In the past week I’ve been thinking much about the Issue of Roman Catholicism. More specifically why do we need to evangelize Roman Catholics? I believe it is a pivotal question that we must ask especially in this age of the rapid spread of evangelicalism.
Why indeed? What is it in Roman Catholicism that bids us to preach to it’s people that they may be saved? Do they not have the Bible? They do. Do they not have a concept of justification and the work of Christ? They do. Do they have a gospel to preach? They do. Then why is it that we need to evangelize Romanists that they may be saved, full knowing that it is a long standing religion in itself holding doctrines and creeds having withstood the tests of time?
Is it not interesting that most of us don’t know why? Yesterday evening before going to bed I asked my mom the same question: “Why do we need to evangelize Roman Catholics?” I was interested in her position since she was born and raised in a Roman Catholic family prior to meeting my father and being converted to Protestantism. As interested and enthusiastic I was, I was surprised. I was surprised because as I pressed the question to her, as she thought about it she answered, “I don’t know.” She didn’t really know. Then I asked my elder brother the same question earlier today at work. His answers were not surprising to me. All that was presented were cliches about the Roman Catholic faith. He pointed out the absurdity of penances and the dependancy on the saints, but then until I pointed out that the Roman Catholic church believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and the necessity of the Lord Christ Jesus’ work in salvation, realizing that these are critical points that must be considered, he then submitted to say, “Then why?” I told him, “Well, a lot of things why.”
I believe that this picture represents the majority of Christians today who preach the Gospel. We think it’s an unimportant issue to address and just dismiss it with the thought that “we’re all sinners anyway” and go off preaching to people that they need “Jesus as their personal Savior.” Do you wonder why there are Christians in Catholic homes that are being persecuted today? Do we wonder why the Christian son is being held in contempt by his staunch Roman Catholic parents? I would suggest to you that one of the reasons for such againstness is because they themselves have no knowledge of what it is that is wrong with what they have been delivered from. Thus, they then would just say, “O, Ma, you need Jesus!” But then don’t we realize that Rome has Jesus? Imagine all the persecution these people go through in their ignorance that leaves them helpless because they cannot stand up and give a defense for the hope that is within them.
Yes, Gospel proclamation itself is the primary thing that we must do, but is this too not a vital issue? Should we not say with Paul, as with Isaiah: “Come let us reason together”? (Isa 1:18) (Acts 17:17) Should we not give an answer that we may hold those who reject the Gospel of grace without excuse that we may be above reproach and say with the Apostle Paul: “Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26-27)
If indeed there is reason to address this issue, why then should we evangelize Roman Catholics? Apart from the declarative statement of Scripture that says “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), why Roman Catholicism? What is there in it that we must address?
Well, I am convinced that Rome’s gospel, that is the Gospel that is understood and defined by the Historic Roman Catholic church, does not save.
Rome’s gospel which would include the mass, purgatory, priestly confession, baptismal regeneration to become justified, the concept of merit and growth in justification, the confusion of justification and sanctification, all those things that mark and define what the Roman Catholic church has taught and what it is while looking like Christ’s message in such a way that it uses the Bible, it’s words and terminologies lack the truth that gives life and peace.
Does Rome’s gospel not bring peace to the soul as it is declared in Romans 5:1? “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I would suggest to you that it does not.
Rome’s doctrine of baptism where it is called the laver of regeneration. It is the means of regeneration. It is the means by which one is brought into the state of grace and be incorporated into the body of Christ. And as that is done to the infant where then you have the state of grace being justified before God, being something that is accomplished sacramentally rather than the Biblical belief that regeneration is a work of the Spirit of God causing a person to be born again, being brought from spiritual death to spiritual life, to have faith in Jesus Christ, repentance of sin and the whole course of God’s decree in the saving of the soul.
That doctrine of Baptism then leads to the conclusion that obviously a person can be baptized who ends up in hell. Why? Because a person can be baptized and enter the state of justification but it’s very painfully obvious that not every baptized Roman Catholic baby grows up, lives for Christ, growing in holiness, showing all evidences of true salvation and regeneration. Many do not. The idea that must therefore follow is that through baptism you can enter in the state of grace but not remain in the state of grace you can commit a mortal sin that destroys the state of grace and you then become the enemy of God. Hence you have the idea of being in the state of grace, then out of the state of grace, then back into the state of grace in the sacramental process of penance and confession and so on and so forth, back and forth and back and forth becomes a possibility, and if your relationship with Christ is based upon your fulfilling all of those sacramental duties and following the church’s lead on those things that is not a firm basis of relationship with anyone, let alone a relationship with God, that does not bring peace.
Rome’s doctrine of justification, closely related to that. Rome’s doctrine of justification and sanctification are in essence the same thing. You can grow in justification. What does it mean to be just before God? Why does any of us have peace with God today? What is the nature of the righteousness that is ours? Her doctrine of justification, how you enter it through baptism, how you grow in justification, how it is not the imputed righteousness of Christ by which you stand but it is instead Christ’s death that makes it possible for you to have the grace to then merit eternal life by the good works you do in the state of grace. Only those good works that you’ve done in the state of grace are meritorious in God’s sight. And so the whole doctrine of justification provides you with no basis for peace because of the fact that you can commit a mortal sin tomorrow, or tonight, or today and immediately become the enemy of God. You are then under the wrath of God. That is not a position of peace.
And many Roman Catholics today have their minds and consciences bound to this theology and thinking. Most of them, the majority of them rather living in misery with the stinging thought that if they fail to accomplish the sacraments, the penances, if they fail to do what is bound to them by Rome then they will be left to be an enemy of God. This is why we need to evangelize Roman Catholics. Because clearly, as it was established, Rome’s gospel, not only is it far removed from the Biblical proclamation of the work of Christ but it is as a majority drawn from tradition, and that does not save.
In conclusion as I have stated in a previous article “I am convinced that the gospel according to Rome would fall under the condemnation of the anathemas of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:6-9. If the book of Galatians is inspired scripture, and if the addition of one thing to faith in Christ puts you under the anathema of God and makes that gospel a false gospel it cannot save, then I submit to you that the addition of a never ending mass cannot perfect anyone, sacramental forgiveness, the concept of purgatory, the concept of indulgences goes so far beyond that to say that Paul was right to anathematize the Judiazers, and that same addition we have done in masses of Christian evangelical denominations giving requirement for salvation through a prayer or a decision made clearly making God debtor to our actions thus adding to what the Lord Christ Jesus has already accomplished and yet we should hold hands with that “gospel” and say it’s Christian or simply brush it off as a non-issue is to speak an unthinkable contradiction.”
Yes, we need to evangelize Roman Catholics. I believe that in proclaiming the gospel we have dealt a great amount of disrespect to our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in our neglect and indifference of what they are being held into. What is the message that we are putting through in such actions? Rather in such inaction? If we truly love those who are trapped in Rome should we not address and give ourselves to issues such as these? If we truly want to give ourselves in service to our Roman Catholic brethren should we not strive to understand the trappings of their Religion that we, in the privilege given to us, may truly show them the Gospel of peace that they may be saved?123
One Responseto Why Do We Need to Evangelize Roman Catholics?
math1as
Great article good points. The big problem with room is that they use biblical terms to promote unbiblical teaching. f.e. every roman catholic believer will tell you that Jesus is God but he is not an all suffiecient savior works and the other stuff you mentioned are added to make our redemption complete. And on this basis you can never have assurance of salvation actually this idea of assurance is even condemned by Rome.
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