It is common for members of the Roman Catholic Church to claim that they are born-again saved Christians. The following are questions to ask a member of the Roman Catholic Church who claims to be truly saved:
- When were you converted?
- How were you converted?
- To what, or to whom, were you converted?
- What do you believe now that you did not believe before your conversion?
- What does it mean to be saved?
- On what Scriptural promises do you base your salvation?
- What does it mean to be born again?
- Are you sure today that if you die tomorrow, or at any time in the future, you will be in heaven immediately after death?
- What do you believe about Purgatory?
- What do you believe about the Mass?
- Do you still participate in the Mass?
- Do you believe that to miss Mass voluntarily on Sunday would be a mortal sin, so that if you did not confess it before you died, you would not go to heaven?
- Do you believe that any sinner can be saved who dies without trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation of his soul and forgiveness of his sins?
- Do you believe that Mary and Roman Catholic saints can help you get to heaven?
- How do you believe that the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ is applied to your soul?
- Have you told your priest you have been saved (converted)?
- Do you believe you will still go to heaven if you leave the Roman Catholic Church, receive believer's baptism and join a fundamental Protestant church?
- When and where do you plan to do this? [221]
"When were you converted?" Was it at your baptism? "How were you converted?" Was it through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ alone? Or was it, as Rome has clearly taught, through your good works along with the help and intercession of Mary, along with a stay in Purgatory? "What does it mean to be born again?" A Roman Catholic must answer this as, "being born again means your original sin is removed as a result of the water of baptism." Et cetera.
As these questions, and others you can think of, are discussed in detail, you will quickly see that the person is trusting in his work, merits, baptism, confirmation, sacraments, or something besides - or plus - Jesus Christ and not in Christ and Christ alone. He can then be shown the difference between his unbiblical form of salvation and the saving faith of the Bible. [222]
If however, a Roman Catholic answers those questions Biblically, then he or she is really not a Roman Catholic. If someone believes in the Biblical gospel of grace, then he or she is not a Roman Catholic. He or she is merely a Christian attending the wrong church.
Having concluded from the Scriptures that the Roman Catholic Church is not the church founded by Christ, but rather an apostate form of Christianity, the new believer must leave. He cannot remain, without being disobedient to God, in an institution that teaches a false gospel. [223]
James McCarthy tells the story of "Mike and Nadine," two Roman Catholics who left the church.
Though neither Mike nor Nadine realized it at the time, they both left Roman Catholicism the moment they began to place the plain teaching of Scripture over the teachings of the Church. No longer willing to allow Rome to interpret God's Word for them, they were no longer Roman Catholics. [224]
Rome clearly teaches a gospel radically different than the Biblical one. In addition, Rome has placed its own Magisterium above the Bible. No true Christian can stay a member of the Roman Catholic Church any more than someone saved out of Mormonism can stay in that church.
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