The Roman religion proclaims idol worship as fundamental to Christianity. Roman doctrine blasphemes Christ’s name. Rome brings down the work of Christ. The papacy elevates men with titles reserved for God alone. What fellowship has light with darkness? There is a great gulf fixed between the Roman Catholic system and the Word of God. If we pretend Roman Catholicism is Christian, how will the perishing hear, repent, and believe?

Pope Francis, hailed as “Servant of the servants of God,” the leader of Roman Catholicism nears his death.  Plans are in progress for his funeral. The backroom politicking that is the common form of government in the Roman Catholic Church is underway. Politicians, news media, and over 1 billion Roman Catholics worldwide are speculating about who will be the next Pope.

Upon Francis’s death, evangelicals and Lutherans, protestants and Roman Catholics, atheists and agnostics, republicans and democrats, will all express words of praise for the Primate of Italy. Instead of heaping praise, perhaps they should be asking, “Where do devout popes go when they die?”

The Pope and His Gospel

The gospel preached by Noah, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Peter, John, and Paul, was the gospel of salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. There is no way for a man to be saved but by the precious blood of Jesus shed for the justification of the ungodly.^[1] The Spirit continues to use the gospel to give new birth and eternal life to perishing sinners. Most of the apostles died for the name of Christ and His gospel. Christians still die for the name of Christ. Nothing is more valuable to the Christian than Christ and His salvation. If we have not Christ we have not life. If we have Christ, we have eternal life.

To pollute or alter the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ His Son is to ask for God’s curse. Paul said, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”^[2]

Salvation and the gospel are altogether different for the pope and Roman Catholicism than what is found in the Bible.

The 2,010^th item in the Roman Catholic Catechism says of grace and eternal life: “Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life.”

Grace for the pope only merits initial forgiveness and partial justification. To reach heaven and eternal life, a man must earn it himself. The Roman system teaches a gospel of faith plus works. Christ saves somewhat but not to the uttermost. The false Roman gospel is rightly called semi-pelagianism. Put simply, it is another gospel which is not a gospel at all. There is nothing good about it. Sinners are not saved in Rome’s gospel.^[3]

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