Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
False Doctrines of Catholicism
I can honestly look anyone in the eye and say that God's truth is the most important thing to me. That I don't care what any church or denomination says, I will seek God's truth and serve Him accordingly. What is more important to you? If you found your church is teaching something wrong, would you follow your church or would you follow the truth of God's Word?
Nearly the entirety of my website is based on teaching the truth in God's Word contrary to what many protestant churches teach today. However, in this article, I will show you where Catholicism is making its mistakes. If you are Catholic, I now ask you. What is more important to you? Following God's Truth, or following what your church teaches?
There are several teachings inside Catholicism that are not only unsupported by scripture, but scripture actually shows us it is wrong.
Mary to Intercede for Us in Prayer
1 Timothy 2:5 (NASB)
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
The Bible does not say that Jesus is one of the mediators. It does not say there are multiple mediators. It clearly says there is "one" mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ. Then Jesus Himself says this...
John 14:6 (NASB)
6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Now let us look at the Lord's prayer.
Matthew 6:9-13 (NASB)
9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]
Jesus does not teach us to pray to His mother and ask her to intercede. He teaches us to pray directly to the Father.
The Catholic church cannot give you one good scripture that supports Mary interceding for you. Not one. They have one verse they need to stretch to fit their belief and it really takes stretching. Yet there are three separate scriptures that tells us clearly that what the Catholic church teaches is absolutely wrong.
Mary is Sinless
The reason everyone needs a savior is because we all sin right? For if you never sinned, you would be blameless and not need to be saved. Yet Mary herself said this...
Luke 1:46-47 (NASB)
46 And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
Mary herself claimed Jesus was God and her Savior! Mary herself admitted to needing a savior. Then there is this...
Romans 3:10 (NASB)
10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;
Romans 3:23 (NASB)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
1 John 1:8 (NASB)
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
These verses all clearly show that we all have sinned. Everyone! These verses along with Mary calling Jesus her Savior, is strong evidence that she did have sin in her life. Yet show me one verse that says she was sinless. There is not one. There is no verse that supports Mary was sinless.
To continue to believe Mary was sinless, is to believe in a contradiction to the word of God.
Mary as a Perpetual Virgin
Catholicism pushes that Mary was always a virgin. She never defiled herself with a man. Yet this belief came solely from man's point of view as to what was more holy. The Catholic leaders wanted so badly to make Mary holier than she really was, that felt Mary staying a virgin would make her more holy than if she lost her virginity with Joseph. Unfortunately the truth is, it does just the opposite. It makes her less holy because it means she has to contradict Gods Word.
Again, there is not one verse in the Bible that supports Mary staying a virgin after Jesus was born. Not one! But we do have this from scripture...
Matthew 1:25 (NASB)
25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.
When someone says the word "until", they never mean after. If Mary was going to always be a virgin, it would not have been written that he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus, but it would have been written that he kept her a virgin even after she gave birth to a son.
The Catholics try to justify their belief by saying that saying "until" does not necessarily mean she wasn't after she gave birth, but that is just a ludicrous argument because nobody uses the word until unless it is only until. The word "until" is used solely for the purpose to show that it was only "until" she gave birth. Yet that is not the only scripture saying she didn't stay a virgin.
Mark 1:7-8 (NASB)
7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, 8 and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.
1 Corinthians 7:5 (NASB)
5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Scripture actually says that a married couple should have sex so that Satan cannot tempt one into sin over their lack of self control. For Mary to stay a virgin after Jesus was born, for no good reason, and to deprive Joseph, would be to leave Joseph open to temptation and sin. That action would be against God! So for Mary to stay a virgin for no reason, would have made her less holy in the eyes of God than if she would have performed her duty as a wife to Joseph.
With scripture and reason to show Mary did not stay a virgin after Jesus was born, and absolutely no scripture to support her perpetual virginity, it is wrong to support that belief.
Confessing Sin to a Priest
There is only one scripture that Catholicism can point to that supports this belief.
John 20:23 (NASB)
23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
Unfortunately, their stance that is what Jesus does is give his apostles the authority to forgive sin, only shows their lack of understanding the Word of God.
Jesus did not give them the authority to forgive sins, nor did any of his apostles ever pretend to have that authority. Never once does an apostle forgive someone of their sins. Only God can forgive us for our sins. No man has that authority. One point when God does forgive our sins is when we believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord.
Ephesians 1:13 NASB
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
The moment we believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, God sends the Holy Spirit to seal us with the promise. What promise? The promise of salvation.
To save me space and time in re-writing it all, you can read this article on how we are truly saved, here.
The short of that article is that salvation is through faith in Jesus only. There are a couple verses that are wrongly interpreted to say salvation is through works, or baptism by water, but those verses can be explained through alternate interpretations. However, there are over 20 different verses where Jesus or the writers of the books clearly state that he who believes will be saved. Yet we cannot be saved unless we are forgiven for our sins. Since our salvation cannot come from anything we do on our own and it is strictly by the Grace of God as a gift to us, it cannot come from us asking forgiveness for our sins. Because that would mean it is something we do to save ourselves.
Forgiveness of our sins comes automatically the moment we believe in our hearts. At that moment God washes us clean and sends the Holy Spirit to seal us with the promise of salvation.
So if forgiveness of our sins comes upon believing, what does that say about John 20:23? Jesus was telling the apostles that when they preached the gospel, anyone who believes would be forgiven of their sins. Anyone who rejected it would retain their sins. The apostles understood this and that is why none of them ever took it upon themselves to forgive another man of their sins.
Only the Catholic leaders did not understand what Jesus was actually teaching there and took it upon themselves as the leaders of the church to have the authority to not only forgive men of their sin, but to appoint others with that authority as well.
John 3:18 (NASB)
18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
This verse among many others never mentions that someone needs to first ask forgiveness of their sins. The moment someone believes, they are no longer judged because they are then forgiven for their sins and washed clean. Those who reject Him are already judged because they were not forgiven for their sins.
Yet there is another reason to know that it is not right to ask a priest to forgive you for your sins. For that we need to return to the Lord's Prayer. Verse 12 in the prayer.
Matthew 6:12 (NASB)
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
In teaching us how to pray, not only does Jesus teach us to pray directly to the Father, but He teaches us to ask the Father to forgive us for our sins as well. He does not teach us to seek another man to forgive us for our sins. He tells us to ask the Father directly to forgive you for your sins. To do anything else is to do so in contradiction to the teachings of the Son of God! To do so in contradiction of the teachings of our God!
There are other false doctrines in Catholicism, like how they sprinkle water for Baptism and baptize children. None of them are near as serious as these however. If you are willing to continue believing these false doctrines and ignore the scriptures I showed you, then that will be for you to deal with God over.
However, if you truly desire to serve God according to His Word and not just serve the religion that man has implemented, then you need to really consider the truth I have placed in front of you here.
Extra Note .... End Times.
There are many Protestants who are against Catholicism because they believe the Pope will be the False Prophet who aids the antichrist. They assume that if that is the case, then Catholicism is evil and not of God. This is wrong!
Whether the Pope will be the False Prophet or the antichrist or have any part of it at all, makes absolutely no difference. As far as anyone knows, the antichrist himself could be an ex-evangelist! Will that mean all Protestants are evil? no!
If it ends up a Pope plays a big part in the End times and leads a lot of people astray, that only means the Pope (one single man) is evil. Not the entire church. To believe Catholicism is evil because you believe the Pope will be the False Prophet, is no different from all the atheists saying Christians are wrong because of the wacko's during the crusades who have killed in God's name.
Instead of hating on other Christians because you don't believe in some of the things they do, spend time showing non-Christians the love of Jesus Christ. If you want to save people from being Catholic and being led astray by the evil pope when it happens, spend time showing "why" it will be the Pope in the End Times so they will know what to watch for. But do not ever blame the entire mass for the evil of one. Especially when that one has yet to actually commit the evil act.
Both, Catholics and Protestants believe that Jesus is the Son of God and died on the cross to save us from our sins. Both believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation. Both believe Jesus was born of a virgin birth. Both believe Jesus rose from the dead. Since both believes everything that one needs to believe to be saved, both are saved! Both are Christians and instead of attacking each other, we should both be focusing on preaching the Gospel of Christ to more unbelievers.
Though I spent this article showing the false doctrines inside of Catholicism, I am not against Catholicism. I am only against those doctrines. Yet even though I am against those doctrines, even of someone does believe them, I do not think they are going to hell. The doctrines may be false but they are not something that will send someone to hell. Just like some of the doctrines some Protestant churches teach.
Nearly the entirety of my website is based on teaching the truth in God's Word contrary to what many protestant churches teach today. However, in this article, I will show you where Catholicism is making its mistakes. If you are Catholic, I now ask you. What is more important to you? Following God's Truth, or following what your church teaches?
There are several teachings inside Catholicism that are not only unsupported by scripture, but scripture actually shows us it is wrong.
Mary to Intercede for Us in Prayer
1 Timothy 2:5 (NASB)
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
The Bible does not say that Jesus is one of the mediators. It does not say there are multiple mediators. It clearly says there is "one" mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ. Then Jesus Himself says this...
John 14:6 (NASB)
6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Now let us look at the Lord's prayer.
Matthew 6:9-13 (NASB)
9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]
Jesus does not teach us to pray to His mother and ask her to intercede. He teaches us to pray directly to the Father.
The Catholic church cannot give you one good scripture that supports Mary interceding for you. Not one. They have one verse they need to stretch to fit their belief and it really takes stretching. Yet there are three separate scriptures that tells us clearly that what the Catholic church teaches is absolutely wrong.
Mary is Sinless
The reason everyone needs a savior is because we all sin right? For if you never sinned, you would be blameless and not need to be saved. Yet Mary herself said this...
Luke 1:46-47 (NASB)
46 And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
Mary herself claimed Jesus was God and her Savior! Mary herself admitted to needing a savior. Then there is this...
Romans 3:10 (NASB)
10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;
Romans 3:23 (NASB)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
1 John 1:8 (NASB)
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
These verses all clearly show that we all have sinned. Everyone! These verses along with Mary calling Jesus her Savior, is strong evidence that she did have sin in her life. Yet show me one verse that says she was sinless. There is not one. There is no verse that supports Mary was sinless.
To continue to believe Mary was sinless, is to believe in a contradiction to the word of God.
Mary as a Perpetual Virgin
Catholicism pushes that Mary was always a virgin. She never defiled herself with a man. Yet this belief came solely from man's point of view as to what was more holy. The Catholic leaders wanted so badly to make Mary holier than she really was, that felt Mary staying a virgin would make her more holy than if she lost her virginity with Joseph. Unfortunately the truth is, it does just the opposite. It makes her less holy because it means she has to contradict Gods Word.
Again, there is not one verse in the Bible that supports Mary staying a virgin after Jesus was born. Not one! But we do have this from scripture...
Matthew 1:25 (NASB)
25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.
When someone says the word "until", they never mean after. If Mary was going to always be a virgin, it would not have been written that he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus, but it would have been written that he kept her a virgin even after she gave birth to a son.
The Catholics try to justify their belief by saying that saying "until" does not necessarily mean she wasn't after she gave birth, but that is just a ludicrous argument because nobody uses the word until unless it is only until. The word "until" is used solely for the purpose to show that it was only "until" she gave birth. Yet that is not the only scripture saying she didn't stay a virgin.
Mark 1:7-8 (NASB)
7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, 8 and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.
1 Corinthians 7:5 (NASB)
5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Scripture actually says that a married couple should have sex so that Satan cannot tempt one into sin over their lack of self control. For Mary to stay a virgin after Jesus was born, for no good reason, and to deprive Joseph, would be to leave Joseph open to temptation and sin. That action would be against God! So for Mary to stay a virgin for no reason, would have made her less holy in the eyes of God than if she would have performed her duty as a wife to Joseph.
With scripture and reason to show Mary did not stay a virgin after Jesus was born, and absolutely no scripture to support her perpetual virginity, it is wrong to support that belief.
Confessing Sin to a Priest
There is only one scripture that Catholicism can point to that supports this belief.
John 20:23 (NASB)
23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
Unfortunately, their stance that is what Jesus does is give his apostles the authority to forgive sin, only shows their lack of understanding the Word of God.
Jesus did not give them the authority to forgive sins, nor did any of his apostles ever pretend to have that authority. Never once does an apostle forgive someone of their sins. Only God can forgive us for our sins. No man has that authority. One point when God does forgive our sins is when we believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord.
Ephesians 1:13 NASB
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
The moment we believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, God sends the Holy Spirit to seal us with the promise. What promise? The promise of salvation.
To save me space and time in re-writing it all, you can read this article on how we are truly saved, here.
The short of that article is that salvation is through faith in Jesus only. There are a couple verses that are wrongly interpreted to say salvation is through works, or baptism by water, but those verses can be explained through alternate interpretations. However, there are over 20 different verses where Jesus or the writers of the books clearly state that he who believes will be saved. Yet we cannot be saved unless we are forgiven for our sins. Since our salvation cannot come from anything we do on our own and it is strictly by the Grace of God as a gift to us, it cannot come from us asking forgiveness for our sins. Because that would mean it is something we do to save ourselves.
Forgiveness of our sins comes automatically the moment we believe in our hearts. At that moment God washes us clean and sends the Holy Spirit to seal us with the promise of salvation.
So if forgiveness of our sins comes upon believing, what does that say about John 20:23? Jesus was telling the apostles that when they preached the gospel, anyone who believes would be forgiven of their sins. Anyone who rejected it would retain their sins. The apostles understood this and that is why none of them ever took it upon themselves to forgive another man of their sins.
Only the Catholic leaders did not understand what Jesus was actually teaching there and took it upon themselves as the leaders of the church to have the authority to not only forgive men of their sin, but to appoint others with that authority as well.
John 3:18 (NASB)
18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
This verse among many others never mentions that someone needs to first ask forgiveness of their sins. The moment someone believes, they are no longer judged because they are then forgiven for their sins and washed clean. Those who reject Him are already judged because they were not forgiven for their sins.
Yet there is another reason to know that it is not right to ask a priest to forgive you for your sins. For that we need to return to the Lord's Prayer. Verse 12 in the prayer.
Matthew 6:12 (NASB)
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
In teaching us how to pray, not only does Jesus teach us to pray directly to the Father, but He teaches us to ask the Father to forgive us for our sins as well. He does not teach us to seek another man to forgive us for our sins. He tells us to ask the Father directly to forgive you for your sins. To do anything else is to do so in contradiction to the teachings of the Son of God! To do so in contradiction of the teachings of our God!
There are other false doctrines in Catholicism, like how they sprinkle water for Baptism and baptize children. None of them are near as serious as these however. If you are willing to continue believing these false doctrines and ignore the scriptures I showed you, then that will be for you to deal with God over.
However, if you truly desire to serve God according to His Word and not just serve the religion that man has implemented, then you need to really consider the truth I have placed in front of you here.
Extra Note .... End Times.
There are many Protestants who are against Catholicism because they believe the Pope will be the False Prophet who aids the antichrist. They assume that if that is the case, then Catholicism is evil and not of God. This is wrong!
Whether the Pope will be the False Prophet or the antichrist or have any part of it at all, makes absolutely no difference. As far as anyone knows, the antichrist himself could be an ex-evangelist! Will that mean all Protestants are evil? no!
If it ends up a Pope plays a big part in the End times and leads a lot of people astray, that only means the Pope (one single man) is evil. Not the entire church. To believe Catholicism is evil because you believe the Pope will be the False Prophet, is no different from all the atheists saying Christians are wrong because of the wacko's during the crusades who have killed in God's name.
Instead of hating on other Christians because you don't believe in some of the things they do, spend time showing non-Christians the love of Jesus Christ. If you want to save people from being Catholic and being led astray by the evil pope when it happens, spend time showing "why" it will be the Pope in the End Times so they will know what to watch for. But do not ever blame the entire mass for the evil of one. Especially when that one has yet to actually commit the evil act.
Both, Catholics and Protestants believe that Jesus is the Son of God and died on the cross to save us from our sins. Both believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation. Both believe Jesus was born of a virgin birth. Both believe Jesus rose from the dead. Since both believes everything that one needs to believe to be saved, both are saved! Both are Christians and instead of attacking each other, we should both be focusing on preaching the Gospel of Christ to more unbelievers.
Though I spent this article showing the false doctrines inside of Catholicism, I am not against Catholicism. I am only against those doctrines. Yet even though I am against those doctrines, even of someone does believe them, I do not think they are going to hell. The doctrines may be false but they are not something that will send someone to hell. Just like some of the doctrines some Protestant churches teach.