From the shroud of Turin, to the crying Mary statues, to the Holy steps, all with great power to dispense forgiveness of sins, but none of them can do what four doors in the city of Rome can do every 25 years. If you walk through them in this year of 2016 you are promised to have your sins forgiven, or in Roman Catholic terms, “The jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon.”

Imagine a door. A door that only opens once or maybe twice in a lifetime. The door has incredible powers. It has the ability to cleanse you. It has the ability to pardon and cast your sin as far as the east is from the west. In fact there isn’t just one of them, there are four, and they are opened only once every 25 years in the city of Rome. Since you were a kid you were told that these doors had the ability to cleanse you from every sin you have ever committed, as long as you walked through them.

I wish this were a fairytale.

Millions of Roman Catholics around the world will be heading to Rome this year, thinking that there they will be able to be absolved of all their sins. By getting on a plane and saying a few prayers, they assume that their actions will assuage the wrath of God.

Have you ever seen a desperate person lost in false religion? Desperately trying to earn their way to heaven?

I can still picture the crying lady, crawling on her knees as it was yesterday. Tears filled my eyes as I watched this lady do everything she could to get God’s attention, who was promised that if she crawled up these “holy steps” with the right attitude and with the right amount of prayers she’d be able to receive “grace” for herself or more likely for a family member currently in purgatory. I couldn’t help but think about Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

Most false religions have man-made rules like these that promise to save people from their sin. And we can’t help but watch them, and be heartbroken, over their misunderstanding of grace. Sometimes though, it is easier to jump through all kinds of hoops in order to keep oneself from actually repenting and acknowledging our bankruptcy before God.

That’s why for centuries the Roman Catholic Church has had Jubilee years. It is a quick way to get many people to Rome. Boost the economy, give exorbitant amount of money to the church and sustain them for decades to come.

Relics have always played a huge part in the Roman Catholic Church. Luther pointed out that it appeared as if “Rome had enough nails from the Holy cross, to shoe every horse in Saxony.” He went on to say that, “18 of the 12 apostles were buried in Spain.”

From the shroud of Turin, to the crying Mary statues, to the Holy steps, all with great power to dispense forgiveness of sins, but none of them can do what four doors in the city of Rome can do every 25 years.

If you walk through them in this year of 2016 you are promised to have your sins forgiven, or in Roman Catholic terms, “The jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon.”

The idea of a special pilgrimage to a holy city is not unique to Roman Catholicism.

Once a year Islamic men from all over the world travel to Mecca in order to obey Islamic law. The Hajj (pilgrimage) is one of the five pillars of Islam. At least once in his lifetime, a Muslim male must, as long as he is physically and financially able to provide for his family in his absence, go to Mecca in order to be forgiven of sins and to be looked upon favorably by Allah. Why Mecca? Because it was the birthplace of Mohammed.

In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII instituted a similar thing for Catholics. For those who wanted to have their sins forgiven, he instituted a year of Jubilee to be observed every 50 years. If you were truly a faithful Catholic and if you wanted to have your sins forgiven, then you would travel to Rome and walk through the doors of the biggest basilicas in Rome, that were opened only on that occasion. For 49 years these doors remain closed, and once every 50 years they are opened and they have the ability to wash away the sins of any baptized Catholic who walks through them.

The 50-year rule only lasted two times perhaps because this event brought significant financial wealth to Rome, so they made it every 25 years.

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