Grand Claim

This week we see the first visit of a Roman Pontiff to the UK for three decades. Many in the Evangelical Christian community are directly opposed to such a visit and plan to protest against the Pontiff's arrival. As someone who blogged only last week about religious liberty it would be hypocritical of me to say I think his visit should be banned. However, my belief in Religious Liberty should not be confused with approval of the visit.

The fact that the Roman Pontiff is coming to my nation is a grief to my soul, I wish there was no pope, I wish there was no such system as Roman Catholicism, it is nothing more than a semi pagan religious cult that is responsible for the damnation of millions of souls.

The visit of the pope does give us opportunity to examine one of the 'Grand Claims' the pope's of Rome have been making for centuries. The pope as one of his official titles calls himself the 'Vicar of Christ'. In essence this title means that he takes the place of Christ, he of course does this by claiming to be the head of the church, this of course is the position that alone belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, as Colossians 1 v 18 says 'He is the head of the body, the church'. For the pope to use this title he is usurping Christ and seeking to take His place.

If you don't believe what I am saying just examine the Latin root of the word 'vicar'. We are familiar with the term vicarious which means to take the place of another, the death of Christ is said to be vicarious because he died in the place of the sinner, he took their place. The word 'vicar' is essentially the same word with the same meaning, papa wants to take the place of Christ. Not only is his claim grand it is also blasphemous!

As an interesting aside there is a word from the Greek language with the same meaning as 'vicar' that word is 'anti'. Just think if the Vatican had employed Greek rather than Latin the popes title would have been 'anti-Christ'. Now before my many friends from the reformed tradition get too excited I am not saying that I believe that the pope is that man of sin spoken of in the book of Revelation but the pope is certainly an 'anti-Christ' for he seeks by his own claims and title to usurp our blessed Saviour, don't forget that the Apostle John has warned us that 'even now are there many antichrists''.

It is a sad time in the life of our nation that our Queen is welcoming this blasphemour on behalf of our nation, pray earnestly that this visit will be a PR disaster for Rome and that no more souls will be sucked into the influence of this man made religion.