Lasting Damage?
Five hundred years after the beginning of the Reformation, a joint statement by the Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York has called for Protestants to “repent of their part in perpetuating divisions”. They say that the events at that time caused “lasting damage” to the unity of the Church and were something that “contradicted the teaching of Jesus”. In their call to repentance they state that “such repentance needs to be linked to action aimed at reaching out to other churches and strengthening relationships with them”.
The Protestant Reformation, when the Lord favoured His Church with a glorious deliverance from the darkness and tyranny of apostate Rome, is something for which we should express deep thanks to the Most High. It was fundamentally a work of the Spirit of God in reviving the cause of truth and in purifying His Church. To view the division caused at that time as something to be regretted, simply because it brought about a lasting separation from Popery, is an evidence of immense spiritual ignorance on the part of the Anglican leaders. In their “undeterred” attempts to lead Protestants back towards union with Romanism, they appear all too ready to betray the truths of the gospel so dearly bought during the Reformation. “O my soul come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united” (Gen 49:6).
AWM