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The New Pope and Why Protestants Should Care

The New Pope and Why Protestants Should Care

Last updated on: March 16, 2013 at 11:37 am by David Russell Mosley

The New Pope and Why Protestants Should Care 2013-03-16T11:37:08-04:00 David Russell Mosley

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Dear Friends and Family,

The other day, when I posted on evolution and Christianity, I mentioned that I would be doing a post on the selection of a new pope. I also recommend reading my good friend, Peter Stevens’s post: Thoughts on the new Pope and Christian Leadership.

I am not a Roman Catholic. Neither am I Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, or a member of a high (that is liturgical) Protestant church. I am, as I’ve said before, part of tradition called the Restoration Movement. Technically we describe ourselves as neither Protestant nor Catholic, but practically we are low-church Protestants. You may wonder, then why I care at all about the papacy. Allow me, briefly, to try and describe why I think all Christians should be concerned about the papacy.

Whether we like it or not, the papacy exists. Every so often, the Roman Catholic church selects a new man to help lead them. It is his job to promote orthodoxy, to be the voice of the people of God, and to tell political leaders when what they do is not consonant with the position they hold. While we in the lower churches may not subscribe to the same understandings of leadership that Roman Catholics do, we must remember that the pope in Rome is there and that he stands for many of the same things we stand for. Pope Francis stands against abortion, against homosexuality as a practice (both things most evangelical Protestants stand against), and he stands for the spreading of the good news of Jesus Christ and caring for the poor and the oppressed. How can we rail against a man who seeks to be the kingdom of God in the world?

Finally, while there are various issues that keep me from becoming Catholic, John 17 is ever in my mind, that we may be one as the Father and Son are one. If we wish to be one then we must work with one another and not against one another. Unity is a big deal to the movement to which I belong. It is one of our two core pillars. If that is the case, then we must seek union with Rome as well as with Constantinope, Canterbury, Wittenburg, Geneva, etc.

I want to leave you with four things, two videos, an article, and a Scripture:

Simon Oliver on issues surrounding there being two living popes:

Thomas O’Loughlin on the proper understanding of papal power:

An article from Simon Oliver and Sam Kimbriel: Analysis: What is the role of a modern pope?

And John 17:

17 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

I pray that you, as I will, will pray for Pope Francis and that his time of service may see a deeper union between all Christians. As the Western World continues to reject Christianity, we must band together under the reign of Jesus Christ.

Yours,

David

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