Nowhere is our world more ignorant today than when it comes to the subject of religion, as two major news stories have recently proved. First, there is the president's ongoing feud with the pope. Although recognized in our world as the leader of all Christendom, the pope is actually a false Christ who claims to be Christ's infallible representative upon the earth today. Far from being the leader of Christ's true church, the pope is the head of an apostate church, which preaches a false gospel. According to Roman Catholicism, all non-Catholics are anathematized (damned) and the only way to Heaven is through the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, which alone are the vehicles of grace or the stairway to Heaven. Furthermore, even Catholics themselves, if not faithful observers of their church's sacraments, don't go straight to Heaven when they die, but to Purgatory, a sort of halfway house between Heaven and Hell, where they must suffer awhile before finally gaining admittance into Heaven. Of course, if you suspect a dead loved one is in Purgatory, you can attempt to spring them from that punitive place by either burning candles, praying Rosaries, giving alms, or even praying to one of Catholicism's saints, whose surplus browny points with God may be passed on to your loved one so that he or she can be paroled from Purgatory and permitted to enter the pearly gates.

The other recent news story that revealed our world's ignorance of religion is the hullabaloo our media made over Pete Hegseth's Good Friday service for Protestants at the Pentagon. According to our religiously ignorant mainstream media, Hegseth was guilty of intolerance toward Catholics by excluding them from the service. However, Hegseth did not exclude Catholics, but merely informed them that the service would not be a Catholic Mass, which all Catholics are encouraged to attend on Good Friday. 

Unlike in Protestant churches, which observe the Lord's Supper as a church ordinance, a public profession of one's faith in the crucified Christ, the Catholic Church observes the Mass, which is a sacrament, not an ordinance, and the means of possessing salvation, not just publicly professing it. In other words, Protestants observe a church ordinance, because they are saved, but Catholics observe a church sacrament, in order to be saved. Furthermore, Protestants believe that Christ was crucified once and for all, as well as for all the sins of all sinners in all of time, but Catholics believe that Christ is crucified over and over again each time the Mass is held and the priest speaks the magic words, "Hoc est corpus," which magically turn the wine into the literal blood of Christ and the bread into the literal body of Christ. Obviously, Protestants and Catholics cannot sit at the Lord's table together, since Catholics believe Protestants are Hell-bound and Protestants believe Catholics are heretics.

Now, to prevent any ignorant replies to this Time Capsule, permit me to point out that it is based on both the cardinal doctrines of the historic and orthodox Christian Faith, which are held by all true Protestants, and the Roman Catholic Catechism, which is the Church of Rome's official statement of beliefs, which should be held by all true Catholics. I'm well aware of the fact that we have multitudes of people in our world today who profess to be Christian, but have no idea what Christianity teaches, who profess to be Protestant, but have no idea what their Protestant church teaches, and who profess to be Catholic, but have no idea what Catholicism teaches. So don't attempt to dispute this Time Capsule on the bases of your or someone else's personal confession and convictions. In other words, don't tell me you're a Catholic, but don't believe what the Catholic Church teaches, or that you know a Protestant, who believes in ecumenism between Protestants and Catholics.