Why do Protestants hate Catholics so much? Let's talk about it on this edition of Key Life. I am Mike Kellogg and you are now listening to Key Life, where you can find honest answers to honest questions about God's Word. Now, here is Steve. Thanks, Mike. My pastor, Pete Owenson, he is in to help with these questions, Pete. I appreciate you doing this more than I can tell you, and I know that takes a lot of time. There is nobody on the face of the year of busier than a faithful pastor. That's true. And your best qualities, your humanity. Yeah. But no, you're right. I just want to affirm when you're right. What if I said there's nobody more pure than a pastor? I would have sneezed or calmed or something. But I do appreciate your kind of thing. And we love to get your questions. We answer them on Wednesdays and on Fridays when Pete comes in with me. And you always get an answer from me, or a staff person, when you write a question out, or on the broadcaster in the magazine, send them to Key Life Post Office Box 5,000. Made in Florida, 32794, or Key Life Canada Post Office Box 32150, Cambridge, Ontario, in 3H5N3, or you can email us, Steve at keylife.org with your regular mailing address. And don't use the 1-800-keylife number to ask questions. You can get a lot of neat, free stuff by calling that number. Or you can make a contribution, but you've got to write your questions down. Well, that's all I wanted to say. Honestly, this is a prayer, and we'll turn to some of these questions. Father, thank you that we can laugh in your presence as we are reverent to. We can laugh only because you are sovereign and because you are good and because you're the father who sent his son for us. Lord, we feel loved in Christ. We feel accepted. We know you're not angry at us, and we're grateful that we can relax in you and not take ourselves so seriously because we take you more serious. And we honor you. We praise you. We thank you for your grace and look forward to worshipping this weekend with your people. Getting away from our self-focus and getting our attention on you. All that you are and what you've done. Be with our leaders to call us out, Father, away from ourselves. And out of our own pettiness and our own little lives and even our trials to look at the greatness of the living God. Be with our priests and pastors and teachers, pastoral families, the kids, as well as the wives, Lord, as they stand up for you and very vulnerable but in very important positions. Encourage them and lead them and us through them. And now, Lord, we just give you this time and ask that we be able to grow some, as we answer some questions, we pray your spirit, we guide the discussion and the thinking that goes on in our minds for we pray in Christ's name. Amen. I mean, Pete, this is from Indiana. Why do Protestants hate Catholics so much? And we could reverse this. But we could say why do Catholics hate Protestants so much? Because you served in New England and I was in Boston for 100 years. And I remember the owner of the radio station where I did a morning show came in one time after the Vatican Council under Pope John when somebody changes took place. And he pulled up a chair and I never even met him. And I thought, whoa, and I thought he's going to fire me. And he said, Steve, I just want to get to know you. I felt before because you were Protestant that I couldn't even talk to you. And he said, but there have been some changes and I want to get to know you. And so, you know, this goes both ways. I mean, there used to be, let's kill a Catholic for Jesus or let's kill a Protestant for Jesus. And there's still places in the world where that kind of thing goes on. Yeah, yeah. In the city I was in New England, we were definitely the minority. So it goes both ways. Yeah. Why do Protestants hate Catholics? I think sometimes in the fervency of faith and the differences in theology, they think it's more spiritual to be mean and to shun a Catholic. And would go back the other way. Fill back the other way. You know, it really is sin too. I think there's a sense in which self-righteousness plays a part here. When we are not at the end of ourselves, we like to be right and show other people where they're wrong. And that's my proclivity. And yours too, by the way, because we're teachers. And the downside that I struggle with all of my life as a teacher is to correct all era. You know, when people say dumb things, I want to say that's the dumbest thing. You don't have the brains of a peanut. Let me show you where you're wrong. And boy, the Holy Spirit. That's not the fruit of the Spirit for either Catholics or Protestants. Yeah. And in the body of Christ, I think we need to listen to each other. And certainly there are some rather profound differences between Protestant and Catholic. We would not, neither you or I would say that the differences are not worth discussing. Oh, they're huge. But to hate someone who claims to be a Christian is wrong. Is wrong. And we find, I find the more I dialogue with certain Catholics that we have a lot more in common. Not more in common. You know, you and I think both talked about this in New England. I had more in common with the Catholic priests than the liberal Protestants. And I got serious with God. And I was looking for fellowship. You know, my liberal brother down the street didn't believe anything. Yeah. And then this priest you were talking about who led more people to Christ using the four spiritual laws than all the Protestant ministers put together. And I don't know what your category is, man. You know, you talk about differences. I remember one cold snowy night. You know, there used to be the ecumenical movement. Was it big? Yeah. You ever arrange the Corp. You're bringing the Regerex. But everybody was being nice to everybody. For the first time we were speaking. So we had a Catholic priest and a bunch of over to our church for an ecumenical conversation. And Dr. John Stanton, who's now in heaven, is we were all making nice. We were saying nice things. And we had dinner together with the local Catholic church and everybody was being kind. And Dr. Stanton, I'll never forget, said, wait. There's some things I've been meaning to say for a long time that really bothers me about you Catholics. And we're not saying them. I want to say them. And I went, oh man, this thing's there on the tube. And so he began to list doctrines. He had problems with, we had the healthiest conversation. I mean, it was so good. I can tell you, so we've got to be real people. But we can do it without hating each other. That's exactly, I think that God is bigger than all this. And we don't have to be afraid of dialogue. What's true is true. And they don't have it all. And we don't either. And we need to be able to talk about profound difference. I read a Catholic theology about five years ago that was amazing in its biblical base. And that many Protestants would say they're in agreement with most of that book. And so Catholicism is not monolithic. Don't hate out of fear. It's time for dialogue. We have a culture that's fallen apart around us. And you, Catholics, same thing to you. Yeah, that's true. Let's do this because we have some good things to say. Let's see. What is, this is North Carolina. What is a Christophany? Say what? What is Christophany? An appearance of Christ, usually in an Old Testament sense, when they read in the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord or in certain contexts, it seems like... Hmm, this is a little bit... The king of Salem would be one with... Right, Melchizedek, right? Right, right, right. So, usually a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. But scholars aren't all agreed. Are they about which is and which isn't? That's true. I have a friend, John Neff, who's done a major study at that kind of thing. Of angels and what he thinks is a Christophany. It's a fun kind of thing to think about, because Jesus isn't just extant in the first century. That's right. Jesus is pre-existent, eternal, and to think that he wasn't doing anything except twiddling his thumbs throughout all of eternity past is simply simplistic. That's... I love it. It's part of the mystery of the Godhead. Good. This is an email. Is there... This is an honest question, and I get this a lot. Is there a difference between the God of righteousness and wrath and the Old Testament and the God of love and the New Testament they seem to contradict? What's your initial response? Well, no, they don't contradict. You know, one of the early heresies, and I forget the technical name for it, was right at this point, there were two gods. One in the Old Testament that was wrathful and judgmental and one in the New Testament, and that's not true. You have to see that the Old Testament is incomplete without the New Testament, because the New Testament gives us the rest of the story. That's right. But the New Testament, we were in a faculty meeting today at the seminary, and the New Testament professor made us slightly get your comment to the Old Testament professor by saying, well, you have to read the New Testament just to get to the good stuff. And then the Old Testament professor said, well, the New Testament is God's addendum to his book. It's the same God. It is. It is. Two-thirds of the Bible is the Old Testament. And what always astounds me when I read the judges and when I read the prophets is how for bearing and patient got really well. You know, the stuff that the Israelites were into, and he was patient, and then he'd forget it over and over. And his grace is as evident in the Old Testament. As it is in the New, it's just looking forward to the cross. And when you get to the New Testament, you understand why. Yeah. And you know, somebody has said, I have said it a lot, and I've said it so often that I've been quoted as saying it, but I stole it from somebody. I just don't know who. But the greatest, some of the highest teaching about love is in the Old Testament. Oh yeah. You read Hosea 11. Yeah. How can I give you up, OE, Freedom? How can I treat you like Adma, like a mother with a child, and then you'll repassue to the great judgment at the end of which God will say, oh, but I, but I reach out to you and I love you. And then the demonstration of God's awesome rant, the premiere demonstration of God's wrath is in the New Testament on the cross. Yeah, that's true. And then you can't read Revelation without seeing the very wrath of God that's coming. So that's a false dichotomy that there are two gods, and these different and the old and the isn't the new. And you have to think about it. And Christians need to love God not only with all their hearts, but with all their minds. And we need to look at the Bible as a unified book. And this is not a put down of the person who asked the question, because if you're just getting into it and you're reading it, it does look, you go, whoa, that didn't sound like Jesus. Well, and this is a very commonly made statement about the bi-critics of the Bible. This said all the time. So it's, you have to deal with it. Well, we're about our time. And this is an appropriate, just yes or no, and quit comment because we've got about 10 seconds. Right? From Estinemial High Importance Church of 10th. Greatly important to you. And five, and two. And five, and two. You've got to come for the offering. No, Hebrews 10 says, don't forsake getting again. I mean, that's one of the ways we endure. We're out of here because we're out of time. You'll come in next Friday. I'll see you. Appreciate it, man. One other thing before I go, is a listener-supported production of TYF Network.