| Today,
Thursday, July 31, members of Pilgrims Covenant Church will station
themselves at the entrance to the "Shrine of Our Lady of
Guadalupe" near La Crosse, Wisconsin. This week is that shrine's
"Dedication Week" with today being the most significant day.
Today's events will include the "Dedication Mass" in the Shrine
Church, following hours of "confessions" from thousands of
"pilgrims." On hand today will be several hundred Roman Catholic
clergy of all rank, including cardinals; Roman Catholic celebrities; and a
phalanx of Roman Catholic and secular press. The dedication mass itself
will be telecast live on Eternal Word Television Network and broadcast
live on Relevant Radio, both Roman Catholic media. Later, Relevant Radio
will also broadcast a two-hour program live from the shrine.
Estimates are that pilgrims
to the Guadalupe shrine will yearly pump six to ten million dollars
into the La Crosse (population 51,000) economy. Not surprisingly, the
secular press, especially locally, has given the shrine very favorable
coverage.
Statement by Pastor
Ralph Ovadal, Pilgrims Covenant Church
"We are putting out this press release for just one reason.
We want it known that there is a Christian voice of protest--a true
Protestant, evangelical voice--raised against the Shrine of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, a multi-million dollar pagan temple, and 103-acre temple grounds
featuring all manner of gross idolatry and rank blasphemy.
"Today we witness
against the goddess worship which is taking place at the Shrine of Our
Lady of Guadalupe. We stand against the Roman Catholic dogma which assigns
to the 'Virgin Mary' attributes, authority, power, and worship which
belong exclusively to God. And we warn that the apparitions of 'Our Lady'
under various names all around the world, along with the so-called
miracles connected to them, are nothing less than the sort of 'signs and
lying wonders' warned of in the Scriptures (II Thessalonians 2:9). We
witness against the blasphemy of the mass, in which the Roman Catholic
priest claims to turn a wafer into the literal body, blood, soul, and
divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. We bring a biblical witness, including
with our tracts, against all the many false Roman Catholic teachings,
especially those which deny the supremacy of the Word of God, the
sufficiency and exclusivity of the redemptive work of Christ and turn the
grace of our God into a lie. We stand on the Word of God and declare that
the Roman Catholic Church is not the true church of Jesus Christ but is an
antichrist church and a fraud which preaches a false Christ and
a man-made, works-based gospel (II Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6-9).
"Today we will
be handing out our tract An
Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics. We
will also be holding Scripture signs as well as a sign reading 'Our Lady
of Guadalupe is a pagan goddess.' Further, we will share the true,
and only, way of salvation, which is by grace alone, through faith alone,
in Christ Jesus alone. Our desire is to contend for the faith once
delivered unto the saints (Jude 3); to show Christian charity to
those enslaved by the dark superstition of Romanism; and to be a
biblical, evangelical witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, the 'one mediator
between God and men' (I Timothy 2:5)." |
