1. The Roman Catholic Church claims to be “the” Church:
A. In order to back up this claim she must trace her roots back to the Apostles, which she can, and have not changed the doctrine, which she has.
2. The Infallibility and jurisdictional authority of the Pope over all of the church, which is claimed by the Roman Catholic Church, is nowhere to be found in the fathers or the scriptures:
A. Scripturally, they base this claim on Matt. 16:16-19 in which Jesus gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom, and at least according to some, calls Peter the rock upon which he will build his Church.
B. The majority of the church fathers say that the rock is Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God.
C. Even if Jesus meant that Peter was the rock, how does that necessarily translate into the Roman Pope being the infallible head of the church?
D. If Jesus did mean that the successors of Peter would be the infallible head of the church, since Peter first founded the church in Antioch, and it is still in existence today, why don’t its bishops have that authority?
E. Honorius was anathematized from the Church in the Third Council of Constantinople 681 (Exposition of Faith) for the monothelite heresy (Jesus only had a divine will as opposed to both a divine and a human will). How can this be if he is infallible?
F. Even if the Roman Catholics say that Rome never agreed with Pope Honorius being anathematized, obviously the rest of the church in anathematizing him, did not believe that the Roman bishop was infallible.
G. Two Ecumenical Councils (First Council of Constantinople canon 3 and the Council of Chalcedon canon 28) claimed that Rome got her place in the Church (first among equals according to the Orthodox) from being the capital of the empire. No mention is made of Peter’s confession in Matt. 16.
H. Why not? That seems like a very important detail to leave out of an authoritative council if that is what the Church always believed.
3. The filioque (and the Son) is not only an addition to the Nicene Creed, as it claims that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, which wasn’t there before Rome unilaterally inserted it, but it is also heretical:
A. To maintain the idea that the Holy Trinity is three persons and yet one God all characteristics given to it must either be shared by the three to show one God, or specific to the one to show distinctiveness of persons.
B. A characteristic that is shared by the three, such as, a common essence, will, action, virtues, etc indicates one God. A characteristic that is specific to one, such as, only the Father is unbegotten, only the Father begets a Son, only the Son is begotten of the Father, only the Father brings forth the Holy Spirit, only the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, indicates distinctiveness of persons.
C. The filioque gives the characteristic of generating the Holy Spirit to both the Father and the Son.
D. In giving a positive characteristic to two persons of the Trinity, it neither indicates one God, as it is not shared by the three, nor does it indicate a distinct person, as it is not specific to the one, and so it makes no sense considering the historical understanding of the Trinity.
E. It is therefore heretical.
4. In order to maintain the Roman Catholic understanding of the filioque they must change the source, and therefore that which unifies the Trinity, from the traditional understanding of the Father to the never before claimed common essence, or the never before claimed Father and the Son:
A. By saying “I believe in one God the Father…” the Nicene Creed places the unity/source of the Trinity in the Father.
B. Since, in Catholicism, the origin of the Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son, the unity/source of the Holy Trinity cannot be solely in the Father. To be consistent with the Roman Catholic view of the Trinity, the Creed would have to start out either, I believe in one God the Father and the Son, or I believe in one God the common essence (of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit).
5. Original Sin:
A. This is the Roman Catholic claim that man is born guilty of Adam’s sin.
B. This comes, at least in part, from a mistranslation of Romans 5:12 (Council of Trent Session 5) which says: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that, all have sinned”:
C. “For that all have sinned” was mistranslated into “Through whom all have sinned”.
D. One result of this was the claim in the Council of Constance (Session 15 condemning the 260 articles of John Wycliffe (6)) that unbaptized babies who died went to Hell since these babies were born, and therefore died, guilty of sin.
6. The Immaculate Conception of Mary:
A. This is the claim that Mary had special grace to be born without sin which meant being born without the guilt of Adam’s sin and any inclination toward sin. (The Immaculate Conception – Pope Pius IX – 1854)
B. Otherwise, she would have passed guilt and an inclination toward sin down to Jesus.
C. The removal of this inclination from Mary at conception takes all virtue away from her because, being sinless (never willingly, knowingly, sinned), had nothing to do with her. If any inclination towards sin which may have tested her was removed before her birth, how does she overcome sin? How does she obtain virtue?
D. There was no struggle on her part and therefore no virtue can be attributed to her.
7. Transubstantiation:
A. This is the belief that the material elements of bread and wine are not present in the Eucharist after the consecration. (Council of Trent – On the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist – Canon 1)
B. Since the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ it must accurately represent the nature of Christ, which is fully material in his humanity, and fully immaterial in his divinity
C. To say that the material substance of the bread and wine are not present after the consecration (only the accidents are) is to say that Christ was not a material being. He only appeared to be.
D. Even though Christ not being a material being is not the official doctrine of the Catholic Church, their understanding of the Eucharist creates a Christological heresy akin to Gnosticism, which claimed that Christ did not have a material body. It only appeared as if he did.
E. Thomas Aquinas, who was the first one to postulate this, took a belief from Aristotle that two substances could not inhabit the same space at the same time.
F. Therefore, one could not have both the material substance of man and the immaterial “substance “ of God within the bread and wine at the same time.
8. The Roman Catholic Church has done away with most of her asceticism:
A. The fathers said that asceticism is a major catalyst for becoming godlike.
B. The Roman Catholic Lenten fast is no meat on Friday (fish is okay) which is virtually nothing. These days it is even allowed to not fast at all and just do good works.
C. There are no Christmas, Apostles, or Dormition fasts.
D. There is only a one-hour fast before taking communion.
E. The weekly fast is no meat on Friday, (again fish is acceptable) but this fast is no longer emphasized and few seem to observe it.
F. There is no Wednesday fast.
G. Most of the service is spent sitting down.
H. One can fulfill their Sunday “obligation” on Saturday night so they don’t even have to get up early Sunday morning.
