When the news broke a couple of weeks ago that a new pope had been chosen for the Roman Catholic Church, I was in a hospital waiting room with the family of one of our members who was having emergency surgery. Very quickly, this became the talk of the morning and surpassed any other conversation which had been going on. I listened as many expressed their excitement over the news and hopes for how this pope would lead. Tens of thousands who were gathered at the Vatican the moment the announcement occurred broke out in cheers and tears. It was seen as a momentous event and one of great celebration. However, rather than the election of a new pope being a cause for celebration, it should be one of continual concern for us. Not because of Robert Francis Prevost specifically who now occupies the office as Pope Leo XIV but due to the office itself. Both the nature of it and the teachings it represents and promotes.
First, we should have concerns about the
office of the pope and the papacy itself. There is no place in Scripture
for any man to have the authority that has been given to the pope in the
Catholic Church. He is seen as the supreme visible head of the church. That
role has already been taken though by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only
one ever described as being the head of the church with no indication that He
would ever share such an honored status with any others (Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:15;
5:23). The church is not said to have two heads but just that One. And while
the Catholic Church has attempted to make the claim that Peter served as the
first pope with every other succeeding one supposedly continuing his supreme
authority, such an assertion does not hold any water with Scripture. Peter did not see
himself as being any greater than other pastors in the church or as a supreme
authority over them but rather was content to describe himself as being “a
fellow elder” of theirs in 1 Peter 5:1. For that matter, nowhere do the other
apostles treat Peter as superior to them or having a special authority over
them. In settling the dispute over what to require of the Gentile converts, it
is James’ judgment that is accepted by the apostles, elders, and the whole
church with everyone sending a select group of men with the letter summarizing
their decision (Acts 15). Peter is not the one making this decision over and
for the others. Nor did he make the official judgment agreed upon. Paul even
rebukes him when he was in the wrong (Galatians 2:11-14). And when it comes to Peter’s
specific connection to Jesus’ words about building His church on the rock with
the gates of hell not prevailing against it along with the keys of the kingdom being
given to him in Matthew 16:18-19, it must not be forgotten that this
declaration of the Lord’s came AFTER Peter’s confession of who Jesus is (v. 16)
and that later all the apostles are acknowledged as serving a foundational role
for the construction of the church (Ephesians 2:19-21). Those same keys to the
kingdom and the binding and loosing power which goes with them are mentioned
again in reference to the church as a whole in Matthew 18:18. There is no
evidence that Peter had been singled out to serve as the father or papa of all
other leaders in the church.
It is also
very concerning the titles the Pope holds in his office. Titles which really
are only appropriate for the triune God Himself. In fact, the Pope carries a
specific title that would fit each one of the persons of the Trinity alone. He
is called “Holy Father” which is exactly the phrase Jesus uses for God the
Father in His high priestly prayer in John 17:11. Our Savior certainly was not
praying to an earthly bishop or pope! The kind of elevation of someone with
this sort of title is exactly what Jesus spoke against when He said, “And do
not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in
heaven” (Matthew 23:9). The Pope, along with every priest in the Catholic
Church, is also referred to as being an “alter Christus,” Latin for “another
Christ,” equating them with the second person of the Trinity. The Pope is known
as well as “the Vicar of Christ;” “the representative or substitute of Christ”
on this earth. The problem with this title is that it is already taken too. The
One whom Jesus sent to serve as His representative or substitute now in His
physical absence is the Holy Spirit. He is the One who continues Jesus’ work, bears
witness about Him, and delivers His words to the apostles who in turn wrote
them down for us (John 14:16-17, 16; 15:26; 16:8-15). No mere man was sent or
appointed to such a position. With the bearing of these titles of the Trinity, the
Pope in essence is declared to be God. This is further the case with his
official declarations (referred to as “ex cathedra” or “from his chair”) being
viewed and treated as if they are equal in weight and authority to Christ’s
words themselves. As if they are on par with Scripture or even to be considered
as Scripture. They are considered to be infallible or without error as the
words of the Bible are.
Along with concerns about the office
of the pope, we should be concerned as well with the teaching of the
pope as he upholds problematic Catholic doctrine in regards to the gospel. The
Roman Catholic Church can be said to add to the gospel by claiming that
works are necessary for one to be saved. That we have to cooperate with the
grace that God gives for salvation through participating in the sacraments to
receive the righteousness we need to be accepted by God. The Catholic Church
claims that one must be baptized in order for their original sin to be removed
and to be infused with righteousness. Then, when they lose that righteousness by
doing a mortal sin, which is never clearly defined, they must go to a priest
for confession, do some sort of penance prescribed by the priest, and attend
the Mass in order to get it back. This cycle is to continue each time the
person does a mortal sin. The Bible, on the other hand, makes it clear that our
salvation is all of grace with the only thing we can contribute to it being the
sin that makes it necessary. It says instead: “For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; NOT OF WORKS,
so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). “But when the kindness and affection of God our Savior
appeared, He saved us, NOT BY WORKS WHICH WE DID IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, but
according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the
Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs according to
the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7). Abraham we are told was counted or
considered to be righteous on the basis of his faith in the Lord and His
promise of salvation alone (Genesis 15:6). He had not done any righteous deeds
to merit or earn such a declaration or consideration at all. Any works of
obedience he did, such as being willing to sacrifice his son on the altar as
God had commanded (Genesis 22), FOLLOWED his faith to demonstrate the reality
of it. Not to contribute to him being considered as righteous before the Lord
in any way. That consideration had already been made through his faith. And the
thief on the cross is the case of someone who never was baptized, never
attended a mass, did not confess his sins to a priest, did no penance or
participated in any sacrament but got to heaven as indicated with the promise
of Jesus for him to be with Him in paradise that very day (Luke 23:39-43). All that
man had was faith in Christ and we see that that faith was enough.
The Catholic
Church says that Mary serves as an additional mediator for our salvation along
with Jesus. According to the official Catholic Catechism, Mary holds the title
of “mediatrix”. Paul could not be any clearer though that “For there is one
God, and ONE MEDIATOR also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1
Timothy 2:5). Adding Mary as a mediator is yet another way the Catholic Church
can be seen as adding to the gospel.
The Catholic
Church can be said to subtract from the gospel with their teachings on
purgatory, the necessity of participating in the sacraments for salvation, and
the mass as offering up Jesus’ body and blood again as an unbloody sacrifice. All
of these indicate that Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf was not sufficient and
final to atone for or cover our sins and grant forgiveness of them. They
communicate that something more must be done in addition to His work or that
His sacrifice needs to be repeated. There is no reason for a purging of sin to
take place when the gospel declares that Jesus took care of all of our sins in
His death in our place, He cleanses us of ALL of our unrighteousness, and that
there is no judgment which awaits the believer after death (John 5:24; 1 John
1:7, 9; Romans 5:9; 8:1). When Jesus declared that “it is finished” right
before His death (John 19:30), He meant that nothing more needed to be done to
secure our salvation for us. His work was enough and complete. It takes away
from that work to teach that something more needs to be done either by or to us
to atone for our sins.
A popular
evangelist right after Pope Francis’ death called for Christians to pray for
the Catholic Church in the choosing of their new pope. The concern we ought to
have about the existence of the office of the pope itself should lead us to
pray instead that the Catholic Church would have its eyes open to see the
unbiblical nature of such a position and the error of its distortions of the
gospel to do away with such and teach what Scripture says instead without any
additions or subtractions to Christ’s saving work. And to reach out in love to
our Catholic friends and family to point out to them the truth of Scripture so
that they too can see the concern instead of the celebration we should have for
the pope.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Lee
