Hey, this is Michael Bohm with Youth Apologetics Training. Today we're going to keep going on this series about Catholicism. What do they believe? And yesterday we started talking about Tradition and the Bible, two of the areas that Roman Catholics believe that they get their authority for their doctrine. And today we're going to keep going on Tradition. So, anyway, let's just jump right in. 1 Thessalonians 2.13, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which ye heard from us, ye received it not, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. which effectually worketh also in you that believe." Again, the Bible attests to itself through miracles, through prophecies, through understanding of science. Anyway, 2 Peter 121 says, "...for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Galatians 112, For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but the revelation of Jesus Christ. What? Paul says, I didn't receive it from man. I wasn't taught it. I got it by revelation of Jesus Christ. All right. What does the Bible say about tradition? Matthew 22, 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. Mark 7.13 says, "...making the Word of God," this is Jesus speaking, "...making the Word of God none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, and many such like things do ye." Okay, making the Word of God none effect, of none effect through your tradition. Mark 7.8, "...for laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men." as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things ye do." Okay, but focus on that. "...for laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men." Now, I want to take a little side road. There is a commandment in the Ten Commandments that is laid aside to protect this tradition that the Catholic Church holds. We all know that Catholic Churches are filled with statues, basically idols. They're statues. They're representations of things in Heaven, things on Earth, and they do bow down to them. They say they don't worship them, but then, well, they say they venerate them. Again, but they're bowing down to these statues. And when you go on to official Catholic websites, and everywhere I looked I found the same thing, when you look for Ten Commandments for the Catholics, you will find a list of Ten Commandments, and it does not include the Second Commandment. I went to another website, basically somebody who is an apologist for Catholics. I don't remember who. I remember at the top of the screen it said fish eaters, if that helps any of you. But this guy missed the point entirely. He was making the case that they still have the second commandment, but it is implied it is rolled into one of the other commandments. But he misses the point entirely. The point is It's gone. Sure, you can say it's implied, but it's not there now. So when you read the Ten Commandments, you don't see it, and it doesn't smack you upside the head and make you go, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, wait a minute, what are we doing? Hey, whoa, what are we doing, guys? That's what we need from the Ten Commandments. We need that seventh commandment slapping us upside the head and us guys are going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm looking at that girl. What am I doing? What am I doing? Look at my ground. Look at, look at my shoes. Look at something. Look away. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We need those 10 commandments. Sorry guys, I get, I get wild. Um, but they, they do, they, they kind of look the other way on that commandment and I, I, you know, laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men." Let's move on. Colossians 2.8, "...Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Now, again, we talked yesterday about some of the different things we're going to cover in this series. just pointing out a few of those again, and just think about, after the traditions of men, what are some doctrines in the Catholic Church that might fit that bill? And we will talk about them. How about working off your sins in purgatory? So you've got this place where you're able to basically get a second chance that's nowhere in the Scriptures, it's not in the Bible, and it's Well, it undermines the finality of this life. This is all we get, friends. We have one life. And if we're not trusting in Christ for the remission of our sins, and we're trusting – correct me if I'm wrong – if we're trusting in an opportunity to have our sins burned off of us and still go to Heaven, we've compromised the Gospel. we have gone after the traditions of men, philosophy and vain deceit, and not after Christ. How about this one? Mary as co-redemptrix or mediatrix. Mary is basically a partner with Jesus in the salvation of mankind. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that. This is after the traditions of men, It's not after Christ. I like Mary. Mary's awesome. But we should not be putting her that high on any pedestal. She was the mother of Christ. But she had nothing to do with salvation, short of bringing forth Jesus into the world. But if you want to go that route, then you'd have to start venerating Mary's parents, and Mary's parents' parents, and Mary's parents' parents' parents, and Mary's parents' parents' parents' parents. You get my point. Of course, we talked about ignoring the second commandment, that's after the tradition of men, making it mandatory to re-sacrifice Christ in what they call the Eucharist. Okay, remember, we do communion, right? We all do communion, the bread and the wine. They believe that in this ritual, they have what's called transubstantiation, and that is where the bread and the wine literally becomes the body and blood of Christ. And they believe this is a necessary sacrifice every single time they go to church, every time they're supposed to receive the Eucharist. This is after traditions of men. This is a tradition that started in the Scriptures, but making it into the literal body and blood of Christ, and making it a mandatory making it a mandatory sacrifice is not in the Bible. Another thing is, well, praying to saints. And I need to look into this a little deeper, because I'm not sure if it's an official doctrine of the Church or not. I kind of doubt it. But we all have heard of Catholics basically praying to different saints and asking for them to intercede. They also pray to Mary. If you drop all the praying to saints and just simply talk about praying to Mary. What do you have? You still have what is called necromancy in the Bible. That is, communicating with the dead. There's no other way to spin it. You're trying to talk to the dead and ask for their help. There's no other way to spin it. This is after the traditions of men and not after Christ. And lastly, but definitely not least, And this list does go on and on. I just want to mention a few things that are after the traditions of men. We have salvation of works. And that, my friends, is a very complicated subject. We'll, at the very least, do one whole podcast in the series just on their view of justification and salvation. It's very different, very confusing. But here it is in a nutshell. And even you Catholics, just hear me out. I'm oversimplifying it for this little end of a podcast. But in a nutshell, to get into Heaven, you have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, according to Catholic doctrine, and perform a whole list of works in order to get into Heaven. You have to do the seven sacraments, you have to do all these things in order to be saved. That is not in the Bible. It's not. And we'll talk about all this stuff later in the series. It's not there. And in fact, the contrary is there. For by grace have you been saved, through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. come out to the website, YouthApologeticsTraining.com, and leave comments, leave questions. I want to talk to you guys about this stuff. Also, you can subscribe to my podcast, SubscribethUntoMinePodcast, on the website. You can find me on iTunes and all that good stuff. Also, um, you can hook up with me on Facebook. I want to chat with you guys. Anyway, I love you guys, and I'll see you tomorrow.