Dr. Martin
Luther BIBLE
The Roman
Catholic Church
The Great Controversy, E. G. White,
pp. 520, 521
„The
position
that
it
is
of
no
consequence
what
men
believe
is
one
of
Satan's
most
successful
deceptions.
He
knows
that
the
truth,
received
in
the
love
of
it,
sanctifies
the
soul
of
the
receiver;
therefore
he
is
constantly
seeking
to
substitute
false
theories,
fables,
another
gospel.
From
the
beginning
the
servants
of
God
have
contended
against
false
teachers,
not
merely
as
vicious
men,
but
as
inculcators
of
falsehoods
that
were
fatal
to
the
soul.
Elijah,
Jeremiah,
Paul,
firmly
and
fearlessly
opposed
those
who
were
turning
men
from
the
word
of
God.
That
liberality
which
regards
a
correct
religious
faith
as
unimportant
found
no
favor
with
these
holy
defenders
of
the
truth.
The
vague
and
fanciful
interpretations
of
Scripture,
and
the
many
conflicting
theories
concerning
religious
faith,
that
are
found
in
the
Christian
world
are
the
work
of
our
great
adversary
to
confuse
minds
so
that
they
shall
not discern the truth.
In
order
to
sustain
erroneous
doctrines
or
unchristian
practices,
some
will
seize
upon
passages
of
Scripture
separated
from
the
context,
perhaps
quoting
half
of
a
single
verse
as
proving
their
point,
when
the
remaining
portion
would
show
the
meaning
to
be
quite
the
opposite.
With
the
cunning
of
the
serpent
they
entrench
themselves
behind
disconnected
utterances
construed
to
suit
their
carnal
desires.
Thus
do
many
willfully
pervert
the
word
of
God.
Others,
who
have
an
active
imagination,
seize
upon
the
figures
and
symbols
of
Holy
Writ,
interpret
them
to
suit
their
fancy,
with
little
regard
to
the
testimony
of
Scripture
as
its
own
interpreter,
and
then
they
present
their
vagaries
as the teachings of the Bible.
Whenever
the
study
of
the
Scriptures
is
entered
upon
without
a
prayerful,
humble,
teachable
spirit,
the
plainest
and
simplest
as
well
as
the
most
difficult
passages
will
be
wrested
from
their
true
meaning.
The
papal
leaders
select
such
portions
of
Scripture
as
best
serve
their
purpose,
interpret
to
suit
themselves,
and
then
present
these
to
the
people,
while
they
deny
them
the
privilege
of
studying
the
Bible
and
understanding
its
sacred
truths
for
themselves.
The
whole
Bible
should
be
given
to
the
people
just
as
it
reads.
It
would
be
better
for
them
not
to
have
Bible
instruction
at
all
than
to
have
the
teaching
of
the
Scriptures
thus
grossly
misrepresented.“
The Great Controversy, pp. 569-570
„The
Roman
Catholic
Church,
uniting
the
forms
of
paganism
and
Christianity,
and,
like
paganism,
misrepresenting
the
character
of
God,
had
resorted
to
practices
no
less
cruel
and
revolting.
In
the
days
of
Rome's
supremacy
there
were
instruments
of
torture
to
compel
assent
to
her
doctrines.
There
was
the
stake
for
those
who
would
not
concede
to
her
claims.
There
were
massacres
on
a
scale
that
will
never
be
known
until
revealed
in
the
judgment.
Dignitaries
of
the
church
studied,
under
Satan
their
master,
to
invent
means
to
cause
the
greatest
possible
torture
and
not
end
the
life
of
the
victim.
In
many
cases
the
infernal
process
was
repeated
to
the
utmost
limit
of
human
endurance,
until
nature
gave
up
the
struggle,
and
the
sufferer
hailed death as a sweet release.
If
we
desire
to
understand
the
determined
cruelty
of
Satan,
manifested
for
hundreds
of
years,
not
among
those
who
never
heard
of
God,
but
in
the
very
heart
and
throughout
the
extent
of
Christendom,
we
have
only
to
look
at
the
history
of
Romanism.
Through
this
mammoth
system
of
deception
the
prince
of
evil
achieves
his
purpose
of
bringing
dishonor
to
God
and
wretchedness
to
man.
And
as
we
see
how
he
succeeds
in
disguising
himself
and
accomplishing
his
work
through
the
leaders
of
the
church,
we
may
better
understand
why
he
has
so
great
antipathy
to
the
Bible.
If
that
Book
is
read,
the
mercy
and
love
of
God
will
be
revealed;
it
will
be
seen
that
He
lays
upon
men
none
of
these
heavy
burdens.
All
that
He
asks
is
a
broken
and
contrite
heart,
a
humble,
obedient
spirit.
Christ
gives
no
example
in
His
life
for
men
and
women
to
shut
themselves
in
monasteries
in
order
to
become
fitted
for
heaven.
He
has
never
taught
that
love
and
sympathy
must
be
repressed.
The
Saviour's
heart
overflowed
with
love.
The
nearer
man
approaches
to
moral
perfection,
the
keener
are
his
sensibilities,
the
more
acute
is
his
perception
of
sin,
and
the
deeper
his
sympathy
for
the
afflicted.
The
pope
claims
to
be
the
vicar
of
Christ;
but
how
does
his
character
bear
comparison
with
that
of
our
Saviour?
Was
Christ
ever
known
to
consign
men
to
the
prison
or
the
rack
because
they
did
not
pay
Him
homage
as
the
King
of
heaven?
Was
His
voice
heard
condemning
to
death
those
who
did
not
accept
Him?
When
He
was
slighted
by
the
people
of
a
Samaritan
village,
the
apostle
John
was
filled
with
indignation,
and
inquired:
"Lord,
wilt
Thou
that
we
command
fire
to
come
down
from
heaven,
and
consume
them,
even
as
Elias
did?"
Jesus
looked
with
pity
upon
His
disciple,
and
rebuked
his
harsh
spirit,
saying:
"The
Son
of
man
is
not
come
to
destroy
men's
lives,
but
to
save
them."
Luke
9:54,
56.
How
different
from
the
spirit
manifested
by
Christ
is
that
of
His
professed vicar.“
The Great Controversy, pp. 570-571
„The
Roman
Church
now
presents
a
fair
front
to
the
world,
covering
with
apologies
her
record
of
horrible
cruelties.
She
has
clothed
herself
in
Christlike
garments;
but
she
is
unchanged.
Every
principle
of
the
papacy
that
existed
in
past
ages
exists
today.
The
doctrines
devised
in
the
darkest
ages
are
still
held.
Let
none
deceive
themselves.
The
papacy
that
Protestants
are
now
so
ready
to
honor
is
the
same
that
ruled
the
world
in
the
days
of
the
Reformation,
when
men
of
God
stood
up,
at
the
peril
of
their
lives,
to
expose
her
iniquity.
She
possesses
the
same
pride
and
arrogant
assumption
that
lorded
it
over
kings
and
princes,
and
claimed
the
prerogatives
of
God.
Her
spirit
is
no
less
cruel
and
despotic
now
than
when
she
crushed
out
human
liberty
and
slew
the
saints
of
the
Most
High.
The
papacy
is
just
what
prophecy
declared
that
she
would
be,
the
apostasy
of
the
latter
times.
2
Thessalonians
2:3,
4.
It
is
a
part
of
her
policy
to
assume
the
character
which
will
best
accomplish
her
purpose;
but
beneath
the
variable
appearance
of
the
chameleon
she
conceals the invariable
venom
of
the
serpent.
"Faith
ought
not
to
be
kept
with
heretics,
nor
persons
suspected
of
heresy"
(Lenfant,
volume
1,
page
516),
she
declares.
Shall
this
power,
whose
record
for
a
thousand
years
is
written
in
the
blood
of
the
saints,
be
now
acknowledged
as
a
part
of
the
church of Christ?
“
The Great Controversy, pp. 580, 704
„Protestants
little
know
what
they
are
doing
when
they
propose
to
accept
the
aid
of
Rome
in
the
work
of
Sunday
exaltation.
While
they
are
bent
upon
the
accomplishment
of
their
purpose,
Rome
is
aiming
to
re-establish
her
power,
to
recover
her
lost
supremacy.
Let
history
testify
of
her
artful
and
persistent
efforts
to
insinuate
herself
into
the
affairs
of
nations;
and
having
gained
a
foothold,
to
further
her
own
aims,
even
at
the
ruin
of
princes
and
people.
Romanism
openly
puts
forth
the
claim
that
the
pope
„can
pronounce
sentences
and
judgments
in
contradiction
to
right
of
nations,
to
the
law
of
God
and man.“
(The Decretalia.“)
„PIUS
IX.
AND
THE
DECREE
OF
INFALLIBILITY.
-
From
Mr.
Gladestone‘s
tract,
„The
Vatican
Decrees,“
we
condense
the
following
brief
account
of
the
promulgation
of
the
decree
of
infallibility
under
Pope
Pius
IX.:
The
Vatican
Council
was
solemnly
opened,
amid
the
sound
of
innumerable
bells
and
the
cannon
of
St.
Angelo,
December
8,
1869,
in
the
Basilica
of
the
Vatican.
At
the
fourth
public
session,
July
18,
1870,
the
decree
of
papal
infallibility
was
proclaimed.
This
decree
not
only
asserts
the
power
of
the
Roman
pontiff
over
all
other
churches,
but
attributes
to
him
„an
immediate
jurisdiction,
to
which
all
Catholics,
both
pastors
and
people,
are
bound
to
submit
in
matters
not
only
of
faith
and
morals,
but
even
of
discipline
and
government.“
It
declares
that
the
pope,
when
speaking
„in
his
official
capacity,
to
the
Christian
world
on
subjetcs
relating
to
faith
and
morals,
is
infallible,“
and
that
his
decisions
are
final
and
irreverable.
This
crowning
act
of
papal
blasphemy
was
speedily
followed
by
the
fall
of
the
pope‘s
temporal
sovereignty.
On
the
second
of
September,
1870,
six
weeks
from
the
time
when
the
decree
of
infallibility
was
proclaimed,
„the
French
Empire,
which
had
been
the
main
support
of
the
temporal
power
of
the
pope,
collapsed
with
the
surrender
of
Napoleon
III.,
at
the
old
Huguenot
stronghold
of
Sedan,
to
the
Protestant
King
William
of
Prussia;
and
on
the
twentieth
of
September
the
Italian
troops,
in
the
name
of
King
Victor
Emanuel,
took
possession
of
Rome,
as
the
future
capital
of
united
Italy.“
From
the
day
when
Pius
IX.
appeared
before
the
people
of
Rome,
at
the
announcement
of
his
infallibility,
he
was
never
again
seen
in
public.
Shorn
of
his
temporal
power,
and
disclaining
to
own
himself
subject
to
the
national
authority,
the
proud
pontiff
of
Rome
continued,
until
his
death,
in
1878,
a
self-constituted
prisoner
in
the
palace of the Vatican.“
Hebrews
7,11
„If
therefore
perfection
were
by
the
Levitical
priesthood,
for
under
it
have
the
people
received
the
law,
what
further
need
was
there
that
another
priest
should
rise
after
the
order
of
Melchizedek,
and
not
be
called
after
the
order
of
Aaron?
(12)
For
the
priesthood
being
changed,
there
is
made
of
necessity
a
change
also of the law.
(13)
For
he
of
whom
these
things
are
spoken
belongs
to
another
tribe,
of
which
no
man
gave
attendance
at
the
altar.
(14)
For
it
is
evident
that
our
Master/Savior
sprang
out
of
Judah;
of
which
tribe
Moses
spoke
nothing
concerning
priesthood.
(15)
And
it
is
yet
far
more
evident:
for
that
after
the
similitude
of
Melchisedec
there
arises
another
priest,
(16)
Who
is
made,
not
after
the
law
of
a
carnal
commandment,
but
after
the
power
of
an
endless
life.
(17)
For
he
testifies
(Ps.
110:4):
»You
are
a
priest
forever
after
the
order
of
Melchizedek.«
(18)
For
there
is
verily
a
disannulling
of
the
commandment
going
before
because
of
its
weakness
and
unprofitableness.
(19)
For
the
law
made
nothing
perfect,
but
the
bringing
in
of
a
better
hope
did;
by the which we draw near to YAHWEH.
(20)
And
inasmuch
as
not
without
an
oath
he
was
made
priest:
(21)
For
priests
were
made
without
an
oath;
but
this
with
an
oath
by
him
that
says
to
him
(Ps.
110:4):
»YAHWEH
swore
and
will
not
repent,
You
are
a
priest
forever
after
the
order
of
Melchizedek;«
(22)
By
so
much
was
Yahshua
made
a
surety
of
a
better
covenant.
(23)
And
they
truly
were
many
priests,
because
they
were
hindered
by
death
from
continuing:
(24)
But
this
man,
because
he
continues
forever,
has
an
unchangeable
priesthood.
(25)
Therefore
he
is
able
also
to
save
them
to
the
uttermost
that
come
to
YAHWEH
by
him,
seeing
he
ever
lives
to
make
intercession
for
them.
(26)
For
such
a
high
priest
became
us,
holy,
guileless,
undefiled,
separated
from
sinners,
and
made
higher
than
the
heavens;
(27)
Who
needs
not
daily,
as
those
high
priests,
to
offer
up
sacrifice,
first
for
his
own
sins,
and
then
for
the
people's:
for
this
he
did
once,
when
he
offered
up
himself.
(28)
For
the
law
makes
(appoints)
men
high
priests
which
have
infirmity;
but
the
word
of
the
oath,
which
was
after
the
law,
makes/appoints
the
Son, who is consecrated forevermore.
Hebrews
8,1
Now
of
the
things
which
we
have
spoken
this
is
the
sum:
We
have
such
a
High
Priest,
who
sat
on
the
right
hand
of
the
throne
of the Majesty in the heavens;
(2)
A
minister
of
the
sanctuary,
and
of
the
true
tabernacle,
which
YAHWEH
pitched,
and
not
man.“