[Faith-talk] bill keller devotional august 8

[Andrew]

This DAILY DEVOTIONAL is dedicated to my mother who would have been 87
today had she not went to be with the Lord the day before Christmas in
1998. She and my father helped to lay the foundation of faith in my
life that is the reason I have been serving the Lord these past 22
years. Today I want to deal with the Roman Catholic Church, the church
my Godly mother who loved Jesus grew up in, but left when she and my
father were married.

Without a doubt one of the things I am most grateful for is how God
has used Liveprayer to bring unity to the badly divided Body of
Christ. Over 1/3 of those who receive the Daily Devotional each day
are not Christians. Of the 2/3 who are, they are equally divided among
those who go to Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Pentecostal,
Independent, and Catholic Churches. Ever since I started this ministry
in 1992, one of my greatest "big picture" goals was to help bring the
Body of Christ together as one as our Lord prayed in John 17 just
hours before going to the cross. Dividing the Body is something satan
has been doing since the first church in the Book of Acts and what
Paul warned about quite often in his letters to the churches.

I purposely stayed away from any denominational affiliation, having my
ministry credentials with an independent group of ministers. I also
kept this ministry from any denominational affiliations so that nobody
could try and label it as "Baptist," even though I got my formal
theological training at a Baptist Seminary, or "Methodist," even
though I was raised and saved in the United Methodist Church, or
"Pentecostal," even though I believe in and have been blessed with
many of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Without having a "label," during
my first three years I was able to preach in over 500 churches of
every denomination, racial and ethnic makeup, all over the country.

You see, my message then and my message now has really never changed.
It is a universal message that plays to people in and out of the
church. "If you don't know Jesus by faith you need to make the
decision for Him today. If you do know the Lord, you need to fully
surrender your life and allow Him to use you. No matter what problems
you may be facing in your life today, Jesus is the answer!" As I have
shared with you often, when you die, there will be only two lines in
Heaven, There won't be a line for Whites and one for Blacks. There
won't be a line for Catholics and one for Protestants. There will be
one line for those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior by faith, and
one for those who do not!

In dealing with a worldwide audience of over 2.5 million people every
day, I am VERY well aware of the incredible divisions there are in
Christ's Body. Perhaps no division is as great as the one between
Catholics and non-Catholics. I deal with this issue daily in
individual cases but have never addressed it in the Daily Devotional.
I want you to pray, open your heart to the words I am going to share
with you, and hear the voice of God speaking to you today as I do my
best to bring balance and clarity to this area of division within the
Body of Christ.

Let me start right away and say that those non-Catholics who think the
Roman Catholic Church is a cult and anyone who is part of that church
is going to hell, could not be more wrong. I am very aware of those
who teach this message of hate and division and they should be ashamed
of themselves and will one day answer to God. On the other side,
however, those Catholics who think that any non-Catholic has denied
the faith and will go to hell for not being part of the Roman Catholic
Church is just as wrong. Please, I am NOT interested in receiving your
dissertations or your cut and paste emails from websites that try and
support EITHER of these extreme positions so don't send them!

The fact is, the Roman Catholic Church has a long and well-documented
history. However, the reality is, it is simply a denomination or group
of churches, no different than a group of Southern Baptist, United
Methodist, or Assemblies of God Churches. Each group of churches or
denomination has their own rich heritage, traditions, and leaders. The
critical point is that while each group of churches or denominations
have their own unique differences in regard to different doctrinal
issues, what makes them CHRISTIAN churches is the foundational element
of the Christian faith . . . who Jesus Christ is, that salvation is
through faith in Christ alone, and the authority of God's inspired,
inerrant Word.

THE ONE TRUE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS NOT A GROUP OF CHURCHES, A
DENOMINATION, OR A BUILDING. IT IS MADE UP OF EVERY PERSON WHO HAS
ACCEPTED JESUS CHRIST INTO THEIR HEARTS AND LIVES BY FAITH!!!

I was inundated years ago when Pope Paul died if he was in Heaven.
There is only ONE WAY to get to Heaven and that is by putting your
faith and trust in Jesus Christ. My personal opinion is that he is.
Not because he was the Pope but because of His faith in Jesus Christ.
You see, the moment you die, who you were in this life isn't
important. As the old adage goes, it is Who you know! The only thing
that matters the moment you die is, DO YOU KNOW JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR
BY FAITH? God will reward us for our faithfulness in serving Him
during our life but what we do during our life can't get us to Heaven,
only faith in Jesus Christ will get us into Heaven!

Now let me address some of the issues about the Roman Catholic Church
that have led many who know the Lord to leave that church and has
caused much of the division with non-Catholics. 3 of the 700+ retired
ministers who serve the Lord by helping me each day respond to the
over 40,000 emails that we receive are Roman Catholic Priests. Over my
years of ministry, I have personally preached in over 1/2 dozen
Catholic Churches (and I can assure you that I shared the
unadulterated truth of the Gospel and gave an altar call as I do
whenever I preach in public), and the best we can tell, approximately
200,000 of the 2.5 million plus subscribers to the Daily Devotional
are Catholics. I have read and studied the Catechism of the Roman
Catholic Church and as a student of church history am very well aware
of what the Catholic Church teaches.

The problem most non-Catholics have with the Catholic Church is what I
call their non-Biblical traditions, which by the way, ALL groups of
churches or denominations have. I don't have the time to go through a
complete list but the main ones are how they deal with the mother of
Jesus, Mary. She was a virgin when she was immaculately conceived by
the Holy Spirit, however, she was a person of flesh and blood like you
and I and was born with sin just like you and I were. She also had
other children as we know from the Scriptures. There is nothing wrong
with honoring her for the incredible role God chose her to play in her
life but she is NOT a deity and praying to her is as meaningless as it
is to pray to any other person who is dead (including those the
Catholic Church has deemed to be "saints") or alive. There is only ONE
person we pray to and that is Jesus.

Another big issue in the Catholic Church is Communion. The tradition
of the Catholic Church is that the wafer representing the body of our
Lord and the wine representing His blood literally becomes the body
and blood of Christ. That is a theological argument that Scripture
clearly does not support, but I don't see that as an area for major
contention. The Bible exhorts us to take Communion often in
remembrance of the sacrifice of our Lord and there are those who
believe based on certain verses it becomes the literal body and blood
of Christ. Another issue that I don't think is that important is
confessing your sins to a Priest. The Bible tells us to confess our
sins one to another, so there is nothing wrong if it is your Priest
you choose to do that with. However, please understand that NO MAN,
only Jesus, can forgive you of your sins since it was only Jesus who
died for your sins.

Another issue that is critical to talk about is salvation. The
teaching of the Catholic Church clearly is that salvation is through
faith in Jesus Christ alone. However, there are some who teach in
error (just like some non-Catholic Churches do) that you can do enough
good works to earn your way into Heaven which is clearly refuted by
Ephesians 2:8-9. Those who teach this, point to the passage in James,
"Faith without works is dead." The fact is that passage was written to
people who were already saved. The Bible clearly teaches that a person
who is truly saved will have "fruit" or good works follow them. These
good works do not save them but flow from their salvation.

Also, it needs to be addressed that many Catholics think that they
were the "first church." Actually, the first church is well documented
in the Book of Acts and was in Jerusalem, not Rome. There was quite a
network of churches in that part of the world before there was any
church at Rome and those early churches in the city of Rome were
offshoots of those other various churches who came to plant churches
there. It was several hundred years later, with many well established
churches all over that part of the world before what we know as the
Romans Catholic Church really emerged.

Lastly is the Bible. The Catholic Bible has 6 historical books known
as the Apocrypha that deal with those 400 years from the end of
Malachi, the end of the Old Testament, to the start of the New
Testament. These books were never found to be inspired or inerrant and
thus are not part of the 66 books we call the Bible. The Bible is
God's inspired, inerrant Word, representing Absolute Truth and our
final authority in all matters. It, and it alone is our authority and
overrides any teachings or traditions of man.

Of course, there are many other non-Biblical traditions like purgatory
and numerous others. Having said all of that, let me be clear. The
Roman Catholic Church is a Christian Church and NOT a cult since the
core teachings of the Church are salvation by faith in Jesus Christ
alone and the Bible as God's Word. Since the 1970s, there has been a
very active and growing Charismatic group within the Roman Catholic
Church that is as Pentecostal as any Pentecostal Church you will ever
attend. Also, in the past 10 years, there is a growing and strong
evangelical movement within the Catholic Church. They are working
within the Church to bring back a greater emphasis on the Word of God
and on the message of salvation and less emphasis on the traditions of
the Catholic Church.

Many people who know Christ as their Savior by faith have chosen to
stay in the Catholic Church. They are just as saved, love the Lord,
and honor His Word as much as anyone who attends a non-Catholic
Church. Are there people in the Catholic Church who aren't saved? Of
course! Just like there are people in any church who are not saved. My
friend, your Methodist Church can't save you, your Baptist Church
can't save you, your Pentecostal Church can't save you, only faith in
Jesus Christ can save you! Being baptized can't save you, the faith of
your parents can't save you, no amount of good works can save you.
ONLY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST CAN SAVE YOU!!!

I love you and care about you so much. I watch, daily, as satan works
to divide the Body of Christ and perhaps there is no division as great
as the one between Catholics and non-Catholics. Martin Luther's break
with the Catholic Church took place at a time when the Catholic Church
was more of a political entity than a spiritual one. Luther wanted to
get back to the foundation of the faith, that being salvation through
God's grace and our faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9), or sola fides, the
authority of God's Word, or sola scriptura. Regardless of the
man-made, non-Biblical traditions of the Catholic Church, we are
bonded by the shed blood of Jesus Christ since what makes us a
Christian is not the name of the building we choose to worship in, but
our faith in Christ.

I will continue to do my part in helping to bring unity to the Body of
Christ by keeping people focused on the fact our real enemy is satan
and not each other. The universal message of the Bible is that God
loves each of us so much and desires to have a personal and intimate
relationship with us now and for all of eternity. However, it is our
sin that is separating us from God, and it is only faith in His Son,
Jesus Christ that can wash our sins away and reconcile us to a holy
God. Even though we may disagree on some doctrinal issues, on how a
worship service is conducted or any number of other issues, let us
never forget that those who know Jesus Christ by faith will be
spending all of eternity together so we better start learning how to
live with our brothers and sisters in Christ now.

I have confided in some of my Catholic friends that one of my great
wishes is to be Pope for a day. I would organize a 24-hour telethon to
be aired around the world. It would be a special telethon since we
would not be raising money but saving souls. It would be 24 hours of
non-stop soul winning and with the power of the Papacy, I believe it
would be the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen! Let us
pray that Pope Francis will not only have a heart for the hurting but
also the lost, and the boldness to stand and proclaim that Jesus
Christ is "the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to
the Father except through Him!!!"



In His love and service,

Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller