Hi there, and good morning to you Dear Reader! (or whatever time of day it is…)
Welcome to The Reformed Catholic. This website is dedicated to the doctrinal education, the spiritual watering and feeding, of Catholics around the world who need to know who Jesus Christ was, is, ever shall be, and why they need to know who he is. If you claim to be Catholic… Listen up!
It’s a sad thing for me to say, but it needs to be said, that even though I went to church most of my life, I never heard the Gospel. I always believed there was a God, but I didn’t have a clue who Jesus Christ was, why he came to earth, why he died, and what that was supposed to mean for me. It wasn’t until I was 29 years old and I actually heard the question asked “ If you died tomorrow, are you sure you’re going to heaven?” My answer was “Ummmm, I think so, but can you really be sure?” Thankfully, the answer is yes, you can be sure. And no, there’s nothing that I can do about it. There’s nothing I can do that will get me into heaven. Christ did all the work. More on that later…
There are two Scriptures that functioned as my primary drive for creating this site; my ‘kick in the pants”, if you will. First,
John 14:6 The Words of Christ: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Did you hear that? Unless you put your faith in Jesus Christ, that he came to save us from our sin (or more accurately, from the wrath of God against your sin) no one… that’s no one, and He means NO ONE gets a ticket into heaven.
Hey, don’t get mad at me… I’m just the messenger… Jesus said it… Go complain to Him. Oh, that’s right… He’s God, so you better think about that first. Just gimme a minute to step back before the lightning strikes.
The second Scripture that prompted me to create this site is:
1 Corinthians 9:16b The words of the Apostle Paul: Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
When I thought of those words Paul used when standing up to those who were on his tail for preaching, to those who tried to kill him or quench his fire or corrupt the churches he was planting all over Europe and Asia, to those who were telling him to “shut up and sit down”, shame on the man (and woe to him) who lets the fear of man get in the way of the message of Christ.
Think of this analogy: You’re in a ten-story building and you have just found out that floors one through five are engulfed in flames and everyone who gets on the elevator will die. You then see your office-mates getting ready to go out to lunch. You tell them that you won’t be joining them, but you watch them get their coats, you watch them take their last-minute break to the restroom, you watch as they wait in the elevator lobby, and you watch as they get into the 6-by-6 box that will bring them to their death.
You are responsible for their deaths by not warning them of the impending doom that awaits them. Now, if you tell them and they call you an idiot, and look out the window into the clear sky the declare you don’t have the slightest idea what you are talking about, at least you have done your duty. If they choose to take the elevator without investigating the potential danger that lies ahead, your hands are clean and their blood is on their own hands.
That’s like the Gospel… People all over the earth are getting on elevators and plummeting to their deaths: their spiritual deaths, to be eternally separated from God. And woe to the man who lets them go there without warning them. Christ has words for those:
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
There are many things in my life I have regret for. Letting people get on the elevator to hell is not something I want to claim any credit to.
So why The Reformed Catholic? As I said, I went to church faithfully and never heard the Gospel. I myself discovered I was on the elevator to hell (by reading the teachings of Christ in the Bible), and as far as I can tell, so are 80 million people in the United States and who knows how many more millions in Latin America and across creation are too. Now I know I can’t grab them all… but maybe a few will hold their hands out the door and I can grab just a few as the doors start to shut… and maybe you, Dear Reader, can help take a few others with you. Then Satan’s headcount won’t be as bad (or good) as he thought it would be.
And until I heard the words of Scripture, as did the early reformers who went to try to fix the ills of the Catholic Church nearly five hundred years ago, I wasn’t compelled to tell anyone the message. Now I am. And woe to me if I quit.
Now I know this message isn’t going to be popular. It didn’t fare too well for Martin Luther
Now I’m sure some folks are going to look at this as Catholic-bashing or some anti-Catholic site. Far from it. It’s pro-Christ; pro-truth; pro-gospel; and pro-grace. I’ve heard it said: “All I am is a poor beggar telling other poor beggars where to find bread”.
The gospel is free. Taste and see that it is good, this “bread for the soul”
He told me to invite you…
Come and get it.
-Anthony
