In my years as a Protestant Evangelical Christian, I sometimes taught classes at retreat. I remember in my college years I taught a retreat class on what it meant to be justified by faith alone.  I argued that we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  God will not deal with us according to our righteousness, but according to the righteousness of Christ. Christ lived the perfect life for us. We will be rewarded, not according to our deeds, but by the vicarious obedience of Christ.  I t...

I recently went to see some evangelical friends that I have not seen for twenty years. The last time they saw me I was a fellow evangelical Christian. They were absolutely shocked that I was now a Catholic. We had a very interesting discussion. Before we parted, one of my friends, an ex-Catholic, said “Paul, you are first Catholic I ever met who was on fire for God. All the other Catholics were not on fire for God at all! That is why I left.” I did not realize it at the time, but this was...

In my years as a Protestant Evangelical Christian, I sometimes taught classes at retreat. I remember in my college years I taught a retreat class on what it meant to be justified by faith alone.  I argued that we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  God will not deal with us according to our righteousness, but according to the righteousness of Christ. Christ lived the perfect life for us. We will be rewarded, not according to our deeds, but by the vicarious obedience of Christ.  I t...

I recently went to see some evangelical friends that I have not seen for twenty years. The last time they saw me I was a fellow evangelical Christian. They were absolutely shocked that I was now a Catholic. We had a very interesting discussion. Before we parted, one of my friends, an ex-Catholic, said “Paul, you are first Catholic I ever met who was on fire for God. All the other Catholics were not on fire for God at all! That is why I left.” I did not realize it at the time, but this was...