Today I want to ask you a question. Who is Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI? Who is he? He has been known by many names in the Catholic world and elsewhere before he became Pope. He's been called the Enforcer, the Panzer, the Rottweiler because of his strict upholding of Catholic dogma and he has been very famous even before he became Pope because he headed up what had been the Inquisition and changed to a new name, the Holy Office and then the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faiths. and he upheld that office in a most dictatorial way. And so he has been known by many names already before he took up the office, but who is he? He himself answers, because he had compiled this book, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was officially approved after Ratzinger had compiled it as the official first-hand documentation of Catholic teaching. And in this book which he compiled and was authenticated by the previous Pope, John Paul II, and accepted by cardinals and bishops worldwide, he declared his position in paragraph 882, and I want to read you who he thinks he is. Quotation the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful. For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as pastor of the entire church, has full, supreme and universal power over the whole church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered. He repeats himself later on in the same catechism, declaring who he is in 937. The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, and immediate, and universal power in the care of souls. That's who he thinks he is. He thinks he's the vicar of Christ. and that he has all this power, supreme, full, immediate and universal power in the care of souls. And so he is clear in telling you who he is. Who else claimed all power? All power in heaven and earth has been given unto me. Jesus Christ that shared all power. He was the one with full, supreme and universal power in the care of souls and still is. And Christ Jesus did delegate that office to one he called another advocate, one who would take his place. By not relinquishing the power he has sent the Holy Spirit, and he spoke about one who would take his place on earth. He gave full, supreme and universal power, the care of souls, to the divine person of the Holy Spirit. He said in John 14, 16, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth." And he said how fortunate or convenient it was that he should go in John 16, 7. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come. But if I depart, I will send him to you. So there is another one who has supreme universal power, all power, and that is the divine Holy Spirit, who is the advocate. He substitutes, or takes the place of Christ. And there is only one vicar of Christ, and that is the Holy Spirit. So who then is the one who claims to be Vicar of Christ, claims to have divine power? Only he who opposes Christ, pretending to be the Vicar of Christ. And so Joseph Ratzinger has really told you who he is in his official declaration. Now, was this claim that Ratzinger has made in the Catechism, was it always so in the Roman Catholic Church? No. Definitely no. This was later development. The bishops of Rome, as they were coming into power to be recognized by the world and by different peoples, they first of all claimed to be vicars of Caesar. And that was most important because they wanted people to recognize them as having power. When the Emperor moved in 330 to Constantinople and there was chaos in Rome with the barbarian invasions, people looked to the Bishop of Rome and he claimed to be Vicar of Caesar. Ficarius Filii Dei, or Ficarius, I beg your pardon, Principus Apostolorum. Later on he was going to be claimed Ficarius Filii Dei. The second title that he claims, after he claims to be Vicar of Caesar and to have power of Caesar, he claims to be Vicar of the Apostles. He is climbing as it were the stares in search of power. And so in the year 401, Innocent I claims to be vicar of Peter, that Peter was purported to have come to Rome and to be the first bishop of Rome. Now the difficulty is when you go to your Bible and read your Bible in all that's spoken of about Rome and the letter to the Romans and all Paul's letters referring to Rome, Peter is never mentioned. And there are names upon names given at the end of Romans, and Peter is not mentioned. Because in Scripture there is no mention whatsoever of Peter ever visiting Rome, let alone being a bishop of Rome. And so it was very difficult for Innocent I and other bishops of Rome to claim to be the vicar of Peter because they couldn't scripturally show that Peter had ever been there. So they had to fall back on what came down to them by tradition, by hearsay. And then Boniface III in 607 claimed to be vicar of all the other bishops, and so he was universal bishop. And so they were climbing the ladder of power, as it were, claiming now to be vicar, the representative of all the other bishops. It wasn't until the 8th century that this title, vicar of Christ, which is a divine title, was claimed by them and it was claimed in a fraudulent document known as the Donation of Constantine. Now as the Reformation began it was shown to be absolutely a fraud because it had the Latin not of the 3rd and 4th century which was reportedly written to Sylvester 335 by Constantine, it was the Latin of the 8th century. The words that it mentions of the Holy Pontiff and all were not terms used until the 8th century, and it is a document that is obviously a forgery. But it was on that forgery that the Catholic Church built its claim to be Vicar of Christ. And ever since then, this has been the key note of the claims of the man who purportedly sits as Vicar of Christ. Because it gives you all power worldwide. And they want not just spiritual power, they want physical, civil power through nations. As we will see later on in more detail. They want all power. And so, to get that, you have to go to this divine title of Vicar of Christ. And that's what Ratzinger says in the Catechism, and that's what he claims to be. So, it is quite eye-opening to see who he is. He already declared who he is in his famous decree published on September the 5th in the year 2000. While he was still only Cardinal of the Head of the Inquisition or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he still declared an official Vatican decree. Such things are really unknown, now and again in history we get this sort of thing, but he had an official decree published even as Cardinal. Dominus Isus was the official Latin name of the decree. And in that decree, which came out of central Rome and was recognized by the then Pope, in paragraph 22 Ratzinger stated, that the Roman Church is the instrument for salvation for all humanity. They saw only the Catholic Church being the instrument of salvation for all humanity. And then he emphatically ruled out Bible-believing or evangelical churches as being churches, in his own words, in the proper sense. I want to give you the exact words from paragraph 17. The ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery are not churches in the proper sense. So you are not belonging to a church in the proper sense in Matzinger's eyes, because you do not have a pastor who has a connection going back to an apostolic succession by the laying on of hands over the centuries, which idea is not actually possible, but this is what they claim, so that you have a valid episcopate or a valid bishop in your midst. and you do not have the continuing sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist or the physical body and blood of Christ in communion which they claim. This is His teaching even before He became Pope. Quite interestingly, in that document he refers to Boniface VIII in footnote 51, where he's declaring that Catholic Church is the sole means of salvation. He refers to Boniface VIII in Unum Sanctum, and I'd like to read from Unum Sanctum to you what was endorsed by Ratzinger in footnote 51. We declare, we say, define and proclaim to every human creature that by necessity for salvation are entirely subject to the Roman Pontiff. That they, by necessity of salvation, are entirely subject to the Roman Pontiff. Now what is that claim that Ratzinger was endorsing, that by necessity for salvation you are subject to the Pope. The necessity of salvation, we are subject to Christ Jesus and what he did. And so to say that you are subject to a man who sits as the supreme mediator or supreme pontiff for salvation is again to speak against God. And there's only one who speaks against God in the pages of scripture. And he's given different transifications which we will see as we go on. Then the same Ratzinger in the Catechism that he endorsed says the following words. The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. Sacramental grace is the grace of the Holy Spirit given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. This Ratzinger says that it is necessary for salvation that you have the sacraments of the New Covenant, that is the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Now it didn't stop there, he said that the sacramental grace is the grace of the Holy Spirit, that the power that comes out of these seven physical signs is the power of the Holy Spirit. Now when you know that theologically That the Divine Holy Spirit is free and He works not under control of like when you turn on a faucet and turn it off or when you give a sacrament or don't give a sacrament. He is not under control of anybody. When you know who the Divine Holy Spirit is, and that He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment, and He blows where He wills like the wind that we're told by Christ Jesus. When we know who the Divine Holy Spirit is, He's not under the control of any institution or church. He's utterly sovereign. but they say that His power is their power in their sacraments. That is to directly speak against the Holy Spirit. The Antichrist also speaks against the Holy Spirit, and that is the unforgivable sin, the ultimate sin. And so Ratzinger is telling you in his own words, And you may say, well, it's not loving for me to say these things. Love rejoices in the truth, the scripture says. And what more loving thing than to explain the truth, even though it's painful for precious Catholics. What more loving thing so that they may be free from a system that says such horrendous things, to blaspheme against the very Holy Spirit of God. And if we remain silent, how loving are we if we remain silent? That is not love. It was before the Reformation, during the Reformation, after the Reformation, when people spoke about these things, that literally millions of Catholics were freed to come into biblical salvation in the Lord. It was because people freely spoke about these things which nobody dares to speak anymore. But we have to speak them and speak the truth in love even though it is painful. But love rejoices in the truth. Now, what we are seeing is what Paul had prophesied so clearly. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3, the Apostle Paul said quite clearly, let no one deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. The man of sin must be revealed. After what? After a falling away. A falling away in Greek apostasia means literally that apostasy. So it's a falling away from true doctrine. The early church in Rome had the true gospel and the apostle Paul commended them for their faith. but there was a falling away. And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul said, there would be a falling away. And then the man of sin would appear. And he's talking about the, later on, the mystery of iniquity, verse 7. And he says, for the mystery of iniquity that already work. It was already beginning in the apostles' time, it was already been manifest, but there was a restraining, in verse 7, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who let it will let it, until he be taken out of the way. So, the mystery of iniquity, what was Paul talking about? The same Paul in 1 Timothy talks about the mystery of godliness, that the God manifests in the flesh, and now there is a parallel, the mystery of iniquity is revealed. What is this mystery of iniquity? This is what Paul is speaking of. And he's saying two things that are quite clear and that the Thessalonians understood and Paul told them, yes, they understand in verse 6 and in verse 7 he says, and now ye know what withholdeth. What withholdeth. This is impersonal. It is a system. It's a what. And then he goes on in verse 7 to talk about until he be taken out of the way. What was at the same time a person and a what and a system? The Thessalonians knew it well. Go to when Paul was in Thessalonica and he faced political charges against Caesar, against Rome. And you'll see that the Thessalonians knew that that was what was evident when Paul was before this with the Thessalonians. And they knew precisely there was only one he and one what. He was the emperor and the what was the empire. And that is the way many of the early Christians and throughout history have seen it because that's what the scripture says and that's historically what happened. It was fulfilled. In 330, when Constantine went to Constantinople, it was only then that the mystery of iniquity started to be revealed and that the Pope started to claim all these false claims. And when the barbarians came in, they were converted to Catholicism or Roman Catholicism as it was developing. They took on a religion whereby their sins are washed away if they were baptized by a ritual. So the mystery of iniquity was being revealed. So it doesn't take any major and biblical knowledge to understand this and Bible believers have seen it right through the course of history and written about it. That the he and the what are the emperor and the empire And that's what they were expected to be taken away. And when it was taken away, it was revealed. And so it was crystal clear. And so people were prepared. And why people went at the stake, praising God, and why people could die for the sake of biblical faith, they knew who they were withstanding, the man of sin. They knew who they were facing. Not like many modern evangelicals who will tell you, well, I know who the Christ is, but I don't know who the Antichrist is. I mean, how dare you say that when the Scriptures reveal both the mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity. Both are explained in the Scripture. And if we are lovers of God's Holy Word, we will abide by what God says in His Holy Word. And so this is one of the clear passages of scripture whereby we have the clear portrayal of what was happening there, what happened before believers' very eyes as they saw the empire being taken back, where the empire was finally overcome by the barbarians and he, the emperor himself, was removed to Constantinople. So the scripture really explains who he is in verse 4, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped. So that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now, we couldn't get a clearer depiction of the man of sin. The one who sits in the temple of God, that is worshipped, so that as God, he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Now, temple here is naos, that is the word that Paul always used to mean believer. It is not the temple in the physical sense in Jerusalem, which is a different Greek word whatsoever. It was that Greek word, precise Greek word, meaning the society of believers or the temple of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes talk about the believer's body where the Holy Spirit dwells. It is where believers are. In the midst of believers, one would come calling himself by these things, showing himself to be God. What does Ratzinger call himself? The Vicar of Christ. That is, with full, supreme, universal power, he's claiming to be the one who has the office of vicar, which is a divine office, sitting in the temple of God, calling himself God. He calls himself the Holy Father. Who is the Antichrist? The Apostle John says, He that denieth the Father and the Son. Who denieth the Father? Only he who calls himself the Holy Father. How more can you get into denying the Holy Father that Christ Jesus spoke about, who is in heaven? By calling yourself the very Word that was forbidden, Christ Jesus said, Call no man your Father on earth. In a spiritual sense, we only have one Holy Father. He is in heaven, Christ Jesus said. And so, if you sit among people who call themselves Christians, calling yourself the Holy Father, you are denying the Father. You're denying the Son by calling yourself the Vicar of Christ with supreme universal power. So, How much more do you want? When we see in ordinary everyday life men who are into different affairs with other women, and they are continually talking about their affairs, how long does it go on before we say adultery? How many affairs does it take before you say you're into adultery? How many times must a Pope call himself the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ, before we say the man of sin that the Apostle Paul spoke about. And so it was that my believers throughout the course of history have seen this and so been ready to evangelize and to stand up and to be counted as men and women in the horrendous years of the Inquisition and at different times of history because they knew who they were standing against. They were biblically literate and biblically attuned to the scriptures. So this is what we're facing. Now what does the modern world think? What do modern evangelicals think? It was proclaimed here in America in the much-read New York Times on May the 30th, What They Think. And I'd like to read from the New York Times because it was a real interesting article that was written. It was at the time where John Kerry's running for president and they are talking about the last time that a Roman Catholic was running to be President." Quotation from May 30, 2004, New York Times. In 1960, the last time a Roman Catholic ran for President on the Democratic ticket, Evangelical Protestant leaders warned their flocks that electing John F. Kennedy would be like handing the Oval Office to the Antichrist. Forty-four years later, evangelicals and conservative Catholics have forged an alliance that is reshaping American politics and culture. Exactly ten years ago, a group of evangelical and Catholic leaders and scholars released a document called Evangelicals and Catholics Together. It was the result of a dialogue started by two men, the Reverend Richard John Newhouse, a Catholic priest in New York, who edits the journal First Things, and Charles Colson, The two men convened a group of prominent theologians and religious leaders. The evangelical side included the late Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and the religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, and theologians like James I. Packer. The Catholic side included the late Cardinal John O'Connor of New York and the theologian Averys Dulles, now a Cardinal. Their manifesto was primarily theological, but it included overt political pledges to work together on issues like abortion, government aid for religious schools, and strengthening of the traditional family, a part of a reaction to the growing gay rights movement. The document shook the evangelical world. By 2000, Mr. Coulson and James Dobson, the broadcaster who founded Focus on the Family, were invited to the Vatican. Evangelical institutes like Freeton College in Illinois and Gordon College in Massachusetts began inviting Catholics to speak on campus. This secular newspaper showing where the evangelicals have gone. That in 1960 there were evangelicals who would have said that to put John Kennedy in the Oval Office would be to put the Antichrist in. But in our own time, evangelicals are forming an alliance so that Charles Coulson and James Dobson go and visit the Vatican, just as Billy Graham has done before them. They have bowed the knee to one who calls himself the Vicar of Christ, the Holy Father. So this is the day in which we live and why we've got to say these things with truth and caring for people in the system is that most evangelicals are totally ignoring what scriptures say and going the other way in applauding the Pope and famous names like Jackson Impey actually bowing to join and become part of the one who sits on the seven hills of Rome. So we have a day in which these things need to be spoken of and we have to document the answer to who is Ratzinger because we have people who live under his authority worldwide. The scriptures are emphatic and it is not simply that he says he is his holiness and he is the holy father but he claims to be infallible which is a divine attribute and he says in canon 749, the supreme pontiff in virtue of his office possesses infallible teaching authority when as pastor and teacher of all the faith he proclaims to the defenders of act that a doctrine of faith and morals is to be held as such. He claims to be divine by having the attribute of being inerrant in doctrines of faith and morals. And so we have one who is sitting in the temple of God, calling himself God. And we have to really clearly see and go verse by verse in that description given by Paul. I've only given an outline. I'd ask you to go to an article that I've written on the webpage under articles on the webpage greenbeacon.org you'll see the article called The Antichrist Unveiled and there I try verse by verse to go through that second Thessalonians passage showing how Bible believers have always understood it in the course of history up to the compromises that are taking place in our own day. And now we have the the horrendous thing that this one who calls himself insoluble not only says so but he demands respect of intellect and will, a religious respect of intellect and will even if not the assent of faith is to be paid to the teaching which the supreme pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate on faith on morals. You are to submit your intellect and will. Now, you are to capitulate and give in the highest faculties that you have to Him. So the one who sits in the temple of God not only claims that divine prerogative, but demands that you submit your highest faculties to Him as He claims these things. how fearful we should be not to see the truth of what Paul had so clearly portrayed in Scripture. Now I'd like to turn also to Revelation chapter 17 where we have another portrayal of the power that has become Ratzinger's as Benedict XVI's. The Apostle John beheld a ten-horned beast carrying a woman dressed in purple and scarlet decked with gold and precious stones. She is the paramour of princess, merciless, cruel, intoxicated with the blood of the saints. And the seven hills are the seven mountains on which the woman sitted. If we only had that, we would see clearly what it is speaking of. It's the mystery that Babylon mystery religion is a mystery. You've got to unveil it by the words of scripture. Pagan Rome was not a mystery, its paganism was clear, but this is a mystery, but it is unveiled clearly by scripture, and we're told that she sits on the seven hills. What institute, what group sits on the seven hills of Rome. John Lateran is the main cathedral, actually, of the present Pope, like all Popes, and he has territory on all hills, not just Vatican Hill. They have physical power and property on all seven hills of Rome. And the details are given. In verse 3 it says, the woman sitting on the scarlet beast. Now many rightly say that the beast is a political power and the woman, spoken of as the woman, is always the opposite to the true bride of Christ, the harlot, just as the true bride of Christ is a woman. And so the woman who opposes Christ is the ecclesiastical system. So we have a church system riding on a political system. Now there is only one system that fulfills this definition. There's no other institute in the world that sits on seven hills, whose main colors are scarlet and purple, who is a political system at the same time as a religious system. And the Pope is adamant that he has political power. If you want to know who Ratzinger is on May the 2nd, I beg your pardon, May the 12th, This year, 2005, Ratzinger called together all the diplomats, 174 ambassadors to the Holy See, and he lectured them in French. And he spoke and urged nations who are not politically in concordat with with her as a political power that they should do so. He was urging nations who have not joined politically with her. He was showing forth that this system is political and that she purports to be somebody who has civil rights. The Catholic Church in making concordats claims civil rights in a nation, rights to freedom of religion and worship, a right to define doctrine, a right to establish Catholic education, and certain rights also regarding property, the owning of property and taxes, appointing bishops, and the recognition in civil law of Catholic law and annulments. There have been many concordats made in the course of history in the 20th century, Latvia 1922, Bavaria 1924, Poland 1927, Romania 1927, Lithuania 1927, Italy 1929, Prussia 1929, Beijing 1932, Austria 1933, the famous one in Germany 1933, and Yugoslavia in 1935. So we have now Ratzinger asking for more concordance and the Vatican has said that he was speaking of China, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam who have not civilly entered into a legal agreement with Rome. So Rome tells you who she is. She is a woman, a church system, and she is riding the beast. and making public that she wants civil agreements with other civil powers because she is riding on a civil power. And it's exactly that. If you go to the Vatican webpage, it's vatican.va, that's with the www before it, and go and you will see that it talks about the Holy See is the official name for the civil power, not Vatican State, the Holy See. She is in charge of the civil power. She is riding on the beast and she is demanding concordance. From 1950 to 1999 there was 128 concordance between Rome and different states. In nine years we had 43 concordats and we have had other nations now asking Rome to make civil agreements with them. And it is really sad when you look at the countries who have had civil agreements with them for years. You will see that evangelical and biblical churches have civilly come under civil repression. And we wonder why it is in countries like Spain and Portugal and others and South American nations why there's so little evangelical presence. Because civil law has joined together with Roman Catholic law in concordance. And so it is in the European nations that are becoming the European Union. Even in France and Belgium at the moment we've had radio stations and biblical churches closed down under civil law. And so, for the woman to ride the beast is not simply something of history, it's part of the plan. And Ratzinger told you what he desires on May the 12th. The woman rides the beast, not simply in history, but in the present day. And we have the man who declared that Bible-believing churches are not churches in the proper sense, who is now the supreme commander of the Holy See, and to make these civil concordats with other nations. When I was in Slovakia in the year 2000, the believers there were in deep sorrow and remorse because it was the same year that Slovakia had officially signed the Concordat. Believers in Europe are far more attuned to the civil power of Rome because they've seen far more of it than we have. It was only in 1984 that President Reagan officially accepted Vatican ambassadors to the United States and that the United States send ambassadors to the Vatican and the Vatican sends her ambassadors here to the United States. It's only since 1984. So it's something new. Congress had forbidden it in the past because of Bible believers in Congress. But we haven't got the same concept of civil power. So when I was in Slovakia, the believers were fearful about the police turning up at their door and churches being closed down because of the civil concordat with the Vatican. And so we have these teachings of one who is dressed in scarlet and purple When you look at pictures of Rome, you see it's all scarlet and purple. I remember as a priest going out into Vatican Square, I was dressed in my Dominican gown, black and white gown, and I was overlooking the square, and I saw three thousand prelates come out. They were the cardinals and the bishops, and it was all scarlet and purple. And even as a priest I was frightened because I knew something of Revelation 17. This was not Hollywood, this was real. And there before my eyes I see scarlet and purple all over this square, three thousand pellets. in these predominant colours, because that has always been the official colour of Rome. She is the only one who has the golden cup and the pectoral cross, the gems, all fulfilled Revelation 17. She is the only one who fulfills in detail all of this, this teaching. She it is who has said, quotation from Ratzinger's Catechism of the Catholic Church 958, in full consciousness of this communion of the whole mystical body of Jesus Christ, the church and its pilgrim members from the earliest days of the Christian religion has honoured with great respect the memory of the dead. Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping with them, but also making their intercession for us effective. That is the teaching of Ratzinger, And also in the same catechism, 958, he said, communion with the dead was the way the paragraph began. Communion with the dead. He believes in communion with the dead. He is the one who is now decreed that the five-year waiting period should be taken away and that the last pope should be on the road to sainthood so that people could commune with him and talk to him in prayer. Communion with the dead is the occult. It's forbidden in the scripture. Scripture says we're not of any strange God. We do not talk to anybody but God alone. We only commune in prayer with God. And there's not to be found among you one who is a necromancer, somebody who calls up the dead. What is this type of teaching? It is just part of the teaching of Mystery Babylon religion. that anybody could teach that people are to commune with the dead, officially. That the last pope had more people that he could commune with, made saints, than any other pope in history. More than all other popes put together. He made more saints than those that they beatified, called them blessed, than any other pope. And now they're going to try and make him a saint, so that people can commune with him. communion with the dead? How clearly did the Apostle John say it? Babylon, mystery, religion. Who else, calling itself Christian, could talk about communion with the dead? And who could say that our intercession makes it more effective, make their intercession more effective, that we've a two-way traffic with the dead? Babylon mystery religion. There's only one religious system that says that. And that's only a little sample. They're the same people who give veneration to dead bones of relics. You go into Catholic Church and you see bones. Where people have respect and what they call veneration, religious respect for bones. And they bless people with bones and parts of skulls. The Apostle John said it, Babylon mystery religion. And we have to say it because this is what is not being said. This is what evangelicals in the past would say, what the Vaudevilles said, the Valdenci said, what the Reformers said to a man, what people like Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said in his day, and Spurgeon, Spurgeon's probably more than anyone else. We have the whole book, Geisender Hood's, all the writings of Spurgeon on Roman Catholicism available in a book and you'll see again and again Spurgeon comes back to the woman riding the beast and showing you who she is. All the reformers, all the great men, women of faith, the past, knew who the Christ was, and they knew who the Antichrist was, and they knew who the one was sitting on the seven hills of Rome. And more clearly than ever, if we ask the question who is Ratzinger, he tells us who he is. He purportedly is the Vicar of Christ and the one who now has under his control all power and supreme and universal care of souls, the very office of the Holy Spirit. And so we have to deal with this and deal with it in a loving and kind way. I should have mentioned in my list there Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, John Bradford, John Fox, Sir Isaac Newton, George Whitfield and John Wesley, J.C. Ryle, among the others that I mentioned who clearly depicted and showed forth the truth of scripture in the past. We have to see it as these great leaders of the faith have seen it in other years. Now, the same system has been drunken with the blood of the saints. Our system is responsible for the torture and murder of tens of millions and some reputable historians say up to 50 million believers and others, Jews, Knights, Templar and those they called witches were also tortured and burnt at the stake. There was one system. the woman who sits on the seven hills. She it was who gave the decrees in the Spanish Inquisition and in all the Inquisitions across Europe. It was the Popes, like Innocent IV in 1252, who gave the precise details of how the tortures were to be implemented by the Inquisitors. And 75 Popes afterwards in a row endorsed what he said, and some added other details of torture. There's only one system that has drunk the blood of the saints. We are Bible believers. Bible believers are horrified, and rightly so, by the Holocaust, those six years of horrendous suffering of Jews and some Christians under the Nazis and the Hitler regime. But now, as Christians, we are also conscious of a much longer period, 605 years of torture, and of wiping out of some Bible-believing cities right across Europe, and of devastating even some of the valleys of the Valois, those Bible-believers going back to apostolic times who have kept the true faith, wiping out whole villages, and men and women tortured, and children from the age of twelve upwards. the woman who has drunk the blood of the saints. And if we cannot see that, well then we are spiritually blind, because the Holy Spirit of God has shown it. And there's a reason why the Spirit of God has shown it, so that we would have a love and a compassion for those in the system. When you meet Catholics, that you share with them the Gospel of Christ Jesus. that you have a love for people who are in this system, where their very intellect and will is demanded by the one who sits in the temple of God, calling himself God. You just are not neutral to Catholics, you are moved with compassion. And what do I now say, and what would you say to a Catholic? You would say the very words of the Apostle Paul, he who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He who knew no sin, the perfect Lamb of God, the spotless, holy, pure, holy, harmless, undefiled man there's ever been. He was legally imputed with the sin of believers. He was imputed with their sin, legally called sin. He became sin for us. Why? So that we could become the righteousness of God in Him. That we would have His righteousness credited to us. That we would stand clothed in His garments of righteousness. perfect legally before God, because we have trusted in Him alone. And this is the greatest good news there could be, that for precious Catholic people, it's no system, it's no church, it is the person of Christ Jesus, who has, in the words of the Apostle Peter, taken His sins, our sins, and His body on the tree. He took our sins. And how do we come into that position we say, our? It becomes personal. First of all, by admitting that you're a sinner. Only sinners qualify. Those who admit that they have fallen short of the glory of God and that they're dead spiritually in sin. It's only sinners that Christ Jesus died for. And can you, precious Catholic person, admit what Scripture says about you, that like us all, you are dead in trespasses and sins? But the good news is for you too, that His righteousness is yours as you trust on Him. And you know the glory of what it is to be accepted into the love, to the praise of the glory of His grace. And that becomes your theme song. all the days of your life. I'd love to hear from you. You'll see our email address given on our webpage on your screen and I'd ask that you write to us because this is of utmost importance. May God be glorified and may many souls be saved through the praise of the glory of His grace. Amen and Amen. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video, or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N, Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.