Once again Time magazine has named its man of the year and this year it is Pope Francis. Now he is probably a good choice for the man of the year by a magazine like Time but my concern is not with his relationship with the Catholic church but with many evangelical's quickness to embrace him as if he was their pope.
Now I think that this pope may be good for the Catholic church as an organization. He is willing to take on many of the issues that have been destroying the Catholic church and he has addressed them in a manner that is both acceptable by the church and the people. He holds to the traditional catholic doctrines without compromising but he still makes the people feel that they have been heard.
My concern is how the evangelical church has embraced him. The gospel of the Catholic church is still a false doctrine. Mixed in with the doctrine of grace is the doctrine of works. There are Catholics who would deny this but when you study the doctrine it is a mixture of grace and works.
Let us suppose that there are 4 points to true salvation (I am only using this as an example because really there is only one). Suppose that you keep three of the four but shift slightly on the fourth then you have preached a false doctrine. Suppose you keep all four but then add a fifth of the church's making then once again you have come short and you have a false doctrine.
Salvation is by Christ alone, not Christ and the church, not Christ and works. Not some other way. Christ alone. Evangelical Christians need to go back 500 years and revisit why there was a split. Is it any different today?
No comments:
Post a Comment