According to My Catholic Faith, pages 212-213, we read:

“In the Old Law, the celebration of a definite day, the sabbath, had been ordered only specially for the Jews, just as circumcision and bloody sacrifices had been. The Old Law was abrogated upon institutions of the New (Acts 10:15; Col.2:16; Gal.4:10-11)...In the New Law, Catholics keep holy the first day of the week, Sunday….the Church commands us to keep Sunday as the Lord’s day...The church commands us to worship God on Sunday by assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the mass. The obligation of Mass is binding on all persons who have attained the use of reason. Not to hear Sunday Mass, or to miss a notable part of Sunday Mass, is a MORTAL SIN.”

According to Rome, one MUST keep the “New Law” or suffer the pains of “mortal sin”. What is “mortal sin”? My Catholic Faith describes it as such:

“Mortal sin is a grievous offense against the law of God. Any willful thought, desire, word action or omission, in serious violation of God’s law...Why is this sin called mortal? This sin is called mortal, or deadly, because it deprives the sinner of sanctifying grace, the supernatural life of the soul. Without sanctifying grace, the soul is displeasing to God, unclean, and can never behold Him or be with Him in heaven.”

So, if a Catholic deliberately misses Mass on a Sunday, he/she has committed a “mortal sin” and can never be with God in heaven. Therefore, every Catholic is bound by the “new law” to keep it or be deprived of all “sanctifying grace” and go to hell. Thus Rome has put every person, whom the Lord has set free, to go back under the bondage of the law, a law that no man can fulfill except he be a member of the Roman Catholic Church. How convenient for them! This audacity will not go unpunished, for the Lord has proclaimed a liberty to Rome that she will soon discover. But before we expound on that judgment, let’s look at what the scriptures have to say about those who desire to be under the law. Paul asks a very important question in Gal.4:21, “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” I’m sure if Paul was instructing us to keep some “new law”, this would have been the perfect opportunity. Yet the words that follow teach us a much different message than Rome’s message. Let’s take a close look:

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” (Galatians 4:21-31)

This illustration gives us a clear picture of the two covenants. And notice that those born under the law cannot and will not be heirs with the one born by promise. Thus the reason why a man MUST be born again!

In Galatians 2:4, Paul talks about the “false brethren”:

“And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.”

These false brethren wanted to bring us “into bondage” of the law, but Paul was firm:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1)

Paul knew that grievous wolves would come in and try and put men back under the covenant of the law and move men away from the covenant of grace. In Romans 4:14, Paul again warns:

“For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.”

Paul separates the two covenants very clearly in Romans 11:6:

“And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

So clear are the scriptures concerning the two covenants that John gets even more descriptive of those who went back into the law as the “antichrist”.

“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1 John 2:18-19)

Notice the description, “they went out from us”. This is very important in describing antichrist, because this term “went out from us” was only used in one other place, Acts 15:24:

“Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment.”

Those that “went out from us” were those who were trying to bring everyone back under subjection to the law. But notice, the apostles said, “we gave no such commandment” and remember, Paul called them “false brethren”. So why then does Roman Catholicism try to put men back under a “new law” seeing a man is not justified by works of the law? Because they have the spirit of antichrist! In trying to put men back under the old covenant, they not only mock the new covenant, but they condemn all men who join them.

“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:27-28)

My friend, in John 8:36, Jesus said, “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”. He came to “proclaim liberty”.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Roman Catholicism would like you to believe that Jesus came to put you under a new law that simply changed a day from the seventh day to the first day. How is this “liberty”? The Old Testament even speaks of the liberty that was coming!

“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” (Leviticus 25:10)

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Isaiah 61:1)

The Lord knew that men would turn against His covenant of grace wherein He set men free by His precious blood and return men to bondage. He prophesied about it in Jeremiah 34:8-17:

“This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother. Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying, At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.”

There is no new thing under the sun. As it was then, so it is now.

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Roman Catholicism has turned and polluted the covenant of grace by trying to combine two covenants into one covenant. But remember, the scriptures are clear, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son; the son of the bondwoman shall NOT BE HEIR with the son of the freewoman.” It is impossible to mix grace with works as Romans 11:6 taught us. Therefore, we must continue in the law of liberty! James, the brother of Jesus, reiterates this message of liberty.

“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” (James 1:25)

“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” (James 2:12)

Paul tells us, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:18-24)

These are two covenants. One is Mt. Sinai, and the other is Mt. Zion. One is bondage, and the other is freedom. One kills, one makes alive. Which covenant will you stand in on that last day?

By Rebecca A. Sexton