beautiful

that saint stuff is bull...you can't pray to saints...read the flippin' bible for crying out loud....he was a good man at heart...but mislead.

Question: "Is Catholicism a false religion? Are Catholics saved?"



Answer: In comparing Roman Catholicism with the Word of God, there are many differences and contradictions. The Roman Catholic church teaches many doctrines that are in disagreement with what the Bible says. These include worship of saints or Mary, prayer to saints or Mary, the pope / papacy, justification by faith plus works, infant baptism, transubstantiation, and purgatory. While Catholics claim Scriptural support for these concepts, none of these teachings have any foundation in the clear teaching of Scripture. In fact, they all clearly contradict what the Bible declares. The most crucial of these is the Roman Catholic belief that faith in Christ alone is not enough to save a person. The official position of the Roman Catholic Church is that a person must believe in Jesus Christ AND be baptized AND receive Catholic communion AND obey the decrees of the Roman Catholic Church AND etc., etc., etc. Catholic divergence from the Bible on this most crucial of issues means that yes, Catholicism is a false religion. If a person believes what the Catholic Church officially teaches, he/she will not be saved.



At the same time, there are believers who attend Roman Catholic Churches. There are many Roman Catholics who have genuinely placed their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Catholic Christians remain in the Catholic church out of ignorance of what the Catholic church truly stands for, out of family tradition, or out of a desire to reach Catholics for Christ. However, these Catholic Christians are believers despite what the Catholic Church teaches, not because of what it teaches. To varying degrees, the Catholic church teaches the Bible and points people to Jesus Christ as the Savior. As a result, people are sometimes saved in Catholic churches (Isaiah 55:11). At the same time, the Catholic church also leads many people away from a genuine faith relationship with Christ. The Roman Catholic Church is not the church that Jesus Christ established. It is not a church that is based on the teachings of the Apostles.

Recommended Resource: Reasoning from the Scriptures with Catholics by Ron Rhodes.

Question: "Is prayer to saints / Mary Biblical?"



Answer: The Bible nowhere instructs believers in Christ to pray to anyone other than God. Why, then, do many Catholic pray to Mary and/or pray to "saints"? Catholics view Mary and saints as "intercessors" before God. They believe that a saint, who is in Heaven, has more "direct access" to God than we do. Therefore, if a saint delivers a prayer to God, it is more effective than us praying to God directly. This concept is blatantly unbiblical. Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we (not saints) can "...approach the throne of grace with confidence..."



1 Timothy 2:5 declares, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." There is no one else that can mediate with God for us. If Jesus is the only mediator, that indicates Mary and saints cannot be mediators. They cannot mediate our prayer requests to God. Further, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ Himself is interceding for us before the Father, "Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them" (Hebrews 7:25). With Jesus Himself interceding for us, why would we need Mary or the saints to intercede for us? Who would God listen to more closely than His Son? Romans 8:26-27 describes the Holy Spirit interceding for us. With the 2nd and 3rd members of the Trinity already interceding for us before the Father in Heaven, what possible need could there be to have Mary or the saints interceding for us?



Catholics argue that praying to Mary and the saints is no different than asking someone here on earth to pray for you. Let us examine that claim. (1) The Apostle Paul asks other Christians to pray for him in Ephesians 6:19. Many Scriptures describe believers praying for one another (2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 1:16; Philippians 1:19; 2 Timothy 1:3). The Bible nowhere mentions anyone asking for someone in Heaven to pray for them. The Bible nowhere describes anyone in Heaven praying for anyone on earth. (2) The Bible gives absolutely no indication that Mary or the saints can hear our prayers. Mary and the saints are not omniscient. How could they possibly hear the prayers of millions of people? Whenever the Bible mentions praying to or speaking with the dead, it is in the context of sorcery, witchcraft, and divination - activities the Bible strongly condemns (Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10-13). The one instance when a "saint" is spoken to, Samuel in 1 Samuel 28:7-19, Samuel was not exactly happy to be disturbed. It is plainly clear that praying to Mary or the saints is completely different from asking someone here on earth to pray for you. One has a strong Biblical basis, the other has no Biblical basis whatsoever.


There is absolutely no basis or need to pray to anyone other than God alone. Only God can hear our prayers. Only God can answer our prayers. No one in Heaven has any greater access to God's throne that we do through prayer, Let us then come directly to God through Jesus' work on the cross of Calvary, not only for salvation, but also for our needs as well (Hebrews 4:14).

Recommended Resource: The Gospel According to Rome: Comparing Catholic Tradition and The Word of God by James McCarthy.