Occasionally, some well-meaning Christian thinks he knows a “saved Roman Catholic.” We invite such a person to introduce us to his friend so that we may, in his presence, ask the Roman Catholic the following questions. His answers will easily determine that he is not saved in the true, Biblical sense.

 

The new “accommodation” approach of the Roman Church in these ecumenical days of apostasy is to use the same expressions as Fundamental Christians. But Christian love is not shown by permitting these people to believe they are saved when they are not. Christian love is shown by making the true Gospel [Copyright ©️ 1881, by B.B. Warfield and Charles Hodge] plain and clear so that the “religious but lost” person will recognize his unsaved condition and his need of a Saviour, the true Christ of the Bible, not a counterfeit, as in the Roman, Greek and many other churches.

 

The Apostle Paul said that he was free from the blood of all men. May the same be true of every genuine witness for Jesus Christ! Here are the questions:

 

1. When were you converted?

 

I was converted to Jesus Christ in the Spring of 1986, at Gateway Baptist Church, Blacksburg, Virginia. In 1997-1998 I determined that the Catholic Church was the Church Christ founded, and which he commanded His followers to obey (Matt. 18:17, Heb. 13:17, etc.).

 

2. How were you converted?

 

I became convinced that I was a sinner in need of a savior, and that Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins.

 

3. To what, or to whom, were you converted?

 

I was converted to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

4. What do you believe now that you did not believe before your conversion?

 

That God exists. That he is the God of the Bible. That Jesus is his only-begotten Son. That I am a sinner. That I am powerless to save myself, and I need a savior. That Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins. That he rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. That I am saved by grace alone, through faith. That no one comes to the Father, but through Jesus.

 

5. What does it mean to be saved?

 

While I’m here on earth, it means to be regenerated and made spiritually alive; to have my sins forgiven and to be a new creation in Christ. Ultimately, it means to be admitted to heaven at the last judgment, and to be spared from being “cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15).

 

6. On what Scriptural promises do you base your salvation?

 

• For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

 

• Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

 

• He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned (Mark 16:16).

 

• And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16).

 

• But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Matthew 18:17).

 

• Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (Galatians 6:7-8).

 

• Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).
  
  
• And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved (Matthew 10:22).

 

7. What does it mean to be born again?

 

It means to be spiritually regenerated, to cross over from spiritual death to spiritual life; to be forgiven and cleansed of sin.

 

8. Are you sure today that if you die tomorrow, or at any time in the future, you will be in heaven immediately after death?

 

If you mean morally certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, then yes, I’m sure. If you mean infallibly certain, to a degree that does not allow for self deception, and cannot be wrong, then no. Neither are you, whether you think you are or not. Don’t forget that there are some who think they are saved (maybe they’re even “sure”), but who will be in for an unpleasant surprise on judgment day (Matthew 7:22-23). A man is not saved just because he thinks he is. Also, whether my entry into heaven will happen “immediately” will depend upon the extent to which I need to be cleansed of residual sin. Which leads us to …

 

9. What do you believe about Purgatory?

 

I believe that I am a sinner, and that therefore, I am at least somewhat impure. I also believe that “nothing impure will ever enter” heaven (see Revelation 21:27). Therefore, I believe that in all likelihood, God will need to complete my sanctification before I can enter heaven. This requirement is all the more urgent for Protestants who believe that they are “credited” with Christ’s righteousness, while remaining inwardly sinful. 

 

Most Protestants do not believe that they are sinless, or that they will ever achieve a state of moral perfection this side of the grave. They’re right about that. Same for us Catholics. Yet the Bible is clear that their moral impurity must be removed before they can enter heaven. The Catholic Church calls this cleansing “Purgatory.” It may be instantaneous, at least from the perspective of the one being cleansed, or it may not be. It may occur in some separate “place” in the afterlife, or it may not. On these questions, the Church does not teach one way or the other, nor does the Bible, so I do not know. But I do know that there are some who “shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15).

 

10. What do you believe about the Mass?

 

I believe that the Mass is not a re-sacrificing of Christ. Jesus is not crucified again, he does not die again, he does not suffer again in the Mass. Rather, the Mass makes present to us the sacrifice that Christ made once-for-all on the cross. This is difficult to understand, but we must remember that our perspective is not the same as God’s. From our perspective, the crucifixion occurred at a point in the distant past, like the assassination of Lincoln, or the sinking of the Titanic. But Christ is eternal; thus he lives in the past, and the present, and the future at the same time. In a sense, the crucifixion is a part of His present experience, and always has been, and always will be. That is why the Bible describes him as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).

 

We were not present at the crucifixion, but he makes it present to us through the Eucharist, and thus perpetuates His one sacrifice throughout the ages. In that glorious sacrament, time meets eternity, and God touches us. His one sacrifice is made present to us as often as we partake of it. That’s why the Bible says, “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). No matter how many times the Eucharist has been offered throughout history, there is still only one bread. Put another way, we drink continuously from the well he dug once for all.

 

I believe that the Eucharist, the focal-point of the Mass, is truly the body and blood of the Lord. This has been the teaching of the Christian Church from the very beginning. As Justin Martyr, a Christian who lived within memory of the apostles wrote,

 

We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration and is thereby living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and blood of that Incarnated Jesus. (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 66, A.D. 151).

 

11. Do you still participate in the Mass?

 

Yes, as often as I can.

 

12. Do you believe that to miss Mass voluntarily on Sunday would be a mortal sin, so that if you did not confess it before you died, you would not go to heaven?

 

I believe it is a serious offense against God to refuse to worship him. We are creatures, and so our highest duty is to worship our creator. Therefore, it is a serious matter to fail in that duty without a good reason. It is the very purpose for which we were created! In our sin-distorted thinking, we may not think it’s any big deal to blow-off church on Sunday, but that just shows that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8). We need to find out what God thinks is important, not what we think is important. Now, it should go without saying that if there’s a good reason not to be at church (i.e., you’re sick, snow-bound, car won’t start, etc.), then you are not required to be there.

 

13. Do you believe that any sinner can be saved who dies without trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation of his soul and forgiveness of his sins?

 

I believe that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. I do not know how conscious one has to be of Christ’s saving action in order for him to be able to perform it. 

 

Is it necessary to consciously place your faith in Christ? Normally, yes. But what about the person who has never heard of Christ? I believe that God, in his mercy, can apply the merits of Christ to those who, through no fault of their own, have never heard of Christ, if that person, enabled and assisted by God’s grace, turns toward God and attempts to follow him.

 

God said that he wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4, 2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, I do not think he would have designed a plan of salvation that was guaranteed to thwart his own will by denying countless millions even the chance to be saved. On the contrary, I believe, as the Bible says, “that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” (Acts 10:35). In the end, there may be many who are not saved, but God is a just judge, and I don’t think that anyone will be able to say that he never even had a chance.

 

14. Do you believe that Mary and Roman Catholic saints can help you get to heaven?

 

Sure. They can help me the same way you can help me: by their prayers on my behalf. Now, if you ask me how their prayers help, I can only say that I don't know. I don't know how your prayers help me, either, but I know from Scripture that somehow they do. And Scripture says that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). Therefore, I do believe that the saints in heaven, and the saints on earth (both Catholic and non-Catholic), can, in the mysterious providence of God, help me by their prayers. Will you pray for me? “As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23).

 

15. How do you believe that the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ is applied to your soul?

 

I believe that Christ’s righteousness is infused into my soul, cleansing me of my sin, and not merely covering it up. I do not believe that justified Christians are, as Martin Luther is alleged to have said, “dunghills covered with snow.” Isn’t that just what Jesus criticized the Pharisees for being when he called them “whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27)?

 

The Bible says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). According to the Bible, then, I was “made” a sinner. Does that mean I am really, objectively a sinner, or am I merely “considered to be” a sinner for Adam’s sake? I believe that I am really, objectively a sinner. Therefore, according to the Bible, I believe that I have been “made righteous” – really, objectively righteous – and not just “considered to be” righteous for Christ’s sake.

 

I believe that this infusion of Christ’s righteousness is usually (but not always) given through the outward sign of baptism. The Bible says that God “saved us by the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5). It also says, “Be baptized and wash away thy sins” (Acts 22:16); and it says that Christ cleanses his Church “with the washing of water” (Ephesians 5:26). The Bible further says that “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13) and that “as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). 

 

Compare that with the Bible’s statement that “if any man be in Christ [having been baptized into Christ], he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17), and the link between baptism and regeneration becomes clear. Jesus himself says that “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5), and that “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). Again, the Bible says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38); and it even says that “baptism doth also now save us” (1 Peter 3:21).

 

16. Have you told your priest you have been saved (converted)?

 

Sure. Every time he holds up the Eucharist and says, “The Body of Christ,” I say, “Amen.” By saying that, I not only confess my faith that the risen Lord is present right before my eyes, but I also confess that I believe and personally embrace everything the Church teaches about him.

 

17. Do you believe you will still go to heaven if you leave the Roman Catholic Church, receive believer’s baptism and join a fundamentalist Bible believing, non-Catholic church?

 

Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to abandon a biblically sound theology that has been taught for two thousand years, and embrace an unbiblical, man-made theology that was invented less than two hundred years ago? By the way, I have already received “believer’s baptism.” I used to be a Protestant and I was “re-baptized” in the South Fork of the Shenandoah River by a Methodist minister in about 1990.

 

Obviously I have no intention of leaving the Catholic Church to join a fundamental Protestant church, but if I did, the effect on my salvation would depend upon my personal culpability. If I still knew that the Catholic Church was the physical manifestation of the Body of Christ on earth, then to repudiate it would be to repudiate Christ (“He that heareth you heareth me,” etc.). However, if I truly thought I was following the truth, then I believe I could still be saved.

 

18. When and where do you plan to do this?

 

I don’t plan to do this. No offense, but I would much rather be a member of the “church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20), than a member of a man-made sect that cannot trace either its organization or its theology back even as far as the Founding Fathers, much less the Apostles.

 

As these questions, and others you can think of, are discussed in detail, you will quickly see that the person is trusting in his work, merits, baptism, confirmation, sacraments, or something besides — or plus — Jesus Christ and not in Christ and Christ alone. He can then be shown the difference between his unbiblical form of salvation and the saving faith of the Bible.

 

This is the false dichotomy that lies at the heart of Fundamentalism’s quasi-Gnostic, quasi-dualistic theology. A Fundamentalist has the idea that anything “physical” is somehow beneath God, and that God must deal with man only intangibly. Thus, God is effectively denied the use of his own creation. Any sacrament, or any kind of physical “thing” must be an empty symbol, it cannot be a channel for God’s grace. Thus, to trust such an empty symbol is to trust something “besides” or “in addition to” Christ. But the truth is, man is a spiritual hybrid – composed of both spirit and body – and God deals with us accordingly. Christ himself instituted the sacraments. It is he who works in them and through them to minister His grace to us. They are not in addition to Christ’s work, they are Christ’s work.

 

My Comments

 

The author of these questions apparently thinks that unless one believes in the Protestant Fundamentalist version of the gospel, one is not saved. However, from my perspective as a Catholic, I can’t help noticing that there are literally hundreds of “gospels” floating around out there, and each little cult, sect, and splinter-group seems to think that only their version results in salvation. Since becoming Catholic I’ve also noticed that just about everyone has a list of reasons why they think I’m not saved.

 

I understand that Fundamentalists see themselves as the last remnant of the true faithful, living amongst the apostatized masses of the “religious but lost,” as the author of the questions put it. Of course, that’s also what the Mormons believe. And the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And probably everyone else who claims to have restored the “true gospel.” So who am I to believe? Why should I trust the Fundamentalist’s gospel over that of, say, the Lutherans? 

 

Everyone claims to be presenting salvation the “Bible way,” but nobody can agree on exactly what the “Bible way” is. I myself have read the Bible cover-to-cover. Yet I know that there are people in every denomination who can say the same thing, and who interpret the Bible differently than I do. We all read the same words, but we can’t agree on what those words mean. Every group has its favorite verses that it cites to substantiate its distinctive doctrines, and every group claims to present the true gospel. Whose interpretation should I trust?

 

I found the answer to that question in Paul’s epistles. He told the Galatian Christians, “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9). What was this gospel that the Galatians, and the other early Christians received from the apostles? Well, it is found in the New Testament, of course, but the New Testament was not intended to be a theology textbook that systematically explains the Christian faith to unbelievers. As C.S. Lewis observed, it was not written to make Christians, but to strengthen the faith of Christians already made. 

 

Each of its books was written to people who had already been instructed in the Gospel in great detail, usually by an apostle. In fact, most of the New Testament books were written simply to clear up some point of dispute, or to provide encouragement, or perhaps some further instruction on a particular point. None of them attempts to systematically explain the Christian faith, because none of them was addressed to unbelievers. Therefore, those things that were well-understood in the ancient Christian communities were not likely to be mentioned in detail. For example, the Virgin Birth of our Lord is a central doctrine of the Christian faith, but it is only mentioned twice in the whole New Testament.

 

But in addition to the biblical writings, we also have the writings of some of the apostles’ own disciples, men like Polycarp, Titus, Ignatius, Clement, and others. When I read these letters first-hand, they absolutely amazed me. These men still had the apostles’ teaching ringing in their ears, and yet their gospel contained all of the distinctively “Catholic” doctrines that today only the Catholic Church has retained (and to a large extent the Eastern Orthodox, too). These early Christians even started calling themselves the “Catholic Church” as early as the late first century. Ignatius of Antioch, thought by many to have been a disciple of the apostle John, used the term in one of his letters. This was very shocking and disturbing to me, but I had to conclude that their faith was very different from mine. I also concluded that since these people got their interpretation of Scripture from the men who wrote it, their interpretation was probably the right one.

 

I can honestly say that now, as a Catholic, I believe what the Galatians, and the other early Christians believed. Therefore, it is of little concern to me that my Fundamentalist Protestant brothers believe differently than I do, or that they question my salvation. Their distinctive beliefs, and their criteria for salvation, are of recent origin, and are not what the early Christians believed. I know that for sure, because the early Christians told me so in their writings. 

 

Everyone, it seems, compares my faith to their own group’s and concludes that mine is erroneous because it differs from theirs. Yet for some reason, it doesn’t seem to occur to them to compare their own faith to that of the early Christians, to see if theirs really is the faith that was “once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). Perhaps if they did, they would discover, as John Henry Newman did, that “to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.”

 

18 Questions for Fundamental Christians

 

My Fundamental Christian brothers believe they are presenting salvation and the gospel “the Bible way,” so I’d like to ask them a few questions of my own to see if this is true. First of all, Fundamentalists (and many other Christians, too) claim that the Bible is the “only rule for faith and practice.” Anything outside of the Bible is merely human tradition. I’d like to direct my first set of questions to this doctrine, then ask some more general questions about the gospel, as it’s presented in the Bible:

 

• Where in the Bible does it say what books belong in the Bible?
• If the Bible doesn’t tell us what books belong in it, then is the Bible’s “table of contents” merely a human tradition? If not, why not?
• If the list of biblical books is not revealed in the Bible itself, what men drew up the list? Why do you trust these men?
• Is their list revealed by God?
• If their list is revealed by God, isn’t this a “rule of faith and practice” outside of the Bible, thus disproving the idea that the Bible itself is the “only rule of faith and practice”?
• If their list is not revealed by God, and is merely a human tradition, why do you trust it?
• Where does the Bible say that it is the “only rule of faith and practice”?
• If it doesn’t say that, but you accept it as a doctrine anyway, isn’t that an extra-biblical “rule of faith and practice”?
• In 1 Timothy 6:17-19, the Bible says, “Charge them that are rich in this world … that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” In the justification-by-faith-alone doctrine of Fundamentalism, how does one “lay hold on eternal life” by being “rich in good works”?
• In Galatians 5:19-20, the Bible says, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” If you live in the manner described above, will you inherit the Kingdom of God? If you live this way, are you sure you will be in heaven immediately after death?
• In Romans 2:6-7, the Bible says that God “will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life.” If good works play no part in our salvation, then why does the Bible say that we receive “eternal life” as a recompense for “patient continuance in well doing”?
• How do Fundamental Christian churches, which have their own distinct theology, and often boast that they are “separated,” obey God’s command that Christians “all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10)?
• Regarding the Church’s leaders, the Bible says, “Obey your leaders, and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account” (Hebrews 13:17, NASB). Why were the Protestant Reformers exempt from the biblical command to obey and submit to the Church’s leaders?
• If we are justified by faith alone, why does the Bible say, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only” (James 2:24)?
• If good works play no role in our ultimate salvation, then why did Jesus say, “[T]he hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:28-29)?
• If our behavior as Christians has no bearing on our receiving eternal life at the final judgment, then why does the Bible say, “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Galatians 6:8)?
• If baptism is merely an empty symbol, rather than the instrument by which God affects regeneration, then why does the Bible say, “baptism doth also now save us” (1 Peter 3:21)?
• If baptism is merely an empty symbol, rather than the instrument by which God forgives sins, then why does the Bible say, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38) and “Be baptized and wash away thy sins” (Acts 22:16)?

 

As these questions, and others you can think of, are discussed in detail, you will quickly see that Fundamentalism does not present salvation “the Bible way.” It presents a man-made gospel, formulated in the nineteenth century by men like B.B. Warfield, Charles Hodge, John Nelson Darby, and Cyrus I. Scofield. Ironically, it is the Catholic Church that continues to teach salvation “the Bible way,” as she has for almost two millennia. It is she who presents the gospel that was formulated by Jesus Christ, and popularized by men like the apostle Paul. And it is she who continues to warn the faithful, in the words of that great apostle,

 

The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3-4).