MIKE GENDRON: IS ROMAN CATHOLICISM STILL A MISSION FIELD?
SEE: www.proclaimingthegospel.org; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Almost two-thirds of Protestant pastors view Pope Francis as a genuine Christian and their "brother in Christ." This is according to a recent survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors released by LifeWay Research. These stunning statistics are the tragic results of all the unity accords that have been signed by evangelical leaders with Roman Catholics. Many evangelicals, and a growing number of ministries, no longer view the Roman Catholic religion as a mission field and see no reason to share the Gospel with Catholics. 
One example of an ecumenical ministry that was recently brought to my attention is Young Life. Its stated mission is to introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith. However, because of their ecumenical unity with Roman Catholicism, we must ask: "Which Jesus and which faith?" They encourage Catholics to remain in their Catholic faith, a faith that embraces "another Jesus and another gospel" (2 Cor. 11:4). The Jesus of Rome is a counterfeit Christ who is unable to save sinners completely and forever. Catholic priests must continue on an altar what the true Jesus finished on the cross (John 19:30). Another "Jesus" always leads to another "gospel."
Young Life's goal for Catholics is clearly stated in this video at the 1 minute 21 second mark. "Our goal is not to take them from one tradition to another, but to help them grow where they have been planted, to help them be more vibrantly Catholic and more actively Catholic." In other words, their goal is not to speak the truth in love and call Catholics to repent from their false and fatal gospel. Are we really loving people if we allow them to walk proudly towards hell's gate without warning them of their pending peril?
Five hundred years ago, Protestants were calling the Pope, "AntiChrist" as they were tortured and killed for their unwillingness to compromise the Gospel of Christ. It appears many evangelical ministries and church leaders have either forgotten the Reformation or deemed it unnecessary. They need to know that the Catholic Church has not changed and still leads people to hell with its false and fatal gospel. John MacArthur states this emphatically in this brief interview.
Recently, the leadership of Young Life met with Pope Francis to share their desire to pursue ecumenical unity. Perhaps Young Life is not aware that this pope has a seductive agenda to establish a one world religion by uniting all professing Christians under the power and influence of the papacy. An interfaith event sponsored by the Archdiocese of Portland and Young Life drew 240 people and raised almost $130,000 to fund a Catholic staffer at Young Life. It is heartbreaking to see a ministry that seeks to honor the Lord Jesus Christ ignore His prayer to be sanctified by the truth (John 17:19). There is nothing a Young Life Catholic staffer can do to lead people to Christ until he/she exchanges his or her religion for a relationship with Christ by repenting and believing the Gospel (Mark 1:15).
It is my prayer that the leadership of Young Life will come to their senses and begin proclaiming the exclusivity and purity of the Gospel. If they continue their ecumenical unity with the apostate church of Rome, they will dishonor Christ, compromise His Gospel and produce many false converts. It is because of the growing evangelical love affair with the Roman Catholic religion that I wrote my latest book on Contending for the Gospel.
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The Only Hope for Those Who Are Perishing
The Lord Jesus came to seek and save the lost. When He ascended to heaven, He gave that mission to His Body, the Church. Christians must seek the lost because no one seeks after the true God (Rom. 3:10). When we truly love people we will show them from God's Word how they can escape the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10-14). Then we can leave a Gospel tract with the good news from Scripture. Order some here.
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The Blasphemy of the Catholic Mass
John MacArthur has been preaching an excellent series on the heresies of the Roman Catholic Church as seen through the lens of Scripture. He stated emphatically that the Catholic Mass is "an unbiblical system of repeated sacrifices, blaspheming Christ and perverting His work on the cross." MacArthur continues: "Put simply, the Catholic Church won't let Christ off the cross. In the mass, the substance of the bread and the wine are supposedly transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus, rendering Him as a repeated, incomplete sacrifice for sins. He's not Lord and Savior; He's the eternal victim, perpetually bound to the altar by the power of the priest, visibly and ubiquitously symbolized in the Roman Catholic crucifix."
Scripture does not waver on the finality of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. He came to make a one-time offering for sin, never to be repeated. It was a contrast to the Mosaic covenant, which required a system of near-constant sacrifices. But none of the Old Testament sacrifices could actually atone for sin. They could only serve as a reminder of God's deliverance and foreshadow Christ's final sacrifice which would conquer sin. Read the message here.
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Seventh-day Adventists, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals Sign a Historic ‘Ecumenical Charter’ that Affirms Faith in ‘One, Holy, Catholic Apostolic Church’
BY ANDY ROMAN
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