Lee Monroe

Check out my current published series if you're interested. No, it's not that type of Infernal, I promise. However, this series is NOT for kids. a.co/d/08AdfpkU

I'll share this earlier when I quoted you and responded. Honestly, the replies you got from Catholics were blowing my mind a little, and I know quite a bit about Catholicism. Here is what I wrote in support: Honestly, this is revealing. I went through the comments and nobody has an actual answer. Just "talk to a priest" and "become Catholic." That isn't the gospel. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas "what must I do to be saved," they didn't say "begin a year long catechesis program." They said "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." Acts 16:31. Full stop. The thief on the cross had no catechesis. No baptism. No sacraments. No priest. Jesus looked at him and said "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43. Today. Not after a process. Not after a timetable. And yes, baptism is in the New Testament. But it always follows belief as an outward declaration of inward faith, not a prerequisite for it. The jailer in Acts 16 believed, and then was baptized that same night. The order matters. The idea that you have to wait a year or more to belong to Christ would have been completely foreign to every apostle who ever preached. Salvation isn't a program you enroll in. It's a person you trust. And the moment you trust Him, you are His.

The “process” Paul explained was confess and believe. The “process” the thief on the cross had was to believe in the savior in front of him. The “process” Peter preached was to repent and believe which is the baptism of the spirit, the cleaning of the soul not the body. The “process” John the baptists Paul proclaimed loudly was repent and believe! Sanctify us by your word Lord, your word is truth! I talk to a priest every single day. Hebrews 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Honestly, this is revealing. I went through the comments and nobody has an actual answer. Just "talk to a priest" and "become Catholic." That isn't the gospel. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas "what must I do to be saved," they didn't say "begin a year long catechesis program." They said "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." Acts 16:31. Full stop. The thief on the cross had no catechesis. No baptism. No sacraments. No priest. Jesus looked at him and said "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43. Today. Not after a process. Not after a timetable. And yes, baptism is in the New Testament. But it always follows belief as an outward declaration of inward faith, not a prerequisite for it. The jailer in Acts 16 believed, and then was baptized that same night. The order matters. The idea that you have to wait a year or more to belong to Christ would have been completely foreign to every apostle who ever preached. Salvation isn't a program you enroll in. It's a person you trust. And the moment you trust Him, you are His.

Let me be clear about what Rome actually teaches, because I want to be precise, and I want to attempt to cut off more "You're misrepresenting," argumentation. Inevitably it won't matter, but I'm going to try. Rome teaches initial justification through baptism. Fine. But from there, maintaining your justified state requires avoiding mortal sin, which means keeping the commandments, attending Mass every Sunday, receiving the Eucharist in a state of grace, going to confession. These aren't suggestions. They are requirements. You wanted proof Rome teaches faith plus works for salvation. Here it is. CCC 1129 says the sacraments are necessary for salvation. Trent Session 6 Canon 24 says the justified truly merit eternal life through works done in grace. Canon 9 anathematizes faith alone. Canon 30 anathematizes any claim to certainty of salvation. Rome calls the mechanism condign merit, which is just a sophisticated way of saying your works earn something without using the word earn. Grace infuses the work, God rewards it, but your cooperation is still part of the ground of your final standing before God. However you dress it up, Paul rules it out in Romans 11:6. When works enter the equation as anything other than fruit, grace ceases to be grace. You cannot split the difference. On James 2, yes, standard move. James is writing to believers and asking one question: how does anyone see your faith? He is not addressing the grounds of justification. Works are the visible fruit of a living faith. Ephesians 2:8-10 makes it plain. Saved by grace through faith, for good works. The works follow salvation, they do not secure it. Here is what Rome is actually offering you. You can never know you are saved. You must keep performing. The best most people can hope for is purgatory. That is not rest in Christ. That is a spiritual gun to your head dressed in incense and tradition. The gospel is better than that. Christ's righteousness covers you completely. You rest in his finished work, not your own performance. God bless you.

@LeeRMonroe @Anevs23 @needGod_net Hi...just a quiet aside ..the Catholic Church does not teach anywhere that Faith plus Works equals Salvation....if it does will you Prove It ??? Thanks

My Catholic priest skit video CAUSED quite the stir! Let's go through some of the comments.

You know, I look at this list and think "this fits me." Then I immediately wonder if I'm being prideful for thinking so. Either way, I know I need Jesus, and nothing in me is good except Him alone. His righteousness clothes me. I play no part in it. I just want to love and obey Him.

These are the characteristics of a person who fears the Lord: • They hate what is evil and love what is good • They obey his commands with a joyful heart • They walk in humility and avoid pride • They seek his will before their own

@needGod_net Matthew 4:4: But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

“Submit to Rome” is never what God tells us to do. Let’s submit to God’s Word. Read it daily, and live by it.

Honestly same. If the gospel was anything other than what it is, I'm not sure I'd be a Christian either. I know what I am. I mess up every single day. If my standing before God depends in any part on me, I'm done. But it doesn't. It's Christ's righteousness that covers me, not mine, and that truth genuinely fills me with love for Him. It's a beautiful message precisely because I bring nothing to it. It does grieve me seeing so many Catholics believing their works factor into it. Though I'll be honest, I'm not always sure they fully believe it themselves. For some maybe that's the real conviction, but for a lot of them I think it's family, community, identity. The church their grandmother was baptized in. That's a hard thing to walk away from. Jesus said He'd bring a sword. We have to choose Him over everything else.

@LeeRMonroe Amen. “It is finished” is so beautiful. It makes no sense why anyone would want to reject that message and think it’s based on my cooperation/works.

Of course you'd go to that. Straight out of the Catholic apologist handbook. Context matters both ways. Paul carries the Abraham argument into verses 23 through 25 and applies it directly to the believer. He's not limiting it to initial justification. He's talking about the basis on which God counts anyone righteous, period. And if initial justification is by faith alone but final justification includes merited works, you still have a gospel where Christ's finished work isn't enough. You just moved the problem down the road. God bless you man, genuinely.

@LeeRMonroe @Canonandcreed @DavidReinker @needGod_net Dude, romans 4 is discussing *becoming* just. In rome this is called initial justification. They dont believe you earn that through works. Youre confusing progressive justification with initial

I'm not going to engage the mockery, so I'll just deal with the argument. Condign merit in Catholic theology means a work that is proportionally worthy of its reward because it is performed in a state of grace through the Holy Spirit. Rome argues this makes the merit valid without it being purely human effort since the grace is infused by God first. Here is the problem. That framework still places the ground of your final justification partly in what you do with that grace. Trent Session 6, Chapter 16 does not say eternal life is granted because of Christ's merits alone applied to you. It says the justified themselves truly merit eternal life through their works done in grace. The mechanism is more sophisticated than raw self-effort, but the result is the same. Your cooperation becomes part of the basis for the verdict, not just evidence of it. That is exactly what Paul rules out in Romans 4 when he says to the one who works the reward is not counted as grace but as debt. And what he rules out in Ephesians 2 when he says salvation is not of works so that no one can boast. Rome's answer is that grace-enabled works are different. Paul's answer is that the categories don't matter. If works enter the ground of justification at all, it is no longer grace.

@LeeRMonroe @Canonandcreed @DavidReinker @needGod_net Are you a bot? You cannot just assert that it doesnt matter, because the concept of condign merit answers your issue witj that canon genius😂

Doesn't change anything. Whether you're Catholic or not, whether the Reformers used the term or not, none of that touches the argument. Trent Session 6, Chapter 16 says the justified truly merit eternal life through their works. That's the text. That's what needs answering. We can talk about who believes what about condign merit all day and it won't move that sentence one inch.

@LeeRMonroe @Canonandcreed @DavidReinker @needGod_net Im not Catholic, the Reformers also believed in Condign merit, and clearly you DONT know what it means 😂😂😂😂

Yeah, and it doesn't matter. Because the argument was never about whether I can define your terms. The argument is whether those terms, as Rome defines them, produce a gospel where Christ's work alone is the ground of your standing before God. Trent says no. Your own council says the justified truly merit eternal life through their works. That's the issue. Defining condign merit more precisely doesn't make that sentence disappear.

@LeeRMonroe @Canonandcreed @DavidReinker @needGod_net Do you know what condign merit is?

That's a deflection. You're moving the conversation to categories and definitions so we never have to deal with what the documents actually say. Canon 24 says good works done in grace genuinely merit eternal life. Session 6, Chapter 16 says the justified "truly merit" eternal life through those works. I'm not reading that through a Protestant lens. Those are just the words on the page. So if the categories somehow change what that means, make that case. Tell me how "truly merit eternal life" doesn't mean what it says. Because right now the category argument is just a way to avoid the text.

@LeeRMonroe @Canonandcreed @DavidReinker @needGod_net Have you read canon 1 of trent? Cause once you do, how do you square your claim? The point were making is you dont understand the categories at play, so youre assigning your own definitions to the concepts they present. Youre committing anachronism by reading your own view

Here's the thing though, even if we spot you every criticism of Ryan's presentation, it doesn't actually touch the argument. The argument isn't "Ryan's interpretation of Catholic theology adds works to the gospel." The argument is that Catholic theology, by its own official documents, adds works to the gospel. Trent Session 6, Canon 24 says good works are meritorious, not merely fruits and signs. Canon 16 anathematizes certainty of salvation. That's not Ryan's reading. That's Rome speaking for itself. So you can spend all day on whether Ryan fully grasps the distinction between condign and congruent merit, but at the end of that conversation you still have a magisterium that says your cooperation with grace contributes to your final justification. However you want to frame that theologically, it doesn't square with what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:8-9 or Romans 4. The "you don't understand us" move is a deflection. It shifts the conversation away from "is Rome's teaching biblical" and toward "is this Protestant educated enough to criticize us." Those aren't the same question. And it works precisely because it changes the subject. Engage the canons. If Trent doesn't mean what it says, make that case. But that's the argument that needs answering, not Ryan's presentation style.

1. I did in the comment. He completely caricatured their “interpretation” of Ephesians 2:8-10. In the most surface level silly way that no one should take serious. That isn’t how you meaningfully engage their view. 2. To do a valid internal critique you must understand what your opponent means by the terms they use. Ryan has demonstrated REPEATEDLY to not understand what the Roman Catholic model means when it uses certain terms. The evidence of this is that you don’t find the Reformers, for example, arguing like he does. At this bare surface level that fails to understand these issues are more complex than soundbites and proof texts. For example — Ryan is in record repeatedly collapsing all of “salvation” into “justification.” So he thinks if you say in ANY way that works are “necessary for salvation” you are saying it is a wage that must be earned. He literally says this in the follow up video we are commenting under. This is absolutely false and shows he doesn’t understand their distinguishing of merits being twofold. Not all merit is a “wage” but is God binding himself to his own promises. And he has promised if believes do good, they will receive rewards. The issue historically was what is the GROUNDS of those rewards and the role they play. But you have to go deeper than his surface level analysis to see this and get to the real issue. 3. You can’t understand Trent or the CCC if you do not understand this because you won’t actually understand what they are saying and what the actual issues are. Instead you get his comically bad representation which only gives them canon fodder to say stuff like “See Protestants don’t even know what we believe.” And they’re totally justified in saying that because very often it’s true.

@Anevs23 @needGod_net I will continue to pray for you and all Catholics, that you find rest in Christ and turnaway from believing works get you to heaven. God bless you!

@LeeRMonroe @needGod_net All it does is light my fire even stronger, Catholic and proud. Christ did pay for our sins, now it’s our calling to follow his commandments.

I'd be tempted to keep it. If I had come across this two years ago, I certainly would have. Now though, I'd see if there is a contact number. If there wasn't, I would turn it into the police station, and ask that my name be kept out of it. But yes, I won't lie, I'd certainly feel tempted, but I have more of a desire to honor and love God. That money could be someone's entire savings. I don't know.

If you’re a Christian and walked up on this, what’s your next move?

Christ alone saves. Not your works. Not your participation. Just Christ. All you need is simple faith the size of a mustard seed.

@SDDonovan Just finished a chapter before Church. Polishing it up now xD

Happy Easter everyone! Will you be writing today or a little too busy?

He is not here. He is Risen!!

No repentance for how you've spoken. Just more insults and a dismissal. I mean this with as much respect as I can manage before I mute you. You need to seriously consider how you approach people, because if this is how you engage others, you won't be taken seriously. And I find it genuinely ironic that you mocked the length of what I wrote while insulting my intelligence in the same breath. Learn what your Church teaches about conduct. I genuinely hope you bring this to confession before your next Eucharist. I say that by your own system's standard, not mine. I'm praying for you, as I do for all Catholics. God bless.

@LeeRMonroe @farmingandJesus This all started with me saying “Submit to Rome” which is an invitation to join the church. Your essay is void. Happy Easter.

I take back all I said. Go after all of them with the word of God. Every last one of them. James 4:7-10 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.