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My husband loves God and we believe in no other gods. We do not consider the Pope above God nor Mary, however I do not want to be offending God. My family is against me being Catholic because of these issues. What do you say about this?
I know you are a Protestant, however you seem to not separate yourself from any true believer. I also have some family members who are trying to bring back old Jewish traditions. This past year we celebrated Rosh Hashanah. They say our holidays are evil.
All of this is confusing me. What should I do? Please help me understand God’s Word. As I believe He has all the answers in the Bible, if I only knew how to interpret it
Answer: Thank you for your questions, however, they are not all that easy to answer. The reason for this is because you have brought up issues that have been debated for hundreds of years by born again Christians. Still, we have the Word of God and I believe there are answers. This does not mean that I can decide for you what is best in your situation. For example, I cannot tell you that you need to go to church with your husband. I can tell you that God will give you wisdom as you pray about what He would have you do.
Personally, I could fellowship with Christians in the Catholic Church. I have visited on several occasions and found it quit uplifting. I have gone to baptisms, weddings, first communion celebrations, and a funeral (Rosary), etc. Does that mean that I agree with everything that goes on there, my answer would have to be, no. But then I haven’t gone to a church yet, where I agree with everything they teach. I do go where I believe they agree most with the Bible.
You being the wife need to be subject to your husband, as much as women in America don’t want to hear this. "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the Church; and He is the Savior of the body." Ephesians 5:22-23 (For a further study on this subject look at our Bible Study on Ephesians chapter 5.) Does that mean that if you end up going to church services with your husband, that you have to become a member of the Roman Catholic Church? Again these have to be decisions that you and your husband will have to make together. I would not presume to tell you what to do, because that is your husband’s responsibly after prayerfully discussing it with you and God.
It is interesting that you asked these questions, because at one time I considered these same things. I even went so far as to speak with Father ---- in this area, and we had a good visit. One of the things we discussed was whether or not he considered me to be a Christian going to heaven, since I was not Roman Catholic. He asked if I had been baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I assured him that I had been, after I was saved. In fact our whole family had been baptized after my father became a Christian.
I asked him if I would be allowed to take Communion with them. He said that I would need to take Catechism classes before I would be allowed to partake with them. He was a kind man of God. I believe he has helped a lot of people in our area.
To make a long story short, I didn’t go through with it. Even though I believe I could be a Christian in the Roman Catholic Church. However, I do not believe I have to be baptized by a priest in that particular denomination in order to be saved, as Pastor ---- pointed out. Which, of course I knew the answer to already; I just wanted to hear what he had to say. By the way if you want to go to a good web site to study more about the Roman Catholic denomination you could go to this address: http://www.answers.com/topic/roman-catholic-church
You need to realize that the Roman Catholic denomination is huge. In the United States alone there may be as many as sixty million plus members. Also it is in many parts of the world. So even though the church has a doctrinal stand that people are supposed to hold to, it doesn’t always happen that way.
Let me give you some examples of what I mean here. In Mexico there are places where people really do worship the statues (idols) or the Virgin of Guadalupe (Guadalupe is considered to be the Virgin Mary, who appeared in an Indian form). I asked Father ---- what he thought about this, and he said that not all Catholics agree with the belief. There are places where Roman Catholics will physically persecute Evangelicals. For example, parents will disown their children sometime for becoming "born again" and leaving the Roman Catholic Church. In United States this does not happen as much, but in other countries it does.
In Trinidad where we served with Child Evangelism Fellowship, the Roman Catholic Church had no problem fellowshipping with "false cults." When I say "cults," I mean those who do not believe that Jesus is God. This is the type of thing that turns Evangelicals off about Roman Catholics. However, in spite of saying these things, and being very honest and open with you, I still believe that there are those in the Roman Catholic Church that are truly born again. I say this because I know many personally. Salvation is a matter of faith. One must repent of their sins, and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Being baptized as an infant does not save one; you must have a personal belief in Christ as Lord and Savior, and some Roman Catholics do believe.
Now to answer your question should a person pray to Mary? My answer would have to be, No. The reason for this is because the Bible teaches that there is one mediator between God and Man and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." (1 Timothy 2:57) When some people came to Mary, Jesus’ mother, and asked her what to do, she referred them to Christ. "His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it." (John 2:5) I believe that is what she would say to those today who pray to her.
Should you call the Pope Holy Father, I do have a problem with this too, because we know that our Father is in heaven, and that His Son is also referred to as the Father because He is one with Him, so I would not be able to say Holy Father of the Pope. "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)
That being said, I have gone to Evangelical churches that had things I strongly disagreed with. They may not believe in six literal days of Creation. (Many Roman Catholics hold to an allegorical view of Creation.) They may believe in closed Communion (Roman Catholics believe in closed Communion), they may believe in baptismal regeneration (some Protestants believe in this), on and on the list goes. No denomination here on earth has a corner on the truth, even if they are huge, and claim to have all the truth. If that were the case why have the teachings of the Catholic Church, as well as other denominations, changed so much through the years?
That is why, no matter what denomination you go to, you need to consult the Bible for your answers. St. Paul commended the Bereans for checking with Scripture to see if what he was teaching went along with the Bible. "The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." (Acts 17:10-11)
As far as going to the Roman Catholic Church with your husband, I see nothing wrong with it, but I would go there with an attitude of love, and the motivation of learning and also sharing. You may end up going through the Catechism classes so you can take Communion with your husband. This could also be a good learning experience for you, with that being said, if you do in fact start going to church with him. I would ask your husband if you could go to your own church sometimes too.
Paul went back to the Temple and participated in Jewish ceremonies in order to reach some that had not had a clear presentation of the gospel. "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you." (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)
To be honest with you if you go to the Roman Catholic Church you will find, as in any church denominations, there will be some who are truly born again, and others who have no clue what it means to be saved. The reason for this, so often, is because not all churches give a clear presentation of the gospel. There is such an emphasis on the person’s baptism as a baby and the other Sacraments (as they call them) Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, (also called Confession and Penance, Anointing of the Sick (formerly or less frequently called Extreme Unction), Holy Orders, and matrimony, that a person could easily lose sight of salvation by faith alone in Christ’s work on the Cross.
However, the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on salvation is: "That salvation to eternal life is God’s will for all people, and that God grants it to sinners as a free gift, a grace, through the sacrifice of Christ. Man cannot, in the strict sense, merit anything from God. It is God who justifies, that is, who frees from sin by a free gift of holiness (sanctifying grace, also known as habitual or deifying grace). Man can accept the gift God gives through faith in Jesus Christ and through baptism… and then they go on to talk about works." (Roman Catholic web site information: http://www.answers.com/roman-catholic-church )
I would suggest that you get grounded in what the Bible teaches on salvation from Romans before you go to a Roman Catholic Church. (You can get onto our study of Romans if you would like to see what Scripture teaches for yourself.)
Something that Protestants need to understand is that for about a thousand years there was just one Church. Then about 1000 A.D. the Eastern Orthodox Church broke off. Later reformers like Luther and others about 1500 A.D., and so on. So if a Christian is condemning the Catholic Church as a whole they are really shooting themselves in the foot, and do not understand Church history.
That being said, the other denominations (I say denominations because there is really only one true Church, and that is of born again believers, through out the ages—see our article the Holy Catholic Church) came out of the Roman Catholic denomination to protest (thus the name Protestants) against some abuses in the Roman Catholic Church.
Through the years some things have changed for the better, others for the worse. For example, Roman Catholics are encouraged to read the Bible, the mass can be held in English or the language of the people of the country they are in. Other things have changed for the worse, such as so much emphasis on the Virgin Mary, as important as she is. Even now they are talking about changing the denominations view on the eternal punishment in hell (see our article, Is there a Real Hell?). Still our salvation comes through Christ and His death on the Cross as a sacrifice for us. So it is through His blood alone that we are saved.
All of this being said, you may be catching the way I feel about Roman Catholics, and that is I love them even as Christ loved them and gave His life for them. He wants them as well as everyone else in the world to come to Him as the only Redeemer in the world where by we can be saved. "Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’" (John 4:6) Many Evangelicals have written off Roman Catholics and will have nothing to do with them. This is a shame because Christ never intended for them to think this way, nor is it living by love.
So often, it is those Roman Catholics that missed the message of salvation in their own denomination, and now they have left the church and have become bitter toward other Roman Catholics. They have trouble separating their feelings about the denomination from their feels toward others in the Roman Catholic Church. This is not true Christian love, Stephen in the Bible when he was being stoned by the Jews asked God to forgive them. "And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep." (Acts 7:59-60)
How much more should Christians that have been born again be willing to forgive others whom they think have wronged them? I can’t help but think now, about how the Amish so recently, forgave the family of the one who killed their little girls, what an act of Christian love! Would to God that we Christians around the world could love each other as Christ prayed that we would, before He went back to the Father!
"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you…But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart…
"I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are…Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth…
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; [us today] that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me…And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 16, 17 This is part of Our Lord’s Prayer before He went to the Cross.)
I don’t know how this prayer of Our Lord Jesus is going to be answered, but I believe it will be answered before long. It may be that it will take persecution here, like is happening in so many parts of the world today. Do you think when Christians are in jail together, ready to be executed or tortured for Our Lord that they will not be in communion with one another? Do you think they will be talking about differences or about the joy of suffering for Christ, and the love they have for each other. We need to get a hold of this concept of Christian unity before persecution comes.
Does that mean we have to compromise what we believe from the Bible? NO! Does that mean that we will all believe exactly alike before we get to heaven? NO! But we can love each others as Christians, as Christ prayed that we would. And what did He say would happen when the world sees this type of love? Many in the world would believe in Christ as a result of this love! Talk about a formula for revival!
Ok, you may have guessed that I am pretty passionate about this. I believe it is the heart of God, for us to love one another, as there is that love in the Holy Trinity. Now God wants that love for each other, as Christians in the Church. Not this running each other down. Oh, yes, we need to speak out against the wrongs, even as Martin Luther did, but we must continue to love one another.
Well, you probably got more than you bargained for, but I believe God would have me say this. I have been spoken against for this belief, but God won’t let me stop talking about it. I believe Evangelicals, of which I am one, need to think of ways to fellowship with believers in the Roman Catholic Church. I have been to Thanksgiving services with them and Good Friday Services. We have had worship services together in the community. At this point Roman Catholics will not be able to take Communion with us, but they will worship, pray and sing together with us. Why can’t this sort of thing happen more often?
Well, I hope this helped answer some of your questions, oh, about Rosh Hashanah and other Jewish services, I think this is great! I have gone to the Passover meal before, and held it for others. (Check out our web link Jews for Jesus, who also do this sort of thing.) Jesus and His disciples saw nothing wrong with it, so you are in good company. There will always be those who criticize you, but we can’t stop doing right for them. Look at what they said and did to Jesus and his Apostles! We see the fulfillment of all of these Jewish Feast days in Christ Jesus our Lord. One day soon the Jewish nation will accept Jesus of the Bible as their Messiah and LORD! Keep looking up, and thanks for the questions. God bless you, and your family.
In Him,
Gary T. Panell
The Scripture used in this discussion is taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.
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