Thank you, it is
so good to have you join with us again at this same time each week, and we do
count it our privilege to have you follow along in our Bible studies here at
Heritage Radio Bible Class. And the reason we've named it the Bible
class is because the Bible is our textbook. Tradition has crept
in, in this old world here through religion and has corrupted the Word of God.
Mark Chapter 7 says because of your traditions, you have made the Word of God
of no effect.
And yet, we find many many people that just seem to want to follow anything that a priest or the Lutheran preacher says, and we're centering in on that particularly, because both of these organizations put their preachers out there to tell you they can forgive your sins. Now I often wonder, does the Catholic priest forgive the sins of the Lutheran preacher?
Or maybe the Lutheran preacher has the Catholic priest come to him to forgive his sins. But, you know, their sins have to be forgiven or they're not going to Heaven. And yet I wonder who forgives their sins, and then they take upon themselves to try to tell you they can forgive their sins, and truthfully, they both are liars because neither one of them can forgive their own sins.
We want to continue on now, and I want to center in on Roman Catholicism, and the fact when their priests say that they can forgive your sins. I have a file, that I don't even keep the publications for anymore, of how completely full of pedophiles and homosexuals, the priesthood is. It amazes me that these men that are supposed to be holy men, and godly men, turn out to be such perverts. Now I want to give you some information. I'm going to condense this down. I'm not pulling my whole file out, which is crammed full of the articles and things concerning the pedophiles and the homosexuals in the priesthood. I'll start out by saying this, because these are the men that this church (religious organization I should say) is putting out to the public and saying "Our priests can forgive your sins," and yet they are filled full of filth and wretchedness. They most assuredly are. But I want to give you some information, a little but; and, first of all, I want to say this to clear the air. Whenever you say, and you come out, and you expose and organization for what they really are, and you expose that, then the first thing that you have people say that belong to that organization is ... "well you hate Catholics." And I want to say this clearly, whoever says that is a LIAR. I do not hate Catholics whatsoever. I hate the damnable teachings that they put out to deceive people; but I don't hate Catholics (a person that's a Catholic). There are many wonderful people. What we're talking about is comparing what this organization teaches, as compared to the Bible. And I would fight for anyone's right to belong to any organization that you want to belong to, because that freedom we have in America. Other countries, many countries, don't have that freedom. So, I want you to fight for my right to tell the truth, as much as, an organization that can lie to you. You see. So let's both have the freedom. Don't take away my freedom, and I don't want to take away your freedom, but at least you know one thing, this is what the Bible says.
Now, I remember, when we were pastoring in one church, and I'll start out with this because these are real life things. These are not something that are manufactured up, these are real life experiences, and the truth of them. We were pastoring, and we had a gentleman move in who was a nuclear engineer. Well, after talking to him we led him to the Lord Jesus Christ. He had been raised all of his life in the Roman Catholic Church. And we led him to Christ. He trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior, he had never done it before, never heard that Christ is the only way (only "go through all the sacraments and you're gonna be all right sonny, " and all of that). But he looked in the Bible and found out in John 14:6, "...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." And that God loved the world and gave His only begotten Son (that's Christ), that whosoever believeth in Him would never perish, but have eternal life." And it was such a thrill to him. Now this was a very intelligent man. It was a thrill to him to know that he had eternal life, and it was promised to him, not through a church, not through an organization (he never had that promise from the Roman Catholic Church, and related so). And then as time went on, he began to come to our church faithfully, and then he had Marge, my wife, and I out for supper and he began to relate; He said, do you know that I spent a year and I was going to be a priest. And I said, well what happened? He said, well I'm going to tell you what happened. In that year in spent, I could not stomach the homosexuals that were in the convent there. He said, I couldn't take it anymore. He said, I never had such a shock in my life of these perverts that were in, and studying for the priesthood.
Now it's an amazing thing, you say, oh my goodness gracious, we shouldn't say that. I think we should say that. Isn't it about time that the truth surfaces on some of that. I mean after all, it's your children folks, that you're sending to these priests and these pedophiles. We're not saying that every priest is a pedophile, or every priest is a homosexual; but what I'm going to relate to you is going to show you that about half of them are, one out of two. I want to read to you something that appeared in the Star Tribune, here, some time back. I want to read to you some excerpts from this, and this is from a man who I had met ,and I'll relate this a little later on. But whom I had met, I had talked with, I took him out for supper, and he is one of those men who (his name is Rev. Donald B. Cozzens), and he teaches at Saint Mary's Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio. But I want to give you, and this is an interview with him that the Star Tribune out of Minneapolis had printed. Let me give you some excerpts from it here...
"With a frank scholarly new book, the reverend Donald B. Cozzens, draws on 35 years as a priest to explore the soul of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Some of his fellow clerics are calling it a masterpiece. Cozzens is 60 years old and has spent his life as a priest's priest, serving as vicar of all 500 diocese and priests in Northeast Ohio. Now he heads St. Mary's Seminary here."
This is the most honest assessment of the American priesthood I have read in years, said Paul Wilkes, author of The Good Enough Catholic, a book he wrote. Cozzen's carefully and candidly considers whether there is an increasingly gay cast to the priesthood. He looks at the exodus of about 20,000 American men from it's ranks in the last 30 years. Then he goes on, and I just want to hit the highlights of this, he assesses why in recent years the priesthood and church authority have fallen on hard times. He describes an encounter with a woman who grabbed a pamphlet about the vocation out of her son's hand after Sunday mass, throwing it down, she said with a voice of steel ... "No son of mine is going to be a damn priest!" That's what she said, as how Rev. Cozzen's relates it.
"Catholics in stark contrast to parents of previous generations are no longer likely to see priesthood and religious life as a healthy way of life for their children," he writes. "One reason is what Cozzens, a straight man, calls, the 'gay crises.' The priesthood is, or is becoming, a gay profession."
That's what Rev. Cozzen's writes. Now he teaches the priests. He cites sociologist, James G Wolf's 1989 assessment that, get this now, 48.5% of the priests, and 55.1% of seminarians were gay. Can you believe this? 48.5% of the priests, that's those that are practicing in the priesthood now. Fifty-five, over half ... 55.1% of seminarians were gay. That's over half of your priests in the seminaries that are gay men. He goes on down, Cozzens writes. He touches on Yale Historian, John Boswell's contention, that holy orders have been honorable sanctuary for gay men for centuries. This has been the place for them to go, where they don't get caught.
"Gays can be a destabilizing element for straight men in seminaries trying to discern their vocation," he said.
Cozzens recalled that one recent gifted candidate turned down the priestly life once he discovered the homosexual meaning of many of the men around him. And then on the last paragraph,
"I don't think we in the church have asked ourselves, what is God's Spirit saying to us through these most recent crisis ... the sexual misconduct with minors, and the large number of priests?"
Well, let me say this; first of all, what does the Bible say about homosexuals, let alone, pedophiles, preying on your children? And the sad thing is, when these these come out, this doesn't even seem to phase some Catholics. Now some it really does, and some have quit the church, and said ,"I'm not sending my children to these priests when one out of every two of them are pedophiles or homosexuals, that's it's for me brother!" Well, I'd say you got some pretty good sense because these are your children.
Let me give you another example if I may do this. We went down to a hospital. The person was going in for an operation. Her husband was there. We went down as we usually do. It seems like all the one's that we go to, to the hospital, their operations are at 7 or 8 in the morning. I always get those early ones. But anyway, we went down for breakfast and coffee. There was a priest there sitting with three other people. I looked at him, and he was a homo from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. After being around many many of these men, especially being on the police department for a number of years, and seeing them, and talking with them, you can pick 'em out, I'll tell Ya, if you've been around them. And anyway, we ate breakfast, and we got up and started to leave, and we were going out of the waiting room, and I said to him, Toby, do you see that priest over there? He said, yeah. I said, that's a homo, he's a homosexual, sir. Aw, you're kidding Max. You're kidding. Now how in the world did you know that? I said, I can spot 'em a mile off ... he looks like one, he walks like one, he talks like one, he is one. Aw I don't believe that, he said. I said, I'll prove it to you. I'll prove it to you. Come back over here, were gonna get another cup of coffee, and I'm going to prove to you something to get your eyes open Toby.
And so we did, we went back over and got another cup of coffee and sat down. So I walked over to the table and I said, "Sir, no rush at all, but I wonder when you get through, no rush at all, if you would have a few minutes to come over, and I have some questions I'd like to ask you? He said, sure, fine; and it wasn't five minutes or so, and the other people left, and he came over and sat down to our table. And I said, well the first question sir, I'd like to ask you is, can you tell me how I can know absolutely for sure that I am going to Heaven when I die? Well he was flabbergasted and he said well I've never been asked that before. Well I said, it's not something whether you're asked that or not, it's the fact you're probably (as a priest) telling all the people in your congregation how to go to Heaven because that's what churches are for. I mean if my car needs working on, I'm not going to take it to the car wash, I'm going to take it to a mechanic. And that mechanic is going to diagnoses what the problem is. So when you go to church, the priest, or the preacher, or whoever it is, the minister is supposed to teach you what God's diagnosis of humanity is, and that in Romans 3:23 "...we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God."
Well he didn't know any of that. And he said, well, he said, ah, you know, this has sort of caught me off guard. And I'm thinking, off guard of what? You should know this inside and out if your a priest. I mean you're supposed to know the Bible. You're supposed to tell people how they can know for sure they're going to Heaven when they die. 1st John 5:13 says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." Well anyway, he didn't know, and he wondered if I was a Catholic, and I said, no, I'm not a Catholic; but what difference would that make? I'm a human being, I'm going to Heaven or Hell when I die. And I just wondered if you could tell me how to go to Heaven. Well he couldn't and the best he could come up with was ... "Just do the best you can son and you'll be alright, God understands." And that was his best answer. I said, well can you give me a Verse in the Bible that tells me if I do the best I can, God understands, and He promises me He'll let me into heaven? Well he didn't know of any Verse; of course, there isn't any Verse.
And I said, sir, can I ask you one more question? I said I want to ask you, first of all, what do you think of lying? Should a priest lie? He said, oh no, absolutely, you shouldn't lie. I said, well that's good. I said, should I lie or anybody lie? He said, no, no, that is one of the Ten Commandments. I said really? Then my next question is sir, are you a homosexual? And he didn't know what to say. He said, finally, this is the most insulting thing I have ever, ever had asked me. I said, why should it be insulting, sir, if you're not a homosexual why don't you tell me? Are you a homosexual? He would not answer me. I said, well let me ask you this way, then; we're not supposed to lie, that's one of the Ten Commandments, so I want to ask you straight out. Tell me that you're not a homosexual, because you're not supposed to lie. You're a priest, you're supposed to be honest. He said, I will not, this is the most insulting! I said, well sir if you asked me if I'm one, I will tell you, ABSOLUTELY NOT, I think it's perversion, I think it's a sick mind, to be a homosexual or a pervert. I really do. In fact the Bible tells, and God said in the Old testament, that you are to be put to death if you're a homosexual. So just tell me you're not. He said I absolutely, this is the most insulting thing I have ever seen, and I hope you're happy sir, and then he got up and stormed out. Well, this man was a homo from the word go. You could tell that everything about him, and he would not say he was not a homosexual after we told him, and he said, that priests shouldn't lie; you know, so he was sort of put on the spot there.
Well, another interesting thing. Now these are things that are happening. You know it's too bad that some of you that go to the Roman Catholic won't go to your priest and ask him,
"Are you a homosexual sir?"
I mean, we're talking about one out of two, according to what the statistics show here. And some of the men who have researched this, 55.1% in the seminaries today are homosexuals, their gay men. This is unbelievable, and you're going to send your child to that priest, to that organization; and you're not going to ask the priest, and set him right down, and pin him down, and if he won't answer you, I'll tell you what, then, ... YOU BETTER RUN FROM IT. But it's your child. If you want to take a chance and send your child just because it's a religious organization, and all of this comes on so positively, so nice, so humble, and so forth; then, friend you've been deceived, it's your child. And God expects you to protect your child, He most assuredly does. Let me give you some things here that are very interesting. This came out in USA Today. Let me a read you a couple of things couple of things here...
"California diocese pays $100,000,000..."
Let me read you some excerpts from this...
"The Roman Catholic diocese of Orange County in California has announced details of the largest single settlement in the child sexual abuse scandal. The diocese said Monday that it had agreed to a $100,000,000 civil settlement with 90 victims of abuse. The largest previous settlement was $85,000,000. And that was made in Boston in the year 2003. The latest settlement pushes the total cost of abuse, including care and counseling for victims and priest..."
I thought these priests were supposed to be godly men. They're supposed to be clean and pure and have a pure mind; but of these,
"(cont.) nearly $900,000,000 nationwide. But victims who battled the Southern California diocese for two years, say their victory won't be complete until they see the churches' files on alleged abusers, which will be made public as part of the settlement."
They could document what church officials knew, of abuse complaints, and what they did; or failed to do, to protect children. We know from many other articles that we have that some of the Bishops were forced to be let go when they were forced to admit that some of the priests under them were pedophiles, and had abused children, molested children, and they just shipped 'em to another diocese. And these are godly men? These, my folks, are haters of God. They're in a cesspool of sin. And present themselves, and throw a robe on, and present themselves as being godly men to seduce you into believing --these men can forgive your sins? When they're saturated with sins themselves? This is unbelievable! Let me read you some more, from USA Today...
"This is what we really want, to open up the truth of what happened and be believed, said Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests. One of the most explosive features of the three year old national scandal is that some Bishops protected, even promoted, priests accused of abuse and shuffled them among unsuspected parishes."
Can you believe this? And you're telling me this is Christianity? No wonder these priests can't tell you how to go to Heaven when you die. And no wonder in their writings, and in the book I have (probably more than most Catholic do). The fact that you've got to have good works to go to Heaven (according to them), and if you don't have good works, in their writings they say you are anathema, that means you're accursed ... if you don't have good works. And you put these pedophiles out here to the unsuspected public. Let me read this again because this is unbelievable. These are supposed to be your most spiritual men, these are your Bishops, these are your men that are the most spiritual. Let me give this to you...
"One of the most explosive features of the three year old national scandal is that some Bishops protected, even promoted, priests accused of abuse and shuffled them among unsuspected parishes."
Now I'd like to read you something if I can. First of all, what about ... what about ... these homos and pedophiles. May I read you in Leviticus Chapter twenty, I want to read to you what God thinks of these. If they we're living in Old Testament times, they would all be taken out and put to death. That's what God thinks of these perverts. Notice in Verse 13 of the twentieth Chapter, here, of the Book of Leviticus,
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: (and get this now) they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
In other words, you're going to reap what you sow. And you're putting these pedophiles and these homos out, and putting a robe on them, to entice people to come to them to forgive their sins, when they are full of sin. Unbelievable! I have never in my life, in all the readings and books that I have, ever seen any organization as corrupt, and filled full of pedophiles and homosexuals, as I have the Roman Catholic Church. And then to send my children there? And then to be so scared because I want to be accepted (I should say "socially" now because that's the social church to go to in some towns), I wouldn't dare ask the priest or talk to the priest at all. Is that what the church does to you? You're so scared? Scare you so bad that you won't approach them and ask them, "Are you a homosexual, sir?" Why would you not ask one? It's your children, it's your flesh and blood that you're sending there. Your kids are the one's they take out on the retreat. How do you think these kids got molested? Because their parents we're too dumb to go to the priest and find out. But I've got to retract that just a second, because a lot of this, before all this began to come out, there were people who knew about this. I knew about it years ago. But no one would believe it. Nobody would believe it, until everything hit the fan. And I'm glad that it did before there are more Bishops that shuffle their priests to parishes for unsuspecting parents to send their children so the priests can molest them. What a joke! And then I'm supposed to go and confess my sins to these misfits, with a robe on? You've got to be kidding?
But you know what, America just doesn't seem to care anymore, do they? They really don't. because if you don't have enough backbone to protect your child, and go there and ask this priest, "Hey, tell me how to go to Heaven?" Because when you're in a Bible-teaching church, and there are thousands of them all over America, that teach the Bible. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved; not, be baptized as a baby and lie to you. This is another fallacy of this particular organization along with Lutheranism. That's exactly what Martin Luther believed. And we're going to cover some of those things later on. And I want to bring out some of the teachings here. Why do we have so many pedophiles? Why do we have 55.1% of gay men in the priesthood? Unbelievable! But there's a reason for it. And then you're telling me this church organization believes the Bible? Very little of the Bible does this organization believe, but they counterfeit it.
What are you saying? First of all, do you know that priests had to be married? You can't be a priest unless you are married. Now we're going to pick that up next week. I see our time, it seems like it goes very fast, but we're going to show you in the Bible where not only priests have to be married, but also ministers today. And God knows that. He doesn't want gay men. He doesn't want the temptations. He knows the sexual desires of men and women, he created us. And he wants pastors to be married. He wants deacons to be married. And we're going to see that in the Bible. In the Old Testament, in Leviticus Chapter 21, the priests had to be married, and he tells who they are to marry. You see. And it's a good principle for us to follow today. As far as who we marry. "...come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing..." (2ndCorinthians 6:17). "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers..." (2nd Corinthians 6:14). That was a principle for Israel. But every priest had to be married. I don't know what the Pope's thinking about. Because if he's supposed to know anything about the Bible, we'd have these priests being married, you wouldn't have it saturated with 50% of the pedophiles and homos. I don't know what the old man knows, truthfully. But he sure isn't legislating it to his organization, or you wouldn't have these perverts there flourishing. You see.
Well, I know this much. I hope you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you're not putting your faith in a church, or an organization, or in a priest ... for Heaven's sake ... or a Lutheran preacher that says he can forgive your sins. I hope you're trusting Jesus Christ because, the important thing is, you're going to heaven or Hell depending who you trust. If you're trusting the Lutheran preacher, you're trusting the Catholic priest --neither one of these men can forgive your sins, and if you're trusting they can, you're lost and on your way to Hell. But if you trust Jesus Christ, He promised that you would never perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). I hope you'll do that. It's better to put your trust in the Lord, than confidence in man (Psalm 118:8).
