The Catholic church, like any church, saves no one. The only thing that saves is having a relationship with Jesus Christ; and in my experience God is not a respecter of churches. I don’t believe He has a checklist, and that people will be cast into the lake of fire because they did or did not believe, for example, that instrumental music in worship was forbidden. I believe God looks for the heart that loves Him, does not fault man for ignorance and Himself instructs such a one over time, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

I have seen myself that Catholic worship is not offensive to God; it is one of the most profound encounters with God in my nearly 70 years. It was 50 years ago, and I was part of a small, Bible-believing house church with fundamentalist roots – so, not what you would call sympathetic to Catholicism. For reasons that aren’t relevant here, I had made my first visit to a Catholic Mass and found what I saw interesting; so, I continued to go on Saturday nights, while still attending my church on Sundays.

After doing this for awhile, one Saturday evening, I began having definite negative feelings because of all the statues. After all, I had been brought up to believe this was idolatry, as, perhaps, you also believe. The longer I stayed, the worse I felt, until I finally decided that this was displeasing to God and that I should leave and never return.

However, I reached this conclusion just as the Eucharistic celebration was beginning; and, since it is the focal point and most sacred part of the Mass, I thought it would be rude of me to leave until it was over. So, I stayed. The priest prayed over the bread and wine … and I felt the Spirit of God descend on the church.

I was flabbergasted.

It was clear to me, at that point, that Catholic worship was acceptable to God, and that my negative feelings had not been from Him. But what happened a week or two later added an exclamation point or two.

I did not share my experience with others at my church; I didn’t think they would be receptive. There was a man at my church who was ex-Catholic and very strongly so. He often had negative things to say about the Catholic church. Everyone was standing around after the Sunday morning service and chatting; and I happened to be standing near him as he was telling a few other people about an experience he had had recently. He said that he had gone to this Catholic church (same one, in fact), had been looking around at all the “deceived” people, etc.; and then the Eucharistic celebration began, and he felt the Spirit of God descend on the church.

If that isn’t confirmation, I don’t know what is.

So, I would suggest that you may find brothers and sisters in Christ in strange places. Please be open to the Spirit of God to bear witness as to who is and who isn’t of Him.