Lux Lucet

President of the Lutheran World Federation Bishop Munib Younan, left, conspires with Pope Francis, right, to overthrow the Reformation at a service in Lund Lutheran cathedral , October 31, 2016 (L’Osservatore Romano/AP)

You say you want a Reformation? Well, according to a recently released Pew Research Center survey of Western Europe and the US, many Protestants answer “Not so much.” Here are a few key findings:

• About half of U.S. Protestants (52%) say both good deeds and faith in God are needed to get into heaven, a historically Catholic position. The other half (42%) say that faith alone is needed to attain salvation.
  
• U.S. Protestants also are split on another issue that played a key role in the Reformation: 46% say the Bible provides all the religious guidance Christians need, a traditionally Protestant belief known as sola scriptura. But 52% say Christians should look for guidance from church teachings and traditions as well as from the Bible, the position held by the Catholic Church.
  
• Just 30% of all U.S. Protestants affirm both sola fide and sola scriptura.
  
• In nearly all of the European countries surveyed, majorities or pluralities of both Catholics and Protestants adhere to the traditionally Catholic view that both faith and good works are necessary to attain salvation. In fact, in every country except Norway (where 51% of Protestants say salvation comes through faith alone), belief in sola fide is a minority view even among Protestants.
  

The results of this survey, though disappointing, are hardly surprising. The Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy among Presbyterians in first half of the 20th century ended with the liberal social gospelers seizing control of the mainline Presbyterian church and the subsequent purging of those who believed the Bible. Other Protestant denominations experienced upheavals. As a result, where Protestant churches once spoke with one voice on the critical issues of the source of authority in the church (scripture alone) and the means of justification (justification is by faith alone), Protestant witness has become greatly confused.

But the problems today are not just with the liberals. Even among putative conservative Protestants, confusion reigns. The ill winds of the charismatic movement with its emphasis on personal experience over the objective truth of the Bible, and the Federal Vision / New Perspective on Paul / Auburn Avenue Theology movements – representing, as they do, an attack on Justification By Faith Alone – have blown over many Protestant individuals and institutions.

Luther directs the posting of his 95 theses.  

Given their basic lack of basic theological understanding, is it any surprise that the Pew survey concluded that more American and Western European Protestants see their faith as more similar to Roman Catholicism than different? In light of their substantial rejection of twin pillars of the Reformation, Scripture alone and justification by faith alone, these confused Protestants are right, there really is very little difference between what they believe and the doctrines taught by Rome.

This fundamental confusion on the part of Protestants as to what the Bible teaches about the source of authority in the church (the Bible alone) and means of justification (faith alone) opens them up to the predations of Antichrist. As such, it is no surprise that on October 31, 2016, the 499th anniversary of Luther’s nailing of his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door, the Guardian reported,

The leaders of the world’s Catholics and Lutherans have signed a joint declaration at an ecumenical prayer service commemorating the greatest schism in western Christianity, stating that what unites the two traditions is greater than that which divides them. (You may read the full text of the declaration here.)

Now it may very well be true that Lutheran signatory Munib Younan has a great more deal in common with the pope than he does that separates him. But that’s merely a commentary on Younan’s foolishness, is it not? And it is foolish of him, because ignoring the clear warnings of Scripture not to have fellowship with false teachers, by embracing the Pope Francis, Younan shares in Francis’ and the Roman Church-State’s many, egregious and blasphemous sins.

The bottom line is that Protestantism and Romanism are two separate and incompatible systems of thought. One is based on the Biblical principles of Scripture alone and justification by faith alone, the other represents a rejection of these, teaching as doctrines the traditions of men. The former is the light of life. The latter, all darkness. The former is the way of eternal salvation. The other offers only a path to damnation.

You say you want a Reformation? As we near the 500th anniversary of Luther’s historic act, I pray the answer is yes.