“ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN OR A ROMAN CATHOLIC?”
A STATEMENT OF FAITH - IS THIS YOU?
Do you believe the following:
* I go to church.
* I believe in God and pray to
Him.
* I believe in Jesus.
* I believe in the Holy Spirit.
* I know that God’s grace saved
me by having faith in Jesus Christ.
* I believe Jesus died on the
cross for my sins, was buried and rose again the third day.
* To the best of my ability I
try to keep the Ten Commandments.
* I came from a Christian family
and went to church every Sunday and Sunday School.
* I currently go to church was
confirmed into the church through confirmation classes.
* I’ve asked Jesus to forgive my
sins and come into my heart and be Lord of my life.
* I take Holy Communion.
* I love God.
* I love other people and help
not just Christians but non-Christians as well.
* I support overseas
missionaries.
* I believe the Apostles creed
and I can recite it.
* I ask God to help me every day
by His Holy Spirit.
* I ask Jesus to help me every
day.
* I sometimes fast but not as
often as I should.
* I’ve been to a Billy Graham
crusade and went out the front and asked Jesus to come into my heart.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’RE PROBABLY
A ROMAN CATHOLIC!
This probably shocks you and but
then again it might not.
Can you tell the difference
between Christianity and Roman Catholicism?
Can you give the reasons why
Rome has killed, conservatively estimated, over 70 million people who opposed
her since 1200AD?
The above STATEMENT of FAITH is
being echoed by countless “christian” millions as we are living at a time when
the difference between Christianity and Roman Catholicism seems negligible in
the minds of most. The argument seems to be that we should build on the common
basis between the two religions - even putting the bulldozer through any
differences that would seek to separate.
Is the Christian relationship to
God the same as a Roman Catholic relationship to God? Are there any
differences? Are those differences worth fighting for today?
Why must we have one or the
other? Can’t we have both? Can’t we compromise and negotiate to a reasonable
and sensible outcome between the two faiths?
Did the countless Christian
martyrs who died cruel and horrible deaths get it all wrong?
“WHAT? Really? No! I’m a
Christian! I’ve always thought of myself as a Christian! You mean they believe
what I believe? I hadn’t realised that. Wow! You mean to tell me that if I
believe the above and I call myself a Christian and the Roman Catholics believe
the above as well, then really ... we’re all the same and there is no
difference.”
“Well! Well! Well! This unity
thing between religions is really working. I thought there were differences,
but apparently not. After all I guess we all believe in the same God, Jesus and
Holy Spirit. Isn’t that right? Maybe there were differences in the past, but
they don’t seem worth worrying about, do they?”
These are sentiments being
echoed by countless Protestant millions as we are living at a time when the
difference between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism seems negligible in the
minds of most. The argument seems to be that we should build on the commonality
between the two religions and ignore or even put the bulldozer through any
little differences that would seek to separate. Why must we have one or the
other? Can’t we have both? Can’t we compromise and negotiate to a reasonable
and sensible outcome between the two faiths?
Is
a Protestant relation to God the same as a Roman Catholic relation to God? Are
there any differences? Are those differences worth fighting for today? Did the
countless Protestant martyrs who died cruel and horrible deaths get it all
wrong?
Indeed the Catholic church is
all for resolution, and in fact seem to puzzled that there has never been any
differences, stating that past disturbances have been nothing but misunderstanding
and ignorance.
The following interview with
Stephan Keenan, a Roman Catholic scholar, in his Doctrinal Catechism regarding
justification by faith, bears out this point:
Q: What is justification?
A: It is a grace which makes us
friends with God
Q: Can a sinner merit this
justifying grace?
A: No, he cannot; because all
the good works which a sinner performs whilst he is in a state of mortal sin,
are dead works which have no merit sufficient to justify.
Q: Is it an article of the
Catholic faith, that the sinner in mortal sin, cannot merit the grace of
justification?
A: Yes; it is decreed in the
seventh chapter of the sixth session of the Council of Trent, that neither
faith, nor good works, preceding justification, can merit the grace of
justification.
Q: How then is the sinner
justified?
A: He is justified gratuitously
by the pure mercy of God, not on account of his own or any human merit, but
purely through the merits of Jesus Christ; for Jesus Christ is our only
mediator of redemption, who alone, by his passion and death, has reconciled us
to his Father.
Q: Why then do Protestants
charge with believing, that the sinner can merit the remission of his sins?
A: Their ignorance of the
Catholic doctrine is the cause of this, as well as many other false charges.
Those who imagine that Catholic
theologians teach a bald righteousness by man’s own works, are not prepared to
meet or recognize the doctrine of the mystery of iniquity.
In fact, the octopus of the
mystery of iniquity has at its heart, a view of Justification by Faith, from
which the tentacles of devotion to Mary, infant baptism, penance, saint
veneration (worshipping), confessions to priests, the mass and extreme unction
(the last rites), all come from.
The issue central to the
Reformation of the sixteenth century was that of Justification by faith.
“Should the doctrine of justification be lost, then all is lost.”
(Martin
Luther)
“WHO WAS
AUGUSTINE?”
A FEW SHOCKING
TRUTHS INTO THE FOUNDER OF
‘THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE’
aka
CALVINISM aka ROMAN CATHOLICISM
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
