Worldwide Methodist Body Repudiates Reformation

Dzien Dobry · Seventh-day Adventist Joined: 26 May 2002 Posts: 71

Worldwide Methodist Body Repudiates Reformation by Kevin D. Paulson. Published 2006-07-24 23:40Z

On Sunday, July 23, 2006, the World Methodist Conference, meeting in Seoul, South Korea, voted unanimously to affirm the infamous “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith,” agreed upon seven years ago by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church (1).

“We welcome this agreement with great joy .... It is our deep hope that in the near future we shall also be able to enter into closer relationships with Lutherans and the Roman Catholic Church,” the World Methodist Council said in a statement (2). Cardinal Walter Kasper, chairman of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, likewise declared, “Today is one of the most significant dates in the history of our churches.” Kasper was present in Seoul for the signing of this agreement (3).

The Catholic News article reporting this agreement recalled how the 1999 “Joint Declaration” between Lutherans and Catholics, in which Methodists now concur, “satisfied both Lutherans and Catholics, saying that salvation is achieved through God’s grace and this is reflected in the good works a person does” (4).

Avoiding the Key Issue

One can only imagine the indignation and outrage with which John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist movement nearly three centuries ago, would greet this tragic and disgraceful reversal of the Protestant Reformation.

What seems to totally escape today’s professed Protestants in their ecumenical jubilation, is the simple reality that salvation by grace was not at all the issue of the Reformation. Rather, the issue was, Who dispenses this grace? Can human beings approach God through Jesus Christ alone, or must human mediators and requirements interpose themselves between the human soul and heaven?

The Roman Church has never had a problem with salvation by grace, provided they are the ones who dispense this grace to mankind and create the conditions whereby pardon and salvation are received. On this key point, the Catholic Church has moved not one inch.

A scant six years ago, the front page of the Los Angeles Times carried the headline, “Vatican Declares Catholicism Sole Path to Salvation” (5). The article that followed featured a statement by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), declaring that other Christian denominations should refer to the Catholic Church “not as sister, but as mother” (6). (Why does a certain chapter in Revelation suddenly come to mind?) And the late Pope John Paul II, in a statement issued in 1984, denounced “the widespread idea that one can obtain forgiveness directly from God,” and exhorted Catholics to confess more often to their priests (7).

In his proclamation of the “Great Jubilee of 2000,” the late pope invited Catholics to earn indulgences through such acts as visiting the sick and giving up tobacco or alcohol for a day (8). On September 17, 1999, the Vatican released a new manual on how such indulgences could be obtained (9). And as recently as 2005, Our Sunday Visitor contained the following Vatican announcement:

During the Year of the Eucharist, which runs through October, Catholics can receive special indulgences for Eucharistic Adoration and prayer before the Eucharist (10).

All these unabashed affirmations by the current papacy of medieval Catholic heresy seem to matter not one whit to the heirs of Martin Luther and the Wesley brothers. At the release of the Vatican indulgence manual noted above, concern was expressed in Catholic circles as to whether this new promotion of indulgences would hurt negotiations with the Lutherans, since the founder of Lutheranism had so strongly objected to this practice (11).

The Catholics needn’t have feared.

Conclusion—More Hands Across the Gulf

In sum, while the Catholic Church stands fast in its adherence to man-made requirements for salvation, Protestantism continues to blindly ignore this fact and move to embrace the system denounced in God’s Word as “the mother of harlots” (Revelation 17:5). One by one, the papacy’s principal daughters join their mother in the prostitution of the Christian faith. One day soon, Seventh-day Adventists will guard the faith and heritage of the Reformers all alone.

Through divine inspiration, Ellen White foretold the perverse harmony now being crafted between Protestants and Catholics, declaring:

This union will not, however, be effected by a change in Catholicism, for Rome never changes. She claims infallibility. It is Protestantism that will change (12).

And let it be remembered, it is the boast of Rome that she never changes. The principles of Gregory VII and Innocent III are still the principles of the Roman Catholic Church. And had she but the power, she would put them in practice with as much vigor as in past centuries (13).

When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its constitution as a Protestant and Republican government, and shall give provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near (14).

More and more, the hands of erstwhile Protestants reach across the gulf. May the hands of God’s faithful be ever strengthened as they hold aloft—and alone—the bold banner of Bible truth. GCO

References

1. “Methodists and Catholics Resolve Differences,”
http://www.cathnews.com/news/607/124.php, accessed 2006-07-24 23:29Z.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “Vatican Declares Catholicism Sole Path to Salvation,” Los Angeles Times, 2000-09-06, p. A1).
6. Ibid.
7. Don A. Schanche, “No Forgiveness ‘Directly from God,’ Pope Says,” Los Angeles Times, 1984-12-12, p. A11.
8. Alessandra Stanley, “Pope invites Catholics in 2000 to earn indulgences,” San Diego Union-Tribune, 1998-11-28, pp. A1, A12.
9. Frances D’Emilio, “Vatican releases new manual on how to gain indulgences,” Associated Press online, 1999-09-17.
10. “Pope authorizes special indulgences,” Our Sunday Visitor, 2005-01-30.
11. D’Emilio.
12. Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, 1886-06-01.
13. ________, The Great Controversy, p. 581.
14. ________, Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 451.

masmpg · Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:56 pm Post subject:

We are truly living in exciting times.

This is a milestone for the catholic church to bring the Methodists to the point of excepting the inquisition.

WAKE UP ALL!!!

The inquisitors live right next door to you through neighborhood watch programs, and Bill Clinton's volinteerism. Have you ever had your neighbor call the cops on you?
_________________
God Bless you
Jeff W