Clearly, the Christianity of Rome developed into something very
different from the teaching of Christ and His Apostles. In returning to
Holy Scripture, the reformers—Luther, Calvin and others—recovered the
pure and original Gospel. Yet they never claimed to be starting a ‘new
church’. Indeed, there were Evangelicals before the Reformation! Besides
those who had preserved the Gospel among the Waldenses (or Vaudois) of
Piedmont, others had enjoyed a measure of Gospel light even in the days
of Roman darkness, e. g. Bernard of Clairvaux. The reformers were but
weeding the garden of the Lord from all the poisonous plants that had
grown up over the preceding centuries. In answer to woolly-minded
evangelicals who say they prefer Roman Catholicism to liberal
Protestantism because Rome affirms the Trinity, the virgin birth and
other basic biblical truths, the reformers never charged Rome with
questioning these foundation truths. No, Rome’s error is the obscuring of
the biblical character of these and other truths by their unbiblical
dogmas and superstitious rituals. In which case, while we may applaud
Rome’s affirmation of many truths—albeit teaching correct things for
incorrect reasons (on the joint authority of Scripture and Tradition), sadly, more divides than unites us.
Rev. Dr Alan C. Clifford
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