I Don’t Know One Roman Catholic Who is a Biblical Christian!

View PDF Tract  / The Older The Bolder – Marshall Almarode 

“Catholic Christian” is Truly an Oxymoron!  

One pastor asked me, “You don’t mean to tell me that my Roman Catholic Priest buddy (that we pray with) is not really a Christian?”

Today the differences between Roman Catholicism and Biblical Christianity have been indulged, ignored and compromised by most of the famous Christian leaders in America. This has led a large number of American Christians astray when it comes to recognizing the errors of Roman Catholicism and dealing with the problems biblically. The problem is that Catholics use the same rel-igious words that we Biblical Christians use. This can cause problems with naïve and uninformed Christians when they ask Catholics questions and discuss theology. What typically happens with uninformed Christians is they ask the wrong questions. They don’t know Roman Catholicism well enough to ask discerning questions. They will ask questions like, “Do you believe in the Bible?” Or “Do you believe in God the Father and Jesus Christ?” Of course they will get a “Yes” answer and voila, they must be Christian! If you asked a Mormon these same questions you will get the same answers. They sound Christian too! Try asking a Roman Catholic if he can eat his Jesus. You will get a different answer than they might expect (“Yes”).

In their zeal to create unity in the world many Christian leaders have ignored the unbiblical teachings of the Catholic Church and have created an artificial “Christian Catholic.” Catholics say they believe in the Bible and the Trinity and salvation by grace. Just because Catholics say this does not make it so. Those who look deeper into Roman Catholicism find that they do not believe the Bible is the only word of God and have redefined the trinity and salvation. These are foundational gospel issues in any faith. These issues were not ignored by Paul (Galatians 1:6-10) and we should not allow Roman Catholics fellowship today when they do not qualify as true Christians biblically.

There is a simple principle here. In order to be truly a Roman Catholic, one must believe what Rome says. Can you imagine a Mormon stating, “I am a Mormon but I don’t believe in the Mormon Church or Joseph Smith and his Book of Mormon.” How about this? “I am a Christian but I don’t believe in Jesus.” Some things just don’t make sense. In order to be a Roman Catholic, one MUST believe in Roman Catholicism! If you have not understood this principle, you should reread this paragraph and not read any farther until you understand.

There are Three Keys to understanding the religion of Roman Catholicism.

The First Key – Its Sources of Truth

Roman Catholicism has many sources of truth. I will introduce you to the three most important ones. The first is their prophet called a Pope. What he says officially to the Church must be followed because it is scripture (Papal Bull, Doctrine from the Chair of Peter, etc). The second would be the councils (Council of Trent, Vatican Council 1, Vatican Council 2, etc). What is decided in these councils is sanctioned by the Pope, his cardinals and bishops and even must be agreed on by the local priests. These are the official doctrinal teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The third is the latest Catechism published and copywritten by the office of the Pope (The Holy See). This is a summary of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and quotes and refers to the Councils for its summaries of official Catholic doctrine.

The Second Key – Its redefinition of God

How does Roman Catholicism redefine God? They reassign God’s attributes that only He alone has to sinful man. They pray to Mary and the Saints which make various dead people omnipresent and thereby gods. They make Mary equal to Jesus in that she has never sinned and she is a co-mediator and shares in making salvation available. She is truly a savior just like Jesus. Mary is also one up on Jesus. She is his mother, and he has to do what she says. That is why Catholics pray to Mary rather than Jesus. The new Pope’s first job when he takes office is to give an indulgence to the recently deceased Pope that gets that Pope out of Purgatory. This act alone gives the Pope powers that only God would have if Purgatory were actually real. You might ask, “Is God in charge of who gets to Heaven or the Pope?” The local Priests are “In Persona Christi” Latin for “In the Person of Christ.” When they perform any of the Seven Sacraments of the church, they are identifying themselves as being Jesus.

Council of Trent says the priest turns the piles of bread on the alter into the very body of Jesus. The bread cannot be called bread any longer because each piece is now “the body of Christ” and is God. If you break it in half, each piece contains a whole Jesus. When you eat of a piece you are eating a whole Jesus. Another discerning question is, “How many Gods do Catholics have?” (Count the Priests, count the pieces of bread, then add for Mary and the Saints.) This is polytheism!

The Third Key – Its Methods of Salvation

How do Roman Catholics get to Heaven? There are multiple ways for Catholics to neutralize their sins. These ways to get to heaven only work according to Rome, if one is a member of the Catholic Church. There is Purgatory for everyone including the Popes. This is where the Catholic must suffer for their own venial sins in the fires of Purgatory.  Jesus only died for your mortal sins. Here is another discernment question for Roman Catholics. “How many of your sins did Jesus die for; some of them or all of them?” There are all kinds of indulgences. This is where God give a full or partial remission of temporal sins. Reading your Bible used to give you so many days off of your stay in Purgatory. Saying Hail Mary and Our Father prayers are ways for Catholics to do something to get their sins forgiven. Participation in the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church (Mass, Baptism, Holy Orders, Marriage, Last Rites, Confessional, etc.) is a way for you to get grace applied to you. Attending Mass is a type of indulgence because participating in it earns you grace. The Pope can open doors at the Vatican and when a member walks through that door, his / her sins are forgiven or indulged. According to Roman Catholicism, if a member is wearing a brown or green scapular at the time of death, that person gets a free trip to Heaven without going to Purgatory. You can pay the priest to perform Masses for and in honor of your dead uncle Harry. These Masses gets Uncle Harry out of Purgatory sooner. The Roman Catholic Church still has Heaven for sale and is in spiritual darkness.

Roman Catholicism is not Christian, and any-one believing in Catholicism is not Christian. Rome cloaks its unbiblical polytheism and its unbiblical works salvation by using biblical words like “trinity” and “grace.” The Bible clearly states that we are not to compromise the gospel with unbelievers. Ephesians 5:11 states, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness but rather, expose them.” ECT is an unbiblical unity of Roman Catholic theologians with Protestant theologians. Their agreement uses words that are so vague that each can agree to the same words while retaining different meanings for those words. This is not true unity. Instead of agreeing with Rome, Chuck Colson, J.I. Packer and many other more famous evangelists who did not sign ECT need to do what the Bible says. Repent of their compromise with Rome and start exposing their false teachings. These men have shirked their responsibility to “Preach the gospel to every creature.” When one decided that a non-Christian is a Christian, he do not try to preach the truth to them. When they are fishing for men, they do not fish in the Roman Catholic pond. Roman Catholics need the real Jesus and the real Gospel. Catholics may not know this, but they need us to fish in the Roman Catholic pond.