Raised a Catholic:
All my life, I had been led to believe that
the Catholic Church was the final authority of my faith, and that I had
no right to question anything concerning its teaching. The Roman Catholic
system teaches that all authority comes from God, but that God has appointed
the Catholic system to be the guardian of His authority. I always had so
many questions and never the answers to fill my mind. The Priests at my
church were never to be questioned, but only listened to. Besides that
I was afraid of them as a child and young teen. Did I read the Bible as
a child? No, I was not told to so therefore I did not. I only knew the
Scriptures from what I was told by the nuns and priests and certain sections
of prayers that I was given on papers to study.
I can remember some of my studies such as
the lives of the saints. We were taught how to become good Catholics. We
all seemed to be busy trying to build a mountain of good works so we could
make ourselves more acceptable to God. All this because we never knew that
we could get to God because of the offering Jesus Christ made of Himself
for our sins.
Therefore: ( John 17:4)
When Jesus said to God, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me
to do," He meant that the work He did in behalf of sinners was complete
and could not be added to
A Catholic cannot believe in the Scriptures
without the authority of the Church to accredit the Scriptures! The
Roman Catholic Church declares that God's authority is not sufficient to
oblige men to believe and bow to it; it seeks to place church authority
above God's authority.
What I now know:
(Luke 4:8)
True faith is faith in what God has said because
God has said it! Faith in God is belief in God's Word, the Bible, without
any authority other than itself. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve"
Baptism:
The Roman Catholic believes that salvation
is based on water and works. Baptismal process is the cornerstone of the
Catholic system. The Church teaches that no one can enter the kingdom of
heaven unless he or she is baptized.
What I now know
- Salvation is by grace, not baptism or works. We cannot earn grace, nor
do we deserve grace. "For by grace are ye 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)
The source of Catholic faith is the Church.
Your loyalty is to the Church. The Christian, however, knows that salvation
is based on Christ's work alone, a finished work to which nothing can be
added. The source of Christian faith is the Bible. Its object is Jesus
Christ. Therefore, true faith is in a Person not a church. In order for
faith to work, it must be anchored to the person of Jesus Christ.
God's Word needs nothing other than itself.
When as an adult I finally figured this out in my mind, I was free to find
the truth, I found the way to God through Jesus Christ. John
14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life;
no man cometh unto the Father but by me"
I wanted to learn more, I wanted to read the
word, and I wanted to make sure I went to heaven. I picked up my daughters
Bible and started to read. I had taught her to read the Bible when she was young but I never read it much myself, silly huh ? I thought
to myself why didn't I ever do that myself? Then I also started to
read and study the NIV bible given to me by a Christian friend, " Thank you Jeff". I couldn't
stop reading. God reached out and touched my heart. I learned
more and more each day and most of all I learned about myself. I found
that I was a sinner, and, being the sinner that I was I was therefore separated
from God! Wow!, I thought to myself, I am lost for sure, how am I going
to fix this? I want to be with my family when I pass on, and at this time I was not sure I would get there.
I could hear my Lori again as she had said to me so many times after her father had passed on. " Mom, lets put our faith in Jesus, he will get us through this."Here I must inject a Thank you to Pastor Tom for getting my Lori on the right path to the Lord. Pastor is no longer with us and has also gone to the Lord.
In Acts 16:31
I found - "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved.
( Acts 4:12)"
Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
In Romans, I learned that Christ satisfied
the just demands of a Holy God for judgment on sin by His death on the
Cross. "Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from
the deeds of the law"
Now I started to realize that I had a mountain
of sins piled up and they had never really been dealt with. Oh sure I had
confessed my sins to the priest and did my duty with penance. Now I realized
that going to confession had been giving me false security, my sins
were not forgiven because of the priest and the doing of penance that he
told me.
What I now know:
A priest does not have the power to forgive
sins in the name of Jesus, even if he claims he does. Our sins are forgiven
only because of the bloodshed of Jesus in our place.
God has never given authority to any person
to make the decision as to whether another person's sins will be forgiven
or not, He is the only one who truly knows what is in that person's heart.
Now I knew why Jesus had to die on the Cross. Jesus paid the price for
my sin by His death. “ Price paid in full”
All these years I had questioned “in my mind
only of course” why did I have to tell the priest my sins, why could I
not go direct to God, would he not listen to me? Now I realized
that, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins so we can spend eternity with
God in heaven. What glory, what sacrifice, and this were done for me. “Praise
God”
No longer did I believe:
That the Catholic Church was the one true church and was there for salvation
regardless of what the Bible said. No longer was I going to make
a set of man made rules do my thinking for me. No longer would I think
that the church was an equal authority of the Bible. Or that this was the
final authority of faith.
My salvation or the basis of my Justification
is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, and, when I, by faith, receive
atonement of Jesus in my place as full payment of my sinners death penalty.
I have righteousness of Jesus Christ to me.
In no way am I righteous by myself, and also
in no way can I save myself or keep myself saved. Jesus Christ is my righteousness.
It is only "In Christ" that I am righteous. I am not worthy to approach
God of myself. However, when I approach God in my substitute, that is,
in Christ, I am then worthy to do so by God because He sees me in the perfect
righteousness of His Son!
The Catholic Church denies that we are justified
by that faith, which comes from Christ alone and depends on Him for salvation
which, is freely offered to us by grace. Instead, they teach we are justified,
not simply by faith in Christ, but by faith, which has become activated
by good works.
The Catholic believes God accepts him by his
righteousness which has been with the sacrament at baptism and other sacraments.
As the Catholic receives sanctifying grace attached to each sacrament,
he or she is taught that he or she actually becomes righteous or holy on
the basis of his own word.
The differences
between the true Christian faith and the Roman Catholic system were becoming
so clear to me more and more each day. I now walk the path with Bible-believing
Christians.
Now I worry about my friends and what
they have been lead to believe all these years. I am not on a crusade to
change them, but I do try to make them think at times and try to persuade
them to read the Bible. I have said, Don’t take the word of a man,
read the truth for yourself.” Maybe one of them will one day come to me
and say,” Wow, I now know what I have been missing.”
 God
Bless everyone. Walk in the light of Jesus...........
For all of you who have painful hearts, thorough
loss of a love one in some way or another. Be it the death of that love
one or the end of a relationship. I say to you, fill your aching
hearts with the love of Jesus and he will be there with his guiding hand
now and forever.Through His grace and love we are truly saved and He will fill our painful hearts with his loving kindness.
To those of you who have inquired about
how I am doing today, I hope this page explains it all . God Bless all
of you and thank you for your e mail and loving words these past few years.
Thank you for the support you have given to me from afar. so many
of you I never met in person but your friendship is something I
will cherish forever .
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