Modern Evangelicals are happily embracing a deceptive evil, and letting it creep into their churches. The evil is a counterfeit gospel, a counterfeit Christianity. The evil is the Roman Catholic Church, and it’s creeping in unawares, especially to young and impressionable minds, through worship music. Particularly, a Catholic singer named Matt Maher has become strikingly popular in Evangelical worship. With the compromise of today’s Evangelical leadership, this should come as no surprise. Al Mohler once said he believed that there would be millions of Catholics in heaven. Other Southern Baptists are declaring confessing, professing Roman Catholics saved (See here, and here). And it just about every contemporary Baptist church, you’ll hear “worship” music written by Roman Catholics.

Charles Spurgeon once said,

I question if hell can find a more fitting instrument within its infernal lake than the Church of Rome is for the cause of mischief. And your church will in its measure, be the same if bereft of the Spirit.

What a gem of truth. The rate at which Evangelicals are embracing this false spirit is alarming. Historically, and as a result of the conservative resurgence, Southern Baptists have withstood much of the apostasy that has befallen other denominations. For the most part, Southern Baptists have held a strong (but weakening) stance against homosexuality entering the church. At least, for now, you don’t find acceptance of homosexuality preached from the pulpits in most SBC churches. And most SBC pastors aren’t going to recommend to their congregation books written by homosexual activists, like Matthew Vines, that call themselves Christians.

So why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics? Why do we declare them saved when they reject the true Gospel? Why do we worship to music written by Matt Maher, a Roman Catholic?

Evangelicals are being duped. Roman Catholicism, like any other false religion, is an abomination to God. It is absolutely asinine for Al Mohler to believe that there would be millions of Catholics in heaven. Does Al Mohler believe there will be millions of Mormons in heaven too? How about millions of practicing homosexuals? Would he want devotionals written by Matthew Vines to be studied in Sunday School at his church? What about prayers written by Glenn Beck to be read during worship service? Do you see the inconsistency?

Yet, Evangelicals everywhere are embracing Roman Catholicism as brothers and sisters in Christ. Russell Moore recently said in an article he co-authored with Roman Catholic, Marco Rubio, “both of us are of the Christian faith.”

Why do they believe this?

Roman Catholics cannot be Christians because they reject Jesus as wholly sufficient for the remission of their sins. Because of this, they practice idolatry regularly, through the mass, in which a priest supposedly summon Jesus out of Heaven to enter a wafer, and then proceed to eat and drink the physical body and blood of what they believe to be Jesus, present in the wafer. They practice idolatry through the veneration of Mary and the Saints in order to try to gain favor with God. They reject the fellowship of a true, local church that teaches and exposits the Scriptures authoritatively. And they practice idolatry by putting their faith in their man-made organization, hierarchical priest system, and sacraments for their salvation.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Let me make that clear: Do not be deceived, a practicing, unrepentant Roman Catholic will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It doesn’t matter if a Roman Catholic “sounds evangelical” in his testimony. If he’s in the Roman Catholic Church and doesn’t see anything wrong with the idolatry he practices daily, he has not been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

It doesn’t matter if Matt Maher says he’s a Christian or makes a “Christian-sounding” profession of faith. He is still a Roman Catholic, who practices idolatry, and is not repentant of it. It doesn’t matter if some of his music sounds okay. It doesn’t matter if he says he believes in Jesus. If he is unrepentant of his sin, he has not been regenerated.

But let’s go out on a limb here, and say that perhaps he is saved, and just hasn’t come to realize yet through sanctification that he’s caught up in a false religion. Sanctification is both immediate and progressive, therefore, it is possible for a Roman Catholic to be saved, and still (temporarily) be in the Roman Catholic Church. It still doesn’t matter. He’s still practicing sin, should be called to repentance, and by no means should he, or his worship music be played in a Bible-believing church. We wouldn’t do that for other unrepentant sinners. Why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics?

We wouldn’t do that for other unrepentant sinners. Why do we make exceptions for Roman Catholics?