What Roman Catholics Will Find When They Read Their Bibles (Part Two)

What Roman Catholics will find when they read their Bibles (part two) How to build your Faith on the ‘Rock’ of Christ and His Infallible Word

By Jay Wegter

1. Establish that the only Authority for all faith, practice, and true religion is solely the Word of God.

• Holy Scripture is the very words of God (2 Tim 3:16-17; Jer 23:28-29). 29 “Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?
• The words of Christ (Scripture) form the basis of judgment on the last day (Jn 12:48-50). 48 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.
• To add to, or take away from, or distort the Holy Scriptures is to endanger one’s eternal soul (Rev 22:18-19; 2 Pet 3:16). 18 “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

• The whole of Scripture was inspired by the Spirit of Christ (1 Pet 1:10-11). We emphasize in these last three points that the triune Godhead; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are in complete agreement and consensus concerning the identity of the Word of God as infallible and authoritative for all faith and practice. 10 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.”

• It is incredibly dangerous to grant authority to the teachings and traditions of men. According to Jesus, to do so is to undermine the authority of the Holy Scriptures (Is 29:13; Mark 7:5-13). 7:8 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

2. Trust in the Sufficiency of Christ’s Person and Work, and not in what man imagines he can do before God.

• Christ is the only way to God. He is the only Mediator between God and sinful man. He alone can bring us to God (Jn 14:6; 1 Tim 2:5). No dead departed believer has the power or authority to represent us before God. 6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

• Christ’s atoning sacrifice is all-sufficient for salvation; it is complete and finished (Jn 19:30; Heb 1:3; 7:25; 9:12, 28; 10:14). It is a sin to attempt to add to Christ’s finished work. 10:14 “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
• Christ’s atoning sacrifice which satisfied the wrath of God for all who would believe (propitiation) was between the Father and the Son. It was the Father’s wrath and justice against our sin that Christ fully appeased. At the crucifixion, Christ “offered” Himself to God (Heb 9:14; 7:27; 10:10; Eph 5:2). 14 “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

• For sinful men (human priests at the Mass) to attempt to assist in, and continue the divine transaction of propitiation is the height of blasphemy, for Christ’s cry from the cross was “It is finished!” Christ offered Himself to God, how can sinners possibly offer Him to God in a religious ceremony? (Rom 3:23-26; 5:10; 6:23; Col 2:11-14; 1 Jn 4:10). 10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
• The veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom by God. He did this because the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” had been sacrificed (Jn 1:29; Matt 27:51). Christ’s death ended the Levitical priesthood. The only priesthood God recognizes now is the priesthood of every believer (Rev 1:5-6). The only sacrifice any man can make now that is recognized by God is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for Christ’s finished work (Heb 13:15-16). 29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

• Because Christ’s work is complete and finished, the ordinances (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are commemorative, memorials of the Lord’s work, and of the believer’s union with Christ. They cannot conduct saving grace to sinners. Salvation is by faith in Christ alone, not by any religious work a man might do. Christ alone is the source of saving grace. He personally is the sole distributor of the saving benefits of His life, death, and resurrection, the sole Mediator of the new covenant (Matt 11:27-30; 1 Pet 3:21-22; 2:4-10; Acts 4:11-12; Heb 9:15; 12:24). Believing sinners are saved by looking unto Christ alone for salvation from their sins. 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

3. Bow before the Authority of God Himself, revealed in His Word by trusting in the Scriptural Definition of the Gospel.

• Paul reserved his most serious warning for those who accept a different “gospel”—a gospel contrary to the Gospel he preached (Gal 1:6-9). 8 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!” It is tragic that Romanism usurps the authority of God’s Word by placing manmade tradition above Scripture. For at the Roman Catholic Council of Trent (beg. in 1545 A.D.) the same word that the

Apostle Paul used for those who reject the biblical gospel, (‘accursed’—anathema) is pronounced by Rome against those who deny Roman Catholic tradition. (See the ‘anathemas’ of Trent: http://apprising.org/2008/09/07/ecumenism-and-the-council-of-trent/) (http://blog.guidedbytruth.com/anathema.php) (http://hereiblog.com/trent-let-me-be-anathema/)

• Those who are attempting to be saved by human effort, by religious works, and moral exertion are refusing to submit to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:1-4). 2 “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
• Scripture says that God justifies, NOT the person “who works,” but the ungodly person who believes upon Christ for salvation (Rom 4:4-5). 4 “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. 8“BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

• Justification by faith (being ‘right with God’—right with His righteousness) is a gift of God’s grace, never a reward for good works (Gal 2:16; 3:24). 24 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”
• Justification has been purchased by Christ’s work of redemption on behalf of guilty sinners. Christ made the infinitely valuable purchase in His atoning death in order that believing sinners might be justified freely (Rom 3:24). 24 “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

• The righteousness that God looks to when He justifies the sinner is resident in Christ alone, not in the believing sinner (Phil 3:9). 9 “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

• Christ took fully the believing sinner’s penalty upon Himself. His work as a Substitute was for the purpose of an exchange; that He might bear our sin and that He might give us His righteousness as a gift of His grace (2 Cor 5:21). 21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

4. Embrace the Biblical Definition of Saving Faith by placing all of your Trust in Christ alone (repent of trusting in your works and in a religious system).

• The ‘object’ of saving faith is clearly defined in Scripture (Rom 10:9-10). 9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
• Saving faith itself is a gift of God’s grace (Phil 1:29; Eph 2:8-9). 8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

• Saving faith is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work in convicting the sinner (Jn 16:8-11), in calling the sinner (Rom 8:30), and in regenerating the sinner (Titus 3:4-7). 5 “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

• Saving faith can only be produced by the Holy Spirit’s power accompanying the message of the Gospel. Faith is the only proper response to Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom 1:16-17; 10:13-17; Acts 16:30-31; James 1:18; 1 Pet 1:23). 23 “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.”
• It is possible to come short of saving faith, even if one knows about the life and work of Christ (Matt 7:22-23). Saving faith is not merely knowing the truth, nor is it merely acceptance of the truth. Saving faith is absolute trust in Christ alone for salvation. All man-made religion refuses to consolidate all trust in Christ alone for salvation. Instead, it places its trust in rituals, practices, human works, and religious dogmas (Titus 3:5-7). 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

• Saving faith is always joined to repentance (Luke 13:3-5; Acts 20:21). Repentance is both moral and intellectual. The believing sinner repents of his sin and his self-will, and of his unbelief, and he repents of all the false ways of salvation he has trusted in before coming to Christ alone (1 Thess 1:9; Phil 3:7-10). 3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
• Faith unites the believing soul to Christ so that all the benefits of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection become the believer’s possession (Rom 6:5-8, 22-23; Eph 1:13-14; Col 1:13-14; 2:10-14). 13 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

5. Publicly profess Christ and the Truths of Scripture and reject the Deceptive Errors found in Roman Catholicism.

• God recognizes no regional center(s) of Christian worship such as the Vatican (Jn 4:21-24). In this Gospel age, the most sacred temple and sanctuary of God is the believer himself. All true Christians comprise the “Temple of God” (Eph 2:21-22; 1 Pet 2:4-10; 1 Cor 6:19-20). 21 “Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

• The Church of Jesus Christ has no universal, fallible, imperfect, sinful leader. Christ alone is Head of His Church (Eph 5:23-27; 4:15-16; Col 1:18). When Peter rightly confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, Christ promised to build His Church on the true foundation of this confession, not upon the man Peter Himself (Matt 16:17-19). (Note that in subsequent addresses, Jesus granted the authority to bind and loose to all the Apostles – Matt 18:17-19; Jn 20:23). 5:23 “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.”

• The events surrounding Peter’s hypocrisy, recorded in the book of Galatians, gives evidence that he was not the universal leader of the Christian Church (Gal 2:11-14). Peter’s hypocrisy, if not corrected by the Apostle Paul, would have continued in a deviation from the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:14). 14 “But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas (Peter) in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

• Purgatory is not a biblical doctrine. Belief in purgatory adheres to the erroneous idea that God will accept the sufferings of sinners as a payment and purification for their sins. This is patently false; Christ is the only sacrifice for sins. Closely associated with teachings about purgatory is the notion of indulgences and their purchase (an indulgence is the means of remission of the temporal punishment due to sins; it may be applied to the living or the dead). Belief in this false doctrine amounts to an oblique attack (flank attack) on the perfect sufficiency of Christ’s work on behalf of sinners (Heb 10:10, 12, 14). 10 “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

• The Scriptures teach that every person will experience one of two unchangeable destinies at the moment of death: 1.) the redeemed will immediately be with Christ forever (2 Cor 5:8; 1 Cor 15:50-57; 1 Thess 4:15-17). 2.) The unsaved will face immediate, and fixed eternal judgment (Heb 9:27; Matt 25:41-46). 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.”

• The Virgin Mary, by her own admission, needed a Savior. In her prayer, recorded in Luke 1:46-55, she addresses God as her Savior. God’s work as Savior is to save sinners from their sin. Mary is a forgiven sinner like all other true believers. Scripture knows nothing of Mary hearing prayers or acting as a Mediator. 6 And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
• “Sainthood” is not earned. It is the status of every true believer in Christ. It is given as a gift of God’s grace at the moment of salvation (1 Cor 1:2). No deceased believer has the power to give us grace or pray for us. Christ alone is the Great High Priest; His prayers of intercession for His people are always all powerful and effectual (Rom 8:27, 33-34; Heb 7:25-27). 25 “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” It is impossible to believe that Christ is our all-sufficient High Priest, AND, at the same time believe that you must confess your sins to a human priest.

• No one can ‘put on Christ’ for righteousness (Gal 3:27) unless he has ‘put off’ all other proposed sources of being accepted by God. The following Scriptural metaphors are a good ‘test’ to see if a person is trusting in Christ alone, OR, in a combination of things that cannot save them. Christ has made a ‘covenant in His own blood with believers’. Ask yourself, “Is my hope laid up in Christ’s blood shed for sinners, or is my hope in my religious activities?” 20 “And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

Christ is the ‘city of refuge’ in which the believing sinner finds eternal safety. In this biblical metaphor, the law is the avenger of God’s justice against our sin. The only safe place is to ‘flee’ into city of refuge, which is Christ Himself. What is your refuge, your safety; is it Christ alone, or your own works? 17 “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, 20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 6:17-20).

Christ is the ‘robe of righteousness’ given freely to the believing sinner. Whose righteousness do you trust for acceptance with God? Is it Christ’s righteousness? If so, then you will gladly reject any effort to provide your own righteous in order to be accepted by God. Your imagined righteousness must be ‘unraveled’ if you are to receive the gift of Christ’s righteousness. 10 “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Is 61:10).

The anathemas (curses) pronounced by the Council of Trent concerning the doctrine of justification

Canon 4.

If anyone says that man’s free will moved and aroused by God, by assenting to God’s call and action, in no way cooperates toward disposing and preparing itself to obtain the grace of justification, that it cannot refuse its assent if it wishes, but that, as something inanimate, it does nothing whatever and is merely passive, let him be anathema.

Canon 6.

If anyone says that it is not in man’s power to make his ways evil, but that the works that are evil as well as those that are good God produces, not permissively only but also propria et per se, so that the treason of Judas is no less His own proper work than the vocation of St. Paul, let him be anathema.

Canon 7.

If anyone says that all works done before justification, in whatever manner they may be done, are truly sins, or merit the hatred of God; that the more earnestly one strives to dispose himself for grace, the more grievously he sins, let him be anathema.

Canon 9.

If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema.

Canon 11.

If anyone says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and remains in them, or also that the grace by which we are justified is only the good will of God, let him be anathema.

Canon 12.

If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema.

Canon 13.

If anyone says that in order to obtain the remission of sins it is necessary for every man to believe with certainty and without any hesitation arising from his own weakness and indisposition that his sins are forgiven him, let him be anathema.

Canon 14.

If anyone says that man is absolved from his sins and justified because he firmly believes that he is absolved and justified, or that no one is truly justified except him who believes himself justified, and that by this faith alone absolution and justification are effected, let him be anathema.

Canon 15.

If anyone says that a man who is born again and justified is bound ex fide to believe that he is certainly in the number of the predestined, let him be anathema.

Canon 17.

If anyone says that the grace of justification is shared by those only who are predestined to life, but that all others who are called are called indeed but receive not grace, as if they are by divine power predestined to evil, let him be anathema.

Canon 18.

If anyone says that the commandments of God are, even for one that is justified and constituted in grace, impossible to observe, let him be anathema.

Canon 19.

If anyone says that nothing besides faith is commanded in the Gospel, that other things are indifferent, neither commanded nor forbidden, but free; or that the ten commandments in no way pertain to Christians, let him be anathema.

Canon 20.

If anyone says that a man who is justified and however perfect is not bound to observe the commandments of God and the Church, but only to believe, as if the Gospel were a bare and absolute promise of eternal life without the condition of observing the commandments, let him be anathema.

Canon 23.

If anyone says that a man once justified can sin no more, nor lose grace, and that therefore he that falls and sins was never truly justified; or on the contrary, that he can during his whole life avoid all sins, even those that are venial, except by a special privilege from God, as the Church holds in regard to the Blessed Virgin, let him be anathema.

Canon 24.

If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of its increase, let him be anathema.

Canon 25.

If anyone says that in every good work the just man sins at least venially, or, what is more intolerable, mortally, and hence merits eternal punishment, and that he is not damned for this reason only, because God does not impute these works into damnation, let him be anathema.

Canon 26.

If anyone says that the just ought not for the good works done in God to expect and hope for an eternal reward from God through His mercy and the merit of Jesus Christ, if by doing well and by keeping the divine commandments they persevere to the end, let him be anathema.

Canon 27.

If anyone says that there is no mortal sin except that of unbelief, or that grace once received is not lost through any other sin however grievous and enormous except by that of unbelief, let him be anathema.

Canon 29.

If anyone says that he who has fallen after baptism cannot by the grace of God rise again, or that he can indeed recover again the lost justice but by faith alone without the sacrament of penance, contrary to what the holy Roman and Universal Church, instructed by Christ the Lord and His Apostles, has hitherto professed, observed and taught, let him be anathema.

Canon 30.

If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened,[132] let him be anathema.

Canon 31.

If anyone says that the one justified sins when he performs good works with a view to an eternal reward, let him be anathema.

Canon 32.

If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified; or that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit an increase of grace, eternal life, and in case he dies in grace, the attainment of eternal life itself and also an increase of glory, let him be anathema.

Canon 33.

If anyone says that the Catholic doctrine of justification as set forth by the holy council in the present decree, derogates in some respect from the glory of God or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, and does not rather illustrate the truth of our faith and no less the glory of God and of Christ Jesus, let him be anathema.