Courtship=It is engaged in for exploring a relationship for marriage. Dating=It is engaged in for the purpose of personal gratification. Courtship=It is a means to an end. It is engaged in only when ready to marry. Dating=It is an end in itself. It is engaged in years before ready to marry, or as a substitute for marriage. Courtship= It requires parental involvement (except with remarriage). Dating=It generally discourages parental involvement. Courtship=It limits the number of premarital relationships developed. Dating=It provides extensive opportunities to develop multiple relationships. Courtship= It considers all physical contact a privilege of those who have bound themselves for life with marriage vows. Dating=It promotes various levels of physical contact, from holding hands to fornication. Courtship=It rarely leaves couples alone or unchaperoned. Dating=It provides extensive time for unmarried couples to be alone.
Reb Bradley

Are The Changes Real

Are The Changes Real

Are The Changes Real?

In RECENT YEARS Protestants have been riding a wave of optimism regarding Roman Catholics. This optimism is evident in Protestant literature. Christianity Today for example, demonstrates this when it editorializes. “Big changes are occurring in the Church of Rome, and many of those changes are wholesome, the work of the Holy Spirit and a source of joy to Protestants.” The emergence of a new Protestant concern for Catholics is comforting and understandable. Protestants see the changes in the Roman church following Vatican II as steps toward evangelical Christianity.
This optimism may be a subject of praise, but there is the possibility that it may prove to be the result of pure naivete. One must be careful that this attitude is not premature. One needs a keen insight into these changes and the so-called outworking of the Holy Spirit. To properly interpret these changes and developments, one must be thoroughly acquainted with the soul of Catholicism, not just with the external apparatus but also with the underlying theological basis of the religious system.
The changes in the Catholic Church
Many Protestants believe the Holy Spirit to be genuinely at work in the Catholic Church. They are so convinced by external changes which have taken place since Vatican II, and mainly by the vigorous form of life which is taking place in many Catholics. When they examine individuals experience and testimonies they suppose the Holy Spirit to be active in them. But to do so is to look at the Roman Church with Protestant spectacles, because the Catholic Church is not primarily “individuals.”
What is the Catholic Church? It is first of all a religious system centered around a hierarchy. The Church’s authority is found in the Pontiff, Bishops, Councils, and two thousand years of tradition. What constitutes the Catholic Church-its belief, its teaching, its dogma, its structure – comes from the hierarchy which Catholics believe to have been introduced by Christ Himself.
Individuals are Catholic only as far as they are connected with, and under the dispensation of the hierarchy. When a Protestant says the Holy Spirit is working in the Catholic Church, he must demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is working in the hierarchy, from the Pope down to the priests, not the layman only. The Holy Spirit did work in an individual 450 years ago, but he did not work in the Church. Luther saw the complete truth of the Gospel but he was forced to begin the Protestant movement outside the Church. When the Holy Spirit works in individuals, it can only result in these individuals finding themselves outside the church as did Luther. If these individuals don’t, a paradox becomes evident.
What changes are taking place in the Catholic Church? The Church’s hierarchy has always adapted to changing attitudes. When Catholics were willing to submit themselves to Church authority, the Church took advantage of it. Catholics are now thirsty for more freedom so the Church gives them more freedom. After all, it is better to change than to lose members. This is illustrated in an interview of James Hefley with Rev. (Fr. ) Romagosa, editor of the Clarion Herald, a Catholic newspaper in Louisiana. Rev. (Fr.) Romagosa was asked how he liked saying the Mass in English. He said, “I was never so pleased with anything in my life. But at my church we still have one mass for the people who want it said the old way. Some are so set in their ways that if we didn’t have this, they might quit. Hefley then asked, “What has happened in the Catholic Church in recent years?” Rev. (Fr.) Romagosa answered, “It certainly is a renewal… The Church has had to adapt to the place and the times. If the seminaries hadn’t relaxed a few years ago, we would have lost many more candidates for the priesthood than we did.”
Included in adaptations by the Church is also a change in the Church’s attitude. The priest does not speak of Hell as he used to do. The woman is not urged to wear a hat in church as in former times. There is a new accent on love. There is a new accent on social action. But has the Church altered doctrine? In Hefley’s interview with Rev. (Fr.) Romagosa he answers this question, “But there has been no change in basic doctrine.”
What then are the changes? For Catholics these changes may not have the same importance as for Protestants. April Armstrong, a Catholic woman, in her book What’s Happening to the Catholic Church?, summarizes the major changes. Catholics are no longer bound to avoid meat on Friday. The Mass is now said in the language of the people. Catholics are no longer bound to attend mass on Sunday. One can satisfy his religious obligation by attending on Saturday evening. Catholics are allowed to have dialogue and prayer with the Protestants. A new emphasis is placed on the Bible and there is more encouragement of lay participation in the Church.
For Protestants, the important change is the new emphasis on the Bible. “The Spirit of God is at work in the Roman Catholic Church today, and the Word of God is His tool,” says Robert Coote in Eternity (Nov. 1971).
Some Protestants are so impressed to see Catholics with a Bible in their hands that when they see one, they are ready to hug him as a “Brother in Christ.” Does the Bible make a person a Christian? If so, what about the Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons? What about the Scribes and Pharisees at the time of Jesus; The Bible is meaningful as long as its teaching is not altered by the Creeds of a hierarchy. Catholics may have a new access to the Bible, but unless this access is accompanied by major changes in the Church doctrines, this access may prove to be meaningless. WHAT HAS NOT CHANGED IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

What is it that remains unchanged? Let us look at only a few things re-endorsed by Vatican II. Progressive Catholics refer to Vatican II for support of their attitudes. Vatican has become their authority. James

Gallagher, a former president of Tombrock Catholic Women’s College, is quoted by Coote in Eternity (Nov. 1971) as an example: “In his writing and speaking he (Gallagher) no longer feels bound to quote St. Thomas Aquinas and the Patristic Fathers. Now, his authorities are Vatican II and the New Testament. But when Vatican II1 is an authority, what is the remaining authority of the New Testament? Vatican II has done nothing but reaffirm the Church’s position as established at the Council of Trent (1545- 1563). Another Paradox!
Vatican II reaffirmed the Supremacy of the Catholic Church in matters of Salvation. “… Are saved those who are fully incorporated into the Church… Who accept the Church’s entire system and all the means of salvation given to her.” It also states Protestants can be called “Christian” because of their ignorance of the Catholic Church as the necessary institution made by God for the salvation of souls. Baptism still carries the magical power of life. “By Baptism one becomes truly incorporated into Christ and he is re-born to a sharing of the divine life. ” The infant is born again at his baptism. He will never need that experience again.
The sacrament of Penance remains, “Confession of sins to the priest in order to obtain pardon from the mercy of God for his offenses against God and the Church.” The sacrament of the Eucharist (Transubstantiation) has not changed. Christ is still worshipped and eaten in the substances which by the magical words of the priest are transformed into the literal flesh and blood of Christ. Therefore the Eucharist is of extreme importance in the Church’s life. “The Eucharist shows itself to be the source and the apex of the whole work of preaching the gospel.”
The Mass remains the renewal of Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Mary is still Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix. She is the primary channel through which all graces flow. She continues to win for man gifts of eternal salvation. Finally, Scriptural interpretation remains subject to the final judgment of the Church’s hierarchy. But, according to Vatican II, where does Christ fit into the plan of salvation? “By the preaching of the Word (Word was defined as: Tradition and Scripture) and by the Celebration of the Sacraments, whose center and summit is the most Holy Eucharist.”
After having seen that the fundamental position of the Church has not been modified, can we expect real changes in the future? An editorial in Christianity Today answers: “But amid these many changes one must recognize that the Church of Rome had not changed and will not change in its essential theological position.”

THE EVANGELICAL WING
IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
How is the term “evangelical” as claimed by Catholics reconciled with these unchanged doctrines: Is it possible that many Catholics have discovered the religious jargon of evangelical Protestants: Are they using the same language with a different connotation? How can a Catholic be evangelical and still give allegiance to these doctrines? Here is the paradox. From all over the world flow reports about priests, nuns and laymen who claim to have had the kind of religious experience Protestants claim. Robert Evans, director of the Greater Europe Mission, meets with several priests for Bible study and flatly states: “I can detect no difference between their testimony of new birth in Christ and my own.” It is true that many claim to have accepted Christ as Savior, they hold Bible studies, they even meet with Protestants… But what about the unchanged theological position in which they still believe?
Where are the evangelical Catholics who answer the paradox? In the Catholic and Protestant literature available, no instances are found where evangelical Catholics explain their allegiance to church doctrine. This should cause the optimistic evangelical Protestant to pause before sticking an evangelical label on a faithful Catholic believer.
The evangelical Protestant can forget a about the paradox and resort to rationalization. He may do like James Hefley did with his Catholic neighbors. “I couldn’t argue with their lives. They were the best neighbors we had ever known. My prejudice slipped a notch and I admitted to my wife, ‘I don’t know about other Catholics, but Joe and Jean are Christians.’ ” From here Hefley began to rationalize: “I began to think that He (God) might actually be working in the Catholic Church. Surely Satan would not be promoting Bible reading, prayer and works of charity in Christ’s name.”
But such rationalization is only superficial and does not solve the problem at all. Look at Hefley’s conclusion in his book, A Prejudiced Protestant Looks at the Changing Catholic Church: “The Catholic Church has changed in style and attitude, though basic doctrines have not been altered.” Hefley lost his prejudice but he did not find an answer to the Catholic-Evangelical paradox. The problem cannot be solved emotionally or rationally; it must be faced Biblically.

The Charismatic Movement in the Catholic Church

If one believes there are evangelicals in the Catholic Church today, he must certainly expect to find them in the charismatic movement which is spreading rapidly throughout the United States and Canada. If there are evangelical Catholics who really resolve the paradox, they would be found in that group. The movement consists mostly of young people, eager for freedom, freshness and life. They are less formal and indoctrinated than older Catholics and they might certainly have found an answer to their Catholic allegiance.
What do we find? Look at the language they speak. Anne Sandberg a “Steward” in a Catholic Pentecostal prayer group, reports in Christian Life, testimonies of Charismatic Catholics; John’s wife told her mother, who also found Christ:” He fell to his knees received Christ and arose a new man;” “He acknowledged Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. ” This is the language of evangelical Christians!
However, these people in receiving Christ, do not do it under the Holy Spirit’s conviction of their lost state, but in order to become better Catholics. It is not a question of repentance, conversion and new birth, but a mere renewal of what they already possessed since infant baptism. Anne Sandberg explains the paradox in this way:
Catholics are not attempting to reconcile these (Charismatic experiences) with their centuries-old doctrines. Stephen Clark, in a pamphlet writes, “Baptism (infant) is the entrance into the church and involves the forgiveness of sins. In baptism a person begins to be a Christian. “
Since a Catholic who has been baptized in the Spirit believes he had already become a Christian at the time of infant baptism, through his sponsors, then his subsequent acceptance of Christ is called a renewal of his baptism.
Likewise, Catholic charismatics believe they have already received the Spirit at confirmation. Kevin Ranaghan in Catholic Pentecostals explains: “The church already received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost… What this new Pentecostal Movement seeks to do is… to ask the Lord to actualize in a concrete living way, what the Christian people have already received.”
Other Catholic writers say that this Holy Spirit baptism, said to have been received at confirmation, is renewed at the time of the actual infilling of the Spirit.

Anne Sandberg is not alone in this explanation. She only reflects the theology of all the others involved. Father O’Connor, professor of Theology at Notre Dame University and the recognized Theologian of the Catholic Charismatic movement speaks the same language. In The Pentecostal Movement in the Catholic Church, he gives two examples of things which would be incompatible with Catholic allegiance.

“Rebaptism” is unacceptable because at baptism (predominantly infant) one is re-born and made a member of the Church. “Rebaptism” is an anathema for the Catholic. To undergo believer’s baptism is heretical or, at the least, a scandal.
Concerning salvation, O’Connor feels no one, even through an experience of faith in Jesus Christ, can receive the knowledge that he is saved. “No one can have certitude about his ultimate salvation. This is unscriptural and in contradiction with a firm and unanimous Catholic tradition, and with the formal teaching of the Council of Trent.”
The most evangelical wing in the Roman Church has obviously not changed its doctrine. The paradox remains.
What is the result of the Charismatic Catholic’s encounter with Christ: What is the effect in their religious life:
An important article by Killion McDonnell in Dialogue is revealing. McDonnell claims to write his article with scholarly perspective and bases it on observations accumulated during four years of research in Catholic Pentecostalism. He concludes: “Catholic Pentecostals tend to go back and cultivate all the avenues of contact with God that they had abandoned: Rosary, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, (The Eucharist exposed on the altar for worship), devotion to Mary… frequent confession, daily Mass and Communion.”
The same conclusion was reached in the Report of the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The report reads: “They seem to grow in their attachment to certain established devotional patterns such as devotion@on to the real presence (Eucharist) and rosary.” The report found the movement theologically sound, with a good Biblical basis.

All the information available is unanimous. In general, Catholics experience with Christ makes them better Catholics within the structure of their former belief. What about the paradox? It remains unanswered. Many Evangelicals have seen the paradox and have asked for an answer. James Hills in Eternity says: “It is especially disturbing to Protestant evangelicals to find Mary honored at times as Mediatrix, and to hear of cases where tongues are interpreted as a ‘Hail Mary’.”
Edward Plowman in Christianity Today (June 23, 1972) asks evangelical Catholics: “What about church teachings on Mary, papal infallibility, absolution, the Mass and Sacraments, and other doctrines that are impalatable to evangelicals? These things unexplained bother non-Catholics.
Is there an answer? Either we face a true paradox or something is not genuine. The evangelical Catholic is either a genuine Biblical Christian or a genuine faithful Catholic, but he cannot be both. If he is a genuine Evangelical then of necessity he cannot profess Catholic doctrine. If he is a genuine Catholic, then he cannot be,an evangelical Christian.

The Evangelical Protestants Attitude

The Evangelical Protestants attitude should be reservation and moderation. Christians have a mission in the word. They are called to reach the lost for Christ. The Christian must always be conscious of the times and be able to relate to his world without being deceived.
Evangelical Christians have a responsibility toward Catholics. One of their responsibilities is to present to Catholics the Word of God in a language that is understandable. We need to meet them on their wave length and relate to them in a manner that leaves no room for such a paradox as we now face in many Catholics.
Evangelicals want to see Catholics being saved. This is normal an worthy of praise. But what about the paradox? It should not be a matter of blind hope that Catholics are at last coming to Christ within the Church, but a matter of reality. Are they or not? We are dealing with souls of people. It is a matter of life and death. It is necessary that we ask our catholic friends for an answer to the paradox. If the answer is Biblically acceptable, then praise God. But if not, it is our responsibility to help them. How can we help a self-deceived Catholic if we take for granted that he is an evangelical?
May the Lord our Master make us wise in these last days of religious subjectivity and irrationality and above all give us a responsible love for our Catholic friends.
The Evangelical Catholic is either a genuine Biblical Christian or a genuine, faithful Catholic, but he cannot be both. If he is a genuine evangelical, then of necessity, he cannot profess Catholic doctrine. If he is a genuine Catholic, then he cannot be an evangelical Christian. How is the term “Evangelical”, as claimed by Catholics, reconciled with unchanged doctrines? How can a Catholic be evangelical and still give allegiance to these doctrines?

Here is the paradox. MISSION TO CATHOLICS INTERNATIONAL, INC. P.O. Box 19280 San Diego, CA 92119 U.S.A.