Those of us in the mission field who witness to Catholics in the truth of Gospel should realize what a Catholic really fears. And that is that you might be actually telling the truth.

If your witness holds to Scripture as the authority for the Gospel, the Catholic has no place to go but to grasping at straws in this fear. “You follow Luther!” is the sentiment in this fear. Empirical proof can be brought out showing that Luther had NOTHING to do with your conversion into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and by this internal fear the Catholic will still sadly scream, “You are following Luther!”.

It is a natural fear. If you have invested yourself in anyway into a religion such as Catholicism, made sacrifices, etc., the last thing you want to realize is that you are being deceived. So a defense mechanism is immediately drummed up, irrational statements are made in order to satisfy yourself.

So the Catholic reaction is always a rejection, as in someone who is being scammed by a scammer saying “No, how dare you try to say I am this stupid, I am NOT being scammed”. Then the protestant strawmans are used to defend the Catholic faith without realizing they are exposing their faulty standard. The irrational and faulty standard is “my pope is better than your Luther”. When the standard is always an eternal Holy Almighty God.

The fear will always lead a Catholic to say, “no, you are wrong! I believe and follow Jesus Christ”. But then the version of Jesus of the RCC must be dissected to show them they are actually following a persona of Jesus which doesn’t exist. A Jesus who is not a sovereign God, a Savior, a Redeemer, but basically a traveling salesman. A Jesus who puts a pope in His place as a standard of holiness, not His own inherent holiness and righteousness as the standard for the sinner. One Catholic for example said that “Mary can change Jesus’ mind”. Another said that he “would pay his own punishment for sin”.

As with every world religion, fear is the driving force to keep the congregant in their chains. The problem is when you discern the sinner in these world religions, they don’t fear God but the world religion. It is definitely PRIDE which is shown as they allow that fear to shut down any thought, any discernment that one would bring forward. So the reaction is to attack Scripture, attack its sufficiency, attack every non-Catholic, use fallacies and rationalizations and innuendos as broadly as possible in order to quell this misplaced fear.

Roman Catholics really do fear the truth. Remember this when you witness to them.

Romans 14:12
So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

I feel sad for some like O.J. Simpson who for years continue to deny his involvement in a doubler murder. In my opinion an immoral and highly biased jury acquitted him of a crime of which he never has to admit to anyone here on earth that is. Simpson will stand before God and relive those murders, at which time, Simpson will not be able to drum up a team of expensive polished lawyers to defend him and to get him off the hook. Simpson will be shown everything in detail by God, even his thoughts. He may have thought since a human jury acquitted him that he is innocent, but God never did and he will stand guilty as charged. No amount of blame, denials, lying, rationalizations, will be able to win his case.

Simpson is not the only one who sadly by delusion think since they could outwit mankind, that they somehow will be able to outwit an omniscient and omnipresent God. The whole blame game does not work with God. You sinned, He records, He judges and you give an account. This also includes actions, inactions, thoughts and words you may have thought were not sins as well. Some will be quite surprised as to the many pages of charges of SIN read against them.

The Good News is that there is a clear and easy acquittal process He has promised. Jesus Christ has promised to be the One sole substitute and Mediator for those who place their faith alone in Him. By His death and resurrection, He has purchased the penalty of debt of those sinners placed in Him. The penalty being the eternal wrath of God on their sins.

CONFESS YOU ARE A ROTTEN WICKED SINNER, CONFESS YOUR SINS OPENLY AND PUBLICLY, PLEAD FOR MERCY FROM GOD TODAY, TRUST IN THE SOLE MEDIATOR WHO CAN GET SAVE YOU FROM THE ETERNAL WRATH OF GOD, HIS NAME IS JESUS CHRIST! Tomorrow may be too late!

Even a unconvicted murderer as Simpson can be acquitted if he were to confess, repent, and place His faith alone in Jesus Christ. If you believe somehow you are better than Simpson as a person because you didn’t murder anyone? Think again! There is nothing good about lying, cheating, lust, disobedience, AND if you have ever been angry with a person, Jesus would call that “murder committed in your heart.” Some will be quite surprised if they have not repented and believed in Jesus Christ, to be placed with the likes of Simpson on murderers row in hell if he has not repented and believed.

Hitler for example never repented, many will be aghast that they are spending eternal hell with that monster and wondering why. And some will gnash their teeth if Simpson went to heaven and they did not if Simpson placed his faith alone in Jesus Christ and pleaded for the mercy of God. Those in world religions will be confused and panic stricken, when Jesus says “depart from me you workers of lawlessness”, because they trusted in their world religion and not in Him.

We ALL will give an account. A saved Christian will account for their sins as the unsaved. The difference being the saved Christian has had their sins already mediated and the FULL penalty for their sins have been paid for. They won’t need a dream team of high priced lawyers, because they have been placed IN the ONLY Mediator which can give them entry in the Kingdom, His name is Jesus Christ.

As the title of this page states “‘GOOD’ PEOPLE DO NOT ENTER HEAVEN, FORGIVEN SINNERS DO”. And this note goes to Roman Catholics specifically, really really think if your priest was able to mediate just one sin off your record, if he really was serving as some sort of conduit between you and God. Your trust has been misplaced! Mary won’t be able to get you off the hook. A million good deeds and a million prayers did not propitiate one white lie off your record. Today is the day you NEED to trust in the ONE Mediator, Jesus Christ!

Romans 10:3
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

In my experience and humble view, the biggest obstacle to salvation is self-righteousness. We are born as fallen self-righteous, self-centered sinners. Enter world religions such as Roman Catholicism into this, and it amplifies this self-righteousness.

The disdain for Jesus Christ is really quite subtle in world religions. The disdain becomes quite noticeable when a member of a world religion is asked to place their faith alone in Him. In this hate for Jesus, foolishly they will scream “what about James 2!” (In reference to works) without realizing their faith in Jesus is dead thus are their works, so James 2 actually convicts them rather than supports their ideology. But don’t expect a blind lost rebellious sinner to discern this central fact.

The natural tendency is to try and save ourselves, try to import our contribution, we naturally want some type of credit from God. “God won’t send me to hell, I am a good person” is the general overall sentiment. And sadly many on their way to eternal hell believe this is the way they are on their way to heaven. Roman Catholics for example will have their list of church attendance and all those “charitable” works and sacraments they participated in as their plea on Judgment Day. Mormons, JWs, and others of this mindset will as well.

The Pharisees, one the most religious and externally pious and moral sects who ever walked the earth followed the self righteous ideology. They amp’d up the commandments from God and added a few of their own as well, and religiously followed them. In one swoop, Jesus condemned this mentality, and taught that salvation would only come through HIS righteousness, yes His righteousness. And that by faith alone in Him would be the only way one could be saved. The Pharisees mocked, they scoffed, just as Roman Catholics and other legalistic world religions mock and scoff at Jesus.

And it is striking that some don’t really understand what Jesus was saying when He declared “unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees and scribes, you cannot be saved”. Meaning that the Pharisees and scribes had the HIGHEST degree of self righteousness one could achieve, and yet they were not saved. But I will hear blind Roman Catholics foolishly tell me they “follow the commandments”, or they “are good people”, and that is their ticket to salvation.

Self righteousness is the biggest obstacle to salvation. It is only when it is removed by God, one will only see Jesus Christ and humbly submit to His righteousness. Only then a sinner will be saved.

Self righteousness is easily discerned. All you need to do is view how the sinner is attempting to be saved. Are they trying to earn it by piousness, morality, religiosity and self-works here on earth, their church attendance and religious rituals? They are always behind the obstacle of self righteousness no matter how much they try to justify it as the Pharisees did. Catholics like the Pharisees will attempt to say it is by God’s grace these works of self righteousness are being done, while not realizing they are blaspheming the name of Jesus Christ at the same time!

Salvation is ONLY THROUGH the PERFECT righteousness of Jesus Christ. When a sinner is saved, the extent of His FULL righteousness is credited to the sinner’s account. This is the Good News, the Gospel. Every gospel which teaches otherwise is false and must be discarded, not followed, but thrown quickly into the trash or you will be placed behind the obstacle of self-righteousness.

1 Kings 18:21
Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word.

In ancient Israel, Elijah confronted the nation for saying they followed God and also a fictional god named Baal. It was this universalist approach to faith that we still see in today’s society. The whole “there are many roads to heaven” ideology or that we “all worship the same God”. The deceiver, Satan, from the beginning has been behind this ideology.

The one who is not discerning their faith can be swept away into this polytheistic pantheism which is so utterly wrong and demonic, they don’t realize what they are doing. As we read 1 Kings 18, Elijah put that polytheism to the test. He asked those who believed Baal was also a god to be worshiped to call upon him. They did so for hours. They even did as some religions do and mutilated themselves in exertion, yet this Baal never showed up. Elijah then called upon the Lord God Almighty, who immediately showed His power. But this was not enough, they still did not repent, so Elijah killed them all by orders from God.

The moral of the story is that just because someone claims to have faith in God or that they are “a Christian” claiming they have faith in Jesus Christ always needs a discernment qualifier. Are they caught under demonic humanism and believe there many roads to heaven, when Jesus said there is ONLY one road through Him? Do they believe anyone who says they are “a Christian” or their church is “Christianity” should be trusted on its claim? Do they claim their god includes Mary for example as some sort of intercessor and mediator? Would they claim that their god gave up his authority to a human authority? Would their god claim that the sinner’s works earn their way to heaven? Would they say their god does not include Jesus as part of the Godhead, or that He was just a “good prophet”? They would be using the same ideology the prophets of Baal used to justify their unbelief and polytheism. And the same WRATH from God abides on them.

There is no middle ground, there are no in-betweens. You are either follow Jesus Christ or you follow your false gods. You either believe God is all who He says He is, or you follow your false gods. You either believe that Christianity is upheld by the ultimate standard of Scripture which was authored by God, or you follow your world religion and their human standards and traditions.

Jesus says “Follow Me”. He isn’t saying “Follow Me and the world” or “Follow Me and your world religion”. There is NO middle ground! Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE (John 14:6), there is no other name under heaven by which one can be saved (Acts 4:12), there is is JUST one road to eternal life and it is by faith alone in Jesus Christ.

Matthew 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.

Many call themselves a “Christian” solely by external actions. They see a higher morality, church attendance, and good deeds as their ticket into heaven. Yet these things DO NOT prove or disprove saving faith. Religiosity is not a discernment tool for proof of saving faith, as we see what Jesus told the Pharisees who were probably the most pious, moral, and religious sect to walk the earth.

It is the INTERNAL workings from God which will prove whether one has been saved. By this, it means God has done His regenerating work on the sinner’s heart. He makes what is called a “new creation”. Many have this idea that it takes will power to enact faith, repentance, charity, etc, but as a new creation these things are done now NATURALLY. One who has not been saved will view these things as unnatural, thus they need to employ a will power and strive to endure through them. Many fall away after a season or so of doing so. Jesus called these sinners “tares” or “weeds” which will be thrown into the fire.

Tares are also described in Matthew 7:21-23 where many will call Jesus “Lord Lord”, they will declare all these miracles and works they did in His name, yet He will say “Depart from me you workers of lawlessness, I never knew you”. They exhibited external religiosity only, their internal spiritual working remained self indulgent and evil.

To examine yourself if you are in the saving faith, ask yourself if you are doing things for God naturally because you have been saved or doing things because you want to be saved. If the latter, you have not been saved. Every world religion will preach the false gospel of human achievement, a cooperation with God. They teach that the sinner must EARN their way to heaven which nullifies every bit of God’s grace. Some like Roman Catholics pervert even this grace by saying God is giving them “grace” to earn their way to salvation.

Quite simply, if God has changed your internals, your externals will NATURALLY follow. You aren’t employing a self righteous will power, it is just who you now are. You aren’t into the pomp and circumstance of rituals, and you realize grace cannot be earned. Repentance is natural, you are convicted of sin and now turn away from not to please God, but because God has given you this gift. Your faith alone is in your Savior Jesus Christ, again because God granted you this gift. You are done arguing with God, done setting terms to Him as to who He can save and who He cannot. All that superstition and questioning God in unbelief from your former life is vanquished! All doubt has been removed. The love of God is shown by your love for others and by this you are willing to share the Good News of Jesus Christ without a condition or a cost.

1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Every pseudo-Christian, false convert, false religion, false prophet, false teacher will have one central thing in common. They will invariably love the world and the things in the world.

The seasonal Christian comes to mind. For about a month or so, they put on their Christian hat, and the rest of the year they behave as the pagan world. They are never all in for Jesus Christ or it may offend their friends or family. They cannot share the Gospel without being ashamed of its truth. But when trial and tribulation comes around, that Christian hat is quickly put on for a season.

The false Christian in a world religion also comes to mind. They will always set the worldly church ABOVE the revealed word of God no matter what. The revealed word of God is always wrong when compared to the teaching of the world religion and this false Christian will never put the time in to discern their church. Scripture is laid to waste because they are not all in for Christ, but all in for the world.

The false Christian views their one or twice a week church attendance as “enough” evidence to say they are following Jesus Christ. Their repetitive prayers may also be this evidence or a bible verse here and there they post on Facebook. But NONE of this is any evidence because this sinner is still in love with the world, they aren’t all in for Jesus.

The false Christian will try for a time to do and say the things of a Christian, but when the things of the world calls, they simply fall away with ease.

You cannot be half way in as a Christian for Jesus Christ. You either drop your nets at those did in Mark 1 and follow Him, or you aren’t following Him at all. Here is the test I like to give folks who believe they are following Jesus. This is a rhetorical question but it comes from the Scriptural examples of the Apostles and followers of Christ. Let’s say tonight you are eating dinner with your family and a knock on the door comes. You answer the door, and it is Jesus Christ. He says “follow Me” and starts walking away. Now the “follow Me” means you will leave your house, your family, your job, your whole life right then and right there. He doesn’t give you the option to go back and discuss this with your family, to pack up, to get your things in order, and maybe next week you are ready. The command is immediate. You aren’t allowed to question Jesus.

Now, really THINK about this scenario and BE HONEST with yourself. This is what is called examining if you are in the faith. Because if this is seamless and without a question, “yes” to that question above, you are in the faith. If you are contemplating this and need time, you may need to re-examine the church you belong to. If you said “yes” because it is the answer being looked for, BUT in reality you could not leave, well, you are not being honest.

Being in love with the world will always bring the answer of “no”, or “Lord Lord, I need more time”. In reality you are NOT following Christ at all, you are following the world by the reluctance you are exhibiting. One is all in or all out for Jesus Christ. This means He comes first, above anything else, above your politics, your job, your family, your social life, your spouse, your children. Only then, your honest answer will be “yes Lord, I will follow you” because the Holy Spirit is indwelling your heart. The things of this world MEAN ABSOLUTELY nothing compared to Jesus Christ. You truly have been born again!

John 15:18
The World’s Hatred
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

If you are a Christian sharing the Gospel and have not experienced the ugly side of world religions you probably are not sharing the Gospel in truth.

You will experience the hate, rage, the sheer desperate smearing of your integrity, the loss of friends and family based on this ugly side of worldly religions. You will be called all sorts of name, attacked from all sides, demeaned, disgraced, and shunned.

I personally had degenerate people in my life who are involved in a world religion (Roman Catholicism) who celebrated the cancer and death of my beloved dog Leo. The sentiment was, “good for that bible banger, he got what was coming to him”. And mind you, these same individuals would claim they are “good church going people”.

The unashamed unbelievers get this. They see these professed Christians or so they say rear much ugliness when their times of distress come. It makes them think twice as to believing anything coming from anyone who says they are a Christian based on the hypocrisy they witness.

I personally witnessed this ugliness in many ways. Another example which comes to mind is a church’s email chain when someone was reported to have passed away. The immediate question was always “was he or she an believer”? Kind of late to be asking that question, and the ugly nature of this is not actually mourning this loss with the surviving family members UNLESS that person who passed away was a believer.

Whether a person is an unbeliever or believer or just plain uncertain, there is NEVER cause to castigate anyone going through sorrow or adversity from simply a moral standpoint. And sadly, I see more ugliness from so-called Christians than I do from unbelievers in this standpoint.

But as Jesus warned and professed, the hatred will come out. If you are a Christian, expect it. If the world is comfortable with you, examine yourself if you are in the faith.

Those who do not understand the fallen nature of man will never understand why some will not believe in Jesus Christ when presented the Gospel, point for point, fact for fact. The pleading will come to a sheer frustration if you do not understand that something else is needed which a supernatural intervention of the heart. As God promised in Ezekiel 36:25-28, when He alone replaces the heart of the sinner, only THEN that sinner will believe.

Upon my rebirth, I read and studied the Book of Revelation. My first assessment were all the examples of God sending horrible plagues, earthquakes, etc., great signs and wonders, and the people still rejected His Gospel over and over and over again.

I would say no other book in the Bible will demonstrate total depravity more so in every respect. A third of the population would be killed from these supernatural events for example, yet the Gospel of Jesus Christ continued to be rejected. The sinners left on the earth who were not regenerated continued to scheme, continued to rebel, and cast out the Gospel as it were trash.

So ask yourself, if disease, tremendous tribulation from God’s judgment isn’t going to turn a sinner’s heart, how are you going to do so with special pleading? The Gospel IS the power unto salvation, and we must share this Gospel to any and all, but you must realize that the actual conversion will always be in God’s court.

Those who do believe in Jesus Christ and think you somehow girded up your intelligence and morality by self righteousness and then believed? Think again. Those spoken of in Revelation are not more evil or less intelligent, they simply did not have their heart changed by God. This is why it is called grace and mercy. And I always ask those who believe they “made a choice” to believe, how do you know your heart was not already regenerated? Because believe it or not, it was! The Gospel one shared with you THEN was received and welcomed, not beforehand. Or salvation is by self righteousness.

Total depravity is real, it is inherent to the human race based on Adam’s sin. When Romans 3 declares “no one seeks God”, it is teaching this fact. No one will seek God if He is not drawing them first which we are taught in John 6:44. And no one is born again by their own will, but by the will of God alone as we are taught in John 1:13.

It is true as well that God uses man to be end to His means by the Gospel. You as a Christian are called to share this Gospel no matter the outcome! And it is NOT your outcome to decide, you will never get the glory for a conversion, it all goes to God so that no one can boast outside the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Bear this in mind in your witnessing. Your friend, your family member, may VEHEMENTLY reject the Gospel just as those did in the Book of Revelation. It is not your concern. Your concern should be in the truth of the Gospel, and leaving God do the rest. If He graces you to witness a conversion, be thankful. If He doesn’t, also be thankful and never think your servitude to the Gospel is for not. The conversion time and place is known only to God. Sometimes we won’t see it based on our own purposes from God, He may not want us puffed up.

So always try to stand still and see His salvation. Trust in God’s purposes and His counsel. You are NOT the converter, you are the messenger.

Mark 7:28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— 30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

I find that many Christians are confused on this sin which Jesus said is unforgivable. As word in the Bible we must carefully study this, and try not to guess by presuppositions so that we do not naively err.

So let’s examine this unforgivable sin
Blasphemy is defined as “a spoken word against”. You must verbally say something in order to blaspheme. In this case it is a spoken word specifically against the Holy Spirit.

In this case, the Pharisees claimed Jesus was doing His miracles and works by the power of Satan not by the Holy Spirit. They specifically attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, a spoken word against the Holy Spirit. This is the unforgivable sin. Mocking the Holy Spirit, saying He did something evil, saying that He is not God, ridiculing His regeneration, attributing His works to someone else like Satan, this is the specific sin Jesus was speaking about.

The common mistake is to presume unbelief in Jesus is unforgivable. If this were the case, no one could be saved. There is no forgiveness after death, but this singular specific sin Jesus was speaking about will have had to be committed in this lifetime. In both cases, the result is eternal hell, however one dying in unbelief may never have committed the unforgivable sin. Their sins which have not been forgiven was their ticket to eternal hell. Can an unbeliever also blaspheme the Holy Spirit, the answer is yes. But these are two separated premises, their unbelief and the blasphemy they would have committed. Unbelief is a sin which would be forgivable in the life of a sinner whereas blasphemy, the spoken word against the Holy Spirit, in the life of the sinner is unpardonable, it will never be forgiven.

For example we see this reference Mark 9:24, “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” For those who falsely claim blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unbelief, this father could not be forgiven nor would Jesus pay him no mind. In order for it to be unpardonable, the father would have had to say “I will only believe in God by the power of Satan, never by the Holy Spirit”.

The unforgivable sin will usually be committed by someone of a world religion, someone who knows and believes the Holy Spirit exists and that evil exists. Their hearts being so darkened will blaspheme Him. The true atheist will not commit this sin, because they don’t believe either the Holy Spirit or evil exists, thus they will not speak a word against Him or they would contradict themselves. Now the atheist who dies in unbelief will die without their sins being forgiven, so they will go to hell for this reason, not because of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

The unpardonable sin is a specific singular sin and it is clear what Jesus explained. It is a spoken word against the Holy Spirit. The person committing this sin KNOWS what they are doing. This sin will be committed in this lifetime, so the verdict on someone who committed this sin is already in.

Having witnessed to atheists, I for one have never heard blasphemy against the Holy Spirit from them. But witnessing to Roman Catholics and other world religions, I have witnessed SEVERAL times some coming dangerously close to committing that sin. An example would be if they were to say Satan regenerated the heart of a Christian, or the Gospel being shared by that Christian is of Satan. My personal experience is to provide a warning on this blasphemy, and if they continue on, generally I can discern the person as so dark hearted they really do not care if they blasphemed the Holy Spirit or not. The fear of God is non-existent in such a person.

A new creation should never be able to commit this sin, as the Holy Spirit is indwelling them, nor would they flirt with committing it either. The sin is almost always committed by a worldly religious zealot who has set their terms for God on what He can do or He cannot do, and will willfully commit this sin.

Matthew 12:36
But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

The main thing the unsaved all have in common is the failure to acknowledge they are in fact a sinner in the eyes of God. The testimony is generally the same. “I am generally a good person”. The “goodness” is always a subjective “goodness”, it always falls short of perfection.

When I was a Roman Catholic, I had thought that abstaining from the major sins automatically makes one “good”. However, when God opened my eyes to His truth and to He IS? All I saw in the mirror was a PUTRID ROTTEN DISGUSTING sinner. I lusted, I lied, I cheated, I bore false witness, I committed much evil in my life outside of breaking those biggie sins I was taught such as murder, adultery, missing a Mass on Sunday, etc.

If you challenged me as a Roman Catholic that I was rotten and not good, you would have had to prepare yourself for the profanity laced attack you were about to get, while I tore you from piece to piece on your many flaws in your own character. I was unsaved, a blind lost sinner who thought that subjective goodness was my ticket to eternal life, NOT by submitting to the fact I was rotten and needed a Savior Jesus Christ to get me out of the mess I put myself in.

The unsaved’s subjective goodness is always their major stumbling block, I know it was mine!

Your religiosity doesn’t make you good. Your church attendance doesn’t make you good. Your repetitive religious prayers doesn’t make you good. Your volunteer record doesn’t make you good. Your charitable deeds don’t make you good. Let’s be clear, there is NOTHING you can do to make yourself good! Your subjective morality and goodness is a humanistic standard, while society may see you as good, God does NOT see you this way.

So what can make you good? It will only be by faith alone in Jesus Christ, HIS GOODNESS makes a sinner good. Those who placed their faith alone in Him are saved based SOLELY on His works, His perfection, His goodness! This is called good news because you WILL fall short of perfection, but Jesus never did!

Salvation is NOT a license to sin, it is freedom from its eternal penalty.