Protestant View

Advance of plans for the pope to be universal primate?

THE Sovereign Grace Union has issued an information letter stating that "on 14 May all the Primates of the Anglican communion worldwide expect to meet the Presidents of the Catholic (ie Roman Catholic) Episcopal Conferences in Toronto to take forward the recent ARCIC [Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission] agreement that the pope should become Universal Primate. The ARCIC document itself states ‘there is no turning back in our journey towards full ecclesial communion’. With this mandate in place Drs Carey and Eames hope to lead the Anglican Communion and the Church in Ireland into ‘visible and organic’union with the Church of Rome. This means that they and their fellow bishops cannot exercise any authority in the church ‘without the consent of the Roman Pontiff’. The Explanatory Note attached to the apostolic letter from which these words are taken explains that the required Profession of Faith expects every subscriber to confirm the authority of the pope ‘in all matters of faith and morals’. Furthermore, it states that all such doctrines are ‘irreformable’. The clear objective of this agreement is to reinstate the pope as the head of the universal church, in express defiance of the Bible’s teaching that Christ alone is the Head. (Eph 5:23; Col 1: 18)."

Like its child, the European Union or revived ‘Holy Roman Empire’, the Church of Rome knows how to employ the ratchet strategy to good effect. Step by step, very slowly but steadily and surely, the papacy is increasing its power on the ecclesiastical scene. We may feel powerless in the face of this relentless growth of papal influence – but we must go with the prayer of faith to the One to whom King Asa prayed, "LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee."

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