It was, on the face of it, remarkable. Arguably one of the most influential leaders in the world, unarguably the most influential religious leader in the
\n\tworld, Pope Francis appeared in a short video as a humble suppliant, a simple brother speaking obsequiously, even apologetically, to Protestants in the
\n\tUnited States. From his opening words, \u201cDear brothers and sisters, excuse me,\u201d to some of his last, \u201cI ask you to bless me,\u201d the pope came across with an
\n\tendearing, even disarming, earnestness that one might associate with a beggar on the street, and not with the bishop of Rome. Everything in the video—from
\n\tthe simple room in which it was shot, to Francis\u2019 demeanor, to his words themselves—exuded a loving and self-effacing humility that gave his plea for
\n\tChristian unity a power manifestly lacking in any official Vatican decree.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThis remarkable seven-minute video was played before a gathering of Pentecostal preachers at the Kenneth Copeland Ministries annual ministers conference,
\n\theld January 21, 2014, in Fort Worth, Texas.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRecent political changes in America have caused some to say, \u201cIt\u2019s not your father\u2019s country.\u201d An event like this—a pope humbly addressing, and being
\n\tenthusiastically received by, a conservative Protestant church in the United States, all on the subject of Christian unity—could justifiably make one say,
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s not your father\u2019s church,\u201d either.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThe pope\u2019s video was preceded by a live homily from Bishop Tony Palmer, a member of a breakaway Anglican community, the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal
\n\tChurches, and founder of the Ark Community, which calls itself \u201can international community of Christians, coming together to form intimate relationships
\n\tbased upon a common spiritual pilgrimage.\u201d Palmer also worked a few years for Kenneth Copeland Ministries.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tA friend of both Francis and Copeland, Bishop Palmer shot the video of the pope on his iPhone and then brought it to the conference, where it was played,
\n\tbut not before Palmer declared to these Pentecostal preachers that no reason for the Catholic-Protestant chasm still existed. Arguing that the 1999
\n\tdocument \u201cThe Joint Declaration of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation on the Doctrine of Justification\u201d showed that Catholics and
\n\tProtestants had bridged the main theological divide between them, i.e., the question of salvation by faith alone, Palmer called for unity between
\n\tProtestants and Catholics.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBrothers and sisters,\u201d Palmer declared, \u201cLuther\u2019s protest is over. Is yours?\u201d Then, after he read from John 17 Jesus\u2019 prayer for unity, the video was
\n\tpresented.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWith the camera right up to his face, the pope began in heavily accented English, speaking very slowly. \u201cBut I am not speaking English. But I will speak no
\n\tItalian, no English, but \u2018heartfully\u2019 [sic].\u201d Then, switching to Italian, he continued: \u201cIt\u2019s a language more simple and more authentic, and this language
\n\tof the heart has a special language and grammar.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWith this introduction Francis immediately set a tone, basically saying without saying it that this isn\u2019t a papal encyclical, a Vatican decree, but rather
\n\ta humble brother in the faith talking from his heart to others in the faith—not a typical approach for a pope. It\u2019s a radical change, for instance, from
\n\tBoniface VIII\u2019s papal bull Unam Sanctum (1302), in which he declared that \u201cit is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to
\n\tthe Roman Pontiff.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tFrancis next talked about how glad he was to greet this meeting, and he made reference to the division between Protestants and Catholics. \u201cWe are kind of,
\n\tpermit me to say, separated.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cPermit me to say.\u201d Again, he\u2019s speaking in the language of a humble suppliant, not of the \u201cvicar of Christ.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tFrancis then gets into the heart of his message: \u201cSeparated,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause, it\u2019s sin that has separated us, all our sins. The misunderstandings
\n\tthroughout history. It has been a long road of sin that we all shared in. Who is to blame? We all share the blame. We have all sinned. There is only one
\n\tblameless, the Lord. I am [yearning] that this separation comes to an end and gives us communion. I am [yearning] of that embrace that the Holy Scripture
\n\tspeaks of when Joseph\u2019s brothers began to starve from hunger—they went to Egypt to buy, so that they could eat.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tHere\u2019s where the subterfuge begins. It\u2019s \u201cour sins\u201d that have caused the separation. Numerous times he talked about everyone\u2019s sins, meaning obviously the
\n\tsins of both Protestants and Catholics. Of course, the Protestants were sinners, and the early Reformers were not always angels, either. But the
\n\tReformation was hardly the result of \u201cmisunderstandings throughout history.\u201d Rather, it was a biblically based revolt against an ecclesiastical system
\n\tthat, at its core, had corrupted the gospel of Christ and replaced it with a human-made hierarchical system that all but usurped the work of Jesus Christ
\n\tin behalf of humanity.\n\t<\/p>\n
\nThe pope\u2019s use of the story of Joseph and his brothers was shallow enough to be vague, but the point wasn\u2019t lost. Joseph\u2019s brothers (the\tProtest<\/em><\/strong>ants) were starving; they needed something that they didn\u2019t have, so they had to go to Egypt, back to their brother Joseph (the Roman \n\tWith the Joseph story, however, Francis might have revealed more of his true sentiments than intended. Joseph\u2019s brothers were mostly evil, treacherous men \n\tThus, in Pope Francis\u2019 homily, the treachery of the brothers (the Protest-ants) caused the separation in the first place, a slight deviation from his \n\tHowever powerful a story of grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation, the account of Joseph and his brothers hardly serves as an honest metaphor for the \n\tPope Francis then followed with more humble words, such as: \u201cI thank you profoundly for listening to me. I thank you profoundly for allowing me to speak \n\tApart from the manner in which the pope spoke, and the way the message was delivered (by iPhone video?), Francis said nothing new, at least from the \n\tCopeland then asked Tony Palmer to the pulpit, and with the same iPhone Palmer had recorded the pope, he had Palmer record him a message back to Francis, \n\tAnd that\u2019s because 47 years ago Protestants understood what Copeland and many others today seem to have missed, which is that on the crucial issue of the \n\t\u201cIf anyone says that justifying grace is nothing else than confidence [faith] in divine mercy, which remits sin for Christ\u2019s sake, or that this confidence \n\tThese views are in stark contrast to the Protestant position that, yes, faith alone \u201cjustifies us\u201d and that, no, justification is not also \u201csanctification \n\tDespite all the attempts in recent years to come to reconciliation on this topic, and despite the exceedingly disingenuous use of common terms such as \n\tFor example, a Vatican decree in 2012 (Urbis et Orbis) in regard to \u201cthe gift of Sacred Indulgences,\u201d reads in part: \u201cAll individual members of the \n\tOf course, Rome has the right to promote indulgences. But only through the most cynical and manipulative twisting of language can indulgences, and many \n\tProtest Over?\n\t<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s hard to imagine any of the 265 popes who preceded him making the kind of humble appeal that Pope Francis did in this iPhone video. (Could one see John It was, on the face of it, remarkable. Arguably one of the most influential leaders in the world, unarguably the most influential religious leader in the world, Pope Francis appeared in a short video as a humble suppliant, a simple brother speaking obsequiously, even apologetically, to Protestants in the United States. From his opening words,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[303],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-6282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november-december-2014","tag-november-december-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tCatholic Church), in order to get it.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\twho, out of jealousy and hatred, wanted to kill Joseph and throw his corpse into a hole (Genesis 37:20). Perhaps having twinges of guilt, they sold him
\n\tinto slavery instead. They then dipped his clothes in animal blood, which they took back to their father.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tearlier words about everyone being at fault. Then, only out of desperation for food did Joseph\u2019s brothers go down to Egypt (an interesting analogy, because
\n\tin the Bible \u201cEgypt\u201d is a symbol of sin and rebellion against God); and only then did they return to their long-lost brother, Joseph (the Roman Catholic
\n\tChurch), who—though justified in rejecting or even punishing these men—embraced them with tears instead, the \u201ctears of love.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tProtestant revolt against Rome. A biblical story that more accurately depicts the principles involved with the Reformation would be some of the scribes and
\n\tPharisees, uniting with the secular Roman authorities, persecuting the early followers of Christ and forcing them to flee for their lives.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tthe language of the heart. . . . I need your prayers. . . . From brother to brother, I embrace you. Thank you.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tCatholic side of the divide, that hadn\u2019t been said before, such as in John Paul II\u2019s encyclical Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One). What was remarkable
\n\twas American Protestant leader Kenneth Copeland\u2019s response once the video was over. Coming to the pulpit, amid the clapping and cheers of the audience,
\n\twhich had risen to its feet, Copeland uttered, \u201cOh, Glory! Glory! Glory!\u201d and then said, \u201cCome on, the man asked us to pray for him.\u201d He prayed for the
\n\tpope, saying that he too wanted the \u201cunity in the body of Christ\u201d that Francis was asking for.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tthanking God for the pope and affirming Francis in his desire for unity. Then, in what were the most accurate and honest words spoken amid what many could
\n\tjustifiably argue was one deception after another, Copeland said, in reference to the calls for unity with Rome: \u201cI mean, when we went into the ministry 47
\n\tyears ago, this was impossible.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tReformation, how people are saved, Rome has not changed its position at all. It has not repudiated the teaching of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), where
\n\tit overtly rejected the Protestant stand on salvation by faith alone.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t[faith] alone justifies us, let him be anathema\u201d (Councils and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Canon 12). \u201cAnathema,\u201d by the way, means \u201ccursed.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tand the renewal of the inner man.\u201d However much to the uninitiated these might seem like theological nitpicking, the difference on this topic gets to the
\n\theart of the foundational question in Scripture: \u201cHow should man be just with God?\u201d (Job 9:2). This difference also contains the pivot upon which Western
\n\tChristianity split in the sixteenth century, the pivot upon which the Protestant Reformation first started before exploding across Europe. Most of the
\n\tother issues that separate Catholicism from Protestantism—purgatory, indulgences, penance, the Mass, and the priesthood—originate to one degree or another
\n\tfrom the Roman teaching that justification includes a righteousness that is infused in the life of the believer. This, in direct opposition to the
\n\tProtestant teaching that justification is the imputation, the crediting, of God\u2019s righteousness to the believer, which makes that person fully justified
\n\tand forgiven before God. And this status, which is all one needs for salvation, comes by faith alone, and nothing else.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tgrace, and faith and justification, such as appear in the document that Palmer had mentioned, \u201cThe Joint Declaration of the Catholic Church and the
\n\tLutheran World Federation on the Doctrine of Justification\u201d—the difference in understanding here has led to two radically different concepts of salvation.
\n\tThere\u2019s a crucial reason that in Kenneth Copeland\u2019s church the members don\u2019t celebrate the Mass, don\u2019t pray to saints, don\u2019t confess sins to priests, and
\n\tdon\u2019t receive indulgences.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tfaithful who are truly repentant, have duly received the Sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion and who pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff may
\n\treceive the Plenary Indulgence in remission of the temporal punishment for their sins, imparted through God\u2019s mercy and applicable in suffrage to the souls
\n\tof the deceased.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tother teachings like it, be said to be in harmony with the Protestant understanding of what Jesus had accomplished for humanity at the cross. Thus, one has
\n\tto wonder about all the excitement, and the utterances of \u201cGlory!\u201d Kenneth Copeland expressed over Pope Francis\u2019 exhortation for unity.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tPaul II, or Benedict XVI, doing this?) Yet, however refreshing this pontiff\u2019s approach, Rome hasn\u2019t changed its position on salvation. It remains as
\n\tentrenched now as when the Council of Trent cursed the Reformers and when Rome began a violent campaign of religious persecution against Protestants that
\n\tlasted for centuries.\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"