No to Intercessory Prayer. No to Catholicism.

Sermon Sunday 102625

“On Intercessory Prayer”

[Jhn 4:23-24 KJV] 23 …true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

This morning, I want to talk about “truth”...and not only how it applies to worship, but also to our christian religion in general…

So what is worship? In the O.T., the word means to bow down in submission to someone, whether it be out of fear, or respect, or as a petition for a need. The N.T. Greek translates “worship” this way…“to encounter God”...“to praise Him”...as a form of respect…acknowlegement of his place in our lives. 

So true worship towards God is to bow to him, to praise him, and to revere him as creator…Master over all things, Amen?. We pray thanks to him. We sing songs to his glory. We meet as a body to bow down before him and to bring our petitions before him. And we do all of this in the name of who?? Jesus the King!  Because Jesus has cleansed us of our sin and now we can “come boldly before the throne…” says (Heb 4:16). We go directly to God in prayer…No need for an intercessor. No need for a middleman.

• [Jhn 14:6 KJV] 6 Jesus saith ….I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Should we need help in prayer, we don’t need a middleman, or a priest. And because the Holy Spirit has promised to be our intercessor, should we need one, no human…no heavenly saint…no Mother of God is needed:

• [Rom 8:26-27 KJV] 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought…but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us… with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

This morning, I’d like to address the practice of “intercessory prayer”, or praying to specific dead people, whose souls are believed to be in Heaven, and close associates to Jesus himself. (i.e. Jesus’ mother or holy people of the past; saints) I promised to cover this topic and so today will be that day. I will cover it with a loving heart because I love the people that raised this issue. Have a pen ready. I will give you some important data to hold onto, and to look into when you get home.

Praying to the dead has its roots in ancient pagan religion…it was prevalent in the Roman Empire, and it has been kept alive by the Roman Catholic Church…as well as its various offshoots, like the Greek, the Russian, and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. And because some of us were raised in a Catholic or Orthodox religion, intercessory prayer is ingrained in our culture…our nationality…and it rears its head from time to time in conversation. 

The Catholic Church teaches that when people die and go to Heaven, they are technically still alive, and so praying to them, and asking them to lobby Jesus on your behalf, is the same thing as asking a devout Christian here on earth to pray on your behalf...But this is error…for at least two reasons:

1. It is not taught anywhere in the Bible. The Bible teaches that only the Holy Spirit can intercede for us.

2. Prayer intercession performed by anyone other than the Holy Spirit promotes preferentialism…when God himself teaches against preferentialism…or deeming one Christian as being somehow more worthy of their salvation than others…as if Jesus regards these souls as having favored status in heaven. Loved one, no one has favored status in heaven except for God. 

We all begin life as hopeless sinners. How so?

•  “All have come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph 2:9)

And as for preferential treatment in heaven?

• [Rom 2:11 KJV] 11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

• [Col 3:25 KJV] 25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

• [Eph 2:8-9 KJV] 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves…it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works…lest any man should boast.

So, preferring one soul over another in regards to our standing before Jesus…before God is unbiblical…There is no preferential treatment, not for Mary, nor St. Jude, nor St. Anthony, nor anyone else. All are sinners! Without the gift of grace, all are “condemned” says (John 3:18).  While Mary was blessed among women, she does not have preferential status in heaven. The Elect  need no human intercessor. They pray to God directly because of Christ’s completed work on the cross. Jesus the King even says so himself:

• [Jhn 14:6 KJV] 6 Jesus saith … I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Ok. So here is the point…do not pray to dead saints, to Jesus’ mother, or anyone else to lobby on your behalf. That is not Christian...It is a false form of worship.

With that said, let's spend the remainder of our time this morning exposing the religion that is responsible for this anti-Christian doctrine in our day, along with many other false doctrines. I’m talking about the biggest cult on the face of the earth-–the Catholic Church. This organization is actually an empire by definition, but it masquerades as a church. Its priests and ministers masquerade as angels of light, but they are themselves deceived, and condemned men.

• [2Ti 3:5 KJV] 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

• [2Co 11:13-15 KJV] 13 For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

So, let’s briefly look at the Catholic Church, and its sister agencies, the Orthodox churches.

Catholicism and the Orthodoxies…as big, and complex, and mysterious  as they are…had a simple beginning. Their origins are well documented. Catholicism officially began with The Edict of Milan in 313 AD. The Edict of Milan was an agreement between Roman emperors Constantine (West Empire) and Licinius (East Empire), and it established religious tolerance throughout the Roman Empire. 

The Edict of Milan granted Christians the freedom to worship their God without the threat of persecution. The edict even demanded that all confiscated property be returned to the Christian communities, and it officially ended state-sponsored persecution.

The Edict of Milan also demanded some restitution for past offences against the Christians. This edict criminalized the persecution of Christians, paving the way for Christianity to become the dominant religion across the empire. That included both true and false Christianity, such as the Catholic religion, and the Orthodoxies. I say false because these religions teach many unbiblical doctrines; many heresies, some of which are pure blasphemy.

The Edict of Milan ushered in a huge economy for church building, the scribing of religious materials, revenue from Christian schools, and a large boost in tax revenue. An entire industry was born, bringing the Roman Empire additional wealth, and power. And, Christianity was very helpful to the kingdom because it demanded good moral behavior, and obedience to the magistrate. Christianity encourages constraint and order in society…it fosters stability in any society.

So the Edict of Milan brought in a lot of good, but it also made it easy for the pagan religions of the day to creep in, to grow in power, and to bring with them many forms of false worship. 

One of these groups later began to call themselves the “universal church”, or in their native Greek tongue; The “Katholikos” Church. The Roman Emperor Constantine himself belonged to this group…a group that blended Roman pagan forms of worship with biblical Christianity. And so, now that the Roman Emperor himself was a so-called “Christian”, the empire sided-up with this Catholic religion, and it grew large enough to swallow up or push aside all of the other forms of Christianity at that time. 

Catholicism attracted the masses because it allowed “indulgences”. It attracted the masses because it promised shared power and wealth. It attracted the masses because it promised to make people clean before God, so long as you followed their ways, and so long as you performed their prescribed works.

The Catholic religion soon dictated who were qualified to be saints. They dictated required forms of worship, including the old pagan practice of worshiping the “Queen of Heaven”, now named “Mary”. The Catholic religion created a third abode for the dead called “Purgatory”, and then made it official theology at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274–as stated in official Catholic records, and posted by the Vatican. (https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum14.htm)

The Catholic Church is guilty of stealing the term “Church Father” and reassigning that title to their own priests. They stole the term “Bishop” from 1 Timothy, Ch. 3, and reassigned it to their own regional directors. And when the Roman Empire fell apart, they stole the name “Pompous Maximus” from Cesar and re-assigned it for their own empire’s leader…the Pope.  

The Catholic Empire is a master at identity theft. Even the early Christian fathers, like Ignatius, Athanacius, and Poly Carp, were re-cast as “Catholic Fathers”, and the Catholics commissioned artists to paint these true Christians into images showing them wearing catholic robes, and insignias–effectively reassigning their identities as Catholic. 

• I’ve read some of the works by these men and they definitely were not Catholic. As a matter of fact, they railed against the teachings of the Catholics…having written even before the rising of the Catholic Church. 

The fourteen or so variations on the paintings of Christ from antiquity were all commissioned by the Catholic Empire. I lived next door to a Catholic Cathedral and that place had all manner of identity theft on the walls, in the stained glass, and in stone statues placed on the grounds–all with the purpose of indoctrinating the youth of the next generation.

The Catholic Empire is a master at sowing confusion and deception into Christianity. The Catholic Empire controls great wealth and it has political sway over every nation on the planet–whether it be a Catholic nation, Muslim, or otherwise. 

The Catholic Empire is the only religion that is also a sovereign nation,  called Vatican City (Italian Lateran Treaty of 1929). The Vatican (aka Holy See) is universally recognized by the United Nations. Even the United States of America sends and receives ambassadors to Vatican City. 

As the Roman Empire began to dissolve in the later 300s, the Roman religion began to call itself the Church at Rome. This was not the same church that Apostle Paul wrote about in his Epistle to by the way. 

Over time, the Catholic Empire instituted several ungodly policies into their cult—redefining who saints are, forbidding their priests to marry, and yes, promoting intercessory prayer via the dead, worshiping Mary as a co-regent to Jesus, or “Queen of Heaven”—which by the way was borrowed from the Babylonian cults of the O.T. (Jer 7:18, 44:17-19, 44:25)

The Catholics taught a works/grace religion, whereby works help get you to Heaven. And, if you did not have enough work completed when you died, you would go to a place called “Purgatory”. This was a third abode for the dead called “Purgatory”, where people can do additional work over time and earn their way into Heaven.

Listen, there is a lot to say about the Catholic Empire. It began as a false church and it continues to this day as a false church--a cult. We have only hit the tip of the iceberg. We have the Bible…the true rulebook on worship. Stay away from the Catholic Empire and its evil sisters, the Orthodoxies.

Dr. Michael Scalmato

Pastor, Living Word Baptist Church

Marana, AZ.