I am sorry that you have had such a bad experience with your church. Don't judge all IFB churches by the one that you are in. There are a wide variety of them. Some follow a man more than they follow Christ. It becomes more like a dictatorship, rather than congregational government. Not all churches are like that.
Most IFB churches will point out error, even error of other false religions or cults. It is a Biblical mandate for them to do so. Wrong doctrine, even heresy, such as purgatory, the sacrifice of the mass, praying to the dead, indulgences, confession to a priest, all the doctrines associated with Mariolatry, such as the assumption of Mary, etc. These are all heretical man-made doctrines totally unproveable by the Bible. It is impossible for one to know what the Bible teaches, and know what the Caholic Church teaches and be saved at the same time.
The simple reason is this. What does it mean to be born again? Jesus said "You must be born again."
In fact he said, "Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God." This is one of the most important doctrines of the Bible, dealing directly with one's salvation.
The evangelical will correctly interpret this as trusting Christ as one Saviour (John 1:12,13, 1Pet.1:24). But the Catholics are adamnant in their belief that to be born again means to be baptized. The two beliefs are opposed to each other. The Bible teaches that it is impossible to get to heaven through baptism. For by grace are you saved through faith, not baptism. Thus a Catholic who believes that baptism saves him cannot be saved. A Catholic who believes that to be born again is to be baptized cannot be saved. Yet, that is Catholic theology. How can a Catholic be saved believing this? They can't.
--I wouldn't go so far as to say that; and I do recognize that there are some historical innacuracies in the Trail of Blood. What I do believe is that there are churches in every age from the Apostles onward that believe as Baptists today believe, though not called Baptist. God has preserved in every age a people for his own. He has never left himself without a witness. And that witness is not the murderous Catholic Church which has been constantly persecuting evangelical Christians.
Perhaps an extreme statement the way it is stated. Basically there are two Bibles. Ones that are translated from the Critical Text, and ones that are translated from the Textus Receptus or Recieved Text. No translation (including the KJV0 is inspired and infallible). God has preserved his Word in the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. I personally believe that he has preserved His Word in the Received Text that underlies the KJV (and NKJV). It is preserved in the Greek, not the English, so that other translations may be made as well. No translation can be more accurate than the language that it was taken from.
So, who put that idea in your head? When Jesus spoke consistently all through the chapter in metaphors, why would it make sense for him to suddenly change? That is not good hermeneutics as I have pointed out to you, and smacks of predudicial Roman Catholicism. You seem to have been listening to something or someone that has been influencing you that way. There is no reason to take that passage that way.
Check Acts 17:11. Have you just been sitting in a pew absorbing everything your pastor is teaching you like a mindless sponge. Don't you study the Word for yourself, "to see whether these things are so," as the Bereans did. Paul commanded Timothy, as he does us:
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
If your pastor or church has taught you other errors, than you should have caught them already, by your own study of the Word.
Be objective then. Find the above Catholic doctrines that I mentioned to you in the Bible. Prove Catholicism from the Bible. I have an outstanding challenge to my Catholic parents.
Show me from the Bible that Catholicism is Biblical, and I will be a Catholic, but if I can show you what I believe is from the Bible, will you be saved and come to our church.
They have never taken up that challenge yet.
The reason--Catholicism, with all its man-made doctrines cannot be demonstrated from the Bible. It is a man-made religion. I know. I was there for 20 years, and never heard the gospel preached once.
That of course is more personal than anything else. Getting alone with God, spending time in His Word, and in prayer are key to your relationship with Christ. Make sure that you are born again, saved by grace through faith, and not by works (Eph.2:8,9). The Catholic Church will teach you the opposite.
Then make sure that you are in a good Bible believing church, not necessarily a KJVO church, but rather an IFB church that is more moderate toward the KJV. A church that faithfully preaches the Word of God, not one that is based on a man, but rather the Word of God, and centered and focused on Christ. Go to a friendly church where you can be involved.
Not every church is like that. That is what I am trying to say. For example in our church, I preach what is called expository preaching. In the morning I have been going through 2Corinthians, and in the evening 1Peter. I don't "situation preach." In other words, verse by verse, or passage by passage, I preach whatever is there. That way the sheep are being fed. One Sunday the text may fall on a passage where the text speaks about the woman's role in the church, and so I must speak on it even if I want to stay away from it. Check 1Pet.3. The following passage speaks about the husbands duty to his wife. In the next verses they speak of compassion, love, and suffering. Whatever is there, that is what I preach. That way the sheep are fed. And that is the command that Jesus gave Peter: Feed my sheep.
Like I said, every church is different. Don't judge them all by your experience with one.
The Catholic Church does not emphasize a personal relationship with Christ; it emphasizes liturgy. If you are not being fed by the church you are going to find another one, but not another false religion.
DHK
