Five hundred years have passed since the Reformation began and yet the influence of the Roman Catholic Church remains strong. I’m not referring to the mammoth oligarchy that seeks to dictate the lives of an estimated one billion people, but rather its continuing influence upon churches outside its realm, including many that adhere to the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture.
While attending Talbot Seminary, I wrote my master’s thesis on Roman Catholic Justification in the Light of Scripture. In my study, I discovered that Catholicism’s key departure from Scripture was its firm insistence that God’s justification of sinners happens at the end of their life. This teaching contradicts what Paul wrote in Romans 5:1:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, God justifies us at the moment of our regeneration (see also Titus 3:4-7). Why is it so important to affirm this clear biblical truth?
It’s because the error of placing our justification at the end of one’s life has crept into evangelical churches in various forms that continue to grow in popularity as well as negate the glorious hope embedded in the Gospel. It does so by. . .
Undoing the Finality of Our Salvation
I’m not aware of when Catholic theologians first decided that God’s justification of the sinner happens at the end of one’s life, but by the time of Reformation, it had become deeply entrenched in the church’s dogma. This teaching provided the church with the means to control the lives of its members from birth to the grave.
As a result, Catholics can never be sure of their salvation since their final destination depends upon their obedience as well as adherence to the church’s sacraments up to the time of last rites. Under such a scenario, how could anyone be certain of the final outcome of their faith?
Scripture tells us a much different story. Not only does it reveal that God justifies us at the moment of our regeneration, but it also provides us with the security of our hope that Catholicism kills. When God justifies the sinner, He declares that person not guilty of all his or her sins, past present, and future.
The word for “justify” in the Greek comes from the law courts of Paul’s day; it depicted a judge declaring the accused “not guilty” of their crimes. For us, it’s the legal declaration of our righteousness that comes solely through faith by grace. God declares us innocent solely because Jesus bore the punishment for our sins on the cross; His blood covers all of our iniquity. Romans 8:1 states the finality of God’s proclamation of our righteousness, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Later in Romans 8, the apostle elaborates on the permanence of God’s verdict:
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:32-34).
For all of us in Christ Jesus, our justification is a done deal. God, who is not bound by time, looked at our entire life and declared us not guilty of all our sins. Who can possibly overturn His verdict? No one can provide Him with evidence that He didn’t already know about.
The belief that one can lose their salvation, or walk away from their faith, reflects the Roman Catholic understanding of justification, which regards it as a process that’s not fully settled until death. The only way to deny the finality of our salvation is to either say that someone can reverse God’s verdict, which is impossible, or somehow repackage the Catholic teaching of when God credits our account with His righteousness. If it happens at the time of our rebirth, it’s an absolute done deal.
Subjecting the Believer to a Works Mentality
The Roman Catholic error regarding justification empowers the church to enforce obedience whether it be to its traditions, its sacraments, or Scripture. Do we see this same works mentality today outside of the Catholic faith? We do.
I have experienced various forms of legalism in my life. Such teachings deceive believers into thinking they must earn favor with God, which is something they already fully possess via their secure righteous standing before Him, i.e., their justification.
Legalism reverses the order of chapters in the book of Ephesians. Instead of encouraging adherence to Paul’s instructions based upon one’s secure righteous standing before God, the works mentality begins with the commands as the way to assure the believer of his or her favor in the Lord’s sight. Paul never intended for chapters 4-6 of Ephesians to be the means of obtaining God’s approval, but rather the result of our permanent “holy and blameless” standing before God (Ephesians 1:3-14).
Once our focus shifts away from Christ and what He has done for us to how we should live, we lose the joy that comes from our security and the peace from knowing we will surely meet Jesus in the air in the future. The works mentality, popular in many Evangelical churches, is a remnant of Catholicism that spotlights our behavior rather than our glorious hope in Jesus’ appearing.
Adhering to the False Teaching of Replacement Theology
The refusal of a great many churches today to recognize the prophetic significance of Israel also mirrors Catholicism’s teaching on Bible prophecy.
Replacement Theology, or amillennialism, is the longstanding belief of the Roman Catholic Church. Augustine, a fifth century theologian, popularized the teaching that the church is the new Israel, which replaced the church in God’s prophetic program. He denied the future restoration of Israel and applied the Lord’s many promises to do so to the church, albeit spiritually.
Because Israel’s miraculous reappearance as a nation on May 14, 1948, contradicted its long held beliefs, the Vatican refused to recognize Israel as a nation until the end of 1993, a full forty-five years later.[1] Why the delay apart from their realization that Israel’s astounding rebirth refuted their longstanding amillennial beliefs?
What does today’s popularity of Replacement Theology in Bible-believing churches have to do with a biblical understanding of justification? I provide a full answer to this question in my previous post: Can God Change His Mind about Israel? Or About Us?
Based upon Romans 11:28-32, I explain how God’s unfailing mercy lies at the heart of His continuing faithfulness to us as well as to Jacob’s descendants. He will not renege on any of His promises to His people, whether it be to the nation of Israel or to us as New Testament saints. Chapters 9-11 in the book of Romans were not a rabbit trail in Paul’s line of thought, but rather a critical part of it as he showed how the promised future restoration of Israel demonstrates the Lord’s unfailing mercy not only to the Jewish nation, but also to all justified saints, which He proclaimed in Romans 8:31-38.
Identifying the Church as God’s Kingdom
From its inception, the Roman Catholic Church believed it was God’s physical kingdom on earth and hence a political entity, which directly results from its adherence to Replacement Theology, which teaches that the church is just such a realm. Its role as a governing power during the Dark Ages has long since faded, but not this exalted view of itself.
The Vatican is officially the “Vatican City State.” This came about via the 1929 Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy through which it became an officially recognized independent governing state.[2] The US sends an ambassador to the Vatican, just like it does for other governing entities.
Unfortunately, the Reformation didn’t change the perception of the church as God’s corporal kingdom on earth. Many churches, deeply steeped in amillennialism or its offshoots, continue to teach that Jesus is now reigning over the nations in fulfillment of such passages such as Psalms 2 and 46 as well as Revelation 20:1-10.
During the past few decades, Dominion Theology has grown exponentially in popularity. It asserts that the church will bring about millennial conditions on the earth and rule over it before Jesus’ returns. Is this not a variation the long ago kingdom aspirations of the Vatican?
The Bible teaches that as New Testament saints; we are heirs to a kingdom rather than current possessors of it (Ephesians 1:12-14; James 2:5). Paul couldn’t have been more clear when he said: “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:50). When Jesus appears, He will transform our lowly bodies into ones like His, immortal and incorruptible (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55). He will make us fit to inherit His kingdom that’s coming to the earth.
The Bible never identifies the church as a kingdom, but rather describes it as the “body of Christ” with Jesus as its Head. The picture of body life in Romans 12:3-8 is most certainly not that of a kingdom, but rather of functioning entity were all its members enjoy an equal standing. Furthermore, the role of the leaders of a kingdom differs radically from the humble servant leadership Jesus prescribed for His Church (Mark 10:42-45; see also 1 Peter 5:1-5).
Why does this matter? It signifies that we are not now enjoying the glories of God’s promised kingdom on the earth as those who adhere to Replacement Theology claim. The good news is that in the future, we will participate in God’s spectacular kingdom on earth with immortal bodies in a realm devoid of wars, government corruption, overt wickedness, and injustice.
Making One’s Obedience and Feelings the Validation of Salvation
I heard a pastor say this in his Sunday sermon, “You are okay if you love the Lord.” No, no, no, no!! The Bible says that all those in Christ are “okay” because the Lord loves us!
Looking to one’s feelings, or even obedience, as the validation of one’s salvation yields the same fruit as the rigors of Catholicism: it traps believers in the same web of insecurity that obstructs their walk with the Lord and turns their focus away from their joyous blessed hope in Jesus’ appearing.
If it’s true that God’s justification of the sinner happens at the moment of our redemption (Titus 3:4-7) and is by its nature wholly irreversible (Romans 8:1 and 26-39), and Scripture teaches that both are true, the Bible must be the sole rock upon which we must base our assurance of eternal life, not our feelings, our love for the Lord, nor our obedience to some standard.
Our assurance of eternal life comes from what Scripture says about us as New Testament saints, i.e., our justification though faith alone by grace.
A biblical understanding of what happens when God justifies us counters the hope-killing remains of Roman Catholicism in today’s churches that rob believers of the joy that comes from knowing the certainty of their salvation. Scripture frees us from the works mentality that results from thinking we can lose our salvation, walk away from our faith, or must work to keep ourselves within God’s favor and love for us.
Sadly, these vestiges of Roman Catholicism persist in many churches outside its realm. Not only do they breed insecurity and a works-based validation of our hope of eternal life, but in many cases these places of worship also dismiss the biblical hope that we will reign with Jesus in His glorious kingdom, one that will include a restored Israel. Our hope in Jesus’ appearing and what happens afterward is not just dry theology, but something that breathes life into our souls each and every day.
If you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus or are unsure of your salvation, please see my post, Jesus is the Only Path to Eternal Life. In it, I explain the saving message of the cross and how you can know that you belong to the Savior.
My book, Invitation to a Lavish Feast – Wisdom’s Path to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, is now available for preorder on Amazon. In it, I take the reader on a journey showing how the words of Scripture verify our beliefs in not only the restoration of Israel, but also our hope in Jesus’ soon appearing to take us home to glory. The book also includes a chapter explaining how the doctrine of justification by faith validates our belief that God will someday restore a kingdom to Israel.
[1] Mike Gendron wrote: “the Fundamental Agreement Between the State of Israel and the Holy See was signed on December 30, 1993.
[2] Wikipedia article on “Vatican City”