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Tony’s Story:

When Ron lived in the Philippines, he became good friends with a man named Tony who was raised in Italy. He was ordained by the Pope and sent to the Philippines as president of the Catholic University there.

Tony has his Ph.D. in Catholic Dogma and speaks nine languages fluently. But in 1975 something unusual happened. Tony was saying Mass for a group of nuns in a convent north of Manila. As he drove out the gate of the convent to go back to his rectory in Manila, he noticed a little Protestant Baptist church across the street. He had never been in a Protestant church in his whole life, having been raised in Italy. Curiosity got the better of him, so he walked into this little Baptist church. The pastor recognized him and they got to talking.

Then the pastor challenged Tony to simply read the Word of God. Tony said later:

“Here I was, a Catholic scholar, and if you’ve gone through Catholic catechism, you know that Catholic Dogma says the Bible is the inspired Word of God, so it wouldn’t hurt me to read it.”

He began to read the Word of God for the next six months. The Word so convicted him that he got down on his knees and asked Jesus Christ to be his personal Lord and Savior. But at that point he had a real problem, because as he continued to study he realized that he would have to go back to Italy and tell the Pope he could no longer remain in the Catholic Church, since it was not consistent with what God had revealed in the Bible.

But his biggest problem was having to go home and tell his Italian mother that he was leaving the priesthood. Yet Tony is now back in the Philippines as a Baptist missionary, in the same place where he was once the president of the Catholic University!

Tony, the Catholic scholar who found Christ, tells people he feels as Paul felt when he wrote Romans 10:1-3. He tells them:

“I pray for their salvation because they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For they are seeking a righteousness of their own apart from Jesus Christ.

As a Catholic, I had a zeal for God. If you know any Roman Catholics, some of them are the most zealous religious people you’ll ever meet. They are working so hard to get God to like them.

I believed in the trinity, I believed in the deity of Jesus Christ, I believed in the Virgin Birth, I believed in the atonement and bodily resurrection. I even taught all those things. But when it came to my salvation, I was trusting my salvation to the Church and to the Mass, to Mary, and to the saints. I was putting my trust in everything but Jesus Christ.

When I came to realize that there is only one Mediator between God and man, and that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life, it was a light bulb that finally came on inside me. All of a sudden everything else made sense. The greatest joy in all the world was when I finally stepped out of that bondage of tradition that has been piled on, and discovered the joy and the peace of knowing Jesus Christ personally.”

Quoted from: FAST FACTS ON FALSE TEACHINGS Copyright 1994 by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 Used by Permission. Not to be reproduced.

Wow! This testimony (along with many others) goes to show you that there is a real difference between what the Roman Catholic church teaches and what the Word of God teaches.

In the Gospel of John chapter 19 verse 30 the words of Jesus are recorded for us where He stated from the cross, “It is finished!” This means the whole work of salvation—the purpose for which He came into the world—was accomplished for those who would humbly recognize their sinfulness (in thought, word, and deed) and acknowledge their need for the Savior.

You see, there is nothing in and of ourselves that we can do to be holy and righteous enough to enter heaven once we pass through the door of death. The Bible declares, “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). In Acts 17:30-31, the Apostle Paul reasoned with the Greek philosophers saying, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness.”

In order for you to be truly and soundly saved, you MUST turn from your sins and put your trust in Christ ALONE. Tony was blind, but now he is saved.

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