THE FIVE LETTER DIFFERENCE

In 1960, Presidential campaign historian Theodore H. White observed that “the largest and most important division in American society was that between Protestants and Catholics.” In 1960, anti-Catholicism was not merely an evangelical phenomenon. It was an American phenomenon. Both secularists and Christians, both evangelicals and non-evangelical Protestants, worried about the universal claims of Rome. The prospect of having a Roman Catholic president frightened many. For this reason, John F. Kennedy’s candidacy in1960 caused a major controversy.

Donald Grey Barnhouse, in an article in Eternity Magazine in Oct. 1960, argued that Kennedy's election would be “perilous.”  He wrote, "The issue is simple. The Roman Catholic Church will not allow Kennedy the right to carry out his own desires. They have made it unmistakably clear that Senator Kennedy must be a Roman Catholic first and a United States president second, where the interests of the Church are concerned."

Is that still true, 56 years later?

The Apostle Paul wrote with a strong quill and an even stronger resolve when it came to false teaching. Not only did he refute it and condemn it, but he also used strong language to describe the believer's relationship to such teaching.

As he wrote to a group of believers, he knew their situation: they were enveloped in the trappings of a pagan society; shrines, idols, and temples everywhere; superstition was rife; there were ubiquitous representations of the gods and goddesses in art; their friends, their family, and their neighbors employed curses, incantations, and rituals to get favor from the gods, and then there was the worship of the emperor that united the Empire. Priests examined the intestines of birds to learn the will of the gods; the flight of birds signaled boon or bane.

The Christians were outnumbered, outgunned, and cut off from power.

With his strong quill, Paul begins to write: "Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? And what agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God . . ."

Another apostle, the one called, "The Apostle of Love," has a strong quill too. He writes about the false teacher: "Do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting." To disobey the injunction was to share in the false teacher’s evil deeds (II Jn. 11).

IS THIS CLEAR?

Dr. Robert Lightner writes, "The biblical teaching seems clear enough. The issue of separation from apostasy is settled for those who claim allegiance to the word of God. The believer’s responsibility is not to fellowship with apostasy. And that is not always easy to do, yet God expects his children to obey."

But what God expects his children to do is sometimes not what they do, as in the case of Charles Colson who was the founder and head of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Mr. Colson gained fame and a prison sentence because of Watergate. He was a power player in the Nixon Administration and was in the inner sanctum. He was so devoted to Nixon that he made that famous (or infamous) statement, "I would walk over my own grandmother to get Nixon re-elected."

Back in the 1990's, Mr. Colson and Richard John Neuhaus, a Roman Catholic priest, decided join hands in the task of world evangelism, so they formed an organization called "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" to fulfill the Great Commission. The mission statement of the ECT was endorsed by some heavy hitters in the Protestant world: J. I. Packer, Max Lucado, Pat Robertson, Os Guiness, Elizabeth Achtemeier, and Bill Bright. In addition, an article in Christianity Today praised the ECT for bringing Protestants and Catholics together.

WAIT. WHAT? 

 Protestants and Catholics together? Together? Good grief! What would Luther say? We know what he would say because he said:

"May God punish you, I say, you shameless, barefaced liar, devil’s mouthpiece, who dares to spit out, before God, before all the angels, before the dear sun, before all the world, your devil’s filth.”
[From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 349 of Luther’s Works]

“Even if the Antichrist appears, what greater evil can he do than what you have done and do daily?”
[From Why the Books of Pope Were Burned, pg. 393 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 31]

One thing about Martin L., you knew where he stood.

WHY?

Why is it that Protestants and Roman Catholics can't work together? It's because of one little Latin word: "Sola." The word means "alone." Four Latin letters; five English letters.

When the Roman Church met to condemn Luther's (and the New Testament's) teaching that salvation is by faith alone (sola fides), they published their final word on the matter in January 1547:

"Justification is not based only upon some legal imputation that is extrinsic to man."

"Justification refers to the fact that a man is “made righteous” not the fact that he is only “declared righteous."

"Justification requires good works as a necessary condition."

There it is: faith alone, they say, does not save. Thus, in the end, the Roman Catholic view is clearly an individual merit system for salvation. It cannot be harmonized with Paul’s dichotomy: “If by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6).

LET THE BUYER BEWARE

This is where it gets tricky. Ask the Roman Catholic, "Is a person saved by faith in Christ," and his answer will be, "Oh, my, yes, of course, a person is saved by faith in Christ." (And from his standpoint, he's answering honestly.) But the problem is, the questioner hasn't asked him, "What do you mean by faith?" (The Greek philosopher, Socrates, said, "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.")

For the Roman Catholic, like the lordship salvationist, faith includes works; it's part of his definition of the word. That's what he means by "faith." So, what's happening is that they're talking past each other. That's why the word "alone" is crucial. That's why stating what the gospel is not is so important. The two leave the conversation thinking they're in agreement. The questioner thinks he's found a brother in Christ when he hasn't. Colson would leave the discussion now thinking, "We can cooperate in evangelism."

THERE'S MORE

But that's only one reason that Protestants and Catholics can't and shouldn't work together, and once again, the reason is "Sola." The historic Protestant position has not only been faith alone, but also Sola Scriptura, "Scripture alone." These two words have reference to historic Protestantism's source of authority: the Bible alone, no pope, no priest, no prelate carries such authority.

For Roman Catholicism, the ultimate authority is Scripture plus a mountain of tradition which sits on a level playing field with the Bible. To say it another way, according to Roman Catholicism, the Word of God is the Bible and sacred tradition.

In The Catechism of the Catholic Church, under the heading, "The Relationship Between Tradition and Sacred Scripture," we read,

"Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."

The Catechism continues:

"Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."

"As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."

LET THE BUYER BEWARE . . . AGAIN

In our hypothetical conversation between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic, the Protestant asks, "Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God without error in the original manuscripts," the Catholic would answer, "Oh, my, yes, of course." 

As in the above conversation, they're talking past each other because the Protestant has omitted "alone," as in, "Do you believe that the Bible alone is the inerrant Word of God?" Roman Catholicism does not. To them, the Bible AND sacred tradition combine in equal authority to be the Word of God.

Oh, the difference a five letter word makes. Use it. Stand on it. Declare it.