REBUTTING “American Gospel” on Catholic salvation

In this rebuttal Trent examines clips from the documentary “American Gospel” and shows how they distort and fail to refute the authentic Catholic view of salvation and the Gospel.

[fatovatuvei]

i'm a protestant myself, and i did find a lot of inconsistencies within the documentary. Trent, you did a good job with this rebuttal. God bless you mate

[daniellennox]

16:02 Trent makes a great point here. Protestants who believe in “once saved, always saved” will say, “you’ll keep committing sins after becoming a Christian but there are some sins that a Christian won’t commit. If they did, it shows they weren’t a true Christian”

That statement proves they do believe in mortal and venial sins.

[Solideogloria]

Min 32, that is clearly the Calvinistic “gospel”, which is no good news at all. You have a sharp eye Trent. Brotherly love from a Protestant who admires you.

[tomloewen]

What a great review! I remember being guilt ridden that I couldn't remember when I prayed the sinners prayer to become a Christian. My mom told me that I was 5 years old when it happened. While I am grateful for my parents love of Christ and their dogged persistence to live a life of charity and their demonstration that Christ loved me, it took my grandchildren to introduce me to the Catholic Church. However, it was the Eucharist that drew me in. Since I have become Catholic a year ago at age 69, I realize that unfortunately my parents honestly misunderstood the Catholic position regarding Grace and many other Catholic doctrines. I love scripture even more than ever before. But best of all my love for Jesus has grown exponentially. Still happy that my parents loved Jesus and "worked" hard at their salvation and faith. I am happy they introduced me to the Church, even the Protestant Churches I grew up in where I still have many friends. I just wish that 500 year old reformation wall between the two was never erected.

[bethpulliam]

As a convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, this clarified so many things for me that I did not know how to articulate. Thank you so much!!!

[KSTrekker]

I'm a recent convert to Catholicism and I wondered why my Baptist dad was trying to push this video "American Gospel" on me. Now I see why. I'm still in RCIA and I was able to rebuke their wrong teachings about the Catholic Church. We don't "earn" our salvation. I was raised "once saved, always saved". I've never really believed that. Jimmy Akins said when referring to the verse in the Bible "...no one can pluck you out of my hand." Suppose you're going down the highway at 80 MPH. No one can pluck you out of that car. But you can open the door and get out on your own accord. God does not drag us into heaven when we have shown no desire by our lifestyle or outward expression of our faith that we don't want to be with Him. Of course, Evangelical Protestants love to say that a person who has turned against God and his teachings "was never truly saved to begin with." So you're saying that sin can separate us from God? I thought you couldn't lose your salvation? Did they just not say the sinner's prayer just right, or didn't really mean it?

This idea of "once saved, always saved" appeared in Protestant circles around the time of Calvinism. Even Martin Luther did not believe in this concept. When people cherry pick verses that appear to say that God's grace is eternal, there are no works that need to be done, and salvation is assured - they're only looking at one side of the promise; God's half. We still have to be faithful in accepting that grace, repenting of our sins, and following Christ's teachings to the best of our abilities. 

There's a reason that Christ said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matt 7: 13-14. Ever notice why there's only one way into the nave through the narthex at a Catholic Church? It's to remind us of this narrow gate to heaven. Now look at most any Protestant church - see how many doors lead into the sanctuary/auditorium? Coincidence? I think not.

[MrsYasha]

Those semantics hurt my head...

I know I was baptised as an infant. And then, through life, culture and insufficient catechism fell away from the faith.
I know how deep I've fallen. There is no way, that in my state of deep depression and addictive behaviour I was saved.
Now that I'm back in the faith, my whole being feels different. And that is a grace.
But I had lost it. And I have found my way back by trying to get my life in order, and stopped sinning so much. And then I started to see God's Truth more clearly.
And with regular sacraments, it got even more clear.
Faith is important. But to try not to sin is also very important. And that is work! It is connected, we can't separate it. To argue if it is the fruit or part of the root... does it really matter?
But we have to try. It's part of the deal, and part of our salvation so our soul can get Christs peace even now in life.

[schinzo]

Wow.. been Protestant my whole life and these explanations are making a lot of sense Trent. Just starting my journey of investigating into what Catholics have to say but just wanted to say thanks for your tone and approach in your videos. God bless you brother.

[michaelanderson]

I'm not a Catholic, and therefore have some disagreement with you, Trent, but I love how you bring up salvation as a process, rather than a moment or single act. It makes so much more sense this way! Bless you, Trent, for all you do!

[bryanwong]

I’m so thankful for Trent and his conversion to the catholic faith because he can better understand where prots are coming from and enlighten them tactfully

[amandagauthier-parker]

Thank you so much! This is the explanation I've been looking for as my family converts to Catholicism and anticipates negative responses from our Protestant friends. I always appreciate how you speak the truth with charity in your arguments with those who oppose Catholicism.

[noahsolomon]

As a convert to eastern orthodoxy, I loved your rebuttal to American gospel and its evangelical fundamentalism. Pls to all those in the comments pls don't slander the orthodox church. God bless

[tess]

What’s annoying too about this doc is that they portray Coptic Orthodox Egyptians as martyrs for the faith when if they actually knew their theology they wouldn’t consider them to be true Christians at all.

[TheFifthofFive]

It was this very issue that made me question Protestantism and become Catholic. In my Baptist church there was an assistant pastor that I looked up to spoke well, had a good marriage and their children were well behaved and seemed wiser than their years. But it turned out that he was having an affair with a 14-year-old girl from the church. The facts about the case were just awful. This leads me to really question what happens when I Christian sins.

[zeldaocarina]

Whenever I hear about the emphasis on salvation by faith alone, I always think about how it’s just semantics. If you ask, “Is repentance necessary for salvation?” You’ll get two main answers. “Yes” from those whom believe repentance is a necessary aspect of salvation, and “no” from those whom believe repentance would be considered a work for salvation. If you flip the question to be, “Is an unrepentant person saved?”, though, most people would then be on the same page with “no.” Concise and clear language/answers are more important than theological, but confusing, language/answers.

If an unrepentant person is not saved then, it means repentance is necessary, by definition. Not because it’s something we do for salvation, but because it means we acknowledge we need saving and act accordingly. Kind of hard to accept salvation if you either believe you don’t need it, or believe you need it and choose not to accept it haha.

[thepalegalilean]

I am glad that the film 'American Gospel' makes ut clear that this is an 'American' Gospel, and not the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ.
They make it very clear we can dismiss their garbage movie.

[johnsix.-]

I find it funny when protestants say, "Biblical Christianity." I follow up with, "Which bible canon were Christians reading before the councils or Rome, Hippo and Carthage?

[timmleonard]

Thank you for making this video. I am a Protestant trying to learn more about the Catholic faith, and Trent Horn has been invaluable. I have also really enjoyed Jimmy Akin. Thank you Trent for your dedication to the Word of God and for your ministry.

[madeleinepodesta]

I remember watching the American Gospel at a crucial point in my conversion to Catholicism - it really discouraged me. Thanks for making this video!

[GuitarJesse]

I’m part of a non-denominational church, not RC, but I agree with much of your commentary and rebuttals in response to these film clips. The more I learn, the more I reject Calvinism. Ironically even Calvin himself would have rejected some of the doctrines that hyper-calvinists have developed. This was also enlightening to hear more of the accurate representation of what Roman Catholics believe. I certainly find the points you made about living a life of holiness and obedience to God’s commands to be more harmonious with what we read in scripture (OT and NT) than the idea that our works are not interconnected with our salvation. Just to clarify, I’m not saying they are the cause of our salvation, but essentially teaching people that their actions in obedience or disobedience to Christ doesn’t have an impact on their eternal relationship with God seems contrary to all the passages that talk about being disciples, finishing the race, ensuring to the end. And when we attribute our ability to cooperate with God as part of His grace and Spirit at work in our lives, then I don’t see how that is a man-centered or works based faith. The glory goes to God- in our obedience we’re not saying look how great we are, we’re just showing how worthwhile he is to be followed and how much we recognize we need him.