Which Error is Worse? Romanism or Modern Protestantism?
“Which error is worse, that of Rome or that of modern Protestantism? However we answer, one thing is clear: Rome can interpret but not revoke one of its doctrines; they are “irreformable” and must abide until the Last Judgment. But what of Protestantism? A Church of the Reformation is, or ought to be, a repenting church. Can our churches still repent? Or is their day for repentance forever past? Thank God, if they will “hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”, they can yet return, by His grace, to the Word of God.” — Hermann Sasse
From The Inspiration of Holy Scripture, an article published in the American Evangelical magazine Christianity Today, March 16, 1962.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Categories: Hermann Sasse
I remember Rev. Kurt Marquart making the case that we Lutherans must always guard against Rome on the one side and Geneva on the other.
My own observation – right now, in our context, Geneva is more dangerous. Not because it will or won’t repent, but because of our posture toward Protestantism. Most LCMS Lutherans have a (healthy?) knee-jerk reaction to all things Roman. But we’re not so wary of generic Protestantism AS WE SHOULD BE!
To be sure, more of our people watch and listen to and read Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Baptist and other Protestant preachers and teachers – well more than would ever be caught dead watching EWTN for instance. Billy Graham is highly respected, Charles Stanley, even Joel Osteen! But not Archbishop so-and-so.
We hear people saying, “That’s too Catholic” but not “That’s too Protestant”. In fact, most LCMS members would probably consider themselves Protestant.
So, while both Rome and Geneva have errors (and both have some things RIGHT, too!), the latter is more of a trouble for Lutherans because of our current church-cultural mentality.
Could it be said, that one way to describe the birth of the Lutheran church is that (some of) Rome repented?
Equal, but I don’t see the current problems as coming from Geneva (except Arminianism and Zwinglianism which I think do contribute heavily but are far removed from the minds of evangelicals today) so much as it comes from liberalism and post-modernism. With the ecumenical syncrotistic bent of much of evangelicalism I can totally see them getting enamered with Rome and sucked in. In fact there are numerous evangelicals running back to Rome these days, mostly those who never understood the doctrines of grace and probably couldn’t tell you that the Law and the Gospel are two disctinct things.
Perhaps Geneva is the current threat worry, but I believe there are many people within evangelicalism that are growing tired of the pop American Christian-tainment that is being passed off as worship. Where this is significant for Lutherans is that unlike me most are bypassing Lutheranism and heading straight to Rome. When the mass exodus begins, and it will, it will cause an undercurrent that sweeps away the people Jason is worried about becoming enamored with Rome. That is unless we recognize this ahead of time. If the LCMS decides who it is then they can prevent the loss of their members and perhaps gain a few who are leaving these “churches” and seeking the gospel.