John MacArthur on the Papacy

We Adventists like to think that we are the last real Protestants. No so. There are still plenty of others who take a hard line toward Rome. Here is a long sermon/lecture from John MacArthur given (I assume from his statements herein) shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Keep in mind that Pope John Paul II (born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Poland) was one of the the most popular and charismatic pontiffs of all time. Yet, MacArthur is uncompromising in pointing out the sins and errors of the papacy. You will seldom hear, in a Seventh-day Adventist Church, such a clear, piercing clarion call to reject Rome’s doctrines and its claim to be just another Christian denomination:

“Are Roman Catholics the mission field or do we embrace them as fellow believers in Jesus Christ? The mood in evangelicalism today is to embrace them, that’s what all the spokesmen, self-appointed spokesmen, for evangelicalism keep saying in the media . . . Reclassifying the pope, reclassifying Roman Catholics as believers isn’t that simple. It has massive implications. It has massive implications that literally overturn centuries of missionary effort. It has massive implications that overturn centuries, if not millennia, of martyrdom.

In the long war on the truth, the most formidable, relentless, and deceptive enemy has been Roman Catholicism. It is an apostate, corrupt, heretical, false Christianity. It is a front for the kingdom of Satan. The true church of the Lord Jesus Christ has always understood this. And even through the dark ages from 400 AD to 1500 AD, prior to the Reformation, genuine Christian believers set themselves apart from that system, and were brutally punished and executed for their rejection of that system.

This is long, and there are no visuals other than the pope in his seat, but it is well worth the time.

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.” 2 Thess. 2:1-3