CRN.Info and Analysis

Issue: Catholocism

Slice/CRN’s Take: The Catholic Church Apostate Church of Rome^TM is a (if not the) primary root of all that is evil in Christendom.  Just ask Ken, since I’m not sure he’s actually referred to it as anything but the ACoR.^TM

My Take: While I attend a church that came out of the 19th Century Restoration Movement (within Protestantism), I consider myself to be a Christian (or Christ-follower) in the spirit of the first century church - neither ‘Protestant’ nor ‘Catholic’ - a part of a church of Christians, only (but not the only Christians…) 

I have serious issues with all systematic theologies - Catholic and ‘Reformed’ - because they are artifical divisions based on nothing within Christ’s original church.  HOWEVER, I would not dare to say that Catholics, Protestants - all those who hold to the gospel of Jesus, the Lordship of YHWH and the gift of the Holy Spirit - as a whole are not my brothers in the faith.

I have a number of Catholic friends, some of whom are willing to discuss spiritual issues - even the ones that we disagree on - and I just don’t see that it would do anything to my personal walk and witness to refer to their church constantly as the Apostate Church of Rome^TM - in fact, I see that it would be anti-Christian to do so. 

I have serious issues with the Catholic leadership model, the semi-deification (in practice) of Mary and the saints, the church hermeneutic which denies the ministry of all believers, and a number of other fundamental issues.  HOWEVER, if I cannot treat them with charity as brothers, then I do not have the right to call myself a follower of Christ.

[I expect I will get a whole lot of flak for this stance, but I don't rightly care.  I know far too many Roman Catholic Christians who DO take their faith seriously, who do consider the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, who do consider Jesus to be Messiah, who do consider YHWH as the one and only God of all, etc., etc.  Jesus had some serious theolofical issues with the Essenes (who, have similarities to extremes in both Catholocism and hyper-Calvinism), and there are even some possible jabs taken at them in his teaching, but you never hear him call them out as apostates... His harshest criticism was for the Sadducees and some types of Pharisees who were far more interested in who's 'in' and who's 'out' than in mercy and justice, and so mine should be, as well...]