Participants:
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001727A
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00:01 I'm John Carter in Moscow...
00:02 I'm now in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. 00:04 I'm John Carter in Petra... 00:06 Reporting from India... 00:08 In Columbia... 00:09 I'm John Carter. 00:11 Today on the Carter Report, 00:13 Pastor Carter brings us the triumph of Protestantism. 00:21 I'm just so glad to welcome you today to the Carter Report. 00:24 The topic is an exciting one, the triumph of Protestantism. 00:30 Just a little over 500 years ago, 00:34 Martin Luther put his 95 theses 00:37 up on the door of a Roman Catholic Church 00:41 and shook the world. 00:43 We're gonna talk about that today, 00:44 the triumph of Protestantism. 00:47 I get every week The Economist magazine, 00:51 it's published in the United States of America, 00:55 but it's edited and written basically in England. 00:59 It's an amazing magazine. 01:02 And The Economist magazine 01:04 tells a story of a little town in Guatemala. 01:08 Now this is not a religious magazine, 01:11 this is now put out by the Far-right, 01:13 this is not evangelical, this is completely secular. 01:17 And it talks about Martin Luther 01:22 and the triumph of Protestantism. 01:25 And this secular magazine starts by telling the story 01:29 of a little town in Guatemala which is called Almolonga. 01:35 It says this, 01:37 "Once upon a time it was full of crime, 01:40 and drugs, and prostitutes. 01:43 It was just a terrible place. 01:46 In the summer of 1974, 01:49 a 26-year-old Mayan villager 01:53 lay drunk in a town square in the highlands of Guatemala. 01:59 Suddenly he heard a voice 02:01 that was to change the course of his life 02:04 and that of his home town, Almolonga. 02:08 Almolonga. 02:11 "I was lying there and I saw Jesus saying, 02:13 'I love you and I want you to serve me,'" 02:17 says the man. 02:19 He dusted himself down, 02:20 sobered up and soon started preaching, 02:23 establishing a Protestant congregation in a room 02:28 not far from the town's ancient Catholic Church. 02:34 The magazine goes on says that 02:36 this town was about as bad as you can imagine, 02:40 full of prostitutes, full of drugs, 02:43 the people were dreadfully poor. 02:46 But then the Economist magazine said, 02:48 "When Protestantism came to town, 02:52 there was a tremendous revolution 02:55 and the druggies went away 02:57 and the prostitutes were out of business." 03:00 It is now the most prosperous part 03:04 of this land of Guatemala. 03:08 I discovered today 03:10 and this is really sort of funny. 03:14 You see the carrots here on the screen. 03:16 Well, I'm told they're about 03:18 the biggest carrots in the world. 03:22 It seems as though God just 03:25 put His blessing upon that town 03:27 that for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years 03:32 had been steeped in the religion of another church. 03:36 So we're gonna talk today 03:38 about the triumph of Protestantism. 03:41 I think I'll show you another statement over here too 03:44 in The Economist magazine that says, 03:47 "Changed lives change places. 03:53 Almolonga's Pentecostal believers 03:57 have brought new energy to their town. 04:01 Where once the prison was full 04:02 and drunks slumped in the streets, 04:05 there is now a buzz of activity. 04:09 A secondary school opened in 2003, 04:12 it sends some of its graduates, 04:14 all members of the indigenous K'iche people, 04:19 to national universities. 04:20 'We want one of our students to work at NASA,' says Oscar, 04:25 who chairs the school board." 04:27 You know, it's almost too hard to believe 04:30 that this place had been such a poverty place, 04:33 but then the gospel of Martin Luther, 04:36 more correctly the gospel of the Bible 04:39 came to this town. 04:40 Now let me ask you... 04:43 Let me ask this question, 04:45 and I don't say this to offend our Catholic friends, 04:47 but I'm gonna say just the same 04:49 because it's the truth. 04:51 What is so different about Protestantism? 04:54 Why is the Protestant movement 04:57 so different to the Roman Catholic movement? 05:00 And here it is. 05:02 In the Roman Catholic Church, the emphasis is on the church, 05:08 and on earthly priests, and on the pope himself, 05:12 but in the Protestant Church, 05:14 the emphasis is not on the church, 05:16 the emphasis is on the Lord Jesus Christ. 05:21 And so they have a saying, as you know, 05:23 I'm gonna talk about this as we go along, 05:25 they have a saying "Sola Christus" 05:27 which means only Christ. 05:30 Now I want you to open your Bibles 05:32 and come over here with me 05:33 to John 14:60, friends, 05:39 where Jesus is talking, John 14:60, 05:43 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, 05:47 and the life. 05:49 No one comes to the Father except through Me." 05:53 So the Bible teaches that the only way 05:55 that you can be saved 05:57 and the only way that you can enjoy 05:59 life to the full is not through the hierarchy 06:04 but through the Lord Jesus Christ. 06:11 And Protestants believe this 06:12 and I'm proud to be a Protestant. 06:15 We believe that we don't need an earthly priest. 06:19 We do not believe 06:20 that we need to go and confess our sins to a priest 06:24 because we believe that Jesus is the way, 06:28 the truth, and the life. 06:30 Now I want you to come over here 06:32 in the Bible to the Book of Hebrews 4 06:35 over here in the New Testament, 06:37 and these texts of course have been used 06:40 over and over by our Protestant brothers and sisters. 06:44 Hebrews 4: 06:47 14 to 16, 06:52 here it is. 06:54 "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest 06:57 who has passed through the heavens, 06:59 Jesus the Son of God, 07:01 let us hold fast our confession. 07:04 For we do not have a High Priest 07:06 who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, 07:09 but was all points tempted as we are, 07:14 yet without sin. 07:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace 07:20 that we may obtain mercy 07:23 and find grace to help in time of need." 07:27 Because I'm a Protestant, because I believe the Bible, 07:30 I believe that I don't need to go through a priest. 07:34 The Bible tells me, 07:36 I can come boldly to God through Jesus Christ. 07:39 And the Bible says, not just come, 07:41 the Bible says, I can come. 07:43 What does it say, boldly with confidence. 07:46 I want you to come over the page 07:48 now to Hebrews 6:19 and 20, 07:52 Hebrews 6:19 and 20. 07:54 It says, "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, 07:59 both sure and steadfast, 08:01 and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 08:06 where the forerunner has entered for us, 08:08 even Jesus, having become High Priest forever 08:14 according to the order of Melchizedek." 08:19 Now, when this doctrine got into the hearts of people 08:23 that you don't need an earthly priest, 08:26 and you don't need a pope in Rome, 08:31 it was a tremendous liberating influence. 08:36 I'm a child of God, 08:38 I don't have to confess my sins 08:40 to some other sinful human being. 08:43 The Bible says, 08:44 I can go right in to the very presence of God. 08:49 I was thinking about this the other night 08:51 as I was concentrating on what I was going to say today, 08:56 and I thought of Amazon and the mall. 09:02 Everybody in America used to go to the mall, 09:04 a lot of people still go to the mall, 09:06 but the mall is starting to lose out to Amazon. 09:10 You all know this. 09:12 This is where the shopping is going on. 09:14 You go to the mall to meet 09:16 and to greet but to Amazon to do business, you see? 09:21 You go to the mall 09:23 because you like the glitz and the glamour. 09:28 The miracles, the mystery, and the authority, 09:32 that's why you go to the mall. 09:34 You like the glitz and the glamour, 09:36 but if you want to do a good bargain. 09:41 A lot of people no longer go to the mall, 09:44 they go to Amazon because there is no middleman. 09:49 Now the Protestants and the Martin Luther, 09:52 I'm going back before Martin Luther, 09:54 they discovered that they 09:56 didn't have to go to the mall anymore to be saved. 10:00 They could go 10:01 straight to the Lord Jesus Christ 10:03 and there was no middleman. 10:08 So the mall is a little bit like the Vatican, 10:13 but Amazon is like Protestantism, 10:17 and it is based on the great truth 10:20 and I want you to learn these Latin words. 10:23 One of the great hindrances 10:25 to the advancement of knowledge and progress 10:28 is just old fashioned ignorance. 10:32 And the Protestants, 10:34 they glorified in these Latin words, 10:36 and the first one was Sola Christus. 10:41 Sola Christus, it simply means, 10:44 all I need is the Lord Jesus Christ. 10:49 And if all I need is the Lord Jesus Christ, 10:52 then I am a freeman and I am saved, 10:57 and I'm going home to glory. 11:00 Now just listen to what this 11:02 secular magazine says if you don't mind. 11:04 It says this, "At the heart of this Protestant faith were, 11:07 and are, three beliefs resting on the Latin word for "alone," 11:12 and just try to remember this stuff, folks. 11:15 "Sola fide, that people are saved by faith in Jesus alone, 11:20 not by anything they can do." 11:23 This is secular magazine. 11:26 "Sola gratia, that this faith is given by grace alone, 11:30 and cannot be earned. 11:32 And Sola scriptura, 11:36 that it is based on the authority of the Bible alone, 11:39 and not on the tradition or the church." 11:43 And I don't care what church it is, 11:45 our authority is the Word of God, 11:48 not the church, you see? 11:51 "In a way that complemented 11:53 the broader themes of the Renaissance, 11:55 Luther wanted Christians to go back to the 11:57 'pristine Gospel': The teachings of Jesus 12:00 and the apostles. 12:02 This return offered a new sort of freedom, 12:06 one centered on the individual, 12:08 which helped pave the way for modernity." 12:11 Now, this is quite astounding from a secular magazine. 12:16 "The separation of powers, toleration, 12:20 freedom of conscience, 12:23 these are all Protestant ideas." 12:28 You want to know why America became 12:32 the greatest nation in the world. 12:33 It is because America was founded 12:37 by Protestants who believed in Christ 12:41 and who believed that they could go to Amazon 12:44 and didn't have to go to the mall. 12:46 No, it's true. 12:48 Now who started the Protestant Church? 12:51 I want you think about that. 12:52 Who started this Protestant Church? 12:55 Lot of you folks are gonna say, 12:57 "It was that German theologian, 13:00 that German monk, priest, Martin Luther." 13:04 But I would suggest to you 13:06 that Martin Luther did not start the Protestant Church, 13:09 but the Protestant Church was started 13:11 by the Lord Jesus Christ. 13:14 Now, I'll prove it to you. 13:16 Come over here with me to Matthew 16:12 and onwards. 13:21 Matthew 16 and versus onwards 13:27 in the Bible where it talks about 13:29 the foundation of the church. 13:32 "Then they understood that He did not tell them 13:35 to beware of the leaven of bread, 13:38 but of the doctrine of the Pharisees 13:40 and the Sadducees." 13:42 Jesus said, beware of bad teaching. 13:46 "When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, 13:50 He asked His disciples, saying, 13:52 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' 13:56 So they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, 14:01 and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 14:06 He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' 14:10 Simon Peter answered and said," never forget it, 14:14 "'You are the Christ, 14:19 the Son of the living God.' 14:22 Jesus answered and said to him, 14:24 'Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah," 14:27 Peter, "for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, 14:32 but My Father who is in heaven. 14:35 And I also say to you that you are Peter, 14:41 and on this rock I will build My church, 14:45 and gates of Hell or Hades shall not prevail against it. 14:51 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, 14:55 and whatever you bind now on earth 14:56 will be bound in heaven, 14:58 whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 15:02 It is very plain here that the true church 15:04 is built upon the rock. 15:08 Our beloved Roman Catholic friends say 15:11 that Peter is the rock. 15:15 If this is so, we are all lost. 15:22 We are all lost if the church is built upon 15:25 a sinful human being. 15:28 Peter was a stone. 15:32 At the most he was a little rock. 15:35 Have you heard the expression, "He petered out"? 15:39 Have you heard that expression, he petered out? 15:44 I would not want to build a church upon a man 15:47 who had the reputation for petering out. 15:53 But the Bible teaches very plainly 15:55 that the true church was never built upon Peter 15:59 who is now dead and buried and asleep, 16:04 but the true church was built upon the Rock of Ages 16:08 who is the Lord Jesus Christ and I will prove it to you, 16:12 I will prove it to you. 16:14 We will come to 1 Corinthians 10:4, 16:18 dear hearts and gentle people. 16:21 1 Corinthians 10:4 says, 16:26 "And all drank that same spiritual drink. 16:30 For they drank of that spiritual Rock 16:32 that followed them," what does it say? 16:34 "That..." What does it say? 16:36 "That Rock was Christ." 16:40 How plain can it get? 16:42 The Bible says that rock was Peter, 16:46 no, that Rock was Christ. 16:50 And don't get upset with me 16:52 because I'm reading from the Bible. 16:54 1 Corinthians 3:11 says, 17:00 "For no other foundation can anyone lay 17:03 than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 17:07 The Bible says there is no other foundation 17:10 for the church than the Lord Jesus Christ. 17:14 God has laid the foundation. 17:17 The church was not built upon Peter, 17:19 it was built upon Christ the Rock. 17:22 Now come back with me to the Old Testament 17:24 to the Book of Deuteronomy 32:3 and 4, 17:29 Deuteronomy 32: 17:32 3 and 4. 17:37 Deuteronomy 32:3 and 4, the Bible says, 17:41 "He is the Rock, His work is perfect. 17:46 For all his ways are justice, 17:48 A God of truth and without injustice, 17:51 righteous and upright is He." 17:54 The Bible says that we have our Rock, 17:59 and the Bible says that Rock is a God of truth 18:03 and without injustice. 18:06 And so the Protestant Church or the true Christian Church 18:11 was never built upon a man. 18:13 Man's church was built upon a man, 18:16 but God's church 18:17 was built upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 18:22 And so this is why the Protestant reformers 18:24 preached not only Sola scriptura 18:28 but they preached Sola Christus. 18:32 Christ alone, Christ alone, 18:35 Christ our High Priest and this has 18:38 a tremendous liberating influence upon the soul. 18:43 Now listen, but after the apostles, 18:47 they came a falling away in the Christian church. 18:52 Please turn to 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and 4, 18:56 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and 4, the Bible says, 19:02 "That no one deceive you by any means, 19:04 for that Day will not come 19:05 unless the falling away comes first," 19:08 the falling away the Great Apostasy. 19:10 "And the man of sin is revealed, 19:12 the son of perdition, 19:13 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God 19:18 or that is worshiped, 19:19 so that he sits as God in the temple of God, 19:22 showing himself that he is God." 19:25 The Bible prophet Paul 19:29 said that after his departure, 19:33 and the departure of the Holy Apostles, 19:37 they would come falling away 19:41 from the truth of God. 19:46 And he specifically said that this would give birth 19:51 or give rise to a man of sin who sat in the Church of God. 20:03 Now, let me... 20:06 tell you some history. 20:11 After the apostles, 20:14 the truth was lost and the light went out. 20:20 Not only did the church conquer Rome, 20:25 but Rome conquered the church. 20:30 And pagan Roman teachings invaded the church, 20:36 that is why she is called 20:39 the Roman church, 20:43 because her teachings came from Rome. 20:50 You didn't know that. 20:53 I've written down 25 distinct heresies 20:58 that invaded the church, 21:00 Roman teachings, pagan teachings. 21:04 Number one, purgatory. 21:07 Martin Luther said, 21:09 "It is the doctrine of the devil 21:14 because the saints are unconscious, 21:18 so how can the saints 21:21 be tormented after their death?" 21:26 And you won't read a purgatory in the Bible, it is a heresy. 21:31 Indulgences, whereby a person 21:34 could be relieved of the temporal punishment 21:37 for his sins by an offering to the church. 21:41 Relics, the keeping of the bones of the saints, 21:46 even the bones of the apostles 21:49 and portions of the cross of Christ 21:52 all pious frauds. 21:56 The sprinkling of babies, 21:58 when the Bible speaks about the immersion of adults. 22:04 "Sun"-day keeping the day of the sun 22:08 honored by Rome. 22:12 The doctrine of eternal torment 22:15 that God will burn people for trillions of years 22:18 which made God the terrorist in chief. 22:24 The immortality of the soul 22:26 that Martin Luther rejected 22:29 an earthly priesthood. 22:33 Whereby people were taught to go and confess their sins 22:37 to earthly human beings 22:40 whose lives are often more stained and sinned than this. 22:45 The confessional, celibacy, 22:49 and of course Peter was a married man 22:51 and they tell me, he was the first pope 22:53 which of course is a fraud. 22:56 Papal infallibility that when the Holy Father 23:00 spoke in His official capacity, 23:02 His utterances were as the voice of God, 23:06 still believe today. 23:07 Tradition instead of the word salvation by good works, 23:13 done by the aid of the Holy Spirit. 23:16 The intercession of the dead saints 23:18 that the dead saints can intercede for us. 23:21 The veneration of Mary, the Mother of God. 23:26 The veneration of images, the persecution of heretics, 23:32 tens of millions put to death by the church. 23:36 The church is the interpreter of the Word of God. 23:40 You cannot understand it 23:41 because you're a lay person and you are too dumb. 23:47 The Union of Church and State 23:49 rule the world for a thousand years 23:51 and caused the great Dark Ages. 23:56 The Immaculate Conception, which means that Mary's mother 24:02 was conceived immaculately 24:07 and purged of all original sin. 24:10 Praise for the dead that you can pray for dead people 24:14 to get their souls out of purgatory. 24:17 The mass, we buy the bread and the wine 24:22 became the actual body and the blood of Christ 24:27 and the priest was given the awesome power 24:31 to offer up God upon the altar. 24:35 What a blasphemy? 24:39 Monasteries where every type of sin was committed. 24:45 Blind obedience, and the coming of a new "Pontifex Maximus." 24:51 Now I'm afraid to say 24:54 most people don't even know these things, 24:57 but the official title of the Caesar was Caesar, 25:01 he's divine, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, 25:06 that is the name of the Caesar. 25:09 And then you come to the name 25:10 of the leader of the church Sixtus 25:14 or the present Pope Pontifex Maximus. 25:19 And in all they are in inscriptions 25:21 like Gregory, Pontifex Maximus, 25:25 and so after the apostles had been laid to rest, 25:30 there came a falling away 25:32 and the church went into the blackness of the Dark Ages. 25:37 This spiritual system of deception 25:42 plunged the world into darkness 25:45 that historians call the Dark Ages. 25:49 And that is why the great British scholar Dr. Wiley said, 25:55 "The noonday of the papacy 26:00 was the midnight of the world, 26:04 hence the need for Protestantism." 26:09 More to come in just a moment, stay with us. 26:27 The antichrist is in the temple of God. 26:33 I read you the actual words 26:35 of the great Roman Catholic Church. 26:40 More than a billion people pray to the dead. 26:45 But the Bible talks very plainly about 26:47 good angels and bad angels. 26:53 Why on earth 26:55 were you and I born? 27:01 This DVD series from John Carter will be yours 27:04 with a gift of $50 US or $70 Australian, 27:08 write to us at the address on the screen. 27:10 Shipping is free in the US and Australia. 27:12 This is Cartereport.org, 27:14 your home for 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Revised 2018-03-07