Christianity,  Politics

I’m Marco Rubio, and I approve this message

Marco Rubio recently told a group of Iowa pastors what he believes about the gospel (watch above). It is pretty extraordinary. In fact it sounds like a typical evangelical gospel presentation. It turns out, however, that Rubio’s religious affiliation is a little more complicated. As The Brody File reports, Rubio is a Roman Catholic who also happens to attend a Southern Baptist Church from time to time. He explains:

I didn’t learn about the Catholic Church until I went to a non-Catholic church (Christ Fellowship) and became infused in the Bible and became infused in the written word of God and then, and only then did the liturgy of the church start even making sense… I am fully, theologically and doctrinally aligned with the Roman Catholic Church and we attend it. But we retain our relationship with Christ Fellowship and I’ll tell you why: because they preach from the same Bible.

Read the rest here. And don’t miss the video above.

15 Comments

  • James Giordano

    I’m fully convinced that Marco Rubio is a rock solid brother in Christ. Everything I have seen and heard about this man’s faith in Christ has reflected the Lord in spirit and in truth. Now, I know some folks are so anti-Catholic that they just can’t comprehend a person having saving faith in Christ and being Catholic. I am Protestant (and have been my whole life) but I firmly believe that I have Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ and people who call themselves Protestant who do not have a personal relationship with Christ. Anyway, there are plenty of other situations where Marco Rubio has been bold and unambiguous in his faith in Christ. Here’s another great video clip of Rubio declaring that God is real.

  • Ian Shaw

    So is it just a personal choice that he enjoys both? I would hope it’s not a political ploy to gain votes from Catholics and Protestants. As an evangelical, I hold that Catholics are my brothers/sisters, though there are some moderately sizes gaps/differences when it comes to theology and doctrine/teaching.

  • Kathy Robison

    No one knows his heart or anyone else, I attend Christ Fellowship and met his wife. I have some observations. Our Pastor used to teach the errors of the Catholic Church years prior to Rubio attending. I am pretty sure Rubio wouldn’t have returned to catholism if he had heard those messages. He refers to Christians dying for their faith the first 400 years of Christianity. Apparently no one explained to him that the church growth changed from genuine faith to religious faith, once Constantine became emperor and ‘made’ everyone convert. I grew up on the mission field where everyone said they were Catholic yet none of them knew Jesus as their Lord and Savior with security of salvation. They were all trying to earn their way to heaven thru all the burdens the Catholic Church put on them. I witnessed thousands come to saving faith, full of joy knowing they were saved by grace. They LEFT the Catholic Church as genuine faith was more precious then liturgy. If I were running for President as a Republican, I would want both the Protestant vote and the Catholic. Christ fellowship is the largest Protestant church in Miami. So either he’s a very smart politician who sat under our pastor so he could talk to evangelicals in their language, or he’s a genuine believer who’s confused. If it’s the latter who can blame him? Our churches no longer teach doctrinal truth, watered down messages are the flavor of the laodicea church era.

    • Ken Abbott

      In the interests of accuracy, please note that Constantine did not “make” anyone convert. The Edict of Milan just legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire, whereas up to that point the faith had been illicit under Roman law and subject to periodic persecution. Admittedly the public conversion and favor of the most powerful man in the empire likely swayed some, but paganism remained strong and in the majority well through the subsequent decades. Theodosius I toward the end of the fourth century made institutional Christianity the official Roman religion and escalated the process of stamping out paganism that was more or less completed by Justinian I in the sixth century.

    • Lynn Burgess

      Kathy: This is not new news to me about Rubio’s spiritual journey and I do get the impression that it is a spiritual journey and not a political ploy. While I agree that the videos sound great, I did not hear him say anything about a decision or making his knowledge personal.

      It is one thing to come to Christ while in the Roman Catholic church and not immediately recognizing it is dead, but it is all together a different thing to find spiritual life in an evangelical fellowship and then return to the dead Roman Catholic Church. Something does not compute. I thought sure Kirsten Powers had genuinely come to Christ and now she has recently become Roman Catholic so I immediately have question marks. For Kirsten though it is very recent and she will possibly see it was a mistake and change course.

      It is very interesting hearing from you a member of Christ Fellowship and that you believe your church no longer teaches solid doctrinal truth but watered down messages. Maybe the latter plays a part in Rubio’s fence straddling so to speak. It would be interesting to know if those old messages about the error in the Roman Catholic Church are still available on CD and if Rubio would be interested in giving them a listen.

  • Joe Blankenship

    It will be interesting to see how evangelical leaders who are politically invested react to this. Denny, doesn’t this mean that Rubio either doesn’t understand what Catholicism teaches or doesn’t understand what reformed evangelicals teach or both? He may be the best candidate for president and I’m thankful any time Christ is faithfully preached but isn’t this just a re-visitation of the ECT stuff that was pushed because it would form strong politically alliances on social issue concerns? Just wondering what you think.

  • dennyburk

    Joe, I don’t see Rubio as an untruthful person like Trump is. So I see no reason not to take him at his word. It sounds like he has a clear understanding of the gospel. If he is trusting in Christ alone for salvation, then I assume that he is a brother in Christ.

    Having said that, I think the reformation still matters and that Roman Catholicism departs from biblical truth in some fundamental ways. In other words, there are some fundamental errors in Roman Catholic theology. I’m still on the Sproul side of the debate over ECT. My hunch is that Rubio doesn’t understand all of that.

    I don’t think people should vote for a candidate solely because of their ability to recite the plan of salvation, and I didn’t post this video to suggest that they should. Nor did I post this as an endorsement of Rubio’s candidacy.

    I like what I see in this video and that he talks about the gospel in terms that sound more evangelical than Roman Catholic. I also think it’s noteworthy that he was willing to bear witness so openly about our inability to save ourselves and about our need for Christ’s sacrificial work on the cross. These are unusual things to hear from any candidate from either side of the aisle.

    • Christiane Smith

      I listened carefully to Rubio’s speech and it does occur that he is in sync with this from Pope John Paul II :
      ” . . . pause and consider in what sense and in what ways the Holy Spirit is present in humanity’s religious quest and in the various experiences and traditions that express it”

      I don’t think Rubio is ‘pandering’ to people of faith for votes, or at least I hope not. There is something genuine about his quest for meaning and truth in his journey to the Mormon faith, the Evangelical faith, and back to the Catholic faith . . . I suspect he has found something in all of them of genuine meaning . . . Catholics believe that any quest for the truth is instigated by the Holy Spirit and that all human persons made in the image of God are also given an inherent yearning for truth . . . as Augustine once wrote,
      “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” (Augustine, bishop of Hippo)

      .

  • Christiane Smith

    a lot of people take a spiritual journey during their lifetime . . . they learn about and visit and sometimes attend, and sometimes will even join various faith communities for a time

    “”Not all those who wander are lost”

    . . . JRR Tolkien had this thought, and it came to mind that it may apply to many folks who are looking for what is spiritually meaningful to their lives

  • Alan davis

    This testimony is very incomplete if one is to accept it. No repentance mentioned. Nor did he clarify if he is talking about the “accursed mass” as Surgeon would say.
    One cannot be fully aligned doctrinally with RCC and actually believe what the Bible says bout justification by faith alone in Christ alone. No way, because RCC teaches dead against that and calls it anethama. He may make gods president but the SBC workers need to quit trying yo make him one of us. He ain’t….

  • James Giordano

    I love sound doctrine and believe it is very important. But we are not saved by our doctrinal beliefs. I have many brothers and sisters in Christ (those who have placed their faith in Him) whose doctrines differ from mine. To me, it is far more important that Marco Rubio has placed his faith in Christ than what church he belongs to. Can’t wait to see the shock on some of your faces when you get to heaven and find some Catholics there! Of course, many Catholics will be equally shocked to see Southern Baptists and others there. It saddens me when people do not recognize the Spirit of Christ in Marco Rubio (both in actions and words). But then, the Pharisees rejected Jesus. There is not much that is new under the sun.

    • Christiane Smith

      Hi JAMES,
      you wrote: ‘Of course, many Catholics will be equally shocked to see Southern Baptists and others there.’

      no, we won’t . . . we won’t at all

      can you imagine heaven without Billy Graham or Jimmy Carter? or without the missionary Lottie Moon?

      I can’t. And I am Catholic to the backbone . . .

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