Missional Living Training - The Roman Catholic Church
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COTV Missional Living - The Roman Catholic Church
9/15/2024
Why discuss the Roman Catholic Church?
As of 2024, there are ~1.3 billion professing Catholics worldwide, making it the largest branch of Christianity.
On the surface, things may not seem so different between what us and other protestant churches believe and what the Catholic church officially teaches. Just because the Catholic Church teaches something officially does not mean every professing Catholic holds to that doctrine.
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
There is one God in three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) who is the Creator of heaven and Earth. All of humankind was and is made in His image. (Section 1).
Everyone since is born with an inclination to sin, which is humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to Him. Original sin is an essential truth of the faith (Section 2, Chapter 1). Because of sin, there is a need for salvation.
While we were in sin, the only Son of God (Jesus, the Christ) was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus is fully man and fully God. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Section 2, Chapter 2).
Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Christ rose from the grave on the third day and is seated at the right hand of the Father. One day He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead (Section 2, Chapter 2).
Believing in Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation. Without faith in Jesus, no one has ever attained justification (Section 1, Chapter 3). We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ.
Full Disclosure: There are major similarities between Catholicism and Evangelical Protestantism, but there are also striking differences on topics like: Scripture and Authority, Baptism, Communion, Sin, and Salvation.
JUSTIFICATION - God declaring a sinner righteous before Him
How does God judge sin AND justify the sinner at the same time?
How does God satisfy Himself AND save sinners at the same time?
How does God declare us righteous without condoning us in our sin?
The RCC and Protestant teachings answer this question in totally different ways.
“Justification is the hinge point on which all else swings.” (Paraphrase)
John Calvin
Q1: Are we saved by Works or Faith?
What do Catholics believe?
Sources:
The Council of Trent (1554-1563)
https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english233/Council_of_Trent6.htm#schismatics
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
In one sense, the RCC teaches that we cannot be saved based on our own works. Session 6 Canon 1 of the COT (Decree Concerning Justification) condemns anyone that says a person can be justified by his/her own works apart from God’s grace.
So what?
In chapters and canons that follow, the COT goes on to further establish the RCC’s position and pronounce condemnation or curse on those who hold to a certain understanding of how sinners are justified before a Holy God.
anathema: one upon whom a solemn ecclesiastical curse is pronounced, followed by excommunication.
COT Session 6 Canon 4 “If anyone says that man's free will moved and aroused by God, by assenting to God's call and action, in no way cooperates toward disposing and preparing itself to obtain the grace of justification, that it cannot refuse its assent if it wishes, but that, as something inanimate, it does nothing whatever and is merely passive, let him be anathema.”
COT Session 6 Canon 9 “If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema.”
Summary: We cooperate in preparing ourselves for and obtaining our justification. We are not passive but active within this, and sinners are not justified by Faith alone.
COT Session 6 Canon 24 “If anyone says that justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely fruits and signs of justification obtained, not the cause of its increase, let him be anathema.”
Summary: Once we obtain the grace of justification, our good works preserve and also increase our justification before God. Works are not the mere fruits of justification, but contribute towards obtaining and keeping it.
Faith and Sacraments
The RCC officially teaches that we are made right before God by faith and sacrament. There are seven sacraments of the RCC, which according to the RCC were established by Christ and entrusted to the church.
The sacraments are seen as efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those who receive them in the proper disposition.
EUCHARIST
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1416 ”Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ increases (the participant’s) union with the Lord, forgives his venial sins, and preserves him from grave sins.”
Cathechism of the Cthaiolic Church, 1414 "As sacrifice, the Eucharist is offered in reparation for the sins of the living and the dead (and) to obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God."
BAPTISM
Cathechism of the Catholic Church, 1250 "Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called. The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth."
Cathechism of the Catholic Church, 1263 "By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam's sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God."
Summary: Because receiving the Eucharist is receiving Christ himself, forgiveness of sins is available to both the living and the dead through it.
The grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant baptism. By baptism, all sins are forgiven as well as all punishment for sin.
What do Protestants believe?
Justification is the gracious act of God by which HE declares a sinner righteous SOLELY through faith in Jesus.
GRACE
Justification is rooted completely in God’s grace. Consider the psalmist’s words in Psalm 130 and the words of the Israelites in 1 Samuel 7 concerning our position before God in our sin.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”
Because of our sin, we stand condemned before a Holy God who will judge all of humanity impartially according to His character (Romans 1-3, Ephesians 2:1-3)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Like Abraham and the rest of the faithful throughout history, we are declared righteous, justified before God not based on anything in us, but solely based on grace in Him.
DECLARATION
Justification is a declaration by God! This is a point in time when God declares the status of a sinner before Him is changed solely bc of Christ.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Our justification is a pronouncement, a point in time where God alone makes a declaration without human cooperation. This is also not a process where we increase in our justification before God because of our good works.
SINNER to RIGHTEOUS
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to sinners and our sin is imputed to Him who knew no sin.
FAITH
19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Summary:
We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
In His grace, He gave the good gifts of regenerating our hearts (Ezekiel 36:22-28, James 1:16-18), leading us to repentance of sin (Acts 5:29-32, Romans 2:4, 2 Timothy 2:24-26), and faith in Christ (Romans 3:21-26, Ephesians 2:5,8, Philippians 1:6).
We do not obtain the grace of God or increase in our justification by our works. It is a once for all pronouncement by God.
If we could obtain Gods grace, Christ is not needed and it is no longer grace.
From beginning to end, Justification is the gracious act of God in which he declares once and for all a sinner is declared righteous solely based on faith in Christ.
Q2: Is salvation a Possibility or Guarantee?
What do Catholics believe?
COT Sessions Canon 13 “If anyone says that in order to obtain the remission of sins it is necessary for every man to believe with certainty and without any hesitation arising from his own weakness and indisposition that his sins are forgiven him, let him be anathema.”
COT Sessions 6 Canon 14 “If anyone says that man is absolved from his sins and justified because he firmly believes that he is absolved and justified, or that no one is truly justified except him who believes himself justified, and that by this faith alone absolution and justification are effected, let him be anathema.”
COT Session 6 Canon 15 ”If anyone says that a man who is born again and justified is bound ex fide (from faith) to believe that he is certainly in the number of the predestined, let him be anathema.”
COT Session 6 Canon 16 “If anyone says that he will for certain, with an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance even to the end, unless he shall have learned this by a special revelation, let him be anathema.”
Summary: A person cannot fully know if his/her sins are forgiven. By faith alone, a person cannot be certain of their position in eternity because perseverance to the end of life is not guaranteed.
What do Protestants believe?
We can have assurance of our justification, sanctification, perseverance, and glorification because salvation is the work of God and not man.
God’s Covenant with Abraham
4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Summary: This work of redemption has always been a work of God! In Genesis 15, God put Abraham to sleep and made a covenant with Himself that He would honor according to His character. As Gentiles, we have been adopted as sons and daughters according to the promise.
God is Faithful to His Promises
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Summary: We have assurance of our salvation and eternity with God because the justification of sinners and our perseverance to the end are all gracious works of God in us.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
How do we share the true gospel with Catholics?
Not all Catholics believe these things and some believe the true gospel. I’m sure there are many that believe in christ alone for their salvation, but in light of what the RCC officially teaches, we can conclude they teach a different gospel than we believe, and the pronounce condemnation on what we believe.
Proclaim justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone with passion!
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
2. Ask the question - How can we be made righteous before God?
Lean on Romans 1-3, and defend our inability to do good works to earn God’s favor.
Romans 3:21–26 “21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
3. Praise God and then proclaim the true gospel with boldness!
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STORY: June 2024, Pope Francis on 60 Minutes
When answering the question “When you look at the world, what gives you hope?” This is how the Pope responded.
”Everything. You see tragedies, but you also see so many beautiful things. You see heroic mothers, men, who all have hopes and dreams. Women who look to the future. That gives me a lot of hope. People want to live. People forge ahead…And people are fundamentally good. We are all fundamentally good. Yes, there are some rogues and sinners, but the heart itself is good.”
STORY: April 2018, kid in Rome (Emanuele) asks Pope Francis about his dad’s salvation
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL01jmT0MN4
“A little while ago my father passed away. He was a nonbeliever, but he had all four of his children baptized. He was a good man. Is dad in heaven?”
Father was not a believer, but had children baptized. He had a good heart. The one who says who goes to heaven is God. But what is God’s heart with a dad like that? A father’s heart. God has a dad’s heart? And with a dad who was an unbeliever, but who baptized his children and provided this for them, do you think God would be able to leave him far from himself?
Pope Francis asked the crown for a response. “No” they yelled. Does God abandon his children? “No” they yelled. Does God abandon his children when they are good? “No’ they said again.
There is your answer, Emanuele. God was surely proud of your father bc it is easier for a believer to baptize your children than to baptize them when not a believer. Surely this pleased God very much. Talk to your dad. Pray to your dad.
BACKUP Notes
“Do we trust the uninspired words of men or the inspired, inerrant Word of God?”
Acts 20, Paul before the Ephesian elders warning against false teachers
Scripture and Authority (Against: Rev 22:18-19)
3 sources of authority (Holy Bible, Church Tradition, The Magisterium) The Mag. is the teaching ministry of the church and the authority of the Pope. The task of biblical interpretation has been entrusted to the Church.
“One of them cannot stand without the other.”
The Papacy
Head of the RCC, in s succession line all the way back to Peter. The Pope is pastor of the entire church globally. Vatican 1 (1869-70), The doctrine of Papal Infallibility established. When the Pope speaks ex cathedra from His official seat, it is supremely authoritative and infallible.
Sacraments
The grace of God is infused in the act of the sacraments
Baptism, act through which the new birth occurs in the life of an infant. In doing so, children become Children of God. All sins forgiven in baptism. Completed at confirmation. Used Catechism pictures (Against: Matt 28, Romans 6).
Eucharist, the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ Transubstantiation). Used Catechism pictures. (Hebrews 4, one mediator between God and man. 1 Peter 2)
Confession, reconciles one with God through the confession of mortal sins. Penance is offered to sinners for the forgiveness of sins. Bishops and priests have the power and authority to forgive sins
Anointing of Sick
Holy Orders
Matrimony
The Categorization of Sin
Venial sin vs Mortal sin
Mortal sin turns man away from God and destroys the saving grace of God.
Venial sin allows charity to subsist even though it offends and wounds it.
Purgatory
Explain
Read back through messages with Dalton
The Apocrypha
What is it?
What issues does it have?
The Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was a series of meetings held between 1545 and 1563 by the Roman Catholic Church to address the challenges of the Protestant Reformation.
Doctrine of Mary (Against: Any worship to Mary seen as idolatry)
Preserved from original sin and pure from all sin in her life.
Devotion to Mary and saints is intrinsic to Christian worship. The faithful fly to the Mother of God for protection.
Praying to the Saints
Deut 18, an abomination to consult the dead