Who are you to judge Catholics?

Question:

I read your page about Catholics; who are you to judge? I think if your heart is into preaching this much maybe you should reach for the lost or non-believers or even possibly people that attend church regularly but believe they are saved for that mere fact.

Answer:

A classic response:

  1. In telling me not to make judgments about Catholicism, you make a judgment. By your rationale, it would be improper for you to make such judgments about me. Thus, you ended up going against your own stated belief. "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you" (Matthew 7:1-2).
  2. Though you are not a preacher and are not religious, yet you feel it is your duty to tell a Christian and a preacher how he ought to follow his religious beliefs and who he may teach. "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (II Timothy 4:1-4). Like you, my boss and not my "clients" define the scope of my job.
  3. You suggest teaching those who are deceived into believing they are saved, when in fact they are not. Since Roman Catholicism is a belief system that follows the teachings of Jesus in name only, but in reality claims the right to modify those teachings to suit their purposes, then by your own standard I should be teaching such people.

Preaching the gospel means reasoning with people about whether their current beliefs match up with the teachings of Christ. That some don't want to hear that they might be wrong is not a reason to be quiet. "And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus" (Acts 19:8-9). Just because someone claims to be a Christian, doesn't make it so. To put another's claim to the test of truth is only reasonable. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (I John 4:1).

So in answer to your question of who am I: I am a Christian and a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (II Corinthians 10:4-5).

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