what legalism can do

warning! please read the whole article before making any opinions. these are some of my experiences throughout my lifetime. they may not be the most correct view at times but i have always seen growth to get to where i am now in my beliefs.

in high school i had many catholic friends. they were some of the greatest friends. however i saw things in some of their lives that didnt seem right. even though they proclaimed a faith in the same God i followed it did not seem to change their lives. not that i can really talk because in high school i really did live out my faith like i should have either.

in college i took a class which we talked about roman catholicism. it was a great class that opened my eyes a little to my legalist view on the catholic church. prof. horst opened my eyes to be a little bit more accepting of the catholic faith then just what i had learned and accepted of them from my experiences with a few of them in high school.

in ministry i have met many former catholics that now attend our church. they talk about the lack of the gospel talked about in church and how they never experienced the love of Christ until after they had left the catholic church. i am still trying to understand the catholic church. in many ways i can see the goodness and hope that it provides. but if so many former catholics havent found out about the gospel then how can this be? were they catholic by name only? or did their parish only teach from the "other books."

until the other day i never thought of how roman catholics view us (protestants). i was out to lunch with a someone who used to go to our church now turned catholic. i have come to the point where this is okay. if that is where he needs to be then more power to him. i did ask him during the time that we were together why he left the church.

we then went on to discuss the four pillars of the church, martin luther, freedom, baptism and more. he then went off on me because i continue to be wesleyan. he said that he accepted i was a follower of Christ but then went on to tell me that i would never be able to live my faith out to the full. he told me i was in rebellion to God because i was not part of the "one church."

i went on not to condemn him but how i worried that this legalistic view could hurt his realtionships with his friends and his wife (who still attends our church). i told him that i didnt worry about him leaving our church to become catholic but that i worried he would shut everyone out of his life that did not have the same beliefs he did.

i went on to tell him that he and i would have to learn to focus on the majors of christianity rather then the minor stuff that we didnt agree on. he continued to tell me that there were only majors in christianity and if i didnt see that then.

i then asked him how his back was doing as he is on disability because he just had back surgery a month or two ago. unfortunately he missed the point. and i definately do not want to put any other catholic in the same boat as he is in. but at the same time there must be others who believe the same as this man. and my heart hurts.

please help me pray for this man.