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“The Greatest of All Protestant Heresies”?
ligonier ministries ^ | May 12,2015 | Sinclair Ferguson

Posted on 05/12/2015 4:21:27 PM PDT by RnMomof7

Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.

How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?

Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”

A moment’s reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone — if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christ’s work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be “added” for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer.

No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!

This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christ’s work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like “therefore” (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to “draw near … in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his “therefore.” Christ is our High Priest; our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience just as our bodies have been washed with pure water (v.22).

Christ has once-for-all become the sacrifice for our sins, and has been raised and vindicated in the power of an indestructible life as our representative priest. By faith in Him, we are as righteous before the throne of God as He is righteous. For we are justified in His righteousness, His justification alone is ours! And we can no more lose this justification than He can fall from heaven. Thus our justification does not need to be completed any more than does Christ’s!

With this in view, the author says, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who come to God by him” (Heb. 10:14). The reason we can stand before God in full assurance is because we now experience our “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and … bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).

Ah,” retorted Cardinal Bellarmine’s Rome, “teach this and those who believe it will live in license and antinomianism.” But listen instead to the logic of Hebrews. Enjoying this assurance leads to four things: First, an unwavering faithfulness to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our hope (v.23); second, a careful consideration of how we can encourage each other to “love and good works” (v.24); third, an ongoing communion with other Christians in worship and every aspect of our fellowship (v.25a); fourth, a life in which we exhort one another to keep looking to Christ and to be faithful to him, as the time of his return draws ever nearer (25b).

It is the good tree that produces good fruit, not the other way round. We are not saved by works; we are saved for works. In fact we are God’s workmanship at work (Eph. 2:9–10)! Thus, rather than lead to a life of moral and spiritual indifference, the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ and the full-assurance faith it produces, provides believers with the most powerful impetus to live for God’s glory and pleasure. Furthermore, this full assurance is rooted in the fact that God Himself has done all this for us. He has revealed His heart to us in Christ. The Father does not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent wishing He could do us ill — were it not for the sacrifice his Son had made! No, a thousand times no! — the Father Himself loves us in the love of the Son and the love of the Spirit.

Those who enjoy such assurance do not go to the saints or to Mary. Those who look only to Jesus need look nowhere else. In Him we enjoy full assurance of salvation. The greatest of all heresies? If heresy, let me enjoy this most blessed of “heresies”! For it is God’s own truth and grace!


TOPICS: Apologetics; Evangelical Christian; Mainline Protestant; Theology
KEYWORDS: assurance; doctrine; grace; moacb; osa
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To: xzins

Your original statement was “If so, then Jesus wants us to be ONE.” You still haven’t defined who “us” is nor have you defined what “one” includes. Would you also include Muslims like the Catholic Church does?


781 posted on 05/16/2015 5:47:40 AM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
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To: terycarl
Well...all Catholics believe that....

And all Prots do as well.

Where our paths diverge is at the fork in the road called "How do you KEEP your salvation?"


We prots think it's by FAITH; just like salvation to begin with.

Catholics think it's by doing the RIGHT things; as their church describes them.

782 posted on 05/16/2015 5:48:09 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
...they accept the Sacraments which He institute to assist them on their journey...

There ya go!

783 posted on 05/16/2015 5:49:05 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
(reformation comes from within),

Oh?

The COUNTER Reformation came from WITHOUT!

784 posted on 05/16/2015 5:50:07 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
Protestants don't even believe in Purgatory.....my statement was that souls in purgatory are already saved....but they are not yet in Heaven....

Izzat so?

785 posted on 05/16/2015 5:51:00 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
Whose sins that you forgive will be forgiven, whose sins that you retain will be retained......sounds like blasphemy to me.....NOT

Where's the PENANCE here?

786 posted on 05/16/2015 5:52:01 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
Didn't get real high marks in Catechism class did you??

About that "saved in purgatory" thing...

787 posted on 05/16/2015 5:52:41 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
Very descriptive....means to lack significance...meaningless drivel.

I...
Must...
Resist...

788 posted on 05/16/2015 5:53:33 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
Elsie is a boy type person....but in San Francisco it is still alright to call him deqar and honey....

I'd be interested to know how you know this?

789 posted on 05/16/2015 5:54:25 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mark17

790 posted on 05/16/2015 5:55:59 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: CynicalBear

Post #667 clearly is based on John 17:21-22 which is copy/pasted in the post itself.

So, the “us” represents those who have believed in Jesus through the message of the apostles. Just as Jesus prayed.


791 posted on 05/16/2015 5:57:32 AM PDT by xzins (Donate to the Freep-a-Thon or lose your ONLY voice. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: terycarl
Catholicism

I guess I'll start with this Early Church Father...



As regards the oft-quoted Mt. 16:18

 

Augustine, sermon:

"Christ, you see, built his Church not on a man but on Peter's confession. What is Peter's confession? 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' There's the rock for you, there's the foundation, there's where the Church has been built, which the gates of the underworld cannot conquer.John Rotelle, O.S.A., Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine , © 1993 New City Press, Sermons, Vol III/6, Sermon 229P.1, p. 327

Upon this rock, said the Lord, I will build my Church. Upon this confession, upon this that you said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,' I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not conquer her (Mt. 16:18). John Rotelle, Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City, 1993) Sermons, Volume III/7, Sermon 236A.3, p. 48.

 

Augustine, sermon:

For petra (rock) is not derived from Peter, but Peter from petra; just as Christ is not called so from the Christian, but the Christian from Christ. For on this very account the Lord said, 'On this rock will I build my Church,' because Peter had said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' On this rock, therefore, He said, which thou hast confessed, I will build my Church. For the Rock (Petra) was Christ; and on this foundation was Peter himself built. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. The Church, therefore, which is founded in Christ received from Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the person of Peter, that is to say, the power of binding and loosing sins. For what the Church is essentially in Christ, such representatively is Peter in the rock (petra); and in this representation Christ is to be understood as the Rock, Peter as the Church. — Augustine Tractate CXXIV; Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: First Series, Volume VII Tractate CXXIV (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107.iii.cxxv.html)

 

Augustine, sermon:

And Peter, one speaking for the rest of them, one for all, said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mt 16:15-16)...And I tell you: you are Peter; because I am the rock, you are Rocky, Peter-I mean, rock doesn't come from Rocky, but Rocky from rock, just as Christ doesn't come from Christian, but Christian from Christ; and upon this rock I will build my Church (Mt 16:17-18); not upon Peter, or Rocky, which is what you are, but upon the rock which you have confessed. I will build my Church though; I will build you, because in this answer of yours you represent the Church. — John Rotelle, O.S.A. Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City Press, 1993), Sermons, Volume III/7, Sermon 270.2, p. 289

 

Augustine, sermon:

Peter had already said to him, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' He had already heard, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the underworld shall not conquer her' (Mt 16:16-18)...Christ himself was the rock, while Peter, Rocky, was only named from the rock. That's why the rock rose again, to make Peter solid and strong; because Peter would have perished, if the rock hadn't lived. — John Rotelle, Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City, 1993) Sermons, Volume III/7, Sermon 244.1, p. 95

 

Augustine, sermon:

...because on this rock, he said, I will build my Church, and the gates of the underworld shall not overcome it (Mt. 16:18). Now the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). Was it Paul that was crucified for you? Hold on to these texts, love these texts, repeat them in a fraternal and peaceful manner. — John Rotelle, Ed., The Works of Saint Augustine (New Rochelle: New City Press, 1995), Sermons, Volume III/10, Sermon 358.5, p. 193

 

Augustine, Psalm LXI:

Let us call to mind the Gospel: 'Upon this Rock I will build My Church.' Therefore She crieth from the ends of the earth, whom He hath willed to build upon a Rock. But in order that the Church might be builded upon the Rock, who was made the Rock? Hear Paul saying: 'But the Rock was Christ.' On Him therefore builded we have been. — Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), Volume VIII, Saint Augustin, Exposition on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXI.3, p. 249. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf108.ii.LXI.html)

 

• Augustine, in “Retractions,”

In a passage in this book, I said about the Apostle Peter: 'On him as on a rock the Church was built.'...But I know that very frequently at a later time, I so explained what the Lord said: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,' that it be understood as built upon Him whom Peter confessed saying: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,' and so Peter, called after this rock, represented the person of the Church which is built upon this rock, and has received 'the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' For, 'Thou art Peter' and not 'Thou art the rock' was said to him. But 'the rock was Christ,' in confessing whom, as also the whole Church confesses, Simon was called Peter. But let the reader decide which of these two opinions is the more probable. — The Fathers of the Church (Washington D.C., Catholic University, 1968), Saint Augustine, The Retractations Chapter 20.1:.

 

792 posted on 05/16/2015 5:57:36 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl
Catholicism

I then will study the exemplary lives of these popes; to see what kind of a man that Catholicism creates...




Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]

Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.

Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy

Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy

Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]

Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]

Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]

Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Popes

793 posted on 05/16/2015 6:00:09 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: RnMomof7; terycarl
But were you aware that the anthems of Trent still stand?

Aware?

Surely!!

He's the dude that said that I needed to study Catholicism more!

794 posted on 05/16/2015 6:02:13 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: wardaddy
Not sure why he chose Elsie

I've not wondered if you are really a peaceful mommy...

795 posted on 05/16/2015 6:04:45 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl

Because they are wrong anyway.


796 posted on 05/16/2015 6:05:40 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: terycarl; RnMomof7

Well, many of the popes have had mistresses and I have yet to see Catholics attacking them for it the way they attack Luther for getting married. To a woman no less.


797 posted on 05/16/2015 6:07:59 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom

Good morning MM!

I’m just about done with my morning postings.

I’m now off to my last thread of the AM.


798 posted on 05/16/2015 6:08:27 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: terycarl

Not really since no man has the power to forgive my sin against God anyway.


799 posted on 05/16/2015 6:09:36 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: xzins
>>So, the “us” represents those who have believed in Jesus through the message of the apostles. Just as Jesus prayed.<<

So you would include Mormons in the "us" your talking about? How about practicing homosexuals who claim to believe in Jesus?

800 posted on 05/16/2015 9:15:47 AM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
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