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Volume 1, Issue 11
September 10, 2024
Hi First name / friend!
 
I’ve noticed recently that many celebrities and influencers are converting to Catholicism, and as a result we are calling them Christians. President Joe Biden claims to be a Catholic as a means of appealing to the Christian voting bloc in America (though many Catholics have disowned him based on some of his policies).
 
While Catholics and Christians may have many things in common, are they equal in terms of true Christianity?
 
Before we dive into this question, I understand that you might be reading this and be Catholic. I pray you will not see this as an attack but as the loving gesture I intend it to be. I love you too much not to speak up when the error will affect your eternity.
 
In order to answer this question, we need to look at the main tenets of Christianity:
  • One God in three,
  • salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, and
  • Christ’s resurrection.
The Bible defines God as a trinity or three persons in one God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They are distinct yet are one. This is very hard for us to understand, and throughout history we have come up with many illustrations that all fall short of explaining it. We are finite beings, and God is not, so He exists outside of the laws that restrain our thinking. In addition to being a Trinity, God is the only one true God, and we are instructed not to worship any other gods.
 
The Bible teaches that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, which He himself produces in us as a result of His grace. We are explicitly told in Scripture that our works DO NOT save us–nothing we do or don’t do will allow us into God’s presence. Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, which allows us to confess and repent of our sins and acknowledge Him as the Lord of our lives.
 
The Bible instructs us that if we confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). While it is important that Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins, if He wasn’t raised from the dead, it is of no value. His resurrection from the dead is what proves He defeated death.
 
There is A LOT of deeper explanation to each of these points, but this is enough to contrast it with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).
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Having grown up in a Roman Catholic country (two different Catholic countries, actually), I can unequivocally say that being Catholic DOES NOT make you a Christian. I don’t say that because I was surrounded by mostly nominal Catholics, but because many of the teachings of the church contradict Scripture.
 
I absolutely believe that you can be a Christian and also be Catholic (though it would require you to deny some of the Catholic teachings), but the RCC does not teach the Gospel as Scripture presents it.
 
While any good Catholic would tell you she believes in the Trinity and would even cross herself in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, she would also add to this God the person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. In fact, the RCC teaches that Mary was virgin-born, and she intercedes on behalf of sinners. She is prayed to, and she is praised when she performs miracles. There are countless shrines built to her all throughout the Catholic nations where believers light candles, leave offerings, and pray for her to help them.
 
Catholics will also say that Jesus forgives sin, but they would tell you that you have to do something to earn that forgiveness. In one of the countries I lived, as penance for their sins, good Catholics would climb a mountain on their knees to reach the church at the top where they could pray to Mary and light a candle. There have been stone steps built into the side of this mountain to create a path, and along the way there are statues depicting the final days of Christ’s earthly life.
 
The church at the top of the mountain is opulent in its decor, and it is furnished with paintings, statues, and fountains of “holy water.” And of course there are many boxes around the sanctuary where you can leave an offering. Far from simple repentance of sins, these people have been instructed by a priest who heard their confession to make this grueling journey in order to balance the scales or weight them in their favor. The goal is to make your good works outweigh your bad works by the end of your life.
 
Even in their prayers, Catholics will repeat the words that Christ rose from the dead, yet their depictions of Christ are almost always on the cross or in the grave. While Christians will wear crosses on necklaces, t-shirts, or even tattoos, those crosses are empty. But Catholics will hang crosses on the walls of their homes, wear necklaces, or use rosaries for their prayers that still depict Christ’s broken body hanging.
 
In their beautiful, gilded cathedrals, you will find statues of Jesus still on the cross or lying in a grave. The images of a resurrected Jesus are few and far between. The importance of Christ’s resurrection is not taught to the congregation and is not emphasized as Scripture presents it.
 
There are many examples of Catholics who have turned to Christ once they started reading the Bible for themselves and realized what they have been taught by the priests was, at best, incomplete, and at worst, deceitful. Yet they are not encouraged to read the Bible but to listen to their priests and the Pope, fallen men who often change their position with the tides of the culture.
 
If you are Catholic or come from a Catholic background or have family or friends who are Catholic, I encourage you to dig deeper into this topic. While the Catholic church here in America may not carry the authority that it does in Roman Catholic countries, the foundation of the church is the same. So while we can be encouraged that celebrities and influencers are searching for truth, I fear that conversion to Catholicism is simply a way to “do the work” of earning their own salvation, which is contrary to what Scripture lays out.
 
For an interesting perspective on this topic, you can listen to this episode of Relatable where Allie Stuckey interviews a former Catholic who now ministers specifically to Catholics.

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On a Personal Note…
Something you may not know about me is that I took biblical Greek classes in college and graduate school. I was focused on languages overall, but I also had the dream of reading a Greek New Testament in the original language and understanding it. 
 
You might guess that I fell short of that goal, and I can tell you very little of what I learned in those courses. It has been 25 years, after all.
 
So I was very excited earlier this year when I was approached by a gentleman who has created an app to teach biblical Greek and Hebrew. It’s called “Biblingo.”  As I have used Biblingo myself, I knew it would be something you might like, too. 
 
Biblingo allows you to move as quickly or slowly as you want and take into account any experience you already have with these languages. I know it is not for everyone, but if you are interested in checking it out, click the button below.
 
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Your friend,
 
Kelli
P.S. If you’re still on the fence about Bible Study Basics, I get it—starting something new can be a bit daunting. But remember, the Bible was written for you to understand. This course is here to help you do just that. Don’t wait—join us today and see the difference it can make.

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