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Christ Has Done 99% And 1% Is Up To Us

".. Pope John Paul II was offering Catholics visiting Rome a Plenary Jubilee Indulgence. Pilgrims were required to receive sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, visit the basilicas of Saint Peter, and Saint Mary Major, and at each location pray for the pope's intentions, his personal prayer requests. Those meeting these requirements would receive a complete remission of the temporal punishment of their sins.. [When a Catholic Sister was questioned:] "I thought you said that Christ had died for your sins, that salvation was through trusting Him!" [She replied] "Christ has done His ninety- nine percent. We have to cooperate by doing our one percent." (Good News for Catholics by James G. McCarthy, Fall/Winter 1996)

Paganism and Catholicism Compared

Did you know that devout (but pagan) Buddhists pray before a statue  for  hours  with a rosary? Did you know  that  relics  of bones, teeth and hair are enshrined in Buddhist temples and  worshipped?  Buddhist  also  keep guardian statues  and  images  for protection  and to repel evil spirits. Did you know that  a  Buddhist  priest has his own parish? Sweeping the Pagoda is  considered to be an "act of Merit" and a Buddhist's favorite object  of prayer  is his Kuan Yin, a female goddess. Did you know  that  in the pagan  Taoist  religion, a priest  burns  incense  and  asks "patron  saints" to bless deceased family members? Did  you  know that  in Confucianism, they have a burning ceremony to release  a soul  from  purgatory? Did you know that  Islam  worshipers make pilgrimages  to touch and kiss sacred objects? They also  self-inflict  wounds upon themselves. They build ornate mosques for  the bodies  of  Moslem  saints, and pilgrims come to  pray  at  these tombs.  Did you know that heathen Hindus ring temple bells  as a devotional  act? That Hindus pray for the dead? That the  Brahmin prays  before images while kissing a string of beads?  Do  these pagan religious customs sound familiar?

The question we must  ask is,  "Would  a true, born-from-above-Christian  do such  things? Based on such Scriptures as John 14:26, 16:13, 1 Corinthians  12-14, the answer must be. "No!" More specifically, we ask, "Would a bonafide Christian enter a "temple" and participate in a  service where "priest" makes a sacrifice for sin? Again basing our answer on  such passages as Hebrews 6:4-6, 9:14, 10:10-14, 12:2, 1  John 1:7, Revelation 1:5, 5:9 and 2 Peter 2:20-22, we must reply  that a true born again Christian would not. (Battle  Cry, Chick Publications P.O.Box  662,  Chino,  Ca. 91708, Victor Bryditski)

Did the Gates of Hell Prevail Against the Church?

A Question to a Catholic Apologist stated: "You claim that the Roman Catholic Church (and  presumably  the  Eastern  Orthodox Church as well)  went  into  complete apostasy  and  became  the whore of Revelation 17.  If  so,  then Christ didn't keep His promise that "the gates of hell" would not prevail against the church he founded, because for many centuries prior  to the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church was the  only Christian  church  there was. I've heard this  argument  used  by Catholic apologists such as Matatics and Hahn. It is also used by Ken  Samples in his articles in the Christian Research  Institute Journal. It seems to make sense. How do you respond?
Answer: Very simply. The paganization of Christianity began under Constantine  and the apostasy began under  Constantine  and  the apostasy worsened for centuries. Eventually the mass of  professing  "Christians" were identified with what came to be known  as Roman Catholic Church. It claimed to be the "one true Church" and excommunicated,  persecuted,  killed and even  tried  to  destroy records  of  all who would not bow to its supreme  authority  and embrace its anti-Christ heresies.
Nevertheless, there were always groups of simple  Christians who attempted to follow the Bible according to their  consciences and who met not in the cathedrals of the "official church" but in the forests or other secret meeting places. One of the best books tracing  these groups, "The Pilgrim Church", by Broadbent,  after being  out of print for years, is being reprinted and we hope  to be able to offer it soon.
Yes, Roman Catholicism is in total apostasy and has been for many  centuries.  No, that does not mean that the  entire  church fell  into apostasy and thus the gates of hell prevailed  against it,  for  there were always multitudes who were not part  of  the "whore of Babylon" as John describes her in Revelation 17.