Should we look at Catholics as a mission field?

Many moons ago when I was an 8th grader in Sunday School, I brought a Catholic friend with me. When asked, she said she was Catholic, and most people in the class treated her as though she weren't Christian. A big deal was made about the use of the word "saved." One of the girls made a whole comparison between wanting a friend to come over to your house, cleaning your room and waiting for them to come, yet you never invited them to come, which was a great analogy -- for someone who had not asked Christ to be part of their lives. This was not the case for my friend. She was saved, but because didn't use that word to explain it, in their minds she was unsaved.

It became embarassing for me to sit there and listen to her tell them that yes, she believed in Jesus' death for her sins and yes, she had asked Jesus to be in her heart and believed he was. She just didn't use the word. They went the rounds on this, and by the end she was crying.

Now, part of this story is about an insensitive group of 13 year olds and a SS teacher who would not intervene, but the greater part is about a girl who was saved, but as a Catholic, didn't hear that word used to describe it, thus didn't know what to call it to make the Baptists happy. And so we really want to propagate that? That you can only be saved if you use that particular word? I think that's rather arrogant, and focuses more on language and semantics (which I do value) than on committment and faith.

In my mind, it is essential, before assuming Catholics, as a rule, are not saved, to talk to some of them about their beliefs. You may be surprised at what you find.

Just as there are unsaved church-goers, there are unsaved mass-goers, but be careful not to lump all Catholics in as non-believers because they use different language.

I think, too, that Catholicism is a cultural identity as well as a religion. I know many lapsed Catholics or recovering Catholics or however you want to describe them who still refer to themselves as Catholic, because it is their cultural identity.

I recall a friend who had been raised Jewish deciding to reject Judaism as his religious faith. He told people that no, he wasn't Jewish. He was Semitic. People told him that of course he was Jewish, he would always be Jewish, which really infuriated him. Yes, he was Semitic by race and Jewish by culture and birth, but he did not practice Judaism. Therefore, he was not Jewish. There were several at our school like him, yet he was one of the few people who was able to separate religion from culture and reject the religion while still understanding he was part of the culture. Catholicism is very similar in that way. It is very much a mark of cultural identity.

All I'm saying is that there are likely many saved Catholics who don't use the "right" language, and that there are probably many others who aren't religiously Catholic, yet call themselves Catholic as part of their cultural identity. The latter may be considered a mission field, but the former, I think, should not.

[ July 25, 2002, 11:45 AM: Message edited by: stubbornkelly ]

 

I grew up in a home with a Baptist Mom and a non practicing Catholic Dad. Over the years he taught me some of the Catholic beliefs and I went to several Masses with him. I did not get one thing out of the Mass, as hard as I tried I felt very funny in there and nothing would stir inside me. Now my Mom, brother, and I went regulary to our Baptist church and I always came home with something new I had learned. Also I always felt the Holy Spirit within me and present at the services. I have not been to a Mass for several years save for some Catholic Funerals and Weddings. WOW they are long!!!
Anyway I do think a Catholic Church is a mission field I even think my church is a mission field. We have some people that are not saved in our own church family. So I guess there are mission fields everywhere we go!
Love in Christ Angieinstlouie

 

I'm not sure what Catholic Church you're talking about, but Roman Catholics must believe that Salvation is achieved by Grace. One cannot be a member of the RCC unless you believe that. What you refer to is that Catholics believe that people who HAVE NOT HEARD the gospel CAN BE(but aren't automatically) saved by their good works, something I personally disagree with.

Unfortunately, people are going to believe what they want to believe about the RCC.

The number of saved Christians in any Roman Catholic congregation is probably the same as in any Baptist congregation.

[ August 08, 2002, 06:35 PM: Message edited by: Johnv ]

 

John,

I don't know what planet you are living on, but the real world of the RCC, is nothing of what you mentioned. I come from a large RC family as does my wife. And not "ONE" is saved, and thinks that the teaching of Salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ by faith, is blasphemous. They "ALL" believe that if you are not a faithful RC, you cannot even think of getting to Heaven. Which coensides with what I was taught in Catholic school for 8 years.

Along with that, I was an alter boy and even started preparing and studying for the priesthood. And I never heard of salvation through Grace!

And after I got saved at the age of 33, I went to the RCC about this, and they told me at that time, "that no man can know for sure!"

 

I think that the Catholics are Probably the last of the Roman Empire. They have a guy who sits on a throne and is idealized....whom by the way is NOT Jesus. They make up rules to go with their needs at a paticular time and to me are legalist. They pray to a woman while chanting with beads and set their sights on the things of this world. They have an idea that there is somewhere else besides Heaven and hell, to which you wait. While it is given many names...it is never the name the Jews had; Sheol. Though it has many varients to it. They literally beleive the alter set for communion is a real living table. It is not symbolic for them. They partake in communion after confessing to a man theirs sins. They Justify and Sanctify only as a group of stiffnecked men. Punishment for crimes inside the catholic foundation is kept within and according to rank. While this Empire is without an official country, it reins and terorizes in and out of all countries. It makes its headquarters in Italy and all will bow before it. It does things in the name of good...and the Pope. It has way too much power!

God says we shall call no other Father...and yet in every cathedral everywhere there are men demanding and annoucing themselves as father. And people except this!

This is CULT! It is wrong! So I say that we need a special mission to "re-brain and re-train" those who follow Catholicism. Catholicism is far more dangerous than if a person never knew the Lord.

Well I am sorry...I will quit before I rant too much.

 

Hi,
My mother was an agnostic, my grandparents were baptists on both sides of my mother's family and Catholic on my father's side. I have been Catholic for 11 years. I just started going back to a Baptist church. It was like a coming home. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming and there is such fellowship. At the catholic church the preist never had time to meet with me, no one ever even gave me a hello. If I had died I seriously doubt anyone would notice. I haven't been for over a year and a half and I am still getting envelopes in the mail. As for good works I see more in the small baptist church than the catholic church I went to. Since I joined the church I have felt farther and farther away from Jesus, and now I am not saved as I haven't a relationship with Christ anymore. I hope to get my faith back that I enjoyed with my baptist Grandparents. I should have never left my maternal families faith . Thank goodness a Baptist friend asked me to church with her. Please invite your friends too.

 

I just want to tell you all about witnessing to Catholics while I was on a mission trip to Kenya in East Africa.

One day we (the mission team) walked the red dirt roads heading up to do a little sight seeing from the top of a nearby mountain. As we went along we would stop at houses and witness to folks if they were home. We all had tracts and stuff to give away. My friend Ezekiel and I stopped to witness to two women who were waiting for a ride into the little village, called Ena, down in the valley.

Ezekiel, a Kenyan, asked the women if they attended church. They replied, "Yes we are Catholic." So he asked them if they were to die today where they thought that they would spend eternity. They replied, "In heaven." Ezekiel asked, "How do you know that?" They responded that they were "good people," that they attended Mass, that they tried to live moral lives and to do various good things.

Then Ezekiel told them that none of those things would or could get them into heaven. I could see that that bothered them. However, they asked, "Then how do we get into heaven." Exekiel pulled out his pocket Bible and shared Eph. 2:8-9 with them. I saw their eyes widen when they realized that the Word of God said that good works could not save them. Again they asked how to be saved. I had a tract entitled something like "Mary's Command to Catholics." It starts out in John 2 with Jesus at the wedding feast. Mary tells Jesus that they have run out of wine. Jesus tells Mary that his time has not yet come. However, Mary turns to the wedding guests and servants and says, "Do whatever my son says." This passage spoke to the two Catholic women and they wanted to know what Jesus says about how to be saved.

Ezekiel shared the plan of salvation with them from his open Bible. Then I told him to show them John 3. In it Jesus tells Nicodemus (did I spell the correctly) that he must be born again. We asked those Catholic women if they had been born again. They both responded, "No." Then we asked them if they would like to be born again and they both said, "Yes." Then Ezekiel led them in a sinner's prayer and they received Christ as their personal Lord and Savior right there on the side of that red dirt road on a mountain in Kenya.
We rejoiced with them and welcomed them into God's eternal family.

Did we do anything. Absolutely not. The Holy Spirit did all the work. He reminded me that I had the one tract in my coat pocket. He brought the John 3 born again story to my mind, and He convicted those women of the sin in their lives and showed them that they needed Chirst to forgive them. Salvation is always the work of the Holy Spirit.

The point is here we have a classic example of two Catholic women, who were born and raised in the Church, confirmed at the appropriate age, and faithful in attending and participating in the Mass. However, they had never heard the gospel. Never. Therein is the failure of the Roman Catholic Church. The problem is that it (the RC Church) relies on tradition, ritual, and works for salvation. Are there saved people who are Roman Catholic? I believe that I have met a few over the years, a very few. Millions of faithful, religious Roman Catholics are being carried straight to hell by Church tradition and they do not even know it. That is because no one ever shares the gospel with them.

We must distinguish between the individual Roman Catholic person and the Roman Catholic Church. We must always be willing to share the gospel, especially John 3 ("You must be born again"), with them in a spirit of love and understanding, and lead them to Christ through the pages of our open Bibles .

[ September 02, 2002, 06:59 AM: Message edited by: BibleboyII ]

 

I was raised as a Roman Catholic. We went to church regularly. My mother was a very "good" woman. My dad was there for us, too. When I was in third grade, I made my first communion and my confirmation, two things I did in obedience, not in heart (the time was chosen for me). But I knew that I was now one of God's children.

When I started to work on the weekends, I fell away from the Catholic Church and just didn't want to believe at that time. Later, after about 7 years, I returned. The first church I went back to was not willing to accept my confession of sin, so I went to the church in the next town. This church gladly opened her arms to me. All seemed ok until God decided to impress upon my heart for more. I went to every function in the church trying to find what it was God wanted from me. I went to the priest to see if there was a Bible study. He told me that because it wasn't a popular thing in the church that they don't do that. I was crushed.

In the meantime, my neighbor came to me with her Bible and offered to study it with me. Thrilled by this prospect, I took her up on the offer. I was amazed that the stories of Daniel and the lion's den, David and Goliath, phrases like "By the skin of your teeth", and "To every thing there is a season", were from the Bible. Unfortunately, she was a JW.

My whole point to this topic is, many Roman Cathlics will say they are saved, but don't know anything about the Bible. My father-in-law and sister-in-law sat across the table from me and told me how great God is for allowing them into heaven and thank God for all the prayers Mary has answered. They are repulsed by the sight of a non-Catholic Bible, and if you step into another church, you need to confess this to the priest. They do not apprach God as a saved person will, they need their priest for this. Their hope lies in whether they will die a "good" person, never once trusting in the shed blood of Christ. They drink the shed blood and eat of Christ's body only at the Holy Communion at a Mass. And the priest calls Christ down at each ritual. Their Christ remains on the cross.

If, and I say, if any one of them are saved, how are we to know. They are definitely a mission field. We cannot assume them to hell because they might be offended by the Gospel of Christ. It is sad that the saved don't see this. Almost every one in my family are unsaved right now because of the false religion of the RCC.

 

I have Catholic friends and most do not have a clue to what real Christianity means. Therefore we should definitely look at the Catholic religion as a mission field.

 

Alas, I have fellow Batist friends who have no idea what Christianity means as well. It's an unfortunate reality.