Why the Pope Has Nothing on Lutherans

By Dr. Gene Edward Veith

Non-Catholics might be excused for feeling a little envious at the media coverage of the death of one pope and the accession of Pope Benedict XVI. No way would Lutherans ever get that kind of press.

More than that, the pageantry, the ancient customs, and the tangible institutions built around a single man have a certain attractiveness, at least to me. Wouldn’t it be nice to be part of a church of a billion people, rather than always being in such a beleaguered theological minority? Wouldn’t it be nice to be part of such a vast global and historical institution?

Even Christians with a megachurch way of thinking had to be impressed. You judge a church by the numbers it attracts? The Pope’s funeral service was the biggest worship event of all time, with some 500,000 people in attendance, and hundreds of millions taking part on simulcast television hookups worldwide. And the service did not consist of 1960s-era praise songs or entertaining, seeker-friendly programming. It was three hours of ancient liturgy. In Latin.

It was not just Catholics but non-Catholics and non-Christians—even rampant secularists—who were caught up in the papal frenzy. The mystery and the grandeur of it all seemed to overwhelm the usual cultural objections. For example, it was amusing how the media pundits praised the late Pope John Paul II, even though his pro-life and pro-morality stance went against everything the media usually stands for.

As for the new Pope Benedict XVI, the pundits expressed a little worry about him since he is reported to be conservative. And yet, they say, he actually seems nice, so how conservative could he really be? (Note the common assumption, that if you are conservative—or religious, or confessional—you must be mean.)

Actually, this new Pope may well reverse some of the religious relativism that has plagued the Roman Catholic Church. He may crack down on the nominal Christianity that has plagued much of American Catholicism, with its feminist nuns, pro-choice politicians, and sappy guitar masses. If Benedict XVI gets the Catholic house in order, we may see a revival of genuine Catholicism. Many secularists looking for spirituality, evangelicals looking for a historic faith, and—yes—disaffected Lutherans may well head for Rome.

But they would be wrong. We Lutherans are part of the history of the papacy. We share much of Rome’s liturgy, creeds, and sacramentalism. Many Lutherans describe themselves as “evangelical catholics,” that is, as catholics who embrace the Gospel. And there is the rub.

Our forebears who wrote the Lutheran Confessions determined that the papacy—not the person who holds the position but the office of a human being who presents himself as the vicar of Christ on earth who speaks infallibly by the Holy Spirit—is a manifestation of the Antichrist.

Luther said that the “papists” and the “enthusiasts” are alike in believing that the Holy Spirit speaks through human beings apart from the Word of God. (Luther went on to say that the charismatic-like enthusiasts were worse because at least Rome only has one pope. For the charismatics who think God speaks directly to each of them, they are all popes.)

And, most profoundly and tragically, the papacy undermines the Gospel. As Paul McCain observed on his Cyberbrethren blog, at the Pope’s funeral, everyone was saying how holy this man was on account of all of his good works. And yet, at the same time, the whole service (if you read the subtitles) was one of desperate pleading to God—and to Mary and to the saints and to anyone who would help—that this man be allowed to enter heaven.

For religions that base salvation on good works— rather than on the work of Christ alone—there can never be enough good works, so that assurance of salvation is impossible. Religions of law can be impressive and can contain much that is good. But without the Gospel, they are incomplete.Theologies of glory—whether in a success-preaching, name-it-and-claim-it megachurch or in a billion-member denomination housed in a Renaissance palace—will have their allure. But for a soul in need, they cannot compare with the theology of the cross.

But if there is a Roman revival, we “evangelical catholics” can be in a position to supply what is missing, proclaiming to both catholic and protestant legalists the fullness of the Gospel, in both Word and Sacrament.

Dr. Gene Edward Veith is the cultural editor for WORLD magazine, the Director of the Cranach Institute, and a contributing editor for Higher Things.

Rome’s Teaching on Salvation

The first Canon on Justification from the Council of Trent reads:“If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema.” This sounds good to us at first. We also reject that man is justified by works. But notice the qualifier “without the grace of God through Jesus Christ.” 1 The Roman Catholic Church teaches that men are justified by works WITH the grace of God through Jesus Christ. This is clearly shown in the other canons on Justification from Trent.

Their teaching is not justification by works alone. They do not believe that people earn their way into heaven or that heaven can be bought through indulgences and good works. They believe that indulgences and good works only serve to buy time off of purgatory and to keep believers in the faith. That is a whole another can of worms. But that is what they teach. They believe that sinners are accepted by God though the merits and passion of Jesus Christ AND by their works. God provides the initial grace to overcome original sin but then men must add their own works to God’s works in order to stay in the faith and to reach heaven. It the “AND” that gives us fits.

Consider also these two statements from the Catholic Catechism:

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.

2027 No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods. 2

We suspect that some Roman Catholic believers would not like Dr. Veith’s summary that their teaching is in essence “justification by works.” But since they teach that man’s merits must be added to, or collaborated with God’s works, we agree with his assessment. So did Martin Luther.

-The Editors

1 The canons and decrees of the sacred and ecumenical Council of Trent: the Sixth Session, Trans. J.Waterworth (London: Dolman, 1848), 30-53. From the Hanover Historical Texts Project Scanned by Hanover College students in 1995. http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct06.html

2 The Catholic Catechism 3:3:1 “In Brief” http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ p3s1c3a2.htm#brief

AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano