The Following Article was taken from the website of our Brethren in the Faith at the Deer Park WA Disciples of Jesus Christ; We whole heartedly share the perspective of the author on this issue.
(or Is being catholic the same thing as being Roman?)
A response to the news by Gary Miles
Over the 2001 Paschal (Passover / "Easter") weekend, a story by David Crumm (Knight Ridder News Service) regarding the conversion of a Pentecostal congregation to Roman Catholicism was published in many papers across the U.S., including the front page of the Spokane, Washington, Spokesman-Review ("Pastor inspires Mass conversion", 04/14). Mr. Crumm describes how "the Rev. Alex Jones and the 64 remaining members of his Maranatha Christian Church will give up their religious affiliation to become members of St. Suzanne Catholic Church in Detroit [Michigan]."
Though Ned McGrath, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit, is quoted as saying that no one can recall this happening before, there are numerous stories in recent years of individuals and small groups converting from a Reformation-based, Protestant theology to one of the ancient denominations (Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, etc.). Books and television programs have been produced by some of these converts encouraging others to follow in their steps, including one specifically directed at conversions to Rome, entitled Home Sweet Rome. In nearly every case, including the current story from Detroit, it is explained that those involved began studying early Christianity or biblical interpretation, discovered that their own beliefs and practices were at odds with what the Church once stood for, and found the answer to their dilemma in the ancient traditions of Rome (or a similar group). [For more information on this regarding your own beliefs, we recommend beginning with the book, Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up by David Bercot, Scroll Publishing. Make a request for it at your local library or click here for the publisher's online catalog.]
Let me assure the reader that the author of this response bears no ill will of any kind towards believers who are associated with the Roman church: a highly-respected acquaintance and two favorite authors are Roman. However, it is important to make a clear statement here that, just like Evangelicalism and like other ancient denominations, the Roman church is at considerable odds with early Christianity in many areas. Its traditions (practiced teachings) are, at best, just the shadows of those found among the earliest generations of believers.
Probably the single greatest root of this historic departure from the Faith which "was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) is the belief in progressive revelation. That is, that God reveals to the Church new or expanded truths and/or traditions over time. The early church believed no such thing; quite the contrary. "The teaching of the apostles was surely, in everything, according to the mind of God ... No other teaching will have the right of being received as apostolic than that which is at the present day proclaimed in the churches of apostolic foundation" writes one early believer near the end of the second century. About a hundred years later, an overseer (bishop) wrote, "Those who seek to set up any new dogma have the habit of very readily perverting into a conformity with their own notions any proofs they care to take from the Scriptures ... Consequently, in addition to what has been once committed to us by the apostles, a disciple of Christ should receive nothing new as doctrine." Like the Jewish Pharisees of Jesus' own day, this belief in the church's authority to amend and expand its traditions as it sees fit has resulted in such a growth of hazy, obscuring human additions to the things of God that it has become very difficult for an average man to see through them to the heart of love and compelling aims in Jesus the Messiah. Actually, Augustine complained about this in the 5th century, and one can only imagine how much worse the situation has become with all that has been added in the intervening 16 centuries. From the doctrines of Maryology (such as her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity) to iconography (veneration of images) to hierarchical church organization and rule above the church in the local city, even including a supreme human ruler based on pagan religion (the Pontifex Maximus, or Pope), the ancient churches are now constantly in the position of "teaching as doctrines the precepts of men" (see Matthew 15:9, Mark 7:7-9, and Colossians 2:16-23).
As humans, we find it more in our nature to react than to act. Discovering that many Reformation interpretations of Scripture are only five centuries old, and unknown to Christians in their current form prior to that time, can be a real shock. Discovering that one's own cherished beliefs are not even found among those believers who lived in and immediately following the Apostles' lifetimes can understandably shake a person -- or group of people -- to the foundations of their faith. But this often results in a reaction rather than careful action. We must indeed love the truth and respond to it with wholehearted change when we find it, but we must ensure that we are not simply exchanging one error for another: trying to correct our position by going from one extreme of the pendulum to the other. It is distressing to discover that one has been in error regarding the traditions that the Apostles intended to hand down and intended us to keep (2 Thessalonians 2:15, others), but it is pointless if we exchange that involuntary ignorance for a different but necessary ignorance of other teaching in the early church in order to accommodate our move into a new church in reaction to our discovery. It is the story of families frustrated by the flooding of their homes by the nearby creek who tear them down and rebuild on the opposite bank at the same elevation.
The word "catholic" means "universal." So the name "Roman Catholic" is itself a bit of an oxymoron. One can be of a particular party in Rome, or one can be of the universal (catholic) Kingdom of God throughout all place and time (see Luke 17:20-21), but one cannot simultaneously uphold both an organizational party and its interests and yet stand without distraction for what Baxter and Lewis refer to as a truly catholic, "mere" Christianity. And it is the Presence of God, His Kingdom in this world expressed in us and through us, that we need most and which is hopefully our highest desire. The answer never has been, and never will be, in a human institution.
For a response to a defender of the Roman Catholic position, CLICK HERE.