Do Catholics preach another
gospel?
(Dialogue with a former Catholic,
particularly on the Catholic understanding of salvation)
Someone once challenged me by
claiming that Catholics preach a different gospel from what ¡®Christians¡¯
teach. The following paragraphs
are directly from the opening pages of the Catechism, and so you can be the
judge of that claim:
1 God,
infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely
created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at
every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek
him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all
men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To
accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as
Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in
the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.
2 So
that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the
apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
Strengthened by this mission, the apostles "went forth and preached
everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the
signs that attended it."
3 Those
who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are
urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This
treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their
successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation
to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing,
and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.
This almost sounds like a
statement of faith on some missions website. ;)
Anyway, here¡¯s an actual dialog
between me and a former Catholic. In
it, I explained what Catholics believe and why they believe such things. In response to that third paragraph
listed above, here¡¯s what was said: (My words in blue,
his in red)
... and I have NEVER in my life seen one catholic
doing so. Have you? I have never met one catholic out on the streets, preaching
the Gospel, handing out tracts, proclaiming the name of Jesus - not even one.
I'm sure there's got to be at least one, but I've never met one.
I met one in Boston,
and another as I was leaving a local Catholic Center. He was about to preach the gospel to me until I told him I
was a Christian. And Francis Sheed
was a well-known street preacher/author among Catholics.
For
such a large scale church with such devotion to proclaiming the good news -
shouldn't I run into a catholic proclaiming the good news everywhere I go?
With so many
protestants around me, why is it that I don't run into protestants proclaiming
the good news everywhere I go? (i.e. note the word 'everywhere'). I
don't deny the fact that there are more evangelistic protestants than
Catholics, but not every protestant preaches the gospel. Some don't even care
for the gospel, and the same can be said of Catholics. I don't deny the fact
that there are a lot of Catholic 'duds' out there. I'm not one of them. Jesus is too important for me to simply
ignore, but I¡¯m not into street preaching.
Secondly - what does
Catholicism proclaim as the "good news"?
Again...from the
Catechism:
1 God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of
sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed
life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws
close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his
strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the
unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time
had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through
him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and
thus heirs of his blessed life.
So the good news is
that Jesus¡¯s death enables mankind to enter into the new covenant life as
children of God. That¡¯s good news.
The
"good news" proclaimed by Catholicism sounds a little bleak to me at
best! Go to confession on a regular basis, say enough rosaries and
Hail Mary's, partake of the eucharist, get baptized, do as
many good works as you can, an IF you're lucky, you'll be out of purgatory
in no time.
[note – the boldface is my emphasis]
Clearly, you didn¡¯t read what I just posted. Go back and read the 3 paragraphs from the
Catechism. It¡¯s also clear to me
that your understanding of Catholicism isn¡¯t the same as mine. I¡¯ll address each point:
Go
to confession on a regular basis
Jesus gave the apostle the authority to forgive sins (John
20:22-23). Confessing to a priest is about sanctification. 1 John 1:9 tells us
to confess our sins to one another so that we¡¯ll be purified. And of course John¡¯s letter is to a
Christian audience. If we are
¡®once saved always saved¡¯, why should we confess our sins after we¡¯ve already
¡®been saved¡¯?? If we say we¡¯re
without sin, we¡¯re lying (1 John 1:8)
In addition, James 5:14-15 refers to the sacraments of anointing of
the sick and confession. The Greek
word for 'elder' is 'Presbuteros' (Strong's #4245), which in Latin is
'presbyter'. And the English equivalent of 'presbyter' is priest. You can look
it up in www.dictionary.com
say
enough rosaries and Hail Mary's
Catholics aren¡¯t required to pray them, and this isn¡¯t about
legalism, but rather for one's own edification/sanctification. While I don't think you agree with the
idea of invoking the saints for intercession, I see no difference if the priest
tells the believer to continually pray the lord's prayer. Again, it's not about
legalism.
partake
of the eucharist
Partaking in the Eucharist is also a command from Jesus (Luke
22:15, 1 Cor 11:26). We also know that the early Christians did it on the first
day of the week (Acts 20:7), we also know that the early Christians devoted
themselves to the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42). Additionally, Christ is
forever the high priest in the order of Melchizedek (Heb 7:17), and since
Melchizedek's ministry involved bread and wine (Gen 14:18) we can conclude that
Jesus offers bread and wine forever, not grapejuice or soda. This is why various Christian traditions partake in the Eucharist regularly.
Yet protestants tend do it only on occasion, like 4 times a year,
sometimes 6 or 12. This doesn't sound like devotion to the 'breaking of bread' (Acts 2:42) Rather
depressing in my view.
get
baptized
Baptism is clearly linked with identifying ourselves in Christ (Rom
6:3-4). Entrance of the kingdom requires being born of ¡®water and spirit¡¯ (John
3:5). Jesus also commanded baptism
in the great commission (Matt 28:18-19). Clearly this isn't something to be
taken too lightly. Does this mean
a person seeking baptism who dies before baptism goes to hell? No, rather it¡¯s the refusal to accept
baptism which is the important matter because to refuse baptism is to refuse identifying our lives in Christ (Rom 6:3-4, Gal 3:27, Col 2:12).
God honors the heart. This
is what Catholics call ¡°Baptism of Desire¡±
an
IF you're lucky, you'll be out of purgatory in no time
Purgatory is not some sort of limbo between heaven and hell. Nor is it a ¡®second chance¡¯ to
heaven. Purgatory is about
completing sanctification prior to entering heaven. Catholics teach that nothing impure can enter heaven (Rev
21:27), thus one must be fully cleansed of the effects of sin prior to
entering. You might say that Jesus's death on the cross dealt with our sin;
indeed it did but 1 John 1:8 says that if we claim to be without sin, we're
liars, which means we have still sin in our lives! This is why we are to confess our sins so that we will be
purified (1 John 1:9). Again, this
is to a Christian audience, not to a non-Christian audience. So in a sense, we¡¯re in a state of purgation
even as we speak: God is
continually conforming us to the mind of Christ, he is purging/purifying us of
our sins (i.e. sanctification).
Every time we sin, we¡¯re causing a rift between us and God. When we repent, we are returning back
to God. If we refuse to be fully
sanctified in Christ, we are completely walking away from God. And that¡¯s exactly what John 15:1-7 is
about: Remaining in Christ or
rejecting Christ. So how does
purgatory fit in? If a believer
dies before he¡¯s fully sanctified, the believer will enter a
state of purgation prior to entering heaven, since nothing impure can enter
such a place (Rev 21:27). In my
opinion, it¡¯s a non-essential issue.
That is not good
news. Good news is:
Eph 2:8,9 For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
I think you forgot
the next verse:
Eph 2:10 - For we
are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do
Eph 2:8-9 is a
reference to the works of the law.
Compare this¡¦.
For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph 2:8-9)
With this¡¦.
For
we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. (Rom 3:28, NASB)
So they¡¯re parallel
passages. However, Eph 2:10 is a
reference to the works which is the result of the Holy Spirit¡¯s ministry (2 Cor
3:8-9). Salvation, according to
Jesus, is dependent on whether we bear fruit or not, or else we¡¯ll be cut off
from Christ (John 15:1-7). So
¡®faith without works is dead¡¯ (James 2:20,26). In other words,
¡°You see that his faith and his actions were
working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did¡±
(James 2:22)
So
do mere works save a believer? No,
yet genuine faith accompanies works.
What counts is ¡®faith expressing itself through love¡¯ (Gal 5:6), which I
believe is through ¡®actions and in truth¡¯ (1 John 3:18). So I believe that justification is ¡®not
by faith alone¡¯ (James 2:24), which is one of the major pillars of the
protestant reformation. In other
words, I don¡¯t believe justification is by faith alone as Luther proclaimed.
Additionally, salvation is presented throughout the NT in
3 ways:
A past event (Eph 2:8,
Rom 10:10, 2 Tim 1:9, Titus 3:5, Heb 10:39)
An on going process (1
Cor 1:18, 2 Cor 2:15)
A future hope (Rom
8:23-25, Gal 6:8, Titus 1:2, Titus 3:7, Hebrews 9:28, 1 Pet 1:5, Jude 1:21)
Protestants seem to focus
almost exclusively on the past event, and ignore the other passages. Whereas, Catholics understand salvation
is a lifelong process of sanctification, where believers are ¡®saved¡¯ (Eph 2:8),
¡®being saved¡¯ (1 Cor 1:18), and ¡®will be saved¡¯ (Mark 13:13). Catholics do not believe in ¡®once
saved, always saved¡¯ as Baptists teach.
Rather, salvation can actually be lost or maintained. This would explain passages like
Philippians 2:12, and the 'salvation as a future hope' passages listed above. The good news is that
Christ¡¯s death allows mankind to enter the new covenant. But it¡¯s up to the believer to stay a
believer or not.