We--now, be careful Andre--we go to Andre, who is traveling on highway 55
heading towards St. Louis. He's listening on 94.7 FM. Andre, drive carefully; you are
on with Tim Staples. Hey guys, thanks so much for taking the call, and let me
first begin by saying how much I appreciate the Catholic Church. I have
the benefit of about six years of Catholic training though high school and college
myself, and you guys stand for so many great positions, for example the ones
that you just mentioned: abortion, the family, and a lot of great things. I guess--
I appreciate that, Andre. I'm sorry? I appreciate that, thank you Andre. You bet.
Well, I am currently a conservative Evangelical, probably the best way you can
put me, and one of those motley non-denominationals, as you
described before. You got it. And--yep, and I guess my issue relates to the biblical
basis for Catholicism versus, I guess, my current belief system, and I see a
disconnect there. Right. Primarily, you know, as it relates to Church-made
doctrine versus what I can find in the Bible. And I just want to know,
you know, how is it that...you know, cause I understand, I think the
apologist online actually was...not a Pentecostal, but some sort of
Protestant. Yeah, I was Assembly of God. I was an Assembly of God youth pastor, in
fact, before I converted. Oh, okay then, well there you go, you're both, then.
And I was raised to Southern Baptist, so I was raised an Evangelical
and became a Pentecostal. Okay, well great, because I've got a motley
background myself, Lutheran and Pentecostal and all that; but,
you know, so my point is, obviously, you know, why should anyone who, I think, you
know, we're getting Biblical teaching right--and I'm a Chicago resident, you
know--go to or be persuaded by Catholicism that has, at least in my
personal views, so many man-made doctrines that it, again, in my view, departs
from what I can find in Scripture? Sure. Well, I'll tell you what, Andre, as one
who used to believe as you, I will tell you why I did. Number one: I find that
Protestantism that you just spoke of--like the nondenominational Protestantism--
itself has absolutely no foundation in Sacred Scripture. The idea, Andre--and as
a matter of history, this is where Protestantism came from: Martin Luther
taught a doctrine, justification by faith alone, that was never taught by a single
Christian for 1,500 years. In fact, it is, as explicitly as I can imagine,
contradicted by St. James in James 2:24. In fact, Andre, what I found is the only
place in the entire Bible where the words "faith alone" are found, the words
"not by" are right in front of them: "We see then that a man is justified by works
and not by faith alone." You have Matthew 12:36 and 37 where Jesus, speaking in the
context of the final judgement, says--in verse 37, I'll focus on--"by your words you
will be justified, by your words you will be condemned." Words are more than just
faith. That's something you say, something you do. In Romans 2:6 and
7, St. Paul says, "God will reward each man according to his works. To him who
continues in good works, his reward shall be glory, incorruption, and everlasting
life." There, St. Paul says everlasting life is a reward for good works. Now, is
faith involved? Absolutely, its insist-- it's constitutive of the salvific
act in the life of a believer; you have to be a believer to be sure. "We are
justified by faith," Romans 5:1 says, but the problem was, "faith ALONE" is nowhere
to be found. In Galatians 6:7, for example, St. Paul says, "Let no man be deceived:
God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows--" any farmer knows that's something you do,
sowing seeds-- "Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap. If he continues
to sow to the flesh, he shall of the flesh reap death; if he continues to sow
to the spirit, he shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Let us therefore
not grow weary in well-doing, for we shall reap the reward--" What reward? What
reward? Everlasting life, "--if we faint not." Or if, as one translation says, "if we do
not lose heart." My brother, I could go down a litany of more verses here, but
here's the bottom line: what I found is, Martin Luther's justification by faith,
which became what he called the doctrine upon which the Church rises or falls,
that's his most important doctrine, was absolutely un-Biblical, absolutely false,
and this colored the Reformation, and has for the last 500 years. Now there are
some Protestant sects who have moved away from justification by faith alone,
and get it closer to correct; but the overwhelming majority of reformers in
John Calvin, who--you know, that's a whole 'nother hour we could talk about
John Calvin--you know, got us even further off track from what the Bible clearly
teaches. So Andre, I look at that, and then I look at what Jesus
clearly taught in the Bible is that He didn't give us a Bible, He gave us a
Church. Jesus said, for example in Matthew 18:15-18, He says, and this is
instructions that are perennial till the end of time, Andre, He says, "If your
brother shall offend against thee, go tell him his fault between you and him
alone. If he hears you, you've gained your brother." If he won't hear you, what do you
do? You don't get your Bible out and start arguing; He says, "Take one or two
with you, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be
established. If he will not even hear them, tell it to the church; and the one
who fails to hear the church shall be as a heathen and a publican." In other words,
Jesus established the Church to be His authority to speak for Him; that's
exactly what we see happen in the book of Acts--in Acts chapter 15 Andre, I'll
give you homework--when there was a heresy that threatened to tear a
fledgling church apart there in Antioch in the first century, what did they do?
Paul and Barnabas came in, tried to settle it; They couldn't settle it. What did they do?
They had a council, the Church declared on the matter, and the matter was settled.
That's the way the Church functioned, and my friend, as a matter of history, the
Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, will tell you, if you go to its entry on the
Catholic Church, you will find it's the Church started by Jesus in 33 AD. The
fact is, that's how the Church--one, holy Catholic, and apostolic--functioned for
1,500 years until some men came along and started teaching
traditions of men that contradicted the Word of God.