The Counterfeit Church
The counterfeit nature of Roman Catholicism is evident in many ways. Among them are these four glaring ones.
1. It has its "holy father" in the person of the impostor called the "pope," which it has set up. The true church has its holy Father, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. It has its "mediatrix" in the person of Mary, the mother of Jesus. God's church has one Mediator between Him and men, "the Man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5).
3. It claims Mary as "the mother of God," who actually is "from everlasting to everlasting" "without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life" (Ps. 90:2; Heb. 7:3). The genuine church's mother is the "Jerusalem which is above" (Gal. 4:26).
4. Romanism has its holy and "eternal city" in Rome, Italy, the seat of its "holy father." The holy and eternal city of Christ's church is now in heaven, where the true holy Father reigns, through Jesus Christ His Son, over all creation.
It is a sad commentary on the gullibility of the masses that they permit the substitute church of Rome to so deceive them. Yet we know that this spiritual Babylon is "a golden cup in the Lord's hand" (Jer. 51:7) for the trying of earth's inhabitants, and those who are deceived by it are not wise. The clarion call from heaven is for those who truly desire to worship and serve God to "come out of her," lest they partake of His wrath, which is to be poured out against her (Jer. 51:6, 8-9; Rev. 18:4; cf. vv. 1-3. 5-8).
