Jumping Ship

Within the last ten years I have experienced two people leaving churches they had attended for quite some time. One of those people was me and the other a close relative. I still remember sitting on my bed, with the Bible opened in front of me, as I talked on the phone to my family member. I am still not certain what brought on the change in their life, but what they were going through led them to ask me about my opinion of their circumstances. This particular person was raised in the Catholic church and was starting to question everything they had ever been taught. Before I go on, let me be clear that what I am about to say has nothing to do with the Catholic church. My relative was asking me questions that centered around the Church supposedly "changing" the Sabbath Day from Saturday to Sunday and whether or not the Pope is the Antichrist. This was some real off the wall sort of stuff. The deeper issue was that my relative questioned whether or not their continued attendance and involvement in the Catholic Church, after all these "revelations," would somehow jeopardize their salvation.

"I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen." Romans 9: 1-5

At the time I had only been a Christian for a short while. And I didn't know if what I was being asked was the result of the Holy Spirit revealing something to my relative that they needed clarity on or someone who was being influenced by anti-Catholic propaganda. But, even then I knew that being disgruntled with a religion does not mean the Lord is working on a person. There are hundreds, even thousands, of Christian religions and most of them were started after a person or group became disgruntled with the status quo and moved on. Our conversation started to sink into me being asked to give my opinion on myths and legends surrounding the Church. Eventually, I had to say "enough." Honestly, I said "Who cares?" Who cares if everything that has ever been said or written about the Catholic Church is true? God didn't come to start a religion. God came to have a relationship with individuals. The only thought that came to my mind was to tell my relative that all God is concerned about is whether or not you are born again. It doesn't really matter if you are sitting in Mass on Sunday morning. Personally, as I exclaimed, I couldn't sit still inside a service that I believed wasn't teaching the truth of the Word, but that is just me. My opinion was coming from my own experience sitting in a Word of Faith fellowship with its circus-like atmosphere. So, I was biased to say the least. The advice I gave was to let the Lord use them regardless of where it leads. Perhaps, as I suggested, God wanted them to stay in the Catholic Church and be a witness to those inside of it. After all, the Apostle Paul's heart for his Jewish brethren was so strong that he would have given up his salvation if it meant they would repent and turn to Christ.

"When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women." Acts 17: 1-4

My suggesting that my relative stay involved in the Catholic church was in hopes that they would focus more on preaching the fullness of the Gospel to their fellow brethren rather than trying to tear down the religion. The Apostle Paul was accused of telling the Jews not to obey Moses. While that was not true, the effect of his preaching could lead to that outcome. Paul was the "Apostle to the Gentiles." Yet, every time the opportunity presented itself, he would witness to the Jews in hopes that he could save the Jews and anyone else who would listen to him. As we see here, in Acts 17, his efforts were rewarded on occasion. I don't know what the outcome was with my family member and his church. Presently, they are no longer involved in the Catholic Church and attend a fellowship that I believe is a branch of the Presbyterian religion. I have since had other discussions with them on areas we disagree on. That is most likely always going to be the case when it comes to our fellow Christians. My relative had problems with Catholicism. I had problems with a Word of Faith fellowship. And both of us have had issues with each other. We can't all be correct, but we can all be wrong. My point is that we all need to continue to focus on what the Lord is leading us to do. As we grow in our knowledge of the Lord all the error we may involved with will begin to fade away. Just think about what would have happened if my relative had gone back to other Catholics and tried to pull them out of the religion by condemning it? Nobody would have listened, my relative would have been labeled a kook and their efforts would have had the opposite effect as the faith of the Catholics would have been emboldened by the attack. The same could have been said if Paul had attacked Judaism and the Mosaic Law. But, when we understand and preach the truth, the Holy Spirit will change us from within and our behavior and beliefs will change as well. We are called to Jesus and then Jesus sends us out in the world. Whatever falls away as a result of standing on the truth is only the natural byproduct of shining a light on the darkness.