A Common Faith
TimeWatch Editorial
February 19, 2016
On May 31st, 2013, the Lutheran World Foundation published a document entitled: “Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017: Report of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Commission for Unity.” The second paragraph of the Foreword of that work says the following:
“In 2017, Catholic and Lutheran Christians will most fittingly look back on events that occurred 500 years earlier by putting the gospel of Jesus Christ at the center. The gospel should be celebrated and communicated to the people of our time so that the world may believe that God gives Himself to human beings and calls us into communion with Himself and His church. Herein lies the basis for our joy in our common faith.” “Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017: Report of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Commission for Unity.”
Notice the final line of that paragraph: “Herein lies the basis for our joy in our common faith.” Did this begin as a common faith? That was certainly not how it began. October 31, 1517 was the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses, beginning one of the most important schisms in history, the Protestant Reformation. There were five basics that contradicted the heresy of Catholicism. Sola Scriptura –by scripture alone; Sola Fide –by faith (in God) alone; Sola Gratia – by grace alone; Sola Christus – by Christ alone; Soli Deo Gloria – Glory to God alone. The Protestant Faith spread like wildfire throughout the land, in spite of the Vatican’s attempt to stifle the movement.
In August 1534, a Spanish soldier turned priest, Ignatius de Loyola, founded an organization.
“Ignatius and six of his students–took vows of poverty and chastity and made plans to work for the conversion of Muslims. If travel to the Holy Land was not possible, they vowed to offer themselves to the pope for apostolic work. Unable to travel to Jerusalem because of the Turkish wars, they went to Rome instead to meet with the pope and request permission to form a new religious order. In September 1540, Pope Paul III approved Ignatius’ outline of the Society of Jesus, and the Jesuit order was born.” History.com
The task was simple, stop the growth of the Reformation by any means possible. They put together an oath that said it all. Here is some of that oath:
“That I will go to any part of the world, whatsoever, without murmuring and will be submissive in all things whatsoever communicated to me. ... I do further promise and declare, that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth, and that I will spare neither sex, age nor condition, and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants heads against the wall, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race.”
“That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poison cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard, or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity or authority of the person or persons whatsoever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agent of the Pope or superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Faith of the Society of Jesus.” The Jesuit Extreme Oath of Induction as recorded in the Journals of the 62nd U.S. Congress.
The intimidation of Protestants and the infiltration of churches that followed did succeed in impeding the reformation. Stealthily and consistently, the Jesuits have worked to eliminate the fundamental original truths of Protestantism, until October 31 1999 when a Joint Declaration was signed.
“The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification a document created, and agreed to, by the Catholic Church's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999, as a result of extensive ecumenical dialogue. It states that the churches now share "a common understanding of our justification by God's grace through faith in Christ." To the parties involved, this essentially resolves the five hundred year old conflict over the nature of justification which was at the root of the Protestant Reformation.”
Rome has managed to restore that which was lost, both Protestantism and as we have shown in our February 14, 2016 Editorial, the Eastern Orthodox Church. Indeed all the world has begun to wonder after the beast.
Cameron A. Bowen
Walter Veith-From Crete to Malta- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj4vdYZuW4E
