Should we Evangelize Protestants ?

The Catholic Thing ^ | August 9th, 2020 | Casey Chalk

[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.

[Elsie]

1/2 BeastMark

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“ The Catholic Catechism is based on the authority that Jesus gave His Catholic Church

Nonsense.

The Roman Church today wouldn’t be recognized by the Apostles.

The shrines to Mary
The gay costumery
The gay clergy
Priests
Pagan rituals...

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“ How can your church have so many different doctrines about God’s Truth?

Dude, your (gay) clergy can’t even agree with each other...

Mr. Adsum, please pick up the courtesy phone.

[Mom MD]

But LUTHER!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

From past posts you claimed to be a Lutheran that was established by an excommunicated Catholic priest for heresy that established a new religion and subsequently has split into Over 40 different Lutheran denominations currently exist in North America.

[MHGinTN]

Bwahahahaha ... you’ve been eavesdropping I see.

[boatbums]

The Gospel and readings from both the Old Testament and the New Testament have been included in the Mass for 2000 years (even before the Bible was written or the protestant religions were formed by man).

Tell me, Adsum, how could readings from BOTH the Old and New Testaments be included in the Mass for 2000 years if according to you it was "before the Bible was written"??? Wanna walk that one back?

[boatbums]

The problem with protestants is that do not understand what faith is.

The problem with Catholics is that they do not understand what GRACE is.

[Luircin]

Tell me, Adsum, how could readings from BOTH the Old and New Testaments be included in the Mass for 2000 years if according to you it was “before the Bible was written”??? Wanna walk that one back?

***

ADSUM doesn’t understand that Catholics didn’t have a Bible at all until after Luther. They just had a collection of books but no official canon of Scripture.

There’s a reason that many Catholic Bibles still included the Gnostic Gospel of Nicodemus at the time of Luther, and why the books that became known as the Apocrypha were still being debated among scholars.

It’s really pathetic to claim that Catholicism wrote the Bible when they hadn’t even assembled a canon of Scripture 1500 years after Jesus.

And the misspeaks are just generally hilarious; I’ll bet that he’s getting angrier and angrier the more he can’t answer the truth.

[boatbums]

Protestants appear to have faith by words and not works, accordingly they selectively accept some of god’s revealed truths while ignoring other truths, they reject the authority of Jesus to appoint St Peter and his successors to preach and baptize and to protect God’s reveled truth in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

Must be a special charism given to you that you can determine what "Protestants" think and believe in their hearts. Just because I do not rely upon my works to merit my salvation doesn't mean I don't DO any good works! What changed in my conversion from the false gospel of Catholicism was my motivation for living a holy, obedient life. The reason that happened was because God revealed to my heart the TRUE gospel that I am saved by His unmerited, undeserved, unearned grace through faith/trust/believing in His promises and NOT on the basis of my works.

What do you think honors God and brings glory to Him more - someone who does good works out of the fear of hell or one who does them out of a grateful and loving heart for what God has done for him? I'm thinking it's the latter. In fact...I don't believe doing good works because we are afraid God will send us to hell if we don't is a sign of genuine faith at all. It is telling me that person DOUBTS what God has promised and revealed in His word and they think the onus is on them to work their way to heaven - to makes themselves worthy of eternal life. And that is contrary to what the Good News is all about.

This is why Catholicism accuses those who believe in the assurance of their salvation - that we can KNOW we have eternal life - of the "sin of presumption". If it all depends upon what I do, then I can't know I am saved because I won't know if I have been good enough or die in the "state of grace" by my actions until that moment. If, on the other hand according to Scripture, my salvation depends upon what Christ has done for me by being the once-for-all sacrifice for sin and I believe in and accept Him as my Savior, then I CAN trust God's promise that everyone who believes in Him has eternal life.

Can you see now why I reject the accursed Gospel of Catholicism and it would be wrong for me to return? Your catechism states that "they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it." Well, I do NOT believe that is a true statement. I reject that entering the Catholic church is necessary for me to be saved. I know you do and you certainly have the freedom to believe whatever you want. You should be happy that someone who leaves your church STILL remains in the Christian faith and lives in obedience to Christ giving glory to God. I will continue to trust in Christ to save me rather than a church.

[boatbums]

I know what you believe because I read your Catechism. You have no idea what I believe because you’ve never read mine AND you’ve never even asked.

And even if he did ask you, his OWN catechism acknowledges:

838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter."322 Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church."323 With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist."324

[metmom]

Nor do they understand the concept of forgiveness.

Catholicism teaches that forgiveness is something you have to earn or merit. Or work for by doing something like penance.

It completely denies the very concept of forgiveness, which is a complete freedom from penalty or debt by the person wronged.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forgive

1) to cease to feel resentment against (an offender) : pardon eg...forgive one’s enemies

2a : to give up resentment of or claim to requital (see requital sense 1) for forgive an insult

b : to grant relief from payment of

Forgiveness is FREELY given by the offended.

It cannot be worked for or earned. A person cannot demand forgiveness. If it’s not freely given for no cost to the guilty party, then it’s not forgiveness.

We are declared righteous before God based on forgiveness, HIM choosing to forgive our sin debt and relate to us as if the sin never happened. When He forgives us, we owe God NOTHING for the sin we committed because God has chosen to release us from the penalty due for it.

[boatbums]

If, on the other hand, the person is unable, or even unwilling, to wear it or carry it, it may even be slipped, unknown to them, into their clothes, possessions, home or work environments, etc."

Just...wow....

[Luircin]

And God the Son had to get crucified to do it!

It’s horrifying that Catholics think that their own good deeds can earn credit anywhere near comparison to what Jesus did for us.

[boatbums]

1) to cease to feel resentment against (an offender) : pardon eg...forgive one’s enemies

2a : to give up resentment of or claim to requital (see requital sense 1) for forgive an insult

I have read that "forgiveness" is giving up my right to get even with the one who wronged me. We have ALL sinned and fall way, way short of the perfection/glory of God. The wages of sin is DEATH. Only by blood is there atonement for the soul. God requires a life to be taken - the sacrifice for sin is death and Christ made that sacrifice for all. The sinless, spotless Lamb of God, by His blood made eternal propitiation for all our sins. God has made that payment FOR us and by Christ's blood we are redeemed. God forgives the sin debt we owe - and could only have paid by our individual eternal deaths. It boggles my mind how some people STILL think they have to add their own scrawny, putrid, filthy works on top of that!

[MHGinTN]

*,usic* Do you believe in magic

[MHGinTN]

Here’s the “M” my big fingers missed

[Elsie]

...and have been properly baptized …

[Elsie]

Abracadabra!

[MHGinTN]

Hocu pocus