It is written:
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33)
Gary Henson was raised in a Roman Catholic home. When he was a teenager, he began studying the Bible with a member of the church of Christ. During his investigations, he was continually disturbed by what he discovered. This was especially true when he learned about the Inquisition (a branch of the Roman Catholic Church ordained to seek out false teachers, and also a period of time known as the Dark Ages).
He writes:
“The fact stands. History speaks. Truth emerges. The popes instigated, enforced, and led the Church into the barbaric Inquisition. And today’s whitewashing can’t do a thing to change it….The rack was a triangular frame, on which the prisoner was stretched and bound, so that he could not move. Cords were attached to his arms and legs, and then connected with a windlass, which when turned dislocated the joints of the wrists and ankles. 25 The strappado or vertical rack was no less painful. The prisoner with his hands tied behind his back was raised by a rope attached to a pulley and windlass to the top of a gallows, or to the ceiling of the torture chamber; he was then let fall with a jerk to within a few inches of the ground. This was repeated several times. The cruel torturers sometimes tied weights to the victim’s feet to increase the shock of the fall. 26 The punishment of burning…. First a good fire was started; then the victim was stretched out on the ground, his feet manacled, and turned toward the flame. Grease, fat, or some other combustible substance was rubbed upon them, so that they were horribly burned. From time to time a screen was placed between the victim’s feet and the brazier, that the Inquisitor might have an opportunity to resume his interrogatory. 27 In these wretched prisons the diet was most meager… bread and water. 28 In the water-cure, the victim, tightly bound, was stretched upon a rack or bed, and with the body in an inclined position, the head downward. The jaws were distended, a linen cloth was thrust down the victim’s throat and water from a quart jar allowed to trickle through it into his inward parts. On occasion, seven or eight such jars were slowly emptied. 29. The thumbscrew, an oft used means of torture, 30 consisted of a vice into which the merciless Inquisitors forced the thumbs of the “guilty-until-proven-innocent” victim. The excruciating pain tormented the sensitive hand throughout extended lengths of time as the pope’s men slowly turned the vice, crushing the thumbs and inflicting permanent damage. In some instances, sharp metal points lined the crushing bars so as to puncture the thumbs in order to create intense pain in the thumb-nail beds. Barbaric; ungodly; repulsive; heathenish! Such words repeatedly pounded my mind while I read those atrocities. Even my three sources—two of them Catholic, and the third endorsed by our encyclopedia—expressed similar feelings. 31” (Gary Henson, The Ivory Domino, 2701-2726 (Kindle Edition); Charleston, AR; Cobb Publishing)
Gary learned through intensive study that the Roman Catholic Church is not the church built by Jesus. The horrible Inquisition is only one evidence which demonstrates this truth. Indeed, this brother continues to be an Evangelist in the church of Christ, courageously calling out especially to his Catholic family and friends to obey the Gospel and be added by God to His church (Acts 2:37-47).
Why not submit to the Lord today and be saved?
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