Rick Warren Calls For Christians To Unite With Catholics - christiannews.net
Excerpt from this article:
"In a new video, megachurch leader and author Rick Warren is calling
for Christians to unite with Roman Catholics and 'Pope Francis,' who
Warren recently referred to as the 'Holy Father'—a move that is raising
concerns among Christians nationwide and is resulting in calls for
Warren to repent.
Warren made the comments following his visit to the Vatican last
month, where he spoke at an interfaith conference on the 'Complementarity of Man and Woman.' 'We have far more in common than what divides us,' he said in the
two-minute video released by the Catholic News Service on Wednesday,
described as being an outline for 'an ecumenical vision for Catholics
and Protestants to work together to defend the sanctity of life, sex and
marriage.'”
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What divides the Church of our Lord Jesus from that of the Roman Catholics is not not our views on Mary, or the Mass, or Purgatory, or a lot of other doctrines, which the Reformer Martin Luther would call "Trifles, rather than issues." No, what separates us is the gospel. There is only one gospel, and Rome doesn't have it.
R.C. Sproul put it this way in his wonderful book, Faith Alone: An Evangelical Doctrine of Justification by Faith:
"Does saving faith require a trust in the righteousness of Christ alone as the grounds of our justification? Or may a person have a different view of the gospel and still be a Christian?"
"The Reformation was waged, not over the issue of justification by faith, but over the issue of justification by faith alone. It was the Sola of Sola Fide that was the central point of dispute."
" Agreement between Rome and Evangelicals can be reached in several ways. One is for Evangelicals to abandon their historic position of Sola Fide. A second is for Rome to adopt Sola Fide as its official doctrine. The third is for agreement to be reached that Sola Fide is not essential to the gospel."
And Dr. Michael Horton writes in the introduction to the above book:
"Has Rome changed? If fact, it has not. The Vatican documents, as well as The New Catechism of the Catholic Church, re-invoke the theological position of the Council of Trent, condemning the gospel of justification by an imputed righteousness. If it is not Rome that has altered its position in favor of the gospel, then it must be the other partner that has moved from its earlier position."
The world is very fortunate that Rick Warren was not around 500 years ago. No doubt, he would not have agreed with Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) who wrote:
"It is today as it was in the Reformers’ 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 these 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 His Word." (From The Forgotten Spurgeon, by Iain Murray
Recommended reading:
Words of Wisdom From A Catholic Newspaper (my post)
Faith Alone: An Evangelical Doctrine of Justification by Faith, by R. C. Sproul
What Is The Gospel? (my post)
Recommended sermon:
Total Depravity, by Rev. Paul Den Butter
