Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Rome’s Seven Deadly Errors

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Rome’s Seven Deadly Errors · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Today we talk about some of the deadliest errors of
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  Speaker 1: present day Roman Catholicism, and over the next month we
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  Speaker 1: look at Rome historically. This October, we're celebrating the Reformation
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  Speaker 1: together Martin Luther's great stand against the pope and against
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  Speaker 1: Rome's spiritual abuses and theological errors. But Luther didn't stand alone.
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  Speaker 1: Other men stood for this same cause before and after Luther.
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  Speaker 1: People like John Wickliffe, William Tendale, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox,
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  Speaker 1: and John Calvin, and many other lesser known names paid
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  Speaker 1: the ultimate price in the Reformation, Men and women and
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  Speaker 1: even teenagers who stood against Rome and who were bled
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  Speaker 1: and burned and drowned for it. These stories of sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: are our focus in the month ahead, in a thirty
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  Speaker 1: one day tour that you can complete in just five
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  Speaker 1: to seven minutes each day. It's titled Here We Stand.
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  Speaker 1: Abscribed to the email journey today by going to Desiring
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  Speaker 1: Good dot org forward slash stand, or just go to
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  Speaker 1: Desiring Good dot org and click on the link on
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  Speaker 1: the top of the website. I hope you'll join us
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  Speaker 1: in remembering the price paid for the spiritual blessings and
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  Speaker 1: the religious liberties that we enjoy. Today, those core beliefs
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  Speaker 1: enshrined by the Pope and in the practices of Rome
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  Speaker 1: that deeply concerned the Reformers five hundred years ago, or
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  Speaker 1: some of the very same concerns for Protestants today, leading
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  Speaker 1: to this question about whether someone in a Roman Catholic
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  Speaker 1: church today could be genuinely saved. The question comes from
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  Speaker 1: a listener named Jimmy, who writes this, Hello, Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: a close friend of mine passed away recently. He was
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  Speaker 1: a great man, a good friend, a mentor to many
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  Speaker 1: young men like myself, and he was a devout Roman Catholic.
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  Speaker 1: My questions for you are these, Will I see my
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  Speaker 1: friend in heaven? Or do his theological views make this impossible?
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  Speaker 1: Can I rightfully experience Paul's sorrowful yet always rejoicing mantra?
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  Speaker 1: Or was my friend merely a devoted husband, a wonderful friend,
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  Speaker 1: and a good man? In other words, do you believe
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  Speaker 1: devout Roman Catholics can be genuine Christians?
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  Speaker 2: Before I answer that specific question, let me lay out
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  Speaker 2: again the reasons we should be seriously concerned with Roman
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  Speaker 2: Catholic teaching, and that at numerous levels it's contradictory stance
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  Speaker 2: toward scripture that produces I think, a kind of religion
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  Speaker 2: which I fear has led many people astray, even into destruction.
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  Speaker 2: And I do not mean that Roman Catholicism has a
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  Speaker 2: corner on that kind of misleading teaching. There are lots
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  Speaker 2: of brands of so called Christian tradition that have damaged
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  Speaker 2: people by the errors that they represent. So let me
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  Speaker 2: give you six examples of what concerns me about Roman
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  Speaker 2: Catholic teaching and that I think we should be very
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  Speaker 2: concerned about and steer clear of. First, we should be
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  Speaker 2: concerned that the Roman Catholic Church elevates the authority of
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  Speaker 2: the Pope and the church councils when speaking in their
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  Speaker 2: official capacity as teachers of the Church, to the same
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  Speaker 2: level as holy scripture. This has led many Roman Catholics
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  Speaker 2: away from a personal engagement with the scriptures into a
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  Speaker 2: reliance on the Church, even though the Church is fallible,
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  Speaker 2: when they ought to be relying on the scriptures the
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  Speaker 2: very Word of God inspired and written. Number two, I'm
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  Speaker 2: concerned we should be concerned that the Blessed Virgin Mary,
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  Speaker 2: and I have no problem calling her that is elevated
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  Speaker 2: to a position in practice where she mediates between the
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  Speaker 2: people of God and the Son of God in a
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  Speaker 2: way that undermines the direct priestly ministry of Christ between
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  Speaker 2: his people and God. This elevation of Mary, beyond anything
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  Speaker 2: in the scriptures, based solely on Church tradition, distances the
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  Speaker 2: people of God from the enjoyment of personal fellowship with
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  Speaker 2: Jesus and the kind of relationship and assurance they might
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  Speaker 2: otherwise enjoy with Him. Third, we should be concerned about
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  Speaker 2: the teaching of baptismal regeneration, the idea that an appropriate
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  Speaker 2: putting of water on the baby's head, by the very
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  Speaker 2: work of the water ex opere operato, by the very
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  Speaker 2: operating of the thing itself, by the very work of
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  Speaker 2: the water in the priestly act, causes a change in
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  Speaker 2: the nature of the baby from lost in original sin
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  Speaker 2: to saved through regeneration. This notion has produced, i would say, untold,
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  Speaker 2: ill founded confidence in the people of God who have
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  Speaker 2: little or no personal faith or relationship with Christ or
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  Speaker 2: love to Jesus, and yet because of their baptism, believe
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  Speaker 2: they are heaven bound. Fourth, we should be concerned about
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  Speaker 2: the offering of so called indulgences, which the very Pope
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  Speaker 2: himself not in some distant sixteenth century past. It involves
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  Speaker 2: certain kinds of pilgrimages, or special buildings or special payments
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  Speaker 2: which one can perform or attend, so that an indulgence
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  Speaker 2: is granted by the pope, which provides forgiveness of sins.
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  Speaker 2: This is an appalling detraction from the absolute uniqueness of
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  Speaker 2: the death of Christ as the provision for sins, and
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  Speaker 2: personal faith as the means by which that provision becomes ours. Fifth,
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  Speaker 2: we should be concerned about the confusion over the doctrine
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  Speaker 2: of justification by grace alone on the basis of Christ alone,
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  Speaker 2: through faith alone, to the glory of God alone. The
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  Speaker 2: Roman Catholic insistence that justification consists in the infusion of righteousness,
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  Speaker 2: which as our own virtue, qualifies us to be accepted
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  Speaker 2: by God is not the same as the biblical doctrine
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  Speaker 2: of God becoming one hundred percent for us in the
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  Speaker 2: moment when by faith we are united with Christ, so
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  Speaker 2: that His blood and righteousness alone become the ground of
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  Speaker 2: that acceptance. Sixth, we should be concerned about the centrality
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  Speaker 2: of the mass in the Roman Catholic practice, in which
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  Speaker 2: the bread and wine are actually trans substantiated. They become
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  Speaker 2: the physical body and physical blood of Jesus, so that
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  Speaker 2: the Lord's Supper takes on a power of salvation by
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  Speaker 2: the entering of the blood and the body of Jesus
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  Speaker 2: into us, which it never was intended to have in
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  Speaker 2: the Bible. It misleads millions of what's happening there. And finally,
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  Speaker 2: we should be concerned about the doctrine of purgatory, in
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  Speaker 2: which a person after death may be given another chance
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  Speaker 2: of bearing some punishment, so that finally they can make
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  Speaker 2: their way to Heaven after doing appropriate penance. There, the
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  Speaker 2: Bible holds out no such hope for those who die
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  Speaker 2: in unbelief. It is not found in the scriptures. Now,
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  Speaker 2: having waived a flag of concern for those seven matters
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  Speaker 2: of Catholic belief, my answer to the question nevertheless is yes,
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  Speaker 2: I think there are genuine Christians who are devout and
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  Speaker 2: inconsistent Roman Catholics devout in the sense that they are
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  Speaker 2: earnest and serious, sincere, and inconsistent in the sense that
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  Speaker 2: their true heart and brace of Jesus is better than
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  Speaker 2: their mental ideas or doctrines. If a person has a
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  Speaker 2: genuine encounter with the living Christ and recognizes the depth
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  Speaker 2: of human sinfulness and the hopelessness that we're in without
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  Speaker 2: grace and without Christ, and seize in Jesus, the substitute
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  Speaker 2: that God provided to bear our punishment and provide all
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  Speaker 2: we need for acceptance with God. And that person throws
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  Speaker 2: himself on the mercy of Christ, despairing of all self reliance,
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  Speaker 2: and cherishes Christ as his supreme treasure and hope for
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  Speaker 2: eternal life. That person will be saved even if many
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  Speaker 2: doctrinal ideas are confused or erroneous.
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  Speaker 3: In other words, it is possible for a person's heart
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  Speaker 3: and his essential grasp of Christ to be far better
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  Speaker 3: than the structures of his doctrinal framework. And we may
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  Speaker 3: all be very very thankful for this.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thank you bestor John. And speaking of those
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  Speaker 1: seven deadly errors in Roman Catholic theology and practice and
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  Speaker 1: the price paid to resist them, be sure to check
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  Speaker 1: out our series here. We stand subscribed to the U
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  Speaker 1: email journey right now at Desiring Good dot org forward
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  Speaker 1: slash stand or just go to Desiring Good dot org
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  Speaker 1: and click on the link at the top of the website.
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  Speaker 1: Would love for you to join us on the journey
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  Speaker 1: in just five to seven minutes each day. I am
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  Speaker 1: Tony Ranky, how do we overcome halfheartedness? That's on Monday.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you then.