On 2nd
December 2014 “The Christian News Network” reported Pastor Rick Warren’s1
apparent apostasy through their article, “Rick
Warren’s Call for Christians to Unite With Catholics, ‘Holy Father’ Raising
Concerns”2
These were Pastor
Rick Warren’s words contending for unity between Protestants and Catholics, “We have far more in common than what
divides us. When you talk about Pentecostals, Charismatics, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists,
Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, on and on and on and on. Well
they would all say we believe in the trinity, we believe in the Bible, we
believe in the resurrection, we believe salvation is through Jesus Christ.
These are the big issues. Sometimes Protestants think that Catholics worship
Mary like she’s another god. But that’s not exactly catholic doctrine. There’s
the understanding, and, and people say well what are the saints all about? Why
are you praying to the saints? And when you understand what they mean by what
they’re saying there’s a whole lot more commonality. Now there’s still real
differences, no doubt about that. But the most important thing is if you love
Jesus, we’re on the same team." 3
Pastor Rick
Warren proposed not a structural unity, but a unity of mission. Yes, there are
glaring disagreements between Protestants and Catholics.4 Should
these theological disagreements prevent unity?
We Live In Unity
Leave aside
Catholics for a moment. Can we live independent of our non-Christian brothers
and sisters in this world? Unity, I believe, is the creational intent of God (Cf.
Psalm 133:1; Matthew 22: 39 etc.)
God knew
that people would either accept or reject HIM, and HIS omniscience entailed HIS
command to love our neighbors. Thus God mandates unity.
Consider our
workplace. Don’t we live in unity with our non-Christian brothers and sisters
at our work place? Isn’t there a unity of purpose within our workplace among
people belonging to multi-faceted religious worldviews?
Whether we
like it or not, we ought to live in unity at our workplace, else we wouldn’t
survive in the job. So let’s assume that the possibility of being jobless motivates
us to live in unity. But don’t you agree that the possibility of something bad
happening to us is not the real reason to live in unity?
How do we get
motivated to love our non-Christian brothers and sisters for the right reasons?
We are motivated to love everyone because God loves everyone – those who accept
HIM and those who reject HIM. God loves even those who hate HIM.
When God
loves everyone and when people subscribing to varied religious thoughts can unite
to work for a living, what prevents Protestants and Catholics to work together?
What prevents Christians to work alongside Hindus or Muslims or those from other
religious persuasions on common missions?
Theological /
Doctrinal Unity Between Catholics & Protestants Is Impossible
But let’s
get this straight.
Salvation
is a fundamental teaching of any religion. Unfortunately this is where
Protestants and Catholics hold opposing views.
Protestants
rely solely upon Christ for salvation. We believe salvation cannot be earned,
but it is a gift of God through God’s grace and man’s belief in the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
On the
contrary, Catholics combine belief in Christ, doing good works, and in certain
instances they teach that belief in Christ is not even necessary for salvation.
With such a
sharp non-reconcilable disagreement in existence, a theological or a doctrinal
unity between Protestants and Catholics is impossible. There are many such
disagreements between Protestants and Catholics, so to expect a theological
unity is to expect purple geese to lay golden eggs.
Furthermore,
no sane protestant would consider the Pope as his spiritual leader. On the
other hand, a protestant who knows his Bible will only believe in the triune
God and in the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ and follow HIM all through his life.
A Missional Unity Is Realistic
Pastor Rick Warren denies the
possibility of a structural unity but advocates missional unity, "The unity that I think we would see
realistically is not a structural unity but a unity of mission. And so, when it
comes to the family we are co-workers in the field on this for the protection
of what we call the sanctity of life, the sanctity of sex, and the sanctity of
marriage. So there’s a great commonality and there’s no division on any of
those three.”5
Why
shouldn’t the Catholics and Protestants unite to fight against homosexuality,
abortion and other rampant evils? Protestants should unite not only with
Catholics but also with other religions to fight against evils that destroy the
world - poverty, pornography, human trafficking etc.
Such a unity
is necessary because of the magnitude of the problem at hand. Poverty is so rampant
that it’s virtually impossible for one religious group to facilitate its eradication.
Similarly the evil of pornography is so enormous that it’s impossible for one
religious group to eradicate this evil.
So let’s
unite with those who share the passion to save this world from rampant evils,
and let’s to the best of our abilities, transcend religious barriers to save
our fellow brothers and sisters from pain and suffering.
I am not
advocating that Christ is unnecessary for our salvation. Christ is necessary
for salvation. Without Christ, none can be saved. Only belief and obedience to
the Lord will save us and grant us a life eternal with our Lord.
However, it
is our love for the Lord Jesus Christ that motivates us to live in unity with everyone
irrespective of our religious differences. We should also unite with everyone
who is willing to be a means to eradicate evil that destroys human life. Every
individual Christian and the Church of Jesus Christ should know and play their
role to live in unity and to eradicate evil. Amen.
Endnotes
1 Pastor Rick Warren authored the much acclaimed
‘Purpose Driven Life’ and a host of other bestselling books. He is the founder
pastor of the Saddleback megachurch.
2 http://christiannews.net/2014/12/02/rick-warrens-call-for-christians-to-unite-with-catholics-holy-father-raising-concerns/#sthash.0mjOGJf2.dpuf
3 http://carm.org/rick-warren-and-catholicism
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
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