Letter to Catholics
1 OF 5
To: William Putnam ......... From: Mick James ........ Date: 1/19/96
Hello Bill, I found the following on the home page of that church I mentioned to you in e-mail. If you would like to contact him e-mail it is lucienlesage@unn.unisys.com (this is for you too Joe and Phil if you like)
An Open Letter to Roman Catholics
by Lucien J. LeSage, Jr.
I was born a Roman Catholic and was given a Catholic education from the time that I was in kindergarten till I graduated from a Catholic High School. When the Lord saved me and called me by His grace, I began to study the Bible and found the doctrines that I had been taught by the priests, brothers and nuns to be contrary to the doctrine taught in the Bible.
The Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians stated that love rejoiceth in the truth, (1 Cor. 13:6). And our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to John, chapter 17, declared that God's Word was truth. And finally it was declared in the revelation given to John (Rev. 22:18), that if any man added to this final prophecy then He would add unto them the plagues that are written in it. After the book of the Revelation was penned, God's Word was complete, and any words given by men after that point in time can only be to expound that which has already been given. But in no way can any man's words override the Words that have been penned, nor can he add to them. Men may have dreams and men may have visions, men may even suppose to speak "ex cathedra,", but it would be best for God's children to listen to His written Word. God speaks to us now through His completed word, and it is the final authority.
With all the religions in the world today, and the many plans of salvation that are being proclaimed; it may be asked, who is right? Can there be many ways in which to be saved or only one way? Jesus said, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:13-14). There is only one way for a sinner to be saved and it is the biblical way.
With that in mind let us examine some of the doctrines that the Catholic Church teaches and compare them to the Word of God, and "let God be true and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4). First, however, let us set forth what the Word of God teaches concerning the purpose of the priesthood and the sacrifices they offered, since the Catholic Church has priests and the mass is, according to the Catholic Church, a sacrifice.
CONCERNING THE PRIESTHOOD: What does the Bible teach about the purpose and duty of a priest? In Leviticus 1:8 we see that it was the Jewish priest's duty to offer sacrifices upon the altar. "And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar." The writer of Hebrews agrees with this in chapter 5 verse 1, "For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins," and again in chapter 10 verse 11 speaking of the Levitical priest, "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins."
In the Old Testament the Levitical priest was a mediator between men and God to offer up sacrifices upon an altar. The altar was the place whereupon the sacrifice was offered; but we see from Hebrews 7:11 that the Levitical priesthood did not make anything perfect, nor could it take away sins. "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?" Also Hebrews 10:11-12 declares, "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God." Paul, speaking about the Levitical priesthood, said in Hebrews 8:13, "Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."
Jesus Christ is our great high priest as Hebrews 3:1 reveals to us, "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." And, concerning Christ's priesthood, Paul declares that Jesus Christ was a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec, and not of it (Heb. 5:6). Melchisedec had no predecessors or successors to his priesthood and therefore Christ, being made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec, has no predecessors or successors to His priesthood.
CONCERNING SACRIFICES: For what purpose then were the sacrifices of the Old Testament offered, if they can not actually take away sin? Hebrews 9:9 declares them to be a figure for the time then present. "Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation" (Heb. 9:9-10). They were to point to Christ and the sacrifice that He would offer. Hebrews 9:23-24 declares that the Old Testament tabernacle with all its furnishings and ordinances of worship were nothing more than the patterns of things in the heavens, and that they were but figures of the true. Hebrews 10:1 states that the ordinances of worship given under the law were but a shadow of good things to come. "For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."
Hebrews 9:12 declares, "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Notice this sacrifice was not to be repeated but was done once (one time), and it did not merely make salvation possible, but His sacrifice obtained eternal redemption for all His elect.
The purpose of bringing these truths to light from the Bible is to expose the error of the Roman Catholic Church's teachings concerning the Mass, the altar, and their priesthood.
CONCERNING THE MASS: The Catholic Church teaches the mass to be a true reinactment of Calvary in which Jesus Christ is reoffered on an altar. This is the reason it is called the sacrifice of the mass. Hence her ministers are called priests, and the place whereupon the mass is offered is called an altar.
This is why the Catholic Church must teach the doctrine of transubstantiation, for if Christ is to be literally re-offered, and there is to be an actual renewal of Calvary; then they are forced to teach that the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. How can the Catholic Church teach such a thing in the light of God's Word? Jesus commanded His disciples to eat the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Him, not to resacrifice Him on an altar. When David said, in the 119th Psalm verse 103, that God's words were sweet to his taste, and that they were sweeter than honey to his mouth; no one would suggest that he cut the pages from Holy Writ and placed them in his mouth. No, he ate them with the spiritual faculty and not the carnal. It is plain to see in the Scriptures that Christ was offered once (one time only), and that we, as God's elect, are to partake of that sacrifice with the faculty of faith.
Call no man your father upon the earth-Matt 23:9