We have just confirmed that Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) does not differentiate heretics from Christians in their reporting; They lump Catholics, Adventists and any other group professing Christian faith in with their claim of being persecuted for Jesus. Will they next add Mormons just because they claim Jesus?
I find this disturbing VOM cannot discern the difference between heretics and Brothers.
Why is that important to identify those who practice heresy? Is there a difference between Catholics, Christians, Mormons and Adventists, for example? Why identify when you are speaking about Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Buddhists from Christians? What is the difference between them and Roman Catholics; These are all works righteousness systems and NOT Christianity.
“Why are you lumping Catholics in that list, isn’t Catholicism Biblical?” Is it?
In matters like these, it is always wise to seek out elders with good reputations for their clear exegetical exposition of the Bible to see what they have to say. So let’s ask John MacArthur, Pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969, and founder of the Ministry Grace to You (http://gty.org).
On his website John answered that question in his article…
Is Roman Catholicism Biblical?
“As long as the Roman Catholic Church continues to assert its own authority and bind its people to ‘another gospel,’ it is the spiritual duty of all true Christians to oppose Roman Catholic doctrine with biblical truth and to call all Catholics to true salvation. Meanwhile, evangelicals must not capitulate to the pressures for artificial unity. They cannot allow the gospel to be obscured, and they cannot make friends with false religion, lest they become partakers in their evil deeds (2 John 11).”
John also has an audio series on Catholicism called “Explaining the Heresy of Catholicism“, which title makes clear his opinion on the matter.
John’s view of Calvinism, however, is entirely another matter.
So, did you catch that? Evangelicals must not capitulate to the pressures for false unity and must oppose their doctrine with Biblical truth! It is a much greater evil to send a man to Hell thinking he is safe than to burn down his false assumptions with the Law, for example, showing him his great need for a Savior. The pain will not be forever in the latter but will be endless in the former. There is a very clear distinction between denominations that “differ in non-essentials” and pagan worship that sends a man to Hell, isn’t there?
A few points I have seen myself about Roman Catholic beliefs:
1. Where does the Bible say to worship Mary or that she is in any way a co-redemptrix with Jesus for your salvation?
2. Why do Catholics still claim infused righteousness is correct, in direct opposition to Ephesians 2:8-9?
3. Why do Catholic Priests venerate tradition and what their High priests say over the Bible and what God says, when there is a conflict between them?
Roman Catholicism doesn’t sound Christian to me. And those points are not “non-essentials.”
I asked a representative of VOM on Twitter what the Roman Catholic policy was, after discussing the issue with him, and he gave me this link on their website: http://www.persecution.net/faq-kinds.htm.
In that document you can see the ministry policy is not to be concerned with who is who. Apparently all someone need to do is claim Jesus to get on “the list.”
Why is VOM wasting your support on heretics, funds meant to help Christians?
Richard Wumbrand is not a Catholic but, as I am told by @VOMC on Twitter, Richard suffered in a prison “with Catholics.” It is clear by their policy statement on the matter that V.O.M. considers Roman Catholicism to be merely a denomination of Christianity. (I suspect their Reformed Catholicism, called Calvinism, is to blame
Not True Richard!
There are many Protestants that were tortured by Roman Catholics that would argue very vehemently with you if they could; We must argue for them instead.
Catholics are not Christians!
Richard Wurmbrand seemed to have elevated his personal experience above scriptural authority; he knows better today.
I like(d) what Voice of the Martyrs does, so I am saddened to hear they are allowing themselves to be used by heretics to spread their heresy as they help “persecuted” Catholics rebuild their “churches.”
It would not be difficult for you, Voice of the Martyrs, to identify the “denomination” of the person under persecution, but yet you refuse to do even that and so color your news of Christians Persecution with doubt:
“Our focus of ministry is on those who are mistreated because their persecutors consider them Christians” is their stated justification for helping Catholics as if they are brothers in Christ. So now the persecutors define what you do Richard? No, brother, no; That is a mistake. Many make this very same mistake about Mormons.
“Should we not still assist those being badly treated?” OF COURSE! Christians are responsible for the VAST MAJORITY of all assistance in the world. And MOST of those receiving such help are NOT Christians, as the Bible says. But let’s not identify these as being persecuted for Jesus when they are not.
If a Catholic is being abused he has to know he isn’t being persecuted for Jesus! A Catholic doesn’t even have a saving faith! Consider his soul man lest he die in his sins and you be called to task by Jesus for not telling him the truth!
Truth is more important than unity, Richard Wurmbrand, even at the cost of your own $upport. It is far far better to lose the ministry than foster lies as truth and help a single soul into Hell, am I right?
And why is that important? Why is it so all-fired important to know the difference between a Catholic, a Mormon, a Jehovah’s Witness and a Christian? Because JESUS cares who is His and who is being persecuted for His name’s sake. Jesus cares very much who is lying about their associations and using His Name to garner support for their heresy, taking such help from His Children. God is not mocked! He is not jerk to be jerked around.
Christians cannot have unity with darkness. PERIOD.
Any co-operation with Catholicism lends credence to their apostasy – Jesus is not pleased.
So, as long as the Voice of the Martyrs ministry continues to identify with those who are not being persecuted for Jesus then Joyce and I cannot recommend supporting their work; They might as well just become a secular news service for all the good they will do, I’m genuinely sorry to say.
I had to let our support for a housing ministry go when I found out they were Catholic. Now I find Voice of the Martyrs is Catholic friendly as well.
The final word on this, as always, must be from the Bible:
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?”
2 Corinthians 6:14
“for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”
2 John 11
Should Voice of the Martyrs see the error of supporting Catholicism as if it is Christian, when they stop, then we will be happy to recommend them again.
Patrick and Joyce Burwell
OnlyJesusSaves.com Ministries
I am sorry you have so misunderstood me. I don’t hate Catholics, just the lies they are being told by their leadership. Unless you trust in Jesus alone for your Salvation, not in Mary or what a priest tells you that you have to do (works), then you will face Jesus as Judge at your death, and you will pay the eternal price for rejecting the one and only Savior.
Patrick Burwell
http://www.HowWillYouDo.org
Let God judge those who say they are dying for Christ. It is not our place to judge the hearts of people no matter the religion. To nitpick and tear apart the church and the body of believers does no good. I will continue to support VOM because they do a greater good than waste their time writing blogs attacking others. I fully support them supporting Catholicism for the sake of the “opportunity” for Catholics to come to know the real Jesus. To deny and be against Catholics just brings shame to Gods gospel. I am ashamed of people like you to disgrace Godly people who have served out of their hearts for Jesus and this includes Richard and his wife Sabina.
To prevent Catholics or other religions for getting help and show lack of support towards them just justifies their thinking of people like you filled with hypocrisy.
So you are judging me for judging them? Hmm.
Judge with righteous judgment friend.
I am a catholic and catholic do not believe in a works only salvation that is considered heresy by most informed Catholics
Shalom
God bless
The problem for you, then, is that you do not agree with your own Catholic leadership, because THEY DO believe in works righteousness.
Listen to this and get some insight to what you should know about the Heresy of Catholicism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp-pi25wpu8
The Catholic Catecism of 1994: “Grace is the help God gives to respond to our vocation of becoming His adopted sons. It introduces us to the intimacy of the Trinitarian life.” “One who desires to obtain reconciliation with God and with the Church must confess to a Priest only unconfessed grave sins he remembers after carefully examining his conscience.” etc…
That is works righteousness.
Patrick Burwell
http://HowWillYouDo.org
Dear friend Patrick. I agree with you that the Catholic Church from its very beginning was falling further and further away from the faith and in no way can be considered Christian because we need to reach out to these people just like we need to reach out to most Protestants but please I beg of you do not shame Wurmbrand’s name. The things he suffered…God was surely with him. If you have read his testimony or his books then surely you can sympathize. Not sympathizing with what VOM does for spreading the Church’s reign today, but sympathize that for Christ he suffered more than we could imagine and he watched others suffer even worse than that.
Imagine yourself going to the bathroom, sitting on the toilet. Now imagine when the communists had these men go and do that on a fellow prisoner when he was tied up to the cross and they also urinated on him as well. imagine also of course the physical pain they went through. and imagine after 14 years the psychological aspects of this.
Please. Richard Wurmbrand’s story should make us cry no matter what it has to do with Catholicism. Yes we cannot support that and I realize that is why this article was written but please lovingly rebuke the man. Not just because it is the loving thing to do but please in a respectful way. Respect the saints that suffered worse than we will ever be able to imagine. In 1 John 4 we are told to test the spirits and if it confesses Jesus as God then it says it is from God. I know Brother Wurmbrand would surely only want christ’s name to properly be professed and to not be falsely claimed by many Protestants and most Catholics but for the sake of what those went through I think it shed an awful light. I don’t wish for you to change your message of course. I just don’t wish for it to be against the man but against his sin. For God placed you here where you know what you know and he put Richard Wurmbrand into torture for 14 years where he knew much less and forgot the bible and was changed dramatically. Condemn the sin of the man and recognize that he was fallible. You too are quite fallible and I am sure you know you still sin often. It is by the grace God gives us alone that we know any of the truth we know. Sure Paul condemned Peter openly and rightly so as he lead people into sin. I just feel that what you have written here has discredited the good he did when we are all given different amounts of grace in different areas. Wurmbrand surely would have liked to know about this truth but he did all he could despite what he didn’t know. You are good to reveal this truth and good to expose what is wrong but I believe it is also wrong (and you agree that it is sad that this has happened to VOM) to put such a negative light on the man who stands for all those who suffered for Christ and for all of the others. If anything since this is such a delicate topic it would have been better to include the God of what the man did and to sympathize with him for what he did and then to condemn the practice of this group to show respect to those who deserve our respect. I have a hard time writing this since I agree with what you said and it is difficult to word what I feel but I feel that if there was any good in what I said you will have understood it by now and Im sure that God will guide you in what you do. God bless you and your ministry!
I desire all Catholics to come to the truth. If they follow the teaching of their Hierarchy they shall be lost to their sins without payment : ONLY Jesus Saves. There is no means whereby man may earn his salvation; Only Jesus Saves.
There’s a reason God repeatedly refers to our ancestors in the Bible… the ones who came ‘before’ the governments had created Protestantism… and gave everybody a bible so they would self-divide. United you stand, divided you fall. The end result… back to paganism. And this once again brings on the ‘End of an Era’ when the punishment comes… a repeat of a repeat of a repeat
Yes, Kate, but your are making a false premise in your comment; Catholicism, as it is being professed by Roman Catholic hierarchy, is NOT Christianity any more. Protestantism was in protest to that falling away, and rightly so; A turning back to the Bible and the sovereingty of Jesus as Lord and God. Luther was right, but now Lutheranism, in the form of the ELCA, has fallen away. SO you have a turning back, again, today uin the form of the formation of the American Anglicans.
Error must be addressed, not accepted, when it becomes the heresy like the Papacy, and the heresy of Universalism, etc…
In other words, there CAN be NO unity with those who embrace heresy.
I may be old fashioned, but I believe there is only one high priest I will confess to, Jesus Christ. I know myself as a priest and an holy nation, but you won’t find me calling any other man on earth Father. If they want to support them, they can go right ahead, I don’t read their stuff anyway. The bible is enough for me.
I appreciate what you are saying, but that still does not make the heresy of Roman Catholicism acceptable.
I was worried about VOM being part of ‘Salem Web Network’ See bottom of page http://www.biblestudytools.com for links to VOM, BillyGraham.org ! etc. I asked VOM about this and they replied they are not associated with Graham… Now I know they are not to be trusted after reading here!
Unfortunately there are more false prophets and orgs than true ones at this stage! Catholicism is probably the oldest of false ‘christianty’ no wonder Mike thinks the way he thinks. Please check out everything Chick has on Catholicism at http://www.chick.com/reading/comics/0112/indefense.asp
Read: Alberto Rivera went public with his testimony on the Roman Catholic Church. Alberto knew too much! Having been prepared for leadership in the Jesuit order…
Thank God redemption is only through Jesus and not good works.
Scary stuff on Graham: http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/graham.htm
Sola Gratia, Mike! Ala the Reformation…
Catholicism is nothing more than another false religion of works rightousness and a damnable heresy.
http://GTY.org has all the details.
The comment about VOM is that they should know better than to disregard the truth for what I suspect is a mtive of funding, or certainly deception.
No matter how nice someone is they, like all of us, are wretches that can do nothing but sin. Only by the Blood of Jesus can we be forgiven. Works have no bearing on salvation they are merely a reflection of it.
BTW: How will YOU do on Judgment Day, Mike? Think you are a good person?
Patrick Burwell
Dear Patrick,
Yes, Only Jesus, the one true Jesus, as revealed in the one true Gospel as preached by Paul, Galatians 1:9, by the one true Spirit, 2 Cor. 11:4, saves.
Thank you for posting the truth. I had been a supporter of VOM before God brought me into the amount of truth that I possess, and I wish fervently that VOM, along with all other churches and parachurch organizations, such as the evangelistic ministries of Billy and Franklin Graham, would embrace the true Gospel. I am grieved with VOM’s compromise, and the compromise of many [most?] churches and parachurch organizations, of the Gospel. If the Gospel is compromised we perish.
May the Lord God have mercy on us and open our eyes and hearts to the truth.
I live only by the mercy of the Lord God.
Jim Vermillion