I Believe Roman Catholicism Is False
The Protestant Reformation was not primarily a dispute over church traditions or styles of worship. At its heart was a far more important question: How can a sinner be made right with a holy God? That question remains just as vital today. Roman Catholicism and biblical Christianity share many important beliefs. Both affirm the Trinity, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His bodily resurrection, and the inspiration of Scripture. These common beliefs should be acknowledged with gratitude. Yet despite these areas of agreement, the Roman Catholic Church officially teaches doctrines that, in my conviction, depart from the gospel revealed in Scripture. For that reason, I believe Roman Catholicism is false as a theological system and that the biblical gospel alone is the hope of sinners.
This conviction is not directed against Roman Catholics as people. Many Catholics sincerely love God according to the light they have received. Many seek to live moral lives, value family, and genuinely desire to please the Lord. Christians should treat Roman Catholics with kindness, respect, and love. The issue is not the sincerity of individual believers but the truthfulness of official doctrine. Throughout the New Testament, the apostles repeatedly warned that sincere people can embrace false teaching. Therefore, every doctrine must be tested by the Word of God.
The first and most fundamental difference concerns authority. The Protestant Reformers confessed Sola Scriptura—that Scripture alone is God's inspired, infallible, and sufficient authority for faith and practice. Every church tradition, council, creed, and teacher must be judged by God's written Word. Roman Catholicism, however, teaches that divine authority is found in Scripture, sacred tradition, and the teaching office of the church, known as the Magisterium. In practice, this places church tradition alongside Scripture as a binding authority. The Reformers objected because they believed Scripture teaches that God's written Word is sufficient and that no human institution possesses infallible authority equal to it.
The greatest disagreement, however, concerns the gospel itself. Scripture teaches that sinners are justified by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. God declares guilty sinners righteous not because they have become righteous in themselves but because Christ's perfect righteousness is credited to them through faith. Justification is a legal declaration based entirely upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. Paul writes plainly, "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28).
The official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church understands justification differently. It teaches that justification involves both forgiveness and the inward transformation of the believer and that it is received and increased through the sacramental life of the church. While Roman Catholic theology affirms the necessity of God's grace, it does not affirm justification by faith alone in the way the Reformers understood Scripture. The Reformers believed this difference was not merely semantic but touched the very heart of the gospel. If our standing before God depends in any measure upon our own righteousness or sacramental participation, then the sufficiency of Christ's finished work is obscured.
This difference affects the believer's assurance of salvation. Scripture teaches that believers may have confidence because their acceptance before God rests entirely upon Christ's perfect obedience and complete atoning sacrifice. Jesus declared from the cross, "It is finished." Nothing can be added to His completed work. Roman Catholicism, however, traditionally teaches that believers ordinarily cannot possess absolute assurance of final salvation apart from extraordinary revelation. The biblical gospel invites believers to rest confidently in Christ's finished work rather than continually wondering whether enough has been done.
Another significant difference concerns the work of Christ. The Bible teaches that Jesus offered Himself once for all as the perfect sacrifice for sin. The author of Hebrews repeatedly emphasizes the finality and sufficiency of Christ's atonement. Because His sacrifice was complete, no further sacrifice for sin remains. Roman Catholic theology teaches that in the Mass, Christ's one sacrifice is made sacramentally present and offered in an unbloody manner. Although Catholics do not believe Christ is sacrificed again in a new historical event, Protestants have long maintained that this understanding is inconsistent with Hebrews' emphasis on the once-for-all sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice.
The doctrines concerning Mary also illustrate important differences. Scripture honors Mary as the highly favored mother of our Lord. She was a humble servant whom God graciously chose to bear the Messiah, and Christians should esteem her accordingly. Yet the Bible never presents Mary as a mediator between God and humanity or encourages believers to pray to her. Scripture plainly declares that "there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Roman Catholic doctrines such as the Immaculate Conception, the bodily Assumption of Mary, and prayers seeking her intercession lack clear biblical support and, in my judgment, draw attention away from the unique mediatorial work of Christ.
Likewise, the practice of praying to departed saints finds no warrant in Scripture. The New Testament consistently directs believers to approach God confidently through Jesus Christ. Because our Savior is our perfect High Priest, we need no additional heavenly intercessors. His priesthood is sufficient, and His access to the Father is complete.
None of these differences mean that Protestants and Roman Catholics have nothing in common. We should gladly affirm every truth that Roman Catholicism affirms when it agrees with Scripture. We should work together where conscience permits in matters of common concern, such as defending the sanctity of human life and the importance of the family. At the same time, genuine love requires honesty about the doctrines that separate us. Unity cannot come at the expense of the gospel.
As Baptists in the tradition of the 1689 London Baptist Confession, we gladly affirm that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone. These truths are not Protestant inventions but biblical convictions recovered during the Reformation. They remain essential because they direct all glory to Christ and all confidence to His finished work.
Our response to Roman Catholics should therefore be marked by both conviction and compassion. We should never caricature their beliefs or question the sincerity of every individual Catholic. Instead, we should patiently open the Scriptures, explain the gospel, answer questions with humility, and invite them to place their confidence wholly in Christ. The goal is not to win arguments but to see people come to the joyful assurance that salvation is entirely the work of God's grace.
For that reason, I believe Roman Catholicism is false as a theological system—not because it denies every Christian truth, but because it departs from the biblical gospel in matters of authority, justification, and the sufficiency of Christ's finished work. My prayer is not that Roman Catholics would become Protestants for the sake of a label, but that all people, regardless of their religious background, would come to trust in Jesus Christ alone. He is the only perfect Mediator, the only sufficient Savior, and the only One who can declare sinners righteous before a holy God.