The Most Popular Protestant Pope Ever

Calvin and Knox must be turning over in their graves. It was, after all, Knox who declared that, "the Papists have perniciously taught and damnably believed" the doctrine of transubstantiation (Scot's Confession, Chapter 21).

I cannot imagine either of them losing any sleep over the death of any Pope who reigned during their lifetimes.

Yet, here we are, 450 years later, witnessing Calvinists, Lutherans, Methodists and even Baptists (for heaven's sakes....Baptists!) giving thanks to God for the life and steadfast witness of Pope John Paul II to.......uh......what?.....the Christian faith? .......or...... uh.....oh, yes......the good, conservative, traditional, historic, Biblical, moral teachings of the Church.

I suppose that there are those, such as James Lileks and myself, who still think that John Knox and Martin Luther were more correct than not about their rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation. And then there is the matter of the veneration of Mary, the intercession of the Saints and all those extra-biblical books crammed into the otherwise empty, narrow space that separates the Old Testament from the New. Plus, of course, there is the fact that some of us agree with the Swiss Reformer Heinrich Bullinger, who declared (in the Second Helvetic Confession) that,

we do not approve of the doctrine of the Roman clergy, who make their Pope at Rome the universal shepherd and supreme head of the Church Militant here on earth, and so the very vicar of Jesus Christ, who has (as they say) all fullness of power and sovereign authority in the Church.

In reality, I suppose we look at the new Pope Benedict XVI as sort of the head of a really, really, really big denomination!

In spite of all the differences, the remarkable thing is that the Protestant world, for the most part, has begun to affirm that the Pope-the-Bishop-of-Rome is, at heart, one of us.....a brother in Christ.

Although Pope Paul VI was respected by non-Catholic Christians, he was still viewed as representative of the "We" versus "Them" ideology spawned by the acrimonious divisions of the Western Church during the Protestant Reformation.

One of the great miracles of Pope John Paul II, and one of the things that will one day give reason to either bless him or curse him, was his effectiveness in gently lowering the walls that had separated Protestants and Roman Catholics for all these years.

--He accomplished this not by spurious, unrealistic or insincere petitions for ecumenical unity, but by simply being a faithful witness to the saving Lordship of Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords, triumphant and eternal in his love, mercy, justice and truth.

--He accomplished this by steadfastly setting Jesus Christ and the Christian Gospel alongside Nazi-ism, Communism and every other "ism" and declaring them, in comparison, to be morally and spiritually bankrupt and opposed to all that is good and right as God has revealed such things to us.

--He accomplished this by embracing the poor and suffering of the world, not with promises of "liberation" or "revolution" but by holding the rulers of all nations accountable for both causing and allowing such poverty and suffering to exist.

--He accomplished this by simply being a Christian....a Roman Catholic Christian, of course .....but a Pope who chose not to be crowned with the elaborate triple tiara and who preferred to be buried in his leather walking sandals than the traditional red shoes of the fisherman.

--He accomplished this by following the spirit of the Apostle Paul in emphasizing the unity of our Christian faith rather than constantly elaborating on those things that divide us (see Ephesians 4:1-6).

Because of Pope John Paul II, Roman Catholics and Protestants have been able to move from "Cold War" to "Detente" to the outer edges of "Reconciliation."

This has been a historical "paradigm shift" of the highest order. At present, it is more apparent in the "First World" nations than it is in the "Third" and it will take all the Spirit-filled wisdom imaginable for Benedict XVI to continue this historic and healthy narrowing of the unholy divisions in the visible Body of Christ.

The irony of all this, of course, is that those in the liberal churches who were most eager to cast aside all differences for the sake of ecumenical unity turned out to be the ones most alienated by the steadfast conservatism of John Paul II. Those Protestants who have held their ground on matters of both the Biblical purity of their faith and the Biblical purity of their lives have, on the other hand, experienced a growing sense of spiritual kinship with Rome while, at the same time, refusing to compromise on any of those things that still separate them.

Pope Benedict XVI will, I have no doubt, experience, appreciate and build upon that sense of kinship with many of the conservative, evangelical Protestant and Reformed churches. He will also find many willing and able allies among us as we work with common cause to be salt, light and leaven to a world that is all too bland, dark and flat in the things that really matter.

Three cheers for the Pope! By God's grace may he be blessed as well as be a blessing for a world that desperately needs a blessing.

ht:Politickal Animal for the Lileks link