I Was Deceived by Roman Catholicism :: By Stephen Meehan
Jesus declared to His Apostles on the Mount of Olives, in His Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, that in the End Times, the number one indicator that we are close to the nearness of His soon return to Earth and the onset of the seven-year Tribulation period would be deception:
“Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5).
He gave many other signs that signaled the impending disasters that would engulf planet Earth during this final seven-year period, but the most prominent condition that would envelope everyday life by the entire world’s population – according to Christ, leading up to this time of God’s wrath – would be deception.
This deception is apparent today across the world’s landscape, in every possible realm, including political spheres of influence, as well as by socio-economic conditions and religious entities. It is this latter form of deception that I witnessed firsthand and was immersed in during the first 34 years of my life until the Lord opened my eyes and led me out of it. Had He not done that, I was destined to wind up trusting in a false religious system for salvation instead of God’s true means of redemption, only to come up short at the very end of my life and spend an eternity in a place of everlasting suffering.
Roman Catholicism is a prime example of religious deception; it is NOT what it pretends to be.
It is NOT the Church that Christ founded; it is NOT the self-titled “One True Church”; it is NOT true means of salvation; a pope is NOT the Holy Father (only God the Father is qualified to be); they did NOT give us the Bible – God did; there is no “Real Presence” of Jesus Christ in a “consecrated” gluten wafer (Jesus enters us spiritually by accepting Him into our lives and trusting in Him ONLY for our salvation); the true, biblical Mary is incapable of hearing a single prayer – she is NOT God!; and there is NO final place of purging called Purgatory for leftover sins that apparently Christ by His horrific sacrifice on the cross could not atone for.
These are all fiction, all fabrications, all lies, ALL deception, foisted upon ignorant Catholics – meaning not knowing the Word of God – by the adversary, Satan, working through the popes and their deceptive religion.
Like most Catholics, my indoctrination into this false system began just after birth by the unbiblical process of infant baptism. My parents, who were lifelong Catholics – just as their parents were, and their parents before them, going back untold generations – accepted the false teachings of Romanism as being true Biblical Christianity, and they wanted to educate and promulgate myself and my siblings into this religious system and to be guided by the priests, nuns, bishops and popes of the Roman Catholic religion, just as they and their predecessors were.
This was all they knew of how to be a “Christian” but never examining for themselves of what God lays out in His Word on how to be truly saved. Needless to say, they were very ripe for deception, just as I was. And how deceived we became, just as every other Catholic trusting in Rome is instead of trusting in Christ and delving into God’s Word. The truth is found there, not in Rome or by men dressed in religious garb fleecing their flock.
Look at the Bible verse again from Matthew 24 and see how it mirrors what Rome has done in their desire to deceive and lead Catholics astray. And again, it is really the “father of lies,” Satan, that has set up this system to beguile people who consider themselves to be Christians by this false church but uses deceived popes, priests, nuns and the lay teachers of Roman Catholicism to carry out his goal of keeping people from truly being saved and trusting in Christ alone for salvation:
“Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”
Many, in the name of Christ, have come to deceive the followers of Roman Catholicism by the self-imposed titles that Rome has bestowed upon their popes and priests. As mentioned, the popes have taken upon themselves the title “Holy Father” when that title is reserved ONLY for our true Father in Heaven. How can a sinful man in Rome be “holy”? Only God is holy. Romans 3:23 declares that we are ALL sinful – including Mary – and are in need of a savior. Jesus and the Holy Spirit-inspired Bible declare only once in all of scripture that the term “Holy Father” is reserved only for Our Father in Heaven, not to misguided men in the Vatican:
“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are” (John 17:11).
A mere “pope” could never be our true Father nor be Holy as God. They are deceiving their flock! Even Jesus in Matthew 23:9 tells His true followers not to call ANY MAN their spiritual father and that only God fulfills that role. They deceive and defy Christ by calling their popes and priests “father.” The word “pope” means papa or father, so in a myriad of ways, they ignore Christ and His teachings and openly, defiantly, disregard His true teachings and commands. THAT is what the supposed “One True Church” does? How can they possibly be true if their teachings and doctrines are false?
The pope also has the self-titled name of being the “Vicar of Christ,” or the stand-in for Jesus. They declare themselves to be Christ on Earth. Their priests supposedly represent to the followers of the RCC as being Christ to their parishioners. The Holy Spirit is the true representative of Jesus Christ on Earth. He indwells all true believers. He inspired the true authors of the Bible to record God’s Word to us.
The Holy Spirit continually points true Christians to Jesus alone! He does NOT point us to the Roman Catholic Church for salvation; He does NOT point us to Mary, nor any other dead saint; He does NOT point us to wafers, or statues, or icons, or any other Roman Catholic “thing,” but to Christ ONLY. All of those other substitutes are meant to deceive people, and Satan has been very effective in getting the lost to look toward those objects and not Jesus. Don’t be deceived!
Many have been fooled by Rome and their popes, who claim to come in Christ’s name and pretend to be Jesus or God on Earth. They are liars and deceivers. Never put your trust in man – as they are easily manipulated by the enemy. Put your faith and total trust in Jesus ONLY.
Rome also deceived me by telling us Catholics that a mere wafer can become the true, living Jesus Christ. Each and every man-made wafer – after supposedly being “consecrated” by a sinful man – can be turned into the One, True God, and that we must eat Him physically for Jesus to be in us and to save us.
No greater hoax has ever been foisted upon man or to those who are being deceived by the false religion of the popes. When this supposed “miracle” of Transubstantiation has taken place, the elements of the bread and wine still retain the look and chemistry of a gluten wafer and wine, not the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Any chemist could verify that no change has taken place.
It is nothing more than a ruse similar to the fable of the Emperor and his new clothes. All Catholics go along with this deception and are convinced that Jesus Christ is now present in each and every wafer. This is another example of how Rome deceives by presenting a false Christ – one that still cannot cover the entire sin debt of every Catholic; hence, the deceptive hoax of a place like Purgatory was fabricated. It is all a sham and completely bewitching. Don’t be a victim of their deception. Jesus does NOT leave the splendor of Heaven to jump into a wafer!
When Christ returned to Heaven, He told His disciples that it was more beneficial for His followers that He go away physically to sit at the right hand of the Father, and then He would send the Holy Spirit in His stead. The Holy Spirit can spiritually indwell ALL believers, whereas Jesus could not possibly enter into a person physically to all of His believers.
If Christ is already present with each Christian spiritually, why would we have to eat Him to get Him into our lives? Jesus is still physically in Heaven and does not transform into a wafer at every Roman Catholic mass. He will physically return to Earth one day when his feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives.
Rome lies to Catholics about this Jesus wafer. It is idolatry and blasphemy to worship a wafer as God in a golden monstrance, as Rome has their faithful do in the so-called rite of Eucharistic Adoration. How can that piece of bread be the one true God, our Creator and the Savior of all the redeemed trusting in Christ? This is all a lie from Satan to keep every Catholic from worshipping God correctly but instead has them fully involved in diabolical deception. That practice is paganism and NOT Christianity! Stop being deceived and flee this false religion!
There are presently approximately 1 billion Roman Catholics around the world. Jesus told His disciples that only a relative few will enter the Kingdom of God. A billion is not a few, but a large number. All of them are being deceived. They are being lied to, and on the road to ruin.
They are trusting in something that is not from God. Neither Jesus nor His Apostles nor any true Christian would remain in or be a part of the Roman Catholic system. The Holy Spirit gives each true follower of Christ spiritual discernment, and for those of us who have fled Rome’s clutches, we can now easily “see” how false and unbiblical the teachings of the popes are.
Catholics who get saved cannot stay in a false church that continually discredits, dishonors and belittles the saving work of Christ on the cross. The Holy Spirit will not let them remain.
We can’t and don’t worship wafers. We don’t falsely pray before statues of Mary, Christ, or any dead saint. That is all forbidden in the second commandment (Exodus 20:4). We don’t elevate Mary to a position that the Bible does not support. She is not sinless, she had other children, she must not be prayed to, and she is not the “Queen of Heaven” nor the “Mother of God.” None of that is biblical, and it is deception of the highest order. Sadly, many are being betrayed.
The popes have elevated their version of Mary to God-like status and have demoted Jesus to an inanimate object – a wafer. Mary is far more worshipped and prayed to in Roman Catholicism than is God or Jesus. They deny this, but their actions prove otherwise. Most popes – including Francis and John Paul II – have devoted themselves to Mary and not Christ. They are frauds. They are not representatives of Jesus or “Vicars of Christ” as Christ would never have any true believer look to Mary instead of God. Doing so breaks the first commandment by placing someone or something before us in worship instead of rightly worshipping God alone.
Satan has blinded the minds and eyes of those who are not true Christians. He has Catholics right where he wants them: trusting in and worshipping falsely in a pseudo-Christian religion. He wants Catholics to keep their focus off of Jesus Christ and instead look to the Roman church, the popes, the statues, their version of Mary, the false Christ of Transubstantiation, bones, relics, scapulars, the Mass, Purgatory, and other nonsense to save them – none of which can.
It is all a hoax, all a charade, all religious show business, and all deception. The gates of Hell cannot prevail over Christ’s true Church – all the believers in Jesus – so Satan created his own false church, headquartered in Hell but alternately situated on the seven hills of Rome. Sadly, “many” have fallen prey to his wiles and end up in a Christless eternity.
Don’t be numbered among them. Don’t be deceived by the devil. He is out to destroy, while Christ is willing to save you. Jesus/God did not die a horrendous death on a wooden cross so that His followers would worship wafers. He didn’t sacrifice His body and shed His blood so that we would instead worship Mary. His agonizing suffering was not insufficient so that we have to pay a penalty or penance for our own sins, and neither did Jesus miss the mark of atoning for ALL of our sins so that a false purging place of Purgatory is required. These are all damnable lies and bring extreme dishonor and discredit Our Savior’s ability to save us.
Satan and the popes promote all of these abhorrent false teachings. There is nothing Christian about Roman Catholicism. It is Satan’s masterpiece of deception. He has all Catholics beguiled and trusting in something completely false. It isn’t until death that most Catholics finally realize that they have been completely duped. They trusted in something that was designed by the enemy of our souls to NOT save them. All a ruse, all a masquerade, all diabolical, all deception.
Come out from among that deception. Trust in Jesus…ONLY! Jesus and His Apostles didn’t walk around while they preached about the Kingdom of God with stained glass windows, stations of the cross, votive candles, nicely painted figurines, elaborately decorated shrines, wafers in monstrances, or any of the other eye-appealing trappings of religious dishonesty.
Jesus’ message and the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to squarely point us to Christ for salvation. All of that other nonsense is just diversions. It is simple: Jesus created us and the entire universe; only Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins; He sends His Holy Spirit to co-join with our spirit to continue to point us to Christ and give us spiritual “sight.”
Jesus is coming back for us soon to take us to Heaven. He is busy preparing our dwelling places in Heaven; He will reward us for our service to Him. He is our Creator, our Savior, our rewarder, and one day, we will all stand before Him. Why look to anyone else or anything else? The rest of it is religious hocus pocus, designed to keep our focus off of Him.
To all Roman Catholics, do what the rest of us ex-Catholics have done. Flee the deception and lies and escape the bondage of the Roman Catholic system. It is a diabolically designed labyrinth of false teachings, doctrines and practices, all put together like the Winchester mystery house in California: hallways and paths leading to nowhere, architected to confuse and entrap, and offers no true way out but substitutes a plan that, in this lifetime, only furthers one’s bondage into their hopeless system and ultimately ends with the harsh reality that you have been a victim of a satanic hoax.
That realization may come too late. When instead of entering a short-term suffering place after death to supposedly purge away any leftover sins – because you didn’t fully trust in Jesus and His ability to save – the horribly shocked Roman Catholic will enter into a more permanent place of torment, and it will be then far too late in that eternal state to rightly accept Christ alone for salvation. Don’t follow those who have been beguiled into winding up forever lost.
Don’t be deceived. Don’t end up in eternal torment. Don’t trust the popes or their bogus “religion.” Don’t look to anyone or anything other than Jesus to save you. He alone has the ultimate power to save you. He would never deceive you but continually waits to save you.
“Come out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” (Acts 16:31).
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