Updated March 22, 2004 (first published November 4, 1995) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

We often hear from ecumenical circles that all professing Christians who "love Jesus" should get together. One problem with this is the Bible’s warnings that there are false christs. The Bible-believing Christian must always ask, “What Jesus do you worship?” Paul warned the believers at Corinth:

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth ANOTHER JESUS, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive ANOTHER SPIRIT, which ye have not received, or ANOTHER GOSPEL, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him" (2 Corinthians 11:3,4).

Paul was concerned for the church at Corinth because it was carnal and the believers were weak. They were careless about false doctrine. They had a tolerant attitude toward error. They gave audience to false teachers instead of rejecting them.

This, at best, is the condition of the ecumenical crowd today. The Roman Catholic Church worships “Jesus,” but it is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Catholic Jesus is the wafer Jesus that is sacrificed repeatedly on Roman altars.

In the charismatic Catholic magazine New Evangelization 2000, a clear testimony of this Roman heresy was given. Consider the following carefully:

"Last year I spent a week at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Birmingham, Alabama, home of Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network. Early one morning, a voice over the loudspeaker announced: ‘Mother asks everyone to leave the chapel immediately.' Outside, Mother Angelica explained that a possible gas leak had been discovered in the building. As Mother talked she kept looking toward the chapel, finally inquiring, ‘Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus?' Soon two sisters emerged from the chapel smiling, one carrying the Blessed Sacrament. ‘We've got him, Mother!' she cried. ‘Don't worry!’" (Keith Fournier, New Evangelization 2000, Issue 8, page 7; Fournier is Dean of Evangelization at the Catholic Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio)

One of the photos accompanying this article shows a priest placing a wafer on the lips of a woman and has the caption:

"Jesus is in my heart, on my mind and on my lips."

Note that the "Jesus" spoken of in this article is a wafer used in the Catholic mass. This is the "Jesus" of Mother Angelica. This is the "Jesus" of the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Mother Teresa often testified that her Jesus is the wafer of the Mass. It is this host that the nuns of the Sisters of Charity are adoring 24 hours a day. Note the following statements that Mother Teresa made while addressing the Worldwide Retreat for Priests, October 1984, in Rome:

“I remember the time a few years back, when the president of Yeman asked us to send some of our sisters to his country. I told him that this was difficult because for so many years no chapel was allowed in Yemen for saying a public mass, and no one was allowed to function there publicly as a priest. I explained that I wanted to give them sisters, but the trouble was that, without a priest, without Jesus going with them, our sisters couldn’t go anywhere. It seems that the president of Yemen had some kind of a consultation, and the answer that came back to us was, ‘Yes, you can send a priest with the sisters!’ I was so struck with the thought that ONLY WHEN THE PRIEST IS THERE CAN WE HAVE OUR ALTAR AND OUR TABERNACLE AND OUR JESUS. Only the priest can put Jesus there for us. ... Jesus wants to go there, but we cannot bring him unless you first give him to us. This is why I love priests so much. We could never be what we are and do the things we do without you priests who first bring Jesus to us” (Mother Teresa, Be Holy: God’s First Call to Priests Today, edited by Tom Forrest, 1987, pp. 109, 111).

“One day she [a girl working in Calcutta] came, putting her arms around me, and saying, ‘I have found Jesus.’ ... ‘And just what were you doing when you found him?’ I asked. She answered that after 15 years she had finally gone to confession, and received Holy Communion from the hands of a priest. Her face was changed, and she was smiling. She was a different person because THAT PRIEST HAD GIVEN HER JESUS” (Mother Teresa, Be Holy, p. 74).

On a trip to Quebec in 1998, I had an opportunity to visit a cloistered convent. A pastor friend invited me to meet his relative who has been a Catholic nun for 60 years. I have visited Catholic shrines and churches in many parts of the world, including the Vatican, but I had never been inside a convent. This nun that we visited was 80 years old and she had lived most of her life shut away in a dim monastery. She could converse with us only from behind metal bars. There are even bars across the convent chapel, separating the nuns from the public. The nuns pray in the chapel by shifts around the clock. As you enter the chapel there is a sign which says, “You are entering to adore the Jesus-host.” Note how they make a direct connection between Jesus and the Catholic host.

On a trip to the Philippines in January 2004, I visited the Mega Mall in Manila and saw the “Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord.” This chapel is available so that Roman Catholics can more conveniently adore and pray to the wafer (the wafer of the Mass is also called the Eucharist), who is called “Lord.”

This is the "Jesus" of the Catholic Church. It is a false Christ, to say the least. Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, is not a piece of bread! He is not created by the prayers of a Roman priest. He is not so weak that He must be rescued from a burning building. His sacrifice was made once for all and cannot be repeated. Beware of Catholicism with its false Christ, its false gospel, and its false spirit. And don't be fooled by the biblical terms and evangelization programs being promoted by some Catholic groups. Catholicism knows nothing about the true Gospel and Bible evangelism.

[From "Digging in the Walls," O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 11, 1995. Editor, David W. Cloud. O Timothy is a monthly magazine which is available by subscription from Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. Subscription price is $20.]