The whole Faith vs. Works debate really kicked off in 1517, when Martin Luther complained about the Catholic Church charging German peasants money for something called "indulgences." Since then, Protestants will pull this out as a kind of trump card: "The Catholic Church sells salvation through indulgences! That proves it believes in salvation by works!" Greg takes this topic on, explains the myth from the reality, and brings the receipts.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

We've been talking about how salvation is a multi-phase process, not a single event. It involves justification, which is entirely by grace through faith and repentance. It also involves sanctification, the journey towards holiness, maturity in Christ. But what happens if we don't complete that journey by the time we die? Can unholy people stand before a holy God? The Catholic doctrine of purgation (the process) and Purgatory (the state) is a kind of spiritual chemotherapy that burns all the metastic and residual sin out of us so that we can enter heaven having been made clean.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

Greg and Ed discuss their friend Danny, who is going through an extremely difficult experience. Ed realizes that before he began considering Catholicism, he didn't really have a way to make sense of this kind of suffering, but he's begun to see the value in it. Greg explains that Catholicism teaches us that Danny might be closer to the Kingdom of God than either of them.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

Catholicism identifies three categories of sin: original, mortal, and venial. What are the differences? How are they addressed or overcome in salvation? And to which types are our good works applied?

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

Protestants teach that we have "imputed righteousness" because Christ, in a one-time legal transaction, swaps our guilt and debt for his innocence and perfect credit score. Based on the totality of scripture, Catholicism (and all its ancient branches) teaches *infused* righteousness. We are gifted new life planted in us like a see, but we must cooperate with God's grace to cultivate that new life through good works until it bears fruit. Salvation is the totality of that process.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

Greg explains that the "Romans Road," a handful of cherry-picked verses from the first half of Paul's Letter to the Romans, is the interpretive lens for man Protestants. They read the words of Jesus through this limited view of Paul. But when he began reading Paul through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and parables, Catholicism lept of the pages. And the Protestant Romans Road became his Road to Catholic Rome.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

Greg takes the tired old cliche that Catholicism is a works-based religion in which we earn our way to heaven on our own steam by looking at some Bible stories that illustrate the Catholic position.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

This next installment of the Arguing with Protestants series, takes on the tired old cliche that Catholicism is a works-based religion in which we earn our way to heaven on our own steam. In this first installment of a series-within-a-series, he "brings the receipts" on what Scripture and the Catholic Church actually teaches on the issue.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

This is the 300th episode of the podcast, released almost to the day on the third anniversary of the show. Greg explains that so many arguments with Protestants are endless and result in frustration because Protestants play "Proof Text Poker." Catholics make the mistake of trying to play it with them rather than seeing that it's often a trap, a dishonest Protestant tactic.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]

Protestant apologists claim that the Bible is the foundation, the beginning of the Church. Catholicism has always said the Church came first and the Bible arose from and derives its authority from the Church. So, which is it? Greg points out that Protestants make logical errors of conflation and equivocation when they confuse passages about the "Word of God" with the written Bible.

Support this ministry so more people can consider Catholicism!

Website: https://www.consideringcatholicism.com/

Email: [email protected]