I hear from a lot of people, some who have received the Gift of Eternal Salvation and some who have not. Some who are a part of Christ’s Body and others who are stuck in the false church, the so-called “roman catholic church”. Those who have been Saved realize exactly how simple God’s plan for Salvation is. Those who are trapped, who have been misled, who have placed their trust in men and not Christ are usually very confused.

All I have to do is Trust in Christ Alone and I will have the Gift of Eternal Salvation? It can’t possibly be that simple.

And yet, it is. But as humans, we’ve been trained to believe that nothing can be gained without hard work. That we can receive no “reward” without putting in some sort of effort. We forget that Salvation is a GIFT and not a reward. A gift is something that we do NOT need to earn, rather it is freely given. And God gives us Eternal Life because He sent His Son to die for our sins, all of our sins, once and forever.

Here in my catholic Christian blog and Web site I relate my story and try to help those who are confused and misled. I try to explain that man-made churches like the church of rome can do nothing but twist and tarnish God’s Word. The Holy Scripture is pure, there is no explanation or interpretation needed. Instead of relying on man-made churches to tell you what the Holy Scripture means, set aside everything you’ve been taught by men and place all of your Trust in Christ Alone.

It seems more and more these days that people are attempting to place their trust in others instead of just realizing that they must Trust in Christ Alone for the Eternal Salvation. I know that it can be a hard thing to understand, but once understood, it is difficult for one to even fathom how we may have believed otherwise.

To Trust in Christ Alone means to completely surrender your trust in anything or anyone else. That means you can’t trust in yourself to try and save yourself (it is impossible, there’s nothing you can do of your own accord that will give you eternal life), you can’t trust in a priest or an organized religion like the catholic church or catholicism to save you (they aren’t able to do that, either), and you can’t trust in the words or actions of any other human being to save you.

It’s all up to you, and only you. God’s plan for Eternal Salvation isn’t complicated.

You must put aside your past beliefs and surrender your trust to Christ and to Christ Alone. Once you are able to do that, then you will open the door to your Eternal Salvation. It is then that you will begin to see how organized religion can get things all messed up, then you will be able to understand what is the difference between catholic and christian.

It isn’t easy, I struggled with this myself as I made my journey from catholic to christian, so I fully understand. I only ask you to remember this: if you cannot Trust in Christ, then in whom can you trust?

I’m often asked a question:

What is the difference between catholic and Christian?

I understand why there would be confusion. On the surface, the question may sound odd or even silly. Many folks will respond: there is no difference between catholic and Christian. Catholics believe in Christ, that makes them Christians.

Well, unfortunately, that answer isn’t necessarily accurate. First, simply “believing” in Christ isn’t sufficient to make on a Christian. It goes a lot deeper than that. If you wish, you can read a post of mine on the subject, called Believing in Christ Doesn’t Make You a Christian.

No, belief is not enough. So what else is there? What more must one do to actually become a Christian? The key word is:

Trust.

You must TRUST in Christ. And not only trust in Christ, but you must trust in Christ ALONE for your Eternal Salvation. You must trust that His sacrifice on the cross at Calvary paid your sin debt in full — which it did — and trusting in that payment means releasing your own need to have to “pay” for something that Christ Himself has already paid. His death released you from your debt.

It isn’t about “accepting” Christ or “believing” in Christ or “asking Christ into your heart”. It is only about trust and placing your trust FULLY in Him, your Savior. So what is the distinction between belief and trust? My brother likes to describe it this way:

“You believe in the chair that you are sitting on. You trust that the chair will carry your weight and support you”.

It wasn’t until I actually TRUSTED in Christ Alone that I received the Gift of Eternal Life. If you haven’t yet read my story, please take a few minutes to do so. That moment was a life-changing event, for both my earthly life and my eternal life.

So then what is the difference between catholic and Christian?

Most catholics have placed their trust in things other than Christ for their Salvation. This isn’t necessarily their fault directly, they’ve been raised that way. I know, I was raised that way myself and I was totally and completely sincere about my belief in Christ and that He died for my sins. But, like most other catholics, I also believed that I had to trust in the church of Rome for assistance in achieving Eternal Salvation. I had to trust in the leaders of the church to provide me with proper doctrine, in the priest in the confessional to ensure that I received absolution for my sins, in the wafer of bread that was supposedly transformed into the Body of Christ (something I now know is preposterous and not supported by Scriptures), and trust in the church of Rome’s claim to apostolic succession (read my post: Dispelling the Myth of the “Rock” Peter) to provide the authority to dictate to me what I must believe.

Catholics believe in Christ, as do true Christians. Christians TRUST in Christ Alone. Catholics, most of them anyway, trust in Christ plus, plus, PLUS. The Body of Christ is the one True Church and not a wafer of bread. Do not place your trust in something or someone other than Jesus Christ for your Eternal Salvation. It is through His sacrifice alone that you may have (not “will have” some time in the future) Eternal Life.

John 5:24

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

But here we see the word “believeth” and haven’t I just been writing about how it is TRUST and not belief that is the key? Well this is where we must take the time to look a little deeper. All “translations” of the Holy Scripture have flaws, even the version that I most favor, the King James Version. So let’s look at John 5:24 and see what the original Greek text used for the word “believe” in this instance. We find that the word used here is: “pisteuo” which has a definition (including: “to be intrusted with a thing; to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity; to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something; to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in) that is clearly much closer to the word “trust” for us who speak English.

Many have “believed” that Christ existed, but how many place their full TRUST in Christ as John tells us?

Is it possible for a practicing catholic to be a Christian? Of course anything is possible with God, but I would have say it is unlikely. Why? Because I was there, I was a part of that church, I was an educator in that church, and once I received the Gift of Eternal Salvation and received the counsel of the Holy Spirit, I saw that the catholic church as we know it is not Christ’s One True Church and as someone who had become a true Christian I realized that I had to remove myself from it to be a full part of the One True Church, Christ’s Body.

Again, if you haven’t read my Christian catholic journey, please check it out.

Organized religions make salvation complicated. People in general seem to want to make salvation complicated. Well, the fact is that God has never meant for salvation to be complicated. In fact, He made salvation as simple as it could possibly be. He sent His only Son to earth, in human form, to die for our sins.

That’s it.

Because of His incredible sacrifice, all of our sins are forgiven. He died once and for all, and that was sufficient for our forgiveness. There is nothing more that we can do, as human beings, that will be greater than His dying for our failings.

When I talk to people who don’t understand salvation, they often get hung up on the issue of exactly which sins He died for. They believe that there is something more that they must do to gain forgiveness. They think that forgiveness is something they get at some point, then they go out and sin again, and they have to seek forgiveness all over again. Usually, they’ve been taught this by their “church” and sadly, they’ve been misled.

God’s plan is very simple and not at all complex: He died for ALL of our sins. Every single one of them — past, present, and future. At no point along the way did He say anything at all resembling: “Okay, this sacrifice is going to cover you until you’re 18 years old, after that you’re on your own”.

He died for our PAST sins.
He died for our PRESENT sins.
He died for our FUTURE sins.

Apparently, the last one is the one that seems to trip so many people up. They say: “I know that Christ died for my sins. But how could He have died for sins I haven’t yet committed? How do I know that He died for my FUTURE sins?”

The answer, my friends, is as simple as God’s plan: we know for an absolutely undisputed certainty that Christ died for our FUTURE sins as well as past and present sins because none of us were alive when Christ died on the cross. Not a single, solitary one of us. ALL of our sins — even our past sins — were “future” sins when Jesus Christ made His incredible sacrifice.

Every single one of them.

Sadly, I was once as misled as millions of others about this. If you read my Catholic Christian story, the story of my transition from Catholic to Christian, then you know my background and how entrenched in the church of Rome I once was. So firmly entrenched that not only did I believe everything that this man-made religion told me, but I also taught it to others. That false church taught me that I constantly had to go back to the church to be forgiven for my sins — that I had to confess my sins to a priest acting as a conduit to God — in order to be forgiven. And when I went out and sinned again, my only hope was to turn back to their priests in order to receive forgiveness once more.

Do you see how the church of Rome is intent on keeping its followers so tightly controlled? How that so-called “church” is dead set on locking a person in and forcing them to behave in a way that makes their participation (and their financial support) a necessity?

It’s wrong, and completely against God’s Word and His plan. God makes this completely clear to us:

Hebrews 10:

And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Simply Trust in Christ Alone, for His sacrifice is sufficient to save all of us.

We’ve had a lot of stormy weather in our area recently. A couple of days ago, a particularly violent storm ripped through the part of Florida where we live, and in my mother’s neighborhood a tornado actually affected a number of houses near her. Trees were severely damaged, large branches came down, hail fell and the wind whipped strong through the streets causing havoc as it did so.

Some people in her area suffered some property damages, but my mother’s home escaped without any significant problems. No lives were lost that I know of, but people living in the area were pretty shaken and some very scared. My mother, however, was not — despite the violence of the weather.

If you’ve read my catholic to Christian story, you already know that at the same time I decided to leave the catholic church in favor of God’s Truth to join the One True Church (Christ’s Body) my mother made the same decision. And I experienced great joy when she told me:

“Because I’m saved, even during that terrible storm I wasn’t scared at all.”

That’s the real deep and calming peace that comes with God’s assurance of Eternal Salvation. That’s what there is to gain by allowing yourself to hear God’s simple plan for your salvation. It is His one true Gift to you, and it’s completely free. Simply Trust in Christ Alone and you will be on your way to an eternity in the light of God’s Love.