John,
When the gospel came to me, I had been teaching a 5th
grade CCD class with my wife.
The 5th
grade year was on the seven sacraments & how to pray
the rosary.
The man
mentoring me on my job, was also witnessing to me, and he
was always quoting scriptures.
I wanted so much
to beat him at his own game, and to prove to him, from his
Bible, that transubstantiation was right.
I went to our
parish pastor/priest, to ask if I could read the King
James Bible.
When I had
attended Campion Jesuit High School, we were taught by the
Jesuits, that the King James Bible was on the banned book
list.
However, they
also taught us so much about the Reformation, that we
would be ready to refute the Protestants.
He said to go
ahead, so every time I was on a cigarette break, I brought
out this little pocket sized King James.
What I was
searching for, was anything that I could find on the blood
of Jesus, since I wanted to refute this guy.
Well, so what do
figure happens, when a lost person begins searching the
scriptures for the blood of Christ?
I started
getting so major league convicted, it wasn’t funny.
In my pride,
however, I wasn’t going to let this guy know that.
After a few
months of intense, daily witnessing to me, and me
resisting with all I had, he finally was going to give me
the last call.
He said, “Gino,
I’m not going to bother you ever again about this, so I’ll
just ask you this very last time, where are you going when
you die?”
I started giving
him the standard, “Well I think so, I hope, only Jesus
knows, etc”.
He said, “Gino,
I know you’ve been reading that Bible every chance that
you get, so therefore you know for sure where you are
going when you die”.
Well, I wasn’t
going to let him know, that I was convicted that I was
going to hell for sure.
So, in my pride,
I stormed out of there, armed with his promise that he
would never bring it up again.
As I drove away,
and got on the inbound Kennedy, I got stuck in
bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic.
It was right
then & there, that I began wrestling with the LORD
over the gospel.
That was the
very afternoon that I repented from the queen of heaven,
turned to Jesus, and trusted him as my Savior.
I call her the
queen of heaven, rather than Mary, because the Mary of the
scriptures would never receive worship & prayers.
Also, Mary is
only a human being, incapable of hearing millions of
prayers simultaneously.
No, Rome’s false
doctrine elevated the name of Mary to the status of a
goddess, with omniscience, that only the LORD would have.
Job 5:1
Call now, if
there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the
saints wilt thou turn?
So I figured,
who would receive adoration & allow people to pray to
them, and to believe false doctrine contrary to the
scriptures?
Certainly not
the Mary of the scriptures, but clearly the work of a
fallen celestial creature.
Since there were
a number of places in the Chicagoland area, honoring
someone called the queen of heaven,
and since the queen of heaven was a real, fallen,
spiritual being, that that Jews were rebuked for
worshipping, in two chapters of Jeremiah,
I figured that it may be that same fallen being, so that
is why I began calling her the queen of heaven, instead.
Right away, I
got rid of
all my graven images, including crucifixes,
the manger scene for under the tree & the goddess of
liberty replica I got from a trip to New York.
(I know Baptists that preach hard against graven images,
like of Mary & Joseph, except when those images are
under their tree, for some reason that’s ok?)
I realized that
the teaching of the sacraments was wrong:
Baby baptism doesn’t put anyone into the kingdom, there is
no repentance & faith in Jesus on the part of the
infant
Confession to the priest - Jesus is the Savior, his blood
takes away our sins, but going to the priest is the
opposite of both;
also, the doctrine of Penance, completely is against the
gospel of grace & the blood atonement
Transubstantiation of the communion - takes away from the
eternal & spiritual receiving Christ by faith into our
hearts,
into a temporary & physical receiving Christ by eating
into our stomachs
Confirmation - confirm what? That they never had been
saved by grace through faith in the first place?
Holy Orders - forbidding to marry, contrary to the
scriptures, like where the bishop is to be the husband of
one wife
Matrimony - that they haven’t really messed with, except
for calling it a sacrament
Extreme Unction / Last Rites – worst of them all, bypasses
the cross, bypasses salvation by grace through faith, and
takes salvation out of the hand of Jesus
However, I was
so upset with church of Rome, for not only deceiving my
family & friends, as well as me,
but especially
for those I knew who died lost, clutching to idolatry
& false doctrine, as they breathed their last breath.
Therefore I
initially became quite confrontational, even when trying
to witness.
Particularly
after someone talked me into reading Hislop’s Two
Babylons, then I went ballistic, like a Rambo evangelist.
I even went to
preach in front of Holy Name Cathedral, where the cardinal
is, every Christmas eve & Good Friday.
I would preach
out loud, against all these things, in front of all those
people.
Well, to say the
least, I was not very fruitful in winning Catholics to
Jesus.
All I did was
hurt & offend them, helping their hearts to harden,
and driving them deeper into depths of the doctrines of
Rome.
Did I help the
kingdom of God by being like that.
I don’t think
so.
I think that I
may have done a lot of damage.
I still believe
the same way about all the false doctrines of the church
of Rome.
However, I’m no
longer using kung-fu evangelism techniques, when
witnessing to Roman Catholics.
Now, I try to
only tell people about Jesus, and let the Holy Ghost deal
with their sins & false doctrines - which has been far
more fruitful.
Gino