Answer to Common Roman Catholic Questions for Protestants - Pastor Patrick Hines Reformed Podcast For documentation, please see: https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/roman-catholicism/the-33000-denominations-myth/ And https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ZXbrbfXrY I'll be answering these good questions a thoughtful Catholic person posed to a member of the congregation I pastor: 1. If the last man that had free will was Adam, what sins do we have to repent of and be forgiven? What debt do we owe that Jesus must pay? Isn't our free will necessary in order for there to be judgement at all? 2. How does God select who to save and who not to? It can't be our faith, that would be a choice (invoking free will or even a WORK that we participated in) does He just love some of us more than others? And if He does love some of us more than others, doesn't that mean that He ceases to be omnibenevolent? 3. Whose interpretation of the Bible (or the entire deposit of faith) do you subscribe to? Your own? Some particular ecumenical council? Some particular latter-day prophet? And why wouldn't the apostolic succession (and the "keys of heaven") be a more trustworthy source of interpretive authority than us? 4. What does it mean when the Bible says we are made in the image and likeness of God? Most people interpret that as including a soul and mind capable of free will, intelligibility, and creativity. But that cant be the case if we don't have free will. 5. If we were to subscribe to our own interpretation of scripture, which is probably not a good idea, since it produced 24,000 different denominations that all believe something different and they have the privileged and correct truth, then why does the New Testament council us to "sin no more," "carry our cross," or "endure?" Or any of the language that very thinly veils the implication that our choices MUST matter? Why do we even need to know that the crucifixion and resurrection occurred if nothing we could do about it matters? Why does Jesus command the apostles to go out and forgive sins, make disciples and baptize the nations?