A Review and Response to "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Mellenium"
One good thing that came out of this was an excellent book by Reformed Scholar, R.C. Sproul, titled "Faith Alone - The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification." This book clearly sets forth what is means to be a Protestant and why we can't go back to Rome.
That was then. This is now. As I was browsing through the newest sermons on Sermonaudio.com today, I came across the following podcast by Pastor William Sturm:
Catholic, Protestant Churches Sign Historic Baptism Agreement
This agreement says that Catholics and Protestant churches should recognize each other's baptism. Sounds like a sequel to Evangelicals and Catholics Together.
One of the features I have on My Gospel Project is The Daily Spurgeon, a collection of quotes from Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 - 1892). There is no doubt in my mind what Pastor Spurgeon would have thought of either the 1994 document, Evangelicals and Catholics Together, or this new push by Protestants and Catholics to recognize each other's baptism. Here is what Pastor Spurgeon had to say about the Reformation and the Reformers who risked their lives and livelihoods to break away from the Roman Catholic Church:
"We admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago...but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow minded bigot or give him a worse name, if you can think of one.
"Yet imagine that in those ages past Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and their compeers had said, 'The world is out of order, but if we try to get it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.'
"Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have
gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the love of Jesus too well to see them trampled on.
"It is today as it was in the Reformer's days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it but inwardly abhor every line of it...look you, sirs, there are ages yet to come.
"If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all those generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to his truth today. We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way. But if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to his Word."
Recommended reading (my Post):
Saving Those Damned Catholics
