A few days ago, I stopped to chat to an elderly man who lives a few doors along from me. He told me that he had cancer and did not have long to live. “I’m not ready to die yet,” he said. I knew he was Roman Catholic and spoke to him about salvation in Jesus Christ alone and how, if we embraced that, we need not fear death. But there seemed to be no receptiveness to what I was saying and it struck me how difficult it is to speak about our Saviour and His work of redemption with people who, although they go to a “Christian church”, have not been brought up to know the tremendous comfort of the reformed faith. He said, “You go to your church and I go to mine but we both believe in the same God.” However, what the Roman church believes is a far cry from what we believe. So much of it is not based on the Bible.
For example, Roman Catholics (RCs) believe that salvation is at least partly achieved through religious works, but the Bible says that salvation depends on faith in Christ alone. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8,9). In Galatians 3:10-11 we read: “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’. Titus 3:5 also says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” If we think we can earn our salvation, or contribute towards it, we devalue Christ’s glorious achievement for us and we are doomed.
Then there is the RC notion that the pope is the head of the church appointed by Christ. The RCs see the pope as the successor of the Apostle Peter. You will recall what’s written in Matthew 16:16-19 where Jesus asks His disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” and Peter replies, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Christ then responds that the Father in heaven revealed this to Peter and adds, “you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church…” The rock on which the church is built is not the person Peter but the confession of Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The whole RC idea of the papacy is based on a wrong interpretation of the Bible.If you’ve ever looked through a RC church building, you may have noticed lots of cubicle doors. These are for people to confess their sins to the priests. The Bible, however, does not direct us to do this. It tells us that confessions of sin should be made to God. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). To be sure, we should also confess our sins to one another, as James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” But the idea of confessing our sins to New Testament priests is unscriptural.
RCs believe in purgatory, an intermediate place between earth and heaven where souls wait while they are being purified before they can ascend to heaven. Readers will be acquainted with how, at the time of Luther, RCs could purchase indulgences for money. These indulgences, it was claimed, not only paid for their sins but could also be used to release friends or relatives from purgatory. However, it was an unscriptural, corrupt practice to get money. Although the sale of
indulgences was later abandoned, today the RC Church still grants indulgences to lessen time in purgatory, not through payment of money but through payment based on good works, including prayers and pilgrimages. Purgatory is a RC construct; there is no reference to it in the Bible.
The RC practice of revering and worshipping people who have been elevated to the position of saints by the RC church is not in the Bible either. Indeed, it is a form of idolatry and God’s people have been warned against it. In fact, communicating with the dead is strictly forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:10-11. Actually, the Bible says that all the members of Christ’s church are saints. In Corinth, the believers were called saints (1 Corinthians 1:2). More examples can be found in Ephesians 1:1 and Philippians 1:1. Paul’s letter to the Romans is addressed “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints” (Romans 1:7). In the Apostles’ Creed we confess the church as being “the communion of saints”. Perhaps one of the most venerated saints is Mary, the mother of Jesus. However, the Bible nowhere says that Mary should be worshiped and prayed to. We may pray only to God directly, not through Mary or other ‘saints’.
Perhaps you have seen cars with a string of beads draped over the rearview mirror. It’s called a rosary which RCs use to pray for the souls in purgatory or for other things they consider important, including growing closer to God and seeking Mary’s intercession. In praying, RC’s will say the Hail Mary or some other prayer over and over. In Matthew 6:7, however, Jesus says, “But when ye pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”
We believe that reformed Christians are all priests. As Peter writes to the pilgrims in the Dispersion: “you are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). RCs, however, have established a special priesthood as part of the clergy. Moreover, they have established a tradition of celibacy which prevents the priests from marrying and having children. The special office of the priesthood in the Bible was superseded in the New Testament with the offices of elders and deacons. And there’s no mention in the Bible that office bearers shouldn’t marry. Indeed, we read that elders should have one wife and have their children in submission with all reverence (1 Tim. 3:2-5). That’s quite the opposite of being celibate.
I have written before about the RC mass (holy supper) and how RCs see the food and drink turning into the body and blood of Christ so that Christ is present in the mass (transubstantiation). In this way Christ is sacrificed again over and over for the sins of the participants whenever mass is celebrated. Scripture, however, shows that in Holy Supper we remember Christ’s one sacrifice as sufficient for all time. Moreover, RCs have established seven sacraments of which mass is one. The Bible speaks of two sacraments: Holy Supper and Holy Baptism. Through all these seven sacraments the RC clergy have made themselves indispensable in process of distributing salvation.
There are more deviations from the Bible but the above show that the teachings of Roman Catholicism are a far cry from what reformed believers confess. Over the years there have been attempts to downplay the seriousness of Roman Catholic teachings with a view to displaying a greater unity between Christian churches in the face of other religions which are becoming more pronounced in western nations. But unless the RC church changes radically and adopts the reformed faith, that is an impossibility for those who want to remain faithful to the Bible. Particularly disturbing is the fact that so many RCs have been persuaded to think that they have eternal life through unscriptural and idolatrous practices instead of through Christ alone.