Over the years, in conversations with Catholics and former Catholics, the question has been asked of me, "Michael, why did you leave the Catholic Church?"
As a boy, I was taught the party line that I belonged to "the one true Church." Years later, I was affiliated with another denomination that referred to itself as being the "one true church" and have since heard Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses refer to themselves likewise.
I would wholeheartedly agree that the Roman Catholic "Holy Mother" Church is the one true DENOMINATION, but who can say the deviciveness of denominationalism is a good thing?? Among the things God hates, all listed in Proverbs 6:16-19, one of those is in verse 19, "...a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." So many splinter groups all branching off - and INCLUDING - Catholicism do NOT display the show of "Oneness" for which Jesus prayed.
I'm sure most would agree that one cannot make a good decision without good information. Even one's decision to follow Christ is based upon the hearing/reading, of the Scriptures - the gathering and processing of this information about Jesus Christ, His teachings and what He claimed about Himself. My purpose here is to reveal the information I've gathered regarding Catholicism that made me ask the questions that demanded a verdict. I don't believe in blind faith for I feel that, in the end, it is really nothing more than having faith in faith. I am a firm proponent that we must resist the tendancy of most religionists of checking one's brain at the door. My mission is not to create more ex-Catholics. In fact, based on what you're about to read, if you're going to choose to be a Catholic, you had BETTER excel at the role. If that's where you're going, you had BETTER be good at it. REAL good. You'll see why.
The matter of "creating EX-Catholics" appears, statistically, to be taking care of itself. Although, according to the Synod of Bishops, Rome 2003, the world's Catholic population grew by 15 MILLION between 2002-03, the last year for which full statistics could be found, breaking the 1 BILLION mark. 1.2% of that growth took place in the America's, treated as one continent Nearly half the world's Catholics live in the Western hemisphere. There was no significant growth in Europe.
According primarily to Gallup Polls in various years, Sunday Mass attendance among Catholics in the United States has sunk by 400% since Vatican II. When asked whether they had attended Mass within the past week, the following percentage of Catholics answered 'Yes': 1958: 74%; 1965: 71%, after the Mass was allowed to be said in "the vulgar tongues"; 1968: 65%, after the very words of Consecration were changed; 1969: 63%, when the Novus Ordo Worship Service was first announced; 1970: 60%, when the Novus Ordo Worship Service was introduced; 1971: 50%, after one year of exclusive Novus Ordo worship services; 1988: 48%; 1993: 25%; 1995: 22%; 1999: 19%, after twenty years of exclusive Novus Ordo worship services 2001: 17% (SOURCE: TRADITIO, Traditional Roman Catholic Internet Site, www.traditio.com). Other sources reflect that latest statistic as being from 45% to 32% in America. Catholics 36-54 are most likely to rarely or never attend Mass. According to national catholic reporter, 77% of Catholics beieve one can be a "good" Catholic without attending Mass every Sunday. Less than 23% described themselves as "highly committed" to the Church in 1999, down 4 points from 1987.
In America alone, the number of priests has gone from 58,632 in 1965 to 42,528 in 2005. The number of nuns, from 179,954 in 1965 to 68,634 in 2005. The number of American graduate seminarians has gone from 8,325 in 1965 to 3,308 in 2005. Parishes without a priest in the U.S. went from 549 in 1965 up to 3,251 in 2005. (SOURCE: The Official catholic Directory, the Vatican's Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae.)
According to Michael Cieslak, Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, "the Catholic Church is governed by its internal church regulations, the Code of Canon law. This Code makes no references to people needing to register in a parish to be committed as Catholics. While this practice may make good sense from an administrative point of views, this goes beyond any requirements of Church Law. The Code simply says that a person is considered a Catholic if he/she is baptized a Catholic and does not formally repudiate his/her faith."
In that case, I'm still considered a Catholic. Where baptisms, weddings, first communions, conversions and deaths are concerned, the Catholic Church keeps great records. Naturally, such record keeping techniques - which include non-Latin Rites, Ukranian Catholics and Coptic Catholics, etc. - cannot help but pad the statistics.
WHAT ROME TEACHES: The Basics
Like most Christian denominations, Catholicism claims as its basis the beliefs and teachings of the early Church fathers. Catholics believe in the promise of God to send a Savior after the fall of man in the Garden of Eden and in His promise to Abraham that all generations would be blessed through his descendants. They believe that these promises were fulfilled through the person of Jesus Christ, in His miraculous virgin birth, in His miracles, beginning at Cana, in the details of His crucifixion, and in His burial and glorious resurrection.
Most Catholics in the West believe Jesus is returning for His Bride, the Church Universal, not only those who call themselves Catholic. They believe in Heaven and Hell, Devils and Angels. Catholics believe that the forgiveness of sins through the shedding of the innocent blood of the Lamb is the only way for there to be remission for sins. They believe in the acts of the early Church. They believe in the New Covenant and that forgiveness of sins is available to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SO, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
At this point, many non-Catholics might possibly be shocked to read what youve just read, wondering what it is EXACTLY that makes a Catholic different. Indeed, Catholics refer to themselves as Christians, and Believers, just as other groups do. Everything just described encompasses the major part of Christendom worldwide.
So, whats the difference? We know there ARE differences but, in terms of salvation, do these differences matter? After all, Catholics can be saved just as anybody else can but surely not merely because theyre Catholic and surely not because they fulfilled all the rites of the denomination. Right?
In light of eternity, there isnt any difference in Catholicism either. A born-again Catholic will be right there in Heaven
alongside the born-again Baptist, the Pentecostal, the Methodist, et al, none of them being referred to as anything but a "child of God" from then till eternity future. The deception among ALL Christian groups is that, somehow, by going
through their prescribed rituals, jumping through all their manmade hoops, praying the proper prayers, that salvation
can be somehow assured. Salvation CAN be assured, but not through the dos and donts of any manmade denomination.
No, Performance Mode Christianity won't cut it. Were human BEINGS, not human DOINGS. Jesus did not say THIS is the way. He said, I am the WAY, John 14:6. He even referred to Himself as the Door in John 10:9. The words, Follow Me, or some variation thereof, appear 30 times in the New Testament. The phrase "you must be born again" appears only once. Odd how organized Christianity has established a number of "methods" for acquiring salvation when the Scripture - Jesus Himself - clearly says that we must simply believe in Jesus and follow the example He set for us (I've found 10 verses in reference to that fact; Google: "Jesus came as an example").
According to Ephesians 2:8,9 salvation comes by Gods grace, His unattainable favor - the POWER to do that which we have been commissioned to do - through our FAITH, the evidence of that which is hoped for, the substance of that which we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). Its not by our own WORKS, because our righteousness is filthy rags in the sight of God, (Isaiah 64:6). He is HOLY and we are UNHOLY without Christ.
Romans 10:9,10 assures us that if we CONFESS that Jesus is Lord (He already IS Lord of everything, EXCEPT our selfish, sin-filled hearts we must willingly turn our lives over to Him as His servants, making Him Lord of our lives) and BELIEVE in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead (acknowledging His authority even over Death itself, thereby confirming His deity) as dependant upon Him as we are for oxygen, we will THEN be saved. Only then. Theres no more to do! The work was FINISHED at the cross.
Then, why do we force ourselves, and each other, to carry a greater burden than God Himself requires of us? Jesus said, My yoke is easy, my burden light, Matthew 11:30. Romans 8:1 declares, There is no condemnation (no chance of Hell) for those who are in Him. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us FREE from the Law of sin and death. Whats the Law of Sin and Death? Basically, you break it, you buy it! If you sin, you die.
Well, thats the Law of Moses. Thats ten commandment stuff. Thats the Old Testament. We are under a new and better covenant now. Thats something the universal church can rejoice in - not only those in the Catholic camp.
Christianity should have nothing to do with wanting to be a good Catholic or a staunch Methodist or a dyedin-the-wool Baptist, etc., so much as it should wanting to be the best imitators of Christ possible (Ephesians 5:1). Some of the most incredible Christians who ever walked the earth claimed to be Catholics, or were claimed BY the Roman Catholic church, which was mans first attempt at organizing Christianity. They could out-pray and out-faith most of todays other denominations or non-denominations. Their stories are rich with faith and miracles and are worth reading by anyone, Catholic and non-Catholic alike!
Being a Catholic (or a Baptist, a Methodist, or a Pentecostal, etc.) is not like choosing your favorite team. God is not so concerned with the groups we fellowship with as He is that we fellowship with HIM through Jesus Christ. Think about it, if I were to call myself a Catholicostal or a Bapsodist, but never went to that groups church services except on an occasional Christmas or Easter, is it pleasing to God that I at least, CALL myself by that groups name? Nonsense! What if I was born retarded with stunted, deformed limbs and could never choose a denomination? Would I belong to a particular group because my parents belonged, or their parents? Or because I was prayed over, dedicated, immersed, or christened as an infant by a clergyman of that group, would THAT ritualistic act please God? This is insane thinking that places the focus squarely upon our own dead works. Let us refuse to check our brains at the door, shall we?
The point? God wants US! Not our religious affiliation, our theology degrees or our certifications, and not our rituals.
Jesus is called, Lord, yet for Him to be our lord; we have to serve Him obediently even if that means leaving our denominational comfort zones. Ouch! No group has a corner on truth unless that truth comes from the inerrant Word of God, the only standard of moral and spiritual absolutes. Theres ONLY one truth. According to John 1:1-14, Jesus IS the Word in the flesh. So, to obey the Word is to obey Jesus Christ.
DOCTRINE OF CHRIST...OR SOMETHING ELSE?
There are three types of doctrine mentioned in the Word of God: the doctrine of men, doctrine of devils, and the doctrine of Christ and God. If the doctrine being taught by any group is bringing anyone under bondage to the manmade rules and regulations of religion, or of a denomination, this cannot be of Christ for He said He came to set us free, (John 8:36). The very word religion, according to Webster;s Dictionary, means, return to bondage. there is something else He has delivered us from as well that seems to have gone unnoticed and unrealized by many for centuries and that is our deliverance from religion.
The word is traced back to the Latin word religio meaning to tie, to bind, to restrain. It is actually a combination
of two words, re and ligare. The prefix re means to return, and ligare, from which we get our word ligature, means to bind. No word more accurately describes the man-centered, performance-based, reward-punishment systems that men have devised to earn Gods acceptance and favor than religion.
What Jesus Christ came to do almost 2,000 years ago was not bring us back into bondage, but deliver us from it. He didnt come to set up a new system of laws and regulations to live by. He came to set us free so that we could serve Him in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter (Romans 7:6). In fact, it was to the religious people of His day that Jesus had the most condemning things to say. Why? Because they were leading so many away from a true relationship with God by way of the most wicked deception Satan has ever used against us.
Religion!
In Pauls letter to the Galatians, he sternly reminded them that ...it was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore
keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery, (Galatians 5:1). Like many still today however, the Galatians were not standing firm in the faith and had consequently returned to the bondage from which Christ had rescued them. They had once again become subject again the slavery of religion. No wonder Paul asked, Who has bewitched you? After all, who but a bewitched person would ever surrender the joy of absolute freedom and intimacy with the Creator of the universe for the misery of slavery represented by religion?
In his book Grace Land, writer Steve McVay wrote: The underlying foundation of all religion is performance whether its a tribal dance around a campfire to satisfy the fire god, or a dead religious activity performed week after week by an evangelical Christian with the intent of impressing his God. Its all religious performance, and God isnt impressed by our performance. What impresses Him is faith.
So, if anyone is pressuring us to jump through spiritual hoops, and were feeling an obligation to do anything spiritual for any reason other than out of pure passionate zeal for the cause of Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom, cease at once!
What constitutes a doctrine of devils? In a word, idolatry. Its any rule that makes a person a slave to itself or that pridefully draws attention away from Jesus Christ Himself. You see, Christianity is about Christ. Nothing more,nothing less. It is the nature of mankind to desire to manage a thing, in this case, Gods church, of which Jesus is the head. So, we organize and traditionalize to the point where an entire Sunday service will often have very little to do with strengthening our relationship with Christ. The traditions of man make the word of God of no affect,(Mark 7:13). Wow! Some powerful traditions, huh? This is why the Lord said in the last days the church
would have a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, (2 Timothy 3:5).
Is your church powerful? Not financially,numerically, or politically, but in the things of the Spirit? Does the devil tremble as a result of your prayers and acts of righteousness, the impact youre having on your community for the advancement of the Gospel? Examine your denomination. What are their tenants of faith and do they have scriptural support? Put aside your family ties to a denomination, your comfort zone. Examine the fruit of your congregation. Then your own family. Then your own life. Examine all in comparison to the doctrine of Christ. He alone is the standard.
Speaking of The Church, when we hear those words, do they call to mind a grand building with stained glass and a steeple? Why would think that way here in the Western world when the Scripture says, ...the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says, `Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these
things?'" (Acts 7:44-50). Then theres this verse: Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are." (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Our Eastern brothers in places where thousands are coming to faith in Jesus daily, amidst persecution, would never think of the church as anything other than the Body of Christ, the People themselves.
The word church comes from the Greek word, ekklesia meaning Called out ones. We seem to refer to the church as those who are called IN. Simply put, the Church has nothing to do with the buildings. It is an organism, not an organization; the beautiful, living Bride of Christ and not a cyborg.
The doctrine of Christ is obvious. As His mother, the blessed Mary, said when He performed His first miracle at Cana, turning water into wine, Do whatever He says, (John 2:5) Very profound Mary! Do the things in red letters, Christians! Let the words of Christ serve as your doctrine. Let the deeds of Christ serve as your model. Let the acts of the early church, which strived to walk in the light of His truth serve as your groups guide to church life. Start over, if necessary. Whether its your church government, your stance on miracles, spiritual gifts, your opinion of Mary seek the truth of Scripture. Get out those concordances and Greek and Hebrew dictionaries and lexicons.
Review the words of Jesus. Shine the light on the basic doctrine and dogmas of your group, compare your findings to what youve been trained to believe. Trace the roots of your denomination. Examine its history, what others say about it and why. Then, simply obey the voice of the Spirit of Truth.
With all due respect to my Catholic parents (my father attended a seminary college), who never allowed us to miss a church service, for which I am indebted, and the Christian groups Ive been a part of in my adulthood, my experience has shown me by way of the depth of teaching received in each one, that all true believers in Jesus (the ekklesia) are walking down the same highway to Heaven. Some of us will see the city as merely a glow in the distance. Others may see the twinkling of tiny lights. Still others see the actual shape of its illuminated structures. While some of us continue to walk that highway, urging others to come along, some of us are perfectly content to come to a complete stop. Knowing theyre on the right path seems quite enough! There they choose to stay. While here on Earth, that is all they want of Heaven and its all theyll get. Theyll still go to Heaven when they die or when Christ returns, but for now, theyre staying put. My question: why stay put? Were told to GROW in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:8) What keeps some content in standing still?
Personally, as Ive grown in my walk with Jesus, I have found myself not only maturing beyond the milk of the teachings and dogmas of several denominations with which Ive been affiliated, but by examining the roots of one particular group, I was able to spare my own family, and other families, from a tremendous spiritual shipwreck. I have learned that, whenever I visit a town, its a great idea to examine the history of that town at the local library for this can reveal a great deal about the spiritual resistance to the Body of Christ in that region, not just a single denomination. Very often the demonic presence in a community permeates the churches there, too. This has proven to be a helpful practice in assisting those in the cults and false religions as well. Therefore, it must be a good practice for all Christians to study and understand the roots of their denomination and why they teach as they do. One may find themselves totally opposed to the basic teachings or find a clear explanation as to why their practices are so milk-like and theres rarely and meat. One may receive confirmation to what the Spirit of God has been whispering to them: that the cloud is moving in their life and He desires that they follow, leading them to greener pastures when they will be spiritually satisfied. At that juncture, it becomes a matter of simple obedience.
PLEASE REFER TO PART 2 OF THIS SERIES.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pastor Michael is founder of t.e.a.m. ministries (team1min@aol.com). His eMail broadcasts, known as "Your Town for Jesus" (SEARCH it!) are reaching tens of thousands WEEKLY. He ministers by way of email and Instant Message, too. Write him at team1min@aol.com if you'd like to SUBSCRIBE to receive his messages directly.
Michael's mission is to bring Discipleship and Encouragement to the Body of Christ. Michael is the author of numerous booklets on a variey of subjects that will interest the thinking Christian. Since 1999, he has written and broadcast hundreds of inspirational articles and a dozen booklets, all designed to accelerate the process of spiritual development in God's people.
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