Reformanda Initiative Podcast #53: I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Welcome to this week’s installment of our Reformanda Initiative podcast series! I’m excited to present the ministry of Dr. Leonardo De Chirico and his associates at Reformanda Initiative as they examine Roman Catholic theology in order to inform and equip evangelicals.

Episode #53: I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Show Notes

In this episode we talk with pastor Robbie Bellis (RSLN contributor and European church planter) about the Roman Catholic position regarding the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. What does Roman Catholicism teach about the atonement and about redemption accomplished and applied? Do evangelicals agree? Why is this important?

Robbie Bellis is a pastor of the Eglise Protestante Evangélique de Louvain-la-Neuve, a church he helped plant in 2020. He obtained a ThM from Westminster Seminary Philadelphia. His Masters Thesis was on the decline of the belief of penal substitution in the Roman Catholic Church during the 20th Century. Additionally, Robbie teaches one day a week at the Institut Biblique de Bruxelles helping train future pastors and church workers in Belgium.

My Comments

“Penal substitutionary atonement” sounds like a complex term for a complicated theological concept, but it’s actually shorthand for what’s described in Isaiah 53 and elsewhere in Scripture. Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate, was our Substitute on the cross, bearing our sins and receiving our just penalty, God the Father’s righteous wrath. The Roman Catholic church does not believe in penal substitutionary atonement, but rather disparages it as “divine child abuse.” The RCC cannot accept penal substitutionary atonement (and its corollaries, justification and salvation through faith alone) because it contradicts the Catholic doctrines of works-justification and salvation by merit. Why do Catholics think Jesus died on the cross? Catholics believe that by His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus merely opened the gates of Heaven¹ and that it’s then up to each Catholic to avail themselves of the sacraments supposedly instituted by Jesus to help them successfully obey the Ten Commandments and church precepts and thereby be allowed to pass through the gates (aka merit).²

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1026 ↩︎
2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 2010 ↩︎

Episode #53: I Can’t Get No Satisfaction
Featuring Robbie Bellis, Reid Karr, and Clay Kannard
June 20, 2022 – 28 minutes
https://reformandainitiative.buzzsprout.com/663850/10821430-53-i-can-t-get-no-satisfaction

There is no YouTube video version of this podcast. The RI guys discontinued posting episodes on YouTube following Episode #38.

Next week: Episode #54: Robert Bellarmine: Who he is and why he is important.