Question & Answer: Is the Catholic Church from God?
Question: Were the Roman Catholic Church and it’s sacraments given by God or made by men?
Answer:
The Roman Catholic Church clearly teaches that we have to go through its seven sacraments in order to get our sins slowly and mysteriously forgiven. However, is this system from God? Let’s look a little deeper.
The Roman Catholic magisterium is made up of men. Roman Catholic doctrine (The Council of Trent, Vatican 1, Vatican 2, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, etc.) has all been developed by men. The pope is a man. The priests who handle the Eucharist are men. The priests who listen to confession and are said to have the ability to absolve sin are men. All of its rituals and relics, such as the sabbatine privilege, were made by men. The entire system is constructed, controlled, and carried out by men. None of it is found in the Bible. None of its systems are from God.
In John 2, it says Jesus did not commit Himself to men because He knew it was in man. God repeatedly says throughout Scripture that it’s better to trust in God than to put our confidence in men. Psalm 118:8, etc.
In Psalms 51, it says, “O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You desire not sacrifice; otherwise would I give it: You delight not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” Psalms 51:15-17.
Sadly, the Jewish people often trusted in their vain traditions instead of God. They desired a relationship through ritual. That was the way of the heathen. That was never what God desired.
How contrary to the entire thrust of Scripture to say that Jesus, already knowing what is in mankind, would commit a salvific, sacramental system to fallen men to develop, dictate, and perform. It also seems strange that the salvific sacramental system of the Catholic church would then have to develop over long periods. It took hundreds of years to develop today’s Roman Catholic system, and it’s still in flux.
Our perfect Creator, our Heavenly Father, did not decided to start with Jesus on the cross, and then, instead of finishing the work there, choose to hand over the remainder of salvation to sinful men so they could design an evolving system of sacraments that didn’t begin until some 300 years after Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave.
The Lord never decided to develop an extra-biblical system over 1700+ years through the hearts and minds of fallen men. Instead, He sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to the cross where He graciously, lovingly, and fully paid for all sin for all times and now simply invites us to come to Him by faith. Jesus consistently calls men to Himself, eagerly desiring they would turn from their trust in the sacrificial system to the full and finished work that He accomplished at Calvary.
God’s intent has never been to make it complicated or corrupt. Although He wants people to share His Gospel and fellowship together, the Lord does not put men in charge of developing extra-biblical doctrines or dispensing His salvation through rituals made by human hands, I.e, the eucharist. This is not His way. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”
There was no eucharist, no infant baptism, no Roman Catholic Church when Jesus spoke those words. At that time, the people were not called to participate in some supposed salvific sacramental system. They were called to go to God through Jesus by faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9) That is why they crucified Jesus. He was calling people away from their precious system and pointing them instead to the Father through Himself. That is the consistent message throughout Scripture.
We can go to God directly. There is no need for a sacramental system. From Genesis to Revelation, God invites men to simply come to Him. In Jeremiah 29:13, the Lord reminds us, “If you seek Me, you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Too often, we choose to build barriers and hoops through our bargains and traditions to keep us from God. And yet, somehow, we think that keeping those manmade traditions will bring us closer. We call this religion. The reality is that those traditions aren’t bringing us closer to the true and living God, but to a false god made in our own image and built with our own hands. We’re happy to perform, but far too often, unwilling to simply pursue the Lord through Jesus by faith.
Jesus commanded the Pharisees in John 5, “Search the Scriptures, for in them, you think you have life. They are they that testify of Me. And you will not come to Me that you may have life” John 5:39-40.
The Pharisees not only trusted in their works but also believed their knowledge of Scripture was life-giving. However, they missed the whole point. They missed the Messiah. They missed the Savior. God gave us the Bible so we could know Jesus better, not so we could look better. And yet men have constantly set up systems telling us that only certain men can interpret the Bible, leaving most men to depend on men to know Jesus Christ. That’s never what God intended.
Jesus didn’t say that we need to come to a system. Nor did He tell us to wait 300 years in order to come to certain men who would eventually develop the Roman Catholic Church. He didn’t even tell us to go to the apostles. He said we all need to simply come to Him through faith in His Son.
Only Jesus can save. Only Jesus can forgive. We don’t need a system, nor do we need sacraments developed and distributed by men. We simply need to trust in the Savior who died for all our sins, once for all, and victoriously rose from the grave three days later.
(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
In Hebrews 10, the writer, under the inspiration of God says, “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering often times the same sacrifices, which can NEVER take away sins: but this man [Jesus], after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” Hebrews 10:11,12,14,18. (Emphasis mine)
In God’s Word, all the emphasis is on Jesus and His perfect sacrifice… Once and for all. To develop a system that says we must add to what Jesus already did only takes away from His perfect work. It distracts, distorts, and deceives mankind from the truth of God and His wonderful salvation found in His only begotten Son. (John 3:16-17) That is not God’s way. However, that is the way of man and the way of Satan.
“[Jesus] turned and said unto Peter, Get behind Me, Satan: you are an offence unto Me: for you savour not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” Matthew 16:23.
Instead of desiring the ways of men, let us always keep our hearts and minds on the One who truly is the only way to eternal life… Jesus Christ. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst” John 6:35.