Baptism
The Catholic Church baptizes infants by sprinkling them with water, or pouring water over their heads. However, this practice is not in keeping with what the Bible dictates. Baptism, in Greek, means to make fully wet, or to cover wholly with a fluid, or to dip.
Whenever a baptism occurs in the Bible, it is preceded by belief in the gospel message, and it is done to adults, and these adults are made fully wet: “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that does not believe, shall be damned,” (Mark 16:15-16). An Ethiopian eunuch was taught the gospel by Philip, and “as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’ Then Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ After this baptism, they came up out of the water” (Acts 8:37). It was also the first act that the newest converts to the nascent ecclesia underwent: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:42). As Paul says:
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:3-4).
How can a baby understand, accept and believe the gospel before being baptized, and decide to be “buried with him through baptism into death,” and then put off his/her “old self” and walk according to Christ? Obviously he or she cannot. Because of this mistake, or falling away from true doctrine of the Scriptures, Catholics have instituted “Confirmation” for older children to “renew” their baptismal vows. However, this is a doctrine of men, and not of Christ; for there is but one baptism: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” (Eph 4:5).
The pope’s infallibility
Catholics believe that the Pope is a descendent of the Apostle Peter, upon whom Jesus built his church. When Peter first confessed Jesus as the Christ, Jesus answered; “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (Matt 16: 17-18).
Catholicism teaches that the Pope is infallible, that he is God’s chosen spokesperson. However, Scripture reveals that although Peter was zealous for Jesus, he was certainly not infallible.
Peter had faith in Jesus, yet he doubted the power of Jesus to keep him upon the water, and Jesus said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matt 14:31). Peter was an adversary of Jesus when Peter told Jesus that he was wrong, and that he would not be killed: “Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord: this shall not happen to you!’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan! You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men’ ” (Matt 16:22-23). Again, Peter was zealous for the Lord, even cutting off the high priest’s servant’s ear when this servant came to arrest Jesus. However, it is shown that Peter did not comprehend/believe Jesus when he said that he must die to be glorified. Jesus rebuked him, saying: “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?” (Matt 26: 51-54).
Peter was fearful of the Jewish authorities and so denied knowing Jesus three times: “Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly” (Matt 26:74-75).
Although Peter’s faith was strengthened by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he was still not infallible, and in fact, misunderstood or misrepresented some of the gospel message. Paul described how Peter was being a hypocrite because of fear of the Jews: “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was to be blamed… I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?’ ” (Gal 2:11-15). And then Paul went on to explain Peter’s error.
Peter later acknowledged the wisdom given to Paul from God: “As also in all his [Paul’s] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Pet 3:16). Is the Pope more faithful and more knowledgeable about the gospel than Peter, who was Jesus’ own Apostle?
The Pope accepts homage being paid to him (e.g. bowing before him, kissing his ring, etc.), while Peter did not. “As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, ‘Stand up; I myself am also a man’ ” (Acts 10:25-26). Is the Pope more worthy than Peter?
The Pope accepts the following titles:
- His Holiness
- the Holy Father
- the Prince of the Apostles
- Sovereign of the temporal dominions of the Holy Roman Church
- Sovereign of Vatican City
- the Holy See
Peter would never accept any of these titles. He called himself only a fellow “elder”: “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed” (1 Pet 5:1). When a dispute occurred over which of Jesus’ Apostles should be considered the greatest, Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves… I am among you as the one who serves,” (Luke 22:24-27).
The Pope has not accomplished signs, wonders nor mighty deeds, although Paul tells us what the signs of an apostle are: “Truly the signs of an Apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds,” (2 Cor 12:12). The true apostles did so: resisting vipers, and raising the dead:
“And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm” (Acts 28:3-5).
“And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him… And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted” (Acts 20:9-12).
The Pope lives in a luxurious, palace-like building in Rome (the Vatican). But Peter tells elders to “shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock,” (1 Pet 5:1-3). While the Pope lives in isolation from us in his luxurious accommodation, the early apostles (as well as the Lord Jesus) lived and worked among the early church. I myself was very excited about seeing the Pope at a huge rally in Montreal in the early 1980’s, where he held a Mass — however it was very difficult to get a glance at him as he drove by the throngs in his bullet-proof “Pope Mobile.”
The Pope can afford to live in the Vatican only because a portion of the money collected from every Roman Catholic Church is sent to Rome. The “Peter’s Pence” is “a collection made each year among Catholics for the maintenance of the Pope and his works of charity. It was originally a tax of a penny on each house, and was collected on St. Peter’s day”1. Also, millions of dollars in revenue are collected from people who make a pilgrimage to the sanctuary at Lourdes and the thousands of other similar sanctuaries. Revenue is also earned by selling rosaries, images of Mary and saints, and other articles used in prayer and worship. This is similar to the silversmiths at Ephesus who caused a great commotion about the Way, because they prospered by the selling of idols and did not want the Truth to be spread because they would lose their profit — see Acts 19:21-41. Revenue is also made by selling “indulgences,” which are “the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven as far as guilt is concerned, which a follower of Christ [supposedly] acquires through the intervention of the Church”2.
The apostle Paul writes to Timothy that he must be careful to avoid false teachers and greedy motives. He says:
“If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself,” (1 Tim 6: 3-5).
The Pope claims the right to canonize saints. This is supposed to be “an infallible declaration by the Pope that a person, who died as a martyr and/or practiced Christian virtue to a heroic degree, is now in heaven and is worthy of honor and imitation by all the faithful… From its earliest years the Church has venerated saints…. ‘We decree… that he/she shall be venerated in the universal Church with pious devotion’ .”3
There are several things I have found to be incorrect/ sinful in this because they oppose Scripture:
- Who but God alone can search a person’s heart and mind and judge her or him to be worthy? Jesus clearly warns us not to judge others: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matt 7:1).
- God clearly gave the right to judge to His son: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom” (2 Tim 4:1).
- To canonize a saint is to judge that person; God said that only He or His son has the right to judge people; therefore, to claim the right to judge people is to call God a liar — and this is a sin.
As I have learned, venerating anything or anyone other than God and the Lord Jesus is a sin, yet the Catholic Church celebrates feasts to honor its saints.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One