DECEMBER 27 “COME OUT OF HER, THE GREAT FALSE RELIGION”

   Why do people want to stay in their false religion and attempt to serve God there, after they have come to the truth? Is it some kind of compromise? Some kind of admission of "partial guilt"? A text that has often stood out to many is our text in Revelations, " Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins or you will be punished with her". One of the most frustrating things for me as a Born Again Christian is to have a Catholic come to me and tell me "we are the same".  We are both "believers" we are both "Born Again" it's just that I am Catholic and you are Protestant. And I grieve for the martyrs who gave their lives so that we could be set free from false religion. As if there's salvation inside the Teachings of the Catholic Church?! As if salvation and forgiveness of the "original sin" comes at at the baptism of an infant. As if Martin Luther was just a great fool in forging the Protestant Reformation. I wonder if these Born Again Catholics have ever heard of the "Protestant Reformation?" What was the Protestant Reformation all about if there was salvation through the Roman Catholic Church?  Why were men burned at the stake by the Pope, if there was salvation through the Church of Rome.  I date them to tell William Tyndale, who was executed by strangling and then his body burned at the stake by the Papacy, that we are all the same. I dare them to tell John Wycliffe who gave his life trying to translate the Bible into the common language of the people and in so doing spent his life running from the Papacy.  The Pope was so infuriated by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Whycliffe had died, the Pope ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river. Every Christian Religion outside of the Roman Catholic Church today is Protestant, ie: Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, and many more are all part of The Protestant Reformation, what was Martin Luther Protesting? The Catholic Church and it's false teachings of indulgences, trans-substantiation, purgatory, salvation only through the Church of Rome. Martin Luther came out of her once he experienced salvation through Faith Alone in Christ and declared his intolerance for the Roman Church's corruption on Halloween in 1517, by nailing his 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church door. Luther who would be exiled in the months following the Diet of Worm Council in 1521 that was designed to martyr him. Our text goes on to say in Revelations, "for her sins are piled as high as heaven.....the blood of the martyrs and prophets is on her hands". And we only show how completely ignorant we are when we say, "I'm a Born Again, but I serve God in the Catholic Church".  Never in one sentence has such foolishness ever been uttered. If you are Born Again, then come out of her or share in the judgement of her sins.  We have not even begun to tap into the lives that were martyred at the hands of the Papacy.  The "Spanish Inquisition" is still the dark stain on the history of the Church, the martyring of the Jews, God's own people, once again the Tribunal for the Spanish Inquisition was led by the Pope.  History records men and woman who gave their lives and were burned at the stake by the Catholic Church and these saints did so, so we could experience salvation, so we could know God. And for someone to come along today and say, "Luther, Whycliffe, Tyndale, none of you know what you were talking about, you died as martyrs in vain, you protested and were murdered by the Pope and Catholic Church yes, but I say, you were all wrong and I am right, there is salvation in the Catholic Church, I am a Born Again Catholic Believer!" Our text today warns us to come out from under her spell. The blood of the Martyrs is on the hands of the Catholics and God is giving a solemn warning to us that have come to the knowledge of the truth, "come out of her or you will share in her judgement". When the books are opened and every wicked deed is judged under the sun and God judges those who shed the blood of the martyrs, I know that on that day, Martin Luther and the great reformers will all be glad they did not remain in her claiming to be saved, but that they came out from her, even if it cost them their lives.