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"Take
Heed" Ministries
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Cecil Andrews, PO BOX 13, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AL, Northern Ireland. Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEB-SITE - http://www.takeheed.net |
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‘Evangelical Catholic’ suggestions for Belfast
‘Passion Café’ rejected |
Several
years ago as part of an attempt to maximise the publicity-potential of the
deceptive and ecumenical ‘gospel’ charade known as ‘Power to Change’, a
café was manned for about 7 months in the centre of Belfast by, I have no
doubt, some well-intentioned but sadly misguided professing believers.
This group
are currently planning, in their terms, to ‘ride the wave’ of the
publicity that will be generated by the screening in Belfast of the Mel Gibson
movie ‘The Passion of The Christ’ by manning a ‘Café
Passionate’ close to where the movie will be screened. What was
somewhat disturbing, about what may well be promoted as an ‘evangelical’ initiative,
was that important aspects of the format were initially ‘checked out’ in
a hope that Roman Catholic involvement would be both possible and
encouraged.
One
of the committee for the café submitted documents and planned training
procedures to Eugene Boyle of the so-called Evangelical
Catholic Initiative to see if he could identify any problems from a
Roman Catholic perspective that would hinder Roman Catholic involvement. Eugene
Boyle’s reply makes very interesting reading – here are some extracts -
‘The only
point in the Application Form which might give some pause for thought to some
Catholics is the phrasing of [the] second point in the statement of belief –
The Catholics are very wary of individualistic, one-text, wacko interpretations of Scripture which have led to so much heresy and heartache in the Church. They place a lot of (too much?) emphasis on the responsibility of leadership in the Church to guard against distortion of the truths of Scripture arising from a selective, individualistic approach. I suppose this is invariably the case in all Church groupings from exclusive brethren to the latest and freest of the new fellowships – they all acknowledge the need to guide and nourish their members in a right understanding of Scripture.
Catholics might therefore be happier if you were to rephrase the latter part of the statement and perhaps say something like –
“and that
in them properly understood, rests
the final authority for believers”
That would allow space for
the need for guidance in coming to a proper understanding of what that final
authority is saying in specific cases. Just an observation!
Eugene Boyle has sought to
pass off his suggested rewording of part of the proposed ‘Statement of
Belief’ as merely an ‘observation’. It is in fact much more devious and destructive than that.
The plain fact is that Eugene Boyle has rejected that the Scriptures ALONE are the “final authority
for believers” and has sought to inject the “need for
guidance” before someone can say that for
them the Scriptures are “properly understood” and are now therefore their “final authority”.
Christians do acknowledge from the
Scriptures that they “need guidance” by God the Holy Spirit in understanding the Scriptures [see
1 Corinthians 2:12-14] but never do Christians relinquish the truth that these
same Scriptures themselves are their “final authority” – as the Psalmist himself wrote “Thy Word
is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” [Psalm 119:105].
What Eugene Boyle was doing by his apparently casual “observation” was to subtly make room for the real “final authority where Roman Catholicism is concerned and that “final authority” most certainly does not reside in the Scriptures ALONE.
Recently I wrote an article on ‘Alister McGrath
and The Catholic Catechism’ [the full
article can be viewed under the March 2004 NEWS FROM THE FRONT posting on the
web site http://www.takeheed.net/MARCH%202004.htm] and herewith is an extract of
what I wrote that will serve to illustrate where the “final authority” in Roman Catholicism really resides –
‘to those not familiar with the Roman system Paragraph
100 of the [Catholic]
Catechism states clearly where the ultimate authority in the Roman system
resides – ‘The task of interpreting the Word of God [remember that is both Scripture and tradition] authentically
has been entrusted SOLELY to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the
Pope and to the bishops in communion with him’.
If the café committee member were
to accede to this suggested “observation” by Eugene Boyle he would in effect be surrendering the truth that for true
believers their “final authority” is The Bible.
I also mentioned that planned
training procedures were set before Eugene Boyle for his comments and again herewith are extracts from what
he said in reply –
‘I would focus strictly on the direct personal consequences of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus and avoid being drawn into any discussion on Mary, The Mass, the sacraments etc. Getting across the gospel message is what is paramount, not setting people straight on subsequent doctrinal issues.
I would be inclined, if at all possible, to sidestep questions on any other topic on the grounds that personal response to Jesus is the most radically important issue facing any human being. Without being clear on this the rest is meaningless.
Setting people straight on doctrinal issues is for another day, and we can trust the Holy Spirit to prepare the ground for that.
Stick to Jesus is my best advice!
Following this advice would mean
that a Christian would not be able to challenge any faithful Roman Catholic who
comes into the Café and who is trusting in the false “gospel message” of Roman Catholicism. That false “gospel message” includes for instance these Catholic
Catechism teachings on “the sacraments” [one of Eugene Boyle’s ‘no-go areas’]
Paragraph
1266: ‘The Most
Holy Trinity gives the baptised sanctifying grace and the grace of
JUSTIFICATION’
Paragraph
1992:
‘Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ…Justification
is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith
Paragraph
1129: ‘The
Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New
Covenant ARE NECESSARY FOR SALVATION’
What faithful Christian could
either work with or fail to witness to someone who is deceived by these papal
approved teachings!
In giving this advice Eugene Boyle is simply following the pattern set by Rome in relation to ‘The Alpha
Course. As long as ALPHA continues to present what I would describe as an ‘anorexic
skeleton’ of Christianity, Rome is quite
happy to let her people attend. However, afterwards, by way of follow up, Rome ‘fleshes out’ this ‘anorexic skeleton’ by showing her people a series of videos entitled ‘Drink From The
Wells of The Church’ [not the Scriptures!]
This series of videos feature
‘Father’ Raniero Cantalamessa [a welcome
guest ‘preacher’ at the Holy Trinity Brompton Church – home of ALPHA] who is a ‘Papal Preacher’ and in them he introduces those
watching to all the “damnable heresies” [2 Peter 2:1] of Rome. On the order form to purchase these videos it
states – ‘ideal for group use to follow Alpha’.
In the case of ALPHA Rome gets down to the business of “setting people straight on
doctrinal matters” on “another day” when they present to them their “Drink From The Wells of The
Church” video series. No doubt these videos or
something with similar content will be used by Rome to “set people straight” after they have gone to watch ‘The Passion of The Christ’ and have afterwards perhaps popped into ‘Café
Passionate’.
One of the churches involved in
the ‘Power to Change’ café
venture was ChristChurch, Belfast, pastored by Derick
Bingham. The following notice appears at
present on their church web site –
Passionate
One of the core values we have at ChristChurch is to bring
the message of the cross to the City of Belfast. Last year many of us were
involved in the Power to Change coffee shop, which exceeded all expectations in terms of
the level of interest it raised. But even more important than that were the
opportunities it provided those with the gift of evangelism to share the
gospel. In just a few weeks, Mel Gibson's new film depicting the death and
resurrection of Jesus will be released here. The film is entitled The
Passion of the Christ, and although
it is somewhat controversial, it is having a significant impact on those who
watch it.
The movie is being viewed by many churches as a great
opportunity to share the Gospel. Some (in the USA) are even planning special
services to share details of the "Man behind the movie" -- the Son of
Man. "The Passion of the Christ" is a bloody, heart-wrenching
depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus' life.
Garry Poole, director of evangelism at Willow Creek
Community Church, has seen the film twice.
"It's something that you don't just watch, you experience it.
You feel like you were there; it's just a powerful picture of what Christ went
through."
Poole's
church is encouraging its members to take friends and co-workers to the movie,
and then talk about it over a cup of coffee. He expects it to spark a flood of
questions. Howard Davey was in America just before it was released, and he told
me that the churches there were gearing up for the most significant spiritual
response from non-churchgoers since September 11th. Peter Jenkins (our Youth
Pastor) saw the film on Tuesday in Glasgow, and he believes that those who see
the film will be moved by the impact of Jesus' love for us. Others feel the film
is too graphic, and are not intending to visit. But whatever our thoughts are
on these issues, you can be sure that for a number of weeks after the film
opens, thousands of people will sit for 2 hours watching images, which depict
the most amazing events, the world has ever witnessed.
For months there have been a number of people praying
together and working hard to see the Power to Change coffee shop open again in
Cornmarket, and indeed it looked very likely that it would, right up until the
last minute that is, when tenancy was given to a furniture business. When God
closes a door that clearly, you know He is thinking differently!. So when
premises right opposite a cinema, which will be showing this film become
available, you start to see the amazing plans that God has.
So far, three Belfast cinemas have agreed to give out a voucher for a free cup
of coffee in our cafe with every ticket purchased for the film, and we
anticipate quite a response.
Please pray with us that we in ChristChurch would be used as we work alongside
Christians from other churches in this city, and that we would see the most
unlikely of people coming to faith.
In closing, let me reiterate what
I have said elsewhere, namely that whilst I do not believe that Christians
should go to watch this movie, as I believe it violates God’s prohibition found
in Deuteronomy 4 against making
any “similitude” of God [and we
must always remember that Jesus Christ was “Emmanuel – God with us”], I do believe that we must be ready to make use of any
witnessing opportunities afforded to us by those who do go to watch the movie.
For that reason a strategically
located café that will afford opportunities to present the clear message of the
“Gospel of Christ” that
Paul was “not ashamed of” [see Romans 1:16] is in theory a very good outreach idea. The tragedy might be
that, unwittingly perhaps, the professing believers involved in ‘Café Passionate’ would, if they were to follow Eugene Boyle’s
‘observations’ be simply helping the Pope and
his false ‘Church’ to successfully “ride the wave” of interest generated by ‘The Passion of The Christ’.
One final, but VERY important
point. When Eugene Boyle wrote ‘Stick to Jesus
is my best advice!’ Christians must always remember
that Eugene
Boyle’s ‘Jesus’ is the Roman Catholic ‘Jesus’ who is “another Jesus” linked to “another spirit” and central to “another gospel” [see 2
Corinthians 11:4] and those who are so deceived are
sadly as “beguiled” by Satan
as was Eve [see 2 Corinthians 11:3].
Cecil Andrews
‘Take Heed’ Ministries
17 March 2004
PS
After writing this article I made a phone call to someone
that I thought might have some contact and influence with the group planning
the café. Through discussions held following my phone call I now understand
that the ‘observations’ of Eugene Boyle will not be adopted and workers in the café will be free to
discuss “doctrinal issues”. In addition,
anyone professing saving faith in Christ, will be positively directed to
Christian churches that do recognise both the true Biblical gospel of salvation
by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone and acknowledge “that
the entire Scriptures are the…final authority for believers”
18 March 2004