This article is a result of some trouble a friend of mine had which resulted in her doubting her faith in addition to a potential problem that may be exploited due to the changes dictated by the Vatican for all church services conducted by the Catholic Church.
First off, I am not a catholic. I call myself a protestant but my wife, who is a Catholic says I’m more a fundamentalist. My understanding of a protestant is anyone who is Christian but not Catholic. Perhaps I’m wrong. My wife and her sister, who stays with us, are both Catholic so we go to a Catholic church.
The changes are word changes to their recited prayers and creed to be closer to the “original” latin. I put original in quotes because it seems odd to me. The entire affair is odd to me. Recited scripted prayers and pronouncement of memorized lines each week do not a Christian make. I am fully of the belief that God seeks a personal relationship with Him and reciting scripts isn’t personal. Nonetheless, I have come to the understanding that some people are just more comfortable with this format and so long as they believe the basic foundation of the Christian faith, they are saved. In my view, they are putting themselves through unnecessary steps which seem to add to their own sense of guilt if not done just so.
In the end it doesn’t matter, a good friend and co worker of mine has put it best when, after a religion related discussion, she summed it up to say the extra details don’t matter so long as we believe in Jesus, who he is and what he did for us. Echoes of Romans 14 and 15.
What I wanted to speak to today was in relation to a problem that a friend of mine has. She has had someone giving her grief because she isn’t performing to the personal expectations of this person who appears to believe she is “holy” because she is apparently doing all of these things she accuses my friend of not doing. I have not been given the details what these things are but I have run into this sort of person before. They believe themselves holy because of what they do and they have no difficulty telling you that you are wrong.
Soon after the start of the first century church, there was a group known as the Judaisers. These people, while Messianic Jews, had the belief that they also had to abide by the Law to be true Christians. (Acts 15:1) They caused all sorts of havoc among new gentile Christians claiming that while the gospel was nice and all, to truly receive the gift of salvation, one had to place themselves under the Mosaic Law. As I explained quickly in my last article, the Law cannot save. Its purpose is to show you that you are a sinner. All the Law can do is condemn you, which it does quite well. Salvation is through grace alone. (Ephesians 2:4-9)
Indeed, this was such a problem that a council was formed in Jerusalem to discuss this very thing. What will the disciples say to new converts about what is required of them? You can read about this council in Acts 15. Their conclusion was that they cannot in good faith ask the gentiles to keep laws that even they themselves could not keep. Instead, they decided that the only things they would hold over from the Mosaic law to give to the gentile believers was to abstain from eating food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from anything strangled and from sexual immorality. So they wrote a letter stating just that and sent it to Antioch with Silas and Judas (Barsabbas, not the former apostle who betrayed Jesus). Even so, Paul later writes that eating food offered to idols isn’t immoral because we all (as Christians) know that idols aren’t anything real anyway. However, in that it may cause a new Christian or someone else to stumble or in other words appear to endorse idol worship then you have a problem (1 Corinthians 8).
I say all of this to bring to mind a potential point of attack that these changes may bring to our brothers and sisters of the Catholic persuasion. In the case of my Australian friend, she is being told her salvation is in jeopardy because she isn’t performing some ritual (or rituals) just so; or she isn’t participating enough in whatever extra-curricular activity this modern day Judaiser thinks she aught to be participating in. See, to this accuser of hers, the rituals have become a means unto themselves. She has forgotten the reason they were made up and has made it a club to use against her fellow church members. While she may be sincere in her intentions, she has forgotten her first love (Revelation 2:1-7 – the discussion of the Nicolaitans is for another day).
To anyone who may also be suffering from such attacks, I will say to you the same advice I gave my Australian friend. Let no one steal your joy. It is a favourite tactic of the devil to try to get you to doubt your faith. You must work out your salvation (Phillipians 2:12-13). It is God working in you to do good. Remember also that what has been given to Jesus (you when you repented and came to Him) can not be taken from His hand (John 10:28-30). This person accusing you of not doing enough to earn salvation is preaching salvation by works and it is a good thing they are not in charge of your eternal destiny. Salvation is a gift that cannot be lost (your heavenly rewards are a different matter for a different discussion). So the only way really to defend against such attacks and to be able to stand firm in the faith is to read your bible thus putting on the armor of god and carrying that shield of faith. (Ephesians 6:12-18). If someone is professing to you a gospel that is not from the bible, it is quite simply wrong. No matter who it is that is telling it to you (Galatians 1:8). The only way you are going to know what that gospel is is to hear the word and be like the Bereans. Receive the word with an open mind but look to the scriptures to see if what is said is true. (Acts 17:11).
I want to add a note here: I don’t particularly have a problem with rituals. I don’t prescribe to them myself but I do know that many people are as uncomfortable without them just as I am with them. To me, my head fills with static in the middle of reciting prayers from a book or the apostle’s creed each week. I don’t know the words. They carry no meaning for me. It is because of my belief in the personal relationship with God (and thus Jesus) and I wouldn’t read from a script when interacting with my friends, coworkers or family. It isn’t personal. Rituals have a place and indeed, there are some in the bible complete with the reasons for them. They also come with the problem described in this article where they become a reason unto themselves and the purpose for them is long forgotten. I do not run around thinking that those who do engage in them are condemned. As my friend and coworker said, and so did Paul in his letter to the romans (Romans 14). There are certain things that are basic and important (repentance and coming to the Christ for the gift of salvation) and the rest aren’t worth fighting over. There are just a ridiculous number of ways I’ve seen people argue over details of such rituals which in the end have no bearing whatsoever on your eternal salvation. So much grief is distributed from such arguments and that is what this article is about. I want to help people who may now be experiencing such grief which will have an even greater opportunity to happen with their rituals being changed. If you are one of those nit picking over the right words or the proper hand to lift or not life or when to bow, then I encourage you to take a look at yourself and realize what you are doing to your brethren. Are you helping them or causing them to stumble? Jesus said (and I take it seriously as should you) that it would be better that a millstone be tied around your neck and you thrown into the sea than to be the cause of one of His to sin. That sin may be the sin of apostasy.