, the papacy's doctrine is one
that's contrary to the gospel,

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that it leads men away from Christ and
faith in Christ.

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Now, that's a pretty bold claim,
but we can back this up.

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We can give you a couple examples.

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So first, the papacy reserves the right to
change Christ's doctrine by adding to it

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or reinterpreting it.

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And by doing so, he's putting himself
above the scriptures.

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Again, I've got to recommend another ATP
video we've done called Scripture and

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Tradition.

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In that video, I give a full treatment of
how the Roman Catholic doctrine isn't

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based on scripture, but mostly man's
doctrine, false opinions.

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And then the papacy turns around and binds
men's consciences to these false

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pronouncements then.

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So go ahead and check out that video,
Scripture and Tradition.

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The papacy also sets itself against God's
word in that he sets himself up as God by

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refusing to be subject to anyone else.

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And so papal authority cannot be
questioned.

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The pope's doctrine cannot be judged by
councils, by ministers, most of all,

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most importantly, by the word of God.

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So when a bishop refuses to be judged by
the word of God, at that point,

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he's made himself God.

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And that's specifically what Paul's
talking about in 2 Thessalonians 2,

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verse 4.

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There are some other ways, though,
that the pope does this.

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Another way the pope subverts the gospel
is by teaching people to pray to the

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saints rather than to Christ.

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Saints, the Virgin Mary, etc.

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Instead of Christ or alongside of their
prayers to Christ.

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And so invoking the saints for help and
for aid is ultimately idolatry.

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St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 that there's
one mediator between God and man,

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the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as
a ransom for all.

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1 John 2, verse 1, If anyone sins,
we have an advocate with the Father,

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Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

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Now, Rome does teach officially in her
catechism that Christ is the only mediator

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between God and But by simultaneously
teaching the people to flee to the saints

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and to the Virgin Mary in times of trouble
with their prayers, they're leading people

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away from Christ.

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Now, another blatant example of how the
papacy teaches contrary to the scripture

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would be to compare papal doctrine,
some of the ones which people are most

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familiar with, with what St. Paul says in
1 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 3.

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There, Paul says that in the latter times,
some will preach a doctrine of demons.

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Specifically, they'll forbid marriage,
and they will preach abstinence from

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certain foods on certain days.

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And so where do we see this?

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Well, we see this precisely in the Roman
church that forbids marriage to her clergy

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and prohibits certain foods on certain
days during certain times of the year.

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St. Paul calls this a doctrine of demons,
because you're ultimately doing something

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for the sake of meriting favor before God
and the church rather than faith in

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Christ's merits as that which saves and
grants God's favor then.

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Now, in all of this, the most egregious
error by which the papacy opposes Christ

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in the gospel is what it does with
justification.

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The papacy teaches men to trust in their
own works and merits in fasts,

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pilgrimages, rosaries, and things like
that.

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If those things are done with the right
intention, Rome teaches, then people merit

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grace by them.

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Along with this goes the mass,
the Roman mass.

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They teach that the mass is an unbloody
re-sacrificing of Christ upon the altar at

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each mass, and that those merits that are
earned there can be applied either to the

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living who are present at the mass or to
the dead in purgatory.

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Again, it's this sort of thing that
demonstrates that the papacy is leading

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men not to faith in Christ, but to their
own works and to their own merits.

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Even then, it's through the invention of
purgatory, which doesn't come from

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Scripture, but comes from Plato,
that the Pope claims authority over men's

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souls even after death.

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And in all of these things put together,
we see that all of this contradicts the

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scriptural gospel that men are justified
solely by faith in Christ, and not by

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faith in a combination of human works.

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Now, so far, I actually haven't answered
your question yet of, is the papacy still

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the antichrist?

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And the answer to that is to look at the
papistic doctrine of today and say,

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has anything changed?

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And the answer is really no.

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Some people are going to cite the Vatican
II Council as an example of changing Roman

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beliefs, but if you read through the
documents of Vatican II, what you see is

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that Vatican II really changed nothing.

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It was cosmetic changes for the Roman
Church.

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It changed the Church's posture towards
the unbelieving world, if anything.

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The Roman Church still believes what it
does about the papacy and about the

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doctrines that we've mentioned here,
and in some ways it still behaves as it

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did during the time of the Reformation.

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The long and short of it is, the papacy
puts doctrines in front of people to

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believe, which are not Christian,
which are not biblical, and in doing so,

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it leads men away from Christ,
away from trusting Christ alone for their

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salvation, and teaches them to place their
faith in themselves and their works.

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Does that mean the papacy is still the
Antichrist?

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You betcha.

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Now, if you want to do some more research
on this, I would highly recommend you go

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to two places.

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The first is the Treatise on the Power and
Primacy of the Pope.

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This is by Philip Melanchthon.

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It's one of the confessional documents of
the Lutheran Church.

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You can find it in the Book of Concord.

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Also, then, I would highly recommend two
books against the papacy.

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It's by Nicholas Junius and Balthasar
Meissner.

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You can get this also from Repristination
Press.

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I'd highly recommend that as they tackle
this issue of the papacy, papal doctrine,

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and the Antichrist, and they do it quite
succinctly and quite well.

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Thanks for the question.

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We'll see you next time on Ask the Pastor.