THE
SUBTLE ROAD TO
Protestants are being enticed to leave their historic
Biblical position of the church for a position that really is Romish, but it is not being packaged that way. There is a significant difference between the
Westminster Confession’s definition of the visible church
(which summarizes the Protestant view) versus that of the so called emerging
church using Jesuit Avery Dulles’ “mystical communion model of the church”. This latter Jesuitical model is in its essence
the Romish model of the church, but disguised to
appeal to and deceive Protestants.
The
Biblical Protestant Model of the Church
Here is the Westminster Confession’s definition of the
visible church:
“The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal
under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law),
consists of all those throughout the world that
profess the true religion; and of their children…”
Unlike the Romish view, there is
an important distinction between the visible church and the invisible
church. Here is how the Westminster
Confession defines the invisible church:
“The catholic or universal Church, which is invisible,
consists of the whole number of the elect, that have
been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is
the spouse, the body, the fulness of Him that fills
all in all.”
It should be noted that the invisible church, which is a
subset within the visible church, consists of the elect only, having been
regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit in free sovereign grace. Protestantism makes no claims that all of the
visible church members are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and indeed does not
believe they are. For Protestants, the
line of demarcation between the visible church and that which is outside it is
an objective adherence to Biblical doctrines.
Those within the visible church are exhorted that they must be born
again by the Spirit, since it is recognized there are many of its members who
are not.
The Romish Model of the Church
By way of contrast, Romanism does not distinguish the
visible and invisible church. So it
characteristically seeks to define the visible church in spiritual terms and
not doctrinal terms. Hence, when
“International
research suggests that some Emerging Churches are utilizing a Trinitarian basis
to being church through what Avery Dulles calls 'The Mystical Communion Model
of Church'.[66]
Dulles sees the strength in this
approach being acceptable to both Protestant and Catholic:
In stressing the continual mercy of
God and the continual need of the Church for repentance, the model picks up
Protestant theology... [and] in Roman Catholicism...
when it speaks of the church as both holy and sinful, as needing repentance and
reform...[68]
The biblical notion of Koinonia, ...
that God has fashioned for himself a people by freely communicating his Spirit
and his gifts ... this is congenial to most Protestants and Orthodox ... [and]
has an excellent foundation in the Catholic tradition.”
Protestants are enticed to such churches, even though in
reality such churches follow the essence of the Romish
model.
Comparison
of the Two Models
The first model (that described in the Westminster
Confession and reflecting what the Bible teaches) seeks visible church unity primarily
via doctrinal agreement to true Biblical standards (i.e., full doctrinal
subscription to reformed confessional standards), which can then be faithfully
applied. (Notice: This is why Protestants spent so much time and effort during
the Reformation hammering out Biblically accurate confessional statements like
the Westminster Standards and the Canons of Dort.) The second Romish model seeks unity via “communion of the spiritual
life”. The first is the historic
Protestant position. The second is
thoroughly Romish. The first says we are “justified by grace
alone through faith alone”. The second
implies we are justified by what we have and experience. The first indicates the external means of our
sanctification are the word of God, read and preached, the sacraments, and
prayer. The second especially de-emphasizes
the means of the word of God. The first
involves the Spirit working with the word of God to sanctify the believer. The second is more emotion-based and does not
involve as much the use of the word of God to shape the thinking of the person.
The first insists upon full subscriptionism to
reformed confessional standards as an ecclesiastical feature. The second does not insist upon such, but
instead de-emphasizes doctrinal confessional standards (especially reformed
confessional standards) and understanding them and their basis in scripture.
There are a number of ways in which churches with the
Protestant label in fact become closer to the Romish
ecclesiastical model. When denominations
with contrary confessional standards have fraternal relations, or when
denominations lack full subscription to any reformed confessional standards,
they are effectively tending towards an ecclesiastical situation of “communion
of the spiritual life”. Also, when
seminaries do not require full subscription to reformed confessional standards
like the Westminster Standards, they are effectively tending in the Rome-ward
direction. Such seek ecclesiastical
union and communion not in professed agreement to the same reformed doctrines,
but rather seek ecclesiastical union and communion in shared spiritual
experience.
A special category of the emerging church approach is to use
the tool of white racial guilt to pry white reformed Christians into an
essentially emerging church philosophy.
It subtly, or in some cases overtly, accuses them of sinful racism (but
quite often on fallacious grounds), and then it urges them to remedy this by
becoming what is essentially an emerging church (even if it is not declared as
such), bridging various racial/ethnic peoples of varying cultures together into
a congregational communion of the spiritual life. Doctrinal agreement with
the Westminster Standards and Three Forms of Unity (and then faithfully
applying the principles) as a pre-condition to such a congregational community
is de-emphasized, if it is even mentioned at all.
This is the devil’s subtle tool to bring professing
Protestants to