"The Roman Church, now called the Catholic Church, separated from
the unity of the faith by making heretical claims for the earthly
powers of her Pope."
"The Pope is Christ
in office, ...... we bow down before the holy father as we would
before Christ himself" (1870 proclamation)
"We hold upon this
earth the place of God almighty" Pope Leo XIII
"The Pope is not only
representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ himself" Pope
Pius X
"Does the Pope speak?
It is Jesus himself who speaks" Pope Pius X
"You know that I am
the holy father, the representative of God on earth, the vicar of
Christ, which means that I am God on earth" Pope Pius XI
If the above is not
sufficient to understand the Pope's heretical claims and innovations
then we offer more detail below.
Purgatory:
The concept of
purgatory refined by the Latin church in the 13-15th centuries
became the basis for the very popular concept of selling of
indulgences. This system, where ones sins can be cleansed by the
decision of the Pope cannot be condoned by the Orthodox. What
started out as the writings of Bishop Augustine of Hippo turned into
a system where the fires of purgatory could cleanse un-repented sin
and the Supreme Pontiff as Christ on Earth could make the
declaration of this cleansing for any given soul.
Immaculate
Conception:
In 1854 Pope Pius IX
decided that the Virgin Mary was born without sin. This contradicted
1800 years of Christian belief and was decided upon by one man. For
all of Christian history The Virgin Mary (Theotokos) was known to be
born as a sinful person just as every other human being. Only Jesus
himself was born without sin. This decision by the Pope was
necessary in order to make other heretical beliefs and innovation
make sense within the Latin church. The primary of which is the
false belief that people were born with the sin of Adam and that
Christ's resurrection was to cleanse the sin of Adam from mankind.
In addition, this doctrine allowed further justification of the
concept that some people are born with more grace than others and
that that grace could, through the Pope, be transferred to others.
Filioque:
The Filioque is a
change to the Nicean Creed as originally approved by the Second
Ecumenical Council in 325 AD. Essentially, due to political pressure
in Europe between warring emperors and kings, the Catholic Church,
through a series of Pope's, decided to add the phrase "and the son"
to the eighth article of the Creed. It changed the meaning of the
undivided trinity forever in these churches. As a matter of faith
Pope Leo III in 809 denounced the Filioque and had the original
Creed inscribed on silver plaques in Greek and Latin. Also inscribed
was the phrase "These words, I, Leo have set down for the love and
as a safeguard of the Orthodox faith." However, as time went on and
as new kings and emperors rose, the Latin church and it's Popes
succumbed to the political pressure and made the changes.
Baptism:
The word Baptism
comes from a Greek word meaning to immerse or plunge. Baptism
throughout the early church was always a triple immersion into water
in the name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. The Latin
innovation is to sprinkle water on the head of the person being
baptized.
Unleavened Bread:
It has always been
understood that at the last supper Christ and his Disciples ate
risen bread not unleavened bread. Unleavened bread was for the
Passover which did not start until the next day and was a rule
strictly kept by the Jews of the time. Due to translational errors
from the original Greek many bible passages have been presented as
proof that they ate unleavened bread at the last supper. These
errors occur in many translations including the King James version.
However, it is clear in the original Greek that the last supper took
place before the Passover feast which means clearly that risen bread
was used. Pope Leo the IX in 1053 decided to make this change in the
way the Eucharist was prepared. Up until that time, for a thousand
years, everyone understood that risen bread was to be used.
Consecration of the
Holy Gifts:
The Latin's deviated
over time and began to believe that the priest performing the
liturgy acted as Christ and had the power of his own to consecrate
the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The Orthodox
have always offered up prayers to God to consecrate the gifts and
have never believed that any priest or bishop can take the place of
Christ. The Orthodox Priest in extreme humility prays that even
though he is an unworthy sinner that God grant the consecration of
the Holy Gifts.
The following prayers
are said before the Great Entrance with the Holy Gifts and before
the consecration in every Orthodox Divine Liturgy:
"No one bound by
worldly desires and pleasures is worthy to approach, draw near or
minister to You, the King of glory. To serve You is great and
awesome even for the heavenly powers. But because of thy ineffable
and immeasurable love for us, You became man without alteration or
change. You have served as our High Priest, and as Lord of all, and
have entrusted to us the celebration of this liturgical sacrifice
without the shedding of blood. For You alone, Lord our God, rule
over all things in heaven and on earth. You are seated on the throne
of the Cherubim, the Lord of the Seraphim and the King of Israel.
You alone are holy and dwell among thy saints. You alone are good
and ready to hear. Therefore, I implore You, look upon me, thy
sinful and unworthy servant, and cleanse my soul and heart from evil
consciousness. Enable me by the power of thy Holy Spirit so that,
vested with the grace of priesthood, I may stand before thy holy
Table and celebrate the mystery of thy holy and pure Body and thy
precious Blood. To You I come with bowed head and pray: do not turn
thy face away from me or reject me from among thy children, but make
me, thy sinful and unworthy servant, worthy to offer to You these
gifts. For You, Christ our God, are the Offerer and the Offered, the
One who receives and is distributed, and to You we give glory,
together with thy eternal Father and thy holy, good and life giving
Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen."
Lay Participation in
Communion:
For many centuries
the Latin Church forbade the lay people from partaking of the
chalice the blood of Christ. This was reserved only for the clergy.
It is impossible to understand this based on the clear wordings in
the scriptures regarding the last supper and the tradition of the
early Church up to this innovation. Starting in the early 1960's and
concluding in the 1970's the Popes decided to once allow the chalice
to those that wanted it.
In addition, the
Latin's refuse to allow infants to partake of the life giving
mystery of Holy Communion again ignoring hundreds of years of church
tradition and the scriptures.
Other Innovations:
Statues
Celibate Clergy |
