In 1928, as a baby, I was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly after my first birthday, my family moved from New York State to New Milford, Connecticut, where I continued to be raised in the Roman Catholic faith. I believed deeply in all Roman Catholic practices and teachings, and I took them very seriously with my attitude toward the church — and thus toward God. The first communion and confirmation meant a lot to me. After graduating from high school, I began a medical education at Tufts College in Boston, hoping to one day become a doctor like my esteemed uncle. After two years of study, however, I got another deep desire: to become a priest. Serving people in a spiritual sense seemed more important to me than their medical care.
Seminary for priests
In September 1948, I began studying the priesthood at “St. John Seminary ”in Brighton, Massachusetts. How I loved the seminary. Everything there was so sacred. However, I left the seminary after one year. It seemed impossible to me to become as holy as the ministry of a priest demands. I respected this as the greatest possible vocation of a young man. At Jesuit Boston College, where I then studied, I attended Mass almost every morning as a minister at a local Roman Catholic convent.
During this time, it was September 1949, God saved me by His grace. (that’s the only way!) even though I didn’t really know much about the Bible. Jesus saves believers, sinners, even when they are stuck in many errors and darkness. At the time, I was very insecure about my relationship with God and it was more important to me than anything else to get certainty about it.
A completely different confession
One night I knelt in the confessional and confessed every sin of my life that I remembered. In confession, I confessed my sins always first and foremost to God, even if it happened in the presence of a priest who then granted absolution. But if we confess our sins, he will forgive us and cleanse us from all iniquities, for he is faithful and just (1 Jn 1: 9). When I repented and while the priest was giving the rite of absolution, I cried out to God with all my heart and said: God, if you want to forgive me all my sins, you can be the lord of my heart and I will serve you all my life. For: 13 And indeed: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:13). As I left the confessional and walked around the church, I felt great peace and my heart echoed: Abba, Father. ”I knew that a connection had been made between God and me.
This did not happen because the priest was present and performed the absolution liturgically correctly, but because Jesus Christ, our great “high priest,” was here to come in for me and make me the recipient of his grace, goodness, and mercy. “In him, through his blood, we have redemption, the forgiveness of transgressions through the riches of his grace. By grace you are saved by faith, and this is not from you, but is a gift of God. 9 Ye are not saved from works, lest any man should boast ”(Eph 1: 7 and 2, 8-9).
The following year, I returned to the seminary to complete my priestly education. To my knowledge at the time, this was the only way to serve God. On February 2, 1955, Bishop Lawrence Shehan of Bridgeport, Connecticut ordained me a priest, and I began my ministry in a parish of the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana. The great excitement and joy I felt at my one-time task subsided after a few years, and - no matter how hard I tried to do my duties properly, they became empty, insignificant rites.
The Bible - a new standard
After calling on God for years because I longed for something deeper, more authentic, in 1971 I found a source that quenched my spiritual thirst. Jesus and the word of God (the Bible) have become very much alive to me. Because “the love of God is poured out into our hearts” (Rom. 5: 5), the Holy Spirit led me to begin judging Roman Catholic theology by Bible standards. Until then, I had always judged the Bible with the help of Roman Catholic dogmas and theology. Now the authorities in my life have changed.
One summer evening in July 1972 - I was then a priest at the Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Rayville, Louisiana - I began reading the Letter to the Hebrews from the New Testament. This letter elevates the Lord Jesus, his priesthood, and his sacrifice above all that happened in the Old Testament or will. For example, I read: «…. one who, like the great priests, does not have to sacrifice day after day first for his sins and then for the sins of the people. For this he did once and for all, when he offered himself ”(Heb 7:27). This shocked me and I felt uncomfortable. For the first time, I understood that Jesus ’sacrifice was unique! The sacrifice on the cross of Golgotha, enough in itself to reconcile me and all the faithful, repentant sinners of all times, with God!
I realized that the “sacred offering of the Mass” brought by me and thousands of other Roman Catholic priests around the world every day is a deception and completely meaningless. However, if the sacrifice I made on a daily basis is meaningless, then my priestly ministry was also meaningless, as it served precisely to offer that sacrifice.
This view was soon clearly confirmed as I read further in Hebrews and came across these verses in chapter 10: “But he offered a single sacrifice for sins, and sat for ever on the right hand of God. 13 From that time he waited for his enemies to be laid at his feet. 14 By one offering, therefore, he made those who are consecrated perfect forever.
18 But where all these things are forgiven, the sin offering is no more (Heb. 10: 12-14 + 18).
Resolved only by the grace of God
That night, the Roman Catholic Church lost its credibility for me because it taught something as the truth, which, however, is in complete contradiction to the Bible. I have now chosen this as the measure of truth, and I no longer recognize the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church as the standard of my life. Like the Jewish priests in Acts 6: 7, I was “obedient to the faith”. In a letter to the bishop, I informed him of his resignation from the priesthood and his resignation from the Roman Catholic Church. I wrote that I could no longer read the Mass because it would be against God’s will and my conscience. That was in 1972. Soon after, I was baptized according to the Bible, began studying the Bible, and was called to the ministry of evangelization.
I have been living in the freedom that Jesus spoke of for over 20 years: Then Jesus spoke to the Jews who believed in him: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (Jn 8: 31-32). And "if the Son sets you free, you are truly free" (Jn 8:36).
Until 1994, Alexander Carson worked primarily in Florida, USA, as a Bible teacher, evangelist, and preacher. 1995. He made an extensive preaching journey through Eastern Europe. In the spring of 1986, he preached in Siberia for 6 weeks. As a result of a radio interview with Bob Bush, he was contacted by Russian believers living in Florida, which led Alexander Carson to learn Russian so that he could evangelize even more effectively in the former Eastern Bloc countries.
[Source: https://bereanbeacon.org/sl/resnicno-svoboden/]
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