False Teachings by a Site Called "A True Church"

I was reading through the comments section of one of the articles awhile ago on here and a commentator left his (or maybe a preferred) website as their comment. They did not say anything other than leaving the site address, but I decided to have a look anyway. There were quite a few misconceptions about the Catholic Church on this page, and I would like to clear up a few of them. This is not an exhaustive list of their misconceptions but it should be enough to show that this person has no idea what they are talking about, and neither do those who continue with this line of thinking.

Here is what their home page says:

“All of the religions of the world lead to nowhere but hell. For example, Protestantism, Evangelicalism, Catholicism, Mormonism, JW's, Seventh Day Adventism, Islam, manmade Judaism (Matthew 15:8-9), Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, etc., all lead to eternal torment. Those involved in them are "unbelieving, . . . idolaters" (Revelation 21:8). Every single last one of them reject the truth of the Bible (Romans 1:18-25), and thus, the Truth of the Bible, God (John 14:6), will burn them forever in the lake of fire for hating Him so (Deuteronomy 32:39-41; Revelation 20:11-15).

Therefore, if you are involved with the kind of Christianity that views Protestantism, or Catholicism, or the Orthodox church, or the "church of Christ," or Billy Graham, or Rick Warren, or Joel Osteen, or James Dobson, or Pat Robertson, or John MacArthur, or Paul Washer, or Norman Geisler, or Tony Evans, or Greg Laurie, or Charles Stanley, or Chuck Smith, or Fred Price, or J. Vernon McGee, or Charles Blake, or Chuck Swindoll, or Gene Scott, or Harold Camping (Family Radio), or John Piper, or T. D. Jakes, or David Jeremiah, or Charles Spurgeon, or Dave Hunt, or Marvin J. Rosenthal, or David W. Cloud, or Perry F Rockwood, or Neil Anderson, or Robert Schuller, or Jack Hayford, or Benny Hinn, or Miles McPherson, or Ray Comfort, or Jim Cobrae, or Ron Luce, or Chuck Colson, or C. S. Lewis, or Hank Hanegraaff, or Paul Chappell, or Steven Anderson, or any of the like (or any of the likes on "Christian" TV or radio) as godly, you are not saved. Why? Because, you are on the broad way (Matthew 7:13; 2 Peter 2:2; 2 Timothy 4:3). You have not the characteristic of Christ's sheep (John 10:5). And, men such as these are wells without water (2 Peter 2:17).”

As you can see, this person is quite tolerant of other people’s belief systems. He, in effect, has placed himself in God’s stead and declared salvation only to those who believe in his belief system. One would think that the person who wrote this, a so called follower of Christ, would be charitable enough to investigate a belief system that they were attacking and see what they really believe, but alas, this is not the case, as I will show below.

Forbidding To Marry

“It is well known that both priests and nuns are forbidden to marry. Yet, Scripture condemns such a practice in 1 Timothy 4 and identifies those who practice this as ungodly wicked people (1 Timothy 4:1-3).”

How many Catholics are allowed to marry in the Catholic Church? More than 99% so “forbidding to marry” really isn’t the issue here. All Catholics are free to marry unless they have taken vows to God not to. Should we really encourage people, who on their own cognition accepted these vows, to break a promise to God? I will not take that side of an argument but obviously this guy believes it to be a good idea. Lest we forget that the Holy Spirit, through St. Paul, tells us that “It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” It is quite clear reading through Scripture that there are those “who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” It is a choice made freely if you wish to enter the vocation of the Priesthood (in the Latin Rite). Also, don’t forget the fact that men are allowed to marry and then become Priests in the Eastern Rites, yet many choose not to.

Idolatry (under the heading of False Christ)

“As should be seen from the above, the wafer and the wine is the Catholic Jesus. And this Catholic Jesus (a piece of bread and some wine) is worshipped. This is idolatry. God is not a piece of bread (Isaiah 46:5). Bread should not be worshipped (Deuteronomy 5:7).”

I agree with this guy here. Bread should not be worshipped. If Catholics believed that they were worshipping bread ,then this argument would be valid, but that is not Catholic belief. Catholic belief is that the bread changes into Jesus. Let’s assume that Catholics are wrong in this belief for a second, we aren't, but it is always ok to postulate. If the bread remains bread then what are Catholics worshipping in this case? Well, our worship is directed at Christ, not at the bread. This is not idolatry, as idolatry requires a deliberate action of worshipping something other than God, not a mistake. Would he call John an idolater for worshipping an angel mistakenly? Somehow I doubt it.

Mary Worship

“Although Catholics may deny they worship Mary, they nonetheless do worship her (1 Timothy 4:2). And, being that she is not God, this is therefore idolatry (worship of someone or something other than God, Deuteronomy 5:7; Psalm 96:5) and demonic (Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17; 2 Chronicles 11:15; Psalm 106:37; 1 Corinthians 10:20-21; Revelation 9:20).”

Here the author calls Catholics liars, literally. Take a look at 1 Timothy 4:2. Now again, if Catholics deny worshipping Mary, in a way reserved only to God, then idolatry is not taking place. We do not worship Mary in a way reserved only to God, so therefore idolatry cannot take place, since no worship is being given to Mary. I wrote an article on this already.

Muslims

“The Church's relationship with Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day." (CCC, p. 223, #841)

The Catholic Church attributes salvation to the Muslims. This denies the words of Christ (John 14:6), and makes the Catholic way very broad (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:24). They accept (as saved) even those who reject the Son of God (1 John 5:10).

I wrote an article on that covers this subject, but notice how the author says that the Catholic Church attributes salvation to the Muslims. Nowhere does this, or any other Church document, say that all Muslims are saved. We do not even believe that all Catholics are/will be saved, yet that is what the author wants to project. If Muslims do hold the faith of Abraham, who are we to say they are saved or unsaved? If they are attempting to live the faith, why would they not be saved? After all, even our ancestors did not hold the faith as we do today. Some take longer to come to the truth than others. The author is playing God here and unfortunately not a just one.

Suicide

We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives. (CCC, p. 550, #2282 & 2283)

Besides being a comforting lie for those still living, this Catholic teaching on suicide opens wide the door of death and Hades (Luke 16:19-31; Revelation 20:11-15) to those in despair. This is certainly a damning lie.”

Notice how the Catechism says “God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.” The key word here is CAN. The Church is not saying that He will, but only that He can. If we follow the author’s argument, it ends up with a God that is not omnipotent since he cannot provide another way to salvation for those who take their own lives. We do not know with absolute certainty that God will save these people, maybe He will, maybe He won’t, but to say He cannot do something that is within His nature, such as saving people, creates a limited God. The God that the author describes here is not the God I believe in, nor should any Christian. The main problem, with suicide, is that those who take their own lives are normally not in the right state of mind. Their mental assent has been incapacitated to a certain extent. A just and loving God, as we believe, would not hold someone accountable for actions under taken while in this state, since in order to commit a mortal sin one must have full knowledge of the sinful action, it must be committed with deliberate and complete assent, as well as be of grave matter. Only the latter condition is met for sure, the other two have question marks raised in this case.

All too often us Catholics see this, people reading what they believe Catholics believe into what we really believe. The Catechism is much clearer than many passages in Scripture and yet these same people can’t get those correct and think that we should take their interpretation as authoritative. It is hard to take people like this seriously when they do not even put the effort into trying to understand what the Church believes, but instead put a lot of effort in bearing false witness. As seen above, their knowledge of the Church goes only so far as reading parts of the Catechism in light of how they already feel towards Catholics, and their logic is non-existent in their reasoning.

I hope this article proves useful to those who believe as the author of the site does, but have a sincere desire to actually learn what Catholics do believe. I will be more than happy to answer any questions posed, but rudeness will not be tolerated.