What If...?

• What if I told you that unless you attended our religious affiliation, you cannot be saved but are going to hell?


• What if I told you that unless your children participate in a certain ritual done in our organization they are lost and going to hell unless God’s mercy would somehow intervene?

• What if I told you that you should pray to the dead to intervene in your life and your life’s circumstances?

• What if I told you that our religious leaders can make Jesus appear over and over again at will?

• What if I told you that it would be a sin that could cause you to lose your salvation if you took part in even similar religious ceremonies at another religious institution?

• What if I told you that you should not allow yourself or anyone else to question the beliefs our religion because our leaders alone speak for God?

• And what if I told you that in spite of many of our religious leaders committing crimes against children and that other leaders in our organization attempted to cover it up, ours is still the only way to heaven?

Would you still want to attend and financially support our organization? And would you make sure that your family members attended?

Wouldn’t you rather call such a religious organization a cult and want you and your family to be out from under these cultish practices as soon as possible? Oddly enough, many people make sure to attend this kind of religious organization every Sunday and special holidays fearing to question what they are being taught.

What I described to you in just some of the false teachings of the Catholic church. And while I think that it might be possible for individuals to be saved in that church organization (mainly because they love, believe and trust Jesus for salvation and are unaware of the specific teachings of the Catholic faith), it is obvious that these teachings contradict Scripture on many levels.

As a church that is called to bring the true Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in our community, we must attempt to share the truth with those who believe false teachings because we love them and are concerned for their souls.

We believe in what is called “Sola Scriptura” that on the stage of truth the preeminent infallible truth is the Word of God – the Bible. Our stage contains truth that is not found in the Scriptures, such as: Science; Tradition; Culture; and Emotions.

You can see that if we adjust the position of these things on the stage of truth we can understand the perspectives of other belief systems. For example, the Catholic church believes what is called, “Dual Source” or more negatively “Sola Ecclesia” meaning they place Church Tradition or Papal authority alongside Scripture. It is said:

“Evangelicals believe that their personal interpretation of the Bible is more authoritative than tradition and Catholics believe that their traditions are more authoritative than the Bible.”

In reality neither would agree. Evangelicals would say that with proper exegesis, Scripture is more authoritative than tradition not their personal interpretation.

Catholics would say that Scripture and tradition are taught side by side in passages such as:

2 Thessalonians 2:15 - So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

But what this passage in reality is speaking of is that the Scriptural truths taught either in word or in letter they are to hold on to - NOT that any tradition can set itself up as equally true especially when it contradicts the teachings clearly set forth in Scripture.

Evangelicals do not believe in "Solo Scriptura" that the only truth able to be accepted is found in the Bible, rather "Sola Scriptura" means that where science, philosophy, or culture would contradict the Scriptures - we would reject such teachings but allow for anything accurate found in science, mathematics, history, etc. as in deed truth. We understand the Bible is not a science book for example.

In the community that I pastor 70% of the people attend church and 55% of this same community is Catholic. That tells me that over half of the people in my community do not have a proper understanding of even the basics of salvation and even worse they are being taught that their religious institution is the sole source of salvation - the only Church and the sole minister's of God's grace. Somehow as Evangelical Pentecostals we must reach out to this group of people in our community with love, with truth, and lift up the gospel and the Word of God above the teachings of men through tradition and the papacy. I don’t think we should ignore them.

Do you agree?