Guilty Pleasures

'Guilty Pleasures,' at least when it diverges from the murder mystery parts of the book, focuses mostly on the 1 billion people in the Roman Catholic Church, and on whether Rome has fallen away from the True Faith, on whether Rome leads people to perdition - or whether Rome has not fallen away from the True Faith, and therefore Rome leads people to heaven.

2 Thess 2 deals with the man of sin / son of perdition - presumably the Antichrist - and it mentions a falling away - presumably a falling away from the True Faith - and it also mentions that the damned suffer a strong delusion. If Rome leads people to heaven, then one is deluded if one insists Rome leads people to perdition. If Rome leads people to perdition, one is deluded if one insists Rome leads people to heaven.

I get into a little exposition about Protestantism toward the end of the book, but for the most the book holds to the two main themes, these concern two mysteries, namely: who murdered Jake? and, is the Roman Catholic Church God's True Church? What does the evidence say? Has Rome fallen away from the True Faith?

The Roman Catholic Church is either the Church which Christ founded on a rock or else it isn't. Rome is either God's True Church or else Rome is not God's True Church. Rome has either fallen away from the True Faith or else Rome has not fallen away from the True Faith. If Rome has not fallen away from the True Faith, if Rome leads people to heaven, if Rome is God's True Church, then everyone should obey Rome, you know - the Chinese leaders, the Chinese masses, the Russian masses, the Indonesian masses, the Canadians, the Brazilians etc., you know, everyone, should obey Rome. But then, on the other hand, if Rome leads people to perdition, if Rome has fallen away from the True Faith, if the Church of Rome is simply not God's True Church, then no one should be a Roman Catholic. You can theorize about exceptions to the general rule of damnation for those trapped in false churches, for instance, if a little kid dies young before having a chance to make some sound religious decisions, one can theorize that God will have mercy on that little kid, but, for the most part I want to keep everything simple and focused on the two options for the Roman Catholic Church: Rome has either fallen away from the True Faith, or else Rome has not fallen away from the True Faith; Rome either leads people to perdition, or else Rome leads people to heaven. The Roman Catholic Church is either the Church which Christ founded on a rock, or else it isn't.