Isaiah 9:2 “The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.”

When I was a Catholic, I didn’t know it at the time but I walked in darkness. My desire was not to follow Jesus Christ with all my heart, mind, soul, it was to follow a religion of which I did loyally and very devoutly. I rather followed the lusts of my heart. My nights weren’t filled with reading and studying the word of God, it was at times seeking out the nearest strip club, or some other evil place. I used profanity basically as my first language, was completely self-centered in about everything I did.  When I didn’t get what I wanted, I complained and called myself a victim. I was mean-spirited and unforgiving, boastful and rude. I thought of myself as a “good person” yet I walked in darkness!

Yes, with the almost perfect religious church attendance on my record, the participation in the Eucharist, my desires never changed.  The RCC viewed me as “born-again” based on my infant water baptism, and then my confirmation but I hardly walked as a new creation in Christ. I was fooling myself and the RCC enabled this completely. I was also enabled by the compromising non-Catholics who called me a Christian, the ecumenists, and the univeralists. I was an empty shell, evil in my thoughts and deeds but all the while because of my religion, I felt I was on the right track. I walked in darkness!

It was NOT until by the hand of God alone who regenerated my heart to His glory alone, that I realized I was FAR FROM a new creation all my life. 43 years I walked in darkness and I didn’t know it was darkness until I saw God’s light!  His light exposed me for who I was, a dirty, rotten, self-righteous putrid sinner. He showed me that there was just ONE WAY to eternal life, and it was through the person and work of Jesus Christ who was my substitute for the wrath God had for me on my sins. And there were MANY sins. I was in fact a “mortal” sinner, while the RCC called me a “venial sinner” by their subjective standards.

God showed me through His word that the ONLY purification He would accept was Jesus Christ’s pureness. This eliminated any after-death fictional place called purgatory. With this regeneration, God granted me repentance. The results were immediate! My desires changed from seeking sin or to get away with sin or rationalize my sin, to turning away from them. Instead of desiring the lusts of my heart, I desire only Jesus Christ and His revealed word. I spend my nights feeding and drinking His word, instead of gorging myself at bar, talking smart, profaning His name. My life went from darkness to LIGHT!

My plea to Catholics is to STOP fooling yourselves! You walk in darkness despite any memorized talking point you want to state.  A new creation is not a defective or empty creation, but a NEW creation. This new creation doesn’t follow Jesus Christ out of guilt or an attempt to save yourself, they follow Him because they KNOW they have been granted eternal life with Him! Yes, here and now!   The peace and rest Jesus promises, is here and now! Repentance of sin is actually realized and experienced, not out of guilt, but because God works in the new creation.

Your RCC water baptism? It amounted into nothing, sorry to inform you. Your consumption of wafers each week? Please tell me what did that amount to. Hardly if any Catholic can provide a testimony and witness in Jesus Christ, proving that you are actually a child of His. Ask yourself why after decades in the RCC, you really don’t have a testimony other than a set of impersonal creeds or memorized talking points which only show you that your relationship with Jesus was always impersonal.

And more importantly, a NEW creation does NOT continually doubt in their salvation granted by God through Jesus Christ. The RCC teaches doubt, because the onus is on YOU to complete something Jesus already completed. You will fail, Jesus did not fail, place your faith in Him alone!

Jesus said in Matt 7:23 that it doesn’t matter if you know Him. You can do works in His name to all your delight, you can tell Him all these religious things you have done, BUT if He does NOT KNOW YOU, it is off to eternal darkness.

Want to take a step into the light? Ask God to open your eyes to this light! Set your religious pride aside, remove your presuppositions from the RCC for a second and believe God is real. That He is the omnipotent God who bows to no human being. In other words humble yourself before Him. If it is His will, as He promised He WILL open your eyes and ears at which time you too will discover you were walking in darkness. And at that glorious time, you will step into the eternal light of Jesus Christ!