08/23/04
ONE QUESTION
THAT SHOULD BE ASKED
The wolves in sheep’s clothing are traversing
the range, looking for ignorant sheep to snatch. They claim to be “reformed”
and “Protestant”, but their actions
say otherwise. They include names such
as Andrew Sandlin, Steve Schlissel, Paul Murphy, Doug Wilson, and Steve
Wilkins. They urge the reformed
Christian community to join an alliance with the Roman Catholics to form an
explicitly “Christian country”, so as to address social problems like
government-supported abortion and sodomy.
What they do not forthrightly admit is that they want us to compromise
(and in truth abandon!) our reformed Protestant faith in the bargain. But since they veil their true agenda, it is
necessary to ask some probing questions that the truth may come out.
One member in this camp of wolves is
Jay Rogers. He manages the website http://www.forerunner.com/
. It promotes videos like these:
God's Law and Society: http://www.forerunner.com/law/law.html
The Beast of Revelation Identified: http://www.forerunner.com/beast/beast.html
Jesus Christ: Lord of All of Life: http://www.forerunner.com/cor/cor.html
World Changers! http://forerunner.com/worldchangers/worldchangers.html
It so happened that I met Mr. Rogers
the other day in the reformedchristianculture email list neighborhood. Here was the question I posed to him, and
that I recommend be posed to all of these Protestant pretenders: does the Roman Catholic Church preach a
false gospel? Here are some of the
answers I got from Mr. Rogers:
"I do
not want to spend an inordinate amount of time outlining again and again the
reasons why I am Protestant and not Roman Catholic."
" They have obscurred sola fide and sola gratia by saying in
effect that man is saved by faith AND works."
"It is not another Gospel, but a deficient one. We each
preach a deficient Gospel in that our understanding is imperfect."
So Mr. Rogers acknowledged that the Roman Catholic Church’s
"gospel" says " in effect that man is saved by faith AND
works", yet he denies that the Roman Catholic Church’s "gospel"
is a false gospel. Rather, he characterizes it as "deficient",
while also asserting that “we each preach a deficient Gospel” – Protestants
included!
But JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE ALONE THROUGH FAITH ALONE is another
gospel from one that says "man is saved by faith AND
works." A true Protestant recognizes it as a different gospel, and
recognizes the Romish one is a false gospel. God’s Word is clear: "no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God" (Galatians 3:11).
In asserting that the Roman Catholic Church does not preach
another (i.e., false) gospel, Mr. Rogers is in effect asserting that man can be
saved by a faith plus works “gospel”.
But if one believes this, one has in effect abandoned a truth central to
Protestantism. So we arrive back at
what we said at the beginning- this is a bad bargain.
At least one reason these Protestant pretenders cannot admit that
the gospel of the Roman Catholic Church is a false gospel, and that the Romish
religion is a false religion, is because such an admission would disclose the
futility of their political agenda. According
to Romans 1, God gives up to judgment those societies characterized by false
religion. Such societies are given up
to sodomy, murderous abortion, covenant-breaking adultery, and lying (such as
promotion of the lie of Darwinian evolution).
So if the religion of the Roman Catholic Church is false, and their
gospel is false, it is vain to imagine that we might solve our society’s
problems by an alliance with such a false church. Instead, the logic of Romans 1 demands that in order to achieve a
truly Christian society that suppresses sodomy, murderous abortion,
covenant-breaking adultery, and lying, we must maintain the true religion and
the true gospel. This is why during the
Protestant Reformation, the Reformation called for a separation from Romanism
and establishment of explicitly Protestant governments. Romanism brings with it the judgment of God,
which is why the history of the Romish Church is plagued with scandal. A true Reformation must be truly
Protestant.