The priest was fairly terse in his reply. While he didn’t spend a lot of time making any specific references to Scriptures or to teachings of the catholic church, he told me that I should ignore what the TV preacher had said. The priest told me that it was obvious to him that the TV preacher didn’t actually understand the catholic religion, that any Bible passages the preacher may have quoted were probably taken out of context, and that I should trust the catholic church for everything I needed to know about salvation.

Somehow, his “answer” left me with even more questions. Still, I at that time I trusted in the catholic church, my church, and continued to rely on it for my guidance.

My Brother, The Former Catholic

My brother is a former catholic, raised as I was by our faithful, devout catholic parents. He served on the altar as I did, though he never aspired to any particular leadership role in the parish. Eventually, he stopped attending mass at all, and had to be nearly dragged to our parish for one particular Christmas service. Over time, my brother had been making several attempts to try and sway me from my catholic beliefs. Obviously, I had resisted. He tried again and again to lead me away from what I had been taught by the church, but I stood firm.

I trusted in Christ, but I also trusted in the church of Rome.

I dismissed most of my brother’s arguments against putting my trust in the catholic church. I mean, here was a man who didn’t even go to church with us any longer, yet he was trying to tell me — a certified catholic educator — the truth about scripture? About salvation? About where I should place my Trust in order to receive eternal life?

Ridiculous.

It turns out my brother had been listening to Bible discussions led by Dr. Hank Lindstrom, pastor of the local Calvary Community Church, a seemingly very devoted man who hosted radio and television programs and who made it his mission to teach the gospel. There was no doubt that Dr. Lindstrom had spent many, many years immersing himself in the Holy Scripture, that much was clear. While his views on the Word of God may have differed in some ways from what the catholic church had taught me, in other ways they were quite similar.

“Who is this Dr. Lindstrom, anyway?” I wondered. “He seems well-meaning,” I thought, “but maybe this Lindstrom is wrong about some of the things he’s telling my brother and others about Holy Scripture. How does my brother know that Dr. Lindstrom is right? How does anyone know that the person telling them about the Word of God is not leading them astray?”

The truth — the proof — was in the Word, but at that time I didn’t realize it.

My brother truly loved me and cared about me and wanted me to have eternal salvation. Initially, I took my brother’s efforts to get me to consider an alternative to catholicism as simply well-meaning but mis-guided advice. Over time, as my brother became more insistent on me putting aside some of what I was taught by the catholic church, I began to become concerned that he was actively attacking my faith. In fact, my brother was trying to help me, but I only saw him as trying to tear me away from the one true church, the church I had been told was founded by Christ Himself.

Much like my brother tried to help me, I am sharing this message of my journey with you in the hope that it will help you as well.

In an effort to finally open my eyes, my brother gave me a book called “Understanding Roman Catholicism” by Rick Jones. I dismissed the book. I didn’t want to read it, I was actually worried about another piece of material that was aimed at attacking my church. So rather than read the book for myself, I gave it to the head of the church’s RCIA program — someone I looked to for leadership and guidance — and asked her to analyze it and let me know what she found therein.

She took the book, read it and returned it to me sometime later, and her analysis was simple. The books wasn’t to be taken seriously. Clearly, she said, the writer doesn’t understand catholicism or the Bible, which was essentially the same message my parish priest have given me in regard to the TV preacher whom I had seen with words of warning for practicing catholics.

The Oath

It was around this time that I was told by the church that I, along with the other teachers in our parish, were required to take a solemn oath regarding our roles as catholic educators. I felt like this was an important step in my service to the church, and I felt like taking an oath to ensure that we as teachers were teaching what our church wanted us to teach was the absolutely right thing to do.

We were to sign a written oath card and affirm before the parishioners during mass that we would teach only the doctrines the church told us to teach. It was required of us to swear to use only the educational materials provided by the church, and we pledged that we would not use any other teaching aids whatsoever. Among the list of approved teaching materials, I found one very important document conspicuously missing: the Bible.

The Bible itself was apparently excluded from the materials I was looking to use as part of my RCIA teachings. The Holy Scripture was something that I was expected to swear that I would NOT use as a teacher of religion? That seemed strange to me.

It was that oath of fidelity that really started making me feel uncomfortable. We were told that if we chose not to take the oath, we could not remain in our roles as teachers within the church. I felt strongly that I wanted to help spread the word of God, and I felt like I could eventually reconcile my concerns about the Bible being excluded as an approved teaching tool, so I signed it. I announced that oath before the whole congregation, but in my heart I knew that without the Bible as an integral part of my teaching, I didn’t agree to it.

And agreeing to make that oath despite my reservations started a pain inside me that became almost unbearable.

Call No Man Father

And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”

- Matthew 23:9

In Matthew 23 we read the words of Jesus, who told us that we should not use the term “father” to refer to any human being who incorrectly claims that title in an effort to exert unwarranted spiritual authority over us. I encourage you to click here to read the chapter for yourself, in its entirety. Jesus warned us against calling ministers or priests, “Father” or “Master” indiscriminately, because Jesus Himself told us that it is only God who is our Father and His word is the final authority.

Did Jesus mean that we couldn’t call our own human fathers “father” or was He speaking about the word “father” in a spiritual sense? If we read the entire chapter it probably becomes pretty clear that Christ was speaking to us about our spiritual “Father” and not our physical one.

The Scripture tells us that not every man who sets himself up in a position of spiritual authority over us deserves that position. The significance of this particular Scripture is that it offers us a warning, directly from Christ Himself, that we must be on guard against hypocrites. The overall theme of the Words of Jesus here is that we have only ONE spiritual Father, our Father in Heaven.

So that presents us with a problem, a problem of Trust. Who do we trust when it comes to our faith? Certainly we, as human beings, cannot know what is in the minds of the men who are elevated to the position of the leadership in a particular “church”. We cannot know their intention and therefore if we subject ourselves to human leadership when it comes to the Holy Scripture, then we are placing our Trust in another human to guide us. But none of that is necessary. Instead, we must turn to God, our spiritual Father, our Father in Heaven, and look to His Words — Words that are direct and clear — and not place our trust in the words of men, men who may be exactly those who Christ Himself describes in Matthew 23.

If we toss out our trust in human beings and instead place our Trust in Christ Alone, then we will have the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Note that in Matthew 23 Christ speaks specifically of men undeserving of the spiritual title “Father”. He warns us against aspiring to put ourselves ahead of others in the faith, he tells us we are all bretheren. Jesus warns us about men who don ornate appointments and fancy clothes and install themselves as our holy fathers when we have only ONE Holy Father, our Father in Heaven.

So what is the title which the catholic church assigns to the man who is appointed to the head of their organization? Of course the catholic church teaches its followers that the title given to the pope, a human being and nothing more, is “Holy Father”. There is only one who is your spiritual Father, and as Jesus tells us, He is in Heaven.

Matthew 23 also describes the outward appearance of these men of whom we should all be wary:

“But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues”.

Should people call this man, a human being and nothing more, their “holy father”? Is it correct to place our spiritual trust in a human being who dons ornate appointments and fancy clothes and sits himself at the head of the feast? Should we appoint as our spiritual father a man who lives in a virtual kingdom, in place surrounded by vast treasures and wealth and riches? Should people place their spiritual trust in a man whom his followers are expected to bow to and kiss his ring? Or does this man (only a man), sound like the pharisees whom Christ called hypocrites?

Did Jesus set himself on a throne and adorn himself with gold? Or did he wash the feet of his very followers? Was this pope, the man and the station the catholic church has given him throughout the centuries, the sort of person that Jesus warned us about?

I believe that it is. And if reading Matthew 23 has started to make you begin to doubt what you have taught, then I encourage you to put aside what you may have been told and open yourself to a different way of thinking when it comes to the Holy Scriptures.

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