This question came from a church
member who asked about the relationship between a Roman Catholic and
an Evangelical, specifically because they have family and
friends who are Roman Catholic. So the question specifically
wanted to focus on how are our faiths together, and if they're
not, how are they not together, and what should we do in the
context of our relationship with them. This question does not
get into the details of the Roman Catholic doctrine and practices. We provide those answers in a
future question and answer. How are we to understand the
faith of professing Roman Catholics? Are we together? Okay, let me
answer this in a nutshell instead of sitting here and trying to
regurgitate years of forgotten things. Roman Catholicism holds as its authority the vicar,
the papacy, the office of the replacement of Christ, the Pope.
So Roman Catholicism does not hold to Sola Scriptura. Of course,
it came out of that during the Reformation. So the authority
of the precepts and the doctrines of Romanism is that their authority
are their writings, are their traditions, are their inferences and interpretations
of Scripture based on what the Vatican decides. We have a little
bit of a schism in our present day. We've got a retired pope
and a standing pope. It's just there's only one other
time we've seen something like that. We had three people make
claims to Rome and France, and they called it a schism. It was
bad. And now this standing pope is actually stating divine authority
when he sits on St. Peter's throne that is contradicting
the divine authority of the retired pope who should have died in
office because their authority is what they say. Their authority
is that which God gives them divinely and that they decree.
So salvation and justification is not found in Romanism by faith
alone. Though they say it is faith alone,
they say it is faith alone, but then those who are not in the
church through these means, or part of the church through these
means, and confirmed in the church through these means, aren't sufficiently
sacramented. They don't have the grace. So
in that way, What we do is we go to the scripture when we say,
okay, whether it be Romanism or Orthodox Church or the cults,
Mormonism or things like that, or just like Islam. I mean, Muslims
hold to the Torah, the Psalms of David, and the gospel narratives
of the New Testament as sacred, but not divine and not authoritative. The Quran is the authoritative
text of Islam. and it supersedes all these things.
In the same manner, the traditions and the writings of the Catholic
Church supersede the authority of Scripture. So they have an
autonomous thinking. And because they have an autonomous
thinking, they have what I believe, according to Galatians chapter
one, if we couple Galatians one and, well, we take Galatians
one and we say that this is faith alone plus, then what we've done
is we have another gospel and that that is no gospel. So that
by the very definition of the precepts of Romanism, we are
not together with them in any way, though we have similarities,
though we walk in some, historical starting points, though we use
some of the same text because the Scripture has been added
to, and the authority of that edition, and the authority of
that tradition, and the authority of that history actually supersedes
now the Scripture. According to Paul in Galatians
chapter 1, they are anathemas. Now that's difficult. because,
I mean, how do we respond to stuff like that? I've got Catholic
friends here in this city who are far more better Christians
than most church members I know. Not Grace Truth, but you know
what I'm saying. But most community people who are just good Christian
folks, but there's some Catholics here. One that I talk to just
about every other week for several hours, and we share the word
together. So my thoughts are, what do I do? Instead of charging
this man's error, and that being the context of our conversation,
I obey the Scripture and I make a disciple of this man. And so
I teach in the Word of God. In doing this, and in this relationship
with this man, I have just been steadfast here. And when the
Romanism comes up, I don't want to participate in that, because
I don't see it in Scripture. I've met many Catholics who hold
to a reformed position on justification and don't know any better, because
they've never read anything but their Bible. They do their Mass,
and it sounds like an evangelical sermon. And then they light candles
and bow and stand up and down 40,000 times and get knee problems.
And I'm not making a joke out of that, but it's just... So
there's sometimes people who are connected to Romanism when
it's not really necessarily what they believe in. But Roman Catholicism
by itself cannot go together with Christianity, biblical Christianity,
because it contradicts what the Scriptures teach. And we could
go through a lot of that in detail as far as specifics or explicit
things that are contradictory. But one of them is the divine
conception of Mary. They believe that Mary was given
the nature of Adam when she was conceived, that she was conceived
without original sin. They believe that there is supplication
for the dead. They believe there is atonement
after purgatory, and all sorts of things. They still, to this
day, whether they will admit it or not, believe in indulgences. They may not be purchased, but
by golly, those people who give a lot of money to the Catholic
Church are surely told by their priest that they are going to
heaven. So it may not be an actual sheet of paper, but they, I mean,
and I know this to be true. I've heard some Catholic, I've
been actually listening to Catholic radio every now and then on XM
when I drive because I'm just intrigued. I think, Jesse, it
was about three weeks ago I was talking to you about this, and
they, I mean, you hear these guys, these apologists, and they've
got PhDs, in Christology and things like that, and I'm like,
wow, they really know the Scripture. But then they turn right around
and negate that and warn people when they call into these shows
and say, hey, but be careful now because, you know, don't
get too heady in this, and if you think you understand what
the Scripture means, check yourself by going to the writings of the
church to make sure you're correct. Because the writings of the church
have the authority over the interpretation of Scripture. So that in itself
nullifies Romanism as a walking together. Ecumenism is not biblical. That's where we just all say
we're all of faiths and we're just coming together as peoples
of faith in unity. Well, unity, like I said Sunday,
requires intimacy. Intimacy requires a foundation
which is not shifted. It requires a one of the whole. So I can't be divided over here
and be intimate over here with the same thing. And so when it
comes to what do we do, well, that's why people getting so
much trouble in evangelical circles when they have these big conferences
and they invite Catholic clerics and bishops and all these people,
or that you got evangelical leaders sitting down with Pope Francis.
And then they're saying, oh, he blessed my soul. How did he
bless your soul? Pope Francis says that, you know, God loves
gay people and they're all going to heaven. I'm like, okay. And I will submit to you that
according to what the writing of Paul says, is that anyone who
engages in the practice of homosexuality is an adult or is a robber. I'm sorry to say a burglar, but
I guess that would be good too. A thief. A burglar. That's a funny word. A liar. A coveter. Has no inheritance
in the kingdom of light. So how do we, as murderers and
coveters and idolaters and adulterers and thieves, how do we have inheritance
in the kingdom of light? Through Christ. He propitiated
for us, and He justifies us, and that is to be received by
faith, and faith alone. No work is the gift of God completely. Salvation is all of grace. And
that's the thing that Romanism and semi-Pelagianism, which we
call Evangelicalism today, just does not - I'm sorry, that was
rude - just does not - it's not cohesive. It's not cohesive at
all. I mean, is there any other point
to that? Anything you want to continue on? That's sufficient?
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