Why I am not a Catholic

Why I'm Not Catholic [Excerpts]

Ulf Ekman, the influential founder of the 3,300-member Word of Life church in Sweden stunned the evangelical movement earlier this month by announcing he is leaving his charismatic congregation to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The high-profile conversion of Ekman is just the latest in a string of evangelicals “crossing the Tiber” and becoming Catholics. In 2007, Francis Beckwith, a Baylor University philosophy professor, resigned as president of the Evangelical Theological Society after rejoining the Roman Catholic Church. Beckwith, who was raised as a Catholic, was “born again” as an evangelical during the height of the countercultural "Jesus movement" in the 1970s.  

Other prominent evangelicals who have crossed the Tiber include Sam Brownback, Scott Hahn, and Richard John Neuhaus. Many have fled what they (sometimes rightly) see as the ahistorical, unrooted shallowness of evangelicalism. According to Adam Omelianchuk, a Protestant writing in the Catholic thought journal First Things, “This lack of formal theological identity is perhaps the most influential reason why evangelicals find themselves attracted to the Roman Catholic Church.”

As impressive as these conversion stories are, this evangelical is not crossing the Tiber.

First, Catholics do not believe in justification by grace through faith. Though some Protestants and Catholics have worked to close this theological gap, the fact remains that Catholics assert that works are necessary in order to be saved. Beckwith says, “The Catholic Church frames the Christian life as one in which you must exercise virtue—not because virtue saves you, but because that's the way God's grace gets manifested.” 

The New Testament, however, insists that grace comes first, that salvation is purely by God’s grace through faith alone. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” Paul says in Ephesians:2:8-9 [8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] Not of works, lest any man should boast.
See All..., “not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

To ensure that this truth is not missed, Paul insists, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Rom:3:21-25 [21] But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; [22] Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: [23] For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; [24] Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [25] Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
See All...a) We contribute nothing to our salvation. Christ did it all.

Roman Catholic theology tragically blurs this vital point. Many Christians have died for this truth, and evangelicals should not abandon it.

Further, if my works are required for my salvation, then Christ’s death was somehow insufficient. This contradicts the repeated witness of the New Testament. And if my works are required to get saved, then they are required to stay saved. In other words, my salvation can be lost. In Roman Catholicism, there can be no true assurance of salvation. We never know if we have “done enough.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift…. To live, grow, and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the Word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; it must be ‘working through charity,’ abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.”

That’s not what Scripture promises. As Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John:5:24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
See All...)

Then there is the question of authority. Protestants broke away from Rome also because of the doctrine of sola scriptura, which says that our final authority as believers rests not in popes or councils but in God’s Word (cf. Deut. 4:2; Rev:22:18For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
See All...–19). Catholics add church tradition and certain statements of the pope. As the Catechism insists, the Church “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”

Critics are right that Protestants and evangelicals are too fragmented, and that this is a poor witness to a watching world (see John:17:20Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
See All...)....But at least Protestant disunity allows people to search the Bible for themselves (1 Tim:2:15Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
See All...) and to blessedly expect access to God without mediators, because Jesus is our only Mediator (1 Tim:2:5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
See All...). Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church is full of mediators—priests, popes, and saints. It generally does not encourage its people to go to God directly but to access Him through these mediators.

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