10.31.2007

Why I am not a (Capital C) Catholic

I am a catholic because the church is universal. The Reformed Protestants are not the only believers professing Christ, which is the only basis for salvation. I am not a Catholic for the Vatican teaches salvation by works. Luther, Calvin, and the myriad of reformers correctly saw the need for gospel revival and reformation within Rome. Christ did not preach that he came to give grace infused with the keys of the kingdom (which Rome teaches are given to the church), nor is salvation given through the sacraments. Christ builds the church, not us. The bride grows in grace by Christ’s grace alone.

M. Horton offers advice to those who would consider leaving the protestant realm (traditionally evangelical) to Rome (traditionally not evangelical)
Here’s how I would counsel such a person: Start with the gospel. The gospel creates and sustains the church, not the other way around. If the Evangelicalism familiar to you has been a constant stream of imperatives—moral exhortation, whether in rigid and legalistic or warm and friendly versions—the antidote is not to follow different rules for attaining justification, but a constant, life-long, unremitting immersion in the good news that Jesus Christ’s obedient life, death, and resurrection are sufficient even to save miserable Christians.

That is what the Reformation was all about, and it is why we need another one, even in Protestantism as much as in any other tradition. If our salvation depends on anything done by us or even within us by the Spirit, then our situation is hopeless.

[Between Two Worlds]

0 comments: