1. I was out knocking on doors when a man walked across the street and said to me: "Can I help you?" I knew it wasn’t his door that I was knocking on so I immediately figured out he was either a busybody or some other sort of trouble-maker.
2. I identified myself as a Baptist preacher and told him I was handing out Gospel tracts. Upon hearing this he gave me a bad look and said, "Forget about it! I am a RC and the people who live in that building are RC also, and we are in the richest and most powerful church in the world, etc., etc."
3. He would not let me get a word in edgewise, as he railed on me and boasted of his wonderful church, the RCC. It was right there that I realized it was time for me to preach again on Romanism.
4. I hope today’s message is a help to those who genuinely want to know the truth.
5. My message today is "10 Reasons Why I Am Not A RC."

1. THE RCC PREACHES A FALSE GOSPEL

1. I like to write letters to newspapers and many of them have been published. One particular letter that I wrote a couple of years ago was about how the RCC helped the Nazis in WWII. A RC priest up in Yonkers wrote me a hot letter. I wrote him back, and in my letter I asked him if he was saved. He replied that he was not saved and neither was I! This is a typical response from a RC, whether a priest or a layman.
2. The RCC teaches salvation through sacraments and church membership and good works. This contradicts the Bible (Eph.2:8,9).
3. To the RC, salvation comes through their church, not through Christ. A friend of mine was recently at a RC funeral and he heard the priest say, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life," but the priest left out, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (Jn. 14:6).
4. Most RC’s equate being born again with being baptized. They know nothing of being saved by the blood of Christ. If they do get saved, then of course they must leave the RCC and associate with a Bible-believing church.

2. THE RCC IS IDOLATROUS

1. I mentioned how the RC priest left out the second half of John 14:6. This is typical for them. They also have taken the second commandment away from their followers (Ex.20:4-6). And then so that no one will suspect anything ("Nine Commandments"?) they cut the tenth commandment in half (Ex.20:17).
2. I have been told that in the Vatican there is a huge statue of St. Peter and thousands of people line up every day to look at it, pray to it and kiss it. So many people have kissed his big toe that it has now been worn off!
3. I was in a diner years back and I saw a bunch of RC ladies wearing blue berets. It turns out that they are part of this group that goes regularly to Flushing Meadow Park to see visions of Mary. I gave them Gospel tracts and one of them gave me a "rose petal blessed by Jesus and Mary on sacred grounds for cure and conversion." What does this have to do with NT Christianity?

3. THE RCC IS ANTI-BIBLICAL

1. To RC’s, their authority is not the Bible, but their traditions. You will search the Bible in vain to find any support for purgatory or praying to Mary or praying to saints or prayers for the dead or Lent or Ash Wednesday or a celibate priesthood headed by the pope, and so on.
2. In fact our Lord condemned those who put their traditions ahead of the Word of God (cf. Mark 7:6-9,13).
3. Because most RC’s have never read the Bible, they assume that their strange teachings are in there somewhere and that they date back to the time of our Lord. Of course, this is not the case.
4. For example, the mass as a daily ritual was adopted in 394. If you know your Bible, you know the mass is blasphemous.
5. The worship of Mary, and her unscriptural title, "the Mother of God," originated at the Council of Trent in 431. By the way, there was an article in the NY Post, and it said that the pope was sick with the flu in Poland. Outside his bedroom window, thousands of Poles serenaded him with a Polish hymn called "Mary, Queen of Poland." Not "All Hail The Power of Jesus’ Name," not "All That Thrills My Soul is Jesus," but "Mary, Queen of Poland."
6. The veneration of Joseph began in 890. The rosary beads, copied from the Muslims and Hindus, were introduced in 1090. The sale of indulgences began in 1190.
7. The dogma of transubstantiation was decreed by Pope Innocent III in 1215. All of these things are unscriptural.

4. HE RCC IS THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS (REV.17)

1. No other religion fits this description.
2. This has always been the position of the Baptists. It was the view of the Reformers, the Puritans, and all of the great preachers throughout history such as John Bunyan, John Wesley, and Charles Spurgeon.
3. Watch how all the liberal denominations and the charismatics and even most of the evangelicals are slowly but surely heading towards Rome (e.g. Benny Hinn, Jack Van Impe, TBN). Cf. Rev.18:1,2.

5. THE RCC IS WORLDLY AND CORRUPT

1. I could preach an entire message just on the corruption and worldliness of Romanism: Las Vegas nights, Bingo games, beer-drinking and cigarette-smoking priests, etc.
2. You can be in the Mafia and still be a good RC. You can be a liberal, pro-abortion, drunken slob, like Ted Kennedy, and still be a good RC.
3. By the way, just in case any one wants to call me up to remind me that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are Baptists, save your quarter. They are Southern Baptists, and the SBC is also in league with Rome.

6. THE RCC IS IMMORAL

1. Not only is the RCC worldly and corrupt. They are immoral. The RCC spends a billion dollars a year in out-of-court settlements, paying off all the parents of children molested by homosexual priests.
2. A large part of this problem has to be attributed to their unscriptural doctrine of priestly celibacy (cf. I Tim.4:1-3; I Tim.3:1-5).

7. THE RCC BREEDS POVERTY, ILLITERACY, COMMUNISM, AND CRIME

1. Ever wonder why the USA has been such a prosperous country with such a high standard of living? It is because the RCC has always been in the minority.
2. But the pope is frequently visiting the US these days and so our once great country is in a tailspin.
3. Ever wonder why Great Britain always came out way ahead of France, Spain, and Portugal? It is because while Great Britain encouraged Bible reading, her neighbors discouraged it and embraced popery. But today Great Britain is a mess and I read that their prime minister, Tony Blair (a Bill Clinton clone) is converting to Romanism. And the Archbishop of Canterbury is just as apostate and lost as his good friend, the pope of Rome.

8. IT IS WRONG TO CONFESS YOUR SINS TO A PRIEST

1. Only God can forgive your sins (Mark 2:7-11).
2. The Lord Jesus Christ is our only mediator, not a priest, not a pope, not Mary, and not some saints (I Tim.2:5).

9. I REJECT THE RCC DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY

1. It is nothing but a money-making scheme, and only those who are ignorant of the Bible can believe in it (cf. I John 1:7).
2. It is either heaven or hell (John 3:18,36; Matt.25:41,46). Friends, which way are you going? (Matt.7:13,14).

10. I WANT TO BE IDENTIFIED WITH TRUE CHRISTIANS

1. Most RC’s only stay in their religion out of fear or convenience. They were brought up in it and it is difficult for them to break away.
2. Others stay in it because they know they can continue getting drunk, gambling, using foul language, watching dirty movies, etc. and nobody cares. They know that if they were to become true Christians it would involve repentance and this they refuse to do.
3. But I thank God He delivered me from Romanism and now I can worship and fellowship with true Christians. I am glad I am a member of a church where we preach the pure Gospel of God’s grace and we baptize our converts by immersion.
4. What about you? Have you been born again? Perhaps it is time for some changes in your life.

CONCLUSION:

1. Charles Chiniquy was born in 1809 in Canada. He was a RCC priest for 25 years. His autobiography, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, is one of the best books I ever read.
2. He was reading his Bible and came to I Cor.7:23. The Holy Spirit was convicting him about salvation in Christ and the false gospel of Rome. He finally saw the light and wrote these words, "I said to myself, ‘Jesus has bought me; then if Jesus has bought me, He has saved me; I am saved. Jesus is my God. All the works of God are perfect. I am, then, perfectly saved – Jesus could not save me by half. I am saved in the blood of the Lamb; I am saved by the death of Jesus.’
3. "I said to myself, ‘I am not saved, as I thought, by going to Mary; I am not saved by purgatory, or by indulgences, confessions or penances. I am saved by Jesus alone.’ And all the false doctrines of Rome went away from my mind as falls a tower which is struck at the base."