Headline

Maybe you read yesterday's headline: Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation. (from Fox News)

Well, well, well...here we go again. Much to the consternation of many evangelicals, the pope is apparently jettisoning the "unity" the two groups have worked so hard to attain. I have to say I'm glad someone is drawing a line of demarcation between Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism, even if the pope's assessment is erroneous. What ultimately defines a true church of Jesus Christ is its teaching on how a person is justified (made in right standing) before God. Contrary to Catholic dogma, a person is not saved from his sins by sacramental grace administered through infant baptism, mass, human merit, etc. A person can only be justified before God by trusting completely in the finished work of Christ on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of His church. There is absolutely no room for any type of works righteousness. (Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:8-9)

I guess I don't understand why so many evangelical Protestants are so eager to focus on the few commonalities that exist with Catholicism to attain some form of spiritual "unity" with them. What is to be gained by it? Instead of embracing Rome, we should follow the Apostle Paul's example in Galatians 1: 6-10: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ." Unity? I don't think so.