[Justification is] the main hinge on which salvation turns. JOHN CALVIN
When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen…This is the chief article from which all other doctrines have flowed…It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour…[it is] the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines. MARTIN LUTHER
According to the above quotations then – The Roman Catholic Church cannot be a Church. Therefore the Reformation is not over. The Catholic Church has no Gospel
In a previous post I mentioned the doctrine of Justification by Faith ALONE. Clearly, from press reports I hear and the meeting of the Pope and the Archbishop later today the Reformation and the truths represented mean absolutely nothing. The main thing is to be nice not truth.
The fact is, if to believe in Justification by faith ALONE is Anathema to the Catholic Church then why do we need a Saviour. Or to put it another way why do we need a Saviour hat can perform a complete and adequate Salvation. The Mass performed over and over and over again endlessly, harks back to the sacrifices of the Levitical system. This was overturned by the New Covenant and is taught in uncompromising terms in the book of Hebrews.
Basically the question is this – why did Jesus need to come if he can’t do the whole job. What sort of Saviour is that! This all means nothing to Rowan Williams or the Pope.
XI. Of the Justification of Man.
We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only, is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification. XIII. Of Works before Justification.
Works done before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ; neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the School-authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.
Here are a couple of articles from the Council of Trent – still in force.
ON JUSTIFICATION
CANON IX.- If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.
CANON XXX.- If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.
Remember, these two representatives will be having a joint service. This is simply a denial of historic and current fact. This is not the Gospel. If there is no free grace there is no Gospel. If there is no Gospel – Gospel means Good News – there is no Church. If there is no-one that can come and rescue me a sinner headed for hell and do all that is necessary to satisfy the justice of God: where’s the good news in that!
Gary Brady regularly has lists of things on his blog. So I thought I’d have a list. Here’s my sinners list below. They are arranged in no particular order, so the number one spot isn’t necessarily the number one sinner, but they might be. To see why that might be true, check out 1 Timothy 1: 15-17.
The Queen
Richard Dawkins
The Pope
Stalin
Mother Teresa
Adolf Hitler
Princess Diana
The Apostle Paul
George W. Bush
Billy Graham
I’ll try and regularly produce a sinners list until people get it.
The Pope has landed. And from the various news reports one might be forgiven for asking ‘and the Catholic faith is…’ The Pope so far as I can tell is asking for belief or faith to be included in any discussions. But faith in what, I’ve yet to hear on any report over the last few weeks running up to the Pope’s visit. Are we to have some sort of blind faith in well, I’ve no idea.
The Reformation put at its heart a return to or the re-discovery of the doctrine of Justification by faith ALONE. Now that’s the sticking point. The Catholic Church will acknowledge justification by faith – but NOT by faith ALONE. Of course, justification by faith plus something else is very attractive to people because it means they can contribute something to their salvation and feel good about themselves.
Have we forgotten Reformers such as John Knox, who, to coloquialise, ‘would be turning in his grave’. Amidst all the politicking I would remind people that the Reformation is not over and never will be until the Catholic Church recants over statements made by the Council of Trent on Justification by Faith. It’s highly unlikely that it will. Journalists if they were doing their job properly would be pressing Catholic representatives on this – but they won’t. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story eh.
One of the aims – the main aim really – of this blog is to point people (sinners) to The Lord Jesus Christ and faith in Him for Salvation. There is only one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus. No need for a Pope and the blasphemous doctrines of Rome.
7,000,000+ abortions have taken place in the UK since the abortion act in 1967. It’s disgusting then to hear on the news today of a woman being taken to court over the deaths of 4 babies that she alleges to have been still-born. The news is, she could serve a term in prison. The crime according to the news report is concealing the births.
The question I’m left asking is; who will speak out for the unborn – those killed, murdered in the womb that have never seen the light of day and whose future has been taken away from them. Will they have, as it were, their day in court to bring a charge against the state – the so-called ‘civilised society’ that continues to conceal its awful crime. Funny isn’t it how governments can outlaw ‘Holocaust Denial’ when a Holocaust of similar proportions can be totally ignored
The attack on the World Trade Centre changed our world. Let’s not forget, it was an attack not a mistake or a conspiracy. A friend called and asked if I had seen the TV. I turned to CNN and I remember standing in front of the TV watching with my mouth open as the second plane hit. Just horrific.
Whatever we might think of Pastor Jones plans (whatever they are) to burn a copy of the Qur’an; it gives us all an opportunity to witness Islam, the ‘Religion of Peace’ in action.
I suppose people blog for almost as many reasons as there are blog sites. Obviously it’s not possible to write about why other people do it (other than make an educated guess that could turn out to be wrong anyway) I simply don’t know. But I wanted to record why I blog.
1. I have something to say. OK so do millions of others, but then why shouldn’t I
2. It’s a way of engaging with the culture. It makes me try and apply my Christian faith to whatever life throws at it – good and bad.
3. This might not seem like a good reason but actually I blog because I’m not very good at it. The only way to improve is to do it. My writing is not up to that much and I’m aware that my writing skills leave a lot to be desired – but I do want to improve.
4. It makes me accountable. I could sit and rant away (as I have) in a private journal but no-one would ever read it. But because I blog, people might actually read it. It makes no difference if anyone does or does not read it – the possibility that someone might, makes me accountable.
5. It also means I have to be discerning between good and evil, hence the title of the Blog. It’s something that has to be exercised. The blog is exercise.
6. It’s my desire to point people to The Lord Jesus Christ. This is my overall aim – call it an agenda if you like. It’s a glorious Gospel with a Glorious Saviour. I seek to honour Him.
Well, the ‘evangelical’ church, the Dove World Outreach Center has proved once again that Christians do the dumbest things. What a bunch of idiots. What do they really hope to achieve by this. I suppose they made it onto the headlines of BBC Radio 4 and probably many other news agencies throughout the world. This is a good example of Christians exercising a right to free speech, while at the same time exercising the right to do dumb stuff.
Book burning never really works. The cultural revolution in China burnt books, the Nazis burnt books and now Evangelicals can sit right alongside Hitler and Chairman Mao.
Books were burnt by Christians in previous generations as an act of turning away from a life involved with the occult, and an account of this is recorded in the book of Acts. But the proposed action by Rev Jones is of a different order. Would it be cynical of me to ask if the Rev Jones now has the publicity he desires no matter what it means for the proclamation of the Gospel. He really has not thought this through. The trouble is, he’s now made it very difficult for himself – can he still back off without looking like a fool. I’m sure he can. But will he. If he were to back off now, and see reason, it could be a major card to play because I suspect there will be extremist actions by Islamic Fundamentalists whatever Rev Jones does. But in the media war Jones could at the last moment pull it out of the bag and preach the message of the cross instead. But will he?
‘This Koran burning is childish; it will at best only draw attention to the book and fuel curiosity; at worst, it could jeopardise young people serving their country. Christians would be better served spending the time praying for the conversion of their Muslim neighbours and reaching out to them with love and with God’s true word, rather than with a box of matches and acts of counterproductive immaturity.’
I’ve just starting reading Henry Chadwick‘s volume ‘The Penguin History of the Church, vol.1: The Early Church‘. The opening paragraph was so good I have quoted it in full below.
‘The first Christians were Jews. They differed from their fellow-countrymen by their faith that in Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah of the nation’s expectation had now come. They took it for granted that his coming, being a fulfilment, must be continuous with the past revelation of God to his people and not mean a break either with the old covenant made with Abraham, symbolized by circumcision, or with the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. If something new had happened, it was the action of one and the same God, Creator of the world, Lord of History, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs. His new word to his people must be consistent with that spoken in the past by the prophets.’
7,000,000+ abortions have taken place in the UK since the abortion act in 1967. It’s disgusting then to hear on the 
