Published: June 3, 2026 | thefinalconvergence.com
This post is written in the spirit of the Reformers. Not in the spirit of the culture wars. Not in the spirit of sectarian tribalism. Not in contempt for the billions of sincere, devout human beings who have found their spiritual home within the Roman Catholic Church, many of whom love God, love Scripture, and love Jesus Christ with a depth and sincerity that shames much of what passes for evangelical Christianity.
It is written in the spirit of men who wept as they wrote, who named what Rome had done to the simple gospel not because they enjoyed confrontation but because the souls of the people they were addressing were too precious and the stakes too eternal to permit the comfortable silence of ecumenical accommodation.
Luther wept. Tyndale wept. Paul wept when he named the enemies of the cross in Philippians 3. This examination is offered in the same spirit, with genuine love for Catholic people, genuine concern for their eternal standing, and genuine sorrow that the system they are inside has done what the Word of God says it has done.
With that spirit established, let us go to the Word.
The Question That Cannot Be Avoided
The test we have been applying throughout this series is the test Paul established in 1 Corinthians 15. Does the gospel being preached present the four sentences, Christ died for our sins, He was buried, He rose again, according to the scriptures, as sufficient? Or does it require something alongside them as a condition of salvation?
Applied to Roman Catholic soteriology, the question becomes specific: does the Roman Catholic system present the finished work of Christ as sufficient for justification, received through repentance and faith alone, or does it require something alongside it?
The answer, not from hostile Protestant polemic but from the authoritative doctrinal documents of the Roman Catholic Church itself, is that it requires something alongside it. Many somethings, in fact. And the Council of Trent, the most authoritative post-Reformation doctrinal statement of the Catholic Church, made the Catholic position on this question absolutely clear.
Trent’s Canon 9 — Never Revoked
The Council of Trent met between 1545 and 1563 in direct response to the Protestant Reformation. Its purpose was to define Catholic doctrine with precision against the Reformation claims. And on the specific question of justification, the question on which Luther said the church stands or falls, Trent declared:
“If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any wise necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.” (Council of Trent, Session VI, Canon 9).
Let him be anathema. Accursed. The strongest possible condemnation the church can pronounce, reserved in Catholic theology for those who hold positions fundamentally incompatible with the Catholic faith. Trent pronounced that condemnation on the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
Not on a fringe Protestant position. On the plain reading of Romans 4:5 — “to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” — and Ephesians 2:8-9 — “by grace are ye saved through faith…not of works” — and Galatians 2:16 — “by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Trent pronounced its anathema on Paul.
This is not a historical curiosity. The Council of Trent has never been revoked. Vatican II, which softened the tone of Catholic engagement with other traditions, did not revoke Trent’s doctrinal pronouncements on justification. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification signed by Catholics and Lutherans in 1999 was widely celebrated as a reconciliation, but Catholic scholars have consistently maintained that it did not represent any fundamental change in the Catholic doctrinal position on the specific points Trent addressed. The condemnation of justification by faith alone remains on the books of Rome.
What Rome Requires Alongside Faith
The Roman Catholic system requires several specific things alongside faith as conditions of justification and of the maintenance of the justified state.
The Sacraments. The Catholic Church teaches that the seven sacraments are the ordinary means through which divine grace is dispensed to believers. Baptism produces the new birth. The Eucharist nourishes the spiritual life. Penance restores the penitent to grace after mortal sin. Confirmation strengthens the Christian for the spiritual battle. Anointing of the Sick provides grace for the dying. Holy Orders confers the priesthood. Matrimony sanctifies Christian marriage.
The sacraments are not merely symbols of grace in Catholic theology. They are the instruments through which grace is actually conferred, ex opere operato, by the act itself, independent of the faith of the recipient. The baptized infant receives the grace of regeneration regardless of its ability to exercise faith. The Eucharist nourishes the soul of every properly disposed recipient regardless of what they understand about what they are receiving.
But the Scripture says: “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” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The instrument of receiving divine grace is faith, not a sacramental act administered by an ordained minister.
The Mass. The Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist holds that in every celebration of the Mass, the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the actual body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, and that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice, a re-presentation of Calvary that applies the merits of Christ’s sacrifice to the specific recipients present.
But Scripture says: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10-14). Once for all. One offering. Perfected for ever. The language of finality is absolute. The sacrifice that saves was made once. It cannot be re-presented, renewed, or applied through subsequent ritual acts without implicitly denying its sufficiency.
“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). Sat down, the posture of completed work. A priest who has finished. Not a priest who returns to the altar daily to offer again what he offered once.
Purgatory. Catholic theology holds that most souls who die in a state of grace are not yet sufficiently pure to enter the presence of God immediately. They must pass through purgatory, a process of purification in which the temporal penalties of forgiven sins are completed before the soul is admitted to heaven.
Purgatory is not in the Bible. The two passages most often cited in its support, 2 Maccabees 12:46 and 1 Corinthians 3:15, neither require nor support the doctrine as developed. Maccabees is deuterocanonical, not recognized as Scripture by Protestant Christianity and not part of the Hebrew canon. And 1 Corinthians 3:15 describes a person barely saved “as by fire”, a metaphor for the loss of reward at the final judgment, not a description of post-mortem purification.
The scriptural testimony is clear: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Absent from the body, present with the Lord. No intermediate state of purification. The believer’s standing before God is complete at the resurrection, because it rested not on their own progressive purification but on the finished work of Christ imputed to them through faith.
Merit and Ongoing Cooperation. Catholic soteriology teaches that justification is not a single judicial declaration but an ongoing process, that the grace received at baptism must be maintained and developed through ongoing cooperation with divine grace, participation in the sacraments, acts of penance, and meritorious works. The Council of Trent taught that while initial justification is a gift, it can be lost through mortal sin and must be maintained through the ongoing sacramental life of the church.
But Paul says: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:33-34). The justification that comes from God through the finished work of Christ is not a probationary status maintained by ongoing human cooperation. It is a judicial declaration, rendered by God, grounded in the work of Christ, and not subject to being undone by subsequent human failure.
The One Mediator
Behind all of these specific additions lies a fundamental theological error, one that is more basic than any of the individual doctrines described above. Roman Catholic soteriology interposes the Church and its ordained ministry between the soul and God as the necessary mediating structure through which divine grace flows. The priest administers the sacraments through which grace is given. The Pope speaks with the authority of Christ. Mary and the saints intercede. The Church defines the content of faith. The magisterium interprets Scripture.
But Scripture says: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). One mediator. Not one mediator plus a church, a priesthood, a sacramental system, a Marian intercession, and a magisterial authority. One mediator. The man Christ Jesus, whose finished work provides complete, unrestricted, unmediated access to God for every person who comes to Him through repentance and faith.
The Catholic Church cannot be the necessary mediator of divine grace. Not because it lacks organizational authority, historical continuity, or sincere devotion. But because the Scripture has already given that role, exclusively, finally, and completely, to Christ alone.
The Invitation to Catholic Readers
If you are a Catholic reading this, this post was written specifically for you. Not to take something from you. To give you something the Church of Rome has not given you clearly, the plain gospel of 1 Corinthians 15, received through repentance and faith alone, without the mediation of a sacramental system, without the ongoing purification of purgatory, without the intercession of any human being, living or dead.
The sacrifice of Christ was finished. Tetelestai. Paid in full. The one offering that perfected for ever those who are sanctified. The one Mediator who provides complete and immediate access to God for every person who comes to Him.
You do not need the Mass to apply what Calvary accomplished. You do not need purgatory to complete what the cross began. You do not need the Church’s mediation to access the grace that Christ has freely given.
Come to Christ. Directly. By faith alone. Trust in His finished work alone as the complete and sufficient ground of your standing before God. That is the gospel. Simple. Sufficient. Available to you, right now, without a priest, without a sacrament, without an institution.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” — Ephesians 2:8 KJV
Tomorrow, Day 16, the Charismatic gospel of feelings and fire.
📖 The Simplicity of the Gospel: What It Is, What It Is Not, and Why Everything Else Falls Short Available now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Written by Menno Zweers | Book 2 Get your copy on Amazon →
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