Are you saved? "I'm Catholic!"

Are you saved? “I’m Catholic!”

When I hear statements like this it triggers so many other questions about one’s salvation. Either you are saved or you’re not saved. And stating that you are a particular religion does not declare your walk in Christ.

There are so many things I find wrong in religion. And so many things we state incorrectly out of habit. For instance, the statement “Praise the Lord!” is not a greeting, it’s an action that is done for God. People will answer their phone, “Praise the Lord!” Now, what would happen if people actually did?

You would have to sit there and wait until they were finished giving God praise. I learned some time ago that the response to “praise the Lord” is “Hallelujah” but let’s not go off into a different path, we would here awhile just addressing how we do things out of religious habits.

We can look at every denomination of Christianity and say, “Not ALL of them are saved” but when we examine the Roman Catholic Church and the crucial problem in their belief system you will find that they believe faith alone in Christ is not sufficient for salvation.

Time is not on our side to address all there is about the Roman Catholic Church. So my suggestion to you would be to do your own extensive study behind the Roman Catholic Church. And that just might mean enrolling in some Biblical courses. It wouldn’t hurt. We all need to expand our knowledge of Biblical culture.

But on that note, when it comes to Jesus and our salvation, the Bible clearly and regularly states that receiving Christ Jesus as Savior, here it is, by grace through faith, grants salvation. How can anyone dispute this? Let me give you some Biblical references for this:

• John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”
• John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
• Acts 16:31 So they said, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
• Romans 10:9, 10, 13 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. 13 For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

I said all of that to say this right here, Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8, 9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

This is what is rejected by the Roman Catholic Church. Let me share what the official position of the Roman Catholic Church is, and I will try my best to simplify this as best as I can for you. It is taught by the Roman Catholic Church, which in my humble opinion is contrary to Scripture, that a person must believe in Jesus Christ AND be baptized AND receive the Eucharist (a Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper) along with the other sacraments AND obey the decrees of the Roman Catholic Church AND perform meritorious works (deserving reward or praise) AND not die with any mortal sins AND etc., etc., etc.

So, if one were to ask if Catholicism is a false religion; when it comes to the Catholic divergence from the Bible of salvation then the answer would be yes. And if a person believes what the Catholic Church officially teaches, then they will not be saved. And if one asks, “Aren’t Roman Catholics Christians?” Well, if they have trusted in Christ Jesus alone for the forgiveness of their sins then the answer would be yes. 

But I feel I must make this statement in regard to personal salvation. No one can truly say whether a Roman Catholic is truly a Christian or not, and this goes for anyone else since we cannot know what’s in a person's heart.

But you need to understand that any claim that works or ceremonies or rituals must be added to faith in order for salvation to be achieved is a claim that Jesus’ death was not sufficient to fully purchase our salvation. You do know that His death paid for our sins on the cross?

Salvation by faith is the most crucial issue because in comparing Roman Catholicism with the Word of God, there are many other differences and contradictions that go along with it. As Bishop TD Jakes would say, “Can I go deeper?” The Roman Catholic Church teaches several doctrines that do not line up and are in disagreement with what the Bible teaches. These include the following, and again, please do your own research.

• apostolic succession (the uninterrupted transmission of spiritual authority from the Apostles through successive popes and bishops).
• worship of saints or Mary
• prayer to saints or Mary
• the pope/papacy
• infant baptism (the practice of sprinkling infants with water).
• transubstantiation (according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the change of substance or essence by which the bread and wine offered in the sacrifice of the sacrament of the Eucharist during the Mass, become, in reality, the body and blood of Jesus Christ).
• plenary indulgences (remission of the entire temporal punishment for sin).
• the sacramental system (visible rites seen as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those who receive them with the proper disposition).
• and purgatory (a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are exploiting their sins before going to heaven).

None of these teachings by the Roman Catholic Church, even though they claim Scriptural support for these concepts, have any solid foundation in the clear teachings of Biblical Scripture. They are solely based on Catholic tradition, not the Word of God. I will even go as far as to say that these teachings by the Roman Catholic Church clearly contradict Biblical principles.

In regards to the question “Are you saved?”, and the statement, “I’m Catholic,'' pretty much answers that question. It is impossible to give a universal declaration on the salvation of all members of any denomination of Christianity because not ALL Pentecostal is saved. ALL Baptists are saved. Not ALL Presbyterians are saved. Not ALL Lutherans are saved. Let me shed some light on you too… Not ALL C.O.G.I.C. is saved.

Pope Francis canonizes John XXIII and John Paul II

When it comes to salvation, and this reaches the four corners of the world, salvation is determined by one’s personal faith in Jesus alone for salvation, not by ceremonies, rites, titles or denominational identification.

To all of those that are connected to the Roman Catholic Church, despite the unbiblical beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, there are some genuine believers who attend Roman Catholic churches. I truly believe that there are many Roman Catholics who have sincerely placed their faith in Christ Jesus alone for salvation.

And regardless of what the Catholic Church teaches, these Catholic Christians, rightly so, are true believers, and not because of what it teaches about salvation.

Let me close with this, to fluctuating degrees, the Catholic Church teaches from the Bible and points people to Jesus Christ as the Savior. As a result of this, whether you realize it or not, there are people are saved in Catholic churches.

Whenever the Bible is proclaimed, it has an awesome impact on one’s life. And it will not come back void as stated in Isaiah 55:11 “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

It can also be said that those Catholic Christians that remain in the Catholic Church do so out of family tradition, peer pressure, out of ignorance of what the Catholic Church truly stands for, or better yet I pray that it is out of a desire to reach other Catholics for Christ.

At the same time, it needs to be said that the Catholic Church also leads many people away from a true faith relationship with Christ. Because of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and their unbiblical beliefs it has often given the enemies of Christ the opportunity to commit blasphemy.

Factoid: The Roman Catholic Church is not the church that Jesus Christ established and not a church that is based on the teachings of the Apostles (as described in the Book of Acts and the New Testament epistles).

In Mark 7:9 Jesus clearly was talking to the Pharisees, but His words accurately describe the Roman Catholic Church, “All too well you reject the commandments of God, that you may keep your own traditions!”

Are you a follower of the Roman Catholic Church? Would you like to have a real faith relationship with Christ Jesus? If you would then repeat this prayer after me.

Heavenly Father, I come to You admitting that I am a sinner in need of rescuing. Right now, I choose to turn away from my sin and the teaching of the Catholic Church, and I ask You to cleanse me of all unrighteousness.

I desire to be set free right now. And I ask you to forgive me. I believe that Your Son Christ Jesus died on the cross to take away my sins. I also believe that He rose again from the dead so that I might be forgiven of my sins and made righteous through faith in Him.

I call upon the name of Christ Jesus and confess Him to be my Lord and Savior of my life. The Pope cannot save me, Mary cannot save me. Jesus, I choose to follow You and ask You to fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit.

I declare that by my faith, right now I am a child of God. I believe that you have forgiven me. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20). I am free from sin and full of the righteousness of God. I am saved in Jesus’ name. Amen.

If you prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, I welcome you to the family of God. From this moment on, start learning how to live a life of faith by finding a good Holy Spirit-filled, Bible taught church so that you can grow in your faith as you walk the pathway to Christ. Write to me, share your story of faith, and let me know if you said yes to Jesus. Email me at LifesWordMinistry@gmail.com.  

I would also like to take this time to thank those of you that partner with us by sowing a financial seed into this ministry regularly. Your generous giving allows us to share the gospel throughout the world. If you’re not a partner and would like to sow into this ministry you can do so by going to PayPal.me/lifeswordministry. 

To receive a copy of my new book Pathway to Christ you can go to Amazon and purchase it there. Or if you would like a personally autographed copy you can go to PayPal.me/malachi660/15 and you will be put on the list and I will autograph your book. We will even pay for the shipping. And be sure to subscribe and follow us right here on Life’s Word Podcast. God Loves You, and I Do Too!

References:

Process of salvation in Roman Catholicism: https://carm.org/catholic/catholic-salvation-summary

Life's Word Ministry