Even famous folks sometimes get it wrong

Even famous folks sometimes get it wrong when it comes to understanding the plain words of Scripture. I encountered an interesting example yesterday.

Walid and Theodore Shoebat wrote an article titled “ISIS declares they will invade Jerusalem, the Vatican, and Spain, and destroy the Cross.”

Walid Shoebat is a former Muslim who has converted to Christianity. Mr. Shoebat has made a careful and thorough study of the Bible and Bible prophecy. I believe he is correct, to a degree, in his understanding that the Antichrist arises not from Europe or Rome, but from the Middle East. Mr. Shoebat, as I understand him, believes that the Antichrist will be a Muslim. I cannot confirm that, but I can affirm that the Bible gives, as one of the names of Antichrist, “the Assyrian” (Micah 5:5).

Some things in the co-authored article are suspect, I believe. Consider how they handle Romans 1:7,

To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)

When reading these words, we must keep in mind that St. Paul is writing to the Church of Rome, that is, the Roman Catholic Church. For those who affirm that I am wrong, I ask you kindly, if Romans is not being written to the Roman Catholic Church, then which church is it being written to? And where today can I find this church?

You cannot find it, and you never will, no matter how hard you try. But if you would like to take up the challenge, then I would gladly see your findings. In antiquity, the primacy of the Roman Church was established as the head of the churches. This was not an invention of Constantine. Tertullian, one of the oldest and most ancient authorities of Christianity, declared the primacy of the Roman Church. I will let his words speak for themselves:

Notice the first sentence I quoted above: “When reading these words, we must keep in mind that St. Paul is writing to the Church of Rome, that is, the Roman Catholic Church.”

Mr. Shoebat has committed a common error. He (or they) equate the “church at Rome” with the Roman Catholic Church. This is surely a mistaken connection. The Roman Catholic Church had no existence until almost 600 years after Paul wrote the Book of Romans. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church and its apologists delight in propagating this error, but that does not verify the claim.

Mr. Shoebat then asks the pointed question, “For those who affirm that I am wrong, I ask you kindly, if Romans is not being written to the Roman Catholic Church, then which church is it being written to?”

May I kindly answer that Romans was written to a group of Gentile believers and Jews who had become Christians who lived at Rome. The germ or start of that congregation (or more likely congregations–the Jewish converts had problems associating with the Gentile converts, as reflected in what Paul writes in Romans 14:1-5) was a group of converts who believed the Gospel and became Christians as a result of Peter’s first sermon on the Day of Pentecost (read carefully Acts 2:10).

The original church at Rome that Paul wrote to was a missionary outpost of the original Jerusalem church, and historically held that status for several centuries. During that time the church at Rome could hardly be called the “Roman Catholic Church” in the modern sense of that contradictory term. Contradictory, because as soon as you prefix to “Catholic” the term “Roman,” it is no longer Catholic, or universal! Historically, the Greek Catholic Church is older than the “Roman Catholic Church” by many centuries.

So yes, I affirm that in this matter Mr. Shoebat is most definitely wrong, dreadfully so.

Mr. Shoebat continues,

And where today can I find this church?

You cannot find it, and you never will, no matter how hard you try. But if you would like to take up the challenge, then I would gladly see your findings. In antiquity, the primacy of the Roman Church was established as the head of the churches. This was not an invention of Constantine. Tertullian, one of the oldest and most ancient authorities of Christianity, declared the primacy of the Roman Church. I will let his words speak for themselves:

Mr. Shoebat asks a good question: If Paul was not writing to the Roman Catholic Church, what church was he writing to, and where today can that church be found?

The Bible, as always, gives the pertinent clue:

Romans 1:6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

Romans 1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice that Paul was not writing to the Pope at Rome, for there was no Pope at Rome then. Notice Paul was not writing to Peter as the head of the Church at Rome, for Peter was not then at Rome. Notice further that the church at Rome was not founded by Peter or any of the other apostles. The church at Rome was made up of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, those Paul addresses by the expression “called to be saints.” Paul here uses the term “saints” in its New Testament Biblical meaning, ordinary Christian believers. All believers are “saints,” or more literally from the Greek, “holy ones.” Bible saints have nothing to do with so-called “saints” canonized by the Roman Catholic Church without Biblical authority.

Therefore, Paul was not addressing his letter to a church of the sort represented today by the name “the Roman Catholic Church,” but to a group of believers that met in “house churches” on the first day of every week for fellowship and instruction in their new-found faith.

Where can you find such a church today? Not in the Roman Catholic Church you may be sure! You can find it wherever Bible-believing, Bible-practicing Christian believers meet for fellowship around God’s Word in the Bible, and who work both individually and together to reach others with the true message of the Gospel found exclusively in the Bible.

Read your Bible with your eyes wide open! If your church by its practices and by its teachings teaches things you don’t clearly find in the New Testament, you most likely are in the wrong church!

That should sufficiently answer Mr. Shoebat’s challenge, “You cannot find it, and you never will, no matter how hard you try. But if you would like to take up the challenge, then I would gladly see your findings.”

If Mr. Walid Shoebat truly believes in our Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, and is truly saved by faith in what God has done through Christ for us rather than depending upon what we may do for God, and if Mr. Walid Shoebat truly believes the Bible, then the simple answer I have just shared will be sufficient to answer his question, an answer I furnished directly from the Bible itself.

The next claim made by the article by Mr. Walid Shoebat and his son is as follows:

Also, one cannot ignore the fact that no where in the epistles of St. Paul do we find the faith of a particular church praised as being “spoken of throughout the whole world”. It is only to the Roman Church that St. Paul gives this very significant description.

I do not wish to be rude, but to this claim I would answer, Nonsense!

I have already dispensed with the claim that the church of or at Rome addressed by Paul is the Roman Catholic Church. This is an error that involves reading later history, 600 years later at that, into New Testament history. That is a fatal error in logic. Maybe the word for that is anachronism. It occurs in literature when an author in our time writes an historical novel that mistakenly has the characters doing or knowing something that was not yet in existence at the chronological time frame of the story’s setting.

Mr. Walid Shoebat would do well, as would everyone, to carefully study a Bible text, such as Romans 1:8, by first consulting the cross references available in The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, or The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, or Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible for this passage before making the claim that only the church of or at Rome’s faith is praised as being “spoken of throughout the whole world.” Mr. Shoebat says “It is only to the Roman Church that St. Paul gives this very significant description.”

Let us test this claim as to its truth by consulting the cross references given at Romans 1:8,

Romans 1:8. I thank. See on Ro 6:17. Ac 27:35. 1 Cor 1:4. 14:18. 15:57. Ep 1:15, 16. *Ep 5:20. Phil 1:3-5. *Phil 4:6. Col 1:3, 4. +*Col 3:17. 1 Th 1:2, 3. **1 Th 2:13. 3:9. 2 Th 1:3. *2 Th 2:13. 1 Tim 2:1. 2 Tim 1:3-5. Phm 1:4, 5. *He 13:15. 2 J 1:4. 3 J 1:3, 4. my God. Ac 7:32. +Phil 1:3. 4:19. through. Ro 2:16. 5:1. **Jn 14:6. 2 Cor 1:5. Ep 3:21. *Ep 5:20. *Phil 1:11. *He 13:15. 1 P 2:5. 4:11. that your faith. Ro 16:19. +Mt 24:14. *2 Cor 2:14. **Col 1:6, 23. **1 Th 1:8-10. is spoken of. 2 Cor 3:2. Col 1:9. 3 J 1:3. the whole. *Mt 24:14. Mk 13:10. *Lk 2:1. *Ac 11:28. Re 3:10. 16:14. world. Gr. kosmos, +Mt 4:8. Ro 10:18.

Notice the key words that your faith. Notice I have provided emphasis marks throughout the references given in my book, The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. The double asterisk, or in the printed edition, the check mark, means a very important, critical reference that should not be overlooked. I have assigned this level of emphasis to Colossians 1:6, 23 and 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10.

Col 1:5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
Col 1:6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

Col 1:23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Consider also 2 Corinthians 3:2,

2Co 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

The clearest parallel is 1 Thessalonians 1:8,

1Th 1:8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.
1Th 1:9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
1Th 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

The church at Rome, therefore, is not the only church Paul commended for having a faith and practice that was known “in every place.” The argument Mr. Shoebat has built upon his misconception falls flat and is invalid for the purpose he uses it.

I had suspected from another video presentation I watched that Mr. Walid Shoebat is Roman Catholic. This article by himself and his son surely confirms my initial impression. Now this does not invalidate all he says about the Bible and the Middle East and Bible prophecy, but it should alert all of us of our need to carefully confirm from the Bible itself the validity of any claims others build upon their interpretation of it.

One of the best methods for guarding against falsehood and mistaken doctrine is to do Real Bible Study by means of studying all the cross references you can get your hands on. The most complete cross references available are given right here at www.realbiblestudy.com for any verse I have discussed. The next most complete source will be found in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge which unfortunately and unwisely is out of print but still available in software format. The currently in-print resource, Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible, is the remaining best source of complete cross references for Bible study.