Welcome to Contrast. Richard Bennett, converted Catholic priest, now evangelist, presents Contrast. Your comments and questions will be greatly appreciated. Permission is given to record and copy the entire message. And now, here is Richard Bennett. You have your Bible there just turned to Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 4. That's the letter of Paul to the Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherein he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace are ye saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding richness of His grace and His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath beforehand ordained that we should walk in them. Praise God for his wonderful word. Now why I read Ephesians 2 is that that was chapter 2 and chapter 1 of Ephesians was after a serious accident I had in 1972 in Trinidad. I began reading Ephesians 1 and 2. when I had recovered from the serious accident and I would read it sometimes twenty times a day besides other portions but it was these two chapters I would read again and again and again I had been a priest for nine years at the time when I slit the back of my head and damaged my back spine falling down somebody's steps at their home I was three days unconscious. I was the closest thing to death that you could imagine, like a hair's breadth away from death. And when I did regain consciousness, It took six months afterwards for me to gain equilibrium because it damaged my whole nervous system on my back. Besides the other physical ailments I had, I was mentally disturbed. So it was a traumatic near-death experience in 1972. I had always been a devout Catholic priest. I used to boast that I had never committed a mortal sin, a serious sin in my life. and I took joy in serving people in the different parishes where I worked But my agony was, where would I have gone had I died? Because I didn't have a peace and assurance. I began then, about six months after that accident, I began studying the scriptures, and particularly Ephesians 1 and 2. I would read, of course, Isaiah 53, Romans 3 and 4 and 5 and other parts and I kept reading many parts of the scriptures but particularly Ephesians kept coming back to these two chapters trying to see how could I be right before God and have an assurance that what Paul keeps mentioning about being in Him, in the beloved, accepted in the beloved how could I be that? And so then I began a 14 year search as a priest into the scriptures. That is the turning point as it were in my life. I'd like to go back to the beginning. I grew up speaking correct English, not American, in Ireland and the course had it perfected later on with Binghamtony. I learned how to speak Trinidadian, but not American. I grew up in Ireland and it was a nice family, very Catholic. We prayed to Mary every evening. We had the rosary, we knelt down, we said the five mysteries of the rosary, my father and mother kneeling down with us. We always prayed to Mary and prayed to the saints. I was always praying to Anthony. You know, Saint Anthony, when you lose things. And we always had saints for different things. And we were highly devout. My father was a military man and quite distant. A good father, but distant. He never took me in his arms only once I remember sitting on my father's lap. But he was not bad to me but he was sort of distant and then later on he got tuberculosis and wasn't in the family home. And I had six sisters and felt very alone for male companionship. But I was devout going to confession. I learned from a little boy to do penances. I would suffer going without chocolate and sweets. And then about 1947 Coca-Cola came. to Ireland from the United States and in length I wouldn't take Coca-Cola and you know I would I would try to be good I was making myself good by being a good Catholic boy always wanted to be good always tried to do what was right as a young boy. I was trained with the Jesuits and they trained you highly. I could defend Catholicism when I was ten years old. I could give you all every reasons why a person should be Catholic. When I finished secondary school I decided to be a priest because I thought that in becoming a priest and going into a monastery or a priory I would be more certain to be good, to do penance, to suffer, and so that one day I could go to purgatory and then into heaven. I memorized what the Pope said, I don't know if those of you who are older remember Pius XII at the end of World War II, a very gaunt, thin man. He had said in his famous letter called the Mystical Body of Christ, these are the exact words, I memorized them, I still know them by heart. Great mystery, distant source of unending contemplation, that's the salvation of many. should depend on the prayers and sacrifices of the members of the mystical body of Christ offered for this intention. So that if you offered your prayers and your sufferings that souls could be saved. So I was intent that I would suffer more so that I could be saved myself. And highly dyed into my brain were the words of What Mary was supposed to have said at Fatima, that many souls go to hell because there's nobody to pray or do penance for them. I couldn't think of souls going to hell because people wouldn't suffer. So I wanted to suffer. and suffer a lot so I studied different catalogues of different orders and I decided that the strictest one and the one that mentioned Jesus most of all was the Dominican order so I went into the Dominicans I went into the Dominican Priory and studied, I was going to study for 8 years altogether with them. Before going into the Priory and later on the Dominican Seminary, I bought a Bible. It cost me three pounds sterling. I thought that we were going to study the Bible in the bishop's year and in the seminary. We weren't forbidden of course to study the Bible, there are parts of the Bible in the mass and in the office, but we did not study the Bible as such. I did so good at the studies that those who did exceptionally well got promoted to go to Rome. When I was promoted to go to Rome and I went and studied at the Angelicum University, which is not in the Vatican, it's outside the Vatican, and I went to study there a final year of theology. It was difficult in Rome because we were told this is the holy city, It was one of the most unholy cities I've ever been in. The prostitutes and the immorality you could see on the streets. I never saw this in my own Dublin. This was frightening to me because I was in Dublin and I wasn't used to seeing immorality right before your eyes. It was very painful and I kept saying this is the holy city even though it didn't look holy. I went one day to the Coliseum to walk where the early Christians had been burnt at the stake and some of them were eaten alive by lions at the Colosseum and particularly the Roman Forum where Nero had burnt the Christians like torches. The Forum is much bigger than the Colosseum and I walked around the Forum trying to think of what it was that the early Christians believed and that they would give their lives for Christ. And I was getting sort of encouraged and built up as I walked in these very places where the early Christians had suffered for faith in Christ. And I came back on a bus and I was in my long flowing gown in my white habit with the kappa, black kappa, the Dominican habit and the Italian youth as usual started to cheer me and call me a creepy insect and all slugs and all sort of things they would just throw words at you and these were Roman Catholic boys mocking me because I was in a priest's garment And I would think this is not suffering for the faith, I'm being mocked because I represent the hierarchy of the church. And that really bothered me. But I'm not suffering for Christ. I'm being insulted because I represent a power structure. And I tried to put it all out of my head and came back to Holy Mother Church. I would always be faithful to her. I was ordained a priest in Dublin and they put the hands on my head and the sacred oils and bandaged them together and told me I was a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And of course I thought that was a glorious moment to say Mass the following day and have all my family come to the Mass. I was then sent out to the West Indies on the 1st of October 1964. They opened the door of Piarco and in those days you came down the steps and I said this is where I should have been born. It's the right temperature and the people smile and there's a It was... I felt at home in Trinidad from the beginning. This is where I wanted to be. I always got cold feet back in Ireland and now for the first time I felt warm. This was a warm people and it was... it was somewhere I thought that I was going to live the rest of my life. And I was then sent to Park Street the Rosary Chapel, the Rosary Church, to be an assistant priest. I started then saying mass and baptizing babies. It was very difficult to preach because we'd never been trained in the Bible. So I got a book of stories and I used to try and tell a story and try and get through for ten minutes or so. It was difficult and it was difficult baptizing all the babies because From the beginning we could see that we would never see the babies again. Maybe we would see them when they would get married, if they got married, and maybe when they die. And the priests would joke saying, you know, our job is to hatch, match and dispatch. You know, we hatched them at Balthasar and we matched them at marriage and we dispatched them for the funeral. And I didn't like that. And the priests seemed to be flippant, you know, that they were into hatching, matching and dispatching. just a young priest and I wanted to be good and do things well and I was still suffering and I was taking it really seriously. Then I got my own parish in those of you who know Mearrow, beautiful Mearrow Beach, 13 miles of it. I had a house on the beach and I started to have many, many churches underneath me, those who know Mayaros, Ortois, Matheken, and of course Guaya Guayabriari, and many other places. All these churches are now mine. And I began studying Catholic books from South America, Gutierrez, Liberation Theology, Juan Luis Secundo, Juan Miranda. I started studying about freedom. It was liberation theology. This was at the beginning, before the Black Power movement began. I had begun preaching in the church. In those days I had long hair. People used to say I looked like Jesus Christ Superstar. I had long hair and I had spotlights coming down. Of course we had guitars and music and bongo drums and everything. And I would get up at the pulpit and I'd throw back my hair and I'd tell the people, we've got to come into the land of freedom. I'd say, here in Mayaro we have ladies working under the coconut trees for a dollar a day. I said, this is worse than slavery. We've got to bring in freedom, whereby we've got equality, whereby the rich money becomes our money. and that we can have equality of goods and not having the rich lorded over the poor and I went on like that for some years and I used to fill churches because this was a powerful message And then of course when the Black Power movement began, both of you, from Trinidad and the Tapia movement, I got in with the leader of that movement and I started to get involved with Black Power. And as you know we had an attempted coup in Trinidad and it was highly dramatic, to say the least. I was involved in that. before and after. I had my life threatened and in the name of justice I took civil court cases against the government minister, minister for works Campbell, I took him to court, I threatened him and the people in housing and development for charging what we call greasy paw. I, I, Babal, I was in the front of the express, angry priest cries Babal, it's a bad word, you can get it translated for you afterwards. It was, you know, corruption. I was big time into trying to get out of corruption and bring people into freedom. Of course, using Bible text, but using them in a political Marxist way. We were really preaching communism. and it's sad because my heroes were also in Nicaragua, the Sandinistas and the Cardinali brothers and those there and they were successful and we weren't. It was an interesting time and I was big time into it, nearly lost my life. I had seven years finished and I was due for time off and went back to Ireland and I started stabilizing quiet and we came back to Trinidad and the Pentecostal movement was beginning in the Catholic Church called the Charismatic Movement. And I said, let me get this. Here's people speaking in tongues and falling on the floor, drama, you know what I mean? Let me get into this. Something is going, I want it. So I started to get into that. I was only about four weeks into it when the accident happened. The night of the accident, the evening, I was at a charismatic prayer meeting with about 18 people and we were sitting in a room. And people were praying to God in their own words, which is quite strange for us Catholics. They were just talking to God and not saying, here Mary is an Our Father. And when I saw people pray, I said, let me pray. And my prayer was something like this, I thank you God that I'm such a good priest. I thank you that I haven't sinned seriously and I try to help people. and I said thank you that I'm humble and I said and God I give you permission if you want to humble me even more and make me more I mean talk about prayers but this is my prayer if you want to humble me even more I give you permission so this is my prayer and that was the same evening I was going to play Scrabble in somebody's house and I slipped on the step and split my head and damaged my back spine. Three days unconscious and then agony when I came to. Even agony after the hospital in the St Elizabeth's Catholic Nursing Home. because I was not found in my mind. I was like a druggy because my mental system had been disturbed. I thought when I got out that I would go up, you know, on the road over to Lauvan, you know, over the Lady Yonge Road. I was going to go over the Lady Yonge Road, fill my car with gas and turn it so it would fall down towards Lavant Hill and go to Flames. But then I still wondered where would I go after the Flames and the car. And then I said, let me study the scriptures and see how one has peace with God. And then I was going to start studying the Bible. I was going to be a long, long, long search. But it was particularly Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And what struck me nearly right away was this verse 8 and 9, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not, it is said, is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. This was so clear. It's nearly word for word as I read it in my New Jerusalem Bible that I was reading at the time. So, I decided at the priest meeting we had every year, I'm going to talk about this. So, I stood up at the priest meeting and I said, you know the scripture says that it's by grace that we're saved through faith and not of ourselves. It's a gift to God. Maybe it's not our infant baptism and maybe it's not our giving up solution to people and telling them their sins are absolved and putting oil on them and all the things that we do. Maybe just God saves people. directly. So I was asking a question and people got furious, priests and bishops got furious and said, who do you think you are? You think you are better than the millions of Catholics? Who do you think you are? And afterwards he even came out to me and all I could say to them was I said, I'm like Oscar. I don't know if you know Oscar. Oscar in Sesame Street, we had him at the time. Oscar was the Muppet in the tin can and Oscar always came up again when we pushed him down. He always came and stunk again. I say I'm like Oscar, I'll be back up. So I didn't have anything else to say and it was all quite new to me and I was just beginning to search. But next year it was the same. I would stand up and say, not of the works of righteousness that we have done, but by his grace he has saved us. And it was the same thing, who do you think you are? And I could only say, I'm like Oscar, I'll be back up. I was groaning and I was more trying to convince myself than anybody else because I was more into it than many. I used to tell some of the other priests, if you really believe Jesus is in the bread, you wouldn't run through mass like you do. You'd be reverential, you would bow. You would spend about 20 minutes after communion in prayer. You wouldn't do it the way you do. I was pious and devout. And I was the one, most of all, in a sense, shocked by what I was saying because this is not exactly what I was taught, it's exactly opposite. But I was searching. And then besides the searching in the Bible, I was searching in many other things. marriage encounter, engaged encounter where priests can go in to take part in these things. I went big time into Vincent de Paul to help the poor. I started Vincent de Paul groups all over the place. I went visiting door to door to help the sick and the poor. I went to hospital cases particularly. We have a lot of suicide cases in Trinidad. I used to really serve the poor as much as I could. I really got big time into this. And then I decided to go into TM, Transcendental Meditation. I checked one of the priests in the seminary and asked if it was alright and they said yes, many priests are in it. So I decided to go into TM. I studied under Maharishi Guru Yoga, the famous Maharishi, and I studied TM. I got a certificate in Creative Intelligence. of which I got high up in the TM movement. So it wasn't just the Bible. Like a Catholic, I was searching in many other ways. And the TM thing was quite similar to what we did in meditation. We were trying to contact God directly. When we did meditation in the seminary, we were trying to have what's called immediate contact with God. were trying to directly be in union with God and so when they were talking in the TM movement about oneness with God you know as you would lose consciousness and get this God consciousness and it was It was something that was quite captivating and I tried that for many years as well as searching in the Bible. So I was doing many things at the same time. Then I was invited to Canada by some Pentecostal people who worked together with the charismatic movement. They invited me to do public speaking in Vancouver, British Columbia and I went out in 1979. Now, no sooner was I preaching in Vancouver than I was asked to speak in America, in Seattle, St. Stephen's Catholic Church. I was preaching to the small charismatic prayer group. And they said, preach on anything you like. And I was staying in a believer's home. And they had this big book called Strong's Concordance. And I asked them to explain what a concordance was to me. And then they started looking up words. And I saw, thy word is truth. I saw not to go on beyond what is written. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And Peter said, it's like a light in a dark place. And I read and read about the word. And so I decided to preach on what the Bible says about itself. And if anybody was listening, I was listening. because I never heard this before and the little group seemed to like it so I was invited to a very big Catholic church back in Vancouver, British Columbia about 400 people and for the first time in my life I got a portable microphone And I could walk up and down the aisle. And I walked up and down the aisle with my Catholic Bible. And I said, to the Lord, to the testimony, do not speak according to this word. There's no light in you. I said, this is what Christ held. This is what the apostles held. Do not think beyond what is written. This is God's Word. This is where we stand. And if we do not stand on this Word, we do not have truth in us. And I was the one listening more than anybody. And really in agony, am I saying what is right? Is this really true? I never heard anybody preach like this. you know, it sounds good, I'm quoting Bible texts, some of them have to read, others I had memorized, and I said, this is what I've got to say. And we had a collection for over $400, so I said, there must be some good in this preaching. The things seemed to go down, but three days later, Lord Mountbatten, whom I had met once, a famous British man, who was a Bible believer, was blown up by the IRA on a lake in West Ireland. My father was an IRA man and we killed people or he killed people who were Bible believers. It was in my blood but I never liked it. The fact that Lord Mountbatten was killed three days after, it hurt me. I was in pain and then I got a phone call from Archbishop Kearney to appear in his office. I was already in pain before I ever got there. Then he sat me down and he started, in some street language, to curse me. And I started to bless him. I said, bless you, Bishop. Let the Lord bless you and your diocese. He said, you're just doing Bible stuff on me. I said, the scripture says, bless those who curse you. Wow! He got even more angry with me. And I tried to stop. I didn't cry. I didn't go to pieces. He told me never to preach again and to go back to Trinidad. I left and ran to, I couldn't find a washroom. I found a room with his mops and sweeping material. I went in and broke down and cried. But I didn't cry in front of him. I said, I'd go back to Trinidad. But I had discovered the truth of God's written word. And so when the conferences came around and I started quoting the scripture, I would say, for all the sin that falls short of the glory of God being justified freely by His grace through the redemption. I'd say Christ paid it all. It's not our works, Christ paid it all. The redemption is in Him, not in us. They'd say, who do you think you are? I'd say, thus says the Word of God. And this is where the real trouble started. Now would to God I could say that I continued in that line. Would to God that I was faithful. I wasn't faithful. This is not a testimony of my faithful search. I was not faithful. The Catholics were really intent to get me and they got a course by Chuck Gallagher, a famous American. was running a parish renewal experience in New Orleans. Myself and another priest were to go there and to get recycled in Catholicism. It was a renewal course and I went to New Orleans And we had a whole week of Catholic teaching, what the Catholic Church says, Holy Mother, her sacraments and everything. At the end of that conference, I stood up and publicly said, I have been seeking in the Bible for truth. I now renounce it. I accept Holy Mother Church and what she says. And I with my mouth confessed That the Catholic Church is truth and I will always be loyal to her and I will never give her up. So it wasn't my faithfulness. It wasn't after what I saw. It's our faithfulness. I was totally unfaithful. One of the things that shocked me afterwards was that it was a very holy week, but afterwards Father Reginald, the prior of the house, invited us and some of the nuns, and we went out in Mufti, that's an ordinary close, we went down to Bourbon Street, and they took us out to a striptease joint. These were the priests and nuns who'd been on the weekend renewal. The stuff we looked at, I never saw such stuff. I don't even like to think of what I saw. And I felt I needed a shower. I actually went to confession afterwards. Then I wondered a bit, is this what I've come back to? You know, is this... I mean, these are the same people that went through the renewal with me. Who are we as Catholics if this is the way we live? So it was really pain. I didn't immediately give up my profession of Catholicism again. I was back about three months in Trinidad and I renounced my renunciation. And he was faithful to let me do that. But then there was still a search. I was a good friend of the Archbishop, Anthony Pantom. He called me to his office and said, it's okay, you took on all the statues, don't talk about it. I said, okay, I won't talk about it. I took them all down into the people. Then a guy comes into my office, he's an Indian and he has this cutlass, machete in his hand. And he said, Father what did you do with the statues? I said, St. Martin, the Porries. And people were still going to the Archbishop complaining, I wouldn't hear confessions. and then I wouldn't say the rosary and somebody was appointed to say the rosary in the church because I wouldn't I'd say it breaks the first commandment we only talk to God in the Bible there's no prayers to anybody but to God we're not to give anybody divine attributes that they could hear prayers all over the world we only talk to God but it was real problems and this is the part of the testimony I don't like to tell but I've got to be truthful The more I got into removing the Catholic things, the more shaky I got. And then I used to fall back on what's called the Spirit of Trinidad. Those Trinidadians know what that is. That 19th Spirit of Trinidad, we ought to always advertise it in the Catholic newspaper. I started falling back on rum. I was trying to steady my nerves and I wasn't a drinker but to steady my nerves and particularly to sleep at night I took shots and then the shots weren't enough and I would take one or two beers to get ready for a shot of rum. And it was, I said this is not how Bible believers live I think. This is not what they do. I mean, here am I defending biblical truth and I'm depending on the bottle. And it was really, really painful. And I tried to talk to some priests but they ridiculed me. I decided I'd go and counsel myself. So I went and sat in my office where the visitor would sit, looking up at my chair behind the desk. I was trying to get this thing objective, you know. I said I'd come with my problem, you know, that I'm holding to salvation in Christ and the entirety of this world and that we're washed clean by his blood and he forgives us our sins. But I'm depending more and more on rum and beers to steady my nerves. And even now at midday I take some wine because I begin to shake. What do I do? Then I'm trying to play my own part, talking to the guy in the chair. I said, Bennett, boy, you're in a mess. I said, you may think you understand salvation here in your head, but you're not saved. You're no more saved than the man in the moon. You would not be living like you were. And you boast about the sins that you haven't committed. What goes on in your mind? What are your desires? What are your filthy thoughts? Look at your filthy heart. You're not saved. And then I got in fear and trembling. I am not saved and I understand it. and it dawned on me my Aristotle and my Thomas Aquinas the teaching that I had about knowledge was if you could understand something it was yours I was going on the philosophy of the pagan because I could say it and understand it I was saved And so I came to the conclusion, I'm a filthy sinner, I'm dead in sin. And I went upstairs to the two-story house, and I went upstairs and literally got on the carpet, and I cried out to Father in Heaven, my God, I said, I am a filthy sinner, forgive me my sins and my wickedness. Forgive me all the things I have done to try and make myself good. I have beaten myself. I tried to make myself good through the sacraments. I have been devout. I did not know I was spitting in Jesus' face and trying to make out as His sufferings weren't enough and that my suffering would forgive me. Forgive me, Father. Father, give me the gift to believe that I may trust Jesus and Jesus alone. That I may just rest on Him. Give me the peace that I've never had. Give me the assurance that I am in Him. And I went on and on and I cried. And then I started to say, yes Father, I believe in Christ and Him alone. I trust Him and Him alone. I rest on Christ and Christ alone. Father take me in your arms that I may know that I have another father because you accept me in Christ. And I got down on the floor and I cried. And that night I didn't know what else to do because I had done it now for a long time. I took my rum and I took my beer and went to sleep. But it was the next day that I realized that things were different. Midday came and there was no shaking. And I had a peace with God and a joy unspeakable. And the evening came and I still had peace. And there was no longing for drink. I had peace with God and I had an assurance. And my addiction was gone. And I just thank God I am in Christ. And then I started in the church to preach. And some people listened. In Valencia, praise God, since then nearly the whole church got saved. There was little but enough right now. If you know Valencia, under the leader we had there, Randy Rumsher. But the word went out and I started to preach and to love my Catholics and give them the Gospel. Others got furious, they were like Jack Spangles on the way up to the Archbishop. And the Archbishop told me I had to go, I had to leave. I said, I haven't finished my term in Granby. He said, you've got to leave. He was sending me to Mayaro. Now Mayaro, I had seen voodoo and shango before. I had seen witch doctors. I knew what it was to put black candles on people. I knew what it was to put lights on people's heads. I had seen the bongo drums and calling down to evil spirits. And now I have started to speak for the first time against voodoo. And I was to go to a highly voodoo area and I knew I was dead meat. I couldn't go to Mayar. I wouldn't be safe. When I appealed to my order for sabbatical year and they said, you know, you come to the States and go to University sake and go to Yale or Berkeley. I said, the devil's in Trinidad, I understand. I know Voodoo, I know Ovio, I know Shango, but whatever devils they put into people's heads in Yale and Berkeley, those I don't know. I'm not going to Yale or Berkeley. And then it was like, Father was saying to me, come out and be separate. And I was saying to my father in heaven, again in tears, that I love my Catholic people. How can I come out? And then my father was saying, how can you stay in among idols, repeating the sacrifice of Calvary, praying to the saints and Mary? How can you stay in a system that does not hold to the truth of my word alone, and uphold the finished work of my son? And I would say, Father, I love my people. And then I said, Father, I don't have any money. I've got $300. I can't, I can't get to Canada or the States. And then the Lord reminded me, do you not preach that I am sufficient for everything besides salvation? Do you not preach that? And I'm saying, yes, I do. Well, why don't you believe that I can look after you? I said, on condition I can always love my Catholic people, I will leave. And I purchased a ticket for Barbados, flew to Barbados, and a long, long week where I was in sandals and in tropical clothes in the middle of winter, praying just to God for money and for a suit and for shoes. At the end of the week some Catholic people from originally Portuguese people who I had met before invited me to their home. The wife gave me a suit and clothes and underwear and shoes. And then the people who drove me asked me had I got any money and I said very little. And they gave me 700 US dollars. I was able to purchase a ticket for Canada. I went to Canada stayed in a Catholic home and started to think deeply of the Word. Of course I only went to Bible-believing churches and the family got very annoyed at me and then told me to leave. I phoned another Catholic couple in Yakima, Washington State and I said I'd tell them up front I've left the priesthood and I'm now in Christ and born again by His Spirit. And they said, come and stay with us a week. I stayed six months. And they were very good to me. A real painful thing. I was there about three days. They said, have you dealt with catalysis? And I said, what do you mean? Have you called it a sin? to pray to Mary and the saints because it's not in the Bible and it's forbidden. I said, that's painful. I said, that's like pulling a razor blade across my eye. Have you called infant baptism that you did a sin? I said, that's painful. Don't talk about these things. Have you dealt with the mouth? I said, don't touch the mouth. I said, that's been my whole life. I said, don't talk about it. They said, unless you deal with it, you may be in Christ and saved, but you're going to be like Lazarus in his grave clothes. You're going to walk around in your grave clothes. You've got to deal with this. And they had come out of Catholic. I said, but gently, gently, please, please, gently. For five days I started to go through the different things and this I'll be dealing with tonight I have a paper and I try to do it in love where I have the main topics in the center and on each side I have official Catholic teaching and the other side Bible verses I started to go through something like this in my mind where I compared Bible text to official Catholic teaching so that I could deal directly with every issue, not just salvation. It was very painful. It took me five hours from one day I went into an empty house that hadn't been furnished and I took two couples with me and for five hours I started to go through point by point and to deal with Catholicism and to call things sin and say I accept Christ only. that I accept that I am saved in Christ only, by His grace only, through faith only. on the authority of the scriptures only and to God only be praise, glory, worship and honor. And I thank God that that was a day when I really felt free. I'd been saved before then but it was the first time that my stomach became sound and got off Lamentum and Imodium and the things I used to take to stabilize my stomach. My stomach had always turned around in all my years of search. And now that agony, the physical agony was gone. I was saved before that, but then I had dealt with what was most painful. Now I know that we have some precious Catholics here, and I say to you, I understand your pain. I don't think you could be more Catholic than I was. I went the full gamut. I was into it as fully as anybody could be. I did not want to leave. It was nobody witnessed to me, nobody forced me. It was just what Christ Jesus himself said. Jesus said, this is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. Jesus' own words. It's God's work. Believe on Him. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. It's a person, it's not a ritual or a sacrament. It's a person. It's trusting on a person. The Apostle Peter, there's no other name under heaven by which man may be saved. And all the other names that I had, There's no other name, there's only one name. God is jealous. He loves you with a jealousy. He will not be shared by anybody else. Your prayers, your trust, your devotion is to Jesus alone. and that's what I saw in the midst of my pain and that is what gave me the peace and the joy unspeakable and full of glory. It was then after some more time that I went to a Bible-believing church and they advertised for missionaries to Puerto Rico, that's in the West Indies, so I put in my name and the pastor said, well who recommends you of the deacons and what support do you have? Who recommends you? I had nobody to recommend me. I didn't know anybody. And he said, are you married? And I said, no, I'm not married. And I said, well, what does one do? Do you put it in the bulletin? Or how does one get married? What does one do? And he knew I was joking, but he said, pray. And I started to pray for a wife. And it was ridiculous. How could I pray for a wife? I have a few hundred dollars, which is much less, about 150. I have a suit that I paid for. I have a driving permit for Trinidad. And I own a social security. I have nothing. And how can I pray for a wife? But I said, Lord, you can choose somebody for me, and even though I have nothing, you make the choice. And it was two months after that that he pointed out to her and to me, even though she didn't have money either, But he points out that both of us, that the Lord has chosen us for each other. Her dad did have money and he gave us a thousand dollars when we got married. And we went to Atlanta. And then it was so we went to Baptist Church, Charles Stanley's church. And on Mission Sunday, even before I heard the message, I had felt a call to go to China. And I shared it with my wife and she said, yes, the Lord is leading us to China. We went out in 1988-89, and we were teachers in an English college, teaching English, and of course teaching the scriptures, speaking about the Lord. It was a wonderful year, the year of Tiananmen Square. Our students revolted. Our students got into the demonstrations. And it was one dramatic year of bloodshed. I was the first in our college to tell the students that the blood was flowing in the square. I heard it on the BBC on the shortwave. And the hush that came across our college. But the students then turning from their faith and atheism, their faith in a party, and wanting to know what we believed, and to see people come to the Lord. To me it was light and darkness. I thank God for the many. Even one of those saved, Whitman Liu, Todd Liu, is now in Houston, Texas. He somehow got out, still walking with the Lord. It was just wonderful to see people really saved and life turned around and out of sin into Christ. And that's the simple message I have for you today. And it is a commandment. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe on him would not perish but have everlasting life. This is the serious thing of all. God so loved you that he gave the Son so that you wouldn't perish but you would have everlasting life now and forevermore. Can you put anything to cloud that message? Can you say, besides your love, I want to accept the love of Mary, or the saints, or the love of any church? Can you cloud that brilliant message? It's like the sunshine on a bright day. God so loved the world. There's no greater love than this, compassion and kindness. That He has given for you His only Son. And all He asks is that you trust Him alone. That there's no other way. There's no other answer. And that you have the humility to say like all of us, yes, I am dead in sin. I may have lived a good life in human terms. But that doesn't add up to anything because God is all holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. And you've got to be perfect to stand before Him. He doesn't accept any imperfection. You've got to be clothed in His righteousness. Like Isaiah said, I'm clothed in the garments of salvation. Thanks for listening. If the Lord touches you, we'd love to hear from you. Visit our website at www.verenbeacon.org. Goodbye and God bless you.