Pope Francis sent a message of fraternal greeting to the Methodist and Waldensian churches on the occasion of their annual synod, August 24-29, Torre Pellice, Italy. The message said the "Holy Father prays that the Lord, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, grant to all Christians progress on the path towards full communion, to witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and to offer the light and strength of His Gospel to the men and women of our time" ("Pope Francis Sends Message," Zenit, Aug. 25, 2014). For the Waldenses to accept such a heretical message from the "holy father," offered through the blasphemous doctrine of the intercession of Mary, is clear evidence of their spiritual downfall. The Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches was formed in 1975 by the merger of the Waldensian Evangelical Church and the Italian Methodist Church. Prior to their modern apostasy, the Waldensian churches stood for the New Testament faith and against Rome and her heresies, suffering great persecution at her hands. For example, the Confession of Faith of the Waldenses (AD 1120 and AD 1150), held that salvation is by the grace of Jesus Christ alone and that the Bible alone is the Word of God and the sole standard for judgment, rejected Rome's Mary, papal primacy, vows of celibacy, purgatory, masses for the dead, and veneration of saints, and held to the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper alone. In those ancient Waldensian confessions, the Roman Catholic Church was called "the whole of Babylon." We have given many quotations from these and other ancient documents as well as recounted many of the Waldensian persecutions in A History of the Churches from a Baptist Perspective, one of the Advanced Bible Studies Series courses, and in Rome and the Bible: Tracing the History of the Roman Catholic and Its Persecutions of the Bible and of Bible Believers. (Friday Church News Notes, September 12, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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