SAINTS:
Chosen by
God or selected by the Pope?
The Belfast Telegraph carried an
article entitled ‘Speculation grows over possibility of a visit by the Pope’
in its issue of Monday 16th
March 2009. The opening paragraphs of the article read as
follows –
‘A well-known priest last
night said the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland would welcome any visit from
Pope Benedict XVI as speculation mounted over whether the pontiff was planning
to make a historic trip. Father John McManus said the Diocese of Down and
Connor would be “delighted” to receive the Pope after news reports yesterday
suggested the 265th head of the Roman Catholic Church was
considering travelling to the British Isles to coincide with the
beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman – who could become Britain’s
first saint in 40 years’.
Just by way of a little
background to John Henry Newman let me first quote some extracts from a short
article written back in 1990 by Pastor David Carson of Chester
‘This year marks the
centenary of the death of Cardinal Newman. It has been and will be an occasion
of great rejoicing in Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic circles. As far as
Evangelical Protestants are concerned, the legacy of Newman is a disastrous
departure from the Reformed Faith, the continued and seemingly unstoppable
advance of Romanism and Ecumenism and, in more recent times, an increasing
willingness by (so-called) Evangelicals
to embrace apostate Protestantism and Roman Catholicism as being genuinely
Christian. An article in “The Times” dated 9th September 1990 bears the heading “Now praise this man of piety”. Amongst other laudatory words…
“He was the greatest English Christian of the last two centuries”. The reality
is rather different. Archbishop Runcie [He
whom Pope John Paul II humiliated in Rome by consigning him to an obscure side
seat during a service in St Peter’s square in Rome] …credited Newman
with bringing Vatican II into being…What then is the truth concerning Cardinal
Newman? …Newman was the first leader of the Tractarians and three months after
the launching of the society he published an article defending what was called
“Economy in Teaching and Arguing”…Quoting Clement of Alexandria as an authority
he wrote “He both thinks and speaks the truth; except where careful
treatment is necessary, and then as a physician for the good of his
patients he will lie”. Herein lie the seeds of
Anglo-Catholic deceit. He went on to justify this teaching by stating “nothing
but the good of his neighbour will lead him to do this. He gives himself up for
the church”…This doctrine of “Economy” or “Reserve” was used to conceal the
existence aims and membership of the Tractarian Society…In order to conceal the
real aims of the Tractarian Society and to divert suspicion from himself and
others Newman expressed some very anti-Romanist sentiments…The sentiments thus
expressed…had the effect of throwing the Protestants off the scent for a time. The
fact is Newman was expressing sentiments which he did not believe. Here is an
example of the doctrine of “reserve” in all its blatant deceitfulness. At a
later date in a letter…Newman acknowledged the real reason for his series of
articles…. “If you ask me how an individual could venture, not simply to hold,
but to publish such views of a communion (i.e.
the church of Rome) so wide-spreading, so fruitful in saints, I answer,
that I said to myself ‘I am not speaking my own words but I am following
almost a consensus of the divines of our church (the
Church of England)…while I say what they say I am safe. Such views
are necessary for our position”…Here then is clearly revealed the
duplicity, the double-dealing, the Jesuitical convolutions of this “holy man”.
One of his oldest friends, Dr Jelf said “His mind (Newman’s) was always essentially Jesuitical”…His life prior to
his perversion to Rome was one long
catalogue of intrigue, deceit and equivocation. He denied, in a letter to the
Bishop of Oxford that he was setting up a monastery at Littlemore when in fact
he was…No wonder a friend of Newman’s, Isaac Williams, said of him: “the
feelings and thoughts he would express to one person or at one time differed
very much in consequence from what he might express to another person on
another occasion”…I have included but a few of the many examples of Newman’s
deceits, equivocations and evasions, all of which the Bible terms as
wickedness, It is evident that Newman, far from exhibiting saintly qualities, was satanically inspired. Instead
of being the greatest Christian of the last two hundred years he has been an
instrument of the greatest wickedness. Today (1990)
the Church of England and many other denominations besides are reaping
the bitter harvest that he so deceitfully sowed. There is scarcely an ear of
wheat to be seen. The fields are filled with tares. Surely we are compelled to
say, “An enemy hath done this” [Matthew 13:28].
In another little booklet called ‘The Legacy of John
Henry Newman’ written by Rev Maurice G Bowler and published by the
Evangelical Protestant Society we read this –
‘Newman’s legacy in our
day is a nightmare reversal of values in the understanding of religious
history. Roman Catholicism, the most bigoted and cruel regime of corruption and
terror that the world has ever seen, is presented as the champion of tolerance
and righteousness…Rome is said to be a lamb in adversity, a fox in equality and
a wolf in supremacy…in our day we are dealing with a changeling – a fox turning
into a wolf…Also we are facing an enemy whose image is falsely fair and
attractive. A large part of this attractiveness is due I believe to the
afterglow of Newman’s charisma, the legacy of his meretricious (deceitful, alluring) saintliness’
It’s interesting that both authors highlight the absence of
true ‘saintliness’
or ‘saintly qualities’ in their assessment of the life of Mr Newman and
this of course contrasts starkly with the ‘process’ currently being pursued by
Rome in relation to Newman – the process referred to in the Belfast Telegraph
article – that of ‘beatification’. This is
how ‘beatification’ is
defined in the officially approved ‘Pocket Catholic Dictionary’ by Jesuit
priest, John A Hardon –
‘A declaration by the Pope
as head of the Church (Cecil – contrast that
with Colossians 1:18 “And he [Christ] is the head of the church”) that
one of the deceased faithful lived a holy life and/or died a martyr’s death and
is now dwelling in heaven. As a process, the beatification consists of a
years-long examination of the life, virtues, writings and reputation for
holiness of the servant of God under consideration. This is ordinarily
conducted by the Bishop of the place where he or she resided or died. For a
martyr, miracles worked through the person’s intercession need not be
considered in the primary process. The second, or Apostolic
process is instituted by the Holy See when the first process reveals that the
servant of God practiced virtue in a heroic degree or died a martyr for the
faith. Beatified persons are called “Blessed” and may be venerated by the
faithful…’
According to Rome, the Pope selects
‘Saints’ after an earthly process of investigation. Contrast this supposed
prerogative of the Pope with these scriptures –
“Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God…To all that
be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints” [Romans 1:1&7]
Stuart Olyott in his book ‘The Gospel as it Really is: Romans simply explained’ writes
on page 7 ‘In verse 7 Paul pronounces a blessing upon all those to whom he
sends his greetings. These are the inhabitants of Rome who have
certain characteristics. The first is that they are beloved of God and that He
has called them to be saints…. The gospel had been preached at Rome. People
had heard it with their ears. But some had received it in their hearts, had
turned from their sins, and had freely embraced Jesus Christ as He had been
offered to them in the gospel. This is the call of which the New Testament
speaks and which is referred to in verses 6 and 7. Every person who has
received such a call is a saint – someone set apart for God and chosen by Him
to be a holy person’.
“Paul,
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and
Sosthenes our brother. Unto the Church of God which is
at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to
be saints, WITH ALL that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
our Lord, both theirs and ours”. [1st Corinthians 1:1-2]
John MacArthur in his Study Bible comments
on verse 2 - ‘Saints: Not
referring to a specifically pious or revered person canonized by an
ecclesiastical body but a reference to everyone who by salvation has been
sanctified, that is, set apart from sin in Christ Jesus’.
These are just two examples of numerous scriptures that
identify that it is GOD who chooses those that are viewed by Him as “saints” – it is a
term that He applies to every truly saved person and not just to some select group compiled through a process instigated
by Rome and
rounded of with a Papal declaration. God chooses His “saints” and does
not and never will delegate that God-glorifying task to sinful human beings.
By way of conclusion I want now to provide a link to enable
you to view a 25-minute TV debate that took place some years ago and that
involves my good brother in Christ, ex-Catholic, Rob Zins who heads up ‘A
Christian Witness to Roman Catholicism’. I was actually contacted by the TV
station to see if I could recommend someone to take part in this debate on the
subject of ‘Saints
and Stigmata’. It just ‘so happened’ that this request coincided with one
of Rob’s ministry visits here as the guest of ‘Take Heed’ and so I arranged for
him to fly to London to take
part in the debate. As well as the presumably Roman Catholic chairperson,
Miriam O’Callaghan, the other panellists were ‘Father’ Joseph Pius, ‘Father’
Hugh McKenzie and an ecumenical Church Times journalist called Andrew Brown and
not surprisingly you will see that it was very much a case of Rob v the rest.
Televised
Debate:
'Saints' and 'Stigmata'
Rob Zins debates
various
Roman Catholic Experts
Click
Here For Part 1
Click
Here For Part 2
Cecil Andrews –
‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 21st
March 2009