A litany of adulation for John Paul II is understandable at a time when the world has lost one of its truly great geo-political leaders ... but evangelical veneration? Whoa, stop the presses, pull the cord, grab the reins, everyone start bailing!
It is one thing to honor the memory of a great man (and he was a great man), even honor the institution he represented, but to elevate his memory and his person above that of our own great leaders is to lose focus as an evangelical Christian.
Though my respect and admiration of John Paul II is immense, he was no Billy Graham, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, or Martin Luther. Bottom-line, Karol Wojtyla will have to answer to his continued support of a lie (actually several lies) and his interference with the proclamation of the authentic gospel.
- Do I believe Wojtyla was saved, born-again, in the biblical sense? Yes, I believe he trusted in Christ Jesus alone for his eternal destiny.
- Do I believe he held to an orthodoxy compatible with my Baptist roots? No!
- Do I believe that he believed in the Catholic church's orthodoxy? Yes!
- Do I believe the Catholic orthodoxy is orthodox? No!
- Do I believe the two are in conflict, one with the other? Yes!
- Do I believe that presents a soteriological problem? Yes!
- Do I have a resolution for that problem? Probably not to anyone's satisfaction!
- Do I want to try? No, I've better things to do; at this point it's best left in the hands of God.
Care needs to be taken to keep our honoring of Pope John Paul II on the horizontal where it belongs and is deserved; we must avoid vertical testimonies which give credence to Catholic doctrine and camouflages the errant positions of the "mother church."
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