The Pope's Apology
 

[Treatise]

Part IV

The pope did not apologize
or recognize any responsibility
for the bad doctrines.

He apologized for some over-enthusiastic sons and daughters of the Church. How pitiful! How weak! The atrocities of some Catholics today are still based on false doctrine.

The fighting in Ireland–the Protestants and Catholics kill one another. Why? Because they believe the other one’s going to go to hell anyway. This is still alive today. Let us not think that there is no behavior based on false doctrine. In Mexico, the Catholics drove a whole group of Evangelical Protestants out of their own village.

Then there is the broader scale. The conflict in Kosovo in the Balkans. Catholics against Eastern Orthodox against Muslims–religious hatred. They believe that their religious doctrines allow them to take the lives of others. This has not changed.

Revelation 17:5– Papacy is the mother of harlots. What is harlotry? An abandonment of their first vows to Christ–to unite themselves with the pope as their head and to unite themselves with the kings of the earth in fornication. It is the church-state government environment.

Instead of waiting for the true Kingdom that would be established upon Christ’s return, Papacy tried to establish it in the past. In fact, they claim that they did. This is their harlotry. The false doctrinal error led to their bad conduct which has created the entire problem. We suggest that the only reason that Papacy is not more open in enforcing their doctrinal beliefs is that they lack opportunity.

Revelation 18:4– "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." The Lord’s true people have heard the call to come out of her–come out of the false systems. It is the time of Harvest–the time for separation between the wheat and the tares. Remember, "Let the two grow together until the time of harvest. Then go out and separate them with the sickle of Truth." This been taking place.

The scriptures say, "Come out of her, or you’ll receive of her plagues." of the punishment due her, of retributive justice. No apology will spare the Papal system of divine judgments.

Many Catholics today are saying, "We wouldn’t do what our forefathers did, if we lived in their day." But their doctrine has not changed. They only lack the opportunity to exercise it. That is why, with the light of present knowledge and the experience of history that they can look back on, the people in the systems today are more guilty than the ones of the past. They know better, and they are not willing to take a stand for truth and leave the systems. By staying in the systems, they are acknowledging that they really are the children of those that committed these acts. They believe the same doctrines–just lack opportunity.

Matthew 23:29– "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you have filled the tombs of the prophets and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous, yet say ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers." [Therein lies the guilt. They are filling up that blood-guilt.] "Ye generation of vipers, How can you escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore behold, I sent unto you prophets, wise men, scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city that upon you may come the righteous blood."

The verse in Revelation 6, where the souls that were under the altar were told to wait for those who will suffer likewise, indicates a future fulfilment upon the True Church class, the feet members of the Body of Christ.

Those in the nominal systems today hold the guilt for what their forefathers have done. They have the light of knowledge today. They should be asking themselves, "How could they have done this back there?" They would come to the same conclusion that God’s Word tells them: It is because of their doctrine. Their doctrine has not changed.

Someone might say, the Catholic church is downplaying torment. That depends on where you are. Where you are living on the globe, or in your community, they may be playing down torment. As the "leopard-like beast" [Rev. 13], Papacy changes its spots to camouflage itself in its current surroundings. In the United States, in the land of the free, they may seem more liberal. In other countries, they are more benighted and don’t have such liberty. In Mexico, they don’t put on the same liberal front. We should not interpret the entire Catholic position based on the Catholic neighbor next door to us. On their own web page, Papacy is offering a brand new book on how to receive indulgences. Why would you need an indulgence unless there’s a punishment– a temporal, corporal punishment–that has to be atoned for? An indulgence doesn’t mean anything unless it’s going to relieve you of some punishment.