Catholic Mass Pollutes Body Soul & Spirit
Colin Melbourne
© 04-08 Born-Again-Christian.Info
The Roman Catholic Mass is an abomination, blasphemy against the Blood, Body, and finished work of Christ: idolatry of the worst kind. It is an idol based on Baal worship, detestable to God, and has no Scriptural basis, as was made perfectly clear in John Knox's historic denunciation, Why the Mass is Idolatry.
People who participate in idolatry are idolaters and will not enter Heaven. The LORD Jesus Christ warned emphatically that all idolaters are barred from Heaven, and cast into Hell. (See Rev. 21:6-8, and 22:13-16). Idol worship is denial of Christ, resulting in spiritual damnation.
Mass Death
Scientists have now discovered idol worshippers are also damaging their physical health.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. Holy Bible Deut. 5:8 NIV
It is now official: Scientists warn that idolatry can seriously damage your health.
Catholic Mass Causes Cancer
European scientists have issued a health warning on the dangers of Roman Catholic worship. A study by Dutch medical researchers, published in the European Respiratory Journal, warns that samples of air from a simulated Catholic Mass in the city church of Maastricht were highly toxic.
Smoke from candles and incense produced levels of carcinogenic polycyclic hydrocarbons twenty times greater than acceptable European limits. The concentrations of harmful particulate matter were far higher than those adjacent to a busy highway. They warned that smoke from candles and incense posed a serious risk of lung cancer and heart disease to both priests and worshippers.
Toxic Buddhist Worship
These findings confirm similar results from a Taiwan University published in New Scientist in 2001, which pointed to an incense-cancer link. Chinese Buddhist temples were sampled, and the air found to be rich with cancer causing chemicals from incense smoke.
Researchers in Taiwan found that the levels of highly carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) inside the temple were 19 times higher than outside, and also higher than at a nearby road intersection.
One PAH named, benzopyrene, is thought to cause lung cancer in smokers, and was found in very high quantities inside the Buddhist temple.
Candles and Incense Racket
The burning of candles and incense are common religious trappings of the Roman Catholic cult, its Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican offshoots, and are also ubiquitous in pagan ceremonies around the world. For example, Buddhists compete to make the biggest most elaborately carved candles in their repetitive grind of merit making. Gigantic towering incense joss sticks are a common sight outside Chinese temples. Offering human sacrifices is increasing in China.
A Hindu friend of mine has a weekly ritual where he parades a violently burning bowl of incense through his home to 'cleanse and bless it'. The smell and acrid smoke are so overpowering everyone has to leave the building, including the cat.
Supermarket shelves in Asia are full of incense sticks, and candles, profiting from the lucrative trade of religious paraphernalia.
No Junk Religion for Christians
Be clear on this: Candles and incense have no place in Christian worship. Jews, under the Old Covenant, were instructed to construct oil lamps, lamp stands, and incense censers for Temple worship, but no candles. Incidentally, most modern candles use rendered pig fat in the tallow. Jews used olive oil lamps with burning wicks, but not candles.
A New and Better Way
Jewish Temple worship was abolished by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Dr. Daisy Osborn used to say, "The Jews 'put God in a box' (Ark of the Covenant): Jesus took God public!"
Here's what she meant,
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. Mtt. 27:50-51
Halleluiah! The curtain was ripped apart and the Most Holy Place opened to all. Previously, only one man, the High Priest could enter, just once a year. And only after the most elaborate cleansing and purification rites. But Jesus threw open the Most Holy Place of Heaven itself to whoever will believe on Him. The 'type' of the earthly temple worship was done away in Christ, because He made a new and a better way.
Once and For All
The book of Hebrews has several majestic chapters devoted to this very point. The Mosaic Temple worship was made obsolete by Christ, The High Priest who sacrificed for the sins of mankind once and for all when He offered Himself. See Hebrews chapters 4-10
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming - not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship... but those annual sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Heb. 10:1-4
God ordained the Levitical sacrifices under the Old Covenant as reminders that we need a Perfect Saviour.
And He came Himself as High Priest, and Lamb of God, to save us by a New Covenant:
When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God... because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Heb. 10:12-14
Christ poured out His sinless Blood to pay your full sin debt once and for all, so that you can abide in God's Presence forever.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened up for us through the curtain, that is his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith... Heb. 10:19-22
Now, salvation, eternal life, and real fellowship with God, come through heart faith in Christ alone. Not by rituals, sacraments or ceremonies of any kind. Not via water baptism or the Lord's Supper, they merely symbolize what Christ did for believers in His death and resurrection. Salvation comes through trusting Christ's Sacrifice did enough to take away our sin, and makes born again believers acceptable to God.
No candles or incense for Christians!
New Covenant Prayer
What does the incense of Jewish temple worship typify? It represents the prayers of the saints. When New Covenant believers pray, their prayers come before the Throne of God like pleasing incense.
Christian! When you pray in faith, your prayer is presented to God in a golden bowl, here it is,
The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Rev. 5:8
Incense was a 'type' of New Covenant prayer. Believers in Christ do not burn incense: They pray. They don't burn candles: They have hearts aflame with the Holy Spirit, proclaiming Christ, the Light of the world.
The Third Temple
In the last days, Temple worship will be reinstated in the, soon to be rebuilt, Temple in Jerusalem. It will be Old Covenant worship with animal sacrifices. Devout Jews have already made all the articles they will need, exactly according to Moses, including the breeding of sacrificial Red Heifers.
Will this please God? Of course not, it will be blasphemy against the finished work of Christ. The Lamb of God was sacrificed once and for all to take away the sin of the world. To offer any further sacrifice is to deny Christ. Nevertheless, religious Jews will do this, and then the end will come. Christ will return in Glory to redeem believers, and judge all who have rejected Him.
Reject Religion: Choose Life
Are you ready?
The Catholic Mass, pagan rituals, candle and incense burning will never get you ready: They lead you to Hell. There's only one way to enter Heaven, you must be born again through simple heart faith in the finished work of Christ.
Have you been born again?
Once you are, you will have the Life and witness of God's Spirit in your heart, God's guarantee of Glory.
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance... Eph. 1:13-14
Are you marked in Christ, are you sealed with the Holy Spirit, is your name in the Lamb's Book of Life?
To be sure and certain now and always, throw away useless candles, and incense, flee from all idolatry, repent and believe in the LORD Jesus Christ.
