“ Joint Declaration on
the Doctrine of Justification”:
A Denial of
the Gospel and the Righteousness of Christ
by
There
have been numerous, alarming attempts over the past five years to declare
Roman Catholics as “brothers and sisters in Christ” during the dialogue
between Evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Church.Now
something more sinister and authoritative has taken place.“The
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” (JD), an
official doctrinal statement jointly authored by representatives of the Roman
Catholic Church (RCC) and the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF), has been
signed on October 31st, 1999, as
a joint confessional agreement.On the
482nd anniversary of Martin Luther's pivotal posting of the yet unanswered
“95 theses” that ignited the Protestant Reformation, the RCC and LWF vividly
confirmed their position of the serious apostasy--to which ecumenism with
Rome inevitably leads.The Lutherans
of LWF have now embraced the doctrine of the Council of Trent, and
in so doing have officially and formally denied the Gospel and the righteousness
of Christ.
Elite
untouchable JD?
JD
is the result of thirty years of Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue.This
fact alone might dissuade many from daring to challenge it.The
document itself is about nineteen pages in length depending on which printing
one reads.Arrayed with many footnotes,
a sizable appendix, the official response of the Lutheran World Federation,
the Roman Catholic response, the clarifications to the document, and the
added accouterment of John Paul II’s comment on JD, the document appears
very much like the robes of those who devised it: all very “haut couture”
meant to stun anyone who might dare to analyze it.
In
addition to the first rate showmanship with which JD has been presented,
it appears that there is neither grub nor gnat that has not been strained
out of this cleverly worded document and addenda.Dare
anyone be so bold as to ask if a camel has been swallowed? Daunting circumstances
notwithstanding, the Christian, committed to Scripture as his sole authority,
and in the same Holy Spirit that gave the Scripture, is able to sift error
from truth, discerning that which is in accord with Scripture in the Official
Common Statement in which JD is ratified and approved by both parties.
Heretical
landmines
There
are presuppositions upheld in JD itself, which are not stated as such in
the Official Common Statement.Some
of these presuppositions totally negate Biblical justification as, for
example, the idea that justification is by means of the sacrament of baptism.Such
a tradition of men is accepted by both parties to the agreement which in
JD states,
4.4
The Justified as Sinner
28.
We confess together that in Baptism the Holy Spirit unties one with Christ,
justifies, and truly renews the person.
This
heresy is in line with the teaching of the Council of Trent,
Can.
8“If any shall say that by the said
sacraments of the New Law, grace is not conferred from the work
which has been worked [ex opere operato] but that faith alone in
the divine promise suffices to obtain grace: let him be anathema.”[1]
Biblical
truth, however, is that the believer’s faith cannot be based on any physical
works of men whatsoever, as true faith is in God’s work alone.[2]To
attempt to claim causative effects, therefore, for that which was given
to testify to the Lord’s grace and His finished work is “to preach another
gospel”.[3]
While
such deadly landmines as this permeates JD, this analysis is limited mainly
to examining the Official Common Statement ratified by both parties.To
examine adequately the superabundance of heresies and half truths in the
full JD document is far beyond the scope of this paper, but certainly it
is hoped that Evangelical men will undertake to address these.
JD
and the judgement of Sovereign
God
Because
God is All Holy and man is dead trespasses and sins,[4]
an immense gulf exists between the Creator and the human creature.Because
of Adam’s sin, mankind is born spiritually dead.God
justifies His own Holiness in graciously providing the believer’s rectitude
by imputing to the sinner the perfect righteousness of Christ and His perfect
propitiation-sacrifice.The Scriptures
proclaim the Holiness and Righteousness of God in the flawless life and
death of the God-man the Lord Christ Jesus.Justification
in the first place has to do with God Himself, to show that He is just
in justifying the sinner in Christ.
The
Gospel has to do with who God is in His Holy and Righteous nature.The
Gospel demonstrates that because of who God is, He alone justifies.Thus
Romans 3:26 states, “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness:
that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”The
final cause of justification is the glory of the Divine Holiness, Justice
and Goodness.Thus the one who preaches
any other gospel is accursed by God (Galatians
1:8-9).
Perversion
of the Gospel is an enormous crime.It
debases the perfect righteousness and sacrifice of Christ, and in so doing
stands against the very nature of God’s Holiness.Through
the prophet Isaiah the Lord warns, "But the Lord
of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified
in righteousness.”[5]
It
must be carefully observed that it is not more possible for those who pervert
the Gospel to continue unaccused than for God to permit His glory to be
set aside.The time frame is not
known; however, the certainly is inevitable.God
that is Holy “shall be sanctified in righteousness.”God
is God, and those who teach a false gospel may not, by a false fancy, assure
themselves of uninterrupted tranquillity.God
is Holy by nature.He must be sanctified
in judgement, for God cannot deny Himself.
JD's
claim
The
document alleges, “...that a consensus in basic truths of the doctrine
of justification exists between Lutherans and Catholics...” and “...that
the mutual condemnations of former times do not apply to the Catholic and
Lutheran Doctrines of justification as they are presented in the joint
declaration.”These statements notwithstanding, the
relevant “condemnations” by the Church of Rome on those who hold to the
biblical Gospel have never been revoked or recanted. The
present day dogma of the RCC upholds the teaching of the Council of Trent
and declares that it is infallible.[6]From
Sixth Session of the Council of Trent, the following
curses still stand,
Canon
9.If anyone shall say that by faith
alone the sinner is justified, so as to understand that nothing else is
required to cooperate in the attainment of the grace of justification,
and that it is in no way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by
the action of his own will: let him be anathema.[7]
Canon
11. If anyone shall say that men are justified either by the sole imputation
of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion
of the grace and the charity, which is poured forth in their hearts by
the Holy Spirit and remains in them, or even that the grace by which we
are justified is only the favor of God: let him be anathema.[8]
>From
a Roman Catholic perspective, as will be seen, these condemnations do in
fact stand because JD does not contradict either.From
a Biblical and historical Lutheran viewpoint, however, these anathemas
of Trent fall under the wrath of God.
The
contents of JD
JD
consists of five main divisions with the entirety subdivided into forty-four
numbered paragraphs.The fourth main
division, the lengthiest of the five, is broken down into seven sections,
an overview being as follows:
Preamble
(7 paragraphs JD 1-7)
1.
Biblical Message of Justification (JD 8-12)
2.
The Doctrine of Justification as Ecumenical Problem (JD 13)
3.
The Common Understanding of Justification
(JD 14-18)
4.
Explicating the Common Understanding of Justification
(JD 19-39)This 20-paragraph section
has seven subheadings.
1.
Human Powerlessness and Sin in Relation to Justification
(JD 19-21)
2. Justification
as Forgiveness of Sins and Making Righteous(JD22-24)
3. Justification
by Faith and through Grace(JD
25-27)
4. The
Justified as Sinner(JD
28-30)
5. Law
and Gospel(JD
31-33)
6.
Assurance of Salvation
(JD 34-36)
7.
The Good Works of the Justified
(JD 37-39)
5.
The Significance and Scope of the Consensus Reached
(JD 40-44)
The
Official Common Statement ratifies JD.This
begins with three paragraphs (OCS 1-3) followed
by the words, “By this act of signing The Catholic Church and The
Lutheran World Federation Confirm the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine
of Justification in its entirety.”The
Official Common Statement has an Annex with four sections.Finally,
Section 2 has five subsections, A-E.
Stumbling
at the Rock of offence
JD
must be analyzed in the light of Biblical truth.What
was true for Israel in the Apostle Paul’s analysis applies in this instance.
But
Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained
to the law of righteousness.Wherefore?Because
they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.For
they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
As
it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumblingstone and rock of offence:
and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed...For they being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.[9]
The
Biblical “rock of offence” is Christ Jesus Himself, the Rock on which one
believes for extrinsic justification, that is, imputed righteousness.One
must remember from the outset that the issue at hand is “Justification”.Error
always cloaks itself in reasonable sounding phrases and often makes use
of the scheme of the evil one to twist the Scriptures.JD
is replete with “Reformation-like” language and Scripture quotations.A
characteristic vagueness and impreciseness permeates the document.Certain
sentences can be read and assented to by a Biblical Christian, but when
the slant of meaning is examined each is seen to be the opposite of what
it first seemed to say.The conclusions
arrived at are similar to the deception of Jacob in Genesis Ch. 27, “The
voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”“The
voice” of JD is distinctly that
of the Scriptures; “the hands”, however, are the hairy hands of Rome.The
document is excelsior of doublespeak. It
claims to explain a common understanding of the doctrine of justification,
and then adds encumbrance upon impediment to the purely Scriptural, wholly
objective, wholly juridical nature of the doctrine.There
is no better way to assess the guile of JD in its attendant Official Common
Statement than by comparing it to what the Scripture, the Word of God,
declares to be truth.
Trent
in new garments
In
JD, imputed righteousness is cleverly sidestepped for the old lie of establishing
one’s own righteousness.The central
point that separated the Reformation from Rome was the Biblical doctrine
of extrinsic justification.A person
is accepted by the All Holy God only “in the beloved” “to the
praise of the glory of his grace.”[10]The
doctrine of imputed righteousness struck at the very heart of the Roman
Catholic insistence on one being made inherently just, i.e., just within
oneself.In JD, the doctrine of extrinsic
or imputed righteousness has been wiped out in favor of the RCC doctrine
of inherent righteousness.Clearly,
JD is an attempt to do away with the biblical Gospel.Thus
the Official Common Statement2.
A) reads,
“We
confess together that God forgives sin by grace and at the same time frees
human beings from sin’s enslaving power ” (JD 22).“Justification
is forgiveness of sins and being made righteous, through which God “imparts
the gift of new life in Christ” (JD 22).“Since
we are justified by faith, we have peace with God” (Rom 5:1).We
are “called children of God; and that is what we are” (1 Jn 3:1).We
are truly and inwardly renewed by the action of the Holy Spirit, remaining
always dependent on his work in us.“So
if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed
away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor 5:17).The
justified do not remain sinners in this sense”.
This
is a convoluted mixture of the doctrines of justification and sanctification
rather than merely a problem of semantics.Justification
nowhere in Scripture ever means inherent righteousness (i.e. “being made
righteous”).The believer’s justification
is not based on a single iota of anything in him: it is based wholly in
his standing in Christ.This is the
crux of the matter in JD.One goes
the way of all flesh to the judgement of hell if he adds anything to the
pure and perfect righteousness of Christ.One
needs to be “afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of Christ” (II
Cor. 11:3).Justification is not
“being made righteous”, but JD follows such statements as these with numerous
Scriptural quotations and phrases cloaking its errors in the semblance
of truth.It is quite like
Rebekah’s word to Jacob, “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according
to that which I command thee.”[11]Thus
“Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with
her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son.”[12]In
JD, the voice of some of the best Scripture texts on justification is heard.The
conclusion, however, is similar to what Isaac discerned, “The voice
is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”[13]The
hands of JD are distinctly those of Rome; the material that is manipulated,
however, is that of Scripture.[14]
“Being
made righteous”
In
the justifying act of God, He imputes Christ's perfect righteousness to
the individual.It is a legal and
one time, finished, irrevocable act which cannot be misconstrued to be
a process or ongoing occurrence, such as the term “being made righteous”
will allow.The simple truth of
Scripture is stated Rom 3:22, "Even the righteousness of God which is
by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” God’s
demonstration of His own righteousness is the faithfulness[15]
of Jesus Christ in His perfect life and sacrificial death.The
great news is that this absolute righteousness is by imputation “unto
all and upon all them that believe.”Being
“called children of God” and “a new creation” is the fruit.It
is what follows on this act.“Being
made righteous” here is just a rewording of the old lie of the Council
of Trent in which it was officially declared, “Justification…which is not
merely remission of sins, but also of the sanctification and renewal of
the interior man…whereby an unjust man becomes a just man.”[16]In
this final word of the JD Official Common Statement is the age old Roman
Catholic mixing of sanctification with the act of justification, returning
to the age old fabrication that righteousness is supposedly within the
soul, rather than to the biblical truth that by Holy God the believer is
credited with the everlasting righteousness that is in Christ Jesus.“Surely,
shall one say, in the Lord
have I righteousness and strength....”[17]
What
is proposed in JD as the “doctrine of justification” is deficient in two
essential ways.It neither upholds
the perfect standard of God’s Holiness nor does it demonstrate the perfect
righteousness of Christ in life and death.In
the words of the Apostle Paul, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Romans 10:3)The
Bible emphasizes and declares the righteousness of God, “the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith” (Romans 1: 17).This
is not proclaimed nor taught in the Official Common Statement on JD. Destitute
and sinful human beings need the perfect righteousness of Christ.This
is what the Scripture clearly says is now manifest, “But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested.”(Romans
3:21)
Manifested
in Scripture, missing in JD
What
precisely is omitted in JD is “the righteousness of God without the
law the righteousness which is of God by faith” of Philippians
3:9, “the righteousness of the one”, “the obedience
of the one” of Romans 5:18-19[18],
the righteousness of Jesus Christ “the righteousness of God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ” of 2 Peter 1:1.The
verdict act of God in declaring that a sinner is acquitted and counted
righteous because of the obedience and death of Jesus Christ alone is not
contained in JD.What is proposed
in its place is a combination of some Biblical truths (such as grace alone,
faith alone) with the old lying definition of “justification” being seen
as a quality of the soul within the believer.
Because
righteousness is of and from God, it is absolutely perfect.The
one-time act of God in justifying a sinner in Christ Jesus is perfect.Because
man in himself cannot be perfect, righteousness can only be communicated
through imputation or reckoning.God’s
provision of the perfect righteousness of Christ is acquired by faith alone.It
is not seen (Hebrews 1:11).The “righteousness
of God without the law” is not to be seen on earth.The
fruitfulness of such righteousness is indeed seen; nevertheless, the righteousness
itself is in heavenly places in Christ.[19]
What
is proposed to be “justification” in the Official Common Statement on JD
is to be seen here on earth, and not the Scriptural, declarative justification
“in heaven”.Rather justification
is presented as taking place “on earth” in the believer, as for
example, in Annex Para 2,
“Together
we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because
of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy
Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good
works” (JD 15).(Emphasis added.)
The
simple truth of Scripture is that God never accepts an individual as such.Rather,
he is accepted only in the Beloved,[20]
in the righteousness of the One, Christ Jesus, that is, in the righteousness
of faith.Receiving the Holy Spirit
and the renewal of hearts is the old confusion of justification with sanctification.Because
the purpose of these statements is to define justification, such
stupefaction is studied deceit.
The
phrases, “being made righteous” and “we are accepted by God and receive
the Holy Spirit” both make room for what is to be concluded, i.e., that
“justification” is within the person and a quality of the soul within the
believer.Basically the Biblical
truth is this: the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer
is an act of God in Christ.
Sophisticated
sophistry
The
official statement ratifying JD states,
C)
Justification takes place “by grace alone” (JD 15 and 16), by faith alone,
the person is justified “apart from works” (Rom 3:28, cf. JD 25).“Grace
creates faith not only when faith begins in a person but as long as faith
lasts” (Thomas Aquinas, S. Th II/II 4, 4 ad 3).
The
use of the phrase “Justification takes place” rather than the Biblical
concept, “to whom it shall be imputed,”[21]
is studied deceit because the word “justification” can be made to imply
a process rather than a one-time act of the God.Nevertheless,
the Scriptures continually speak about the outcome of the justifying act
as “righteousness”, not justification.JD
and the Official Common Statement on JD use the noun “justification” and
carefully avoid the verb “justifies”.The
Greek word “justifies” (logizomai) means to count esteem, impute, number,
reason, reckon.It is a verb denoting
a one-time action.The repetition
of the noun “justification” in JD and in the Official Common Statement
on JD conveys the concept of a quality within a person that totally contravenes
the Scripture.Not mentioning
“imputed righteousness” and continually speaking of “justification” is
seductive sophistry.
Thus
in the Official Common Statement’s endorsement of JD, the basis for the
Gospel is given as within man rather than the perfect righteousness of
the God-man, Christ Jesus.This
is speaking against God and is worse than anything proposed by Israel or
the Pharisees.The words of the Lord
Christ Jesus therefore apply, "for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that
are entering to go in.”[22]
The
mindset of Rome in JD
The
Roman Catholic Church cannot conceive of the act of justifying in which
man remains a sinner.Catholic theology
understands justifying as “justification”, something that God graciously
pours into a man’s heart, displacing sin and sinfulness in the process.Biblically
speaking, however, justifying righteousness is something that always resides
in the person of Christ alone.The
imputation of this righteousness is what makes a believer acceptable to
God.As long as the believer lives,
he is in himself guilty, but in Christ He is righteous and accounted precious
in God’s sight.
An
astonishing quote from Aquinas
It
is a surprising thing that a section of Thomas Aquinas’ teaching is affirmed
in this final word confirming the conclusion of JD and the Official Common
Statement.The question Aquinas was
answering in S. Th II/II 4, 4 ad 3 is, “Whether Formless Faith Can Become
Formed or Formed Faith Formless?”[23]The
abstruseness of the question itself gives one a taste of the intricacies
of scholastic theology.Why quote
from a most intricate question in Aquinas rather than simply giving the
words of Scripture that are referred to in the brackets?The
Romans 3:28 text given in brackets before the Aquinas quote states, “Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”The
word “conclude” in this text is the Greek word “logizometha” meaning, we
esteem, impute or reckon “that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law.”This imputation
of righteousness (“dikaiousthai”) annihilates the concept proposed that
“the person is justified”.Had the
Scripture been cited rather than Aquinas, “righteousness reckoned” would
have been obvious, and the sophistry exposed.The
statement agreed on says,
C)
Justification takes place “by grace alone” (JD 15 and 16), by faith alone,
the person is justified “apart from works” (Rom 3:28, cf. JD 25).
“Grace creates faith not only when faith begins in a person but as long
as faith lasts” (Thomas Aquinas, S. Th II/II 4, 4 ad 3).
Biblically
speaking it ought to say,
The
righteousness of Christ is credited to the believer “by grace alone” and
by faith alone, and thus the person is justified in Christ alone, “apart
from works”.As is stated by the
Apostle Paul, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.” (Rom 3:28)
Cancerous
Cuisine
Earlier
in the same work cited, Aquinas teaches that grace is a quality of the
soul.In the “Treatise on Grace”,
he asks the question “Is Grace a Quality of the Soul?”In
the body of his article, he cites Aristotle’s physics saying, “motion is
the act of the mover in the moved.”Then
in Reply Obj. 1, he states, “Grace, as a quality, is said to act upon the
soul not after the manner of an efficient cause, but after the manner of
a formal cause, as whiteness makes a thing white, and justice, just.”[24]The
whole idea of grace being moral justice located inside a person, rather
than Holy God imputing Christ's righteousness to each person whom He places
in Christ, blatantly contradicts Biblical truth.Such
teaching is a negation of consistent Biblical teaching of positional legal
righteousness in Christ alone.[25]
Complete
perfection in Christ, not in the individual
Endorsing
the teaching of Aquinas and all such teaching in JD as “Justification takes
place”, “being made righteous”, and “we are accepted by God and receive
the Holy Spirit” is quite cleverly teaching “inherent righteousness” without
using those words.Such teaching
opposes both the Gospel and the righteousness of Christ.
The
distinction between the righteousness of faith (justification) and the
righteousness of the law (i.e., sanctification) was foundational in Luther’s
understanding of the Gospel.After
Luther, the Formula of Concord of 1556 reiterated the basic Biblical
insights of double righteousness.This
was bedrock of historical Lutheranism.It
was recognized that if active righteousness (sanctification) were brought
into the definition of the passive righteousness by faith, then both the
glory of Christ and the Gospel are denied and one returns to the old lie
of Satan that what is inside a man makes him right before God."Ye
shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5).
The
written Word of the Lord continually shows the believer where he or she
is eternally and splendidly saved.“And
ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”[26]The
Roman Catholic Church does not rest satisfied with Christ alone, her process
program in fact nullifies the grace of God.[27]What
is literally damming in the Official Common Statement of JD is that an
attempt has been made to masquerade the perfect righteousness of Christ
as inherent righteousness.What
was truly Biblical in Luther’s understanding of imputed righteousness is
now subsumed under Rome’s idea of “inner” righteousness, the source of
her power over the minds and hearts of men, which power she covets.What
is most serious, the very truth of the Gospel is thus made void.The
“inner” process system is a hopeless practice born of a blasphemous idea.Rather,
“It is God that justifieth.”[28]
The
wrath of God is revealed
The
Lord forewarned of stumbling at the Rock of offence, "Unto you therefore
which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone
which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.”
(1 Peter 2:7)The RCC and LWF
in publicizing their apostasy in JD have to fear a revelation of something
much more serious; the very wrath of God. "For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold
the truth in unrighteousness.” (Rom 1:18)
“With
her much fair speech…till a dart strike through his liver”[29]
The
intent to continue dialogue “to reach full church community” is a conclusion
mentioned in paragraph 3 of the Official Common Statement.The
actual words are as follows,
“The
two partners in dialogue are committed to continued and deepened study
of the biblical foundations of the doctrine of justification.They
will also seek further common understanding of the doctrine of justification,
also beyond what is dealt with in the Joint Declaration and the annexed
substantiating statement.Based on
the consensus reached, continued dialogue is required specifically on the
issues mentioned especially in the Joint Declaration itself (JD 43) as
requiring further clarification, in order to reach full church communion,
a unity in diversity, in which remaining differences would be ‘reconciled’
and no longer have a divisive force.”
It
is quite revealing that the stated conclusion here is one of the primary
goals as defined in the Church of Rome’s conditions for dialogue.
RCC
rules of engagement applied to JD
In
the Vatican Council II Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents No.
42, “Reflections and Suggestions Concerning Ecumenical Dialogue”, the Church
of Rome carefully lays out the ground rules for her program of ecumenical
dialogue among Christians.From that
document it is clear that the RCC is proceeding to “dialogue” with Christians
by adhering to a special set of rules.Thus
specifically she states, “...dialogue is not an end in itself...It is not
just an academic discussion.”Rather,
the stated purpose of dialogue is that
“little
by little, as the obstacles to perfect ecclesial communion are overcome,
all Christians will be gathered, in a common celebration of the Eucharist
[i.e., the Mass], into that unity of the one and only Church...This unity,
we believe, dwells in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose....”[30]
The
“little by little” may this time be a giant step as it appears in the conclusion
to the Official Common Statement of JD (quoted above).
In
the introduction to “Reflections and Suggestions Concerning Ecumenical
Dialogue” (No. 42), the RCC states that
“This
document concerns only ecumenical dialogue, that is to say, dialogue which
is established between the ‘Christians of different Churches or Communions.’”
(p. 538)“Ecumenical dialogue is
rooted in a number of doctrinal and pastoral facts....First, since ‘the
brethren who believe in Christ are Christ’s disciples, reborn in baptism,
sharers with the People of God in very many riches,’ and since these riches,
such as ‘the written word of God, the life of grace, faith, hope and
charity, along with other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit and visible
elements, are accessible to all those who have been baptized...This
community of spiritual goods is the first basis upon which ecumenical
dialogue rests.” (p. 541 Emphasis added.)
Using
many words, the RCC is giving what is consistently her primary basis, “the
community of spiritual goods”.Her
“first basis” is not that of the Lord and the Apostles, which was the written
word of God alone.
The
dart through the liver: Rome's first basis
For
the RCC the first basis on which ecumenical dialogue works is not Sola
Scriptura[31],“the
Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35); rather it is a “community
of spiritual goods”.This basis is
exactly the same as the premise on which the RCC builds her doctrine and
which is spelled out in her latest official Catechism.[32]
Para.
80“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 wellspring, come together
in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.”
Thus
the first basis for all the dialogue with the LWF
was the RCC’s own measure of “truth”.The
rules following on this first basis were also her own rules of engagement.
Some of the
rules are these:
“Each
partner should seek to expound the doctrine of his own community in a constructive
manner, putting aside the tendency to define by opposition.... [Interestingly,
the Bible teaches much by means of contrast.]The
partners will work together towards a constructive synthesis, in such a
way that every legitimate contribution is made use of, in a joint research
aimed at the complete assimilation of the revealed datum.”[33]
The
words “revealed datum” are carefully chosen.For
a Bible believer, the term would mean just the Written Word; for the RCC,
however, the term “revealed datum” consistently refers to Scripture plus
Tradition as her first basis.Proceeding
from this impure base, the “constructive synthesis” rules are simply the
old line of evolution, “truth” by synthesis, or relative “truth”.Excluded
from start to finish is the principle of Sola Scriptura.To
the RCC who by so exquisite an application of her rules
of engagement has “thrust through” the Lutherans,
the words of the Lord speak directly, “[You
are] making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,
which ye have delivered.”[34]
According
to Vatican Council II Document No. 42, the final goal of the dialogue between
the Lutherans and the Roman Catholic Church is that
the Lutherans be brought “into that unity of the one and only Church...This
unity, we believe, dwells in the Catholic Church as something she can never
lose.”For the RCC, the final conclusion
has not yet been attained until her stated objective is secured.Until
then, “continued dialogue is required…in order to reach full church communion”.And
to this, the Lutherans apparently have agreed fully--snared by thirty years
of hearing her “much fair speech...till a dart strike through his liver”,
as indeed it has.
The
RCC has been clear in laying out her agenda toward all Christians who are
not part of her organization.She
has applied her method skillfully, relentlessly since Vatican Council II.Ought
one to be surprised by the conclusions to which she and the LWF have come?
For
those who are the Lord’s own within the Lutheran Churches, the warning
of the Lord is clearly given,
“Hearken
unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For
she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by
her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”
(Proverbs 7:24-27)
JD
as ratified in the Official Common Statement is indeed outwardly stunning,
but the message is dead men’s bones in that it attempts to cleverly establish
man’s own righteousness.The words
of the Lord are indeed appropriate, “I say unto you, that except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)¨