January 19, 1999 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Pope John Paul II was joined in Rome on January 18 by representatives of 23 Protestant and Orthodox denominations in a show of Christian unity. The gathering was said to be the "the biggest concentration of Christian Churches since the Second Vatican Council" (Crescenzio Sepe, general secretary in charge of the Vatican’s Jubilee celebrations).

The Christian leaders included George Carey, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Diodoros, Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, and Athanosio, Orthodox Metropolitan of Heliopolis and Theira, Bishop Christian Krause of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop Lonas Jonson of Sweden, and a representative of the World Council of Churches.

The occasion was the opening of the "Holy Door" of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. This was the fourth and final such ceremony at four of Rome’s basilicas since Christmas.

UNIVERSALISM/ SYNCRETISM

The first occurred on Christmas eve with the opening of the "Holy Door" to St. Peter’s Basilica. On that occasion, the pope called the door "the gate of the Lord" and prayed that Christ would "be for us the true door" and that He would "grant that no one may remain outside his embrace of mercy and peace" ("Pope Launches Holy Year With Ceremonial Opening of Basilica Door," Los Angeles Times, Dec. 25, 1999).

This reminds us that Pope John Paul is a universalist who believes that men do not have to be born again through personal faith in Jesus Christ to be saved. In 1991 he addressed Muslims as "my beloved Muslim Brothers and Sisters," and said, "I close my greeting to you with the words of one of my predecessors, Pope Gregory VII, who in 1076 wrote to Al-Nasir, the Muslim Ruler of Bijaya, present-day Algeria. ‘...we believe in and confess one God, admittedly in a different way, and daily praise and venerate him, the Creator of the world and Ruler of this world’" (Christian News, quoting Hamdard Islamicus, Summer, 1991). The New Catholic Catechism confirms the pope’s universalism, saying: "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day. 841."

It was Pope John Paul II who arranged the Day of Prayer for World Peace in 1986 in Assisi, Italy. For that occasion the pope brought together one of the most amazing mixtures of religious confusion ever assembled on earth. First there were leaders of many of the "Christian" denominations, including the head of the Anglican church and representatives of the World Council of Churches, the Baptist World Alliance, Disciples of Christ, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Lutheran World Federation, the YWCAs and the YMCAs, and the many of the Orthodox groups. Joining this hodgepodge of apostate Christianity were representatives of eleven other religions: Buddhists, Hindus, North American Indians who invoked "the Great Spirit of the Sky," Shintos, Bahais, Jainists, African animists who called on "The Great Thumb," fire-worshipping Zorastrians, Sikhs, and Moslems who cried out to "Allah."

ECUMENICAL UNITY

The gathering on January 18, which occurred on the first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, focused on ecumenical oneness. The pope said that it is not God’s will for "the church" to be divided, and he called for all denominations to be united with Rome: "From this basilica, where we are meeting in a spirit of hope, I look toward a new millennium . . . that in a not so far future finally reunited Christians can walk together as one people, following the path of the pope" ("Pope stresses pan-Christian aspect of Catholic Jubilee," Agence France-Press, Jan. 18, 2000).

The pope said that Christians are united by baptism, calling the January 18 gathering "a step toward unity in the Spirit in which we were baptized." He said: "We have received one Baptism. This places a sacramental bond of unity among those who, through it have been regenerated" (Vatican Information Service, Jan. 18).

This reminds us of Rome’s false sacramental faith/works gospel. Rome teaches that salvation is a process which begins with baptism and is maintained and strengthened through participation in the other Catholic sacraments. Though Rome acknowledges that salvation is by the grace of Christ, it redefines that grace to include works and sacraments. Consider the following quotes from the New Catholic Catechism:

1263 By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin.

1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. ... The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism...

1265 Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte "a new creature," an adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature," member of Christ and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

980 It is through the sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God and with the Church.

1129 The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. ... The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Saviour.

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These quotations from the New Catholic Catechism, which was published in Latin in 1992 and in English in 1994, leave no doubt of Rome’s false gospel. When the Philippian jailer asked the Apostle Paul what he had to do for salvation, Paul did not tell him to be baptized or to join a church and participate in sacraments; he exclaimed the glorious gospel of full, free salvation through faith in the atonement of Christ: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). When the Jews asked Jesus Christ what work they must do to be saved, He replied: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29). When the Apostles came together in Jerusalem to entertain the question of salvation, they concluded that men are saved solely "through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 15:11).

At the January 18 gathering the pope prayed for "forgiveness from Christ for every time in the history of the Church that His plan for unity was upset." What hypocrisy! The doctrinal heresy of his own institution has been one of the greatest sources of disunity among churches. The Apostles established the first churches upon the pattern that Christ had designed. They delivered the "faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) and completed the Bible, which is the sole and complete authority for church faith and practice. It was the self-willed heretics who departed from the apostolic faith in the centuries following the death of the apostles and who formed the Catholic Church upon fallible human tradition who destroyed the unity of Christ’s churches.