Question: Different Christian denominations do not agree with each other even though they all claim to follow the Bible. You talk about finding a "biblically sound Church" for Catholics to turn to when the leave the "apostate Roman institution." Do you imply that a person has to leave the Catholic Church to be saved?

Answer: Your concern for the unity of the church is justified, and I share the same pain in seeing the splintering and fractures among God’s people.

Yet unity cannot be maintained at the cost of error and heresy. On the contrary, unity must be based on the truth of the Gospel. And here's where the problem lies. It is the conviction of countless Christians that the message of Rome is an aberration of the Gospel. That is why we would not unite with you. Rather, we feel it is our duty of love to warn you about the falsity of the Roman religion. Not in all things, of course! Much that is Catholic is wholesome and pure and biblical. But there is enough poison to ruin the whole thing.

Still, despite the errors of Catholicism, it is my conviction that there are many of God’s people within the Roman Catholic Church, for God can save people by the simplicity of the Gospel as He himself grants the grace of faith. My plea is that those Catholics who trust in Christ alone for salvation - and not in Mary, or the priests, or their own good works, and their sufferings here and in purgatory - that they should come out of a religious system that officially teaches such things contrary to the Gospel. I’m asking for consistency between faith and practice.

Simply getting out of the Roman Catholic Church saves no one. Recently a friend informed me that he had left the Catholic Church. He probably thought I would rejoice. I did not, and told him so. He was like a man on board a sinking ship who jumped into the raging sea! As much as I want him to get off the sinking ship, more importantly I want him to get into the Lifeboat for there alone can he be saved from drowning. I want Catholics to trust in Christ alone and completely. That is the greatest desire of my heart. That they would leave the apostate Catholic Church is only a secondary matter.

I hope that you can honestly say, “My only hope for salvation is Christ alone. I am forgiven completely only because of the blood that He shed on the cross. It is not because I do penance or do my religious duties or because I do some good works. I have no trust in Mary or the church for salvation. My trust in only in Jesus Christ, my Savior.”

If that is a true expression of your faith, it would be inconsistent to remain a member of a church that teaches differently. You should rather join in with a local Christian community that is truly subject to the inspired Word of God. Now I am not suggesting that you are saved because you join a local Evangelical church; yet it is God's purpose that every one of His children should be a member in a local Christian church for mutual edification.