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Posted on 08/09/2020 7:46:24 AM PDT by MurphsLaw
We should stop trying to evangelize Protestants, some Catholics say. “Let’s get our own house clean first, before we invite our fellow Christians in,” someone commented on a recent article of mine that presented a Catholic rejoinder to a prominent Baptist theologian. Another reader argued that, rather than trying to persuade Protestants to become Catholic, we should “help each other spread God’s love in this world that seems to be falling to pieces before our eyes.” As a convert from Protestantism, actively engaged in ecumenical dialogue, I’ve heard this kind of thinking quite frequently. And it’s dead wrong.
One common argument in favor of scrapping Catholic evangelism towards Protestants is that the Catholic Church, mired in sex-abuse and corruption scandals, liturgical abuses, heretical movements, and uneven catechesis, is such a mess that it is not, at least for the moment, a place suitable for welcoming other Christians.
There are many problems with this. For starters, when has the Church not been plagued by internal crises? In the fourth century, a majority of bishops were deceived by the Arian heresy. The medieval Church suffered under the weight of simony and a lax priesthood, as well as the Avignon Papacy and the Western Schism, culminating in three men claiming, simultaneously, to be pope. The Counter-Reformation, for all its catechetical, missionary and aesthetic glories, was still marred by corruption and heresies (Jansenism). Catholicism has never been able to escape such trials. That didn’t stop St. Martin of Tours, St. Boniface, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ignatius Loyola, or St. Teresa of Calcutta from their missionary efforts.
The “Catholics clean house” argument also undermines our own theology. Is the Eucharist the “source and summit of the Christian life,” as Lumen Gentium preaches, or not? If it is, how could we in good conscience not direct other Christians to its salvific power? Jesus Himself declared: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53) Was our Lord misrepresenting the Eucharist?
Or what of the fact that most Protestant churches allow contraception, a mortal sin? Or that Protestants have no recourse to the sacraments of penance or last rites? To claim Protestants aren’t in need of these essential parts of the Catholic faith is to implicitly suggest we don’t need them either.
* Moreover, in the generations since the Reformation, Rome has been able to win many Protestants back to the fold who have made incalculable contributions to the Church. St. John Henry Newman’s conversion ushered in a Catholic revival in England, and gave us a robust articulation of the concept of doctrinal development. The conversion of French Lutheran pastor Louis Bouyer influenced the teachings of Vatican II. Biblical scholar Scott Hahn’s conversion in the 1980s revitalized lay study of Holy Scripture.
Another popular argument in favor of limiting evangelization of Protestants involves the culture war. Catholics and theologically conservative Protestants, some claim, share significant common ground on various issues: abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, euthanasia, religious freedom, etc. Secularism, the sexual revolution, and anti-religious progressives represent an existential threat to the survival of both Catholics and Protestants, and thus we must work together, not debate one another. “Let’s hold back any criticism of them,” a person commenting on my article wrote. “Believe me, in the times that we are in, we need to all hang together, or we will definitely hang separately on gallows outside our own churches.”
This line of thought certainly has rhetorical force: we don’t have the luxury of debating with Protestants when the progressivists are planning our imminent demise! Ecumenical debate is a distraction from self-preservation. One problem with this argument is that it reduces our Christian witness to a zero-sum game – we have to focus all our efforts on fighting secular progressivism, or we’ll fail. Yet the Church has many missions in the public square – that Catholics invest great energy in the pro-life movement doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also focus our efforts on other important matters: health-care, education, ensuring religious freedom, or fighting poverty and environmental degradation. All of these, in different ways, are a part of human flourishing. Even if we consider some questions more urgent than others, none of them should be ignored.
Besides, there is a vast difference between mere polemics and charitable, fruitful discussions aimed at resolving disagreements. The former can certainly cause bad blood. The latter, however, can actually foster unity and clarity regarding our purposes. Consider how much more fruitful our fight against the devastation of the sexual revolution would be if we persuaded Protestants that they need to reject things like contraception and the more permissive stance towards divorce that they have allowed to seep into their churches. Consider how non-Christians could learn from charitable ecumenical conversations that don’t devolve into name-calling and vilification.
Finally, abandoning or minimizing the evangelizing of Protestants is to fail to recognize how their theological and philosophical premises have contributed to the very problems we now confront. As Brad Gregory’s book The Unintended Reformation demonstrates, the very nature of Protestantism has contributed to the individualism, secularism, and moral relativism of our age. A crucial component to our Catholic witness, then, is helping Protestants to recognize this, since even when they have the best intentions, their very paradigm undermines their contributions to collaborating with us in the culture war.
I for one am very grateful that Catholics – many of them former Protestants – persuaded me to see the problems inherent to Protestantism, and the indisputable truths of Catholicism. My salvation was at stake. I also found and married a devout Catholic woman, and am raising Catholic children. The Catholic tradition taught me how to pray, worship, and think in an entirely different way. It pains me to think what my life would be like if I hadn’t converted to Catholicism.
Why bother to evangelize devout Protestants? Because they are people like me.
I’m a Baptist and will remain one.
I’ll read this though.
Everyone needs to be evangelized, but with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, not with church dogmas which are nothing more than the commandments of men.
Give up knowing Christ and assurance of salvation for
The Roman Hamster Wheel of Perpetual Guilt and False Works
that can never save.
No chance.
And here we go.
I guess it’s better to believe a rebellious priest who established a theology that nobody had seen before1500 years after Christ and got it right? That’s ridiculous.
Oh and what was the last book Mad Marty wrote? It was “Of the Jews and Their Lies”.
Real man of God there.
You definitely need evangelizing. You know nothing of the Holy Catholic Church.
We are suppose to come out of the Whore of Babylon, not run to her embrace.
“ guess it’s better to believe a rebellious priest who established a theology that nobody had seen before1500 years after Christ and got it right? That’s ridiculous.”
God has always had His people who didnt bow their knee to Baal.
The Gospel has always been present since the Scriptures were inspired.
Unfortunately, Rome has always slaughtered those who trust Christ.
“Oh and what was the last book Mad Marty wrote? It was “Of the Jews and Their Lies”.
Yes, he learned this from Rome and was wrong.
He was an imperfect man - like all men God uses.
“Real man of God there.”
Yes despite sin and failure, Blessed Saint Luther was used to recover the Gospel of Grace and so much more.
“You definitely need evangelizing. You know nothing of the Holy Catholic Church.”
Former Roman Catholic that was evangelized, came to saving faith in His Gospel, and am eternally grateful.
Martin Luther had his problems, but want to compare him to some of the lowlifes running the Catholic church back then? Want to talk about the inquisition? The Borgias? Want to talk about them killing Bruno? You can’t talk about Martin Luther without discussing those things too. The fact is my Catholic brethren are going to heaven, I do not begrudge them their ceremonies or unusual beliefs like last rights, or opinions on birth control. But likewise, my protestant friends are also going to heaven. There’s bigger fish to fry right now. Instead of playing this game, we should be focused on the storm attacking our society now.
Much the way that I think
Amen.
I find freedom in Christ alone.
Actually, as one rescued from the Roman church, I am actually sort of offended when Catholics presume to hold the keys held by Christ.
Anecdote: occasionally, some group or other comes comes proselytizing to my door. JW, LDS, even a mainstream protestant inviting me to social.
I have not been approached by a Catholic, however.
If I was I would respond as always, “if Christ alone is efficacious for salvation, as God Almighty inhuman flesh, then we already have fellowship. If not, then we won’t.”
I do love my Catholic family and friends. They think me weird for my faith in Christ and His substitutionsry death for my justification. His blood, alone, with nothing more than my taking him at His Word. My good works follow, not lead.
All else is dead works and paganism.
Oh even better you ran from the one True Church straight to the other side. You won’t believe anything unless it is not Catholic.
If It’s doctrine that was only created 1500 years after Christ then there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY it came from him.
There is someone it came from. And you know who that is.
And Jesus had Judas. One out of 12 went evil. So what? You throw the whole thing out and start again from scratch?
No.
And the people you mentioned did not totally rebel and try and start Christianity 2.0. And you can see the fruits of Mad Marty’s rebellion in the tens of thousands of Protestant denominations that can’t even agree amongst THEMSELVES.
It’s obvious Protestants need to be evangelized since so much of what they think they know is just plain wrong.
How about evangelizing the demonic Pope?
Protestants don’t agree among themselves about esoteric details. You might wanna notice that the Catholics are not exactly in lockstep either. The fact of the matter is it Luthers reformation created something a lot more recognizable to Jesus then a temporal monarchy based in Rome. At the time of the reformation, the Roman church was about as far stayed from Jesus as one can get.
There’s nothing wrong with cheerleading for your own team, but as long as Rome insists that the pope is anointed by god in an unbroken chain from Jesus and we must obey him, it won’t work.
It’s a fools errand to insist all Christians united under one flag denomination. Now is the time to clean up your own act, and for protestants to clean up their own as well. And for both to face the true enemy.
I would turn that back around, and say walking through the Vatican Circa 1500, watching them forbid Bible reading and other atrocities, There is no way one could associate that with the simplicity and Peace of Jesus and his message.
By the way, just for extra clarity with my Catholic friends, I do not associate the Catholic Church of that era with the Catholic Church up today, who are some of the kindest people I know. That would be like conflating the monsters in Salem and Henry the 8th with my baptist preacher today
There is plenty of evil in all of us, most assured myself, Vision may also be present in any of us, as a pearl in the mud. I may well see evil in the Popes, as you see evil in Luther. It is not well to dwell upon these things. Look for what is pure and imperishable.
Matthew 12:30 “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”
At the end of Mass, we are told to Go forth and spread the Catholic faith by our lives and share the Word of God with the world. “Ite, missa est”
Those assembled are sent forth to bring the fruits of the Eucharist to the world.
Continue to pray for the conversion of sinners, especially Catholics that have abandoned their faith and those not participating in the Sacraments.
Me too. I was a devout Catholic for over 30 years. I did everything the church told me too. I went to mass every week. Sometimes every day. I said my rosary. I lit candles. I had my prayer cards. I went to confession. But I knew something was wrong. I started having dreams and nightmares that I was destined for hell. I asked my priest, how can I be sure I won’t go to hell? His answer was: “Well, that is a great mystery.” The Roman catechism itself says that no one can know if they are going to heaven or hell until the point of death. There is no salvation in the Roman Catholic Church. When I started to read the Scriptures, really read them, my heart soared. There were the words of Paul, Peter, and Jesus himself. I could be saved from hell. And I could know it. Once I accepted Jesus Christ, it was the most profound thing that ever happened to me. I found out that not only did I know him. —- I LOVED him, and Jesus loved me.
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