The Most Astounding Story of 1999
...yet
no one seemed to pay any attention
Posted on the Pastor’s
Desk Weekly on February 15, 2000
This story came out of
Augsburg, Germany and was reported in the Washington Post on November 1,
1999:
"Four hundred and
eighty-two years ago, the blunt-speaking monk Martin Luther nailed his legendary
attack on Catholic Church practices to a church door in Germany.
His act of conscience
triggered the Protestant Reformation, the wrenching division of Western
Christianity, and more than a century of religious wars.
On Sunday, leaders of the
modern Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches signed a document that officially
settles the central argument about the nature of faith. The agreement declares,
in effect, that it was all a misunderstanding.
"In the one Spirit,
we were all baptized into one body. Let us then pursue all that makes for peace
and build up our common life," proclaimed Catholic Cardinal Edward Idris
Cassidy, Pope John Paul II's emissary. Cassidy signed the Agsburg accord on
behalf of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide.
All but about 3 million
of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans were represented by bishop Christian
Krause, president of the Lutheran World Federation.
The United States has 61
million Catholics and 5.2 million Lutherans whose churches belong to the
worldwide federation. Another 2.6 million Lutherans belong to the Missouri
Synod, which rejected the accord.
The argument that has
preoccupied Lutheran and Catholic negotiators for more than 30 years involves
what is called the doctrine of justification. Lutherans have believed that faith
alone, and acceptance of God renewed every day, ensures eternal salvation. The
Catholic Church has long taught that salvation comes from the sum total of faith
and good works -- that a life of devotion and service on Earth earns the
faithful the key to heaven. The key language of the "Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" appears to give decisive
weight to the Lutheran position on salvation through faith, while embracing and
ethic of earthly service championed by Catholics.
"This is a critical
breakthrough. It's the first major step toward reconciliation," said Bishop
H. George Anderson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America."
Brother Beller: The
ramifications of such an accord are deep and will slowly come to fruition. This
modern age of apostasy will culminate in the rise of the religion of antichrist.
This coming worldwide religion will reject Jesus Christ and accept the
antichrist.
The accord at Augsburg is a big
step toward the one world church. It is not a victory for justification by
faith. It is a further eroding and watering down of repentance and saving faith.
There is a reason the Lutheran Church-Mo. Synod rejected the accord. It mixes
faith and works.
The real reason for the accord
is two-fold. First, from a practical standpoint it helps two floundering
religious organizations bolster their base. And secondly it helps two
floundering religious organizations fill their needs for clergy.
It all plays into the hands of
the adversary in these last days. We will see further unification of liberal and
unbelieving protestant denominations in the next couple of years. May God grant
the remaining few Bible believing camps of Christians the wisdom to avoid unity
at the price of purity of doctrine.
And that's the way it is.
Unless God grants me repentance.
James R. Beller