WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.940 Whether Roman Catholicism can or cannot be identified with early Christianity depends 00:04.940 --> 00:07.820 upon the definition of early Christianity. 00:08.460 --> 00:12.920 My opponent will undoubtedly quote from some of the so-called early church fathers 00:12.920 --> 00:16.120 to show that they held beliefs compatible with Roman Catholicism. 00:16.620 --> 00:20.240 The earliest Christianity, however, is found in the Bible. 00:20.720 --> 00:24.660 And anything, no matter how ancient, which contradicts Scripture, is not 00:24.660 --> 00:25.840 Christianity at all. 00:25.840 --> 00:30.060 Even the beliefs and practices of church leaders who were in the very next 00:30.060 --> 00:34.420 generation after the Apostles cannot be relied upon as true Christianity, 00:34.860 --> 00:36.920 much less those from later generations. 00:37.440 --> 00:37.700 Why? 00:38.280 --> 00:41.760 Because already in the days of the Apostles, many church leaders had gone 00:41.760 --> 00:42.940 astray from the true faith. 00:43.600 --> 00:47.600 Paul said that in his own day, all those in Asia had turned away from 00:47.600 --> 00:47.820 him. 00:48.540 --> 00:52.680 Apostates even arose from among the Ephesian elders whom Paul had personally 00:52.680 --> 00:53.100 trained. 00:53.100 --> 00:57.760 There was hardly a local church in the days of the Apostles that had not strayed 00:57.760 --> 00:58.360 from the truth. 00:58.800 --> 01:02.740 Most of the epistles were written to correct errors that were already rampant 01:02.740 --> 01:04.180 among the very earliest Christians. 01:04.520 --> 01:08.600 So we dare not look for true Christianity to the writings, beliefs, and practices, 01:09.140 --> 01:13.320 even of contemporaries of the Apostles, much less of church leaders in the 01:13.320 --> 01:14.300 following generations. 01:14.840 --> 01:18.460 Early, no matter how early, isn't necessarily right. 01:18.900 --> 01:21.840 The issue is whether or not it is true Christianity. 01:21.840 --> 01:26.220 To know what that is, we turn to the highest authority, Jesus Christ himself 01:26.220 --> 01:27.040 and his word. 01:27.500 --> 01:31.220 There we find both the perfect example and the correction of errors which began 01:31.220 --> 01:33.080 quickly to creep into the church. 01:33.520 --> 01:38.280 And when we compare Roman Catholicism with true Christianity presented in the New 01:38.280 --> 01:41.520 Testament, we discover many glaring contradictions. 01:41.940 --> 01:43.900 I only have time to name a few. 01:43.900 --> 01:49.300 Number one, in his book, Vicars of Christ, Peter De Rosa, himself a Roman Catholic, 01:49.440 --> 01:53.940 points out that his church became, quote, the most persecuting faith the 01:53.940 --> 01:58.080 world has ever seen, ordering in Christ's name all those who disagreed with her 01:58.080 --> 02:02.180 dogmas to be tortured and burned, commanding the throne to impose 02:02.180 --> 02:05.620 Catholicism on all its subjects under threat of torture and death. 02:06.220 --> 02:11.060 Pope Urban II, who commissioned the first crusade, decreed that all heretics were to 02:11.060 --> 02:12.400 be tortured and killed. 02:12.400 --> 02:16.340 That became a dogma of Roman Catholicism, unquote. 02:17.020 --> 02:21.080 As only one example, Pope Martin V commanded the king of Poland to 02:21.080 --> 02:24.960 exterminate the Hussites, named after the martyr Jan Hus. 02:25.460 --> 02:30.900 The pope commanded, quote, turn your forces against Bohemia, burn, massacre, 02:31.340 --> 02:36.200 for nothing could be more agreeable to God than to exterminate the Hussites. 02:36.600 --> 02:38.120 That's not Christianity. 02:38.120 --> 02:42.160 The torture of millions in the Inquisitions and Rome's merciless 02:42.160 --> 02:45.920 massacres of Christians for centuries cannot be equated with early Christianity. 02:46.600 --> 02:50.200 It was the popes who created the Inquisitions, who decreed the torture and 02:50.200 --> 02:52.020 murder of all whom they termed heretics. 02:52.580 --> 02:56.600 De Rosa reminds us that, quote, Pope Innocent III murdered far more 02:56.600 --> 03:01.060 Christians in one afternoon, 12,000, than any Roman emperor did in his entire 03:01.060 --> 03:01.900 reign, unquote. 03:02.720 --> 03:07.620 Historian Will Durant writes, quote, compared with the persecution of heresy in 03:07.620 --> 03:11.800 Europe by the popes, the persecution of Christians by Romans in the first three 03:11.800 --> 03:15.280 centuries after Christ was mild and humane, unquote. 03:15.920 --> 03:19.320 Yet the Catholic Church, while rightly honoring the martyrs under pagan emperors, 03:19.640 --> 03:23.560 never admits that she herself has slaughtered far more and done it in the 03:23.560 --> 03:24.220 name of Christ. 03:24.660 --> 03:27.040 Again, we must say, that's not Christianity. 03:27.660 --> 03:33.020 The early Church, like Christ himself, never persecuted anyone, but was itself 03:33.020 --> 03:34.220 cruelly persecuted. 03:34.700 --> 03:39.100 Nineteenth-century eminent Catholic historian, Fon Dollinger, reminds us, 03:39.220 --> 03:44.020 quote, Since 1183, the view of the Church was that every departure from its teaching 03:44.020 --> 03:47.920 must be punished with death, and the most cruel of deaths by fire. 03:48.280 --> 03:52.960 From 1200 to 1500 A.D., the long series of papal ordinances on the Inquisition, 03:52.960 --> 03:58.020 ever increasing in severity and cruelty, runs on without a break. 03:58.420 --> 04:03.040 Every pope confirms and improves upon the devices of his predecessors to the one end 04:03.040 --> 04:06.500 of completely uprooting every difference of belief. 04:06.880 --> 04:10.120 It was only the absolute dictation of the popes and the notion of their 04:10.120 --> 04:14.260 infallibility that made the Christian world accept the Inquisition, which 04:14.260 --> 04:18.880 contradicted the simplest principles of Christian justice and would have been 04:18.880 --> 04:22.120 rejected with universal horror in the ancient Church. 04:22.120 --> 04:25.640 That from an eminent nineteenth-century Catholic historian. 04:26.320 --> 04:30.300 Torture and murder, even of genuine heretics, are an abomination to Christ. 04:30.840 --> 04:35.200 Yet another Catholic historian writes, quote, Of eighty popes in the line from 04:35.200 --> 04:39.960 the thirteenth century on, not one of them disapproved of the theology and apparatus 04:39.960 --> 04:40.860 of the Inquisition. 04:41.300 --> 04:46.440 On the contrary, one after another added his own cruel touches to the workings of 04:46.440 --> 04:47.420 this deadly machine. 04:47.420 --> 04:52.760 Such practices have never been abrogated or confessed as wrong, much less denounced 04:52.760 --> 04:54.300 and renounced by the Catholic Church. 04:54.420 --> 04:59.180 And how could they be, with eighty allegedly infallible popes affirming them? 04:59.860 --> 05:04.040 Which brings us to the second point, the despotic powers of the popes. 05:04.420 --> 05:08.680 The Code of Canon Law, Canon 333, paragraph 3, declares, quote, There is 05:08.680 --> 05:13.100 neither appeal nor recourse against a decision or decree of the Roman pontiff, 05:13.180 --> 05:13.600 unquote. 05:13.600 --> 05:17.100 Vatican II says the same and demands absolute obedience. 05:17.740 --> 05:22.860 Such dictatorial control over the Church is the antithesis of early Christianity. 05:23.240 --> 05:27.420 Neither Peter, Paul, nor any other apostle ever claimed or exercised such tyranny. 05:28.000 --> 05:30.140 Christ called mankind to come to him willingly. 05:30.640 --> 05:34.580 Peter writes that Christ never coerced or threatened anyone, nor did the apostles. 05:34.980 --> 05:38.900 But the Roman Catholic Church did so for centuries and has never admitted it was 05:38.900 --> 05:42.780 wrong or apologized for it, and still holds millions in fear that without 05:42.780 --> 05:44.880 submission to her rules, they're damned. 05:45.420 --> 05:49.780 Number three, the Catholic Church has repeatedly sold salvation for money. 05:50.480 --> 05:55.720 Popes listed every crime from piracy and murder to incest, with a price for which 05:55.720 --> 05:59.560 they, by their absolute authority, would grant absolution from each. 05:59.880 --> 06:00.920 That's not Christianity. 06:01.500 --> 06:04.660 The sale of indulgences was one of the main issues sparking the Reformation, 06:05.200 --> 06:07.200 and it continued for centuries thereafter. 06:07.200 --> 06:11.860 In 18th century Spain, for example, the annual papal bull of the crusade had 06:11.860 --> 06:16.620 to be purchased by everyone of seven years and older at least once each year. 06:17.000 --> 06:20.140 No one could be buried without the current bull in the coffin. 06:20.540 --> 06:24.600 Upon purchase of the bull, the Pope immediately granted absolution from all 06:24.600 --> 06:26.740 sins except heresy and the vow of chastity. 06:27.240 --> 06:28.300 That's not Christianity. 06:28.960 --> 06:32.780 Columbus, a Catholic, sarcastically praised money because he said, 06:32.780 --> 06:37.740 He who possesses it has the power of transporting souls into paradise. 06:38.240 --> 06:42.660 Much of the fabulous wealth displayed by the Church in Rome today was acquired with 06:42.660 --> 06:44.080 money from the sale of salvation. 06:44.680 --> 06:48.700 That isn't biblical Christianity, nor is it a practice only in the past. 06:49.220 --> 06:53.700 Today, one obtains a mass card from a mortuary, fills in the name of the 06:53.700 --> 06:56.900 deceased, gives an offering to the Church in exchange for which the card will be 06:56.900 --> 07:00.740 placed on the altar during a mass, allegedly to reduce the suffering of the 07:00.740 --> 07:04.560 deceased in purgatory and move him or her a step closer to heaven. 07:05.120 --> 07:09.380 A friend told me recently that his father had just died and $2,000 in mass cards had 07:09.380 --> 07:10.540 been purchased at his funeral. 07:11.220 --> 07:14.860 Wealthy Catholics often leave large sums to the Church for masses to be said on 07:14.860 --> 07:16.380 their behalf after their death. 07:16.780 --> 07:20.740 Such practices cannot be found in the New Testament and are not Christian. 07:21.300 --> 07:26.060 But Vatican II condemns with anathema anyone who does not accept purgatory and 07:26.060 --> 07:26.980 indulgences today. 07:26.980 --> 07:30.700 If you're a Catholic in the audience and you don't believe in these things, 07:31.000 --> 07:34.120 you have been anathematized by Vatican II whether you know it or not. 07:34.720 --> 07:35.360 Point four. 07:36.060 --> 07:40.540 Christ said he had nowhere to lay his head, and Peter testified, Silver and gold 07:40.540 --> 07:41.420 have I none. 07:41.920 --> 07:45.680 In contrast, the popes who live in more than one palace of 1,100 rooms each and 07:45.680 --> 07:48.180 are surrounded with wealth that would make a Midas blush. 07:48.860 --> 07:53.060 Visitors to St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museum, and the other 07:53.060 --> 07:56.060 Vatican properties find its treasures breathtaking. 07:57.380 --> 08:01.300 Nino Lobello, former Rome correspondent for Businessweek, calls the Vatican, 08:01.740 --> 08:05.360 quote, the tycoon on the Tiber, unquote, because of its incalculable 08:05.360 --> 08:07.080 wealth and worldwide enterprises. 08:07.660 --> 08:11.220 It owns fully one-third of Rome's real estate and is probably the largest holder 08:11.220 --> 08:12.660 of stocks and bonds in the world. 08:13.100 --> 08:17.600 Such mind-boggling riches and the pomp and splendor of ritual accompanying them are 08:17.600 --> 08:21.360 not even remotely related to the apostles and the early Church. 08:21.360 --> 08:27.560 De Rosa comments, quote, any suggestion that the pope should sell all that he has 08:27.560 --> 08:31.000 and give to the poor is greed of his derision as impractical. 08:31.280 --> 08:34.320 The rich young man in the gospel reacted in the same way. 08:34.860 --> 08:36.720 Throughout his life, Jesus lived simply. 08:37.020 --> 08:40.620 He died naked, offering the sacrifice of his life on the cross. 08:41.020 --> 08:46.160 When the pope renews that sacrifice at pontifical high mass, no greater contrast 08:46.160 --> 08:46.940 could be imagined. 08:46.940 --> 08:52.300 Without any sense of irony, Christ's vicar is clad in gold and the costliest silks, 08:52.580 --> 08:52.980 unquote. 08:53.740 --> 08:58.820 Christ's naked body and blood-stained cross are mocked not only by gold crosses, 08:59.020 --> 09:03.640 gold chalices, opulent altars, and costly vestments, but by the mass 09:03.640 --> 09:04.160 itself. 09:04.720 --> 09:10.740 The Eucharist is, according to paragraph 1129 of the New Universal Catechism, 09:11.380 --> 09:14.340 quote, necessary for salvation, unquote. 09:14.340 --> 09:18.760 Yet the Bible says, and the apostles and early Christians preached, that Christ's 09:18.760 --> 09:22.100 one sacrifice on the cross obtained our salvation. 09:22.720 --> 09:27.320 Denying that finished work, Vatican II says that our redemption is in the process 09:27.320 --> 09:31.740 of being accomplished through the alleged re-presentation of one and the same 09:31.740 --> 09:34.360 sacrifice repeatedly in the Eucharist. 09:34.820 --> 09:39.360 Yet Hebrews 9.12 says that by his shed blood, Christ, quote, obtained eternal 09:39.360 --> 09:40.920 redemption for us, unquote. 09:40.920 --> 09:43.820 Both the Bible and Catholicism can't be right. 09:44.260 --> 09:45.300 Which one will you believe? 09:45.800 --> 09:50.220 Redemption can't be a finished work and at the same time be in process of being 09:50.220 --> 09:52.100 accomplished on Roman Catholic altars. 09:52.560 --> 09:57.680 Yet Catholicism insists that each time mass is celebrated, another installment of 09:57.680 --> 09:59.980 forgiveness and salvation is imparted to the faithful. 10:00.460 --> 10:02.280 The contradiction is fatal. 10:02.900 --> 10:07.380 Hebrews 10 declares that the fact that the Old Testament sacrifices had to be 10:07.380 --> 10:11.140 repeated daily proved that they could not remove the penalty for sin. 10:11.720 --> 10:15.860 It then contrasts Christ's never-to-be-repeated one sacrifice on the 10:15.860 --> 10:20.560 cross, which paid the full penalty and declares, quote, there is no further 10:20.560 --> 10:22.420 sacrifice for sin, unquote. 10:22.760 --> 10:27.260 Yet the Eucharist is claimed to be a sacrifice and one that pardons sin and 10:27.260 --> 10:28.680 must be continually repeated. 10:29.200 --> 10:30.920 That's not biblical Christianity. 10:31.600 --> 10:32.840 Point number six. 10:33.360 --> 10:36.980 As a consequence, Catholics have no assurance of salvation because it's an 10:36.980 --> 10:39.760 ongoing process performed by the Church which never ends. 10:40.240 --> 10:44.380 The Pope himself can't say how many more masses it may take to deliver from 10:44.380 --> 10:46.660 purgatory and open the gates of heaven for anyone. 10:47.820 --> 10:53.460 In direct contrast, 1 John 5, 13 says, quote, These things have I written unto 10:53.460 --> 10:57.340 you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know right now that you 10:57.340 --> 11:00.800 have as a present possession eternal life, unquote. 11:01.360 --> 11:05.780 Jesus said, I give my sheep eternal life as a free gift and they will never be lost 11:05.780 --> 11:06.200 again. 11:06.500 --> 11:09.360 One can't have eternal life today and be damned tomorrow. 11:09.740 --> 11:12.160 But Catholics live in continual fear of being damned. 11:12.540 --> 11:14.560 Eating meat on Friday used to damn the soul. 11:14.900 --> 11:16.080 That's not Christianity. 11:17.020 --> 11:21.300 If a debt one owes to a creditor has been paid in full, there's no need to make 11:21.300 --> 11:22.060 further payments. 11:22.620 --> 11:27.000 Nor would it make sense or be of any value to speak of making this past payment, 11:27.580 --> 11:31.800 quote, perpetually present, unquote, as it is claimed the Eucharist does for 11:31.800 --> 11:32.780 Christ's sacrifice. 11:33.020 --> 11:35.680 No past event can be made perpetually present. 11:36.080 --> 11:40.000 And there's no need to do so with Christ's sacrifice at Calvary, even if that were 11:40.000 --> 11:40.500 possible. 11:40.940 --> 11:42.840 The debt has been paid in full. 11:42.840 --> 11:46.540 But that full payment is denied by declaring that each celebration of the 11:46.540 --> 11:49.740 Mass distributes a further payment to God for the participant's sins. 11:50.360 --> 11:54.300 Such teaching is not Christianity, no matter how early it may be found in the 11:54.300 --> 11:54.620 Church. 11:55.640 --> 11:56.980 Consider point seven. 11:57.140 --> 12:00.040 Consider the celibacy forced upon Catholic priests and nuns. 12:00.620 --> 12:03.040 In the early Church, celibacy was optional for all. 12:03.480 --> 12:07.240 Paul was a celibate and recommended this life, but noted that the other apostles, 12:07.440 --> 12:10.760 including Peter, were married, and he too had the right to marry. 12:10.760 --> 12:15.020 By forcing celibacy upon tens of thousands who want to be priests or nuns, 12:15.060 --> 12:19.480 but are not capable of maintaining that unnatural life, Rome has created 12:19.480 --> 12:21.780 widespread immorality and hypocrisy. 12:22.300 --> 12:25.940 Pope Pius II himself said that Rome was the only city run by bastards, 12:26.520 --> 12:28.980 the sons of allegedly celibate popes and cardinals. 12:29.380 --> 12:33.320 The old joke was that Rome had more prostitutes than any other city because it 12:33.320 --> 12:34.320 had the most celibates. 12:34.760 --> 12:37.340 Such immorality is not confined to the past. 12:37.340 --> 12:41.320 Today, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is going bankrupt because of 12:41.320 --> 12:44.480 lawsuits against it for the sexual escapades of its priests. 12:44.840 --> 12:48.900 The Franciscan Seminary in Santa Barbara has recently shut down because of its 12:48.900 --> 12:53.060 priests' sexual affairs, and so it goes across America, with the Catholic Church 12:53.060 --> 12:56.860 having paid out hundreds of millions in out-of-court settlements in the past few 12:56.860 --> 12:59.240 years to keep the scandals out of the papers. 12:59.760 --> 13:01.160 The problem is worldwide. 13:01.580 --> 13:05.580 Six French women recently went to Rome to plead with the Pope to repeal celibacy, 13:05.580 --> 13:10.120 saying that they represented thousands of women in sexual relationships with 13:10.120 --> 13:14.420 supposedly celibate priests who have to keep their relationships secret and can't 13:14.420 --> 13:16.040 tell their children who their fathers are. 13:16.520 --> 13:18.240 The Pope refused to see them. 13:18.860 --> 13:23.060 Required celibacy for clergy was unknown in the early Church. 13:23.320 --> 13:24.440 It's not Christianity. 13:24.740 --> 13:25.600 It's not biblical. 13:26.120 --> 13:30.960 And on this point also, Roman Catholicism cannot be identified with early 13:30.960 --> 13:31.540 Christianity. 13:32.140 --> 13:35.980 Christ told Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world, and therefore my servants 13:35.980 --> 13:36.660 don't fight. 13:37.060 --> 13:40.680 Yet for centuries the Popes commanded armies and navies and fought wars in the 13:40.680 --> 13:44.620 name of Christ to extend their earthly domain and slaughtered entire cities, 13:44.700 --> 13:46.780 including women and children, in the process. 13:47.300 --> 13:48.500 This is not Christianity. 13:48.900 --> 13:51.980 It certainly was unknown in the Christian Church in the first three centuries, 13:52.880 --> 13:54.960 and it's soundly condemned in the Bible. 13:55.280 --> 13:59.580 But the Roman Catholic Church has never admitted this was wrong, and when in 1870 13:59.580 --> 14:03.940 Italy achieved its independence from the Popes at last and Pius IX was confined to 14:03.940 --> 14:08.900 the Vatican, he thundered damnation upon all who had liberated vast territories 14:08.900 --> 14:12.320 over which the Popes had ruled as despotic kings for centuries. 14:12.740 --> 14:16.680 Here again Roman Catholicism is the very antithesis of early Christianity. 14:17.080 --> 14:17.840 Point nine. 14:18.460 --> 14:22.300 It was the Popes who first put the Jews in ghettos, made them wear an identifying 14:22.300 --> 14:26.700 badge, destroyed their synagogues and scriptures, and for centuries banished or 14:26.700 --> 14:29.620 massacred those who would not convert to Roman Catholicism. 14:30.160 --> 14:33.760 Hitler justified the Holocaust by saying he was only finishing what the Church had 14:33.760 --> 14:34.980 done to the Jews for centuries. 14:35.500 --> 14:37.100 This is not biblical Christianity. 14:37.640 --> 14:41.680 Though she now claims to take a different stance vis-à-vis the Jews with her recent 14:41.680 --> 14:47.320 treaty with Israel, Rome waited 46 years since 1948 before officially recognizing 14:47.320 --> 14:49.660 Israel's right to the land God gave her. 14:49.900 --> 14:53.560 And Rome still opposes her control of Jerusalem, wanting it to be in 14:53.560 --> 14:55.320 international hands. 14:56.100 --> 14:56.860 Prayers to Mary. 14:57.600 --> 14:58.420 Point ten. 14:58.600 --> 15:03.180 Prayers to Mary were unknown in the early Church, and no justification for them can 15:03.180 --> 15:04.040 be found in the Bible. 15:05.480 --> 15:09.820 Yet Roman Catholics direct prayers to Mary, which she would have to be God to 15:09.820 --> 15:10.240 answer. 15:10.700 --> 15:15.000 In the Holy Father's prayer for the Marian year, for example, the Pope asked Mary to 15:15.000 --> 15:19.000 comfort, guide, strengthen, and protect the whole of humanity. 15:19.000 --> 15:22.940 To do so, she would have to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere 15:22.940 --> 15:23.460 at once. 15:23.880 --> 15:28.400 Moreover, his prayer ends, quote, Sustain us, O Virgin Mary, on our journey 15:28.400 --> 15:31.920 of faith, and obtain for us the grace of eternal salvation. 15:32.140 --> 15:32.520 Unquote. 15:32.860 --> 15:33.940 This is blasphemy. 15:34.340 --> 15:38.840 Christ obtained eternal salvation and offers it to all as a free gift without 15:38.840 --> 15:39.960 any help from Mary. 15:40.160 --> 15:44.680 To sustain all Roman Catholics on their journey of faith, Mary again would have to 15:44.680 --> 15:45.280 be God. 15:45.280 --> 15:49.260 In fact, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit guide and sustain us. 15:49.500 --> 15:51.000 But for the Catholic, it's Mary. 15:51.320 --> 15:52.480 This is not Christianity. 15:53.020 --> 15:55.420 The Rosary concludes with this final petition. 15:55.980 --> 16:01.380 Hail, Holy Queen of Heaven, of course, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, 16:01.680 --> 16:02.420 and our hope. 16:02.840 --> 16:05.540 To Thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. 16:05.860 --> 16:09.760 To Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of 16:09.760 --> 16:10.020 tears. 16:10.020 --> 16:14.520 Turn then, most gracious Advocate, Thine eyes of mercy toward us, 16:14.620 --> 16:15.260 and so forth. 16:15.880 --> 16:18.720 Do Mary's eyes of mercy actually see everyone in the world? 16:19.060 --> 16:20.600 Is she really the Mother of mercy? 16:21.080 --> 16:23.840 Didn't God's mercy exist long before Mary was even born? 16:24.320 --> 16:29.660 We read of the God of mercy, Psalm 39, 17, and are encouraged to trust in the 16:29.660 --> 16:33.220 mercy of God, Psalm 52, 8, Luke 1, 78, and many other verses. 16:33.620 --> 16:38.640 But never a word in the entire Bible about Mary's mercy toward mankind. 16:38.640 --> 16:42.040 Those who know God's mercy have no need of Mary's. 16:42.400 --> 16:46.540 In fact, she would have to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent in order to 16:46.540 --> 16:48.060 extend mercy to all mankind. 16:48.740 --> 16:54.000 The Bible mentions often mercy and peace coming from God to believers, but nowhere 16:54.000 --> 16:57.680 is there a hint that mercy is bestowed by Mary on anyone. 16:58.040 --> 17:00.940 Yet the Rosary teaches dependence upon her mercy. 17:01.320 --> 17:03.900 To Thee do we cry, rather than upon God's. 17:04.340 --> 17:07.840 As for Mary being the Queen of Heaven, the Bible says Christ is the King, 17:07.840 --> 17:10.720 but never that there is a Queen of Heaven, much less that she is Mary. 17:11.020 --> 17:14.760 If there were a Queen, it would be Christ's Bride, the Church, but she is 17:14.760 --> 17:16.340 never referred to as the Queen of Heaven. 17:16.660 --> 17:20.360 The only Queen of Heaven mentioned in Scripture was an idol, worshiped by the 17:20.360 --> 17:24.640 pagans and to which the Jewish women gave offerings, bringing God's wrath upon them. 17:25.120 --> 17:30.340 The New Universal Catechism, quoting Vatican II, states, From the most ancient 17:30.340 --> 17:34.340 times, the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of Mother of God. 17:34.900 --> 17:37.120 Not so, never in the Bible. 17:37.580 --> 17:41.980 Mary is the mother of the body of Jesus, but not of him as God, for as God he 17:41.980 --> 17:45.600 existed long before Mary was born, and is in fact her creator. 17:46.260 --> 17:52.440 The Catechism goes on to say of Mary, To whose protection the faithful fly in 17:52.440 --> 17:53.940 all their dangers and needs. 17:54.700 --> 17:59.800 Here is official Roman Catholic doctrine from the highest level, attributing to 17:59.800 --> 18:03.120 Mary authority and power which belong to God alone. 18:03.340 --> 18:08.040 For her to protect all Catholics from all dangers and to supply all their needs, 18:08.520 --> 18:10.080 Mary would have to be God. 18:10.520 --> 18:16.080 In the entire Bible, there is not one prayer to Mary, not one instance of her 18:16.080 --> 18:20.300 miraculously helping anyone, nor any promise that she would or could. 18:20.760 --> 18:25.060 From Genesis to Revelation, protection and help are sought from, promised by, 18:25.320 --> 18:27.320 and found in God and Christ alone. 18:27.700 --> 18:30.440 This fact is attested by hundreds of verses. 18:31.120 --> 18:35.460 The infinitely powerful and loving God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has 18:35.460 --> 18:39.060 protected as promised all who trusted in him through the centuries. 18:39.520 --> 18:41.200 Then why would anyone call upon Mary? 18:41.520 --> 18:45.780 Yet Catholics send up far more prayers to Mary than to God and Christ combined. 18:45.780 --> 18:49.380 This is not Christianity, but Mary religion. 18:50.000 --> 18:54.860 Finally, it is argued that if the Roman Catholic Church is not the true Church, 18:54.920 --> 18:58.900 but went into apostasy, then Christ's promise failed that the gates of hell 18:58.900 --> 19:02.320 would not prevail against his Church, for the Catholic Church was the only 19:02.320 --> 19:05.680 Christian Church in existence for 1,500 years, so it is said. 19:06.280 --> 19:10.640 On the contrary, there have always been numerous groups of thousands of true 19:10.640 --> 19:13.000 Christians who gave no obedience to the Popes. 19:13.000 --> 19:16.760 They were slaughtered by the millions for not conforming to Roman dogmas. 19:17.640 --> 19:22.380 They were called Albigensies, Waldensies, Katari, Lollards, Vaudois, etc., 19:22.380 --> 19:26.580 and were falsely accused of being Manicheans and of all manner of 19:26.580 --> 19:27.240 immorality. 19:27.680 --> 19:31.220 Current encyclopedias perpetuate these lies from Catholic sources. 19:31.740 --> 19:35.220 However, there are numerous records preserved from the very days when these 19:35.220 --> 19:39.840 alleged heretics were being tortured and massacred, which prove that they were true 19:39.840 --> 19:41.020 biblical Christians. 19:41.020 --> 19:46.880 That's the issue, not how ancient the record may be, but whether it conforms to 19:46.880 --> 19:51.680 the Bible, which is the authority to which we must look in deciding the question 19:51.680 --> 19:52.460 before us. 19:52.720 --> 19:53.180 Thank you.