We’ve been looking at the difference between Christianity and other major religions – particularly their teaching about how to get to heaven. Today we will look at Roman Catholicism.
Roman Catholicism shares many similar doctrines with Protestant Christianity. For example the deity of Christ, the virgin birth and Jesus’ resurrection. But sadly there is no agreement on the way of salvation.
Between 1545-1563AD the Roman Catholic Church held the Council of Trent to settle religious differences brought on by the Protestant Reformation. One of the differences they sought to answer was how you are justified before God. Justification is a legal declaration that one is righteous before God and therefore able to go to heaven. The Roman Catholics stated that ‘If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema’ (Sixth Session, Canon IX). So if you claim to be justified by faith alone, the Roman Catholic church says may you be anathema – eternally condemned. This canon from the Council of Trent is still in effect today.
But are they wrong? Aren’t you supposed to be good to get into heaven? The Bible says that the problem with man is that he is never good. He is totally depraved and cannot offer anything to God for his salvation: ‘Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law (Romans 3:20)’. The only way to be justified before God is by faith in Jesus’ death alone: ‘…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law (Rom 3:22-24, 28).
Now I’m not suggesting that you cannot go to a Roman Catholic church and still be a Christian. But if you believe in Jesus alone for your salvation, you have parted from the clear teachings of the institution known as Roman Catholicism – you’re not actually Roman Catholic.
Are you justified before God by faith alone, or do you trust in your faith AND your works to justify you?
Joel Radford
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
This is incredibly insulting. The Catholic Church has been present in the world since Peter and Paul founded it along with the twelve Apostles in the 1st century. We put the Bible together in the 4th century under guidance of the Holy Spirit. Most of your beliefs as a protestant come from our dogma and traditions. If the Holy Spirit has guided the Holy Catholic Church, the only Christian Church for the first thousand years of the faith until the year 1054 when the Constantinople Orthodox Church split from us, when did we stop being Christian? Or was Christianity founded in the 1500s?
ReplyDeleteAgain, I asked you, when did the Holy Catholic Church (the Church founded by the Apostles by order of Jesus Christ Himself) cease to be Christian? When did the Holy Spirit stop guiding us? All the beliefs you think are unchristian that we hold, we had in the forth century when the Holy Spirit guided us as we chose which books would become the Holy Bible. If we are not Christian, why would the Holy Spirit be working through us?
We have an unbroken Apostolic succession from the first twelve disciples all the way to the Bishops of the Church today, unbroken tradition passed down by the laying on of hands going back to the original twelve. We are the original Christian Church founded be Christ, not by a reformer. We devote our lives to Jesus Christ.
We believe that we become a Child of God at our Baptism, and for the rest of our lives we are to strive to constantly live for God. We do not get a free pass to sin when we are saved, as you would believe. Once saved always saved is not what the Bible teaches us. 1 John 5:16-17 talks about a sin that leads to death, and if you die in that state of sin, without true contrition of your heart to God, you will with be cut off from God forever. In Matthew 24:13 Christ says that he who endures to the end shall be saved. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27 that he himself could fall away from grace. In Romans 11:19-23, Paul talks about how one will be cut off if one does not continue in God's kindness.
Philippians 2:12 tells us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. This is the why we say what we do about the doctrine of being saved by faith alone. Yes our salvation comes through faith in Christ, but faith without deeds is dead as James 2:14-26 tells us. We must stand ready for Christ at every moment of our lives. Matthew 25:1-13 tells us of what happens with the foolish ones that do not keep watch and keep themselves free of sin and prepared for the coming of Christ. At every moment of our lives we must make a conscious decision to follow and love God, or otherwise choose sin which leads to everlasting loss of God.
Thus, you have no argument when you accuse the Holy Catholic Church of not being Christian, because we are original Church founded by the Apostles, and we follow ALL of the teachings of God as laid out in the Bible, not just the ones that make us feel most secure as you do. We must continually work out our salvation with the Grace of God, always keeping ourselves free from sin, repenting and committing ourselves to change when we do sin, and doing good works which are the fruit of true faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I pray you listen to these words with an open heart. Jesus warned us of those that would only hear what their itching ears wanted to hear, and that is what you are doing in dismissing the parts of God's word that warns us to keep watch to the end or risk being left out of the Kingdom of Heaven. I write you this not in contempt, but rather in love, as this is the truth of God.
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
ReplyDeleteBut someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." -James 2:14-26
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” -Matthew 25:31-46
Dear piscator,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to read my blog and share your thoughts. You clearly have a solid grasp of Roman Catholic dogma.
I don't have time to deal with all of your questions regarding Roman Catholicism, but I will deal with the most important issue, how we are saved.
I want to ask you to carefully examine two texts:
TEXT ONE
'What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." 4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. (Rom 4:1-5)
Question for your consideration: Was Abraham declared righteous because of his works or was it because of his faith?
TEXT TWO
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:4-10)
Question for your consideration: How are we saved? (Particularly from verse 8)
Other texts that you may wish to read carefully are: Galatians 3:18 (the whole of Galatians is an excellent discussion of whether we are saved by works or grace) and Romans 11:5-6.
As for the James and Matthew passages you quote, I am not ignorant of those. The James passage teaches the importance of works accompanying salvation. But such works never save us. If you look at Ephesians 2 again you will see that verse 10 speaks of good works as the reason we were created in Christ Jesus, but it does not say we are in Christ Jesus BECAUSE of good works. Christians do good works BECAUSE we are saved, not TO BE saved. Thus good works are evidence we are saved - if we don't see good works in the life of someone who professes faith in Christ, we should be seriously worried.
Meanwhile the Matthew passage teaches that the righteous go to heaven. My question is, what makes you righteous according to Romans 4 quoted above?
I am praying for you and if you would like to contact me privately to discuss these important matters further, please do so.