Witnessing

to
Roman Catholics
by C. lo/m Miller
L The Roman Catholic in Focus But this is mixed in with the mystical notion that, in
Roman Catholic worship, there is a higher reality coming
Roman Catholics differ a great deal one from another. down. TIris divine presence is especially manifested in
And the Roman Catholic Church is quite different in the sacrifice of the Mass. On this basis redemption of the
IreIandfrom whatitisinHollandorthe U.S .. But in spite individual sinner involves not simply the forgiveness of
of these differences there is a specific kind of religious sins, but God's coming down and lifting up the sinner to
tension in most Roman Catholics: The typical Roman partake of the divine nature.
Catholic is unsure of grace.
This may come as a surprise to some. TraditionalRoman
Catholicism has been given over almost entirely to
structuring, rationalizing, and preparing for grace. This
is what Thomas Aquinas is all about.
But there are two reasons why this is so and they are
closely related. First, there is a strong strain of legalism
in Roman Catholic thought and practice. According to
this theological system, Christ's death removes the guilt
and corruption of original sin for those baptized; but this
"fIrst justifIcation" must be followed by a "second
justifIcation" based upon deeds oflove and mortifIcation
of the flesh. Inevitably, this leaves the devout soul fIlled
with questions: Have I done enough? When I did that
deedoflove, what was my real motive? How can I know
whether God approves of my way of living?
Second, salvation is understood as the descent of a higher
reality. !tis notthatRoman Catholic teaching completely
overlooks the juridical aspect in salvation. Its theology
has a limited place for the merits of Christ resulting from
his faithful keeping of God's law and from his sacrificial
death to atone for man's guilt.
Thus salvation for Catholics is not only redemption from
the curse of the law, but also and more centrally a
deliverance from the physical, the material, and the
mundane. Salvation is as much mystical and metaphysical
as ethical.
Because of this legalism and mysticism, the sincere
Roman Catholic is not at all sure of grace. In spite of the
authoritarian claims of the Roman Church, the individual
worshiper is given little solid basis for thinking all is well
with his soul. How does he know whether he has obeyed
God from the heart? How can he be sure that some day
his flesh will not break forth and negate the power of the
higher reality in his heart and life?
Hope in a shaken authority
Recentdevelopments within theRoman Catholic Church
have acted to heighten this tension. In the past, the devont
could always say , "Yes, I have doubts about my spiritual
state. But I am sure I'm a member of Christ' s own
Church. Though I lack personal assurance of salvation,
I know that salvation is found within the priesthood and
sacraments of the one holy universal and apostolic
Church."
The Counsel of ChaIcedou FebruaryfMarch 1991 Page 37
Today this external source of authority is iti'deep trouble.
Recently Hans Kung . has directly challenged the
infallibility of the Pope. Before this, theologians like
Leslie .Dewart (The FutUre of Belif!f) and Edward
SC;hi11ebeeckx(God,theFutureojMan)hadIl).Qvedaway
from the traditional founclationS. :[n Holland a whole
national church has become rife with . theological
modernism. .
Thus someRomanCiatholics, IikeMichaelNovak(l3elief
. and Unbelief), have come to won$let if there is any God
orgraceatal1 CatholicnOvelistGtah;unGreene gives the
expressioninhis book, The Hf!clTt of the .
Matter. At the close of the novel, Father Rank and Mrs.
Scobiearediscussing her husband's suicide. Father Rank
says:
"For goodness sake, Mrs. Scobie, don't itnagine you--<>r
I -know a thing about God's mercy."
"The ChurCh says ...
''I know the Church says. all therules.
But it doesn't know what goes on in a single human
heart."
The truth is that security fot the typical Roman Catholic
was never grolinded in a fIrst-hand knowledge of God
through Christ. . Rather, his hope was in an infallible
Church and now this baSis for aSsurance has been
thoroughly shaken. It is no longer adequate to state that
"the Church says."
II. Preparation for Witness
During the crisis over religious authority, our prirnaty
task is to introduce Roman Catholics to Jesus Christ, the
source of true assurance.
In the past, many Protestants Sbught to win Roman
Catholics by pointing out real or imaginect abuses in the
life of the Church of Rome. There may well ilea place for
discussing the failings of the Roman Church; but this can
hardly be the central issue. And Protesrants who criticize
practices in Catholicism must take great care to represent
things as they really are. It has been a cornmon sin of
Protestants to spread fal,sehoods about the character and
conduct of priests and nuns.
It is mliCh better to stick to the central issue. And that
The Counsel of Chalcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 38
central issue is simply the biblical about the
nature of grace. In sununary, grace is the free gift of God.
Gtace means that.we ciUmotfmd eternal life in ourselves,
that we have no power to ready oUIlielves.for God's.
fotgiveness, that we can iri no way cooperate inour own
salvatiOn; We must go outside ourselves in surrendeIed
faith to Christ and.to Chri$talone .. Grace also means that
through faith we can cometopetsonafknowledge orGoo
and His Son, without the mediation of priests or religious
ceremonies .
It should beclear what this It1eansfor our witness. The
biblical doctrine of gcice irilplies that sit)nei-s can have a
' . .
frrst-hand knowledge of God. This is what we want for
every man, Roman Catholic or otherwise. But it is
absolutely essential that who wish to witness, have
frrst tasted of the grace of God. Otherwise you are a
contradiction in teI'I\ls, an apologistfot grace who knows
nothing of the life and power of divine grace.
Defective "Protestant' legalists
Many Protestants are sadly deflcientin this respect Their
knowledge of God is no more flrst-hand than that of the
Roman Catholic who mixes works with grace. Their
minister or other Christian leader is their priest; and in
spite of formal adherence to the doctrines of grace, they
are legalists at heart, trusting their own faithfulness;
religious service, or suffering to keep things right with
Goo. BecauseRoman Catholicism is permeated with the
spirit of legalism, such ''Protestants'' can offer only
peripheral criticism, not living bread theY have tasted
personally.
A former Roman Catholic priest is said to have put the
matter somewhat like this: ''When I was in the Roman
Catholic Church, everything was done to minimize my
sinfulness, to jc:eep me from discovering that I was a
sinner. It left me frustraii:dbecause only siimers can. flnd
grace. With joy I became a Protestant; now I could be
what I was in reality, a sinner in need of grace.
"Butl was greatly disappofuted by Protestants-including
the most otthodox in confession. The Protestant creeds
portray man as a sinner; but I found that in practice
everything was done in Protestant churches to keep me
from seeing myseif as a sinner." .
What this ex-priest knew was that only transgressors can
be forgiven. The reason is that only the man who knows
he is a sinner wants forgiveness or can have a flISt-hand
experience of God's forgiving grace. The paradox is that
it is only sinners freed of their guilt who, in joy over the
revelation of God's forgiving grace, are eager to teach
transgressorS the wily of the Lord (psalm 51:12,13).
Only a sinner is saved by grace
This is not to be construed as saying that men should sin
that grace may abound. The fact is that sin abounds in
every man's life until he comes to Christ But the spirit
of blindness within him leads to self-deception (Jeremiah
17:9) and to self-righteousness (Isaiah 65:6; Luke 18:9-
12). And the (self-) righteous do notneed the mercy of the
Physician (Luke 5:31-32).
Martin Luther's experience powerfully illuminates this
truth. A monk of the Augustinian order, he was a devout
man who gave the Roman system of salvation his whole
heart, mind and soul. But the system left him suspended,
up in the air with no place to set his feet.
From the teachings of the Church he learned he was a
partial sinner, a sinner up to a point. But the matter was
not so serious that it could not be remedied by strict use
of the system of penance and the Mass. Luther was told
he was sick, but that his wounds were not fatal. Confess,
pray, do penance, and all will be well-at least as well as
they can be.
But honest Martin's heart could not be satisfied. The
harder he tried to satisfy the demands of conscience and
God's law the farther he found himself cut off from God
and God's grace.
Then, trembling under the awareness of the wrath of God,
the stricken monk carne to see that his wound was fatal.
He cast himself entirely upon the mercy of the Great
Physician-and was forgiven by free grace. He became
a sinner, a saved sinner, a sinner who knew unutterable
joy. He knew forgiveness; he knew God. Because of the
righteousness of Christ imputed to him and received by
faith alone, Martin Luther had heaven and eternal life as
a free and present gift.
others, bringing about multiplied conversions: "Dear
Christians," he sings, "let us now rejoice and dance in
joyous measure!" And it this kind of joyous knowledge
of God that qualifies one to witness to Roman Catholics.
Be sure you have it, for without drinking of Christ the
fountainhead, you have no business going forth with the
Word of God to others.
III. Confrontation with the Gospel
It follows then that the only way to go with the gospel to
Roman Catholics is with humility and holy joy. Let the
knowledge of your own utter unworthiness compel you
to humble yourself before God and man, and lead you to
confess that only theLamb of God could have saved you.
Letthis consciousness determine your acting andspeaking,
because only this accords with the nature of the gospel
message.
And guard your soul so that you are not proudly and
unwittingly resting in your conversion experience rather
than in Christ for salvation and for power in witnessing.
Don' tpermityour integrity to be flawed by a secretreturn
to a works-righteousness, for trust in a conversion
experience can be just that
Therefore, theflIStstep in confronting the Roman Catholic
with the gospel involves your total reliance upon Christ
through his Holy Spirit Anything less than this is
hypocrisy; and your Roman Catholic friend may have a
good nose for the smell of hypocrisy ! He comes from an
old church, and old churches have a long exposure to the
corruptions of the flesh and spirit So beware! He may
have insight into you that you'll wish he didn't have.
To put the matter positively: You want your whole life to
be a demonstration of the transforming power of Christ.
To use the language of Galatians, justification by faith is
virtually synonymous with sonship to God and being
possessed by the Holy Spirit. This means that the
inevitable consequence of faith is the fruits of the Spirit
(Galatians 5 :22). So, have your Roman Catholic neighbor
into your home for dinner, and let him see how you love
your wife and children. Let your Christian graciousness,
the product of God's grace to you, overflow in hospitality
and concern for him and his problems.
As an inevitable consequence, his joy overflowed to The second step is to introduce him to the law of God as
The Counsel of Chalcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 39
set forth in the Ten Commandments, and interpreted by
ChristintheSennonontheMount. Thisisveryimportant.
Under the Roman system, theideaofsinis sadly confused
by the. distinctions between mortal arid venial sins, by
church rules on such matters as birth control, and by the
doctrine of penance. The average Roman Catholic will
not see much need of Christ because he is so little aware
of sin's being rooted in the depths of his heart, but yet
exposed to the wrath of a holy God.
Sin must be seen in the heart
Forexample: A neighbor, in a burning anger, threatened
to knife her daughter. Happily the mother calmed down
without executing her threat. But she was terribly
conscience-stricken and went to the priest for guidance.
Since she had not carried out her intentions, she was only
required to say a few extra prayers and warned to watch
her temper.
Thepriestapparently did little to inquire about the state of
the poor woman's heart before God. Even though her
hand struck no blow, there was a murderous intensity in
her anger that alarmed the neighbors. But under the
Roman Catholic system, it was easY to classify her sin as
venial and to forget the whole thing.
The Roman Catholic thus tends to evaluate sin in terms of
the religious value-system of his Church. Sin, on this
basis, consists primarily in actions. It might be unfair to
say that the inner life is entirely ignored; but it remains
true that most sins laid bare in the confessional are act-
sins, not attitude-sins. Consequently, guilt is minimized
by ignoring its root in man's inner character; and the
nature of sin as rebellion against a holy God is also
minimized.
In other words, "sin" often is not seen as an affront to a
holy Father, but as a breach of alegalistic code.ltcan then
be made right by a minimal restitution prescribed in the
ecclesiastical system of satisfaction. Such a light view of
sin makes biblical repentance superfluous. Penance now
and purgatory later will suffice to make things right with
God.
The effect of all this is to leave the Roman Catholic guilt-
ridden but not consciously guilty in the profound biblical
The Counsel of ChaIcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 40
sense. Hence he must be shown God's own view of the
origins ofsininthehumanheart (Matthew 15: 19; Jeremiah
17:9; Ephesians 4: 17-19), and the biblical rejection of the
concept of venial sin (James 2:10).
Christ, and Christ alone can save
The third step is to present the Roman Catholic with the
Scripture teaching about Christ. Don't misunderstand;
these steps are not to be pursued mechanically. Under
cerWncircumstances you should begin with Christ. And
there is no better way to demonstrate the exceeding
sinfulness of sin than by preaching on thecross. Still, your
friend needs to know about the depths of man's moral
sickness before he will be constrained to apply to the Lord
for healing. For this reason it is valuable to present the
biblical Christology after some discussion of the doctrine
ofsin.
You will find the word "Christ" as familiar to the Roman
Catholic as the word "sin." You will also find the typical
Roman Catholic considerably confused about Christ's
person and work. If you ask him ifhe believes that Christ
is the eternal Son of God who died for sinners, he is very
likely to agree with you. If he is devout, he may even call
him "Our blessed Lord" and mean what he says. But this
does not guarantee that he has a personal knowledge of
Christ any more than a similar confession would
necessarily reflect genuine faith in an outwardly orthodox
Protestant. It is one thing to say, but quite another thing
to know that Christ died for my sin.
The problem is this: The Roman Catholic lives under a
religious system so arranged that the exclusiveness of
salvation through Christaloneis obscured. Yes, "salvation
is through Christ"-but there is no period after Christ. It
is always Christ and ... Christ and penance, Christ and the
priest, Christ and Mary, Christ and my good works.
Itis not simply that this approach contradicts Scripture in
a merely formal sense. It certainly does that. You need
only to read Romans 3 or Galatians 2 in order to see that
this is so. But it creates a major obstacle to saving faith.
For saving faith consists in resting in Christ alone for
salvation. To rest in man and his works is to render grace
null and void in one's life (Galatians 2:21).
The manipulated Christ of the' Mass
The Roman Catholic is likely to identify Christ with the
liturgy of his Church, especially with the Mass. In effect,
the priest holds "God" in his hands as he celebrates Mass.
Andthetypica1Catholic may well beprofoundly awed by
the mystical power of this rite. In a word, he may for all
practicalpUIpOSj:sseeChristintheMass. Or,ifheismore
,..
thoroughly insfructed in the theology of Rome, he may
believethattheRomanChurchisacontinuingincarnation
of the body tif Christ. For the Roman Catholic, faith in
Christ is faith in a religious ceremony or in the Church
itself.
Thepowerofthis liturgy can hardly be exaggerated. One
Roman Catholic expressed it this way: "The Mass has a
binding power over your whole being. The only thing I
can compare it with is the act of sexual intercourse, with
all its mystery and power."
.'
But the biblical witness is not pOwerless in the face of
such a religious system with its mystical Christ. On the
contrary,letthewitnessingbelieverbeabsolutelyconfident
of the power of the Scripture's Christ to destroy the
"mystical Christs" of men. Let him take the Roman
Catholic to books like Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews
where Christ is set forth in all his sufficiency and glory.
The fourth step concerns instruction in the nature of
saving faith. This has been implicit at every point; but
now it needs to be made explicit.
Saving faith consists in accepting, receiving, and resting
in Christ alone for salvation, and in turning away from
human merit as a ground for acceptance with God. What
needs emphasis for the Roman Catholic is the central
element of trust based upon personal knowledge of opd.
He may well think of faith in intellectual terms, 'the
acceptance of the teaching of his Church on a package
basis. He has "faith" in the things believed by the Church.
What he really means by "faith" is not so much trust but
acceptance of the dogma of the Roman Church.
The Roman Catholic, like everyone else, needs to be
shown through Scripture that faith has for its center a
surrender in trust to Jesus Christ as the only Mediator of
God's elect.
An effective way to pose the question of justification by
faith is to ask the Roman Catholic: "How will you
answer, when you die and appear before the holy God, if
he asks you why he should let you into his heaven?"
Of course, this may recall the jokes about St. Peter and the
pearly gates. But you need letnothing of that tone or spirit
slip into your speaking if you are walking in the Spirit.
This question can be effective with Roman Catholics.
First, it bypasses thewholeissueofpurgatory and confronts
the sinner with the living God as the Judge of all. Second,
it lets you know exactly what the other man believes on
the issue of eternal life, and how he expects to obtain it.
He will not be simply repeating what you have just taught
him. If you wait or even rephrase the question, you will
almost certainly learn that he hopes to be saved by a
combination of divine mercy and human works.
Then you can bring to bear upon him the wonder of
salvation, full and free, by grace through faith in the one
Name given among men by which we may be saved.
IV. Special Problems
There are a number of special problems you should be
alert to while presenting the gospel to Roman Catholics.
The substitute priest danger. You must take care that
you are not being made into the man's new priest. Large
numbers of Protestants use their pastors or other Christian
leaders as mediators to God. But with Roman Catholics
this can be an even more difficult problem because they
oftenhaveaninherentrespectforreligiouspeople. When
they see the fruits of the Spirit abounding, they frequently
seem prone to worship the messenger rather than the God
who senthimforth. Such adulation can be most flattering
to the flesh. So beware! You can become the man's exit
so that he does not need to face the living God.
Of course, the most effective way to cope with this
challenge is to make it very clear that you yourself are
only a sinner saved by grace!
The difficulty oftrue repenting. !tis difficult for many
Roman Catholics to understand the biblical teaching
about"repentancetolife" (Acts 11 :18). In their experience
they have learned to "deal" with sins by doing penance.
The Counsel of Chalcedon February/March 1991 Page 41
The emphasis falls upon the doing, and for almost every
sin they have learned to expect a formula to guide them
in doing something to get the matter straightened but.
The Roman 'Catholic is fully prepared to wOiX; confess,
sorrow, and suffer. But it is possible to do all these things
and miss the point of divine grace rather badly. Genuine
repentance involves a radically different kind of doing.
Ttuerepentance centers on our giving up all that we have
been doing. It means, simply, that we are undone and
know it (Isaiah 6:5; Luke 18:13).
Repentancethusincludesgrievingoversins,seeingthem
as God sees them, and turning front them in a total way
to seekand serve the living God. This is the exact opPosite
of-doing a good work; of attempting to satisfy the
demands of conscience by self-laceration inany form.
Such repentance beautifully harmonizes with saVing
faith. The two together make up one act, a turning from
sin andself-trustby going outside of the man and a turning
to God and his Christ for the promised salvation.
The error of the Mass.
If the Roman Catholic has truly come to know Christ, it
is likely that he will soon see that this knowledge is in
conflict with the Mass. Still, the Mass almost always
poses a serious problem hecause of its mystical and
emotional power. The Mass is the centerpiece for the
Roman Church's worship; !Suspect it would be possible
to preach to a Roman Catholic congregation most of the
things said so far in this study, and change very little so
long as the Mass remained'central.
What you must bring out, in tact and meekness, is the
fundamental error of the Mass. And that consists in its
blurring of the biblical distinction between the Creator
and the creature through the worship of the material
elements of the rite. This is most serious, because God's
law strictly forbids the giving of divine honors to any
created thing (Exodus 20:5).
To be sure, the apologists of theRoman Church maintain
that there is not the slightest interttion on the part of the
Church to practice idolatry. And veryrefineddistinctiorts
are drawn between worship (latreiO.) givenoilly to God,
" .
The Counsel of Chaicedon Fehruary/March 1991 Page 42
devotion (douleia) to the saints and special devotion
(hyperdouleia) given to Christ's human nature and to
Mary. (See Oehler, Symbolik, p. 331.)
AlthoughweshouldaccepttheRomanCatholicstatemeilt
that there is no intention to practice idolatry, this does not
prove that idolatry is not being practiced. Scripture
knows nothing of these subtle distinctions regarding
worship. It is true that in Scripture honor may rightly be
given to aman, butnotreligious honorS given in a wbrship
service.
Hence, we insist that adoration of the phYsiCal elements
in the Mass is part of the worship, imd that these material
elements are part of the creation. But created things may
not be worshiped in any way or manner whatsoever.
AmbiglJities and ambivalences . .
You should be alert to the ambiguities and ambivalences
in many modem Roman Catholics. I can remember
talkiilg with a Panamanian student for over two hourS.
Duringthewholetimehevigorouslydefended the Roman
Catholic doctrinal system and thepractices of the Church.
He did so with enough personal feeling to leave me
completely speechless when, .as he was going out the
door, he suddenly confidedthathedidrtotbelieveany thing
he had said. "Personally," he explained; "I am an
unbeliever. I was just telling you what the Church
believes;" But I also noticed that soon after he began
again to worship in the Roman Catholic Church.
Part of the reason for this is the age-old tension in Roman
Catholic theology between faith and reason, grace and
nature .. Reason has a way of wiping out faith until a life
crisis comes; then the claims oftevelation as interpreted
by the Papacy have a way of reasSerting themselves in the
life of the Roman Catholic.
Anotherreasonforsuchainbiguitiesinthetypicalmooem
Catholic is theway many Roman Catholics received their
religious convittions. Doubtless there is considerable
variation, but as ' a rule they seem to have been largely
passive in the process of instruction. They respect the
authoritY of the Church and the priest because they have
been told many times that theirs is the true Church and that
the Pope is successor to St. Peter.
In other words, the Roman Church has made a deep
impression upon those reared in its communion, but it is
often an impression based upon repetition of doctrinal
concepts over a period of years. Nevertheless, this kind
of religious authority is obviously no match for the God-
given authority of the Holy Scriptures.
At present Roman Catholic authority is in deep trouble,
and Roman Catholics are often open to listening to the
doctrines of salvation by free grace. Accordingly, there
is reason to believe that in our day Christ, the only
Two of the greatest proponents of Biblical, Refonned
Christianity in the Twentieth Century were Benjamin B.
Warfield andD. MartynLloyd-Jones, both of whom, as would
be expected, had pronounced views on Roman Catholicism.
In fact, both of them wrote on the subject. This article is only
an abbreviation and summary of their comments, with the
hope that the reader will obtain their works and read them for
themselves. The two works drawn from here are Warfield's
book, THE PLAN OF SALVATION, (Wm. B. Eerdmans
Pub. CO., 1955, Grand Rapids, Mich.), especiallychapterID,
entitled, "Sacerdotalism," and Lloyd-Jones article, ROMAN
CATHOLICISM, (THE TRINITY REVIEW, March/April
1985, Number 42, The Triniry Foundation, PO Box 169,
Jefferson, Md.).
I. THE PLAN OF SALVATION
by Benjamin B. Warfield
The Church has confessed Ihrough the ages that salvation is
from God, and from God alone. "Salvation is of the Lord,"
Jonah 2:9. "For from Him and through Him and to Him are
all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." Romans
11:36.
infallible Head of his church, will be pleased to graft into
his own body many who previously had trusted in human
fonns of mediation between God and man.
No matter how often and how loudly the voice of human
authority speaks, it cannot expose the inner world of the
human heart, nor call the sinner out of darkness into the
marvelous light shed by divine grace. But Scripture, as it
is applied by the Spirit of Christ, can do this very thing
(Hebrews 4: 12). n (See articles & authors page 23)
Although salvation is confessed to be wholly of the triune
God, who alone can save, Roman Catholicism has taught that
"God in working salvation does not operate upon the human
soul directly but indirectly," (pg. 52), that is through human,
institutional and ceremonial instruments committed to human
hands to administer. With this innovative view of Rome, "a
human factor is thus intruded between the saving grace of God
and its effective operation in the souls of men; and this human
factor indeed, is made the determining factor in salvation."
(pages 52-53).
Againstthis viewpoint all ofProtestantismraises its passionate
protest- "God the Lord himself works by his grace
immediately (directly) onthe souls of men, " (page 53), andhas
not made anybody' s salvation dependent upon the actions or
institutions of another human being. The welfare of the soul
is directly dependent upon the grace of God alone, and not
upon any other intennediaries at all. On the other hand,
Roman Catholicism teaches that "God the Lord does nothing
looking to the salvation of men directly and immediately: all
that he does for the salvation of men he does through the
mediation of the Church, to which, having endowed it with
powers adequate to the task, he has committed the whole work
of salvation." (page 53). In other words, in this present age,
the Church, in large measure, has taken over the saving work
of Christ.
"The radical religious defect of the conception (above) is that
it makes the sinner fall into the hand of man, rather than into
the hand of the all- merciful God. We look to God for
salvation, and we are referred to an institution, which in spite
of its lofty claims, is too manifestly leavened and controlled by
the thoughts of men like ourselves." (page 55)
The question Rome has not adequately answered is "whether
itis God the Lord who saves us, oris it men, acting in the name
and clothed with the powers of God, to whom we are to look
for salvation. "(page 56) This is the issue that separates Roman
Catholicism from Protestantism.
The Counsel of Chalcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 43
Boettner--continued from page 35
people astray from the Gospel. These things have been
shown to be not peripheral but to concern the very heart
of the Christian message as setforthin the New Testament.
To an unbelievable extent Rome has apostatized from the
faith. - All of this is a strong indictment of the Roman
system. But it is no stronger than the facts justify.
"We have attempted to show that the Achilles heel of
Romanism is the false theological basis on which the
system rests, and that the strength of evangelical
Protestantism is its rigid adherence to what the Scriptures
teach. Protestantism can never defeat Rornanism, nor
even defend itself againstRomanism, merely by pointing
out the latter's corrupt political alliances, its inordinate
greed for money, and its suppression of political and
religious liberties. All of these things are true and should
be exposed. But they relate only to external methods and
practices. Romanism is basically a religious system and
must be challenged and forced to defend its doctrines on
the basis of Scripture. This method, and this method
alone, can bring victory to the evangelical faith." (page
449-450)0
Warfteld & Lloyd-Jones
continued from page 45
evangelist, he was aroighty theologian; so was Calvin; so
were all of them (the Reformers). It was that great system
of truth, worked out in its details and presented to the
. people, that undermined and even shook the Church of
Rome. Nothing less than that is adequate to meet the
present situation.
"Christian people, your responsibility is terrible. You
mustknow the truth, you must understand it, you must be
able to counter false teaching. There are innocent people
who are being deluded by this kind of falsity ,anditis your
business and mine to open their eyes and to instruct them.
Not only that, it is as we stand foursquare for the truth of
God that we shall be entitled to pray with fervor and with
confidence for the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon us. It
is as we stand on tlle Scripture and its truth that the Spirit
of God, I believe, will descend upon us in a mighty
revival. And nothing less that such a revival can shake
that homble institution, that great ' whore' which calls
herself, 'The Church of Rome. "'0
Authors & Articles on Evangelism
Wetrustthatthe material we present inthis magazine
will be LJsefulin helping youto understand and apply
the Scriptures to your life and increase your zeal to
speak out boldly for the cause of Christ. Some of
the authors of articles in this current issue have
written material that could be very helpful to you in
learning howto faithfully do the work of evangelism.
Dr. Morton Smith was for many years the Stated
Clerk of the PCA, taught at Westminster and
Reformed Seminaries, and is currently the Dean of
the Faculty at Greenville Presbyterian Theological
Seminary. Among his books is one on evangelism
entitled, Reformed Evangelism published by Multi-
Communication Ministries, Inc. Clinton, MS. Dr.C.
John Miller serves on the faculty of Westminster
Seminary and is Pastor of New Life Presbyerian
Church (OPC) in Jenkintown, PA. His article
"Witnessing to Roman Catholics"is reprinted from
the Westminster Theological Joumal. He also
authored two excellent and practical books that will
be very helpful to you on evangelism, Evangelism
& Your Church, published by Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New
Jersey and Repentance and the 20th Century Man,
published by Christian Uterature Crusade, Fort
Washington Pennsylvania. John Murray (1898-
1975) was Professor of Systematic Theology at
Westminster Seminary from 1930 to 1966. His
article "The Crux of the Reformation" appears in
Volume 1 pp.298-304ofhis Collected Writings. Also
in that same volume pp.124-135, appears an article
on evangelism, "The Message of Evangelism"
published in an attractive four volume set by The
Banner Of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. He also
authored one of the greatest books ever written on
the atoning work of Christ, entitled, Redemption
Accomplished and Applied, published by Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids Michigan.
All of the articles and books listed above are highly
readable and would be an excellent place to develop
a theologically sound and practical evangelistic
ministry.
"For God sent not his Son Into the world to condemn the
world; but that the world should be saved through him."
(John 3:17)0
The Counsel of Chalcedon FebruarylMarch 1991 Page 23