(1) Why Is Kim Davis’s Hair So Long? (Washington Post)
This subtitle of this article should be: “Leading U.S. newspapers still treat major swaths of U.S. citizenry as though they just landed from Mars. And no, we don’t mean Matt Damon.”
Speaking of alien invasion. The chicken sandwich from Georgia is now in the Big Apple. (2) Chick-fil-A Opening NYC Outpost in National Push (AP)
And speaking of hair, religion and NYC, in (3) Donald Trump’s Outreach to Heretics (Christian Post), we see that 40 folks got together to pray over Donald Trump. And someone labeled all these folks “evangelicals”—forgetting how the battle to define that word has not ceased for sixty years. Not that the mainstream press cares about such battles, hence the reason the entirety of the Trump prayer club was labeled as such. After all, they’re not Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Mainline, or Mormon. What else could we call them?
“Heretic!” someone from the back shouts. So, would it have been better if they were Roman Catholic?
“Incredibly, the pope’s popularity has even spilled over into Protestant circles—enticing a number of evangelical leaders to embrace him as a brother in Christ, rather than to reject him as a false teacher. …But the fact of the matter is that the popularity of this pope or any other pope represents the tragic reality that there are more than a billion people today caught in the clutches of a false religious system. The Roman Catholic church is not the true church. It is an apostate movement that has undermined the gospel by elevating the traditions of men above the Word of God.”—Nathan Busenitz
I don’t think Mr. Busenitz would be happy to read about the (5) Rise of Catholic Schools in the Land of Baptists (Alabama).
So should Christians minimize or maximize theological divides?Â
Albert Mohler argues that it depends on what the nature of the relationship is. What is the functional purpose of the union—strengthening the family and defending the defenseless…or building a church?
“Is the Enemy of My Enemy My Friend?”
With the Roman Catholic Church our common convictions are many, including moral convictions about marriage, human life, and the family. Beyond that, we together affirm the truths of the divine Trinity, orthodox Christology, and other doctrines as well. But we disagree over what is supremely important—the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that supreme difference leads to other vital disagreements as well—over the nature and authority of the Bible, the nature of the ministry, the meaning of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and an entire range of issues central to the Christian faith.
Christians defined by the faith of the Reformers must never forget that nothing less than faithfulness to the gospel of Christ forced the Reformers to break from the Roman Catholic Church. Equal clarity and courage are required of us now.
In a time of cultural conflict, the enemy of our enemy may well be our friend. But, with eternity in view and the gospel at stake, the enemy of our enemy must not be confused to be a friend to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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