I've Seen More Roman Catholics Living Like They've Got a License to Sin

Many Roman Catholics tend to say, "You born again Christians really hit the high road to Hell. Your doctrine of eternal security teaches you that you can sin all you want." Then comes in the annoying part when they start misquoting Scriptures. I know it gets annoying but many of them actually chew themselves in their accusations. It's because many of them are living like they've got that license to sin.

I remembered how incredibly hypocritical it gets when Roman Catholic parents complain that a Protestant or Baptist academies are "so strict". Their decisions is that they decide to move their children to the more lenient Roman Catholic academies. This also reminds me of how at one point they accuse born again Christians of being liberal sin all you want hippies but the next moment, they actually accuse born again Christians of being "legalistic Pharisees". It reminded me of an article by David W. Cloud on "Those Fundamentalist Pharisees". The question is do they even know why Jesus attacked the Pharisees in the first place? It wasn't because of their strict conformance to the law but rather they were self-righteous thinking that they're better than others. Truth is, nobody's born righteous and if a person is made righteous, it's by the grace of God.

The typical practice among many Roman Catholics I've known personally is this. Sinning all they want, go to confession, do penance, receive communion on the Sunday service and repeat the whole process. I've seen many adulterous couples even hold hands and religiously attend Sunday services. Many corrupt politicians are religious Roman Catholics. A lot of immoral people are religious Roman Catholics. When they're told about salvation, some of them may even say, "Well you born again Christians are killjoy. You don't let us smoke, you don't let us listen to rock music, you're a group of Pharisees." It's hypocritical considering today's modern day Pharisees also include the Roman Catholic clergy and the Pope is a perfect picture of Caiaphas. No wonder Matthew 23:15 says that many converts of the Pharisees are worse than the Pharisees.

What's worse is that many Roman Catholics who live such sinful lives end up getting preached into Heaven (while later on, more Masses are still said for the "eternal repose" of the soul) when they're headed for Hell. The priest may say, "He was such a good man. He gave a lot of generous donations to this parish. He even had an audience with the Pope." That "good man" may have also had numerous extramarital affairs, drunkard, swindler and you name it yet they still considered him a good man. While no man of God is indeed perfect and you know Lot, Samson, David and Solomon had their shortcomings but they weren't lovers of sin. There's a difference between struggling with sin and enslaved by sin. One wants sin to get out and the other loves sin. 

It's a problem when authentic faith and righteousness are substituted with faith plus works. Many Roman Catholics misquote James 2:14-26 without fully understanding the text. It's true that faith without works is dead then so is works without faith. There's a difference to why unsaved people do good works (which are but dead works) vs. the believer who does good works. One does good works with a sense of pride hoping either God accepts that person or keeps that person saved based on some kind of self-merit. Christians on the other hand do good works not because they have to but because they want to. When a person is under law, they're only condemned but when under grace, they do good works because it's become part of them. James 2:10-11 shows that even one sin is more than enough to send a person to Hell. All sin is sin and even the tiniest sin is indeed worthy of Hell.

Matthew 7:21-23 is one frightening reality. Many people think their good works will offset their bad works only to find out that they were really doers of iniquity. I mentioned awhile ago of that "good man" who has a lot of sins in his life. Even with all their good works, their wicked works were exposed showing that they weren't saved to start with. Why did Jesus say, "I never knew you." This is more than just knowing them for the sake of knowing them. They weren't His to start with. Christians have a beautiful personal relationship with Jesus that makes them do what He says out of real love for Him. Many think that God will accept them because they do their best but without Him, all of it is not going to count (Philippians 3:8). Christians do good works because they love the LORD.