[The following is from the Digging in the Walls section of O Timothy magazine, edited by David W. Cloud, Volume 12, Issue 2, 1995. This material cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. All rights are reserved. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian.The Way of Life web site is located at http://www.wayoflife.org/]

J.I. PACKER DEFENDS EVANGELICALS & CATHOLICS TOGETHER

By David W. Cloud

The December 12, 1994, issue of Christianity Today contained two articles defending ecumenical activities between Evangelicals and Catholics. Both articles were authored by professors at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia--J.I. Packer and Alister McGrath. In May 1994, a group of prominent Evangelical leaders joined hands with Catholic priests and others to produce a document entitled "Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium." These leaders, including Chuck Colson, Bill Bright, J.I. Packer, and Pat Robertson, proclaimed, "We together, Evangelicals and Catholics, confess our sins against the unity that Christ intends for all his disciples." Now J.I. Packer, in "Why I Signed It," defends the statement. His blindness is frightful. Consider some excerpts:

"I was surprised at the violence of initial negative Protestant reaction. ... fear clouds the mind and generates defensive responses that drive wisdom out of the window. ... I ought to have anticipated that some Protestants would say bleak, skewed, fearful, and fear-driven things about this document."

Dr. Packer confuses biblical reproof with violence and fear mongering. To use the term "violence" in describing the reaction of Bible-believing Christians to his apostasy is ridiculous. He is playing the martyr, yet he has received not even one bruise! Good men have merely tried to correct his errors and to reprove him with the Word of God. An example is the statement which was issued by the directors of various missions devoted to winning Roman Catholics to Christ. At a meeting in June 1994, the Association of Fundamentalists Evangelizing Catholics passed a resolution against "Evangelicals & Catholics Together." These Bible-believing men, many of whom are former Roman Catholic priests and know Rome better than Packer, stated: "The very working of the document underlines the need of our Roman Catholic friends. Their regeneration is Baptism; their sacrifice is the Mass, and the rule of their magisterium silences the Holy Spirit's biblical messages." For Packer to claim that such reproof is violent fear mongering is foolishness.

We continue with the excerpts from Packer's article:

"Do we recognize that good Evangelical Protestants and good Roman Catholics ... are Christians together? We ought to recognize this, for it is true."

This is the heart of the error. To say that a good Roman Catholic is a biblical Christian is to deny what Rome teaches about the Gospel. Rome, at the Council of Trent, cursed the biblical gospel of salvation through the finished atonement of Jesus Christ. The Council of Trent, by the way, is continually recommended and upheld as authoritative by the Vatican II documents as well as the new Catholic Catechism. To Rome, salvation was purchased by Christ and then delivered to the Catholic church to be administered piecemeal through the sacraments. Blasphemously, Rome states that the sacrifice of Christ was not completed on Calvary, but is repeated perpetually in the Mass. Blasphemously, the Catholic church denies the exclusive mediatorship of Jesus Christ, and places itself, its popes, its Mary, its priests, and its saints in a position of mediatorship between God and men. Blasphemously, Rome declares that its own perverted tradition is as authoritative as the Holy Bible. Rome's Gospel is false; its Jesus is false; its authority is false. As such, it matters not one whit that it holds to certain biblical truths. The Bible plainly says that those who preach a false gospel are cursed of God (Galatians 1). Romanism is cursed of God. The only thing God has to do with Roman Catholicism is to call its adherents to biblical salvation and separation. The call from heaven to Rome is "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4).

"... the Lund principle is that ecclesiastically divided Christians should not settle for doing separately anything that their consciences allow them to do together. The implication is that otherwise we thwart and grieve the Lord."

Dr. Packer cites the "Lund principle," referring to a popular ecumenical interpretation of Christ's prayer in John 17. This interpretation twists Christ's words out of context. Christ's prayer in John 17 focuses on a God- made unity among those who believe and follow "the truth," not a man-made unity which disregards doctrine and truth. To say that God's people grieve the Lord by obeying the Bible's commands to separate from error is insanity.

"... the present needs of both church and community in North America ... cry out for an alliance of good Evangelical Protestants with good Roman Catholics ... their domestic differences about salvation and the church should not hinder them from joint action in seeking to re-Christianize the North American milieu."

Packer says differences about salvation should not hinder joint action between "Christians." The Bible, on the other hand, plainly says differences about salvation demand separation rather than joint action. "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (2 John 10-11).

"Propagating the basic faith, then, remains the crucial task, and it is natural to think it will best be done as a combined operation."

This statement is Evangelical doublespeak. How can a Bible-believing Christian and a Roman Catholic propagate "the basic faith" when they hold to different faiths? Again, it is insanity. I can think of no other term which better describes this type of thing. It is apostasy and insanity. Yes, as Dr. Packer says, fear has clouded my mind on this matter--fear of God. "...by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil" (Prov. 16:6).