But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)

Speaking The Truth In Love

Let me make this as clear as I possibly can for the Roman Catholics who read this work in Christ. I personally am a former follower of apostate Roman Catholicism and a member of the Roman Catholic Church. I happen to care very deeply about those, such as the majority of my own family line, who are trapped in this man-made system of religion. I also fully realize that what I say may sound “unloving” and possibly even “harsh.” However, there is just nothing that I can do about that; we are doing no one a service by not telling them the truth.

As I have said before, one of my life verses is 1 Corinthians 15:10 — But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.  There are a couple of things I can note here: 1) But for the grace of God, His unmerited favor, I am freed from the bondage of this false religious system; and 2) The Lord’s unmerited favor has resulted in His calling me to the incredible privilege of being one of His pastor-teachers, so that grace “was not in vain.”

Now there has been some confusion over this issue of baptism. You must understand that it matters not whether any Reformers may have baptized infants because these men did not believe in baptismal regeneration as does the Roman Catholic Church. So this is a red herring that only leads us off to “wrestle with the snake,” because the issue is not concerning infants; but rather, Rome’s view of baptism period. In the above Scripture the Apostle Paul has very clearly said that if anyone preaches a Gospel other than that of Christ’s original Apostles, it is God Himself Who says this person—or group—is accursed.

Roman Catholicism Teaches Baptismal Regeneration

The Gospel of the Apostles does not include the doctrine that baptism brings the about forgiveness of our sins and/or uniting us to Christ. The different “gospel” of the apostate Church of Rome unquestionably does, which is why I will quote the following directly from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and its section 977 – “Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins because it unites us with Christ…” While I believe everything the Bible teaches about baptism, it doesn’t have to do with the actual forgiveness of sins (e.g. Matthew 9:2; Luke 23:42-43; Acts 10:43-45), and no, baptism in itself, doesn’t unite us with Christ.

A person becomes baptized because he has already been regenerated and united to Christ by God’s grace alone; through faith alone; in Christ’s finished work on the Cross alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 is written in the past tense — For by grace you have been saved through faith; and yet in the different gospel that the Church of Rome teaches justification is an ongoing process. And anyone, even an angel from Heaven most certainly applies to the Pope in Rome pretending to be Vicar of Christ, who preaches another gospel than the one Paul preached; as such, God the Holy Spirit tells us he is under the divine curse of the Lord. If one is under the divine curse, then he can’t very well be a Christian.

The CCC also says in section 405: “human nature has not been totally corrupted;…” This is also part of the different gospel of the Roman Catholic Church because Genesis 8:21 definitively says — “for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” The Lord Himself confirms this in Matthew 7:11 when He says to His Own disciples — “you then, who are evil.” The greatest of the Apostles says — “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18). And finally Romans 3:10-18 makes it quite clear that no one seeks for God (v.11).

Mankind Plays No Part In Salvation

In fact we have this corroborated again by the LORD God Himself in Matthew 11:27 when He says — All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  Now we may not like the fact — no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him, as the KJV renders this verse, but this is exactly what the text says. So you can see this is right in line with what God the Holy Spirit of Truth reveals through Paul — “no one understands; no one seeks for God.

There is just no way around the absolute truth of Romans 5:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (vv.6-10)

The CCC also goes on to say in section 405: “Baptism,…erases original sin…” In Section 1215: “[Baptism] actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one ‘can enter the kingdom of God.’ ” Section 1265 says: “Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also…the whole organism of the Christian’s supernatural life has its roots in baptism.” We read in section 1250: “Born with a fallen human nature…children also have need of the new birth in baptism.” And finally, here is section 1992: “Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith.”

The issue is simple: If no one can enter the Kingdom of God without “the new birth in baptism,” then we are now in hopeless contradiction with the Gospel contained in Holy Scripture. It needs to be recovered that the Reformers were simply returning our Lord’s Church back to what God has told us about His Gospel in His Word. The absolute truth is that mankind’s nature is totally depraved; he does nothing to initiate such a great salvation (cf. Hebrews 2:3), he does nothing to accomplish it, nor is there anything he does to keep it. Paul told us the Gospel that he and the Apostles preached in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, and it is most clearly not the one of baptismal regeneration, which is preached by the apostate Church of Rome.

In fact, Paul himself differentiated between baptism and the preaching of the Gospel when he told us — For Christ did not send me to baptize but [rather] to preach the gospel (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17). No, the Bible is very clear on this subject, and the truly perplexing question that remains is: How possibly can the allegedly Protestant Reformed evangelical community now consider as Christian an organization that claims infallibility for its corrupt and unregenerate teaching magisterium, proclaiming a gospel of works-oriented baptism for the remission of sins, which is undoubtedly preaching another gospel contrary to the one you received (cf. Galatians 1:9)?

See also:

WHAT DOES THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH TEACH ABOUT THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION?

HAS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH REALLY CHANGED?

ROMAN CATHOLICISM SPAWNED THE CURRENT APOSTASY IN EVANGELICALISM