Here's a recent offering from CTC: Do You Wan to Go to Heaven? which addresses, "So do you mean to say that if I decide to skip Mass on Sunday, and then drop dead on Monday, I will go to Hell?" Which, after various considerations, is affirmed (but not given the typical loopholes and qualifications that many other Roman websites do). The article presents an apologetic against "once saved always saved" etc. and explains to ill-informed Protestants why going to mass is so serious for Roman Catholics that if missed, qualifies as a mortal sin: "When we 'skip Mass' we are deciding that we would rather be elsewhere than in the presence of God the Father, with the angels and saints, in that perfect act of worship which is the presentation of the sacrificial Lamb of God to the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit."
Compare this to: Just Why Are Only 20% of Catholics Attending Mass? Here, a priest explains why only a small percentage of Romanists actually go to mass (poor homilies, poor music, poor hospitality). "A Protestant once said: "If you Catholics really believed what the Church teaches about the Mass and the Most Holy Eucharist, your churches would be full and you would see Catholics crawling on their knees to attend Mass!"
Interesting... CTC is busy "calling" wayward Protestants to "communion".... seems to me 80% of their fellow brethren are, according to a Roman paradigm, in danger of hell. Most of us Protestants, according to a Roman paradigm, just don't know Rome is the true church. That is, many Protestants will at least make it to Purgatory due to our ignorance...
This seems to me to be a poor business move for CTC (their goal: "Our aim is to effect reconciliation and reunion between Catholics and Protestants, particularly those of the Reformed tradition").
Ah, look at the time... I don't want to be late for church.
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6 comments:
Very nice article, thanks for the information.
Steph @ sewa mobil jakarta
Stephanus,
Your comment seems suspiciously like spam.
Assuming the numbers are correct, then yes - 80% of professing Catholics would be in danger of hell. Professing to be a Catholic and actually BEING a Catholic are two different things. This is why my apologetic is not directed solely to non-Catholics, but also to those professing Catholics who may not know the faith they profess to.
Scott,
I think it would be best for you and all the Roman apologists to leave Protestants alone and focus your efforts elsewhere. I mean, those Protestants who sincerely seek God, according to a Roman paradigm, have at least a good chance to make it to Purgatory.
If I were a Roman apologist, I'd spend the majority of my time trying to have influence on the 80% of Roman Catholics that are in danger of hell by missing mass.
I assume you at least care about the 80%... maybe you could start a revival (or Reformation?) amongst Roman Catholic apologists to try and direct their efforts where they're REALLY needed...
"A Protestant once said: "If you Catholics really believed what the Church teaches about the Mass and the Most Holy Eucharist, your churches would be full and you would see Catholics crawling on their knees to attend Mass!"
The RC goes on to assert this is the problem, but herein is a foundational error. The Lord's Supper is the commemoration of the Lord's death, which is not by deifying the elements consumed, but as 1 Cor. 11:19-33 teaches, it is by effectually recognizing each other as members of the Lord's body, the church (which is the focus of the next chapters as well), and which the Corinthians were not doing by leaving some to go hungry in their "feasts of charity" (a communal meal, not wafer worship) while others were overindulging.
Thus Paul stated, "When ye come together therefore into one place, this is NOT to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. " (1 Corinthians 11:20-21)
This is not expounded enough in depth in evangelical churches (and yes, I come short), while such love is hardly seen in Catholic ones. And the real reason for the deadness of Rome is her institutionalized gospel and lack of gospel conviction and regeneration.
Souls are treated as Christian via proxy faith and intellectual assent to some questions, and which fosters faith in one's merits and the power of the church, rather than coming to the Lord Jesus as convicted, contrite, damned destitute sinners who cast all their faith on the risen Lord Jesus to save by His sinless shed blood. (Rm. 3:10 - 5:1)
More stats:
Church attendance [2002-2005]: Evangelicals at approx. 60 percent showed the highest percentage of those who reported they attended services weekly or almost weekly, with 30% going more than once a week. Catholics were at 45 percent (9% more than once a week), and Jews 15 percent. Gallup poll. between 2002 and 2005. - http://www.christianpost.com/article/20060418/weekly-attendance-highest-among-Evangelical-churches.htm
However, numbers from head counts show the actual rate of attendance nationwide is less than half (around 18%) of what the pollsters report, though some studies show attendance at services as increasing. http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html;
A Catholic study reported that the percentage of U.S. adult Catholics who say they attended Mass once a week or more (i.e., those attending every week) was 24% in 2012. - http://cara.georgetown.edu/caraservices/requestedchurchstats.html
Of an estimated Catholics population in the United States of almost 78 million less than 48 million attend more than once yearly. http://www.glenmary.org/rcms2010/
Among those who converted to a Christian denomination, 42% of of those to Roman Catholicism, 43% of Episcopalian converts, 44% of those to Lutheranism, 48% of those to Methodism, 50% of those to the Presbyterian church, 60% of Baptist converts, 60% of Non-denominational converts, and 73% of of converts to Pentecostal churches reported they attend services weekly. - http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=482
Christian church attendance is between 1 ½ and 2 times higher in the South and the Midwest than it is in the West and the Northeast [the latter two have the highest percentage of Catholics]. - http://www.theamericanchurch.org/facts/8.htm; http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2007/03/01/how-many-americans-attend-church-each
From 2000 to 2004 the Catholic Church experienced an 11% decrease in its attendance percentage, followed by mainline Protestant churches which saw a 10% percentage decline, while Evangelicals experienced the smallest drop at 1%. http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html
Committed Roman Catholics (church attendance weekly or almost) versus Non-R.C. faithful church goers (see the below as as morally acceptable): Abortion: 24% R.C. vs. 19% Non-R.C.; Sex between unmarried couples: 53% vs. 30%; Baby out of wedlock: 48% vs. 29%; Homosexual relations: 44% vs. 21%; Gambling: 67% vs. 40%; Divorce: 63 vs. 46% - http://www.gallup.com/poll/117154/Catholics-Similar-Mainstream-Abortion-Stem-Cells.aspx
7 Startling Facts: An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America: http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html
Church attendance (most recent) by country: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/rel_chu_att-religion-church-attendance
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