How does a person get saved for certain? How does a person go from being a sinner into being a righteous person who is justified in the eyes of a perfect and a Most HOLY God? There is no other question more important than this in all of religion. That is because if one is not in right standing before Almighty God, then literally nothing else matters in the end. We’ve been exploring the question, “Is the Roman Catholic Church a true Church of God, or is it a counterfeit religious cult?
Jesus the Messiah told us that we could recognize whether something is good or bad, righteous or unrighteous by the fruit that it produces, (Matthew 7:15-20). With this in mind we’ve been looking at the different characteristics, or the fruit that are universally identified as being a cult, and we’ve been comparing these fruits or characteristics to the Roman Catholic Church. The central question being, does the Roman Catholic Church fulfill the characteristics and bear the fruit of a cult, or does it fulfill the characteristics and bear the fruit of the legitimate congregation belonging to YHWH Almighty God, and to Jesus Christ?
The apostle Jude made a critical point in his apostolic letter. It’s something we need to pay close attention to:
As It Is Written: “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 3–4 NASB95)
Did you catch the all critical important statement there? Jude clearly said that there is a faith for which we must earnestly contend. There is a faith that we must earnestly defend, but that faith was already once for all handed down to the saints in the first century in which Jude was writing his epistle.
So, the question then becomes, is the faith that the Roman Catholic Church proclaims the SAME faith that was already handed down to the saints in the first century? Or, are they teaching a vastly DIFFERENT faith than that which was ONCE FOR ALL handed down to the saints in the first century? This issue is especially CRITICAL when facing the question, “How Does Someone Get Saved?”
So, if ANY group is teaching something opposite of what the apostles taught in the first century, then that is NOT the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints in the first century. Which means that those new and later doctrines are also NOT same the faith which we are to defend, or for which we are to contend. That’s pretty critical.
What does the Roman Catholic Church teach that someone must do in hopes of receiving salvation? Does what the Roman Catholic Church claim actually MATCH what the first century apostles said? Does what the Roman Catholic Church claim regarding salvation match the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints in the first century? If a group changes the ways and means by which a person is saved and made right before God to be opposite of what Scripture teaches, that group is a cult by definition.
A Cult will Change the method by which we are saved and Justified
We will again be looking at the Roman Catholic Church according to its own writings, and then we will be comparing those words to what the apostle said; to that faith which was handed down to the saints in the first century. If the to agree together, then the Roman Catholic Church is a church. If they oppose each other than the Roman Catholic Church is a cult, pure and simple.
