We are hearing encouraging reports of a kind of quiet revival that is spreading throughout the West. There appears to be a small but noticeable interest in the Christian faith by groups that, until recently, had eschewed it. Some had knowingly rejected Christianity in favor of atheism or secularism while others had simply never heard its claims. Regardless, many churches are reporting the sudden presence of young people who are considering faith for the first time in their lives—the very young people who, until recently, were firmly within the camp of the “nones” (those who have no formal religious affiliation).
I have no reason to doubt this is true and, in fact, my own church has all kinds of members who, by rights, should have no interest in the Christian faith. Yet if there is one aspect of this quiet revival that concerns me, it is that many people are conflating an influx into Protestant churches and an influx into Catholic churches, as if both are a positive development. This concerns me because the Catholic Church proclaims a gospel that is not only different from a Protestant church but formally opposed to it. It’s possible that Satan may be staging a quiet revival of his own and in his typical devilish fashion, he is not only calling evil good but convincing others of it as well.
The fact is, a person who leaves atheism for Catholicism may have come no closer to the truth. He may have come closer to admitting his need for religion, yet remained the same distance from the only religion that can actually save him. In fact, he may have gotten farther from salvation, for while atheism repudiates any need for a gospel at all, Catholicism affirms its necessity but then obscures the true gospel behind a false one. Atheism blasphemes God by denying his existence while Catholicism blasphemes God by adding the necessity of works to faith and anathematizing those who proclaim that salvation can come solely by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We should be no more encouraged to see people being “revived” into the Roman Catholic Church than into Mormonism or straight back into atheism. There are many roads to hell and more often than not they pass through churches, faiths, and creeds rather than bypassing them altogether.
There are many roads to hell and more often than not they pass through churches, faiths, and creeds
Again, I have little doubt that God is up to something these days. I have seen evidence that he is quietly turning to himself the very people who may seem least likely to have an interest in the Christian faith. I’m encouraged! Yet I am also concerned that some Christians may be injudiciously cheering the fact that people are being revived from apathy or atheism into a religion that leads them to hell all the same. For that reason, I encourage Christians to exercise wisdom when it comes to identifying evidence of God’s work and wisdom when it comes to celebrating it.
