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Page 3 Grodi by Miles McKee

“Oh this is too extreme”, you say. I heartily agree! But the extremity lies at the feet of the Pope and his church and not at mine. These inflated and exalted claims are the actual claims that the Pope of Rome and his faithful followers make for him. Mr. Grodi would have us forget the following anti –scriptural claims concerning the Pope:

“For thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the husbandman; finally, thou art another God on earth.” (Christopher Marcellus, Oration in the Fifth Lateran Council, Session IV (1512), in Mansi SC, Vol. 32, col. 761. Latin.)

“Therefore the decision of the Pope and the decision of God constitute one decision. . . . Since, therefore, an appeal is always made from an inferior judge to a superior, just as no one is greater than himself, so no appeal holds when made from the Pope to God, because there is one consistory of the Pope himself and of God Himself.” (Augustinus Triumphus, Summa de Potestate Ecclesiastica, 1483, questio 6. Latin.)

“But the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds, therefore, requires, together with a perfect accord in the one faith, complete submission and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff, as to God Himself.” (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, “On the Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens,” dated January 10, 1890, trans. in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, New York: Benzinger, 1903, p. 193.)

“We [the pope] hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter “The Reunion of Christendom,” dated June 20, 1894, trans. in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, p. 304.)

The Bible knows nothing of this nonsense and any reasonable, right thinking person must admit that these kind of claims smell of blasphemy!

But what about Matthew 16:18 where Peter is the Rock?

That brings us to Reason Nine.

Matthew 16:18 does indeed say, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” However, this verse, when examined in the Greek, renders much light. Jesus said, “Thou art Peter” (Gk. 'petros'), a word which signifies a stone or pebble; but when Jesus says, “upon this rock”, the word for rock is 'petra' which means properly “an immovable rock”. Jesus neither then said, nor ever will say: “Peter I’m going to build my church on you.” What He did say, however, was that He would build his church on the rock. What rock? The rock of the great confession that Peter the pebble had confessed concerning Jesus, “Thou art the Christ the son of the living God.” But Rome’s false interpretation of this verse has been demolished many times by able and brilliant Bible believing scholars. Regrettably, Mr. Grodi, like so many converts to Rome, is unaffected by the facts. They have such a high regard for the truth that they are sparing with its everyday use! (See Full Article: 15 Reasons why Peter was not the Supreme Pontiff by Miles McKee)

Of course the next thing that persuaded Mr. Grodi was his reading of Cardinal Newman. Newman, a former Bible believing Anglican, abandoned the truth of “Justification by grace through faith” in the nineteenth century. According to Newman,

“the papal supremacy was not formally acknowledged in the second century, and that there was no formal acknowledgment on the part of the Church of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity till the fourth. No doctrine is defined till violated.”

How then do Messrs. Grodi and Newman have us believe that Papal Supremacy was a given? How then do they explain the failed attempt of Pope Victor 1 to establish his rulership over the other churches? In this amusing incident in A.D. 196 the redoubtable Pope Victor tried to excommunicate all the Churches of Asia Minor because their method of fixing the date of Easter differed from his. He wanted uniformity of behavior and belief. This did not sit well with the other churches, and in fact Victor was rebuked for his meddling, and his act of excommunication was set aside. So much for Newman’s theory of Papal Supremacy being a given! Almost the only one who recognized Papal supremacy was the Pope himself.

Mr. Grodi by this stage of his story is now attending Mass and ready to become a full-blown follower of the Papal See. One problem arose, however, and that was that his wife was a divorcee. Papal Rome sternly frowns on these things and even though they claim her priests have power to forgive sins, not even one of her priestly power could grant cleansing for this heinous and gross offense of divorce. What would it take to cleanse this leprous stain? What would it take if even the priests could not forgive this crime? Why, money of course, lots and lots of money. Rome has the power, if one can pay, to magically declare that a previous marriage never existed. Such a display of wizardry is called an annulment and this lethal practice pales divorce into insignificance. By the decree of annulment, the whole wretched affair of a failed marriage ceases to exist, and said marriage is invalidated. This being the case, the children from this former union automatically become illegitimate bastards born out of wedlock. And yet Rome masquerades as the church that holds the moral high ground on the issue of divorce and family values. Again, confusion twice confounded!

After a nine-month wait, the annulment was granted and Mr. and Mrs. Grodi’s marriage was blessed. At this point, accompanied by copious amounts of warm fuzzies, they were received into the Catholic Church. Mr. Grodi wept quiet tears of joy and gratitude that he was now able to get his teeth, quite literally, into Jesus.

Mr. Grodi concludes with a word of final praise for his hero, Cardinal Newman. Newman impacted him when he wrote that, “To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.” Actually, the reverse is true! If Mr. Grodi had been deep in history, he could not have become a Papist. He would know that Luther, Latimer, Knox and the majority of the other reformers had all been Roman Catholic priests. They were the very ones who knew Rome from the inside out. They knew what Rome really believed and practiced and found it nauseating. These men knew that Rome had good reason to be the enemy of the Bible because the Bible contradicted almost everything she taught. They also knew that, so intent was Rome not to have the Bible read that those who made translations into the native tongues or were even found with copies of the Scriptures were executed.

Mr. Grodi then says he also learned that, “the flip side of Newman’s adage is equally true: To cease to be deep in history is to become a Protestant!”--What has this man been eating? This is outrageous! This is where this seemingly mild mannered man takes off his mask and reveals himself as an aggressive foe. Of course, there are episodes in Bible believing history that are shameful, but they are mere Sunday School outings compared to the wickedness of the history of the Roman Church. Is this man ignorant of the history of the Papal Communion or is he just misguided and gullible? It is Mr. Grodi who, in fact, needs to learn from history. He should read “The History of the Popes”, by German historian Leopold Ranke. Leopold Ranke describes the Popes of the Reformation era thus:

Alexander VI – “His only care was to seize on all means that might aid him to increase his power and advance the wealth and dignity of his sons: on no other subject did he ever seriously bestow a thought.”

Alexander’s youngest son, the sinister Caesar Borgia, is also worthy of note. He worked as henchman to his father the Pope so that they could enhance and establish a papal empire in northern and central Italy. Ranke says of him, “Caesar Borgia was notorious for his passions and blood shedding.” Ranke further exclaims:

“How did Rome tremble at his name! Caesar (Borgia) required gold and possessed enemies: every night were the corpses of murdered men found in the streets, yet none dared move; for who but might fear that his own turn would be next? Those who violence could not reach were taken off by poison.”

Julius II - characterized by “intemperance and licentious excess.”

Leo X - the people of Rome themselves pursued the corpse of this pope to the grave with insult and reproach, crying, “Thou hast crept in like a fox, like a lion thou hast ruled us and like a dog hast thou died.”

Of course the Roman Church dislikes Leopold Ranke as a historian but the Catholic historian, Lord Acton, defended Ranke's book as the most fair-minded, balanced and objective study ever written on the 16th century Papacy.

Mr. Grodi would have us all join his darling Roman Church. He claims that history had a major part of persuading him. What history? Does he deny that the See of Peter during much of history resembled the See of Satan? Any objective historian will admit this. Any objective historian will admit that the Roman Church was a depraved, degraded, smutty, incestuous, adulterous ogre with many of her Popes, cardinals and priests living in grotesque wickedness.

Has Mr. Grodi, that great seeker of truth and student of history, never read of how his ‘one true church’ underwent the great western schism? That was when we actually had two popes vying for the loyalty of the faithful. Yes indeed, two Popes, Urban VI and Clement VII, each claiming to be the successor of Peter, fought, cursed and competed with each other like covetous greedy thieves as they contended for the vast treasures of the Church. Urban, that sweet repository of truth and holiness tortured and murdered with ease. What a charming man, I’m sure you’ll agree. Mr. Grodi fails to mention that Papal history is a disgrace. The blood of the martyrs is on her hands; yet Mr. Grodi wants us to embrace this long line of infallibles who presided over a continuing cesspool of filth and receive them as our substitute for Jesus. Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. Grodi. You may be satisfied with counterfeits but, ‘as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.’

Mr. Grodi has neither doctrine in his head nor doxology in his heart. He has completely rejected the work Jesus declared to be finished. When Jesus made this great pronouncement concerning His work, He spoke one word, which in the Greek language means, quite literally, “completely complete and perfectly perfect” (John 19:30). But what does Jesus know about it? He should have consulted with Mr. Grodi and the long line of infallibles. They, after all, could have informed Jesus that the work of redemption was not yet finished and must be ongoing. They could have educated him by telling him that, far from being accomplished, He would have to be continually offered as a bloodless sacrifice for the sins of the people. Silly Jesus! If only He could have conferred with Mr. Grodi.

But Mr. Grodi not only makes Jesus into a fool, he also makes Him a liar! Grodi insists that, although Jesus said redemption was finished, He actually finished nothing, and must be offered again for his sins each time the Mass is taken. How is it, the enquiring mind will ask, that even though he makes Jesus into a liar he yet wants to follow Him? Further, since Jesus lied on the cross, He must of a necessity have invalidated both His sacrifice at the cross and any further pretended sacrifices Rome can make of Him thereafter. I wish I could say that the logic of Mr. Grodi’s position escapes me, but his position is so devoid of logic that to say ‘his logic escapes me’ would be to imply there was logic there present in the first place! When it comes to logic, Mr. Grodi, it seems, would be out of his depth even in a puddle in a car park!

But let those who love the truth never forget that in Jesus, God has come to earth, lived, died, and risen again. In Jesus, God has spoken. In Jesus, God has made an end of sin. In Jesus, God has accomplished eternal redemption. In Jesus, it is finished! Yet Mr. Grodi would have us all leave this wonderful salvation, found in Christ alone, and join with the enemies of the cross who insist that salvation is by and through them.

Before Mr. Grodi attends the blasphemy of the Mass again, he would do well to meditate on Hebrews 10:12 which says, “But this man (Jesus) after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God.” Notice it is only one sacrifice that Jesus made. There is no need to make another. He would also do well to consider verse 14, which says, “For by one offering he (Jesus) hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Notice again it is one sacrifice and the work is completed!

We pray that Mr. Grodi will either repent of his wickedness, or if not, that he will cease to prey upon and poison the weak and frail as he crusades in the name of Rome, that great enemy of Jesus Christ.

Permission is given by the author, Miles McKee, to copy this article if it is done in its entirety without any changes.

Permission is also given post this article in its entirety on Internet WebPages.

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