In all matters of faith and morals the final authority is the Bible alone (Sola Scriptura). Before the all-holy God, according to the Bible, an individual is saved by grace alone (Sola Gratia), through faith alone (Sola Fide), in Christ alone (Solo Christo). Following on this, all glory and praise is to God alone (Soli Deo Gloria).
The Lord God used these five biblical principles to bring the great revival known as the Reformation to the body of Christ. Historically these five principles have been at the heart of all genuine revivals in the body of Christ because the gospel message is central to every true revival in the body of Christ as it was in the Reformation.
The Reformers saw that the root problem of mankind is legal guilt before the holy God which is, first of all, a forensic or legal situation rather than simply moral pollution, which is a consequence of legal guilt. They saw that the atonement primarily addresses mankind's legal guilt before the holy God rather than simply a bettering of the moralcondition of man. While a better moral condition follows the legal declaration of right standing before the holy God, the improvement of the moral condition of man follows as fruitfulness and is also part of the divine message. True revival comes not the way human religions tell us to become perfect by doing good, but when the saved individual trusts in God who says the believer is now legally positioned as holy in Christ.
This is the basis for his growth in holiness. He is motivated and accepts the responsibility to behave as is fitting for a person deemed perfect in Christ. The continual theme of scripture to the believer is "you are perfect, now seek to become perfect." The believer totally accepted in Christ on this basis moves forward. Thus God's grace can flow abundantly and God alone is glorified.
The Reformers of the sixteenth century uniformly understood these five principles as basic to true reformation, or revival, in the body of Christ. They applied these five principles to the seat of Rome. Consequently people were able to see clearly the false system by which they were enslaved. As a result they left it in great numbers. These principles are the measure of true doctrine and, subsequently, the measure of true revival, which is revival from the deceptions of Satan and from the foolishness of which Paul speaks in Galatians 3.
The Bible is full of statements upholding the fact that God's written Word is the final basis of truth for mankind. It is evidenced by hundreds of references in the Old Testament as, for example, Isaiah 8:20, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
Likewise in the New Testament, it is the written Word of God and it alone to which the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles refer as final authority. In the temptation, Jesus three times repelled Satan saying, "It is written...", as, for example, in Matthew 4:4, "But he answered and said, `It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
When refuting the errors of the Sadducees, the Lord said, "...Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God."1 The Lord's total acceptance of the authority of the Old Testament is seen in his words in Matthew 5:17-18, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." On the night before he was crucified, Jesus prayed to his Father with the clearest words, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth".2
Christ Jesus said also that Scripture cannot be broken.3 The Bible testifies to its own essential truth, e.g. "Thy Word is true from the beginning..."4 "O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy words be true..."5 The written Word of God is the "word of truth."6 God says of his written Word, "These words are faithful and true".7 The written Word of God is infallible and inerrant in all areas.8 To deny the inherent truth and inerrancy of the Bible is to call God a liar.9 The believer is told explicitly to submit his mind to God, "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ".10
The Reformers in the sixteenth centuries saw that Christ Himself, the apostles, and the Scriptures all declared that God's written Word is the absolute authority, not in place of God but rather as the Word itself declares as the expression of the very mind of God.
The Roman Catholic Church officially declares her absolute authority to be as follows:
Canon 750 "All that is contained in the written word of God or in tradition, that is, in the one deposit of faith entrusted to the [Roman Catholic] Church and also proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn magisterium of the [Roman Catholic] Church or by its ordinary and universal magisterium, must be believed with divine and catholic faith..."
Rome upholds consistently the fatal syncretism of equating tradition with Scripture, a practise condemned by the Lord Jesus Christ. So she teaches in her new Catechism:
#80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other....Each of them makes present and fruitful in the [Roman Catholic] Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own always to the close of the age."
#81 "...And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit...."
#82 "As a result the [Roman Catholic] Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."
The consummate pharisaism of the Roman Catholic Church is here demonstrated. In total contrast to Rome, on questions of authority, the Lord always referred to God's written word (e.g., "It is written...", or "Have you not read...?"). Likewise, the apostle Paul stated clearly that Christ "died according to the Scriptures".11 Regardless of Christ's example, however, the Roman Catholic Church tries, as did the Pharisees in Jesus' time, to equate its tradition with God's Word, thus "making the word of God of none effect through your tradition...."12 God's written Word as contained in the Bible is the absolute authority for the body of Christ. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17).
In the Bible justification is God's gift to the believer, which is imputed to him based on Christ's finished work on the cross.13 Quite simply, justification is God's righteous judgment of the believer, declaring him guiltless in regard to sin, and righteous in regard to his moral standing in Christ before the holy God. This judgment by God is legally possible because of the substitutionary death and resurrection of Christ Jesus in the place of the believer. Justification is first and foremost God's legal judgment of the believer.
As Christ declared, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 14 Justification is God's righteous judgment to demonstrate in the words of Romans 3:26, that he is "just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." This righteous judgment of God is the center of the apostolic preaching of the good news in the Bible.
It is a righteous judgment freely given by God: Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: thathe might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 15
Clearly, according to this passage, every person under the law has fallen short of the glory of God and thereby is possessed of a bad record because of personal sin. The good news, stated in v. 24, is that a person's right standing before God is in Christ's redemption and is freely given, as it is outside anything a person can do for himself. God himself graciously provides the believer's rectitude. "By grace" means his gracious free gift, or G.R.A.C.E., "God's Righteousness At Christ's Expense." This is the very core of the good news of the gospel. The gospel has to do first and foremost with who God is in his holy and righteous nature. The gospel shows that because of who God is, he alone justifies those who believe. Romans 3:26 states: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Under the law, for God the Father to judge any sinner righteous means that a perfect life under his perfect law had to be lived. Only the God- Man Christ Jesus could do this, and he has done it. It is finished. Herein is the love of God shown through his Son, Jesus Christ, in that this gift of righteousness, which cost Christ Jesus his life, is a finished work and is freely given. For to whom does God owe anything?
And who can meet his standards under the law? So who can bargain with God or with Christ Jesus, that he should even think of offering God anything in exchange for God's righteous judgment of himself? To make such a natural and ridiculous offer would be to attempt bribery of the highest order. Again and again the Bible states, therefore, that Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer freely by God, or by God's grace alone (Sola gratia).
Ephesians 2:7-9 "That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in His kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
Romans 11:6 "And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more of grace: otherwise work is no more work."
Ephesians 2:5 "...by grace ye are saved."
Titus 2:11 "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men."
Titus 3:7 "That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life...,"
1 Timothy 1:14 "and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
Ephesians 3:7 "In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace;"
Pelagius was a British monk born in the middle of the fourth century (c. 354-418). He had great zeal for morality, ascetic self-discipline, and "Christian" self-improvement. What he lacked was the biblical understanding of the principle of grace alone. He held that human nature has the power and the ability to live a holy life before God, that is, that a man can be justified by his keeping of God's law. This is impossible. Nevertheless, the Pelagian heresy, against which Augustine fought, entered like a cancer into the Christian Church.
The conflict between the gospel and this heresy revolved around the issue of man being spiritually dead and of God's absolutely free gift of justification as the true solution to this mortal problem. The conflict boils down to the question of whether redemption is the work of God or the work of man. For Pelagius, man was needing merely improvement while biblically, man is declared "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1).
This heresy is rampant today in the cults, in Roman Catholicism, and in some parts of the evangelical world. The Reformers of the sixteenth century insisted that on the basis of clear biblical texts, God's gift of righteousness is by grace alone and is credited legally to the individual by God the Judge. This is what tore asunder the Pelagian position of Rome. The biblical principle that justification is by God's grace alone is what will cut apart the semi-Pelagianism of Rome in the present day.16
The power of God unto salvation of which Paul speaks is the gospel in Romans 1:16. It is clarified in v. 17 as "the righteousness of God revealed". God's righteousness credited to the believer at Christ's expense is truly "awesome" in the root meaning of that word. The believer is filled again and again with awe, worship, and praise to the holy God Who Himself has provided the permanent finished work of justification for sin.
This justification is located in Christ's righteousness alone (Solo Christo) and is imputed irrevocably to the believer who has been placed in him by God alone. This righteousness cannot be diminished; neither can it be increased. The believer is justified by the imputation of Christ's "everlasting righteousness"17 to him, and hence forever. With the apostle Paul, therefore, the believer can boldly proclaim, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."18 God's primary purpose and his ultimate purpose are both clearly seen in this text.
Following on "no condemnation" is deliverance from sin and a walking in the way of the Holy Spirit, not of the flesh. When the person so converted does sin, his action causes a problem which must be resolved in the relationship between God the Father and himself.19 It does not mean that he has lost his position as the child of God in Christ for this position has been given irrevocably to him by God the Judge. Rather God the Father deals with his children precisely because they are his children legally. This is the reason why he chastises his own because they truly are in Christ. "But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."20
Contrary to this, the Roman Catholic teaching on grace is a straight contradiction of the legal nature of God's grace. This is seen clearly by the blatant lie of her summary of grace in her new Catechism, as follows:
#2021 "Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons...."21
In Scripture, adoption is not something one has as a goal or vocation. Rather it is utterly God's work, "According as he [God] hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace...."22
Thus in light of Ephesians chapter 1, the definition of grace given in #2021 is sheer heresy. Rather than man taking up a vocation, adoption as his child is something God himself predestinated. Rather than meriting adoption by any good thing in man, adoption as God's child is by Christ Jesus, according to the good pleasure of God's will. God's purpose in adoption is "to himself," "to the praise of the glory of his grace."
To attempt to define God's grace as a mere "help" in man's responding to his "vocation of becoming his adopted sons" is to present an utterly debased, heretical understanding of God's grace. It is the consistent lie of Rome to teach that inherent or indwelling righteousness is the basis of justification rather than the true gospel of the finished work of Christ Jesus. Indwelling goodness never was and never will be the ground for anyone's right standing with the holy God. Rather, the ground by which any person is justified before him is and always will be Christ Jesus' own faithfulness alone.
If the definition of grace in #2021 were true, that with the help of God a man could "respond to his vocation of becoming one of God's adopted sons", then that man would have justified himself. But Romans 11:5-6 cuts directly asunder such darkened understanding: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work."
If indeed God were helping anybody "to respond to our vocation of becoming adopted sons", no one would qualify because God's law requires absolute perfection and only one person, Christ himself, has ever fully kept it.
Under the same general heading "Grace and Justification" Rome teaches about a person's merit:
#2025 "We can have merit in God's sight only because of God's free plan to associate man with the work of his grace. Merit is to be ascribed in the first place to the grace of God, and secondly to man's collaboration. Man's merit is due to God."
But as chapters 3 and 4 of Romans and much of the Bible constantly show, God specifically and clearly states that grace is his work alone and given to a person as his free gift. The grace of God's salvation to man before his holy law is in Christ's righteousness being imputed by God the Judge to the believer. Rather than "to associate man with the work of his grace", the correct biblical teaching is that Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer. This imputation is the work of God alone.
The same Pelagian heresy is taught in Rome's new Catechism under the heading "Our Participation in Christ's Sacrifice".
#618 "The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the 'one mediator between God and men.' But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, `the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal' mystery is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to 'take up [their] cross and follow [him],' for 'Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps.' In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering."
This paragraph is utterly perverse in that on a false basis it subtly holds out false hope to man. There is no scriptural basis to the idea of "being made partners with Christ in the paschal mystery". Such a concept is an utter lie as it denies the repeated statements of God's truth in Scripture that the work of redemption is "by himself"23; without the deeds of the law"24; "not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast"25; "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us...."26
The so-called "works gospel", which is in fact another gospel, is just what Roman Catholic monks and nuns live out in their monasteries (Romans 11:6; Galatians 2:21). Before the Reformation, man's justification was seen in penance, flagellation, public confession of sins, pilgrimages and other works based on the Roman Catholic Church's unbiblical concept of our "participation in Christ's sacrifice". According to biblical teaching, the truly saved person does indeed purify himself, but this purification is based solely on Christ Jesus' faithfulness, and on being legally God's sons. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christin God....Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth..."27
Clearly the Bible teaches that it is through faith that the believer is justified: Romans 3:28 "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."
Romans 5:1 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Galatians 3:6 "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."
Philippians 3:9 "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
The Reformers held to this biblical principle over against the mysticism of Rome and her so-called "ladders of ascent" by many so-called saints who practised "acquired contemplation", public and private confession of sins, self-purgation, fasts and other works which supposedly led to eventual union with God. This means for attaining one's own salvation is intricately bound up with what the Roman Catholic Church calls "the treasury of the saints", both in the Reformers' time and today. The new Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches this unbiblical concept as follows:
#1477 "This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by His grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body."
A signal example of Pelagianism is given here when the Catechism states, "all those who...by His grace have made their lives holy...." The Pelagian formula is that grace + works = salvation. It is utter heresy, plain and simple. Rather, faith is consistently defined in the Bible as faith in Christ, as Paul summarizes in Acts 20:21, "...testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
In the Catholic Church, however, "the faithful" (i.e. those who in general would be called the laity) are taught consistently that their faith is to be placed in the Roman Catholic Church. Thus in practise Rome teaches "the faithful" to place their faith in her clergy. The new Catechism states:
#983 "Catechesis strives to awaken and nourish in the faithful faith in the incomparable greatness of the risen Christ's gift to his [Roman Catholic] Church: the mission and the power to forgive sins through the ministry of the apostles and their successors."
Rome cites St. John Chrysostom as authority in this section, when he said, "Priests have received from God a power that he has given neither to angels nor to archangels.... God above confirms what priests do here below."
It is clearly taught here that the "faithful" are to look to their priests and to the power of the priest. It is not simply that the "faithful" are to have faith in the Roman Catholic Church and her priests, but further, they are bound in obedience to follow their "sacred pastors." The Code of Canon Law states it thus: Canon 212 "The Christian faithful, conscious of their own responsibility, are bound by Christian obedience to follow what the sacred pastors, as representatives of Christ, declare as teachers of the faith or determine as leaders of the [Roman Catholic] Church."28
To stress faith and obedience to "sacred pastors" in such important issues as the forgiveness of sins and right standing before the holy God is to turn people towards idolatry, for it totally demeans the Son of God and his all-sufficient work on the cross. An example of the arrogance that demeans Christ from the new Catechism is:
#982: "There is no offense, however serious, that the [Roman Catholic] Church cannot forgive. There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest."
Further reading of the new Catechism makes it clear that according to Rome, forgiveness before the holy God is to be given to those whom she designates, which right she insists Christ has given her.29
Rome has tried to usurp the position of God the Judge in declaring who is justified before him and by what means they are justified. Her false gospel denies the biblical doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer through faith alone; therefore, she substitutes her whole sacramental system including penances and indulgences in place of that biblical truth. In so doing, she brings "another gospel".
Biblically, the believer's salvation is in Christ, as was stated above. All the blessings of the believer are based on Christ, and none are based on the believer himself.30 The Reformers proclaimed the long lost Pauline teaching that justification is through the righteousness of Christ Jesus alone being imputed to the individual by God the Judge. It is a legal, objective, judicial act of the sovereign holy God at whose right hand his Son Jesus Christ sits. As a result of the biblical teaching by the men of the Reformation, there arose a widespread departure from the religious subjectivism by which the Roman Catholic Church had held Western Europe, England, and Scotland in thrall for centuries.
Rome Compromises with Necromancy (Communion with the Dead) In biblical terms there is but one mediator: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."31 Nevertheless, Rome posits other mediators such as Mary and their saints. The Church of Rome turns people toward the dead, as toward those who can help and intercede for the living.
The phrase, "communion with the dead" is actually used by Rome officially, as in her new Catechism #958 "Communion with the dead". 'In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the [Roman Catholic] Church in its pilgrim, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead....' Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective."
Calling up the dead, i.e. necromancy, is strictly forbidden in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 18:9-11 it is called an abomination before the Lord.
The divine Christ, who himself is every believer's mediator, has "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge".32 Anything approachable, tender, or kind that has been in the saints was there because of him who has all. The believer is complete in him who as head has all principality and power.33
Just as Christ's righteousness so satisfies the claims of the law that there is no room for any other righteousness as a basis of justification, so also Jesus Christ so completely satisfies the demands of intercessory work that no room is left for any other intercessor, as
Romans 8:34 states, "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."
To justify calling on the deceased saints and purportedly to invoke their subsequent intercession in heaven on the worshipper's behalf, Rome will cite such texts as Hebrews 12:1 and Matthew 25:21, as the new Catechism does in #2683 "The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom (Hebrews 12:1), especially those whom the [Roman Catholic] Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were 'put in charge of many things' (Matthew 25:21).
Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world." Thus the new Catechism, as in other official Roman Catholic sources, flatly contradicts the written Word of God. The Bible teaches not work, but rather rest for those who die in the Lord, e.g.,
Revelation 14:13, "...Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them."
The time between going to the Lord in spirit at death and the general resurrection is never given as a time of activity for those who died in the Lord, as a sample of Scripture texts confirms.34 In contrast to this, with bodies and souls in the new Jerusalem, all God's people will reign with Him (Revelation 22:5).
Mary is the source of holiness according to the new Catechism of the Catholic Church. In this respect, the importance of the principle of "in Christ alone" to true Reformation and revival cannot be overestimated, especially in reference to the new Catechism which states:
#2030 "From the Church, he [the baptized Catholic] receives the grace of the sacraments that sustains him on the 'way. From the [Roman Catholic] Church he learns the example of holiness and recognizes its model and source in the all-holy Virgin Mary;...."
As stated in the Bible, the believer's justification is in Christ alone35 where He sits at the right hand of God. Further, God alone is the source of all holiness. Calling out to Mary and the saints is from beginning to end idolatrous, and the blessings sought through them only God can bestow. The divine attributes of omniscience and omnipresence, which belong to God alone, are assumed to belong to these so-called intercessors. Without the principle of "in Christ alone," a person can easily become enmeshed in the polytheism of Rome's Mary and the system's saints. One must stand, therefore, on firm Scriptural ground, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name [Christ Jesus] under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
The fifth principle of biblical revival follows logically from the first four. Because justification is by grace alone through God's gift of faith alone and in Christ alone on the written authority of his Word, to God alone be the glory! This principle, to God alone be the glory, is the believer's proper and overwhelming response. The believer has been predestined by God "to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."36
Soli Deo Gloria Summarizes the Second Commandment The second commandment given by God is summarized in the words "to God alone be the glory". Nevertheless the making and use of images in the Roman Catholic Church and in other churches is tolerated because of a lack of clear understanding of these five essential principles of biblical revival.
In the history of the Christian Church this principle was taken most seriously. There were very few images in the Church before the fourth century. The debate hit center stage, so to speak, in the "iconoclastic controversy" of the eighth century, resulting in the Second Council of Nicea which approved pictures, kissed and honored in churches (787 A.D.).
The Roman Catholic Council of Trent (1564) reaffirmed this and went further by approving statues. All of these are reaffirmed again in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994). Most of the Reformation leaders held firmly to the principle of disallowing the use of images. Luther, however, wavered and allowed the use of images in certain instances.
What is forbidden in the second commandment is the making of any similitude of God. Moses reminds the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 4:12, "And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice." It is the attempt to make any similitude or likeness of what is divine that is forbidden by the Second Commandment.
To rationalize as do the Roman Catholics in their new Catechism that the incarnation of Christ brought in "a new economy of images",1 or that now it is permissible to have drawings, statues and images of Christ, is to put human rationalization on a higher plane than God's written Word.
The reason given is that "the honor rendered to the images passes on to the prototype".2 Such oiled terminology is crassly humanistic in its darkened understanding. The very point in the Bible is that the holy God's being is utterly different from than of his creatures; therefore, no similitude is to be made or used. Exodus 20:23 states, "Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold." In Exodus 20:5, God calls those who break this commandment "those who hate me" and those who keep it (v. 6) "those who love me".
Punishment for iniquity is promised to those who break the commandment while promises of blessing are for those who keep it. Paul was stirred to righteous anger against the use of images.3 Many of the major men of revival in the Bible: Moses, Elijah, Josiah, Hezekiah were image breakers. Isaiah4 and Elijah5 sarcastically mocked images and those who made and used them. Continually in the written Word, God commanded the Jews to destroy graven images. It is the Lord's final commandment in I John 5:21: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
In our own time, it can be shown quite easily that many if not most church attendees in Evangelical churches cannot state correctly what Biblical justification by faith means. This appalling lack of Biblical knowledge and understanding makes one very concerned for the salvation of many. It is necessary, therefore, to apply what Biblically this study has shown. 6
The central message of the Bible is to recognize that by nature every person has a bad record and a bad heart, as these passages show, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." 7 and "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" 8 Christ Jesus alone paid the ransom for His people's sin, "...when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." 9
Not only has the Lord Jesus Christ paid fully the satisfaction required by His Father for the totality of a person's sin, but when one is placed in Him by God the Judge, Christ's righteousness is credited to that person, as II Corinthians 5:21 explains so clearly, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
Salvation comes through faith in Christ alone. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."10
Before God, each one is dead in his or her sin. He or she can do nothing towards gaining salvation. Clearly, according to Scripture, Christ Jesus has substituted on the cross for each one of His own sheep, once and for all time. "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree...." 11
His grace is sufficient to change your heart so that you can trust Him. He will then put into you the will to repent. You will be born again in Him. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." 12
Utmost devotion and sincerity does not save a person as, for example, the book Far from Rome, Near to God: The Testimonies of Fifty Converted Catholic Priests, shows. 13 These dedicated men (American, Canadian, Irish, French, English, Spanish, and Italian) lived out a religious system with great earnestness but were not saved until by God's grace they discovered His Biblical principles. An appeal is here made to the reader to judge for himself or herself before the All Holy God as to where you stand in regards to being a true believer in God through Christ Jesus.
If there is to be a genuine revival in our time, it will be only by standing on the God given principles of revival. Then, as His people stand in Biblical truth, it will be clear that to God alone is the glory!
Raymond E. Brown, Priest and Bishop: Biblical Reflections (Paulist Press, New York 10019, 1970), p. 13.
Code of Canon Law, Latin-English ed. (Canon Law Society of America, Wash. DC 20064) 1983. All references to canon law are taken from this volume unless otherwise stated.
von Dollinger, The Pope and the Council by Janus, (Authorized tr. from the German "Janus_: Der Papst und das Concil), Roberts Brothers (Boston, 1870) p. 50.
The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, 7th Session, March, 1547, Tr. by Rev. H. J. Schroeder, O.P. (Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., Rockford, IL 61105) 1978.
Vatican Council II Documents, No. 664, Gaudium et Spes, 7 December 1965, Ch. 1, Vol. I, in Documents of Vatican II, Vatican Collection, Vol. I, Austin P. Flannery, O.P., Ed. (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids, MI 1984)
Flannery, Vol. I. (While No. 6, Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 1 January, 1967, is an absolutely official primary source document and is included with the Vatican Council II documents, strictly speaking it is a post-conciliar document of Paul IV).
Matthew 22:29
John 17:17
John 10:35
Psalm 119:160
II Samuel 7:28
Psalm 119:43; II Corinthians 6:7
Revelation 21:5
John 3:12
I John 5:12
II Corinthians 10:5, Proverbs 3:5
I Corinthians 15:3
Mark 7:13
Rom. 4:5-8, 2 Cor. 5:19-21, Rom. 3:21-28, Tit. 3:5-7, Eph. 1:7,
Jer. 23:6, 1 Cor. 1:30-31, Rom. 5:17-19
John 12:31-32
Romans 3:20-26
Semi-Pelagianism gives some credit to God in initiating and supporting man's efforts to achieve his own salvation. In denying the sovereign grace of God, however, it is as corrupt as true Pelagia nism. We are well aware of the historical fact that certain church councils condemned Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism. Since Rome has never retracted her approval of these councils, she can claim offi cially that today she also condemns even semi-Pelagiansm. These official claims mean nothing, howev er, because contrary to the condemnation of semi- Pelagainism, official doctrine and practice of Rome shows conclusively that she lives semi- Pelagianism, as the following section demonstrates.
Daniel 9:24
Romans 8:1
I John 1:8-10
Hebrews 12:8
Catechism of the Catholic Church (Liguori Publications, 1994). The quotations in the following pages of official Roman Catholic teaching are from this same catechism, with the exception of the quotation from the Code of Canon Law.
Ephesians 1:4-7
Hebrews 1:3
Romans 3:28
Ephesians 2:9
Titus 3:5
Colossians 3:3,5
The Code of Canon Law, Latin-English ed. (Canon Law Society of America, Wash. DC 20064) 1983. All canons are taken from this volume.
See #976-987, #1434-1498 including penances and indulgences.
Ephesians, Chapter 1
I Timothy 2:5
Colossians 2:3-10
Colossians 2:10
Mt. 7:22-23, 10:32-33, 25:34-46; II Cor. 5:9-10; Gal. 6:7-8; II Thess. 1:8-10; Heb 9:27.
Colossians 2:6-3:3; Ephesians 1:3-9 and other places
Ephesians 1:6
#2131
#2132
Acts 17:16
Isaiah Chapters 40, 42, 46, 48
I Kings 18:27
A more detailed application is availabe in our paper entitled, The Gospel: the Power of God unto Salvation, (8 pp.). Write Bennett Products.
Romans 3:23
Jeremiah 17:9
Hebrews 1:3
John 3:35-36
I Peter 2:24
John 3:6
Richard Bennett
Portland, Oregon