12. I believe that true believers of all faiths (Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, etc.) will go to heaven.
Catholics in heaven? Perhaps, if you can find one who has been born again of water and of the Spirit. If you can find one baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues. And if you can find a Catholic who doesn’t bow to statues or call a priest “Father.” If you can find one who doesn’t believe in a Trinity or one who will renounce the Pope as the head of the church. If you can find a Catholic who doesn’t pray to a dead woman, perhaps such a Catholic as that could go to heaven.
But then again, listen to Paul’s warning in 1 Timothy 4:1-4: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
Jesus is coming for a church without spot or blemish; He isn’t coming back for liars and hypocrites or a church teaching doctrines of devils. The first church that comes to mind that doesn’t allow some of their people to marry (priests and nuns) or to eat meat (on Fridays) is the Catholic Church.
Revelation 17:1-9 speaks of the great whore, the mother of harlots, whose headquarters is the city of seven hills. Who do you reckon that would be? And who would be her daughters? Modern theology says that “saved” Catholics can go to heaven, but how can Catholics be saved if the Catholic Church has departed from the faith and teaches the doctrines of devils? This is not to say that a Catholic cannot be saved. Many are. But when Catholics are truly saved, they are liberated from Roman tradition.
There are basically three kinds of Christianity:
- Apostolic Christianity – The original, established by the apostles in the book of Acts.
- Church Father Christianity – Developed around the invention of the Trinity in the early centuries after the death of the apostles and grew into the Roman Catholic Church.
- Reformation Christianity – An offshoot of Roman Catholicism started by Martin Luther in 1517 that evolved into denominations such as Baptists, Assemblies of God, Methodists, Presbyterians, Churches of Christ, etc. These denominations are actually still Roman Catholic by virtue of their mother church’s Trinitarian philosophy. They are called Protestants (Protest-ants, Protesting Catholics).
Our approval will not validate the Church Fathers’ or the Reformers’ man-made substitutes.