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Posted on 08/09/2020 7:46:24 AM PDT by MurphsLaw
We should stop trying to evangelize Protestants, some Catholics say. “Let’s get our own house clean first, before we invite our fellow Christians in,” someone commented on a recent article of mine that presented a Catholic rejoinder to a prominent Baptist theologian. Another reader argued that, rather than trying to persuade Protestants to become Catholic, we should “help each other spread God’s love in this world that seems to be falling to pieces before our eyes.” As a convert from Protestantism, actively engaged in ecumenical dialogue, I’ve heard this kind of thinking quite frequently. And it’s dead wrong.
One common argument in favor of scrapping Catholic evangelism towards Protestants is that the Catholic Church, mired in sex-abuse and corruption scandals, liturgical abuses, heretical movements, and uneven catechesis, is such a mess that it is not, at least for the moment, a place suitable for welcoming other Christians.
There are many problems with this. For starters, when has the Church not been plagued by internal crises? In the fourth century, a majority of bishops were deceived by the Arian heresy. The medieval Church suffered under the weight of simony and a lax priesthood, as well as the Avignon Papacy and the Western Schism, culminating in three men claiming, simultaneously, to be pope. The Counter-Reformation, for all its catechetical, missionary and aesthetic glories, was still marred by corruption and heresies (Jansenism). Catholicism has never been able to escape such trials. That didn’t stop St. Martin of Tours, St. Boniface, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius Loyola, or St. Teresa of Calcutta from their missionary efforts.
The “Catholics clean house” argument also undermines our own theology. Is the Eucharist the “source and summit of the Christian life,” as Lumen Gentium preaches, or not? If it is, how could we in good conscience not direct other Christians to its salvific power? Jesus Himself declared: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53) Was our Lord misrepresenting the Eucharist?
Or what of the fact that most Protestant churches allow contraception, a mortal sin? Or that Protestants have no recourse to the sacraments of penance or last rites? To claim Protestants aren’t in need of these essential parts of the Catholic faith is to implicitly suggest we don’t need them either.
* Moreover, in the generations since the Reformation, Rome has been able to win many Protestants back to the fold who have made incalculable contributions to the Church. St. John Henry Newman’s conversion ushered in a Catholic revival in England, and gave us a robust articulation of the concept of doctrinal development. The conversion of French Lutheran pastor Louis Bouyer influenced the teachings of Vatican II. Biblical scholar Scott Hahn’s conversion in the 1980s revitalized lay study of Holy Scripture.
Another popular argument in favor of limiting evangelization of Protestants involves the culture war. Catholics and theologically conservative Protestants, some claim, share significant common ground on various issues: abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, euthanasia, religious freedom, etc. Secularism, the sexual revolution, and anti-religious progressives represent an existential threat to the survival of both Catholics and Protestants, and thus we must work together, not debate one another. “Let’s hold back any criticism of them,” a person commenting on my article wrote. “Believe me, in the times that we are in, we need to all hang together, or we will definitely hang separately on gallows outside our own churches.”
This line of thought certainly has rhetorical force: we don’t have the luxury of debating with Protestants when the progressivists are planning our imminent demise! Ecumenical debate is a distraction from self-preservation. One problem with this argument is that it reduces our Christian witness to a zero-sum game – we have to focus all our efforts on fighting secular progressivism, or we’ll fail. Yet the Church has many missions in the public square – that Catholics invest great energy in the pro-life movement doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also focus our efforts on other important matters: health-care, education, ensuring religious freedom, or fighting poverty and environmental degradation. All of these, in different ways, are a part of human flourishing. Even if we consider some questions more urgent than others, none of them should be ignored.
Besides, there is a vast difference between mere polemics and charitable, fruitful discussions aimed at resolving disagreements. The former can certainly cause bad blood. The latter, however, can actually foster unity and clarity regarding our purposes. Consider how much more fruitful our fight against the devastation of the sexual revolution would be if we persuaded Protestants that they need to reject things like contraception and the more permissive stance towards divorce that they have allowed to seep into their churches. Consider how non-Christians could learn from charitable ecumenical conversations that don’t devolve into name-calling and vilification.
Finally, abandoning or minimizing the evangelizing of Protestants is to fail to recognize how their theological and philosophical premises have contributed to the very problems we now confront. As Brad Gregory’s book The Unintended Reformation demonstrates, the very nature of Protestantism has contributed to the individualism, secularism, and moral relativism of our age. A crucial component to our Catholic witness, then, is helping Protestants to recognize this, since even when they have the best intentions, their very paradigm undermines their contributions to collaborating with us in the culture war.
I for one am very grateful that Catholics – many of them former Protestants – persuaded me to see the problems inherent to Protestantism, and the indisputable truths of Catholicism. My salvation was at stake. I also found and married a devout Catholic woman, and am raising Catholic children. The Catholic tradition taught me how to pray, worship, and think in an entirely different way. It pains me to think what my life would be like if I hadn’t converted to Catholicism.
Why bother to evangelize devout Protestants? Because they are people like me.
“ they attempt to use the Bible (that was written by early Catholics)
Scripture was written by God, as His Spirit moved men.
2/3 written before the birth of Christ.
Thou shall not steal, ADSUM.
And even most of the New Testament books were written, copied and dispersed by 50-65 A.D. The latest ones no later than 95 A.D. (those by the Apostle John). So within a few decades after Christ's ministry on earth, the written record of His teachings and the further revelation of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles writing the epistles to the churches were on their way to becoming a complete collection of Holy Spirit-inspired writings. God did not leave us to the oral tradition alone but ensured we would have a "more sure word of prophecy" with which to base our faith upon. The books that were looked at as the Old Testament, or the oracles of God given to the Jews, were already centuries old by the time the Christian faith began. They were the foundation upon which the New Testament was built as Jesus fulfilled the promises contained therein.
Just because formal declarations of "canons" recognizing the writings as a collection honored as Divine inspiration by the Christian community didn't happen for centuries after the Apostles died it didn't mean they weren't already held as such and used to establish and defend the rule of the Christian faith. As early as the start of the second century, church leaders espoused as authoritative ALL the books we currently recognize as the New Testament.
A few articles about that process can be found HERE and HERE.
Why not?
If it’s not Scripture, there’s no guarantee it’s true, so no reason to put any stock in it.
And especially no reason to build doctrine on it. or around it.
Jesus did not come to establish a new religion for salvation.
Jesus never founded the corrupt, immoral, homosexual tainted, pedo protecting den of iniquity called the Catholic “church”.
Religion does not save anyone. Religious practices, ceremonies, sacraments, observances, or any other religious activities saves no one.
Salvation is through a person, not an organization. It’s through Jesus, who died for our sin, and not through works so that no man can boast of their ability to contribute to their own salvation.
If salvation were through the Law, Jesus Christ died for no reason. Instead, all we’d need to do is jump through the right hoops, and voila, we’re in, cause God owes us for performing like circus animals.
It also removes the ability of anyone, anywhere, any time being able to be saved.
Salvation through faith is the great equalizer. It makes salvation free, and available to the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor, at any place on the earth, any time, any intellectual or educational level, whatever social situation they are in, rich and poor, slave and free, male and female, Jew or Greek, young, old, healthy, sick.
It levels the playing field in a way nothing else can, making us all equal before God.
Religion feeds pride and corruption quickly enters it when people then use it for power over others, which they always have.
God provided the means to go straight to Him Himself, without the necessity of using another sinful, human mediator thrown into the mix.
If religion was the answer, God had established a fine one the first time around, Judaism. He certainly did not need to replace it with another one that doesn’t work.
Catholicism is no different than the pharisees of Jesus’ day and Catholicism would do well to take heed of Jesus’ warnings and rebukes to the pharisees, because Catholic priests have become the modern day pharisees.
You are so right in both your posts.
It’s just a shameless power grab by Catholicism.
If they can convince people they are responsible for Scripture, they can then logically lay claim to being the only ones who can correctly *interpret* it. And they do, as we have seen.
Also, there is no reason to *interpret* Scripture except to change the meaning of a passage or verse. People only *interpret* it because they don’t like what it says in a clear, basic reading of a simple passage. so they try to make it mean something it does not say.
We don’t *interpret* Scripture, we read it and tell people what it says. Right, Mark?
Absolutely jealousy is a thing for Catholics.
I remember what I thought and how I felt before I got saved.
A friend had gotten saved, and we were so jealous. Who did she think she was that she thought she was good enough to get into heaven? She was just some perfect little goody two shoes who was showing off how*holy* she thought she was.
So yes, jealousy was huge. Jealousy for her confidence of knowing for sure. Jealousy of her ability to actually really be good. Jealousy because she thought she was so special that she was going to make it and we weren’t.
Jealousy because she had what I really, deep down wanted myself and knew I could never attain by my own effort.
LOL Yes, that incident must be 5 years in the past by now. I still laugh about it. The dude wasn’t even embarrassed by it. 👎
True, yet even with the prophesied latter-day falling away taking place, rather than holding Scripture to be the supreme infallible standard being the problem as Catholics charge, it is consistently those whom Rome considers to be members that are the most liberal, while those who most strongly esteem as Scripture as being the accurate and wholly inspired word of God, with its basic literal hermeneutic, have long testified to being the most conservative and unified large religious body.
If Mr Kreeft feels there is a need to “evangelize” Protestants, it only serves to show what a false religion he has embraced. It really should be a wake up call for other Catholics.
And, btw, Catholics are not “better” Protestants. They’re not even Protestant for they are not protesting against the errors of Rome.
Who were TEACHING bad doctrine so soon after Jesus' death!
(Just IMAGINE what those 'sinners' are teaching two thousand years after THAT!)
Such low hanging fruit;
so early in the morning.
So us PRots are making you guys DISOBEY the very clear words of Jesus?
It's no WONDER you get the bread and the wine all confused!
So do you call Paul a heretic for saying that is right that his disciples should call him father?
No; I'm calling you Catholics who DISOBEY Jesus; rebels.
It's no WONDER y'all have elected a man like your current pope!
Let's study the subject a bit...
So you continue to ignore God’s Truth and instead do the work of Satan.
No wonder God is angry at the sinfulness of man including the sins of some Catholics and the rejection of God’s Truth and His Catholic Church. The Blessed Mother has warned us that many may go to Hell unless they repent and change their ways (including catholics) and is especially concerned about abortion and sexual sins of many. Read St Faustina’s diary as Jesus showed her hell.
Jesus gave His Catholic Church the tools, such as the Mass and the Sacraments, to guide us in our process of salvation. One can either accept that help or reject it.
It is amazing how Satan can convince luke-warm Catholics to accept his lies. God gave us free will to either accept or reject His Truth and live accordingly.
Jesus still loves everyone, but we need to repent our sins, ask for His Mercy and accept all that He taught us.
Why; even the Koran has more about her!
O... K...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptions_of_religious_imagery_in_natural_phenomena
Oh; THIS is EASY!!
He is warning us (He MUST have been a Catholic; right?) that any deviation from the way Rome teaches it is; by definition; UNWORTHY.
Except when we Catholics call our priests, "Father".
Right??
Well; it SURE is tradition!
Therefore; equal to Scripture!! (If not BETTER!!)
--Catholic_Wannabe_Dude(Hail Mary!)
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