Why not Roman Catholic?

I have been meditating on the message of the book of Galatians, and thinking of how it applies to us today. It occurred to me that it fits pretty well as an argument against leaving the free church to join the Roman church.

The mixed Galatian congregations of Jews, Gentiles, slave and free, were being convinced to join or rejoin the Jewish community. There was a strong cultural appeal to do so. Paul admits to being perplexed about this trend. (4:20) He says “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” (4:8-11)

Paul describes following a legalistic cultural ritual as slavery. He says that rituals, even those given by God himself, are worthless elementary principles. He is dumfounded that those baptized into Christ would return to worthless legalistic formalized rituals.

I am sure there were many people pressuring them with arguments about the beauty of the old ways, and the disorganization of the new free church. But in this strong little book Paul argues that we must maintain our freedom. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (5:1)

Paul goes on to argue even more strongly. He states that people depending on a legalistic formalized ritual will actually lose any benefit from Christ. This, sadly, is exactly what happens in the ritual churches. While some are simply worshipping using the symbols of the rituals, others are actually depending on those rituals for their salvation. Legalistic formalized religions are massively misleading many of their adherents. Some, in the name of Christ, are condemning millions.

It is not wrong to make rituals, but we must watch them carefully. The Bible is formula free. There are no set rituals for communion, prayer, worship services, baptism, or anything else, for that matter. We are free to create our own rituals. There is no indication that the early church followed any centralized authority when it comes to rituals. There is an inspired silence on these things. We are free.