Doctrine

Roman Catholic Conspiracies

44 Comments

pope-benedictWhen it comes to Roman Catholics, the major disagreement amongst fundamentalists is whether in the book of Revelation the Pope is actually the anti-Christ or merely the False Prophet. Either way, they all agree that Roman Catholics want to run the world and are responsible for quite a number of its ills.

Based on reports from the likes of Jack Chick and his tales of former Jesuit Alberto Rivera, fundamentalists are willing to believe any number of conspiracy theories about Roman Catholics — up to and including that the Gestapo was run by the Jesuits. Some will also inform you that Roman Catholics are responsible for Free Masons, Lincoln’s Assassination, The New World Order, disco music, Oprah, and the “song” Boom, Boom, Pow.

The only people that fundamentalists may distrust more than Roman Catholics are the Communists. Unless, of course, you subscribe to the theory that the Vatican is the real power behind Communism too. There’s a sale on tinfoil hats on aisle 5.

44 thoughts on “Roman Catholic Conspiracies”

  1. I was always taught the RCC is the great whore of Revelation, and then there was something about the 10/12 hills of Rome. Can’t really remember everything but it did seem like we had a prophecy update every few months.

  2. Oh my gosh, yes! Chick.com is a great place to laugh away a few hours, especially if you are a medieval historian and read his pieces on Catholic history. Did you know the Catholic Church founded Islam???

    You might do a piece on Kent Hovind sometime. I knew he was going off the deep end when he referred to Chick’s comic book about the Catholic roots of Islam as a reputable historical source.

  3. The Roman Catholic Church is definitely the Great Whore of Babylon. What other religion has murdered so many followers of Christ throughout the centuries?

    I do know that the Great Whore of Babylon is the mother of harlots, so all false religions can trace their roots back to the RCC.

    1. Hinduism? Sikhism? Buddism? Animism? Thank you for making it clear to me where these false religions came from

  4. Fundamentalists are not alone in identifying the pope as the anti-christ (though they do tend to go farther with their never-ending conspiracy theories). This from chapter 25, paragraph 6 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (the London Baptist Confession is worded similarly):

    “There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.”

      1. Of course Luther, et al cast the Pope as the A/C…they were at war with the Catholic church…here’s a thought: MAYBE they were wrong! This article is not nearly as detailed as Harold Camping’s treatise on the 2011 rapture…but they’re both opinions conveyed as infallible positions…and just as worthless

  5. “What other religion has murdered so many followers of Christ throughout the centuries?”

    Atheism easily, with Islam a distant second.

    Amanda is right, though. I know a lot of non-Fundies of a wide variety of stripes that make a lot of apocalyptic claims against the Catholic Church and the Pope in particular. Their conspiracy theories may not be as exotic, but the paranoia is just as real.

  6. I think a lot of Fundys believe that Jack Chick comics should be in the KJV of the Bible. They believe just about anything he says is true.

    1. I recall that one, supposed to be the human heartbeat backwards, nevermind that that would really be “bud-bul, bud-bul”. 🙄
      Boom-boom-pow, any one have a craving for Domino Pizza and Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice? :mrgreen:

  8. The fact that people actually believe Jack Chick and his lies prove that most fundamentalists are anti-intellectual. Chick is treated like the pope of fundamentalism. He’s infallible, so they think. It is heresy to question Chick’s theology or Rivera’s authenticity.

    They pass along these lies and myths about the Catholic Church to each other without fully investigating whether what they believe is true.

    As a Catholic, I find it highly insulting to be told that Catholics aren’t Christians.

      1. Ok We’ll give you Catholics aren’t Christians so long as you agree that Baptists aren’t Christians, and Lutherns aren’t Christians and Methodists aren’t Christians and Presbyterians aren’t Christians and Anglicans aren’t Christians. In fact none of the groups are populated 100% with Christians.
        If the requirement is that “all” folks who associate themselves with any one of these denominational groups must be Christian in order for the denomination to be called Christian… then none of them pass muster.
        On the other hand just because all members of a denomination are not true Christians doesn’t mean that none of them are.

        Let me ask you this Henry. Is it your contention that at the time of the reformation there were no Christians left in the Catholic Church? Remember Luther and Calvin were Catholic priests. They set out to reform the one holy catholic church. The problem lies in the power structure and the politics of religion. The Independent church is just as guilty of power grubbing and dictatorial error as the Catholic church is.

  9. Lisa
    The denomination on the front of the church you go to is only an indication of what your beliefs are. However, if your beliefs line up with typical Roman Catholic doctrine, then I would take a long look at the difference between an evangelical view of salvation vs the Catholic view. Depending on where you are at, there may be some well informed individuals that can clearly articulate the differences to you.
    One of the major differences in doctrine will the the scriptures. The RC holds that the church is the mother of the scriptures, therefore, only they have the authority to tell you what they say. Evangelical and most fundamental churches that I am aware of believe that the church grew out of the teachings of scripture. Paul evangelized Ephesus and a church was started. The church did not write the scriptures, the authors did. And many of them were dead before the church existed.

    The evangelical and fundamentalist view is that scripture is authoritative, not the people. We are to align ourselves with the teaching of the Bible. So first, examine if what you believe is scriptural. Is salvation a sacrament? Is Baptism? What about the Eucharist? Is it literally the blood and body, or is it just a representation for remembrance? Why do you have a confessional when Christ is said to be the mediator between God and man? I’ll answer that one for you with scripture. 1 Tim 2:5. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

    your thoughts?

    1. Many fundamentalist Pastors operate like mini-Popes. It is not the place of a member of the congregation to question the Pastor’s teaching

    2. I’ve been reading this dialogue and I’m wondering if anyone has an answer for John’s statements? He brings up some valid points.

  10. My favorite Chick conspiracy is the one where Jesuits infiltrated Fundy youth groups and introduced the pious youngsters to sex. It’s in one of the Godfathers comics somewhere. Just let that one sink in for a while. It’ll get funnier the more you think about it.

  11. The Chick comics are deffinately more interesting than the tracts. I used to own Alberto when i was a kid. I also owned a couple of others. I think the story lines mainly take place in the seventies. THe main character were a black guy and and a white guy. Did not really seem like fundies. Pretty wierd stuff. I just looked at them like regular comics. Actually I read on some other Christian sight that Alberto Rivera has lied about many of those things even about being a priest.

  14. I heard that the pope was the anti-Christ based on the fact that the description of the anti-Christ’s kingdom includes something about seven hills. Rome has seven hills, ergo the RC church must be the church of the anti-Christ. I got to thinking about all the cities I know that have seven hills and formed an alternate theory: Seattle used to have seven hills, back when it was first founded. Microsoft is based in Seattle, and its computers assuredly run the world. Therefore, the real anti-Christ is Bill Gates. There are people who believe that even without the Bible! Come to think of it, you could almost put this down as a fulfilled prophecy.

  15. @gracetolive That’s CLASSIC fundy insanity. Rome has 7 hills? Vatican City is in Rome? That MUST be what John was writing about, despite there was no pope or RC church for 200 years after the book was written, or that it was VASTLY different at the time of inception than it is now. None of it matters, they found 7 hills reference in the Bible to the Anti-Christ and are going to tie that to the Pope. Screw what John meant, we are fixing what he meant.

    1. Rob, the view that you are mocking as a “fundy” view is actually the historic view of the Confessional Protestant church. It was affirmed by all the Reformers and can even be found before the Reformation. And this view of Rome and the Pope is correct. The Seven Hills do indeed refer to Rome.

      Preterists would argue that it refers to ancient pagan Rome, but that is still Rome! And that still makes it refer to events that happen after the Apostle John wrote the Revelation.

      Only modernists would say that the Book of Revelation doesn’t prophecy anything, because they don’t believe in Divine Inspiration, Inerrency, or the Supernatural.

      http://www.holywordcafe.com/bible/resources/WrightAntichrist.PDF

      1. Henry – Just because you link the same article 4 times, doesn’t make it true. Do you even know what the Catholic church believes?

        1. Yes I do. Read the articles on the websites I posted in response to Lisa.

          As I said, the historic view is that the Pope is the Antichrist. Do even believe the Bible is Inspired, Infallible, and Inerrant?

        2. Henry, you can keep repeating, “the historic view” hundreds or thousands more times but that still makes this position nothing more than an unprovable opinion about one of the many aspects of scripture which we simply do not know with certainty. Why is it so important to you that the Pope be the anti-Christ? Do you have an arrogant Catholic brother-in-law who pisses you off and ridicules women playing Putt-Putt in culottes?

  16. I grew up as a Protestant in Northern Ireland. For many protestants here, the Pope IS the AntiChrist, the Great Beast of Revelation. It’s build into the psyche. And according to one Jack Chick rag, sorry, publication, the Roman Catholic Church WAS responsible for the creation of ISLAM So Blame 9/11 on the Vatican.

    1. Paul, you might want to read a good history book sometime. Islam was created by some guy out on the desert, not the Catholics.

        1. Yep, that was the tract that my dogs ate this morning when I was trying to save them after doing the Santa photo.

      1. Thanks for reminding us how correct and historic your position is again. Nearly a year after the last comment, we might have all forgotten about how right you are.

        Say, you better remind us one more time, just to be safe.

      2. There are a LOT of parallels between the IFB and ulster protestantism – that is why i find this site so fascinating
        , so much of it resonates. My own church, though, spent more time preaching all that wishy-washy stuff about the goodness of Jesus than about the evils of Rome so it was definitely suspect….

  17. peter was the appostle Jesus gave the keys to the church and he is recognised as the first pope.since u say the pope is the anti-christ was peter an apostle of Jesus an anti-christ?

    1. When you faithfully believe and practice most Roman Catholic doctrine, you are directly contradicting many clear teachings of the Bible…how then can the RCC be the true church?

  19. Am I the only one who can see an series of eerie parallels between Jack Chick’s “lierature” and a notorious document called “The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion” that was doing the rounds in Europe in the Early Twentieth Century.

    Same idea. Different villains.

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