# The Gospel According to Rome (for real!)



## Phil D. (Feb 8, 2011)

UPDATE: See larger illustration in comment #6 below (thanks Rich!)







(from James McCarthy's _The Gospel According to Rome _)


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## Ne Oublie (Feb 8, 2011)

This is the widest, winding, darkest road to nowhere I have seen since I was an unbeliever.


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## Marrow Man (Feb 8, 2011)




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## Notthemama1984 (Feb 8, 2011)

I don't see a picture


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## Phil D. (Feb 8, 2011)

Sorry, for those whose browsers don't display a picture, you can see the flowchart online here.

Actually, this source also allows for the best expanded view...


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## Semper Fidelis (Feb 8, 2011)

That is a superb illustration:


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## ServantsHeart (Feb 8, 2011)

Getting me out or should I say off the Roman Catholic Way of what they call salvation was a great mercy of GOD to me. I with GODS keeping grace and power will never go back down that road of a works based belief system wether Roman Catholic or Protestant Arminianism ever again. By Grace through Faith or bust!


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## Marrow Man (Feb 8, 2011)




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## Notthemama1984 (Feb 8, 2011)

That thing is confusing.


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## Wannabee (Feb 8, 2011)

McCarthy's book is excellent. We keep a copy at the church for reference and use it often.


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## Phil D. (Feb 8, 2011)

Chaplainintraining said:


> That thing is confusing.



...yet entirely accurate (according to RC dogma)...

Here are some other thoughts that came to me as I traced through the schematic...

1. This is NOT "good news"
2. Of course that little detour into "Purgatory" is said to apply to everyone (including the popes!), except those who are martyred for their faith.
3. Thank You God, for the simple TRUTH of your all-gracious plan of salvation, as is revealed in your Holy Scripture.
4: Thank You God, for the gracious re-proclamation of the simple truth of the Gospel that you ordained in the Reformation!
5: Thank You, thank You God, that You - and You alone - saved a lost wretch like me...


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## Semper Fidelis (Feb 8, 2011)

Phil D. said:


> Of course that little detour into "Purgatory" is said to apply to everyone (including the popes!), except those who are martyred for their faith.



Actually, as noted, the detour only applies if a person has temporal punishment due. The Treasury of Merits are those merits of the Saints who had an excess of merit to enter heaven. 

Thanks again for that flow chart it is superb. Joe mentioned "McCarthy". Is this chart in a book that someone wrote?


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## Notthemama1984 (Feb 8, 2011)

Phil D. said:


> (from James McCarthy's The Gospel According to Rome )



This is where it is from.


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## Semper Fidelis (Feb 8, 2011)




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## Berean (Feb 8, 2011)

Chaplainintraining said:


> That thing is confusing.



So is knowing where you stand as a papist.


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## Marrow Man (Feb 8, 2011)

And in related news:

BBC News - Catholic church gives blessing to iPhone app

You know, to make it easier.


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## Berean (Feb 8, 2011)

Marrow Man said:


> And in related news:
> 
> BBC News - Catholic church gives blessing to iPhone app
> 
> You know, to make it easier.



Soon there'll be an app for purchasing Masses for the dead and indulgences. Bypass the local "priest".


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## Semper Fidelis (Feb 8, 2011)

Marrow Man said:


> And in related news:
> 
> BBC News - Catholic church gives blessing to iPhone app
> 
> You know, to make it easier.


 
Does it help calculate years in Purgatory for the temporal punishment associated with venial sins? Perhaps the next release will allow the user to purchase indulgences through the iTunes store.


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## Pergamum (Feb 8, 2011)

Great graph rich! I am going to translate that into the local language.


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## Wannabee (Feb 8, 2011)

Semper Fidelis said:


> Joe mentioned "McCarthy". Is this chart in a book that someone wrote?



Yes, in the book referenced in the OP.
Amazon.com: The Gospel According to Rome (9781565071070): James G. McCarthy: Books

You can find it here as well.


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## saintandsinner77 (Feb 8, 2011)

"If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory."
Charles Spurgeon


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## Marrow Man (Feb 8, 2011)

Semper Fidelis said:


> Perhaps the next release will allow the user to purchase indulgences through the iTunes store.



Ingenuous. That's a market that not even Tetzel could have imagined.


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## Grillsy (Feb 8, 2011)

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Marrow Man said:


> Semper Fidelis said:
> 
> 
> > Perhaps the next release will allow the user to purchase indulgences through the iTunes store.
> ...



They'll be building another Basilica before too long.


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## Jack K (Feb 8, 2011)

The more I look at that chart, the more glad I am to have found it here. It really can be useful. In a sad way, but useful nonetheless.

Thanks, Phil.


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## C. M. Sheffield (Feb 8, 2011)

When I came to the block titled "Dejustification" my heart sunk within me and I thought, "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand!"


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## Marrow Man (Feb 8, 2011)

C. M. Sheffield said:


> When I came to the block titled "Dejustification" my heart sunk within me and I thought, "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand!"



And yet there's an iPhone app that allows you to tally up your own sins for confessional. 

C.M. I don't suspect you have too many RCs in Vidalia. But there's a whole city of them up here in Louisville. It makes my heart sad. I had no idea there was such a term as "dejustification" in RC theology.


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## C. M. Sheffield (Feb 8, 2011)

Marrow Man said:


> C.M. I don't suspect you have too many RCs in Vidalia.



We do have a Catholic parish here in town. I was surprised by this.


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## SRoper (Feb 8, 2011)

I'd be interested in seeing a series of charts. For example, what would a Lutheran one look like?


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Feb 8, 2011)

An excellent chart. I can see it being used widely.

AMR


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## dudley (Feb 8, 2011)

Phil D. said:


> Chaplainintraining said:
> 
> 
> > That thing is confusing.
> ...



As an ex Roman catholic turned Presbyterian Protestant I can tell you all that the chart is accurate and why I am no longer a RC and why I left that apostate church and renounced her heresies and her pope and Roman Catholicism completely. “The Sacramental Treadmill. Or, How to get to heaven the Roman Catholic Way. Or, It’s easy as 1, 2, 3…err…4, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc.” is sadly the truth of what Roman Catholicism is all about.

I say all the time what our PB brother Phil said in his last 3 parts above…

I say every day ….Thank You God, for the simple TRUTH of your all-gracious plan of salvation, as is revealed in your Holy Scripture.
I stridently say to my Lord Jesus and His father “Thank You God, for the gracious re-proclamation of the simple truth of the Gospel that you ordained in the Reformation!” as Phil has also said above.

Finally I say like Phil said “Thank You, thank You God, that You - and You alone - saved a lost wretch like me……” and I add for my situation “Thank you God for leading me out of the bondage of popery and to the true Gospel and the true Church of Jesus Christ and the Apostles and Reformed Protestantism.” I am thankful I am now a Protestant Christian , a Presbyterian. I could never return to Roman Catholicism. I repeatedly have said I renounce Roman Catholicism and her pope as did the Reformers of the Reformation . I am thankful to be a Protestant and have had the experience of heaving a true Protestant conversion as John Calvin himself described.


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## Gage Browning (Feb 9, 2011)




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## kodos (Feb 9, 2011)

Very helpful and (from my understanding of RC theology and apologetics) accurate chart. Thanks for posting this!


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## dudley (Mar 1, 2011)

Really Roman Catholic salvation ends on the note that the condition of your soul at the moment of your death will determine where your eternal destination will be. It is a continuation of this 'works' gospel from birth to death, and still at the end of it all you're not guaranteed. Purgatory, it all speaks, but Purgatory especially that Christ's death on the cross wasn't complete or wasn't enough to take us to heaven, to save us completely. Added to that blasphemy is the fact that it teaches that we can actually atone and pay for our own sins. Whereas what do the Scriptures teach? Ephesians 2:8-9: 'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast'. Romans 3:28: 'Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law'. Romans 5:1: 'Therefore being justified by faith', not by works, not by sacraments, but by faith, 'we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ'. 

You see, the Roman Catholic doctrine perverts the very word of grace, because as you have seen from this chart, grace is merited, it's earned - but the very word 'grace' as it is defined in the Bible means 'unmerited favor'! It is a gift that you cannot earn, that is what free grace is - free! Yet Rome puts a price on it…..The entire Gospel according to Rome perverts the entire message of salvation….it is a deception and a lie…..their Gospel tries to make the lie look like a truth to the Roman catholic people and they try to make Roman Catholics think that it is we who are Protestants who do not have the truth. They try to make their people think that the Gospel according to those of us who are Protestant is the lie…….I pray for the Roman catholic people , many who are my family and friends that they may be bestowed with the grace of God as I was and come out of the Romish religion and see the truth and be born again and become Protestants …hopefully Reformed Protestant and even Presbyterians as I was….when I see this chart above I say to my self “Therefore but the grace of God , go I".


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## PuritanCovenanter (Mar 1, 2011)

My eyes! My eyes! They are burning for two reasons. The Print is so small it hurts. Then when I understand they see Hell.


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## AThornquist (Mar 1, 2011)

Thanks for the post! James White has a similar type of chart on Mormonism that is extremely helpful.


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