Caritas Newsletter
October 22, 1992
by Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher, OFM Cap.
on Redemption and Salvation
Dear Seeker of the Truth,
My first premise is a premise of logic, something that all normal men have. Truth is one. Untruth is multiple, without end. If a teacher gives a problem for which a truth is required: say, problem in mathematics, and every student has a different answer, he must have one of two conclusions. Either all of the students have a mistake, or one has the truth, and then all the others are wrong.Only One Way to Heaven
The matter of religion is a matter of truth. Christ said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." With this we drop all religions that do not recognize Our Lord, Jesus Christ.When I was a missionary on Okinawa a young man came to me to study the Catholic religion. He had studied many religions, and he resolved to study all the religions he could find, and after that he would choose for himself the best religion. After I explained the Catholic religion (back in 1956 - prior to fake Council Vatican II), he told me his story. Now that I know that the Catholic Church is not just the best religion in the word but the only true religion in the world, I need not seek more religions. I must embrace the Catholic Church because it teaches infallibly with the help of God the one and only way to heaven.
If in the above school situation, the teacher finds that one student came up with two time two is four, and all the others were different he proclaims that all the other solutions are dead wrong.
The Orders of Authority – Church & State
If I prove to you that the Catholic religion, as it was before fake Council Vatican II, is God’s one and only Church, then you have no option but to embrace that religion, live in it, and die in it in order to attain heaven. Let me add this – when we do what is necessary for heaven we also do what is necessary for a just and charitable civil and social order. Anything that is good in the civil order is good on the way to heaven, and anything that is bad in the civil order is bad, leading to hell. Each and every abortion is evil in the civil order and in the religious order. There is not such a thing as separation of Church and State. We learn from the Church the relation of the two orders of authority, the Church and the State. The Church of God has authority over the State, and that is by instruction and finally veto power.Obedience to God’s Laws
God, our creator and judge, made all things for His glory. Rational creatures (angels and men) must give obedient service to His laws in order to please God and get to heaven. Lucifer, the most beautiful of all the angels, refused obedience to God, and he landed in hell where he and his minions will remain forever. The same will be true of each and every human being who deliberately refuses to learn and obey the ordinances of God.What is God’s Church?
Just what is the Church of God, and where can it be found? We must show you God’s Church before this very time in history. Very many people seriously believe that they are members of God’s true Church when they in fact are mistaken. We shall make a run down of facts.The Start of Religion
When God created (made out of nothing) this world with the first man and woman, He started His religion. Adam and Ever were told what they could do and could not do in the garden of paradise. Well, they disobeyed, and that was the first sin. Right away God promised to send a Redeemer to save Adam and Eve from hell, provided they accepted and obeyed Him. The Old Testament looked to the coming of the Redeemer. Since His coming, we look back to His coming. This is the New Testament.Redemption vs. Salvation
Very simply, by the shedding of His Blood on the cross, Christ redeemed all men. We must explain two very important concepts. There is a great difference between redemption and salvation. Redemption means the paying of the price. Let us take a simple example. If ten men are in jail because they could not pay a hundred dollars fine, they remain there to the end of the sentence or have someone pay the fine. Let us say a redeemer gives the court a thousand dollars for the ten men. All have been redeemed. However, just two leave the jail, and other eight continue their jail sentence. What do we have? We have ten men redeemed (the price for them was paid). However, only two were saved. They had the gumption to get up and leave the jail when the cage was opened.Once again, all men have been redeemed by Christ, and yet most men refuse to make use of Christ’s redeeming death. They are lost in hell where the punishment never ends.
The Succession of Popes
In order to make use of our redemption by Christ, we must obey Him. When He left this earth for heaven, He left His Church in the hands of His Apostles, and Peter was the head of that body. When Peter died (crucified up-side down) the pastors of Rome (where Peter died) elected his successor, a cleric by the name, Linus, and we call him the Pope. After Linus, successors were elected down through the centuries. Indeed, that is a very interesting study. Peter and his successors are Christ’s vicars on earth. Christ in heaven always remains the head of His Church (call it by any name). The popes from the moment they accepted the election by the pastors of Rome immediately became the one visible head (Vicar of Christ) on earth. Hence, the Pope has the primacy of jurisdiction, and all power in the Church is from him and subject to him.Papal Infallibility
Besides having the primacy of jurisdiction, the Pope also has from God such assistance that he is infallible when teaching in matters of faith and morals for the whole Church. He is free to exercise that infallibility alone or together with the Bishops of the Church. All the Bishops of the Church, no matter how they assemble, are devoid of infallibility without union with the Pope. Hence, when you find the Pope you have found God’s true Church. Nowhere else will anyone find God’s Church, outside of which not one single person will ever enter heaven; believe that and observe what follows or be damned forever in the fires of hell.The Protestant Doctrine on "Faith Alone"
The followers of apostate Martin Luther (a fallen away priest) have a very strange doctrine which anesthetizes them in believing that they are safe for heaven when they are not so at all. Heretic Luther added a word to the Bible which falsified the Bible for himself and his duped followers. He said that by faith alone we are saved. That alone is not in God’s Word. Christ enumerated many kinds of sinners who will not go into heaven; murderers (how about abortionists - getting to heaven)? Their faith (alone) in Christ will do those rats not one bit of good. It will not save them from hell. All of them are redeemed, but they are not saved. Of course, until their death, God holds out forgiveness to those who truly repent – according to the rules taught infallibly in His Church.The Magisterium
We call the teaching power in the Church the Magisterium of the Church. When I die and my stone is marked, I want the word Magisterium on it. I believe it, and with every power in my, I give my obedience of faith.Today – Where Do We Find the Church?
Although Christ is true God and true man, He permitted men to kill him, and He turned that ugly act into the act of our redemption, as we wrote above. Now His Church is going through the same phenomenon. Let me explain.Throughout history, there were times when there was confusion as to who was the true Pope. However, in our times we have a unique situation. When Pope Pius XII died (October 9, 1958) he was followed by John XXIII. The problem was, and very few knew it, John XXIII had joined the Rosecrucian Masons previous to his "election." In doing that he gave up his faith and lost membership in the Church. A non-member of the Church cannot become its head. Hence, the election failed to give us a Pope. Likewise, after his death, his successor, Paul VI was also a heretic, so he did not become Pope either. Then John Paul I became "pope", and he was a heretic also, so he failed to become the Pope. John Paul II, who is heading the "church" now is also a first-class heretic, so his is not the Pope. Well, where is the Pope so that we may obey him?
The Continuing Reign of Pope Pius XII
The rule of a Pope continues after his death until a true Pope is elected. Hence, Pius XII, in his reign after death still continues. Hence, we live in beliefs and the sacramental life just as it was when he died on the ninth of October, 1958.The Deception Continues
Today the great deception for one and all is this. The false Popes sit on the chair of power. John Paul II, so it appears, is the head of the true Catholic Church. However, it is easy to prove that what he teaches differs from what all the Popes before him taught.Can a Pope Contradict His Predecessors?
Our logic must help us again. If the Popes before John Paul II taught infallibly, as we say they did, then John Paul II who teaches just the opposite cannot be the Pope, for God would never let it happen that His true Vicar could ever contradict what He demands of us in order to get to heaven. Hell never ends, and God can never be the cause why souls would ever go there. He teaches us infallibly how to get to heaven, and He never stops doing so. Hence, all the books with an imprimatur that pre-dates the death of Pope Pius XII show that these Popes taught one and the same thing, because God guided them to do so.A True Pope Preserves Scripture and Tradition
You may have a problem with infallibility of the Pope. Here again we call on simple logic. The factory that makes ice cream must have a refrigerator. Once the ice cream is made the refrigerator must continue to work well, or the ice cream will spoil. The very same thing is true of teachings. You admit that the Bible is the word of God. Very well, but the Bibles are not all the same. Which one is the true one? At the Council of Trent, the Pope taught that the Latin Vulgate Bible is authentic. That is the only Bible in the world that is correct from end to end, and it is the norm for all translations to the end of time.Once again, one who admits that the Bible is from God, and the He inspired men to write it without a mistake, you must admit that He can preserve the Bible from extinction and error by putting the Pope in charge of that preservation. Without the Pope to preserve Scripture and tradition, we have no assurance what is true and what is false.
God’s Law Before the State’s Law
Let us say an honest man becomes president of the USA. He must learn from the Church of God how to rule the country in such a way that there is true justice, law and order. The voice of the people is the voice of God is the bunk. If the people ask for abortion and euthanasia, it does not become true, for God says, "Thou shalt not kill" (innocent lives). That was true, and it can never change. The same is true of all just laws.God Teaches Us Through His Church
As God demands we must work to make Christ our King. Nobody can make Christ Our King unless he learns from Him through His Church how to do it.Anyone who wants to correct the evils of our society independent of the Divine light and assistance is a fool. God’s light and assistance comes to us, one and all, when we in humility seek it from Him in sincere study and prayer. Make no mistake about it, God set up His method of teaching us, and that is through the Church He founded, namely, the Church directed by the true Popes down through the centuries.
