Conclusion

       In his essay entitled "The Attractions of Popery," Robert Lewis Dabney made the following observations:

       Next to perdition, there is no conception in the universe so repulsive to the sinful heart of man as that of genuine repentance and its fruits. The true gospel comes to him and says: Here is, indeed, a blessed, glorious redemption, as free as air, as secure as the throne of God, but instrumentally it is conditional on the faith of the heart; which faith works by love, purifies the heart, and can only exist as it co-exists with genuine repentance, which repentance turns honestly, unreservedly, here and now, without shuffling or procrastination, from sin unto God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience; which is, in fact, a complete surrender of the sinful will to God's holy will, and a hearty enlistment in an arduous work of watchfulness, self-denial, and self-discipline, for the sake of inward holiness, to be kept up as long as life lasts. Soul, embrace this task, and this splendid salvation shall be yours; and the gracious Saviour, who purchases if for you, shall sustain, comfort, and enable you in this arduous enlistment, so that even in the midst of the warfare you shall find rest, and at the end heaven; but without this faith and this repentance no sacraments or rites will do a particle of good towards your salvation. Now, this carnal soul has no faith; it is utterly mistrustful and skeptical as to the possibility of this peace of the heart in the spiritual warfare, this sustaining power of the invisible hand, of which it has had no experience. This complete subjugation of self-will to God, this life of self-denial and vital godliness, appears to this soul utterly repulsive, yea, terrible. This guilty soul dreads hell; it abhors such a life only less than hell. When told by Protestantism that it must thus "turn or die," this carnal soul finds itself in an abhorrent dilemma; either term of the alternative is abominable to it. But now comes the theory of sacramental grace and says to it with oily tongue: "Oh! Protestantism exaggerates the dilemma! Your case is not near so bad! The sacraments of the church transfer you from the state of condemnation to that of reconciliation by their own direct but mysterious efficiency; they work real grace, though you do not bring to them this deep, thorough-going self-sacrifice and self-consecration. No matter how much you sin, or how often, repeated masses will make expiation for the guilt of all those sins ex opere operate. Thus, with her other sacraments of penance and extreme unction, Holy Mother Church will repair all your short-comings and put you back into a salvable state, no matter how sinfully you live." Need we wonder that this false doctrine is as sweet to that guilty soul as a reprieve to the felon at the foot of the gallows? He can draw his breath again; he can say to himself: "Ah, then the abhorred dilemma does not urge me here and now; I can postpone this hated reformation; I can still tamper with cherished sins without embracing perdition." This is a pleasant doctrine; it suits so perfectly the sinful, selfish soul which does not wish to part with its sins, and also does not wish to lie down in everlasting burnings.⁽¹⁾

       Dr. Dabney laid bare the true reason why Romanism is again proliferating among the sinful, yet religious, masses of humanity. The mind of fallen man is, as John Calvin pointed out, "a perpetual forge of idols"⁽²⁾ -- idols with which he satisfies his innate will-worship while, at the same time, maintaining the delusive hope that he has found sufficient favor with the true God to merit entrance into His Heaven. Just as did the pagan Roman State of the past, the papacy of today reserves a place in its pantheon for the personal gods of its one billion subjects, and sets forth only one demand of them -- simply acknowledge the supreme authority of the pope over the conscience and never allow the worship of personal gods to interfere with the established religion of Rome. As decreed in 1901 by Leo XIII, the punishment for such a transgression is severe:

       The Catholic Church has the right and duty to kill heretics because it is by fire and sword that heresy can be extirpated. Mass excommunication is derided by heretics. If they are imprisoned or exiled they corrupt others. The only recourse is to put them to death. Repentance cannot be allowed to save them, just as repentance is not allowed to save civil criminals; for the highest good of the church is the duty of the faith, and this cannot be preserved unless heretics are put to death.⁽³⁾

       In the 5 November 1938 issue of The Tablet, the Roman Catholic diocese of Brooklyn, New York stated:

       Heresy is an awful crime... and those who start a heresy are more guilty than they who are traitors to the civil government. If the State has the right to punish treason with death, the principle is the same which concedes to the spiritual authority the power of capital punishment over the arch-traitor to truth and Divine revelation.... A perfect society has the right to its existence... and the power of capital punishment is acknowledged for a perfect society. Now... the Roman Catholic Church is a perfect society, and as such has the right and power to take means to safeguard its existence.

       From such a tyranny God delivered His Church in the Sixteenth Century. The Protestant Reformation, as is evident from the writings of its leaders, was nothing more than a return of God's elect to a faith that is founded on the Scriptures alone and a Gospel which sets forth the eternal merits of the righteous Son of God rather than the works of sinful men as the only hope for the soul. As the Westminster Confession of Faith declares, "God alone is lord of the conscience."⁽⁴⁾ Rome sits, as she has done for centuries, as a pompous whore upon a usurped throne, in open defiance of Christ and in furious persecution of His Bride. However, the ears of the great Judge of the world are not deaf to the blood of His murdered saints which cries out continually from the earth and He will, in His own time, finally bring the Roman Antichrist to its prophesied end (Revelation 18).

Endnotes

1. Robert Lewis Dabney, essay: "The Attractions of Popery," Discussions (Mexico, Missouri: S.B. Ervin, 1897), Volume IV, pages 561-562.

2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1989), Book I, Chapter XI:8.

3. Leo XIII, quoted by Dr. Marianus de Luca, S.J., Institution of Public Ecclesiastial Law (Rome, Italy: Georgian University, 1901).

4. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XX:2.