SPIRIT DAILY & Anti-Catholicism
Doug,
Please let us know specifically of any anti-Catholic sites we may link to. We appreciate it.
God bless,
Michael Brown
Dear
Michael:
Thank you
for responding to my letter in such a quick and timely fashion. First, let me
apologize for the tone of my first email. Electronic
communications are cold at best, and I feel my first letter was very blunt.
However, a friend of mine told me she had written to you with similar
concerns, but never received a response. Consequently, I felt it necessary to
turn up the heat. Still, I firmly
believe everything we do or don’t do counts and with that I wish to apologize
if my letter came across cold or un-Christian.
At any
rate, I have been researching your site with some detail. Much of what I find
disturbing concerns the links to “Rapture End Times” sites. I could be
wrong, but my study of the rapture as well as the Catechism has led me to
conclude that the “rapture” does not line up with Catholic Tradition or
eschatological teachings. Secondly, much of the contemporary rapture beliefs
equate the One World Church/Whore of Babylon as the Roman Catholic Church.
Consequently, when your links connect to a rapture site I believe you are
stating support for that site and it’s anti-Catholic bias (if any).
I found
other links on your web page carry anti-Catholic articles and anti-Catholic
opinions. Typically if a linked site has a search engine I will simply type in
and search for “Catholic.” That
will usually lead me to anti-Catholic material. I have copied the web addresses
that I found to be anti-Catholic. All
of them were found using the links from the cover page of www.Spiritdaily.com.
Click on
Best Christian Sites: http://www.tbcl.com/directory/index.shtml and search for
Catholic and you will find listed in the middle of the page:
Christian
Info To Bless Believers [6] Hits
Biblical Links to refute Jehovah's Witness, Catholic, Mormon, and other
Christian cults, evolution, etc..
0.00297 [More
like this]
When you
click on the above it directs you to JustforCatholics.org.
Michael, I
understand you do not control the links your links link to (try saying that
20’x fast!), but you do control the link listing on your web page. By linking
to this type of site you send out a mixed message. Personally, I don’t know if
you’re Catholic or not. The message I get from Spirit Daily is that,
“you’re Catholic when it conforms to your personal conclusion about the end
times and you’re Protestant when Catholic teaching/Tradition does not conform
to your opinions.” At least, that’s the impression I and other Catholics are
receiving from your web site. But let’s continue…
Click on
the Billy Graham link and search the word Catholic. This is what I found:
“When
Jesus said he would build His church on a "rock" (Matthew 16:13-18),
what was He referring to?
Matthew
16:13-18 has been the focus of a great deal of theological discussion,
especially concerning Jesus' words to Peter, "You are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my church" (verse 18). The question concerns who or what
Jesus intended as the foundation of His church. That Jesus is referring to
Himself as the "rock" has been widely held by evangelicals; see 1
Corinthians 3:11. Another interpretation is that Jesus is referring to the truth
of Peter's confession in verse 16, "You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God." Still another view suggests that He is referring to Peter who,
along with the early apostles and prophets, was used to establish the church;
see Ephesians 2:19-22. In this latter passage Christ is pictured as the
cornerstone, which in an ancient building supported the main weight of the
structure, while the apostles and prophets share in the foundation. To see Peter
as one of the foundation stones of the church would not, of course, require that
he be viewed as an ecclesiastical authority with successors down through the
ages. He would simply be the first confessor of who Christ is.
Perhaps
Mr. Graham's words in his book PEACE WITH GOD would be helpful. He writes on
page 179: "The word church as applied to the Christian society was first
used by Jesus Himself when He told Peter, 'Upon this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it' (Matthew 16:18, [KJV]).
Thus Jesus Christ Himself founded the church. He is the great cornerstone upon
which the church is built. He is the foundation of all Christian experience, and
the church is founded upon Him."
Now, as a
well-grounded Catholic I can read this without worry or ripple. I have studied
my faith and am secure. Can the same be said of all your readers? Can you
guarantee every Catholic searching your site will not stumble from what you link
him to?
But wait,
don’t answer that just yet…there’s more…
Dial
The Truth:
http://www.av1611.org/search1.html
http://www.av1611.org/kjv/handbok.html#Mass
The
Mass is a Roman Catholic perversion of the Lord's Supper where members take part
in a pagan ritual--actually attempting to eat and drink the literal flesh and
blood of Jesus Christ. This is strictly forbidden in the word of God (Gen. 9:4;
Lev. 17:11-14; Psalm 16:4; Acts 15:29).
After
linking to this site Prophecy Central http://www.bible-prophecy.com/pcu4.htm
listed on your web page I then did a search for Catholic. This led me to another
site http://www.bible-prophecy.com/links.htm
and then (http://www.users.qwest.net/~lorield/endtime_prophets/ecumen.html)
where I quickly discovered the following under false teachers:
Other
groups are not only joining up with such non-Christian organizations as the
Roman Catholic Church (RCC) but members of the RCC are in key positions of
leadership in some of these organizations, such as the Billy Graham Evangelical
Association. Before I get accused of Catholic bashing let me state that I
believe there are many born-again believers in the RCC but the official Catholic
dogma is totally against the orthodox Christian belief in "saved by Grace
through faith, not by works" and, in fact, it is the "official"
position of the RCC to consider anyone anathema who believes such.
"If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of Justification the
guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every
repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged
either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened,
let him be anathema" (The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent,
Session 6, Canon 30. Shroeder, H.J., Tan Books, 1978, p. 46. The Council of
Trent was reaffirmed by Vatican I & II --1960)
The
RCC also holds that it is the only means of salvation:
"There is one holy Catholic and apostolic church, outside of which there is
no salvation . . . . it is altogether necessary for salvation for every creature
to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."(Unam Sanctam AD 1302)
"This holy Council teaches . . . that the Church . . . is necessary for
salvation. . . . Hence, they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic
Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to
enter it, or to remain in it"(Austin Flannery, Vatican Council II, 1988,
vol. 1, pg 365, 366).
Vatican
II is still in effect today, and the Pope has not changed his stand on one iota
of it no matter what he says to the press when trying to supposedly promote
ecumenicalism. This can be easily proven by a recent article published on
September 5, 2000, by Ruth Gledhill, from the The-Times
in the United Kingdom entitled, Carey [the Archbishop of Canterbury] Rebukes
Vatican over "Improper" Slur where Gledhill indicates the Vatican,
approved by the Pope issued the following official statement:
The declaration, approved by the Pope, effectively condemns all post-Reformation
Churches. It says: "Ecclesial communities that have not preserved the valid
Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery are
not Churches in the proper sense."
The Vatican document, Declaration Dominus Iesus, also states that the followers
of non-Christian religions are "gravely deficient" and their rituals
"an obstacle to salvation."
There
you have it folks. Everyone who has been buying into the supposed welcoming of
all religions into the RCC under the false guise of ecumenical unity, have just
stepped into the RCC false gospel spider web.
Lori
Eldridge
April 30, 2000.
As I
mentioned above, many of your linked sites are connected to rapture beliefs and
prophesy. The link above and Prophetic News, http://www.harpazo.net/news.html
are just a few that promote the rapture.
Site
Prophecy Events, http://www.aplus-software.com/thglory/ has an article called,
“The Church is not the Church.” Although not blatantly anti-Catholic it
argues against a visible authoritative Church,
“Indeed the truth is that the church we see is NOT the CHURCH of the
Most High. The true ecclesia has remained hidden…”
Next, the
Prophecy Guide link takes you on a scary journey regarding the end times that
just don’t jive with Catholic teaching. I’m not saying we’re not in the
“end times,” I am saying Prophecy Guide needs an authoritative guide. It’s
clear they reject Traditional Catholic teaching. They also list Pope John Paul
II as a typical candidate for the anti-Christ http://www.prophecyupdate.com/all_hell_breaks_loose.htm
They
don’t support the accusation outright, but they don’t deny it either.
Why do you
link to Hal Lindsey? http://www.hallindseyoracle.com.
The propaganda from this guy is scary and dangerous. I do not know of any contemporary Catholic theologian or
Professor who would even remotely recommend this man or any of his teachings.
Spiritual
Counterfeits: http://www.scp-inc.org/ doesn’t scream anti-Catholicism but the
titles regarding a One World Church does.
Other
links, such as TBN, do not have search engines, but are of suspicious theology.
At this
point Michael it is taking me too much time to research this any further. Yes,
there are good Catholic sites linked to by Spirit Daily, but bad ones and the
poor ones do a lot of damage. I
believe in being Ecumenical but never at the compromise of Truth. Please do
yourself, your site, your Faith, your God a favor and remove the anti-Catholic
sites from Spirit Daily.
May the
Peace of Christ be with you always,
Doug
Sparkes
Pugetsoundcatholic.com
From: M
Brown
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 12:37:47 EDT
Fear not. I'm as Catholic as you are, and I go to an old-fashioned Mass every
day. You're right: we can't be responsible for the links from links, and no,
I don't agree with the Rapture, nor some other ideas.
But we believe our readership is mature enough to discern for itself, and
frankly we have received very very few complaints in the thousands of e-mails
we have received. Catholics clue into the Catholic sites. They realize we
don't endorse all views. And even if we had only Catholic links, there are
problems with those too (such as those that follow demonic apparitions, or
who in their traditionalism go to a far extreme and become hostile and even
nasty toward other sites). We are called above all to love.
However, if you find any DIRECT link that calls the Pope names, or
criticizes the Catholic Church, please let me know. Our philosophy is to
follow John Paul II's call to ecumenism; he said two months ago to "open a
dialogue" with other denominations. Can you imagine what some would say if
we
visited a mosque?
He doesn't agree with Muslim philosophy but is opening up communication, and
we note an encouraging trend among some major Protestant sites of accepting
Tradition and purgatory.
God bless and thanks for the feedback, which I will further review.
In Christ and His blessed mother,
Michael Brown