This is week 2 and I’m very excited about FAITH. During class time we talked about Roman Catholicism and how it is different then what the book calls “Protestant Christianity”. One of the biggest differences is how the bible is viewed. We believe in sola scriptura-“Scripture alone.” That the bible is all that we need (see 2 Tim 3:16). In the Catholic Church, they give equal weight to Scripture and traditions. They have what is called “Sacred Traditions”. The bishops have this special insight that is passed on from the apostles and then down from Bishop to Bishop. They also believe that the Pope is infallible when he speaks for the Church.The way that they view the Bible is also very different. They see the bible as a “churched-based book.” They believe that the Church observed things and then wrote them down in a book. We believe again that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
Because of how they view the Bible and give so much weight on the traditions of men (Mark 7), it is easy for them to move away from the truth. I’m not going to go through every difference but just pull a few of the biggest ones out.
We are saved by faith (Eph. 2;8,9). Catholics believe that you are saved by faith plus works. That is it a life long process. You are baptized as a baby to wash away you original sin but your mortal and venial (easily forgiven) sins need to be confessed to a priest and taken care of by penance. Penance simply means to make amends for those sins. Penance can be anything from repeating by saying certain prayers to fasting.
Because they still can’t do enough in this short lifetime to make it to heaven, Catholics believe that you must go to Purgatory a special place to be cleansed of your sins and made fit for heaven.
There have been many tries to unit the Catholic Church with “Protestants”, but without any success. They keep trying to find some common ground that both sides agree on, but what should be done is just start at the beginning. Let’s see what scripture has to says. No agreement will ever be made when the rules keep being changed. If the Bishops and Pope hold equal weight to the Bible, then it will be easy to get off track. While looking at the different doctrines of the Catholic Church, you’ll see doctrines or rules referenced not by a scripture in the bible but a pope and a year. Take this example. We believe that Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). Catholics believe by the words of Pope Leo XIII in 1891: “[A]s no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His mother.” That was added in 1891 and holds equal weight with the bible.
This is why we must always hold the scripture as Gods holy inspired word.
Our visit
We went door knocking tonight. We only made it to two house because each of them were fairly long visits. The first one was a couple that attended St. Luke’s. The wife gave a “Faith” answer to the key question on how a person gets to heaven. We had a good discussion about children and other ministries in our two churches. We prayed with them before leaving
It was getting dark and the neighbor’s house was dark so we skipped that one and went to the next house. It was a young woman and her daughter. The daughter attended Victory Baptist School and the Church in the past. I asked her the Key question and she gave a works answer, “live like Christ”. Before we could continue on with the gospel, she took over the conversation. She had some very informative things to say on her view of how the Church should to minister to a changing world of divorce families, drug use, and many societal problems. Josh talked about our Sunday school class and how it is not the typical “preach to you” style and that we talk about these everyday issues.
We left there late as usually for my team and we needed to find someone to give the bible to. We saw a fire truck at Taco Bell and figured these people would be perfect, but the firemen were inside and we didn’t have time for them to come out. We drove to Fitness 10 and there were two guys in the parking lot talking. Josh gave them each a bible and they said they were just talking about Church. By the way, Sherri ending up giving her bible to the firemen later as her team came in.
Prayer Request
Pray that God will show each of us opportunities to share Christ. Pray for all our ministries at the Church, our school and our missionaries.
This is why we must always hold the scripture as Gods holy inspired word.
Our visit
We went door knocking tonight. We only made it to two house because each of them were fairly long visits. The first one was a couple that attended St. Luke’s. The wife gave a “Faith” answer to the key question on how a person gets to heaven. We had a good discussion about children and other ministries in our two churches. We prayed with them before leaving
It was getting dark and the neighbor’s house was dark so we skipped that one and went to the next house. It was a young woman and her daughter. The daughter attended Victory Baptist School and the Church in the past. I asked her the Key question and she gave a works answer, “live like Christ”. Before we could continue on with the gospel, she took over the conversation. She had some very informative things to say on her view of how the Church should to minister to a changing world of divorce families, drug use, and many societal problems. Josh talked about our Sunday school class and how it is not the typical “preach to you” style and that we talk about these everyday issues.
We left there late as usually for my team and we needed to find someone to give the bible to. We saw a fire truck at Taco Bell and figured these people would be perfect, but the firemen were inside and we didn’t have time for them to come out. We drove to Fitness 10 and there were two guys in the parking lot talking. Josh gave them each a bible and they said they were just talking about Church. By the way, Sherri ending up giving her bible to the firemen later as her team came in.
Prayer Request
Pray that God will show each of us opportunities to share Christ. Pray for all our ministries at the Church, our school and our missionaries.
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