We trample the blood of the Son of God if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only explanation for the forgiveness of God and for the unfathomable depth of His forgetting is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the outcome of our personal realization of the atonement which He has worked out for us. It does not matter who or what we are; there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but because He died. It is not earned, but accepted. All the pleading which deliberately refuses to recognize the Cross is of no avail; it is battering at a door other than the one that Jesus has opened. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The atonement is a propitiation whereby God, through the death of Jesus, makes an unholy man holy.
Oswald Chambers

Born Catholic

Born Catholic

Born Catholic

I was born into a Roman Catholic home in the early 1940’s. My parents
were devout Roman Catholics and we were instructed in the teaching of the church and were taught that this was the one
true and infallible church.

At the age of seven I made my
first communion and from then onwards,
in the sight of the Roman Catholic
church, I was committing a sin if I
didn’t attend Mass on Sunday and Holy
Days.

I was encouraged to go on
pilgrimages in atonement for sin, for
example–walking on stones in my bare
feet, whipping myself, fasting and
silences, which was the hardest for me
and which was often broken!

Having been in contact with
Protestant people my one desire was to
win them to the Roman Catholic faith
believing that outside the Roman
Catholic church people were doomed. If often wondered in what way I could win
these Protestants to the true church.

After speaking to the priests
and nuns on several occasions they
encouraged me to go into a convent to
become a nun of the Poor Clare Order in Antrim Road, Belfast. Not being content to wait until I was eighteen years old, at the age of fourteen I got permission from the priests to go and work in a
Protestant factory off Donegall Road.
My parents were utterly opposed to this idea but to them what the priest said
was law.

From the first day at work, as I look back I can see the Lord’s hand in
my life as He led me step by step to
Himself.

The team of people over me in
that factory were azll believers, born
again of God. I was horrified at this
but was still determined to win them to the Roman Catholic faith. Often I
visited the priest to ask for his advice but all he could tell me was to pray
more to the different saints, put more
money into the church and I was always
told never to read the Bible and was
threatened with what the consequences
would be if I did, for example–my hands would wither away or my tongue would
fall out–this to me would be a great
calamity! Never having had a Bible I
just thought this would never happen so I didn’t really worry about it.

A Christian friend at work often read a book which she seemed to enjoy
reading. One day, out of curiosity, I
asked to see it and discovered it was
the Bible. Having asked for it I
couldn’t give it back so I pretended to read it. As I turned the pages I
stopped at John’s gospel chapter 3 and
my eye caught the words in verse 16:
“For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.” I
was arrested by these words and felt
that I would like to read more so I
stopped again in John chapter 14 and
read the first few verses. There I read about believing in God and in Jesus
Christ His Son, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me.”

Continuing to turn the pages my eye caught the words in Acts 3:19,
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,” and then again in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: not of works, lest any man
should boast.” I also read Hebrews
7:25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them” and 1 John 1:6-
10.

In these verses I found that no priest could forgive sins and that Jesus only could take our sin away by His
precious blood that was shed on Calvary.

Sadly I had to part with the
Bible, my lunch bread being over. I
tried to memorize the verses so that I
could communicate them to the priest.
When I confronted him with them he told me I was not to accept them but to
adhere to the teachings of the Roman
Catholic church as the only true faith. I was reminded again of what would
happen if I continued to read the Bible.

As I left the priest, I felt
very depressed for I felt that I had
been rebuked by him and that he had
given me no help whatsoever.

Wishing to know more of the
Christian faith, I asked my friend if I could go with her to a place of worship. First I thought it was my duty to go to Mass after which I made my way to
Argylle Presbyterian Church, Shankill
Road. It was Childrens Day and through the simple message and through
Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my
voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me.” I realized I needed to be
saved and longed to give my all to
Jesus. Being under age, I thought at
the age of twenty-one it would be time
enough to become a Christian.

Longing to know more about Jesus I determined to frequent as many places of worship as I could. About this time my parents found out that I was
attending different meetings and in an
effort to stop me they locked me in my
bedroom. Outside my bedroom window was a drainpipe which I managed to climb up and down and which was the means of my
getting out without my parents’
knowledge. When they found out what I
was up to the Legion of Mary and the
priest were informed and they had me
removed to another factory where the
Legion of Mary prevented me having
contact with Protestants, especially
Christian people.

In January 1957 I attended Great Victoria Street Baptist Church where the pastor emphasized the fact that “Today
is the day of Salvation” and then I felt that good works and church attendance
did not atone for my salvation so, that night, I gave Jesus my life, the burdens rolled away and great was the peace that filled my heart.

I was freed from my locked room the following Tuesday and my parents saw a change in my life. For the first time I was able to take my stand for the
Lord, by telling them that the change
was wrought by the Lord Jesus who gave
His life for me at Calvary, and the Lord would do the same for them if they too
would give their lives to Him.

The next Sunday I went to the
same church but I can’t remember the
sermon but the text stuck in my mind and even to this day I find it a great help: “Fear though not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will
strengthen thee: yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness” (Isa. 41:10).

That Sunday night I realized my parents were very vexed with me. I was punished by being punched, kicked and
pulled up and down the floor. My
parents then wanted to know–“Was I
going to be a Protestant or a Roman
Catholic?” I told them–neither–that I was just a sinner saved by grace. I
knew I had to leave the Roman Catholic
church as all its teachings were against the scriptures.

The priest was brought on the
scene and told my people he would have
me blindfolded, kidnapped and put into a convent. This they tried to do but I
escaped and found myself running to
Christian friends who were up at that
late hour asking the Lord to deliver me. Praise God for the Evangelical
Protestant Society who helped to get me to Dublin.

After a few happy months with
the Irish Church Mission my people found out my whereabouts and I had to flee to England. Still being under age it
wasn’t easy, as there was press coverage and other pressures, but I thank God
that He undertook for me by giving me
Christian friends.

At the age of eighteen I
commenced training to become a nurse and after finishing this I went back to
Belfast to live. One night, when
returning to the nurses’ home the Legion of Mary bundled me into a cary saying
that I had got away before but I
wouldn’t get away this time. I told
them my Lord would undertake. By some
miracle I was able to break the window
with the heel of my shoe and get hold of the ignition key and throw it out of the broken window. Some people passing by
took me to the police station in their
car.

Just after this I was married
and the Roman Catholic church gave me up as a bad job!

The Roman Catholic church would like people to believe it has changed
but I KNOW that Rome will never change, for even today my own family practices
the same teachings and superstitions in which I once believed. In the words of the Psalmist I can say, “The Lord hath
done great things for me whereof I am
glad.”
–Mary C. Lynn, 1988
Women’s Protestant Union
Sussex, England

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