CARM vs Roman Catholicism

Before July gets by without a post, here was something I found interesting...

Matt Slick at CARM.org took on Roman Catholic convert apologist Dr. Robert Sungenis on three radio shows this month. He found that Sungenis wanted to change the subject much of the time. The event also prompted the following from Slick:

Roman Catholicism teaches salvation by faith and works -- works, they say, that are done under God's grace. You cannot be saved without those works, so they are necessary, but at the same time don't "earn" salvation...even though salvation is merited by your works! Make sense? Well, when I was preparing for a class I'm teaching on Mormonism, I found some interesting quotes. Check out this comparison.


"If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema" (Roman Catholic, Council of Trent, Canons on Justification, Canon 9).

"All that we can do for ourselves we are required to do. We must do our own repenting; we are required to obey every commandment and live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. If we will do this, then we are freed from the consequences of our own sins. The plan of salvation is based on this foundation. No man can be saved without complying with these laws" (Mormon President Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, p.172).

"If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema." (Roman Catholic, Council of Trent, Canons on Justification, Canon 14)

“One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation," (Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 206, Spencer W. Kimball who was the 12th President of the Mormon Church).

Released new articles - In light of my discussions with Dr. Sungenis, I have released three articles on Tradition (http://www.carm.org/new). Also, to my utter delight, I found on my computer an electronic file of the Anti-Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. It is public domain so I have been converting some of the files to articles on CARM for linking. Yes! This will come in very handy when dealing with Roman Catholic Tradition and, later, with Eastern Orthodox Tradition. Lots more articles on Roman Catholicism are now in the works including the Assumption of Mary, The Church Fathers and Tradition, The Church Fathers and Sola Scriptura, and more.

Luther on the gospel and those who seek their own sacrifice...

Martin Luther relates the gospel as he prepares to point out ways that the “silent mass” of those days departed from that gospel. …


First, I want to remind each one of the ground on which our faith and all our preaching rests. I shall repeat it briefly. But I preach now only to those who accept the gospel as the Word of God and nothing else, for those who still do not know that or are in doubt about it will not accept this ground of our faith. Well, you have heard in the gospel and learned from it that the problem of our salvation from sin, death, the devil and an evil conscience, the problem of attaining true righteousness before God and eternal life, is by no means solved or helped with works or laws, no matter what they may be or may be called. For God will accept no other mediation and no other mediator than his only Son, whom the Father sent into the world and whom he caused to shed his blood for the sole purpose that he might thereby obtain for us the treasure of faith.

That, briefly, is the sum total of the gospel that we preach. And if anyone seeks another way to be freed from his sins and stand before God, he blasphemes and insults God and accuses him of lying, as if he had let his Son shed his blood in vain and his death had accomplished nothing and was of no importance. For this is what God insists on and nothing else, that on one shall stand before him except by that innocent blood alone. And if anyone undertakes some other method, such as his works or order or station in life, he shall belong to the devil much more than anyone else. For it is a very serious matter with God and he will have no jest made of it, because for this purpose he gave his Son to die. For that reason we know and have no other sacrifice that that which he made on the cross, on which he died once for all as the Epistle to the Hebrews (9:12, 20) says, and thereby put away the sins of all men and also made us holy for eternity.

That, I say, is our gospel, that Christ has made us righteous and holy through that sacrifice and has redeemed us from sin, death and the devil and has brought us into his heavenly kingdom. We have to grasp this and hold it fast through faith alone. We have preached this and reiterated it so often that everyone can know it well and can conclude from it that all our own works undertaken to expiate sin and escape from death are necessarily blasphemous. They deny God and insult the sacrifice that Christ has made and disgrace his blood, because they try thereby to do what only Christ’s blood can do.

–Luther, April 1525 as found in “The Abomination of the Secret (or Silent) Mass”

Jesus' body and blood

When this Jesus, who has won heaven for those who believe in him, tells us that he gives us his body and blood—we should indeed believe it.

Do we need to believe in the Roman Catholic teaching of transubstantiation? No. We need to believe Jesus. We need to believe that he gives us what he promises us.

He has promised all who believe in him receive his body and blood at his Supper in this life, and they receive everlasting life with him in the next life.

Is God the author of sin? No, no no.

For he (God) saith to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." So it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Romans 9:15-16

Most Christians say that they believe that their God is indeed "God almighty." He is over all, in control of all. If He were somehow unable to control this or that, He would not be an almighty God, would he? Almighty is in control of all. Isn't it? Isn't He?

When anyone mentions predestination, one of the first charges that goes up is the charge that in order to believe in predestination, you have to believe that God is the "author of sin."

That's ridiculous.

The Bible makes it clear. God does not force people to sin, they do so naturally. All people are born in sin. God simply leaves some people in their sinful state while rescuing others by giving them the faith to believe in His only Son, Jesus, and his saving work on the cross. (read Romans 9)

In other words, since the fall of Adam and Eve, all people choose to sin (Romans 3:32) "...and were by nature, children of (God's) wrath." (Ephesians 2:3). God simply allows some to pursue their natural choice (reprobates) while saving others by sending his son to die in their place and giving them the faith to believe in Jesus and what he did on the cross.

For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

And you hath he quickened (made alive) who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. (Ephesians 1:4) We are covered in Christ's righteousness (Romans 4:7-8).

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. (Ephesians 1:11)

This is a biblical description of predestination. Therefore to believe in predestination is to believe God's word. It is not to believe that God is the author of sin—instead, it is to believe that He is the Savior of many (Matthew 25)--the true Gospel.

If God did not intervene to give us faith, all of us would be lost to the fires of hell. A good example is that several people are caught in a burning building and all are condemned to die in the fire, but God, by his grace, his undeserved favor, chooses to save a few of them. How grateful would those few be? Those few are believers--you and me.

So how should we, who have been saved from the firey house of hell we deserve, then live?

If we have been so blessed to be rescued from sin, death and the devil and promised an eternity with Christ in heaven, we live in grateful thanksgiving, humbly confessing our sins and always anticipating a glorious future with Christ.

As the reformed theologian R.C. Sproul puts it: If God, when He is decreeing reprobation, does so in consideration of the reprobate's being already fallen, then He does not coerce (force) him to sin. To be reprobate is to be left in sin, not pushed or forced to sin. If the decree of reprobation were made without a view to the fall, then the objection to double predestination would be valid and God would be properly charged with being the author of sin. But Reformed theologians have been careful to avoid such a blasphemous notion.

Bush to Hasselbeck--a sad Mother's Day

This is a bit late I know, but I had to express my disappointment.

Laura Bush proved it again just a few days after Mother’s Day—sadly, there is very little worth celebrating about so many mothers in this day and age. Many have gone the way of the world and have turned or spurned any attempt at convincing them that God’s word should come before their “feelings” about so-called gay marriage or abortion--even divorce.

There she is the former “first mother,” on the Larry King show, essentially telling everyone that she rejects the key moral imperatives of the Bible and therefore “disagrees” with God as well as her husband’s moral stand against gay marriage and abortion.

A day or two later, Elizabeth Hasselbeck (of "The View") tells everyone she supports gay marriage now that she’s had a sit-down conversation with twice divorced singer Melissa Etheridge who recently separated from her “partner” of eight years, Tammy Lynn Michaels.

Elizabeth even goes so far to recommend everyone sit down with someone gay who is in love and wants to marry another gay person. I'm sure Elizabeth let her "feelings" be the guide too. God's word just has nothing to do with how most folks make decisions these days--it's all about their personal feelings. So many churches have turned from biblical doctrine to their feelings that they are no longer legitimate churches.

Wonder if singer Melissa told Elizabeth how she first convinced Julie Cypher to leave her husband Lou Diamond Phillips back in 1986? Cypher eventually left Etheridge herself after giving her two children with donated sperm from rock singer David Crosby--it gets more and more bizarre. After reconsidering her own sexuality, Cypher left Etheridge in 2000 and married Matthew Hale in 2004.

Can you disagree with God on such central teachings of his word and still call yourself a Christian? I wouldn't want to be believing these errors when Christ returns in glory. Would you? Surely these people will answer to the King of kings and Lord of lords. A true church would have to do the hard thing and excommunicate them until they repented.

Let's remember these gals in our prayers.

Roman Catholics: Living in fear of eternity

Because the Roman Catholic Church rejects the eternal assurance that Christ himself promises those who believe in him (John 10:27-30), practicing Roman Catholics believe that can rarely if ever be certain where they will go when they die.

That’s because they essentially believe that their own actions here on earth determine where they go after death. In other words they are not taught the true gospel that Christ himself died to secure their everlasting life with him.

Therefore, they spend much of their spare time in life concerned with the possibility they might die with a mortal (serious or grave sin deserving of hell) sin on their soul. So they pray prayers such as the following

“Prayer for a Happy Death”
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. O my God, I am sure to die, yet I know not when, how, or where I may die. This alone I am certain of, that, if I were to die in mortal sin, I should perish eternally (go to hell forever). Most blessed Virgin Mary, holy Mother of God, pray for me a sinner, now and at the hour of my death. Amen.

Think of it. Living with that occasional nagging thought that there’s always a chance that you could mess up and go to hell. A lot of people have learned to live with that because there are many churches who teach that a Christian can lose their salvation –Roman Catholic, Lutheran, some Anglicans, Methodists, Church of Christ, Free Will Baptists and on and on.

But that’s not what the Bible—God’s word—teaches. Instead, it reveals the promises of Jesus himself, who tells us that those who believe in him have everlasting life (John 5:23) ….and will not be snatched from his hands (John 10:27-30).

Is your church in simple doctrinal error or damning heresy?

Pentecost is certainly good as any day to ask yourself about the church you attend. Do you belong to a church that is in doctrinal error? Does its doctrine amount to damning heresy? Heresy so bad that it goes against the gospel?

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed (condemned to hell). As we said before, so say I now again. If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)

Doctrinal error – the misinterpretation or misapplication of any biblical teaching by a particular church that however does not affect its preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Example: Sprinkling for baptism is a doctrinal error found among some churches, but that error is considered not so imporant  as long as the church continues to preach the true gospel of Christ alone saving –winning heaven—for those he has chosen for everlasting life.

Damning heresy – is any doctrine or practice that is contrary to salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. In other words, any doctrine or practice that promotes a gospel different from the biblical gospel, which tells us that Christ won heaven for those who believe in him and his work on the cross.

Example: The doctrine that Christ died for all people in the world is an example of a damning heresy because it is contrary to the clear biblical gospel which tells us Christ died for his elect—only those who believe in him before their death.

Just hours away from his death on the cross, Jesus plainly told us in the Gospel of John that he would not even pray for the world—so why do some believe he died for it?

(John 17:9) I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me; for they are thine.