Is Roman Catholicism a cult? - Ravi Zacharias at Texas A&M's Veritas Forum

thank you very much thank you let's take a question from this side good evening dr zacharias and dr nobel's a great honor to have you here tonight with us uh for about six or seven years now me and my friends have been going out evangelizing on the streets and i'm sorry to change the gears here but i'm in desperate need of your help tonight um we encounter a lot of groups on the streets different uh religious groups mormons jehovah's witnesses things like that and um one group we have a particular problem with sometimes in in answering is uh roman catholicism and so i would when i went back to research uh doctor i mean uh not doctor but martin luther and uh charles spurgeon and things like that and they would call it a heresy but when i fast forward to now and i go and read uh the kingdom of the cults by walter martin uh that it's not in there so my question to you is uh is roman catholicism another example of how unity does not equal uniformity within the christian community or is it a derivative or is it at its core a derivative from true christianity just like saying do you want to be axed or do you want to be hanged you know i appreciate the question that you're raising you know it's interesting that uh when you grow up in a land of india where there are 330 million deities you get a lot of questions like this as well so let me just be first let me issue a disclaimer here briefly we as christian apologists basically defend the biblical worldview as we understand it see it and find it represented we know there are many people who may have some doctrinal diversities and doctrinal differences to uh from us and we understand that so you've obviously heard me address this in some way because you use the very words i sometimes use unity does not have to be uniformity so something like that let me put it to you in these words without getting specific in you the answer and then issuing one or two comments after that number one it is this it doesn't really matter what label one puts on an empty bottle if the bottle is empty or if the bottle is mislabeled then it is even very dangerous the bible reminds us who is a christian it is one who really confesses in his mouth and believes in his heart that jesus christ lord and that christ has raised him from the dead and so on when you get into this theological realm there are many other additions that come in so if you ask me what does it take to be a follower of jesus christ my answer may be very brief if you say to me what does it take to belong to a particular denomination we may make it longer because the denomination may add its distinctives to find uniformity in that group then you may say what does it take to teach in a theological institution now you have to be even more protracted in your answer because as an instructor you have to be theologically very correct crossing your t's and dotting your eyes i know many people whether they're in protestantism or in roman catholicism who are truly followers of jesus christ there are many other aspects of their faith that they may not fully subscribe to that is an aggression across history that was added by the power of leadership or by the power of group or sectarianism the fascinating thing is prior to the reformation we were all sort of divided into eastern and western at that point and there were distinctives in hierarchy and then doctrinal distinctives emerged just as well so my answer to you is what is a cult let me define it for you in the simplest possible way a cult is generally i think walter i actually as you probably know went on and became the general editor of walter martin's book so in the last seven or eight years that book uh really the family asked me to bring the editing into it but i define a cult this way anything that deviates from the historic person and work of jesus christ or adds to his teaching and is generally at the instruction of one individual who dictates that belief it is almost certainly cultic at that time oftentimes groups can function as a hierarchy within themselves and an individual heteronomically dictating the laws if that happens then any one of us whether in protestantism or in catholicism can end up becoming cultic by following just one particular brand of teaching and deviating from the historic person and work of jesus christ my answer to you is very simple you follow christ as best you know how as revealed in the word of god and serve him and love him and honor him with your life in your heart and in your walk and that's what you preach to others as well god will be the ultimate judge of what groups went wrong in which direction i have a hard enough time dictating whether my family has been right in every way leave alone historic five six hundred years of denominations so i'm not dodging the question i'm just telling you it is wise to be careful and not tar everybody with the same brush in a particular group the faith that you have in christ is a personal one and sometimes are no people who stay within groups in order to bring changes within that group where they see doctrinally they have deviated or gone astray from other belief systems it is possible that a person may be a good christian and a bad roman catholic to draw another question from the twitter stream we had several

Channel: Fiat Lux

Views: 3,610,959

Rating: 4.4800081 out of 5

Keywords: Ravi Zacharias (Author), Veritas Forum (Nonprofit Organization), Roman Catholic Church (Religious Organization), Christianity (Religion)

Id: CisY1QTgEis

Length: 6min 31sec (391 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 20 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/DrKC9N]

He's not wrong. There are many parishes under the Roman church that are more orthodox than nondenominational churches I could mention.

That doesn't mean it's not a false church, since it errs with regard to basic doctrines of salvation.

As a Christian apologist, his message is better as one that works for all under the Christian tent. I don't blame him for his answer, even when I would warn against the Roman heresy were I in his shoes.

[u/cburns33]

I love Ravi, but he didn't directly answer the question IMO. I go to A&M and attended this lecture. Felt the same way back then.