Evangelicals Pass a Flickering Torch to an American Pope

Stan Moody:

The picture of Martin Luther, so overwhelmed by the evangelical doctrine of “justification by faith alone” that he put his life on the line by nailing his “95 Theses” to the door of the Whittenburg Castle church has, for the past 1000 or so years, been the rallying call of the Confessing Protestant Church worldwide. My generation of Fundamentalist/Evangelical churches found its target, Catholic Christianity, so vile that it became nearly unanimous in its belief that there was more to fear from the Pope than from Communism.

John Piper, being one of the more prominent of evangelical pastors in America over the past 50 or so years, had a kinder but informative take on the evangelical conflict over Catholic practice and theology, all of which is prefaced by the qualifier, “I think”:

• I think the Roman Church gets it wrong on justification.

• I think they get it wrong on the mass and the dispensing of grace.

• I think they get it wrong on the role of tradition alongside Scripture.

• I think they get it wrong on the authority of the pope.

• I think they get it wrong in the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, which, I think, is very destructive.

• I think they get it wrong on the veneration of Mary and the prayers to the saints.

Evangelical Killing of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God:

Maybe so, but it so happens that the white American evangelical “church” gets it wrong in the very place where the Roman Catholics get it right – Jesus’ pivotal doctrine of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. For the evangelical community, the Kingdom has become a wholly-future hope for the truly “saved.” The “truly saved” must, therefore, now create a physical Kingdom here in America and later, in national Israel. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Kingdom could well be interpreted as being limited to the physical Catholic Church, at least in pre-Vatican II.   

For Roman Catholicism, the Kingdom of God is present, dynamic, and triumphant over sin and death, a separated citizenship demanding a Matt 25 commitment to ministry to the poor and marginalized. For American Evangelicals, the Kingdom has devolved into a moral code that demands political enforcement. Its trust in the Sovereignty of God has been traded for white nationalism.  

Pope-in-a-Box Evangelicals:

After decades of televangelists and pope-in-a-box pastors (“Feed us the truth, Mr. Pastor!”), 80% of white evangelicals can be said to have run out of patience, voting three times in the past decade for their first “pope” to be installed at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in DC. At the precisely right moment, however, along comes Pope Leo XIV, holding to the Doctrine of the Sovereignty of God over the nations and fiercely advocating for social justice.

White American Evangelicals, with our select moral codes and embrace of Christian nationalism as the alternative to the long-treasured US history of separation of Church and State, have left ourselves with nowhere to go. Having been largely dismissed by Protestantism as “heretical,” Roman Catholicism now stands prominently alone as the standard-bearer of faith in a Triune God.

Is it About Fear of the Now or Rapture FROM the Now?

We can talk about fear being the emotional catalyst to Christian Dominionism, but that only begs the question of what the Bible means by, “There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). We can get so caught up in the future, on the other hand, that we lose sight of the present, but that leaves unfulfilled the command, “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’" But I tell you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’” (Matt 5:43, 44).

John Piper, with his tentative attack on Catholic doctrine, closes with a powerful option that should ring throughout Christendom but would likely rest more comfortably with His Holiness than with white American Evangelicals:

What I would like to say to those who are listening to this clip is, let’s pour our lives into the true evangelical doctrines and grow churches that are strong and rich and serious and relevant and powerful and biblical and that overcome the weaknesses that have pushed some people away. 

Some 12 years having passed since Piper’s thoughts, a period that has left the Confessing Church weakened through a theology of individualism, pop-Christianity, and spiritual pride, it might be well for us Evangelicals to remind ourselves of the option of exercising the works of faith separate and distinct from nationalism: 

“Just as the body without the Spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).