Roman Catholicism Slays

ROMAN CATHOLICISM SLAYS

LESTER SUMRALL, the author of this volume, received a Divine urge to enter the evangelistic ministry at the early age of seventeen years. The acceptance and following of this call to Christian Service, has led him throughout the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada to Mexico. In 1934, in company with Howard Carter of London, England, he traveled through more than thirty lands on an extensive evangelistic-missionary tour. Such remote parts of the globe as Tahiti and Raratonga were touched. The island of Java was thoroughly covered by a few thousand miles travel, while speaking in twenty-three towns and cities. Far hinterland China, Manchuria, Siberia, Poland, Brazil and other interiors were penetrated. Special revival meetings and conventions were held where possible; resulting in many souls receiving a changed life by regeneration, and others being blessed by a spiritual refreshing. Twenty-one means of conveyance were needed to take them around the globe. These contrasted from the camel, a Tibetan pack-mule, the Russian springless wagon, three-wheel taxi in Java, with an occasional trip through the sky in a luxurious airplane. Twenty-two foreign languages were used to convey their message to the peoples of the earth. The assistance of ninety-five different interpreters made this possible. Over four hundred cities of the world have been the parish of Evangelist Sumrall. 

Much of the contents of this treatise is taken from his observances of the Roman Church in other lands. This volume is being published simultaneously in two languages - English and Spanish. 

INTRODUCTION

THE FACTS AND COMMENTS embodied in this treatise have been gathered from various sources over a period of years. The final and vital conclusions arrived at were mainly determined from personal observation of the Roman hierarchy while traveling in other lands. 

The author does not offer this treatise as an ex-haustive argument on the suggested subject. Much de-tail and description have been eliminated to keep the volume small. Neither does he desire the reader to peruse its pages seeking for literary excellencies. The writer has only anticipated a compassionate appeal to your heart and reason upon this very necessary topic. Hosea, the prophet, cried to an apostate nation, "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge." I feel the same regarding our people today! 

Thus, my heart breathes a prayer to the Lord for each reader of these pages, petitioning Him to illuminate your heart and give you sufficient spiritual stamina to clasp and hold to the TRUE LIGHT OF CHRISTIANITY! 

L. F. S.

THE CHURCH OF ROME is very diligent to hide from the world at large her past history and present activity in many lands; which record reveals a sanguine play in politics, intrigue, immorality, and inquisition. When the plain truth is broadcast to the world-as this treatise endeavors to do-she raises her deceitful hands and loudly exclaims that her spiritual sensibilities are shocked! 

Before discussing this momentous subject, I wish to say to every reader who is Romanish by faith, in all loving kindness and tenderness, that I have no animosity in my heart against you. My purpose in writing is not to make you angry but to enlighten you to the true nature of the Church of Rome. 

Further, Romanish friend, every fact or statement in this treatise can be unbiasly proved to contain full orbed truth. Therefore, I admonish you to read this volume to the last word and then make the decision that our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, would have you make. 

To be assured that the enclosed information is simple and understandable in outline, let us consider the Church of Rome PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE, and her workings in each epoch!

CHAPTER I 

ROMAN CATHOLICISM SLAYS 

PAST 

How did the Church of Rome come into being? And how old is the Romanist Church? Will the reader please note that I do not refer to the aforementioned society as the Roman CATHOLIC Church? The reason for this is because the word "Catholic" means universal, and this society is not universal in sympathy or government. It is positively and irrefutably an Italian society of religion. It might amaze you to know there has not been a non-Italian pope on the papal throne for over four hundred years! Further, there can never be one until the Italian majority of cardinals is removed from office. 

The first Pentecostal, apostolic revival that descended from heaven on the Day of Pentecost, almost two thousand years ago (Acts 2) created the Christian church. From that glorious upper room infilling of the Holy Spirit, has spread the true hope of salvation for every human being. 

During the first century after the birth of the Christian church, she was involved in a deadly struggle with Judaism and paganism. Persecution, even to death, was the price of following the Saviour of mankind! In 64 A.D.,the proud and haughty city of Rome was re-duced to ashes. This criminal deed was fiendishly blamed upon the Christians. Inevitably, this diabolical intrigue intensified the persecution! Like a horrible scourge, directed by the devil, the Roman state spon-sored a deadly fight against the Christians. They were crucified, fed to wild, vicious animals, while a beastly pagan society and puppet officials sat and glared at them with hellish glee! This contemplation presents vistas of heart-rending scenes in the catacombs, amphi-theaters, and public executions that we have not the space to describe here. 

By the second century, the Christian persecution had abated to some extent. Yet it was a real disgrace to be a despised follower of the Christ. Only the ignoble, and the the poor, and the really God-hungry openly confessed Christ as their Redeemer. 

During the third century, the Christian church be came more powerful. She had influential bishops stationed in the great metropolises of the known world. She wielded a great influence over multitudes of both prominent and wealthy citizens. 

Then, with the dawning of the fourth century, persecution then being over, the emperor of pagan-corrupt Rome, in order to consolidate his empire, embraced the Christian religion. The leading clergymen of the age, seeing an unparalleled opportunity for political prestige and fabulous wealth, sold their Savior-just like Judas! What a pity that they were not as honor able as Judas and followed him who went to his own place. 

What resulted in this dastardly cohesion of church and state? Did pagan Rome become Christian? No! Christianity changed! ROME NEVER! 

It was Constantine the Great who instigated the birth of the Church of Rome. He became "converted" in A.D. 319. After the presumed conversion of Emperor Constantine (who is hailed bishop of bishops) history records that he brutally murdered his brother-in-law, Licionius. Then he madly sentenced his eleven-year-old nephew to death. Later, his bestial passions called for the execution of his eldest son, Crespus. Besides this, he plotted and barbarously brought about the death of his second wife! This man is the progenitor, or father of the Church of Rome. Thus we see that the Church of Rome was born wallowing in the blood of innocent folk.

From this spiritually illegal and prostituted union of state and church, the colossal papal system of today has evolved. Obviously, when the state and church married, the devil performed the ceremony! God was barred out! This opened the door leading into the awful Dark Ages. Beyond contradiction, the darkest centuries of human history are those of absolute rule of terror by the sinister dictators in their gorgeous thousand-room palace situated by the River Tiber! 

To the question that we are answering regarding the age of Romanism, let every conscientious adherent of Romanism realize that it is a dreadful lie for present-day papalism to claim to be the only authorized dispenser of Christianity because their popes date back to Peter. It was in the fourth century after Christ before there was an official pope! The very foundation of this claim is unreliable. The church claims that Peter spent the last twenty-five years of his life in Rome as bishop. This is practically impossible for Peter was at Jerusalem for the great "Council of Circumcision," which most scholars agree was held about A.D. 51. The Romanists publish the fact that Peter was martyred in 65 or 67 A.D. There are only fourteen to sixteen years left for him to be in Italy! History cannot prove that he was ever in Rome; and tradition is not sufficient for intelligent folk of this age. Furthermore, no bishop for hundreds of years after Peter attempted to usurp universal authority over the Christian church. Every assembly was sovereign and indigenous until the time of Constantine. It was A.D. 325 that the first church council was held. It convened at Nicea and was summoned by a civil ruler and not by a pope! 

I trust that this clears every difficulty regarding the birth and age of the CHURCH OF ROME. 

As soon as the now state Church of Rome found herself invested with great civil power, she became intoxicated with bigotry. The meek Christlike spirit turned into rapacious furiosity. She took the cross from her heart and tied it around her neck and began a bloody fight against any who dared to resist her supremacy!

It was. a desperate and long battle that followed. There were other powerful centers of Christianity which would not bow to the ecclesiastical tyranny in Rome. There were sections of Christianity that never yielded to her polluted influence. The Waldensians are a good example of this. They revolted against popes and traditions of elders, claiming only Christ as a High Priest, and the writings of the Apostles for instruction. For this stand the Church of Rome persecuted them all over Europe. 

We shall now scrupulously note how Rome's religious doctrines have evolved! Then watch how her superb political machine grew. We must remember it took hundreds of years for the "traditions of the holy fathers" to become law and gospel. Then, too, it took some time for her to usurp authority over the political giants of the nations. 

Romanism's doctrines evidently sprang from greed of "filthy lucre," desire for temporal power, or else they were borrowed from pagan and heathen rituals. This is a fact that any unbiased reader can find for himself/herself by searching the legal documents of church history. May I very briefly name a few of these non-Christian doctrines held by the Roman Church? 

Foremost in Roman error is the office of pope; his coronation and presumed infallibility. The word "pope" is Latin, and means papa or father. Primarily, it was a title granted to all bishops. This began in the fourth and fifth centuries. It was Leo I (440-46) Bishop of Rome, who first claimed universal leader-ship and supremacy over the four patrioches, i.e., Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. He was THE FIRST TO CLAIM THE PETRINE successorship! This assumption was naturally resisted by the other bishops, especially by the Bishop of Constantinople. It was not until the seventh century after Christ that the bishops of Rome succeeded in making Christendom believe they were invested with universal authority. 

History records the amazing truth that it was as late as 1869 that Pope Pius IX, at a council in the Vatican, declared it eternally true that a pope cannot make a mistake. This was actively resisted by high church-men in Germany, France, and the United States. This same pope, in his encyclical letter in 1864, declared: "The eternal salvation of any out of the true Church of Christ is not even to be hoped for." The Scripture teaches us that Christ is our HOPE and not a man-made church organization! 

If you, reader friend, will peruse the pages of Roman history, a striking truth that will present itself is that the popes are not only very human but many Roman history, a striking truth that will present it self is that the popes are not only very human but many of them were depraved and base men. In 882, Pope John VIII was assassinated because of his gross wickedness. Pope John X from 914 to 922 laid aside his priestly garments altogether and marshalled an army to battle, he going before them as general. Do you think Jesus condoned that? Pope John XII was so vile that Otto I of Germany compelled him to abdicate the papal throne. Benedict XI was so corrupt that the people of the city of Rome forced him out of the Vatican! In the light of history any unbiased person can see that the pope is not immaculate or infallible! 

Further, the "Sacrifice of the Mass" is totally unChristian. Its claims made by the priest are even unreasonable. Non-attendance to the mass is not a mortal sin. Attendance does not assure you temporal and spiritual benediction for a week regardless of the life you otherwise live. When Christ said on the cross, "It is finished," a complete and eternal salvation was accomplished. In regard to Christ saying,"This is my body," He also said in John 15,"I am the true VINE."Did this make Him become a vital part of the vegetable kingdom? Just as much as it makes Him a piece of biscuit! The Holy Scriptures say that Christ has gloriously arisen and that He has jubilantly ascended upon high and now rules in sublime majesty. 

Do you think a human priest can say "hocus-pocus" and make our glorious Lord to be transubstantiated into a bit of dough that a filthy rat can steal (as they have done) and devour our PEERLESS, GLORIFIED LORD?I cry No! No! A million times No! The truth is this: The Lord Jesus is present in the ordinance, but not in the elements of the Christian Passover. It should amaze you to realize that it was the fifth century after Christ before such mysticism as "Sacrifice of the Mass" became associated with the Lord's Supper! A very strong argument against this false doctrine is the fact that Rome has sentenced thousands of pro-tes-tants to death for disagreeing with the doctrine. True Chris-tianity conquers with LOVE, and not a sword! 

Then, let us consider the "purgatory racket." It is heathen in origin.The Buddhist temples that we saw near the Tibetan border had many purgatories in bas-relief to frighten the poor, ignorant people into submission to the priest. It is merely a fraudulent process of getting money under false pretense. There are hundreds of people behind prison bars for defrauding the public: why not jail every Romanist priest?

My friend, it isn't money or works that merits heaven, but the precious blood of Jesus that gives us free access! Hallelujah! 

Her blessing of "holy water " is not Christian, but heathen. Not only is it pagan, but it is also deception. Another form of getting money under false pretenses! The "holy water" of many shrines is sold, as in Lourdes, France. We find the same thing of Aga Khan, the spiritual head of one hundred million Ismaelian Mohammedans. He sells his daily personal bath water, which is bottled. Faithful Mohammedans believe that it has power for healing. They are defrauded of five dollars per bottle! So also the Shinto shrines of Japan have holy water for the believers to sit under and be purified. Then everyone is familiar with the holy Ganges River of India.I sav in all sincerity that it is a shameful disgrace to Christian civilization to allow such illicit traffic to be listed under the pre-text of religion! 

Regarding saint worship, or the invocation of saints, it is unscriptural. We have one High Priest, and that is Christ. We do not need the forty thousand canonized saints as intermediaries to approach our loving Saviour. We find that every good papist is obliged to choose a saint through whom he might seek divine aid during his life. This is a shrewd trick of the devil to separate the soul from its Savior. Naturally this has caused the Roman churches to be filled with these patron saints in the form of images. This breaks the second commandment of the Law given at Mt. Sinai. Today a Romanist church looks exactly like a Buddhist temple filled with altar, incense, statues, and all. Just like the Buddhist, they claim that some of the images have miraculous power. A Roman church warden in Brazil told us that he had made an angel that moved its wings-when he pulled a wire. The poor papists believed it was divine power! If there was ever a time when humbug should be weeded out of religion it is today! The people want truth, it is high time they were getting it! 

This saint worship, with the veneration of relics, became a part of the Roman church in the fifth century. With it came the worship of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the book entitled Glories of Mary (page 215) it is stated that those who do not serve Mary will not be saved. All Romanists are bidden to go to Mary morning, noon, and night. They claim she is more accessible and ready to help than Jesus; that she is even more sure of hearing our prayers. We should only remember that this Mariolotry was not sponsored by Christ nor His disciples but began in the fifth century after Christ. Friend, it is a diabolical attack against our souls to keep us from the true source of life. 

We could continue to enlarge upon this list of erroneous doctrines, which would include "Auricular Confession," which was instituted in 1215 A.D. at the Lateran Council under Pope Innocent III; also,"priest-hood celibacy," which the great Hildebrand of the Middle Ages enacted. But may this suffice to show every open-hearted Romanist that papal doctrines are the achievements of hundreds of years of CHURCHIANITY without Christ! A man who was born and reared in Romanism, in the country of Portugal, told me recently that when he was awakened to the farcical teachings of Romanism, he was amazed that he could only find about five per cent of her doctrines listed in the precious Word of God! 

At this point we shall consider Rome's superb political machine. Indeed, it is remarkable to see the evolution of the followers of Christ from the chief of servants to the king of earth, hell, and heaven! This is the claim that the pope makes when he wears his resplendent tiara, or triple-tiered crown, which is a gorgeous golden diadem bedecked with 146 sparkling jewels and surmounted with a golden cross. The triple crown first appeared in the fourteenth century. 

The beginning of the Church of Rome's power was when the Roman Emperor set elders and bishops over districts and then acclaimed a super-bishop to reside in Rome to preside over ecclesiastical Romanism. The church was made to operate on the same principles as the state. 

After the destruction of Imperial Rome, world power shifted to the great eastern metropolis of Constantinople. But out of the ashes of a crushed and consumed empire, we see ecclesiastical Rome raise her presumptuous and power-thirsty head and demand political jurisdiction along with her religious dictatorship. 

History teaches us that it was during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries that Rome gained her great and extended temporal powers. The master stroke was in A.D. 755. King Pepin came and full conquered the savage Lombards, who were ravishing Italy.He gave his gained power over to the popes rather than to risk it with the emperors at Constantinople. Then for the following one thousand years, papalism ruled in tyranny over Italy. It became the Holy Roman Empire. The popes, becoming strong military giants, fought and conquered other territory. Thus being established in power, they proceeded to fill their coffers with colossal revenues collected from their papal states. The policy of the lowly Christ of Nazareth, who said His kingdom was not of this world, was thrown into the rubbish can, and ROME RULED! 

At the end of a "thousand years' tribulation," Rome could stand the yoke of the popes no longer. The people with one accord revolted. In March of 1848, Pope Pius IX was obliged to escape Rome in disguise to Gaeta, seaside resort in Italy. Cardinal Palma, his secretary of state, had been shot during the terrific uproar. The Romans had come to the Vatican and demanded democracy! On February 8, 1849, while gold diggers rushed to California, the Roman National Assembly rushed to the conclusion to divest the popes of all temporal power. A Republican form of government was instituted. The pope, from his exile, summoned world Romanism to come to his assistance and subdue the insurrection. (This was an old trick tried on nearly every country in Europe during their rule.) By June 3 of the same year, the French army had come to the rescue, and the Romans were capitulated. On July 4, Marshall Oudinot's emissary arrived at Gaeta to present the pope with the "Keys of Rome." In April of 1850 the Pope arrived in Rome with great celebration, surrounded and protected by big French guns and broadswords. A horrible inquisition recommenced upon the enemies of the "Holy Father." The sinister rule was so unbearable that on October 9, 1870, the people of Rome demanded anew to become a part of the kingdom of Italy. A plebiscite of 167,548 votes were cast, and 133,681 were for joining Italy! Italian troops triumphantly entered Rome, and the rule of the "Imperial Popes" came to an abrupt end. OVER ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF SUPREME, TYRANNICAL DICTATORSHIP were finished! 

Very briefly, we shall quote a few incidents from the historical inquisitions that took place during these dark and stormy thousand years of papal tribulation in Europe. 

To maintain her assumed authority, Rome waded through rivers of blood! For every one of her cardinal doctrines, thousands were slain in "Holy Inquisition"; to implant her lies and traditions in the lives of those whom she considered should bend their knee to her every known means of torture was used! Historians claim that some two hundred million lives have been slain by Rome from her rise to power until the present! During the Reformation in Europe it was a visible inferno on earth. It is estimated that fifty million pro-test-ants were killed on the European continent alone! 

There are heart-rending and everlasting memorials stationed throughout Europe and the world, which speak most eloquently to us regarding this dark, dark period of history. I have visited the famous Smithfield execution ground in London, historically known as The Elms, where some three hundred Christians were consigned to martyrs' flames; and then winged their way to heaven on fiery chariots to receive a martyr's crown! I have ridden through the Cevennes in the southern part of France, where thousands of protestant Huguenots died for their faith by the cruel arm of Rome. And on with an unending stream of witnesses one could marshall together to point a blood-dripping finger at Romanism and say, "This memorial represents a 'bloody seed' planted in the inquisition." But, thank God, the "bloody seeds" have sprung up and today in many lands they have brought forth eternal fruit. 

Shall we open the "Martyr's Book of Reminiscences" and recall a few of the incidents there recorded? Time can never blot out France's blackest night (Massacre of St Bartholomew ). It was August 24, 1572. The great imperial city of Paris was crowded. Catherine de Medici, the queen mother, had given her full approval to the wicked, papal murderers. At a given moment, the Romanist powers fell upon the Protestants and from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand were massacred. The noble Admiral Caligny, a devout leader of Protestantism, was slain in cold blood, with those he was struggling to protect. As the massacre proceeded, the papists tolled their church bells, sung TeDeums, and wildly celebrated the event as a red-letter day for Romanism. The impression was profound upon sane people. Some of them became hysterical. Even the King of France went insane in two years after that terrible night! 

  Surely, all the sacrilegious charity and hypocritical mercy of Romanism cannot keep the Christian world from remembering the Vatican-inspired inquisition of the Netherlands (Holland) where one hundred thousand supreme sacrifices were paid for being a true Christian and not a papist. Such barbarity and butchery, which is nearly unbelievable in its cruelty, was practiced against nobility and peasants alike. The rich suffered the gallows with the paupers. They were burned, drowned in sacks, decapitated, and brutally handled by merciless papist leaders. Even women when confined were burned publicly. Some, while suffering the excruciating tortures of the melting flames gave birth to children, which were thrown back into the fire to die also as martyrs! History records that many of these brave martyrs marched to their execution singing in triumph, wonderful songs of praise! Rome finds it a thousand times more difficult to produce a recanter than a martyr! 

Further, I cannot be made to believe that our staunch Scotch brethren have forgotten - or can be made to forget -the Romanish purge of the Land of Hether! On January 25, 1534, in Perth, Scotland the courageous Helen Stark and five men were apprehended. They were charged by the bigoted priests as heretics and condemned to death.The heroine, Helen Stark, was sentenced to die because she refused to place herself under the protection of the Virgin Mary when giving birth to a child. The Romanists were infuriated when she boldly said that if she had been living at the time of the birth of the Redeemer of mankind, she might have been chosen as the Virgin. (She was referring to the humanity of Mary.) The five men were hanged, Helen being obliged to witness the scene. One of the men was her husband! Then Mrs. Stark was drowned in a pool of water. She had several children (one sucking the breast) who saw the papist priests drown their mother! 

  Would not Rome rejoice to see pages torn from her wretched history? Especially of such as the story of beautiful Anne Askew, a brilliant and noble-born English girl of twenty-five years, who forsook wealth and glittering fashion of the sixteenth century to be a member of the despised Reformation. When she publicly and emphatically denounced the doctrine of Tran-substantiation (the transforming of the wafer or Bon Dieu into the blood, body, and divinity of Christ by the prayer of a priest), she was sentenced to the stake, to be charred by hungry flames! The execution took place in 1546 at Smithfield, London's famous Protestant capital-punishment ground. There were three men who paid the martyr's price and received the martyr's crown with her the same day. The gorgeously dressed priests with blood-thirsty appetites, were there to gratify their fiendish hearts and taunt their victims by trying to persuade them to recant. King Henry VIII sent a special messenger with a written pardon for the lovely twenty-five year old Anne if she would only recant, but the brave soldier of the cross cried to all who were present,"I am not come here (the place of execution) to deny my Lord and Master." These courageous words still live in the hearts of tens of thousands of young people today, do they not? 

  Yes, brave men and women died side by side, a common death, for the Lord. As it takes both sexes to reproduce in all nature, so both were used of the Lord to reproduce pristine Christianity! How can the world ever let die the memory of that gallant hero John Ardelery! The papists tried to get him to re cant and deny his faith in the Protestant doctrines that he had learned to love. But this was futile; he had rather die! Just before the execution, he told Bishop Bonner - "If every hair on my head were a man, I would suffer death for my faith that I now profess!" (A French hairologist has just estimated that we have approximately one hundred thousand hairs on our head!) 

As there could be no end to such amazing testimonies as these that I have gleaned from Reformation history, let us now come a little nearer home with our comments, so as to feel the true anguish of Romanist terror. 

From that most startling volume, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, we learn that positively and irrefutably, Rome sponsored and carried out the plans for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He was too often revealing their murderous work in this country; therefore, was obliged to die a martyr's death! The author proves in many ways how, beyond every argument, Rome killed America's greatest and one of her most Christian presidents. Mr. Lincoln back in his attorney days in Illinois, opened to the world some of the filthy, outlawed plans and activities of the Church of Rome. He embarrassed their high officials and priests alike without fear or favor! He knew for some years that he was on their black list. One calm night, just as five horrible and bloody years of Civil War had concluded, while sitting in the Ford Theater in Washington, a papist-reared maniac killed the great and honorable Lincoln! 

ROMANISM SLAYS!!