FollowWe will explore the details of the irreconcilable differences later, but honest Catholics and honest Protestants won’t disagree that the differences are mutually exclusive.
As I grew in my faith, I began to understand that many—very many—of my fellow Protestants did not understand the differences. But what really shocked me was to find that seminary professors, pastors, elders and deacons didn’t understand the differences, either. I am a Presbyterian (PCA) and the presbyterians believe that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, and that the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCoF) is a sound, systematic summary of the contents of the Bible. The WCoF, chapter 24.3 makes it very clear that Roman Catholics are not to be considered fellow Christians with us:
Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord. And therefore such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, papists [Roman Catholics], or other idolaters.
That’s a hard truth, but it is a truth nonetheless, and it was such an important truth that the men who wrote the WCoF did not want future generations to forget it. The formal position of Presbyterians is that Roman Catholicism is not a Christian denomination.
And that brings me to this blog. I have attended many Protestant churches since coming to faith 24 years ago and I have found that otherwise godly men have forsaken their heritage. Pastors allow their daughters to date Roman Catholic men. Elders allow their sons to marry Roman Catholic women. Elders send their children to Roman Catholic schools. Guest preachers—seminary presidents, no less!—quote Roman Catholic counter-reformation mystics from the pulpit, and Sunday school teachers quote Roman Catholic mystics when they teach. Either these shepherds do not know the difference between the truth and falsehood, or worse, they don’t care.
Frequently, it is the sheep in the pews who know more about the differences than the men behind the pulpit. What happens, then, when one of the sheep approaches the elder, pastor, deacon or Sunday school teacher to ask for help evangelizing a Roman Catholic friend, neighbor or loved one? What confusion results, and what an uncertain trumpet the church sounds today!
If you have found yourself equally frustrated by the errors of a lukewarm church, confused by seminary-trained pastors who simply will not correct the errors of Rome, scandalized by popular Protestant writers who actually embrace the errors, or disheartened by Christian leaders who affirm distinctive Protestant doctrines in private but waffle over them in public, then I hope this blog will be of some comfort to you.
I love Jesus, and love the Church He purchased by His precious blood. I also love my Roman Catholic friends, neighbors and relatives—I love them enough to tell them the truth about their religion and its errors. And I love the sheep who stand firmly in the gap, even while the shepherds are asleep at their posts.
Join this blog as we wrestle “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12) and “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
You know I have always appreciated the value of what you share from your heart and how much your book, Quite Contrary, changed my life immediately. I applaud your efforts to reach out to those who may not understand the major differences between Catholicism and true Christianity. It is utterly important to know these things and it is something that only an ex- Catholic can properly address. We have seen both sides and I know that when I share things about my former faith, many are shocked. and never had a clue. This is a great forum with which to educate people. I pray it blesses many!
Thanks, Patti! I appreciate you dropping by for a comment. I hope to bless many, as well.
Good remarks, very true. I was brought up a catholic as well. My parents got out of the religion first, thank God. Then their 6 children followed, thank God. I can’t believe they are so blind to the truth. They actually have & pray to other idols i.e. Mary & saints. That’s so weird & unscriptural. Also confessing sins to a priest. Many examples of unscriptural rituals in their beliefs.
Thank you, Caren. I am very grateful to hear that your parents were saved out of Roman Catholicism, and for their six children who followed! We will address a great many topics here, and Mariolatry, veneration of images, and confession are among them. Stay tuned, and keep the faith.
Why do you folks love Jesus? How do you know He is God or even claimed to be God? Are you sure he even existed or made the claims attributed to him? Maybe he just evolved from a simple carpenter into the deity he is today just a Mary went from being a simple peasant to Queen of heaven. You know, like the simple people started mixing paganism with the Jesus story shortly after Constantine’s time.
Where did you get your Bible? Wasn’t it exclusively in the hands of monks for centuries, before the printing press was invented? Who told you the Bible is inspired?
You folks love the Head ( or think you do ) but want no part of His Body.
Great comment on your very first blog post:
“If you have found yourself equally frustrated by the errors of a lukewarm church, confused by seminary-trained pastors who simply will not correct the errors of Rome, scandalized by popular Protestant writers who actually embrace the errors, or disheartened by Christian leaders who affirm distinctive Protestant doctrines in private but waffle over them in public, then I hope this blog will be of some comfort to you.”
Dabney says it best in principle:
“That a denomination, professing like ours to be anti-prelatic and anti-ritualistic, should throw down the bulwarks of their argument against these errors by this recent innovation appears little short of lunacy. Prelatists undertake every step of the argument which these Presbyterians use for their organ, and advance them in a parallel manner to defend the re-introduction of the Passover or Easter, of Whitsuntide, of human priests and priestly vestments, and of chrism, into the gospel church. “God’s appointment of them in the Old Dispensation proves them to be innocent. Christians have a right to add to the cultus ordained for the New Testament whatever they think appropriate, provided it is innocent; and especially are such additions lawful if borrowed from the Old Dispensation.” I should like to see the Presbyterian who has refuted Dr. Girardeau in argument meet a prelatist, who justifies these other additions by that Presbyterian’s own logic. Would not his consistency be something like that pictured by the old proverb of “Satan reproving sin”? Again, if the New Testament church has priests, these priests must have sacrifice. Thus, consistency will finally lead that Presbyterian to the real corporeal presence and the mass.”