CHURCH HISTORY
LECTURE 19
PROTESTANTISM TODAY III
Mass Movement
“100 US Anglican parishes convert to Roman Catholic Church”
By Simon Caldwell of The Telegraph (London) 05 Mar 2010
“About 100 traditionalist Anglican parishes across the United States have decided to convert en masse to the Roman Catholic Church, it emerged yesterday.
They have voted to take up the offer made by Pope Benedict XVI in November that permits vicars and their entire congregations to defect to Rome while keeping many of their Anglican traditions, including married priests.
By issuing the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (on groups of Anglicans) the Pope was accused of attempting to poach Anglicans unhappy about decisions taken in their Church to ordain women and sexually-active homosexuals as priests and bishops.
But the Vatican insisted that the move to create self-governing "personal ordinariates", which resemble dioceses in structure, came as a result of requests from at least 30 disaffected Anglican bishops around the world for "corporate reunion" with the Catholic Church.
The Anglican Church in America (ACA) will now enter the Catholic Church as a block, bringing in thousands of converts along with their own bishops, buildings and even a cathedral.
They will worship according to Anglican rubrics, and use the Book of Common Prayer, but they will be in communion with the Pope, recognizing him as their leader.” (end of Telegraph report)
Baylor Bails
Imagine the range of emotions among Bible-believing Christians who heard that the president of the Evangelical Theological Society, an association of 4,300 Protestant theologians, recently resigned (2007) because he has joined Roman Catholicism. According to the Washington Post, Francis J. Beckwith, a tenured associate professor at Baptist-affiliated Baylor University, Waco, Texas, “left colleagues gasping for breath and commentators grasping for analogies.”
Beckwith isn’t the only one who has defected; an increasing number of Protestants are turning to Roman Catholicism, and at the same time a recent movement known as the emerging church is making such defections happen all the more readily.
Today there is a growing movement of Protestants that reject the designation "Protestant" because of its negative "anti-Catholic" connotations, preferring the designation "Reformed," "Evangelical," or other designations.
Romeward Bound
So why all the excitement over the religious system that kicked them out centuries ago?! There are many reasons why Protestants are running back to Papa!
The following is taken from an article at www.reformed.org.
“Above all else, Neocatholics embrace the Tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and contend that this Tradition sets the Catholic Faith apart from its Protestant counterpart. Catholicism is far "richer" than anything Protestantism can offer -- so the story goes -- since only Rome can lay claim to apostolic succession and living Tradition as an infallible guide to interpreting Holy Writ.
Neocatholics time and again state that only Rome is the true church, since only Rome can lay claim to apostolic succession dating back to Peter -- the rock. By cutting itself off from this unbroken chain of succession dating back to Peter, Protestantism was adrift from the beginning. And given the maturity of the "Mother Church," the Protestant Reformation was really "nothing more than a kind of teen-age rebellion.
The ‘neo-catholics’ appeal to Protestant sectarianism as independent proof of the alleged inadequacy of Protestant theology as a whole. Believe it or not, one Neocatholic actually had time to count all of the Protestant denominations and sects, claiming that the grand total is over 25,000!
Protestantism has missed out on the fullness and richness of high church liturgy, and in particular, the glory of the Mass and the Eucharist.
High steeples. Glorious columns. Stained glass windows. No doubt these are beautiful things to behold. Not surprising, then, many Neocatholics describe how they were drawn to the richness of Catholic symbolism expressed in the architectural beauty of Catholic churches.
Catholicism seems to bridge the gap between conservative and liberal Protestantism. One Neocatholic distinguishes between ‘evangelicals who have spirituality without social concern’ and ‘theological liberals who have social concern without spirituality’. Only the Catholic Church, he stated, has both.
Another reason that Protestant-converts-to-Catholicism give for their shift is what some have called ‘getting poped’; they have a kind of wonderful admiration for the Pope.”
[In John Paul II and in Benedict Arnold XXX , there is an attraction, a love, a respect, a sense of kinship…]
The following are excerpts from an article entitled: “Emerging Church Leading Protestants Back Home to Rome”, by Mike Gendron
Emerging merging
One of the major influences that is paving the road back to Roman Catholicism is The Emerging Church movement. Proponents say its time for Christianity to be reinvented for a new generation. It must become more relevant to a postmodern generation. They say the best way to reinvent Christianity for the present generation is to reintroduce ideas and experiences from the past. Emergent leaders say God's Word no longer holds the answers to life's questions. Experience must become the key factor to encounter spiritual reality. The experiential attractions which are being promoted by the Emerging Church include: statues, prayer stations, incense, liturgy, candles, icons, the sacraments and calling communion the Eucharist. It is easy to see how this movement complements and encourages the Vatican's "new evangelization program" to win the "separated brethren" back to the "true church."
A New Kind of Christian
The most influential leader in the emergent church movement is Brian McLaren, a pastor and author from Maryland who wrote the controversial book, A New Kind of Christian. Time Magazine recently named McLaren one of the 25 most influential evangelical leaders in the world (2/7/05). In another one of his books, A Generous Orthodoxy, McLaren describes himself as the new kind of Christian, with labels such as: catholic, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, fundamentalist/calvinist, anabaptist/anglican and methodist. How can he hold to all these labels at the same time? It is because he rejects the Word of God as the objective authority for truth. McLaren writes: "How do you know something is true? First you engage in spiritual practices like prayer, Bible reading, forgiveness and service. Then you see what happens; you remain open to experience. Finally, you report your experience to others in the field of spirituality for their discernment to see if they confirm your findings or not."
Mystical Feelings Replace Doctrine (Emergent emergency)
It is appalling to see what McLaren and other leaders of the Emergent Church are really promoting. In A Generous Orthodoxy, McLaren writes that he "is consistently over sympathetic to Roman Catholics." Other leaders tell us we need to emulate Roman Catholicism to become more mystical in our reverence of God. Chuck Smith Jr., in his book, There is a Season (foreword by Brian McLaren), provides insight into this mystical experience. He writes: "What would happen if we allowed people to "feel" what we cannot explain, to know with the heart and not with the brain? We would open the door of faith to a wider audience than if we continued to insist on a rational belief in the facts as the only legitimate starting point of the Christian faith."
The Alluring Power of the Eucharist (Mass Hysteria)
Another leader of the Emergent Church is Dr. Robert Webber who is recognized by many as the authority on worship renewal. He taught at Wheaton College for 32 years as Professor of Theology and has authored over 40 books. Dr. Webber had a "life changing experience" at a Catholic conference center when he decided to receive the Eucharist . His testimony is recorded in a book entitled Signs of Wonder. Following is part of his experience in his own words:
"Closing my eyes, I allowed my life in the church to pass before me. My prejudices rose up within me: What are you doing here? You never worshiped in a Catholic setting, let alone received the bread and the wine from a Catholic priest! Then I heard my Catholic friends speak of their love for Christ, pray with fervency, and express a real desire to know the Scriptures and live by its authority. Those memories said, 'Go ahead. After all, there is only one Lord, one church, one faith, one baptism, one Holy Communion.' In that moment, God broke through the walls I had allowed to separate me from my brothers and sisters of different denominations. I am convinced the prejudices we hold and the walls we build between ourselves and other communities of Christians actually block our experience of God's presence in our lives. Our biases cut us off from the spiritual communion of the fullness of the body of Christ. When God broke down my walls, he brought me into richer fellowship with the body of Christ throughout the world. I had never had an experience like that in my life. In that Catholic chapel, a new worship experience had bumped up against that old prejudice of mine, and a new attitude was born. I had taken into myself the experience of another tradition, I had been in dialogue with another worship tradition, and I was surely the richer for it."
Subjective Experiences vs. Objective Truth
Webber's words are echoed by other Protestants who have experimented with the Eucharist and then converted to Catholicism because of their "joyful experience." It comes as no surprise that these apostates, who have converted to a false religion, have been influenced by subjective experiences. Probably the best known Protestant convert to Catholicism is Scott Hahn. His subjective experience was participating in the ungodly pagan practice of praying the rosary. Hahn was convinced "Mary" performed a miracle after he prayed the rosary.
A common characteristic of Protestants who have converted to Romanism has been a dissatisfaction with their former Christian experience. One convert cited several things that drove him away from his evangelical church: live bands playing loud music consisting of praise choruses repeated over and over again, no place for quiet reverence and prayer, theological shallowness, movie clips drama and plays. He said, "After a few years of the kids raving about how much fun they had and not learning anything [on the spiritual side], we tried the Catholic Church across the street and immediately enjoyed the formal liturgy, the religious rituals and a reverence for God." What a tragedy for this family. They left a shallow worship experience and replaced it with an idolatrous worship experience. Whatever you win then "with" is what you win them "to."
What Can We Do? (Protest against these non-Protestators)
Let our voices be heard! Expose the evil deeds of darkness with the glorious light of God's Word. Lovingly confront those who are promoting the Emergent Church and embracing Roman Catholicism as a valid expression of Christianity. Call Roman Catholicism what it is - a false religious system that is holding over 1 billion people in bondage to deception.
To those who have committed themselves to Satan's lies and his evil religious system, we must have a sense of urgency. There is no time for beating around the bush. God doesn't promise anyone tomorrow. Jude wrote: "And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” We need to be prepared to offend them with the truth, knowing that the Gospel will offend those who are offensive to God.
Finally, don't be deceived. Hold onto our supreme and objective authority for truth - the Word of God! It, along with the Holy Spirit, is the only security we have in these days of great deception and compromise.”
The following is from an article in ‘Present Truth Magazine’ (vol.5, art. 5)
The Trend toward Rome
For more than 400 years, influences have been at work within the Protestant movement to erode the objective emphasis of the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith. It has been a drift back to Romanism. A few years ago, noted Roman Catholic author, Louis Bouyer, made these stunning observations:
"The Protestant Revival . . . recalls the best and most authentic elements of the Catholic tradition.” ... "We see in every Protestant country, Christians who owed their religion to the movement we have called Revivalism, attain a more or less complete rediscovery of Catholicism." …."The contemporary revivals most valuable and lasting in their results all present a striking analogy with this process of rediscovery of Catholicism..."
Bouyer closes with an appeal to his fellow Catholics to prepare for the inevitable return of the "separated brethren" under the influence of contemporary revivals. The fact that many revivalists regard themselves as anti-Catholic makes no difference, for as Bouyer points out, they are simply in the dark about how the heart of their emphasis is in profound harmony with Catholicism.
Also a few years ago, Protestant scholar Paul Tillich observed that we have reached "the end of the Protestant era."
"For the kind of Protestantism which has developed in America is not so much an expression of the Reformation, but has more to do with the so-called Evangelical Radicals.”
The last decade has more than justified the observations of Bouyer and Tillich. The drift toward Rome has become like that place in the Niagara River where the boatsman reaches the point of no return as the water rushes on toward the falls. We must now consider this development.
The Neo-Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement
From 1900 to 1960, the Pentecostal movement continued to grow outside the mainstream of Protestantism. Yet by 1960 it had attained a world-wide membership of about eight million. At that time, men like Dr. Henry Van Dusen began to call the movement the "third force" in Christendom.
Then about 1960 a remarkable change took place. Pentecostalism began to jump the denominational boundary lines and to penetrate the mainline Protestant churches. As John Sherrill says in his book, They Speak With Other Tongues, "the walls came tumbling down." Soon there were thousands, and then millions, of Episcopalian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and other Protestant Pentecostals. This interdenominational phase of the movement became known as the neo-Pentecostal, or charismatic, movement. It was no longer a separate denomination but an experience that transcended all denominational boundary lines. Those sharing the experience in different denominations saw themselves as having more in common with each other than with non-charismatics of the same church. Many confidently predicted that this was the beginning of the greatest revival the world had ever known.