Does the Roman Catholic Church represent the true Christian faith?

"Let it be known to you all ... by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead ... This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10-12)

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all." (1 Timothy 2:5,6).

Jesus said to him, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me". (John 14:6)

"the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37).

The Roman Catholic church speaks truly on many issues. But the most important issue of all for us is the issue of salvation. Indeed, we have all sinned and corrupted ourselves (Romans 3:23). So much so that we can never approach God Almighty on the basis of our own merits or goodness. The question for a seeker after God is then: how may I approach God? As we can see from the Bible verses above, the only way to God is through Jesus Christ. These verses present Christ not only as being the Only Way, but also as being One who welcomes us. The Roman Catholic church has undermined this vital revelation of Christ in several ways.

The Roman Catholic church has presented Mary to the world as the one who will intercede for us to Jesus. Catholic popes have always glorified Mary. Thus Pope Leo XIII stated in his rosary encyclical, "Octobri mense" (1891): "Nobody can approach Christ except through the mother". But this is patently false, if the gospels are to be believed, because the gospels are full of examples of people coming to Christ directly. These stories contain no references to Mary whatsoever. The leper of Matthew 8:2, for example, did not request an interview with Mary before coming and worshiping Christ. Neither need we. Unclean as we may be, we can come to Jesus directly and receive cleansing from our wonderful Savior. He is not an angry Savior who must be placated by his mother. There is no other mediator between God and men besides Jesus. Not Mary, not saints, not special priests. None of these can repent and believe for you, and God requires you to repent and believe the gospel before you can be truly saved. "Unless you repent, you also will perish" (Luke 13:3). "He who hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me Me has everlasting life" said Jesus (John 5:24). I sincerely counsel all people of Roman Catholic persuasion to simply hear the Words of Jesus as recorded in the gospels for us. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached..." (2 Corinthians 11:3,4).

Popes and priests of the Roman Catholic church have not only presented a false Savior to the world. They have also clouded the issue of who Jesus Christ really is as Lord and Savior, by substituting another Jesus for the One that truly is. For example, they have declared that their specially blessed "hosts" in the Mass are truly "Jesus". The Council of Trent, which is still in force today for Catholics, states that anyone who denies that the host is truly Jesus is "anathema" - cursed and to be damned. I treat this issue more fully in some of my material below. It is an important point. Its important to realise that the Bible teaches that the sacrifice of Jesus was a once for all sacrifice, and cannot be truly repeated at the Mass (Hebrews 10:12; 14).. This is where priests and popes have lied. The truth is not in them, since they blatantly contradict the Scriptures they profess to honor. They place their traditions and what they say above what God says. The two are not the same.

Many have written to me telling me that I am really very ignorant concerning the Catholic church. I don't profess to know everything - the Catholic religion is extremely complicated and you have to study a lot to know it well. However, here is the story of a man who did study these things, lived and ministered as a Roman Catholic priest for years, and then after some agony of heart and conscience realised the error of his ways and repented, becoming a true born again Christian.

Read here the life testimony of Richard Peter Bennett who was a Roman Catholic priest and studied at the The Angelicum University in Rome.

By the way, although I've met plenty of people who have been turned off God by the Catholic church and its representatives, that wasn't my personal experience. My motivation for writing is to point people to Jesus and away from the substitutes that have been offered. I don't have some kind of grudge against the Roman Catholic church at all. I am also against any attempt by Protestants or Catholics to impose their religion on one another by force. Such things have happened on both sides and are contrary to the Spirit of Christ no matter in which camp they originate.

Do You Know the Lord?

You may know far more about the teachings of the Roman Catholic church than me. I'd like to ask you though, "Do you know the Lord?" I'm not even asking you if you know the Bible teaching about the Lord. Some Roman Catholics do know the Lord, but the majority sadly do not. There are also many Protestants who do not know the Lord. Evangelicals, those who take the Holy Scriptures as the final authority on matters of faith and doctrine, have the advantage that they tend to go directly to the Scriptures to understand God's will, rather than to a priest. The priest may be good or he may be bad, as men count these things, but unless Jesus Christ is truly in his life, He has no chance of really showing the way to heaven. Instead, he offers rituals which may represent the life of Jesus, but don't impart it. These rituals all symbolise the truly important things, but they confuse the form with the reality. See here.

No church can save. Only Jesus can save (Acts 4:12). Having a relationship with the Apostle Peter cannot save you. You may trust your priest. But do you truly trust Christ? The Roman Catholic church has failed to lift up Jesus Christ properly and has many times instead presented the world with "another Jesus" in the form of an icon, a host, a priest or a pope. But "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). The real Jesus sets people free from guilt and shame, from demons and disease by giving them the truth of His Word, the power of His Spirit, and cleansing through His blood. It is this Jesus that we must come to know personally. Accept no substitutes!

Your priest may know his bishop, who knows the cardinal, who knows the pope, who traces himself back to Peter. But it should be obvious that the purity and power of the way of Jesus Christ has been lost long ago through all this transmission. A number of the popes were godless sinners, some even had sexual orgies. Others, thinking they offered God service, ordered the murder of simple gospel believing Christian people. Is it wise to just believe everything the Catholic church says without taking the time to think about the issues? What if the way of salvation taught by Rome is now radically different to the one taught be Jesus and the apostles? Thankfully the Roman Catholic church has not been permitted by God to radically alter the text of the Bible. The Cathol

Get your free registration and log in to view entire article