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by
Wayne Grudem
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March 15 - December 27, 2021
the New Testament certainly encourages us to work for the unity of all true believers.
SIGNS OF A MORE PURE CHURCH
Biblical doctrine (or right preaching of the Word) 2. Proper use of the sacraments (or ordinances) 3. Right use of church discipline 4. Genuine worship 5. Effective prayer 6. Effective witness 7. Effective fellowship 8. Biblical church government 9. Spiritual power in ministry 10. Personal holiness of life among members 11. Care for the poor 12. Love for Christ
The first major division in the church came in AD 1054 when the Eastern (now Orthodox) church separated from the Western (Roman Catholic) church. The reason was that the pope had changed a church creed simply on his own authority,8 and the Eastern church protested that he had no right to do that.
The Reformation in the sixteenth century then separated the Western church into Roman Catholic and Protestant branches,
Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants would agree on many points of theology (such as the Trinity and the deity and humanity of Christ), we also respectfully disagree with our Catholic friends about some significant doctrines.
thirteen doctrinal differences
Infallible Authority of the Pope and the Church Magisterium15
Protestant Response: The
the Bible, not any human person, has ultimate authority over the church. The things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. (1 Cor. 14:37)
2. Tradition as an Authority Alongside Scripture
Protestant Response: When the books of the New Testament were completed, the canon of Scripture was closed, and no later teachings have authority equal to the words of the Bible, which alone are the very words of God.
3. Seven Books of the Apocrypha as Part of the Bible
Protestant Response: There are only thirty-nine books in the Old Testament. The books of the Apocrypha are not the Word of God and should not be part of the Bible. The books of the Apocrypha were not considered part of Scripture by first century Jews, by Jesus, by the New Testament authors, or (officially) by the Roman Catholic church until 1546.
4. Prayer Should Be Made to Mary and to Other Saints
Protestant Response: We should pray to God alone, through the one mediator, Jesus Christ, through whom all believers are now counted as priests and able to come into God’s very presence in prayer. We are to honor Mary’s memory for her faithful obedience to God as the mother of Jesus, but she is still a finite human being, even in heaven, and only an infinite God could listen to the prayers of millions of people all at one time.
John Piper observes, “This elevation of Mary beyond anything in the Scriptures, based solely on church tradition, distances the people of God from the enjoyment of personal fellowship with Jesus and the kind of relationship and assurance they might otherwise enjoy with him.”
5. “Veneration” of Mary
Protestant Response: We should honor the memory of Mary, but Roman Catholic veneration of Mary seems in fact to be a kind of worship of Mary.
6. Mary as Co-Mediatrix with Christ
Protestant Response: Salvation is earned for us by Christ alone, and the New Testament is saturated with praise to Christ alone, not to Mary, for our salvation.
7. Justification Is by Faith plus the Sacraments, Which Produces Moral Purity, and It Is Not Completed in This Life
Protestant Response: Justification is by faith alone (this is the heart of the gospel). Justification is a legal declaration by God that we are counted not guilty but righteous in his sight. Justification does not produce moral purity in us (which is the work of sanctification).
8. Regeneration and Justification Come through Baptism
Protestant Response: Baptism is only an outward physical symbol of an inward work of God, and, like all other outward “works,” it does not save anyone.
Piper observes, “The teaching of baptismal regeneration. . . . has produced, I would say, untold ill-founded confidence in the people of God who have little or no personal faith, or relationship with Christ, or love to Jesus. Yet, because of their baptism [they] believe they are heaven-bound.”
9. Saving Power of the Sacraments
Protestant Response: No works (or sacraments) can earn us merit before God or contribute to our salvation.
10. Purgatory as a Place of Suffering before Those Who Are Saved Can Enter Heaven
The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent” (1031).
Protestant Response: Believers who die go directly to heaven to be with Christ at once.
11. People Who Have Not Heard of Christ or Do Not Believe in Him Can Be Saved
12. Roman Catholic Church as the One True Church
Protestant Response: The true church is wherever the gospel is truly preached and baptism and the Lord’s Supper are rightly observed. The true successors of Peter are those who preach the same gospel that he preached.
13. Priesthood as a Necessary System for Dispensing Grace
Protestant Response: All God’s people are now a kingdom of priests, and all minister grace to one another through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The Power of the Church What kind of authority does the church have? How should church discipline function?
John Calvin’s church in Geneva, Switzerland, while he was alive, and of the church founded by the pilgrims in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1620.
Situations like these where the church appears to have great influence cause us to ask whether Scripture places any limitations on the church’s power.
the power of the church as follows: the power of the church is its God-given authority to carry on spiritual warfare, proclaim the go...
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The phrase “the keys of the kingdom” occurs only once in the Bible, in Matthew 16:19,
Elsewhere in the New Testament a key (whether literal or metaphorical) always implies authority to open a door and give entrance to a place or realm.
Jesus says in Revelation 1:18, “I have the keys of Death and Hades,” implying that he has the authority to grant entrance and exit from those realms (cf. Rev. 3:7; 9:1; 20:1 and the messianic prediction in Isa. 22:22).
two factors suggesting that the authority of the keys here also includes the authority to exercise discipline within the church: (1) The plural keys
Jesus completes the promise about the keys with a statement about binding and loosing, which closely parallels another saying of his in Matthew 18, in which binding and loosing mean placing under church discipline and releasing from church discipline:
There are several indications in Scripture that the church must never take up the sword to carry out its purposes in the new covenant age. This was a dreadful mistake made in the Crusades,
the authority of the church and that of the state belong to distinct spheres (Matt. 22:21; John 18:36; 2 Cor. 10:3–4), and each should respect the authority God has given the other in its own sphere of operation.
It is right for Christians to attempt to persuade governments to make laws that protect families and private property and the lives of human beings—such as laws that both prohibit murder, theft, and the breaking of contracts (things that violate the Ten Commandments), as well as prohibit same-sex marriage, polygamy, incest, slander, drug abuse, abortion, and other things that are inconsistent with biblical standards of morality.
These things are far different from requiring belief in certain types of church doctrine or theological conviction
Church Government How should a church be governed? How should church officers be chosen? Should women serve as pastors of churches?
