Matt.15:14
“They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind shall lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”
Calvary Ministries to Catholics was organized for a threefold purpose:
1) EVANGELIZING THE LOST AND ESPECIALLY ROMAN CATHOLICS.
2) EXPOSING THE DOCTRINAL ERRORS AND FALSE TEACHINGS OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
3) EDUCATING BIBLE BELIEVING CHRISTIANS TO BE EFFECTIVE WITNESSES TO THE LOST AND ESPECIALLY ROMAN CATHOLICS.
We believe that the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice. We further believe that the Bible expressly condemns traditions and doctrines of men. (Matt. 15:3,9; Mk. 7:7-8; Col. 2:8; Titus 1:15)
I certainly do not mean any disrespect to any of the Catholics on this site by my next statement. I would never ever consider coming back to Rome. In the fifty-one years since the Lord Jesus saved my wretched soul, He has done so much for me that I could never even begin to explain it. I did not deserve anything but hell, but God had mercy on me. I have given my life whatever is left of it to serve Him. I love the Lord more than life itself. In fact, I would rather die a martyr’s death than return to the Catholic system.
I was born into a Catholic home. I was baptized into the Catholic faith as a baby. I attended Catholic grade school at St. Bernard’s Parish in Peoria, Illinois. My mom and dad were poor and therefore I had to go to public high school because they did not have the money to send me to Catholic high school. I went to my first confession, my first communion and received confirmation all at St. Bernard’s Parish. I was an altar boy in the sixth and seventh grades and one of the head altar boys in the eighth grade. I was a faithful Catholic and I believed everything that I was taught by the nuns and the priests. I had no reason not to. I attended Catholic Catechism classes while in high school. I was a faithful and militant Catholic and no one can convince me otherwise. In spite of what Catholics may say or think, I was indeed properly catechized. In fact, I faithfully attended catechism classes all during high school and even memorized parts of the catechism.
However, even back in the 60’s, teenagers were bad just as many are even today. As a teenager, I often disappointed my mom and dad with the some of the things I said and did. I would go to confession and confess my sins on a regular basis. I really believed that the priests had the power to absolve me of my sins in Jesus’ name. I would faithfully say and do all the prescribed penances. However, deep down in my heart, I always felt that I had never done enough. I had a deep felt feeling of guilt. I would often go my parish priests and try to explain this feeling of guilt. I was always told that I had not done enough. I was told that I needed more faith. I was told to say more rosaries and perform more works of charity.
The older I got and the more deeply I got involved in sin, the more profound this feeling of guilt became. When I entered the Army in 1967, I was a wretched sinner. I would still go to confession to various Army chaplain priests and still firmly believed that they were able to absolve me of my sins in Jesus’ name. The last time that I ever went to confession was to a chaplain priest in Heidelberg, Germany. After I said my penance, I asked if I could speak to him for a moment. Once again, I tried to explain to him the deep feelings of guilt and received the same basic answer that I need to do more. That day, I decided that I would just live a life of pleasure and sin. When I was discharged from the Army in November 1970, I was an alcoholic at the age of twenty-four.
Some friends of mine that I worked with kept inviting me to visit their Baptist church. Finally, I thought that if I visited the church one time with them, they would leave me alone. I finally agreed to go with them. For the first time in my life on September 5, 1971, I heard the true Apostolic Gospel proclaimed that salvation was not in a church. Salvation was in Christ and in Him alone. Salvation was not about religion; rather about a personal relationship with Christ. I heard for the first time in my life that salvation was by grace through faith alone. I realized that there was nothing that I could do to inherit eternal life. Christ had done it all for me and I had to only believe. Needless to say, that next week was the most terrible week in my entire life. I realized that if I were to die, I would spend eternity in hell. On the next Sunday, September 12, 1971, I once again went to that same Baptist church and once again heard the true Apostolic Gospel that salvation was in Christ and in Him alone. On that day, I responded to the Gospel. By grace through faith alone I believed that Jesus Christ would forgive me my sins. At the very moment that I asked Him to forgive me and to be my Savior, He did. At that very moment, all the feeling of guilt was instantly gone.
I merely took God at His word and put my faith in Christ and in Him alone. On September 12, 1971, I received eternal life. So, that brings me back to my first statement. The Lord Jesus Christ means more to me than life itself. No, I am not perfect, just a wretched sinner saved by God’s marvelous grace, and no one can ever convince me that I will not go immediately to heaven when my life on this earth is over. No, I don’t deserve to go to heaven, but I know that I know that I know I will go immediately to heaven when my life on this earth is over. I am kept by the power of the Lord (Jude 24). The Lord did the saving, and he does the keeping.
It was only then, as I began to study God’s Word on my own and grow in the Lord, that I began to realize that much of what I had been taught growing up in the Catholic Church was just not in the Bible. The more I learned about the Bible, the more I began to realize that what the Bible taught was vastly different than what the Catholic Church taught. The more I compared the various catechisms with each other and placed them beside the Bible, it became quite apparent to me that most of the doctrines, dogmas and teachings of Catholicism just don’t line up well with what is clearly taught in Scripture. I found that Catholicism generally will pull one or two verses completely out of their context to try to prove their position. They fail to realize that scripture always reaffirms scripture.
The Lord called me into the ministry in 1973 and I had the opportunity of attending Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC where I earned degrees in Bible, Theology, and Church History. It was during my years studying for the ministry that I more fully learned of the great apostasy in Catholicism. There are truly vast doctrinal differences between true Biblical Christianity and Catholicism. To answer the plea that our Catholic friends will make for me to come back home, I am home and have been for fifty-one years. The Lord has been so good to me these last fifty-one years. I have been involved in many exciting ministries over the years. I have served as an assistant pastor in several churches. I have been the supply pastor in another church and have served as an interim pastor in another. These were all part time ministries, and I worked a public job. The Lord began dealing with me in 2005 about fulltime ministry. I took early retirement from my public job on April 14, 2006, and trusted the Lord to direct me to the fulltime ministry that he wanted me in. He opened the door for me to join the staff of The Conversion Center, Inc. where I ministered under the leadership of Dr. Edwin G. Moore.
At the definite leading of the Lord, I resigned from The Conversion Center in May of 2008 and started this new ministry, Calvary Ministries To Catholics. These are exciting times, and I am looking forward to the Lord opening new areas for this ministry. As he continues to direct my paths, it is my sincere desire to share the precious truths of God’s Holy Word with as many precious Roman Catholics as I can. More than anything else in the world, I would like for Roman Catholics to “know the truth and have the truth make them free.”
The Lord has burdened my heart to reach all our Catholic friends with the true apostolic gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone. The Lord has opened the door for us to have a radio ministry and we are on stations across the country and around the world sharing the true Gospel with our Catholic friends. In this radio ministry, Calvary Ministries Radio Broadcast, we look at the various Catholic doctrines and examine them in light of the Scriptures. We have seen Catholics come to a true saving knowledge of Christ because of this radio ministry and we thank the Lord for every Catholic who responds to the Gospel.
May I share some simple truths from the Scriptures that could change your life for all eternity.
1. I MUST REALIZE THAT GOD ALONE CAN FORGIVE SINS:
1 Timothy 2:5
“For there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Mark 2:7
“Who can forgive sins but God only?”
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
2. I MUST ADMIT MY SINFUL (LOST) CONDITION:
Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
3. I MUST RECOGNIZE THE PENALTY FOR REMAINING LOST:
Romans 6:23
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
4. I MUST REALIZE THAT SALVATION CANNOT BE OBTAINED EITHER BY GOOD WORKS OR THROUGH A CHURCH:
Titus 3:5,6
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”
5. I MUST BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST ALONE PAID THE PENALTY FOR MY SINS ON THE CROSS:
Romans 5:8
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
6. I MUST TRUST JESUS CHRIST BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH ALONE TO SAVE ME AND GIVE ME ETERNAL LIFE:
Ephesians 2:8,9
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Romans 10:9,13
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
I AM AVAILABLE TO SHARE OUR MINISTRY; TO CONDUCT TRAINING SEMINARS ON ROMAN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE; TO HOLD BIBLE CONFERENCES; TO TRAIN BIBLE BELIEVING CHRISTIANS TO BE EFFECTIVE WITNESSES TO THE LOST AND ESPECIALLY ROMAN CATHOLICS; AND FOR REVIVAL MEETINGS.
Contact us and we will add you to our schedule.
thomas6703@bellsouth.net