From Darkness to Life: Roman Catholicism in My Family

Both sides of my extended family have been Roman Catholic for at least hundreds of years. My parents were raised Roman Catholic. My Daddy was an altar boy in the Latin Mass (before Vatican 2).

Through God’s mercy and sovereign grace, my parents are Elect. In college they repented of their sins, and believed the gospel and trusted in Christ alone. They were born again!

Those events (my parents getting saved) set the trajectory of my two sisters and my lives. We were raised in a Christian (Protestant) home. I was born again at age 7 after hearing the gospel. I repented of my sins, and trusted in Christ alone. My two sisters, Violet and Tanya, also were born again. Praise God!

Looking back, I see how much courage it took for my parents to break free from the bondage of Roman Catholicism. Their parents were very angry. They were ostracized. My Roman Catholic relatives (aunts, uncles, and first cousins) shun us. We have three strikes against us in their wicked view: we are poor (due to mental disabilities), we can’t work, and we are not Roman Catholics. Our Roman Catholic relatives are wealthy, yet even when Vi and I were starving, they refused to help us.

I pray for my Roman Catholic relatives to be born again and set free!

Roman Catholic theology places a heavy spiritual yoke on its adherents. They have no real peace, because they reject assurance of salvation. Roman Catholic theology teaches that every time a Catholic commits a mortal sin, they lose their salvation, until they go to confession to a priest. Then they regain salvation, only to lose it again the next time they sin! Over the course of a Catholic’s lifetime they will flip between saved and unsaved thousands of times! This is madness. It is not what Scripture teaches.