Before Protestants were "separated brethren"...
Q. Does the Lord make use of apostate Catholics, such as Martin Luther, Calvin, John Knox, Henry VIII., King of England, to reform the manners of the people?
A. The thought is absurd. The lives of those men were evil, and it is only the devil that makes use of them to pervert the people still more. The Lord makes use of His saints, such as a St. Francis of Assisium, a St. Dominick, a St. Ignatius, a St. Alphonsus, to convert the people and reform their evil manners by explaining to them the truths of faith, the commandments, and the necessity of receiving the sacraments with proper dispositions, and by setting them in their own lives the loftiest example of faith, purity, and all Christian virtues.
Q. Are there any other reasons to show that heretics, or Protestants who die out of the Roman Catholic Church, are not saved?
A. There are several. They cannot be saved, because
1. They have no divine faith.
2. They make a liar of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and of the Apostles.
3. They have no faith in Christ.
4. They fell away from the true Church of Christ.
5. They are too proud to submit to the Pope, the Vicar of Christ.
6. They cannot perform any good works whereby they can obtain heaven.
7. They do not receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
8. They die in their sins.
9. They ridicule and blaspheme the Mother of God and His saints.
10. They slander the spouse of Jesus Christ —:the Catholic Church.
Q. What is the act of faith of a Protestant?
A. O my God, I believe nothing except what my own private judgment tells me to believe; therefore I believe that I can interpret Thy written word—the Holy Scriptures —as I choose. I believe that the Pope is anti-Christ; that any man can be saved, provided he is an honest man; I believe that faith alone is sufficient for salvation; that good works, and works of penance, and the confession of sins are not necessary, etc.
Q. Have Protestants any faith in Christ?
A. They never had.
Q. Why not?
A. Because there never lived such a Christ as they imagine and believe in.
Q. In what kind of a Christ do they believe?
A. In such a one of whom they can make a liar, with impunity, whose doctrine they can interpret as they please, and who does not care about what a man believes, provided he be an honest man before the public.
Q. Will such a faith in such a Christ save Protestants?
A. No sensible man will assert such an absurdity.
Familiar Explanation of Christian Doctrine
For the Family and More Advanced Students in Catholic Schools (1875)
(pgs 70, 91-93, 97-98; with imprimatur)
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4 comments:
As the great Richard Wurmbrand used to say: if we consider heretics as "separated brethren" we might as well call demons "separated angels"...
Someone on their blog was critiquing James White and Sola Scriptura.
He said that apart from Scripture, the apostles are also God breathed, since Jesus breathed the Spirit on them.
Surely they dont believe that the Vatican II ecumenism was preached by the God Breathed apostles/successors, do they?
Thanks James for reposting. I had not seen this before, and I just quick-scanned the discussion between Paul Hoffer and TFan on the original post-thread by Carrie.
Q. What is the act of faith of a Protestant?
A. O my God, I believe nothing except what my own private [as in Acts 17:11] judgment [prayerfully] tells me [based on Scriptural warrant] to believe [which judgment is what Paul appealed to in reasoning from the Scriptures]; therefore I believe that I can interpret Thy written word—the Holy Scriptures —[not simply] as I choose [but based upon Scriptural substantiation, which is how the church began, not by faith in an assuredly infallible magisterium]
I [may] believe that the Pope is anti-Christ; that any man can be saved, provided he is an honest man [as only the elect are]; I believe [like the "good thief"] that faith alone [but not a faith that remains alone] is sufficient for salvation; that good works, and works of penance, and the confession of sins [to man] are not necessary [to be justified, but works must follow as enabled, and which justify one as having true faith], etc.
Q. What is the act of faith of a Roman Catholic?
A. O my God, and Mary, the perfect, sinless, (almost) Almighty mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Ark of God, etc. etc., through whom all graces come, based upon my fallible human judgment I submit to Rome, and believe nothing except what the judgment of Rome tells me to believe; for she has infallibly declared that she is infallible and thus cannot be wrong when speaking according to her infallibly defined formula, if she does say so herself.
Therefore I believe whatever Rome channels out of her nebulous oral tradition, the veracity of which cannot be verified like as Scripture can, and which I believe only Rome can authoritatively interpret as she chooses, even if she has engaged in little of it.
Therefore within her often unperspicuous parameters, I believe I have great liberty to interpret the Scriptures as I want in attempting to defend my beloved extrabiblical traditions, in condescension to those pesky Protestants, who judge according Scripture.
And while I criticize them for using fallible human reasoning in interpreting their authority, having used my fallible human reasoning in deciding to submit to Rome, I also believe I can use the same in order to discern what level of the magisterium many teachings belong to, and thus what degree of submission is required, as well as their meaning to some extent.
I also believe that I able to judge that I am not crossing the fine line between hyper adulation of the Mary of Rome and that of worship, even though we grant her hundreds more honorific titles than Her Son, who shed Her blood for us on the cross, and gives us Her flesh to eat.
I believe that I can be as sure of a truth when declared by the Catholic Church as I would be if I saw Jesus Christ standing before me and heard Him declaring it with His Own Divine lips; I therefore believe that we adore the same God as the Muslims, and that baptized Protestants are born again and some are in Heaven, but I allow other Catholics to interpret this as meaning such must be Catholics in disguise, or must convert before death to be saved.
I also believe that baptism can be sufficient for salvation, which is how infants are saved; and that good works by the Spirit, , and works testifying to repentance of sins may not be necessary for such Catholics as Ted Kennedy, for I believe in the self-proclaimed power of Rome. To my own tragic damnation and that of others.
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