July 15, 1996 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - During more than twenty years of publishing experience, I have been charged countless times with being a hateful Catholic basher. In commenting on an excerpt from our forthcoming book which traces the history of Roman Catholic persecutions against the Bible, a Roman Catholic reader gave this judgment: "One gets the impression that ANY enemy of Catholics is your friend and that you are more intent on attacking Catholics than on loving and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware the bitter root that eats up common sense in an unreasoning hatred of Catholics. It will not serve you well and it will be a stench in the nostrils of God."

This false accusation will always be raised when one lifts the voice against error. I replied, "My friends are not 'any' enemy of Catholics. My friends are those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word above man-made tradition. Psalm 119:128. The truly important thing is not what you or I believe about [historical Christian sects], but what you or I believe about Jesus Christ, the sole Mediator between God and men, and about the Bible, the sole Word of God to man. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His once-for-all sacrifice, "hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). The Bible is able to make the man of God "perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). That means we need nothing else."

I do consider Rome the enemy of true Christianity, but that is because of its doctrines and history. I did not make Romanism what it is; I simply document it. I do not hate Roman Catholics; I hate the blasphemous Roman Catholic system. I hate it for the same reason that I hate Evolution or Communism or any other false system. I hate it because it is false yet it professes to be truth; I hate it because it stands between man and the truth; I hate it because its pompous claims have detracted from the exclusive mediatorship of Jesus Christ; I hate it because multitudes have gone out into eternity lost because of it's false gospel.

Does someone protest that it is wrong to hate even a system? The Psalmist disagrees: "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I HATE EVERY FALSE WAY" (Psalm 119:128). The Lord Jesus Christ commended the churches for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans, and He encouraged the churches that He also hated both the deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:6,15). The term "Nicolaitan" means "to conquer the people," and probably referred to the early stages of that proud hierarchical spirit which later resulted in the formation of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is a strange and fearful quirk of human nature to charge a man with being an enemy though his only motive is to preach the truth. Thus Paul inquired of the Galatians who were being led astray by false teachers: "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" (Gal. 4:16).

David Cloud dcloud@wayoflife.org http://www.wayoflife.org/
1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277

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