Questions from a Catholic Reader

Questions:

1. Do you believe that no one who has not been baptized by immersion will be saved?
2. Do you believe that it is wrong and a sin to eat meat? If so, how do you explain Christ’s use of meat and God’s commandment, “All the beasts of the earth … shall be meat for you”?
3. In what areas do you differ from the Seventh-day Baptist denomination?
4. Do you believe that all people who observe Sunday as the Sabbath, in contradistinction to Saturday, will go to hell?
5. Why are you so bitter against Catholics, calling them harlots and the church “the beast”?

Remember that the Bible is a fiddle upon which almost any tune can be played and that everyone believes his religion is correct, and if so, all the others must be wrong.

Answer:

1. The only water baptism there is is immersion. As to the question of salvation, it depends on light and conscience. If one sins against conscious light, they must be condemned. Our Lord states the true principle: “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke [excuse] for their sin.” John 15:22. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him…” 2 Chron. 16:9. Sometimes the intellect is in­ferior to the heart. There are times of ignorance when God seems to wink at sin, but it is because the people do not have the light.
2. No, we do not believe that it is a sin to eat meat unless it is eaten without faith, for “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). There have been times, such as immediately after the Deluge, when all that people could find to eat was flesh food. However, the animal kingdom is becoming increasingly diseased, and flesh foods are increasingly unwholesome and disease-breeding. The vast majority of meat eaters consume it because they enjoy it, not because it is the best food choice. The true Christian guideline is, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31). We cannot believe that it brings glory to God to consume corrupt flesh foods when we can find much better alternatives.
3. We will discuss the differences in a manageable length. It chiefly concerns prophetic interpretation, immortality, life through Jesus Christ alone, our Lord’s priesthood, and this world’s future.
4. No, no more than we believe that honest men who have passed counterfeit bills unawares should go to jail. We believe that many Roman Catholics will be saved, not because of their error or because of their church, but in spite of it. Review the principle we highlighted in our response to your first question.
5. We are not bitter against Catholics. We have nothing against men or women of any denomination. We would feed or help a Catholic in need as soon as we would any other person. But we do not believe in Roman Catholicism–the corrupt ecclesiasticism of the centuries. We believe that union with the world on the part of a Christian is spiritual fornication, and we do not see why it would not be the same with the church. Any apostate, world-joined church is a harlot, whether it be Catholic or Protestant.

Men play tunes upon a fiddle by an oscillating and variable bow and by picking the strings. It is by the manipulation of the bow of traditionalism upon the strings of truth, by the picking of those strings of truth by the fingers of prejudice, love of self, skepticism, higher criticism, and apostasy, that the many discordant tones are produced. The Bible is its own interpreter, and to the heart open to receive and the purpose to do God’s will, the Bible tells the one great story and reveals the same great Master, working harmony through­out God’s universe. Eliminate the human creed makers and the human doubters, and there will be no trouble over the unity and power of the church. It will take neither anathema nor law, neither creed nor council, to hold it together.