THE TRINITY REVIEW

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare [are] not

fleshly but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts

itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And they will

be ready to punish all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

Number 355   Copyright 2020   The Trinity Foundation Post Office Box 68, Unicoi, Tennessee 37692   Jan, Feb 2020   Email: tjtrinityfound@aol.com   Website: www.trinityfoundation.org      Telephone: 423.743.0199         Fax: 423.743.2005

Come Out of Her My People: Revelation and the Roman Church-State’s Ongoing Pedophilia Scandals

By Steven T. Matthews

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” – Revelation 18:4

The headline in the Detroit Free Press was as familiar as it was appalling: “5 Catholic Priests Charged in Michigan Sex Abuse Investigation.”[1] “Does this never end?” I thought to myself upon reading it. The answer, it would seem, is no. Indeed, investigations revealing the horrifying scale of the sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church-State have become something of a commonplace in recent years. Time would fail me were I to even attempt to cover, if but briefly, the scandals that have occurred just here in America, let alone try to talk about those in other countries.

As I read through the article – please note, the piece in the Detroit Free Press is, in parts, quite graphic, as it contains language from the affidavits connected with the case; in reading them one is reminded of what the Apostle Paul said to the Ephesians when he wrote to them concerning deeds about which it was shameful even to speak – I kept thinking about the passage in Revelation, where the voice from Heaven warns God’s people to come out of Mystery Babylon, the Mother of Harlots, that is to say, the Roman Church-State (RCS), “that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.”

But not only did I think about unspeakable wickedness of the RCS, but also about the thunderous silence that emanates from the pulpits of even Bible-believing Protestant churches concerning the predations of Rome against the most vulnerable of her people. If you think I’m overstating the case, ask yourself this, When was the last time you heard a sermon from the pulpit about Antichrist, about Mystery Babylon, and about the work these tools of Satan are doing right in front of our faces? When was the last time you heard a Protestant minister publicly point out the sins of the Roman Church-State or warn his flock about the dangers of this false church? The answer, most likely, is never.

Jesus enjoined his disciples to go into all the world and to teach all the things he had taught them. Paul said he was innocent of the blood of all men, because he did not fail to teach the Ephesians the whole counsel of God. Since part of the whole counsel of God is the Bible’s teaching about Antichrist and about Mystery Babylon, when ministers fail to teach about these topics, or to teach about them falsely, the necessary conclusion is that they – and I’m talking here not about liberal ministers who long ago abandoned any pretense of teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but those who would be considered conservative and Bible-believing – are blood guilty for their failure to properly instruct both their congregations and the unbelieving world.

Antichrist is alive and well, and the evil fruits of his evil doctrines are splashed across the headlines all over the internet, yet we Christians remain silent. Why is this? Ignorance is likely one reason. But perhaps more than ignorance, it is out of fear that we remain silent. Fear that we will be rejected. Fear that we will give offense. Fear that men will not hear us and will not like us. Fear of losing our jobs and fear of being censored on the internet. Fear that we will be called haters and intolerant. Fear of being banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

To all this, Jesus says “Fear not.” It is he who is our King, and it is to him that we owe our allegiance. It is he who warned his disciples not to fear those who could kill the body only, that is to say, other men, but to fear him who can destroy body and soul in Hell, that is to say, God.

With this in mind, let us take a closer look at Revelation 18:4, and see how it relates to the horrible headlines of sex abuse in the Roman Church-State that we so often see.

One Command, Two Purposes

In Revelation 18:4, the Apostle John writes that he heard a second voice from Heaven. This voice, John tells us, issued forth one command followed by two purposes. The command being “Come out from her,” and the purposes appended to this command being “that ye be not partakers of her sins,” and, “that ye receive not of her plagues.”

Let us begin by considering the command and the voice that issued both it and the purposes attached to it. John calls this voice “another voice,” thus distinguishing it from the first voice reported in verses 1-3. This voice, John tells us plainly, was that of an angel. But the origin of the second voice which concerns us here is not so clear. John Gill notes in his commentary on the passage that this voice is “Either of another, or of the same angel [as in verses 1-3], or rather of God, or Christ himself, since the persons addressed are called his people.” Given, as Gill notes, that the voice refers to my people, it seems best to understand it to be of divine, rather than of angelic, origin.

This divine voice commands “my people” to “come out of her,” prompting us to ask just what is meant by the terms “my people” and “her.” The identification of “her” is really no great problem. In the context of this passage, the only clear antecedent of “her” is “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” from the preceding chapter, Revelation 17:5. This woman is said to ride upon a beast with seven heads, which, we are told, is code for seven mountains, “on which the woman sitteth” (17:9) and is identified as “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (17:18). Quite obviously, MYSTERY BABYLON is Rome.

That MYSTERY BABYLON is Rome is so clear that even the Romanists themselves cannot deny it. But they, along with many Protestants influenced as they are by the eschatological schemes of the Jesuits from the period of the Counter Reformation, insist that this is a reference to Rome pagan rather than Rome papal. But this is not the case. One clue to the correct identification of the Woman Who Rides the Beast as Rome papal is the fact that she is destroyed, not in the fifth century AD when the Western Empire was finally overrun by the invading barbarian armies, but at the return of Christ in Revelation 19. Rome pagan is long gone. Rome papal is still very much with us and, as Revelation teaches, will continue to be with us until the end.

Next, let us consider what is meant by “my people.” Gill proposes two answers to this question. On one hand, he proposes that by “my people” is meant those in the RCS who were elect but not yet called and remained until this time in an unconverted state. On the other hand, Gill suggests that “my people” may refer to those “secretly called by the grace of God, but had not made a public profession of the Gospel, not bore an open testimony against the Romish idolatry.” It seems to me that there is no necessity to pick one or the other of these alternatives, as if they were exclusive of each other. Rather, the passage seems to allow us to hold that both groups could well be the referents of “my people.”

One important implication of this passage is that God has an elect people among the Roman Catholics, whom he will call out at the time of his choosing. And although the passage in question seems to suggest a large-scale leaving of Rome by the elect at the end times, this process began at the time of the Reformation and continues even until this day. The entire first generation of the Protestant church were pilgrims from Rome papal, even as were the children of Israel when they were called out of Egypt and bound for the Promised Land.

This passage is devastating to those who, holding that Roman Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ, discourage Protestants from evangelizing Roman Catholics. Chuck Colson put forth this position in his Evangelicals & Catholics Together,[2] a book which called for Protestants and Roman Catholics to band together as brothers in arms.

But, as shocking as this may sound to 21st century, ecumenical Protestant ears, Roman Catholics are not Christians. “Intolerance!” such men will scream. “We need to be making common cause with Rome to end abortion and win the culture war,” they will say, “and here you are preaching hate!” Let me assure you that I harbor no hatred in my heart for Romanists. When I say they are not Christians, I say that objectively and not as a matter of opinion on my part. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Justification by Belief Alone, is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, and Rome has damned and cursed, not only this same Gospel, but also anyone who believes it. Rome teaches a different gospel, a mangled “gospel” of works-faith righteousness, which is no gospel at all. Such a gospel saves exactly no one and condemns everyone who believes it. It is for this reason that I say Romanists are not Christians.

Now some may argue, as Gill suggests above, that there are secret believers among the Romanists just as there were secret disciples of Jesus among the Pharisees, Joseph of Arimathea for example. This may very will be, but these believers, if indeed they are believers, have a duty before God to obey the second voice from Heaven, God’s voice, and “come out from her.” This was the point of John Calvin’s Anti-Nicodemite writings.[3] The Nicodemites were Reformed believers who had not yet separated from Rome. In one of his letters addressed to “Some Friends,” Calvin noted that it was not enough to worship God secretly in one’s heart only, but that he must also be concerned with “external things.” “For if the heart is good, it will produce its outward fruit,” wrote Calvin.[4] Part of that outward fruit involves separating oneself from apostasy. This means that true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are still in Rome must not remain there. Rather, they are commanded, even as Lot was when he found himself in that wicked city of Sodom, to flee from Rome lest they partake of her sins and receive of her plagues.

Another Headline

“US Catholic Church Reports Big Rise in Sex-Abuse Allegations,” ran the AP headline.[5] In a way, this latest announcement by the U.S. Roman Catholic Church seemed to underscore the point above about the horrifying scale of the Antichrist Roman Church-State’s pedophilia problem. Then again, with announcement after announcement of new and horrific enormities committed by Roman Catholic priests seeming to hit the news wires every week, a jaded individual may be tempted to say, “well, it’s business as usual.”

According to the AP story,

During the period from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018, 1,385 adults came forward with 1,455 allegations of abuse, according to the annual report[6] of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection. That was up from 693 allegations in the previous year. The report attributed much of the increase to a victim compensation program implemented in five dioceses in New York state.

According to the report, Catholic dioceses and religious orders spent $301.6 million during the reporting period on payments to victims, legal fees and child-protection efforts. That was up 14% from the previous year and double the amount spent in the 2014 fiscal year.

As horrific as these numbers are, they apparently do not include the findings of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury concerning the sexual abuse of children in six dioceses – according to the Washington Post, “The lengthy [Grand Jury] report identified about 1,000 children who were victims but concluded there were probably thousands more. ‘Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God [sic] who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.’”[7] – since the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report was not released until August, after the June 30, 2018 reporting period ended.

The report says nothing about the activities of Theodore Edgar McCarrick, the disgraced former Cardinal, because the allegations against him were not with respect to the abuse of children, but of adult seminarians. Likewise, the report includes nothing about the sexual abuse scandal in Illinois that made headlines in December 2018. According to the New York Times,

The Catholic Church in Illinois withheld the names of at least 500 priests accused of sexual abuse of minors, the state’s attorney general said Wednesday in a scathing report that accused the church of failing victims by neglecting to investigate their allegations.

The preliminary report by Attorney General Lisa Madigan concludes that the Catholic dioceses in Illinois are incapable of investigating themselves and “will not resolve the clergy sexual abuse crisis on their own.”

The report said that 690 priests were accused of abuse, and only 185 names were made public by the dioceses as having been found credibly accused of abuse.

“The number of allegations above what was already public is shocking,” said Ms. Madigan in an interview.[8]

Finally, the report does not include the victims of Catholic priest abuse in Michigan. That story indicates that five priests in the state were indicted for sexual abuse of minors and quoted Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel saying that the five cases were “the tip of the iceberg.” The story notes that investigators in the state were in the process of tracking down hundreds of tips about abuse by Catholic priests.

The story in the Detroit Free Press is very explicit, so I recommend caution when reading it. Just to give you a flavor of what went on, one priest is charged with abusing a 10-year-old boy, providing him with alcohol and cigarettes, and also threatening to kill him if he told anyone.

Michigan Deputy Solicitor General Ann Sherman expressed dismay at the attitudes of some of the hierarchy, noting that one priest attempted to put the blame for the abuse on the victims. Said Sherman, “This attitude is horrific. Sexual abuse is never the fault of the victim and it certainly can never be that sexual abuse of a child is a child’s fault.”[9]

One struggles to come up with sufficient words of outrage when it comes to the attitudes and the actions of the Roman Catholic clergy in the instances listed above. Then to think that these represent but a tiny fraction of what has gone on in just one country – the mind reels.

I could go on much longer, but lest we lose sight of the passage at hand, let us now return to consider how the child abuse horror can be related to Revelation 18:4.

One Command, Two Purposes – First: Be Not Partakers of Her Sins

As noted above, Revelation 18:4 has one command to which two purposes are appended. The command being “Come out of her, my people,” and the two purposes being “that ye be not partakers of her sins,” and “that ye receive not of her plagues.” We dealt with the command above. Now, let us examine the two purposes.

In the first place, the divine voice from Heaven tells his people to come out of the Harlot City, that is, the Roman Church-State, “that ye be not partakers of her sins.” This clause – “that ye be not partakers of her sins” – is referred to by Greek grammarians as a purpose clause. As the term “purpose clause” suggests, this construction gives a reason for that which precedes it; in this case, the command to come out of the Harlot City of papal Rome. Let us ask then, How is it that one partakes in Rome’s sins by remaining in her.

In the first place, one can partake in the sins of Rome simply by associating with its ministers. In 2 John, the same apostle who wrote Revelation warns the elect lady against so much as greeting false teachers or inviting them into her house. John does not warn about the sin of believing them, but simply of associating with them in any capacity. John continues by telling the elect lady, “For he that biddeth him [the false teacher] God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (verse 11).

Worth noting is that the Greek word translated “is partaker” in 2 John 11 (koinonei) is essentially the same word as rendered in Revelation 18:4 as “be not partakers” (synkoinonesete). The basic verb in both cases is koinoneo, which can be translated “have fellowship.” When people associate themselves with the clergy or the hierarchy of the Roman Church-State, either by being part of the RCS herself, or even by speaking well of her representatives as if they were fellow believers, they have fellowship with, they share in, the enormous sins of the Roman Church-State. This includes the many, enormous sins of pedophilia by Roman Catholic priests and the ensuing cover ups by the Church’s bishops, cardinals, and popes.

The apostle Paul also warns us against cozy relationships with Roman Catholic clergy. Paul commanded the Ephesians, “And have no fellowship (the Greek word Paul uses is the same one John uses in Revelation 18:4) with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). Certainly, those who remain in the RCS are guilty by association of the sins of the Roman Catholic clergy. It cannot be otherwise.

But while Roman Catholics accrue guilt by bidding “God speed” to unbelieving and, in some cases, predatory priests, guilt by association also attaches to Protestants, both to those who actively praise Roman Catholic laymen and clergy as “brothers in Christ,” as well as to those who, knowing the evil doctrine and practices of Rome, fail to warn the faithful of the Satanic nature of the RCS.

Many of the most famous Protestant ministers of the 20th and 21st century have associated themselves with Rome. Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, J. I. Packer, Bill Hybles, and Rick Warren are just a few of the names who “have bidden God speed” to representatives of the Antichrist RCS and have, therefore, become guilty of the enormous sins of that synagogue of Satan.

Other ministers who perhaps see the problem with Rome and refuse to openly associate with or to praise the morally corrupt men who stalk its halls of power, nevertheless, sin by failing to speak out against Rome. The failure of Protestant ministers to believe the Bible’s warnings about the identity of Antichrist and the Woman Who Rides the Beast is really an act of treason against the Lord Jesus Christ. During Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in September 2015, Christianity Today ran an article titled “From Antichrist to Brother in Christ: How Protestant Pastors View the Pope.” The piece reviews the results of a survey done by LifeWay Research of 1,000 Protestant pastors, and notes that more than half of them say Pope Francis is their brother in Christ. But there’s more. According to the same survey,

- 90% of the Protestant pastors say Roman Catholics can be born again. [Do these men even have a clue what the Gospel of Justification by Belief Alone is?]

- 50% of the pastors value the Pope’s opinion on theological matters.

- The higher the educational attainment of the pastor, the greater the likelihood that he has a favorable view of the Pope. [Given my own experience in seminary, this is not surprising; a significant number of professors, even in supposedly Bible-believing seminaries are dupes of the RCS. These men not only are corrupt themselves, but also are corruptors of their students, who then go on to corrupt their congregations both by their active support, and passive acceptance, of the RCS as a Christian concern, and its representatives as Christians.][10]

The failure of supposedly Bible-believing Protestant ministers to speak out against the manifest evils of Rome has left generations of the faithful bereft of crucial knowledge about Antichrist and has opened up God’s people to being hoodwinked by the false doctrines of Satan’s masterpiece, the Roman Church-State.

It is not enough merely not to “bid God speed” to predatory priests, but as Paul tells us, one must also “reprove [their] unfruitful works of darkness.” To the extent that putatively Bible-believing ministers refuse to “go there” and reprove Rome for her pedophile priests, her conniving cardinals, her Antichrist popes, and her false gospel with a false Christ who saves no one, they partake in the manifold, monstrous sins of Rome.

In the second place, one can become guilty of the sins of Rome by believing her doctrines and by participating in her idolatrous worship. The contemporary idea that it doesn’t really matter what one believes so long as he is sincere carries no weight with God. He has told us in his Word what he requires of us, both to believe and to do. And for us to depart from his Word in these matters is a great sin.

It may come as a surprise to some that believing false doctrine is sinful. But if it is true, as James tells us, that God, “Of his own will begat us with the word of truth” (James 1:18), does it not follow that believing the lies of Satan, the father of lies, is a sin? And there is no greater liar on the face of this Earth than the Roman Catholic Magisterium, by which the Romanists mean the teaching office of the Church, consisting of the popes and bishops of Rome. Rome lies about the source of Christian authority, she lies about the sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the Scriptures themselves, and the Gospel. As Isaiah said of Judah in his day, so we can say of Rome in ours, there is no soundness in it.

If false doctrine leads to false practice, and it does, then it should come as no surprise that Rome’s corrupt doctrine leads to corrupt worship. Roman Catholics sin by participating in the mass, praying to Mary and the saints, confessing their sins to, and seeking absolution from, a priest and not God, making useless pilgrimages to holy shrines, and worshiping dead men’s bones.

But as bad as these things are, there is yet another way in which Roman Catholics sin by remaining in the Antichrist RCS: They knowingly expose their children to sexual predators. Now do I really mean to suggest that Roman Catholic parents who expose their children to pedophile priests have sinned by doing so? In short, yes, I do.

Now one may argue that not every priest is a pedophile, and that this, plus Rome’s tendency to cover up the enormous crimes of her priests by moving them from parish to parish, removes all culpability from the parents. But the scale of the pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church is so great, and the dangers posed by her priests to children is by now so obvious, that parents cannot reasonably claim to be ignorant of the threat these men pose to their children. The Scriptures command parents to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, not knowingly expose them to potential sexual predators. When Roman Catholic parents do so, they sin against God by endangering the lives of their own children.

Given the shocking scale of the enormities visited by Roman Catholic priests upon the Church’s children – and this, at least for the moment, is leaving aside the Church’s many other abuse scandals, for example, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse of seminarians[11] and the stories now surfacing about nuns who have committed sexual abuse of minors[12] – one wonders how conscientious parents could elect to leave their children alone with a priest even for a moment. Yet Roman Catholic parents routinely and willingly deliver their children into the arms of those who prey upon them. In doing this, they sin.

Now let us look at the second purpose uttered by the voice from Heaven in Revelation 18:4, “that ye receive not of her plagues.”

That Ye Receive Not of Her Plagues

The rescuing of God’s elect from the wicked city marked for destruction is a repeated theme in Scripture. Take, for example, the grace God showed to Lot in preserving him and his family from the utter destruction of Sodom. In Joshua, we see believing Rahab and her family rescued from Jericho. When Jerusalem fell under God’s judgment and was about to be sacked by the Babylonians, Jeremiah’s faithful scribe Baruch and the eunuch Ebed-Melech were promised deliverance from harm. Likewise, in the New Testament those who heeded Jesus warning to flee Jerusalem when they saw the city surrounded preserved their lives when Rome leveled the city once again in AD 70. From all this, we see that our God is a gracious God, choosing to rescue even a remnant of those who abide in the wicked city marked for destruction. Since God has so acted in the past, it should come as no surprise that he would act this way even as he is about to bring final judgment upon the Roman Harlot. God has judged, is judging, and will judge the Woman Who Rides the Beast, but in his mercy, in the midst of his judgments he still has a remnant whom he calls out.

God judged the Harlot city in the past when he caused her to suffer a mortal wound at the time of the Reformation. The preaching of the Gospel of Justification by Belief Alone destroyed Rome’s influence in many nations formerly under her sway. But Rome is an institution recovering from a mortal wound and today is more formidable than perhaps she has ever been.

But for all that, Rome is a wicked city, one that even now finds itself under the active judgment of God. This truth ought to be readily discerned by all God’s people, but has instead been obscured, at least in part, by the efforts of Protestant teachers, who, at best are confused, and at worst are unbelieving men actively working to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

To properly understand the pedophilia scandals plaguing the RCS, one must, in the first place, understand them in the context of God’s judgment upon “that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” God is not mocked. And even though the Roman Harlot will not come into final judgment until the end times, God through his exposure of Rome’s wickedness, nevertheless is even now calling this institution to account. Just as both Samaria and Judah found themselves under God’s judgment, but nevertheless were allowed to continue for a time, so too is Rome under God’s judgment and is being allowed also to continue for a time. And one of the purposes in God’s delaying judgment upon Rome is that he still has an elect remnant within that wicked city which he will, in his own time, call out.

When looking back at the history of the Reformation, one is amazed at how God’s grace saved so many out of Romish darkness. It was not just Catholic laymen who came out of Rome, but God used many former priests, men who had previously celebrated the blasphemous mass, to instead proclaim the good news of salvation by faith in Christ alone. Lest we Protestants suppose that those currently within the RCS are beyond hope, it is worth remembering that the Reformation was spearheaded by men who were former Roman Catholic priests.

As the author of Hebrews confessed that time would fail him were he to tell of all the faithful saints who went before him, so too would I fail to recount all the heroics for the sake of the Gospel that were performed during the Reformation by those who were formerly enemies of Christ, sunk as they were in Romish darkness. To speak the names of men such as Luther and Calvin would just barely scratch the surface of those who obeyed God’s voice and came out of her.

One of the great heroes of the English Reformation, and one of this author’s personal favorites, Hugh Latimer, was a man of like background to Luther and Calvin. Latimer was a Roman Catholic’s Roman Catholic in much the same way as Saul of Tarsus was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As an ordained priest, he vigorously preached against the doctrines of the Reformation. When Luther’s teaching began to gain a foothold in England, and even at Cambridge University, where Latimer graduated, he became incensed at the rising tide of “heresy.” Said Latimer, “Impiety [the doctrines of the Reformation] was gaining ground apace, and what lengths might not men be expected to run, when they began to question even the infallibility of the Pope?”[13]

But this “obstinate papist” – what Latimer called himself many years later following his conversion – had his own Damascus Road experience when he was confronted with the Gospel by Thomas Bilney. Latimer came out of the wicked city marked for destruction and went on to become one of the greatest preachers of the Gospel England ever produced.

But the salvation of Roman Catholics is not something that stopped in the 16th century. Charles Chiniquy famously left the RCS in the 19th century.[14] Even today God is calling his remnant out of the Mother of Harlots. Former Roman Catholic priest Richard Bennett has been preaching the Gospel for over thirty years through his ministry Berean Beacon.[15] His website has testimonies of many other former priests who came to know the Lord Jesus Christ.[16] It’s not just former priests who have “come out” of the Harlot City “that they may receive not of her plagues,” but Berean Beacon has entire pages of testimonies of former Roman Catholic nuns[17] and testimonies of converted lay Catholics.[18]

To bring this even closer to home, as Joseph A Butta Jr. notes, “In the past 40 years, unlike anytime dating back to the 16th century, legions of folks who were raised Roman Catholic have decided to become Biblical / Evangelical Christians…the volume of those leaving Catholicism for Biblical / Evangelical Christianity has been to such an extent that many Evangelical Churches are comprised of up to 40% members who were raised in the Roman Catholic Church.”[19] One of the reasons Butta gives for the mass exodus from Rome is the church’s appalling sex scandals. “Undoubtedly the sexual scandals [and associated failed cover-ups, lawsuits and admissions of guilt] affecting the credibility of the priesthood alienated many Catholics.”

The sheer number of sex abuse cases in the RCS is horrifying. According to Butta,

- A 2004 research study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reports that 4,392 priests committed acts of molestation against 10,667 victims between 1950 and 2002.

- 81% of those victims were male and over 50% of those acts were committed against children 11-14 years old.

- The Associated Press estimated the settlements of sex abuse cases from 1950 to 2007 totaled more than $2 billion. Bishop Accountability puts the figure at more than $3 billion in 2012.[20]

Since the 2004 study, countless new cases of sex abuse have been revealed. In just the past year in the United States alone, there have been at least four major scandals involving sexual abuse by priests –Pennsylvania,[21] Michigan,[22] Illinois,[23] and Cardinal McCarrick of New York.[24]

As mentioned earlier, now news is coming out that nuns have been involved in abusing children as well. According to Laura Benshoff of NPR, a nun gave a teenage Catholic girl “tea laced with intoxicants,” then took her to the bedroom where the sister sexually assaulted her.[25]

Just as one of the prosecutors in the Michigan case remarked that the five charged priests was just the tip of the iceberg, it is not unreasonable to assume that the known cases of sexual abuse carried out by priests, nuns, and cardinals – as stunning as these numbers are – is likewise just the tip of the iceberg.

The Treason of the Neo-Evangelicals

Despite the fact that many today are obeying the voice from Heaven by coming out of Rome, the Neo-Evangelicals are determined to make sure they remain in the doomed city. Their words and actions are nothing short of treason to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In his Evangelicals & Catholics Together: Toward a Common Mission, Neo-Evangelical Charles Colson did his best to make sure that Evangelicals never tell Roman Catholics the Gospel of Justification by Belief Alone. According to Colson, “in view of the large number of non-Christians in the world and the enormous challenge of our common evangelistic task, it is neither theologically legitimate nor a prudent use of resources for one Christian community to proselytize among active adherents of another Christian community” (xxx).

The implied ideas in this passage, that Evangelicals and Roman Catholics belong to Christian communities, and that Evangelicals, therefore, should not proselytize Roman Catholics, is without question one of the most monstrously stupid, irresponsible, and anti-Christian statements this author has ever heard.

As was stated above, Roman Catholics are not Christians. The Church of Rome has, in her official statements, damned and cursed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all who believe it. There is no Gospel in the Roman Catholic Church. There is no light in the Roman Catholic Church. There is no hope in the Roman Catholic Church. All is darkness leading to eternal death.

Not only do fools and blind guides like Charles Colson provide cover for Antichrist and his minions, but those who are entering the kingdom of Heaven, he attempts to send back to the Mother of Harlots in the name of co-belligerence! A greater sin than this is hard to imagine.

Closing Thoughts

There are a few conclusions to be drawn from what is set forth above. In the first place, eschatology matters. The failure of 21st century Protestant churches to teach Reformed eschatology has blinded Protestants, church officers, and ordinary Christians alike, to the predations of the Antichrist RCS. Influenced as they are by premillennial Dispensationalism, most Protestants scan the horizon looking for some future Antichrist. Among the more explicitly Reformed, another form of eschatology known as Preterism is popular. Rather than positing a future Antichrist, as does the Futurism of the Dispensationalists, Preterists see Antichrist as having come and gone in the first century.

But the eschatology of the Reformation, known as Historicism, sees the coming of Antichrist as not merely a thing of the past, nor as some future event, but as a present reality. Historicism identifies the office of the papacy, not just an individual pope here or there, but the whole line of them, as Antichrist who heads up Mystery Babylon, the Roman Church-State.

Put in this context, it should come as no surprise that many of the priestly representatives of Rome engage in the behavior they do: They are Antichrist’s men doing Antichrist’s bidding. Their evil sexual perversions are but one example of the evil fruit that by necessity flows from the evil teaching of the RCS, Satan’s masterpiece.

A second conclusion from the ongoing pedophilia scandals and other sex scandals that have rocked Rome in recent years is that Jesus Christ is even now judging Rome. The stench from Rome’s pedophilia scandals – both the crimes themselves and the ensuing cover ups – is so foul that even secular institutions have recognized the perversions. Anthea Butler, in her opinion piece, quite rightly called the Church a “criminal syndicate.”[26]

Third, Reformed eschatology is not some airy, theoretical set of propositions with no practical application, but rather a powerful tool for interpreting the events of our own time and bringing comfort to God’s people. Reformed eschatology, known as Historicism, posits a past, present, and future Antichrist in the office of the papacy. As Satan’s tool – Paul calls him the Son of Perdition in Second Thessalonians – it should come as no surprise when we see headlines announcing that his servants, the priests of Rome, have engaged in all manner of perverted behavior. It would be far more shocking if this were not so.

Fourth, even as Christ is now judging the Roman Church-State, Protestants are not to view her as a sister Christian denomination. As the many, enormous sexual sins of Rome were being aired for all the world to see last fall, David French, a Protestant who writes for National Review, lamented the damage being done to Rome’s reputation. French likened the Christian church to a fleet, each ship representing a denomination. French expressed concern that “one of the mightiest battleships in the fleet, the Catholic Church, is taking torpedoes left and right.”[27] This is absurd. French’s first error is supposing that Rome is a Christian Church and part of “the fleet.” Not satisfied with one error, he compounds his mistake by then sobbing that the RCS is “taking torpedoes left and right.” To this I can only add, may it take many more until it sinks beneath the waves.

Fifth, as Protestants we must never yoke in ministry with Rome or suggest, or even appear to suggest, that Rome is a Christian Church. It is an embarrassment and an outrage that secular, liberal NBC has a better understanding of Rome than many Protestant ministers. While a writer for NBC correctly called Rome a “criminal syndicate,” noted Baptist minister Robert Jeffress went on national television a few years ago and defended – mirabile dictu! – the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition,[28] saying that they really weren’t all that bad. If Robert Jeffress were the only one who could not discern a false from a true church, that would be a bad, but not a fatal problem for America’s Protestants. But Jeffress’ absurd statements are not merely his own opinions, but reflective of the general position of conservative Protestantism in these dark times. Brethren, this must change.

Next, in sports, when a competitor makes a heroic comeback, people will say of him that he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. On the contrary, nobody respects a so-called choke artist. That is to say, someone who, when given every opportunity to win, somehow manages to embrace defeat instead. It seems to me that 21st century Protestants have managed to become some of the biggest choke artists in the history of Christianity. Jesus Christ is openly judging the Antichrist RCS, and what do we do? Do we seize the day and expose Rome’s unfruitful works of darkness? No, we do not. Instead, we either make excuses for Rome – like David French mentioned above – or simply say nothing at all. Neither of these options is acceptable in the eyes of God.

We Christians are not called to make excuses for evil, nor are we to remain silent in the face of it. Rather, as the apostle Paul enjoined the Ephesians, we are called to, in the first place, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,” and to, in the second place, “rather reprove them.” It is the duty of all Christians to speak out against the evil doctrines and practices of the RCS, but this is especially true of elders in the church, the very men charged with teaching God’s people. When ministers of the Gospel fail to cry out against Rome, they become blood guilty for their failure to declare the whole counsel of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ is openly judging the RCS. Jesus told the Pharisees who ordered him to rebuke his disciples that if they remained silent, even the very stones would cry out in witness to him. In similar fashion, in our time Jesus Christ is using the secular authorities to judge the Antichrist RCS, while supposed Christian leaders, not only refuse to utter a word against Rome, but openly conspire with her representatives to portray the Babylonian Harlot as if she were the chaste Bride of Christ. May the Lord have mercy on them and call them to repentance.

For those of us who know what Rome is, we have an obligation, not to remain in knowing silence, but to let our light shine before men. We must write, we must speak, we must preach to a generation that has forgotten, or more likely has never known, the identity of the Mother of Harlots and of Antichrist. May the Lord have mercy on us if we remain silent.

The sexual abuse cases pouring out of Rome represent a human tragedy on a scale rarely seen in history. But though the unbelieving men who have carried out, not only the sins and crimes themselves, but also those who have covered it up, meant it for evil, God, at least in some cases, has intended it for good. Many have left the RCS as a result of the enormous sins of the Roman Catholic clergy. As Christians, let us not refuse to point out these sins, as if pretending not to notice the appalling sins and crimes of Rome is somehow our Christian duty. Quite the opposite; it is our duty to reprove Rome’s unfruitful works of darkness. But along with the reproving, let us also offer Roman Catholics the only hope any of us has, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, the grace of God in Jesus Christ, which is received by belief alone. And let us pray that God would continue to call his people out of that doomed city, that they may not partake of her sins, and receive not of her plagues.

“Another Voice”

By R. K. Borrill

I heard another voice from heaven saying,

“Come out from her the Bible says,

Lest you be a partaker of her sins

As well as her plagues.”

Yet, where are the Protestant elders

Who settled this land?

They are running away in fear

Just as fast as they can.

They are neo-evangelicals,

Forming a new brotherhood.

What’s wrong with the old that protected you

When no one else would?

“Fear not,” said the King.

So, you must be bold;

Don’t be afraid of the one who kills the body,

Be afraid of the one who destroys both body

and soul.

The judgment continues for the woman

Who rides the beast through our town,

The harlot who hides the abuse of children

Under the Cardinal’s cap and gown.

“The blame belongs to the children,”

Said one of her priests gone wild;

But thank God for the Attorney General

Deputy,

Who said this can never be the fault of a child.

It’s not enough to have no fellowship

With the criminal syndicate;

If one does not reprove the darkness,

He is nothing more than a traitor and a

hypocrite.

The thunderous silence

Of the Protestant pulpit must halt,

Or the Son of Perdition will proceed

From the casting out of the salt.

Church Histroy Tracts

The Foundation has about 8 copies left of a series of 30 tracts on a Protestant View of Church History by Dr. Ronald N. Cooke. The whole set can be purchased for $45 postage paid. Call 423.743.0199, writeto Post Office Box 68, Unicoi, Tennessee 37692, or email tjtrinityfound@aol.com for information or to order.

Sale Extended

The Trinity Foundation’s 2019 Resource Sale has been extended through January 31, 2020. Books on the Sale Flyer are 50% off regular retail prices, and books and DVDs not on the Sale Flyer are 25% off regular retail prices, except for the DVDs A Lamp in the Dark, Tares Among the Wheat, and Bridge to Babylon, which are 35% off, and the tract “Civlization and the Protestant Reformation” is now $9 for a bundle of 100 instead of $12. Ebooks, CDRoms, and CDRom Packages are not on s1ale.

The Trinity Foundation is a tax-exempt religious organization under 501 (c) 3 non-profit code, supported by the gifts given by those who appreciate this ministry and by the sales of books and other media. All gifts are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. If you wish to support the work of The Trinity Foundation, which publishes The Trinity Review, you may donate through the Foundation’s web site, by phone at 423.743.0199, or by sending your donation by mail to The Trinity Foundation, P. O. Box 68, Unicoi, Tennessee 37692. Thank you also for your prayers, which are essential.

Notes

[←1]

Niraj Warikoo, “5 Catholic Priests Charged in Michigan Sex Abuse Investigation,” Detroit Free Press, May 24, 2019, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.freep.com/story/news/ local/michigan/2019/05/24/michigan-catholic-priests-sexual-abuse-nessel/1221964001/.

[←2]

Evangelicals & Catholics Together: Toward a Common Mission, edited by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus, Thomas Nelson, 1995.

[←3]

John Calvin, Come Out From Among Them: “Anti-Nicodemite” Writings of John Calvin, Translated by Seth Skolnitsky, Protestant Heritage Press, 2001.

[←4]

Come Out From Among Them, 36.

[←5]

David Crary, “US Catholic Church Reports Big Rise in Sex-Abuse Allegations,” AP, May 31, 2019, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.apnews.com/2953774dff6e40668121a7e 4589daaa9.

[←6]

See chrome-extension://oemmndcbldboiebfnladdacbdf madadm/http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/child-abuse-prevention/upload/2018-CYP-Annual-Report.pdf.

[←7]

Devlin Barrett, Julie Zauzmer, and Michelle Boorstein, “Justice Department investigates abuse by Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania,” Washington Post, October 18, 2018, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ national-security/justice-department-probes-catholic-church-in-pennsylvania/2018/10/18/177bd132-d301-11e8-8c22 fa2ef74bd6d6_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c99361b09cf8.

[←8]

Laurie Goldstein and Monica Davey, “Catholic Church in Illinois Withheld Names of at Least 500 Priests Accused of Abuse, Attorney General Says,” New York Times, December 19, 2018, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/ 2018/12/19/us/illinois-attorney-general-catholic-church-priest-abuse.html?module=inline.

[←9]

See note 1 above.

[←10]

Lisa Cannon Green, “From Anti-Christ to Brother in Christ: How Protestant Pastors View the Pope,” Christianity Today, September 25, 2015, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2015/september/antichrist-brother-christ-protestant-pastors-pope-francis.html.

[←11]

Philip Pullella, “U.S. Cardinal Steps Down Amid Mushrooming Sex Abuse Scandal,” Reuters, July 28, 2018, accessed on June 21, 2019, http://news.trust.org/item/ 20180728131404-mnmrn.

[←12]

Laura Benshoff, “Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Nuns Want Greater Visibility for Their Accusations,” NPR, May 30, 2019, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/05/30/ 722119046/survivors-of-sexual-abuse-by-nuns-want-greater-visibility-for-their-claims.

[←13]

See http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/HughLatimer(B Worcester).htm or https://www.biblestudytools.com/ classics/ryle-priest-puritan-preacher/bishop-latimer.html, accessed June 21, 2019. For the original source, see William Gilpin, The Lives of Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and of Bernard Gilpin, 3rd Edition, London, R. Blamire, 1780.

[←14]

For more information see Chiniquy’s testimony at https://bereanbeacon.org/fifty-years-in-the-church-of-rome-charles-chiniquy/.

[←15]

See https://bereanbeacon.org/. To read Bennett’s testimony see Richard Bennett, “From Tradition to Truth: A Priest’s Story,” in Far from Rome Near to God: Testimonies of 50 Converted Catholic Priests, Banner of Truth, 1994. See also at https://bereanbeacon.org/richard-bennett-from-tradition-to-truth-a-priests-story/.

[←16]

Many are taken from the book referenced in the note above. See https://bereanbeacon.org/former-priests-and-nuns/.

[←17]

See https://bereanbeacon.org/former-nuns/. See also The Truth Set Us Free: Twenty Former Nuns Tell Their Stories of God’s Amazing Grace, edited by Richard Bennett with Mary Hertel.

[←18]

See https://bereanbeacon.org/personal-testimonies/.

[←19]

Joseph A. Butta, Jr., “Why a Multitude of Catholics Become Biblical/Evangelical Christians,” Christian Messianic Analysis & Apologetics, January 8, 2017, accessed June 21, 2019, https://joebutta.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/why-a-multitude-of-catholics-become-biblicalevangelical-christians/amp/.

[←20]

See note 19 above.

[←21]

Scott Dodd, “Pennsylvania Grand Jury Says Church Had a ‘Playbook for Concealing the Truth’,” New York Times, August 14, 2018, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/pennsylvania-child-abuse-catholic-church.html.

[←22]

See note 1 above.

[←23]

See note 8 above.

[←24]

Francis X. Rocca, “Pope Francis Denies He Knew of U.S. Cardinal’s Sexual Misconduct,” Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2019, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/ articles/pope-francis-denies-he-knew-of-u-s-cardinals-sexual-misconduct-11559069410.

[←25]

See note 12 above.

[←26]

Anthea Butler, “The Grand Jury Report about Catholic Priest Abuse in Pennsylvania Shows the Church Is a Criminal Syndicate,” NBC News, August 15, 2018, accessed June 21, 2019 https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/grand-jury-report-about-catholic-priest-abuse-pennsylvania-shows-church-ncna900906.

[←27]

David French, “Protestants Should Care Deeply about the Catholic Catastrophe,” National Review, August 27, 2018, accessed June 21, 2019, https://www.nationalreview.com/ 2018/08/catholic-sex-abuse-scandals-should-matter-to-protestants/.

[←28]

See Steven T. Matthews, “Must Christians Defend the Crusades?” Lux Lucet, February 8, 2015, and “Must Christians Defend the Inquisition?” Lux Lucet, February 16, 2015, referencing comments Jeffress made on Bill O’Reilly’s show – “Dr. Jeffress Discusses Obama’s Prayer Breakfast Comments on O’Reilly,” First Baptist Dallas, February 6, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v= XVAugy_EBlE.

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