If you would like a free newsletter on this or other subjects, just give us a call at Christian Answers. The phone number is area code 512-218-8022. That's 512-218-8022. Or you could email us at cdebater at aol.com. That's cdebater at aol.com. Thank you. Hello, this is Larry Wessels, director of Christian Answers of Austin, Texas, Christian Debater Ministries. I'm pleased to introduce to my audience a dear brother in the Lord, Richard Bennett, director of Berean Beacon Ministries, an outreach to Roman Catholics. It is great to be here, Larry. For people that don't know you, You were a Roman Catholic priest for 22 years, is that right? Please give us a short account of your life. Yes, I was a Catholic priest for 22 years. I was a Catholic altogether for 48 years, having grown up in Dublin, Ireland. I was trained very early on in my education, in what we call secondary and elementary education. by the Jesuits and then I decided to become a Catholic priest and I spent eight years in preparation. It was an officiate year and then six years to ordination when I was ordained a priest in Dublin, Ireland in 1963 and then one year in Rome, eight years in all. Then I spent 21 years in Trinidad West Indies as a parish priest carrying out the work of a priest. I had the best academic training you could get finishing up in the city of Rome itself near the Vatican. I really had a desire to bring Catholics to what we thought was a way of being right with God, so that they could get to purgatory, and then that they finally could get to heaven. And I was great for doing penances and sacrifices, and then I was very devout in Trinidad, baptizing babies, hearing people's confessions, and doing all the sacraments. It was in 1972 I had a very serious accident where I was three days unconscious after the serious accident and then after that time when I got out of the hospital in the sanatorium I began searching in the Bible for what is truth. It took me 14 years of comparing the Bible to Catholicism before I realized that I was dead in trespasses and sins and it was by grace alone. that we are saved. One night I got on the floor in my house and I cried out to God for faith and his grace to save a wretch like me, dead in trespass and sins, and he gloriously did that. It was about two months afterwards. I very reluctantly left the Catholic Church because my prayer after I was right with God by biblical salvation was that I could really love Catholics and give them the real true gospel of grace. That is grace alone, faith alone, and in Christ alone. But then in prayer over those two months after I was saved, the Lord showed me that I could best serve Him and love Catholics. If I left, actually, the priesthood and the Catholic Church, and reached out to Catholics nonetheless. I did that. I left the priesthood in 1985 and reached the States in 1986. I just prayed and prayed that I would have a love for Catholics to reach out. I thank the Lord that after one year as a missionary in China, I was able to start the ministry that I now have called bereanbeacon.org. It is to show Catholics the real truth of where salvation is in a person, not in any church. And it is by God's grace, not by any ritual that any church does. This has been really wonderful. I've seen priests save... I saw two priests in Poland, you know, through our ministry. We have a Polish webpage, besides many other languages, and of course in English. And I thank God that I have seen God's grace poured out. And that is my heart's desire, Larry, that Catholics would know the truth and that evangelicals in this very false ecumenical age would see the differences. I have a very interesting article on the webpage. are Catholic Christians and we've had tremendous response to that, evangelicals whose eyes have been opened in reading that article. So it's with love for Catholics and to show the truth of Christ Jesus that God will be glorified and many, many souls saved, particularly Catholics, to the glory of his name. Outstanding. That was a wonderful testimony, Richard. Could you just real briefly tell us about, you've written some books, and you've already mentioned your ministry, but what are these books you've written, and how can people find them? Yes, I have written some and edited others, and they have been amazing, I just thank God. Our most well-known book is Far From Rome, Near to God, The Testimonies of Fifty Converted Catholic Priests. Since 1994, that book has sold steadily across the world in English and in other languages. It's on the third edition now. The other book that has my heart really displayed and my love for Catholics is the book I've written about Catholicism called Catholicism, East of Eden, Insights into Catholicism for the 21st Century. This book is published by Banner of True Trust like the book of the 50 Testimonies of Former Priests and I thank God for that, because the Lord has used that book and brought many Catholics to himself by that book. The other book that my heart was in, in editing, together with Mary Hertel, is a book called The Truth Set Us Free, 20 Former Nuns Tell Their Stories, and that book has been used mightily of the Lord as well, and I thank God for those women, most of whom are still alive, active in reaching out to Catholics themselves and it is just a wonderful testimony of God's grace. And the other book I've written is called On the Wings of Grace Alone. I've edited that and that is just 30 ordinary Catholics and what we call lay Catholics and how the Lord brought them to salvation. That is an amazing book too. How can you obtain these books? Well go to our webpage bereanbeacon.org and just go to the folder on the left hand side, books, and when you click on that, it gives all the details of how you can get those books. Outstanding. Well Richard, we're going to go into showing people your videos now, here across, particularly our audience on YouTube. But many people don't know that you and me go to the same church here in Austin, Texas. So it gives me a special opportunity to be around you a lot just so we can do ministry work. But anyway, I want to thank you for allowing us to post your videos on the internet through YouTube and other internet servers. Praise God and may souls be saved and the Lord glorified. Amen and amen. Amen. It is a great joy and an encouragement to be here in Stordaway at the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, where the Lord has touched so many hearts in the history of the past. I have read and been so encouraged by the Lord's moving of people in this very island. Tonight I'm addressing how to reach out with the same love of God that people reached out in the past to the lost and to Roman Catholics, to reach out with the very love of Christ Jesus himself. My own background is that I was 48 years a Roman Catholic, having grown up in Dublin, Ireland, in a very devout family. We prayed to Mary, we prayed to the different saints. Of course, we prayed to Jesus, and we prayed to our Father. We prayed to the Father also, but it was a mixture of who we prayed to, and it wasn't simply praying to God. as Mary and the saints were included. We were very devout, always went to mass, always went to confession, always memorized our Catholic teaching from when we were very young. And then I was sent to the Jesuit primary school, and I finished in a Jesuit secondary school. all my academic training from elementary to secondary education, thoroughly trained and formed by the Jesuit priests. Then I was to become a priest as I had decided, and I studied for eight whole years to be a Catholic priest. I was utterly devout not only in a monastic setting, in a priory, but I did extra rigors in having permission to flagellate myself, that is to whip myself so I could feel pain and offer it up so that souls could one day go to purgatory and then heaven, so souls could reach God as we united our sufferings with the sufferings of Christ for the salvation of the world. According to the teaching of the popes, I had memorized the teaching of the popes. I had memorized the teachings of who was called Mariette Fatima, where she said, many souls go to hell because there's nobody to pray or do penance for them. I took cold showers and other painful things to suffer so that souls could be saved. When I look at the pictures of myself way back in those days, I looked like a Gestapo agent. I was serious. Man, I was intent. I was intent to be holy and good. And it was difficult because one never has peace with God when you're doing rituals and trying to merit salvation. You never know when you've done enough. And it is very difficult. And then I was ordained a priest and I was sent to Rome to finish my studies in a very famous university in the city of Rome itself. I was later sent to the mission field Trinidad West Indies. And after about eight years of baptizing babies, hearing confessions, anointing the sick so that they could go to heaven after I had anointed their foreheads and their hands and all the seven sacraments of the church, I had a serious accident and I nearly died. After that accident, I began reading the Bible intently to see how is somebody right with God. I constantly read Ephesians 1 and 2, Isaiah 53, the Gospel of John, the first letter of John, and other portions of the Bible, but those portions in particular It was a search to have peace with God. It was at the end of many years of search that I was convicted by Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, you being dead in trespasses and sins. It was like the Lord used that as a sword to cut caught my very being with the thought that I am spiritually dead. It was the first time I realized that I thought I had some sort of brownie points or some sort of goodness in me for all this devotedness. Now my search of the Bible, surely I have something good. And then the Lord showed me spiritually dead. I'm as dead as I ever was. as a child, as a seminarian, my year in Rome, or all my years of giving people sacraments. I have no peace with God, I am spiritually dead. I literally got on the carpet in my house and cried out to God, show me that I really am dead. Give me the gift of faith. Give me assurance that I am accepted in Christ, in the beloved. And then I began to say, and yes, Father, I believe on Christ. I trust in Him alone. I trust that I am saved by His blood alone in His perfect life. And I began thanking God for the salvation that I had in Him. My life was totally changed. The last two months, I stopped hearing confessions, and it was a real battle because the Archbishop wanted me moved and on and on. The people couldn't understand why I wouldn't have statues and why I didn't do this and wouldn't do the usual rituals. And finally I cried out to God, what am I to do? And it was to come out and be separate and leave the Catholic Church. And I cried out to God, yes, but please, that I may always have love for Catholics to reach out to them. And the Lord has granted me that in all these years since I have left the Catholic Church, and I praise God that I have seen quite a number of Catholics come to biblical faith, and it is just a praise and a worship. I thank God. That's what I want to share. That's what is most of all on my heart that I want to share with you. How do we reach out with the love of Christ? How do we love as he did? He wept over the same city where the Pharisees had denied him, where they loved their traditions. He wept over the city. The Apostle Paul said he wished he was accursed for the sake of his own countrymen, his brethren, if it were possible. So did he love his own countrymen, the Apostle John. And it's not only that Christ Jesus gave us the example of reaching out with love, he gave us a commandment, go ye, give the gospel to all creatures. Not a request, a commandment. If we love God, we keep his commandments. As I was praying and getting ready to come here, I was moved to read in the scripture the portion of the Lord's Word in Chronicles 7, verse 14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven. and I will heal their land." The Lord promises that he will not only hear, but he will heal the land. We look at society around and see things so secular. We see churches that used to have gospel who are now wavering on the very gospel message. We see a decline where there had been, in Scotland in general, 300 years of biblical truth. In our own days, we see a decline. It is the land that needs to be healed, the people, societies. The word needs to go forth like it did in times of old. And the Lord sends you and I, individual people. That's where revival always begins, in the human heart of individuals, where they cry out to God, to heal their complacency, their slothfulness, their laziness, their comfort in having a good church but not having the love of Christ. Can we dare say that we will repent of our wicked ways and call not reaching out, disobeying the Lord, something that we will repent of, asking God and asking our Lord in particular to touch our heart that we would reach out to see minds and hearts and lives changed by the grace and power of God. Now, there are obstacles in the way, and one of the biggest obstacles is the Catholic Church itself. From Vatican Council II in the 60s, we had the ecumenical movement beginning, whereby they totally changed their tactics. They changed none of their dogmas, but they made it look now that they are really Christian, and that they're going to work together with other Christians, so they say. Christian churches are no longer called heretics, they're called separated brethren. And they were told that they are to be more and more transformed. The official teaching of the Catholic Church from that council said, adecumenical dialogue serve to transform modes of thoughts and behavior and daily life of those communities, that's Christian communities. In this way, it aims at preparing their unity of faith into the bosom of a church that is one and visible. And it goes on to speak about little by little how you influence Christians to come back to Mother Church. This has been quite successful. The Catholic Church taking on the appearance of being Christian and now wanting to work together with other Christian churches. They changed their stand, they recognized Islam, as they still do, and they recognize Buddhism and Hinduism as ways of illumination and ways to God. This has had a very big effect on Christians. We've had huge movements that have affected Scotland, England, America, and across the world. One of the biggest being Evangelicals and Catholics Together. where Catholics now work together with evangelical Christians so that they can win people to Christian ways, so they say. Famous reform people like J.I. Packer have signed this document. It is a shock to see how Men who were renowned for their writings on what the true gospel is signed this document that was propagated by Chuck Colson. It is frightening to see how many people now do not witness to Roman Catholics and they take it that they are Christians and that we should work together with them. We've had other spin-offs from this, one of them being Christian Churches Together, sometimes called ACTS, and many other so-called movements, way after the World Council of Churches, which was quite similar in times past. But in the same way, working with the Catholic Church. These are ecumenical times that are really dangerous because many are deceived. We have now the emerging church movement that has hit my own Ireland. It has hit America. It has hit many of the African countries and France. It has not yet hit Scotland or England in a very big way, but it is there on the horizon. Catholic mysticism creeping in in very many modern ways and over the internet. We have the movement, too, called A New Perspective, an organ theology whereby Presbyterians have been lulled away from the true gospel message into a false message of works righteousness. Frightening, started by N.T. Wright in the UK. really took off in the United States and is now affecting the world. It still has not put its deadly fangs in Scotland to a major extent, but it is highly dangerous, utterly academic, and sinisterly clever. These are the barriers to reaching out. We have to be aware of them and able to answer them. But because so many people are accepting the Catholic Church as Christian, we have to study the official teaching. What are the exact words of the Catholic Church on the most important topics? What does she say about herself so that we may know what her truths are, her so-called truths, her teachings, and how we reach out to those who are under this teaching. And so we have this paper, I ask that you take it up. in your hand. The topics are given in the center. These are the essential topics, the basis of truth, salvation by grace, faith, and on and on. The Bible verses explaining these topics is on the left-hand side, whereby we get a clear description from God's written word of how we understand these topics. On the right-hand side, we have the official teaching of the Catholic Church the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism is the official first-hand documentation. It was compiled by the present Pope when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. It is officially published as first-hand written source for Catholic teaching in all the major languages of the world. This is the official English translation. It is neatly divided into paragraphs. Just as the Bible has verses, the Catholic Church divides her teaching into paragraph numbers, so you can give quite quickly, and in a few words, their statements. The first topic, the basis of truth. How do we know what truth is? How do we know what is absolute, what God reveals as absolute truth. How are we sure? Christ Jesus said it in John 10, 35, the scripture cannot be broken. The written word of God cannot be gainsayed. That is the ultimate. That is the absolute. That is where it all begins, the written word of God. Not hearsay, not any church teaching, the written word that the Holy Spirit has given us in the Bible. Christ Jesus summarized it also in his great priestly prayer the night before he died, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. There is an identity between the Bible and truth. Not simply that the Bible contains truth, it is truth. We're not to think above what is that which is written as the apostle Paul reminds us. We're not to add to the word of God as it's tells in Proverbs, it's also the very last commandment in the book of Revelation, not to add to or subtract from the words of this book. And it is totally sufficient, as the Apostle Paul so splendidly tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 3. Now this topic grieved Christ Jesus because the Pharisees equally loved their tradition to the written word of God. and he called them blind leaders of the blind. He said they were making the word of God of none effect, because if you add to the written word of God your traditions, the word of God is nullified in the eyes of the person who now studies it, because they also take as their authority tradition. Christ Jesus said, it makes the word of God of none effect. And so this is a most serious topic. The official Catholic teaching given on the right hand side of the chart, paragraph 80. Quotation, sacred tradition and sacred scripture then are bound closely together and communicate one with another. They see, first of all, a communication going on between sacred tradition and the sacred scriptures. There's something happening between these two sources. They tell you in the following paragraph that holy tradition which they now call tradition, having not defined what it is, they call it holy tradition. They say, quotation, transmits in its entirety the word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It's not simply the Holy Spirit comes last. The Holy Spirit is from beginning to end the one who transmits the Word of God. He is the one who wrote the Word of God. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. He is the one who convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to bring souls to God by his transmitting the very word that he had written. He is the spirit of truth and he uses the word to sanctify us in our daily lives. Totally not any church or any tradition of a church, it is the divine sovereign Holy Spirit who transmits. the Word of the Living God. The Catholic Church gives their conclusion in paragraph 82. As a result, the Church does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the Holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence. They tell you it is not the Scripture alone. And then they tell you emphatically that you are equally to love and have devotion for tradition, as you do the written Word of God. Now this is exactly what the Pharisees did. We have some of the writings of the Pharisees, but the Pharisees never said it so clearly. This is heartbreaking when you consider how many Catholics are taught this for when they are young children learning their catechisms. It is heartbreaking that anybody who dares call themselves a Christian could dare say things like this, that you would equally love. your traditions as you do the written word of God. It takes away the very foundation whereby people can be saved. This shows us the need to reach out to precious Catholic people to show them, and it is good that we find when you do reach out to Catholics that there can be an interest, It is a topic that can really attract them. And when we just give scripture after scripture, I have a whole article on our webpage called The Certainty of the Written Word, where I go on and on and on of the Bible texts upholding the inerrancy and the sufficiency and the glory that scripture gives us and the certainty we have to the word of truth. We share this with Catholic people. Now, not only with Catholic people, but with all the lost. The Catholics are just an example to us. They're all around us. Just before coming here tonight, we had dinner in a hotel, and lo and behold, the cook there that was cutting the meat and everything, I asked him, What religion are you? He said, I'm a Hindu. And I said, the Upanishads, the big Veda, do not give anybody any certainty. I said, Hinduism is all confused. And he was admitting what I was saying. I said, you know, you should get a Bible and read the Bible. This Hindu, the knight, was hearing about the certainty of the written word. I met somebody from Islam in a gas station in L.A., in the United States, and I said, have you read your Bible today? I should have looked at his color. And he said, I'm a Muslim. But he said, somebody has given me a gift of a Bible. Where do I begin? I began writing it out for him. Where do I begin? Not only Catholics, we begin reaching out. Ask the Lord for divine appointments. Myself and my wife do this again and again. Yesterday at the bus stop, a man from France, he said he was an atheist. And we brought him back to the written word of God and showed him how ludicrous it is to say you're an atheist. It is amazing how the Lord gives you divine appointments. Ask the Lord, the Lord of the harvest, to open up his harvest to you and bring you across the path of people that you can share. And beginning on this precious, wonderful certainty of the written word of God that we share with others. It all begins here as we reach out. before the all-holy God, how are we counted righteous? How can we unholy sinners stand before a holy God? The scripture gives us in the second topic, the verse Romans 3, 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God is so gracious, so loving, that he declares you righteous freely by his grace. And the payment is made by the person of Christ Jesus. His perfect life, his perfect sacrifice, that is the payment. Such an encouraging thing. reminds us of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. This is the sovereign act of God, who God is. That is the definition of grace, who God is in his act to save sinners freely in his love. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, by faith, and grace alone. It is the gift of God, not of any ritual or anything that we do. It is totally of God. And the scripture speaks about the abundance of grace, the riches of grace, that we may reign in righteousness by one Jesus Christ. We could go on and on. Grace is the centerpiece of the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. It is the wonder of our loving God to reach out in a sovereign act to save sins. What is the definition of the Catholic Church? Paragraph 2021, quotation, Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons. It introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life. Grace has been demoted to being a help. And man is in the driving seat. He is the one who is responding. So it's man's decision to, and he's using grace as a help. This is not, this is an attempt at debasement of grace. It is not what grace is. A man may use a black and decker power drill, or a woman an iron to iron a shirt for a husband. These are tools or aids. But grace is not a tool, it's not an aid. It's who our God is. to justify sinners. This is really heartbreaking that any church could teach this. It is heartbreaking. And why we have to reach out and show Catholic people that God is a God of love and he graciously looks out to save us. As we look to Him for His grace, He gives it and we are accepted in the Beloved. It is who our God is. The Catholic Church goes on to talk about this grace or power that they say they have and they say it comes through seven sacraments which are necessary. Paragraph 1129, The church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the new covenant are necessary for salvation. Sacramental grace is the grace of the Holy Spirit given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. So seven sacraments, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, holy orders, matrimony, and extramunction. The seven sacraments of the Catholic church are said to be necessary. When the jailkeeper asked the Apostle Paul, what must he do to be saved, the Apostle Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy household. Believing was necessary, not any ceremonial that any church does. No sacrament, it is believing. But the Catholic Church says, and it says that her power is Holy Spirit power. That is utterly blasphemous. You're speaking and calling your power Holy Spirit power. The Catholic Church so debases and attempts to debase the very grace of God that we reach out to show people who are lost to graciousness of our God. So much of society is secular nowadays. On university campuses and on and on, people that we meet in daily life are secular. And we reach out to show them the written word of truth and then show them the graciousness of our God. to save our sinners, and to see people come to the Lord by His love and grace. The way in which we apprehend the finished work of Christ is by faith. And faith is defined in scripture, believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, the same words I quoted from the Apostle Paul. The object is the person of Christ. So faith is defined by its object, Christ Jesus, we believe on him. It's given unto you to believe it is God's gift and faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. It is totally of God, and the object is Christ Jesus. You would think that no church could twist or manipulate that. We look at the official teaching of the Catholic Church, paragraph 168. It is the church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my faith. They talk about mother church, the church first believes. Your fate only comes down the line. The church believes first and nourishes your fate, so they say. Paragraph 169, salvation comes from God alone, but because we receive the life of faith through the church, she is our mother. The focus is beginning to come in on mother. Mother church, the Catholic church, that's the focus. It is fine focused in paragraph 181. Believing is an ecclesial act. The church's faith precedes, engenders, supports, and nourishes our faith. The church is the mother of all believers. No one can have God as father who does not have the church as mother. She is the one who gives you faith, they say. and gender. She gives life to your faith. She nourishes us. It's such, they say, that you cannot have God as your Father. You cannot know the Father in heaven if you first of all do not know the mother, your mother, Mother Church. Now talk about twisting and manipulation. The Catholic is told to believe Mother Church. It is frightening to see this teaching, but it is a lesson for us that when we meet the hairdresser, ladies, when you go ask your hairdresser, is she Catholic or what church does she go to, and begin witnessing to her. She may be Catholic. I know there's not that many here, but she may be, or she may be in a church that doesn't know the Gospel. Witness to her. At the checkout counter, ask the gal at the checkout counter, have you read your Bible today? Well, I go to church. Why do you go to church? Well, I think that my church will help me to know God and to make me good. And then you begin explaining, trusting on the person of Christ Jesus. the wonder of how it is. I saw one of the beginning of my outreach in Portland, Oregon, a lady in an Albertson's supermarket come to the Lord. I'd finally given her ultimate questions, which you can get in many different languages. It'll be good here for the summer months, ultimate questions by John Blanchard, to hand out in different places as you move around different parts of the city or wherever you're from, because we have Polish people here. We have Polish people that give something in their own language. It is just wonderful that they would be able to read something in their own language, to show them trusting in Christ alone. They will be made available in your church. I had asked the ministers to make sure that you get copies of my testimony in Polish, in Italian, in French, in Spanish, and in English, where it is printed by a ministry in the United States, free of charge or for a donation. And you can hand these out to people. Sometimes people who are not Catholic get convicted in reading my testimony of trusting on the person of Christ, because that's what is in the testimony. It's trusting the person of Christ. And that's what we see. And that's how we answer any focus on church saving by bringing a person back to the person of Christ Jesus. That's where salvation begins. He is the author and finisher of our faith. We have to turn to the topic on the second page. The topic, because it is, the most important topic of all of the two sides of this chart. It is who our God is. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. There are many attributes or characteristics to God, His truth, His holiness, His justice, His power, but it's His holiness that is highlighted in Scripture as the definitive attribute because it declares who God is as totally other and utterly distinct from all his creatures. And so it says, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Revelation 15, who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. God only is the All-Holy One, who is like unto Thee, another scripture says, Lord among gods, glorious in holiness. There is none like unto Him. First Samuel, there is none holy as the Lord, there is none besides Thee, neither is a rock like our God. Many, many more scriptures showing that God alone is the All-Holy One, and He is the source whereby He saves by justifying, by sanctifying, and finally glorifying His people. The Catholic Church teaches something entirely contrary to this. Paragraph 2677. By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners, and we address ourselves to the Mother of Mercy, the All-Holy One. You can buy the book quite easily. You probably would get it more in South... Uist or someplace else where there's a lot of Catholic bookstores, but it's quite easily bought. It's on the internet. You can find many, many sites where it's quoted word for word as it is printed. The All-Holy One, a human creature called the All-Holy One. How more horrendously blasphemous could a church get? And they go on to say, from the church he, the baptized Catholic, learns the example of holiness and recognizes model and source in the all-holy Virgin Mary. They see her as the source of holiness as well as being the all-holy one. Now Catholics can be shocked when they read this. I had this chart and I was witnessing to Catholics as we did at conference in John MacArthur's church in LA, and this young Catholic man said, my church does not say that. And I had the book under my arm and I opened it. And he was aghast. He asked to see John MacArthur and he went in and counseled with him. And from what we could see, that young man came under conviction. And from what we could see in the short time we had, he looked to be contrite and biblically saved before God. He was shocked by what his church said. We have to teach Catholics what Catholicism is and to do it gently, but we have to teach them and reach out with the love of Christ Jesus to see that they would come to him. And so we see from these topics, and you can read the other topics, communing with the dead, that is with the occult, the last topic, and some of them are really light and darkness. It shows that the Catholic Church is not Christian and in actual fact denies basic essentials of the Christian faith. But we should reach out. and reach out to so-called evangelicals who want to work together with Catholics so that they may know the truth of who our God is. Now the last topic is some of the topics that I bring up at the supermarket or at the chemist shop. Banks are a great place because they're taught customer service and they must be nice to you. They always take all the tracks you offer. They are exceptionally nice. When you're asking somebody at a bank and you say, you know, how can we be right before the All-Holy God? It is interesting. You can start with a gentler question, you know, what is your goal in life? And they tell you they want to marry and set it down. What is your goal before the all-holy God? It is quite interesting, quite, quite interesting. We get many responses and I've seen so many things. I've seen a man saved in a pharmacy, a chemist shop. It is amazing when we ask God to open ways for us, He gives us them. But we have to know the true gospel. There's so much in evangelicalism at the moment that is quite horrendous. Not only churches working with the Catholic Church, but having a false message. The most commonplace so-called evangelistic message is accept Jesus into your heart. Make your decision and accept Jesus into your heart. Read all the scriptures. All of Paul's salvation is in Christ. It's constantly declared in every one of his letters. It's constantly in the Apostle John. Everlasting life is in the Son. It's not in the human heart. But they see it in the human heart. and tell you to accept Jesus into your heart. Make your decision, give your life to him and accept him into your heart. They misuse Revelation 3, 20, behold I stand at the door and knock, a sanctification text to the lukewarm church of Laodicea. They twist it to make it seem to be an evangelistic text, as if Christ was waiting cap in hand to come you know, as you beckon Him to come. It is quite horrendous to see Arminian man-made messages called gospel messages. We make sure that we have tracts that are correct and that have the biblical gospel. It is always God saved by His grace through faith and that we are on holy sinners. I was witnessing to a young man, came up from LA, he was selling drugs when I was witnessing to him. And finally he said, you know Richard, I've decided I'm going to believe Jesus Christ. And I said, Nelson, I said, you were born as wicked a creature as I was, how could you believe in Christ Jesus? And he said, Richard, why do you tell me all these things all these weeks? I said, because God is gracious. Look to Him. His grace will save you." Three days later, he called. It was awesome. Awesome, awesome, as he spoke of his love for God and his conviction and his profession of faith, as God gave him grace. We emphasize believing on Christ Jesus by the grace of God, the two essentials for the biblical gospel. and God saves utterly. This is the way in which we reach out and we avoid all man-made type of things. Give, give God, give Jesus control of your life. He controls all things. He works all things by the word of his power. We do not give him anything. It's like you were trading in your little car for Mercedes Benz or something. You give Jesus something and he gives you salvation. Salvation is utterly God's gift. It is not a trading in of anything. And we stay away from all false messages that are equally beguiling to the false ecumenical movement. It is interesting that it is the Biddy Graham Association Campus Crusade that has endorsed evangelicals and Catholics together that give these Arminian messages. The same people who work together with Catholics. Biddy Graham for years at his so-called crusades and the campus crusades and now navigators and all sorts of people who are willing together to work with Catholics and then they give this gospel about how you can make your decision and remember the day you put your stake in the ground or whatever way they say it to you. Frightening. It is God so loved the world. The Father in his sovereign act reaches out to dead sinners and we come alongside them to tell them that they are dead and that they need Christ. As I said at the beginning, it is such a joy to be here in the Isle of Lewis. I have been reading and trying to devour some of the accounts. The names go on and the places go on. you know, of the different things that touch this island, the different localities in the island. Just quite amazing. I have studied the revival that took place under Columba way back in the 6th century when he came, and then John Knox, George Wishart and Patrick Hamilton, the way they preached Patrick Hamilton, even as he burned for six hours at the stake. the love that he had. It is amazing, and to see the men and women of the Covenanters, it's not just Pedan and other famous ones, but all those who met together secretly and how they gave the gospel, how the word of God spread. In Scotland, the power of the Holy Spirit has come down many times. Wales has been blessed and other nations, but from what I can see, there's been no place blessed with the abundance that I can see and read of in Scotland. Scotland has been touched. You have a heritage And it is for you to ask for conviction that God would melt your cold heart if it is cold and give you a warm to daily reach out. To ask him to bring you across the path of the lost. and to give the message to them, and to see sinners saved, to begin seeing in our churches like people used to in times past, many people come in and join the church because they have become believers through the witnessing of the men and women of the church. True revival always begins as God's people humble themselves and pray. and turn from the wicked ways and ask God to mold and melt their heart with the love of Christ. He does that and it is glorious. And that is my heart's desire. I do not know how many more years I have in ministry, but this is the cry of my own heart. And I thank God that he answers my cry day by day in showing me people and bringing me across the path of those that He has chosen and desires to be saved. And so, we lay hold of His promise that if anyone should ask for the Holy Spirit, the Father will give the Holy Spirit, much more than an earthly father would give good things to his children. We lay hold of His promise and trust Him that He will touch your hearts and you with the fire and love of the Holy Spirit. And then see souls saved. Praise God. To the praise of the glory of His grace. Amen and amen. Praise God. If you like our YouTube channel, please subscribe. by clicking on the subscribe button and then by also clicking the bell above to get an automatic update whenever we produce another YouTube video for our See Answers TV channel. Please share our videos with your friends and relatives. May God bless you. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what is done for Christ will last. See related videos by tapping or clicking screens.