Rome’s ‘Gospel’ Cannot Save

Posted on by

Transcript from a Conference Question and Answer Session with Dr. R. C. Sproul – Pittsburgh, 2000

Questioner to Dr. R. C. Sproul: “How do you feel about the Vatican and its doctrine? Can you believe in this and still be saved?”

R.C. Sproul: “If they are asking, ‘Can you be a member of the Roman Catholic Church and be saved?’ I would say, ‘Without question, Yes!’ If you understand fully the doctrines of the Vatican and embrace them, then I would say, ‘No, you can’t.’

That’s because to embrace the teaching of Rome, clearly understood, you would have to repudiate the gospel – particularly the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which contrary to the press releases of the accord with the Lutherans and all of that, the Roman Catholic Church has not changed its teaching from the Council of Trent one bit. The Council of Trent (the middle of the 16th Century) was where they set forth their condemnation of the Reformation view of justification and set forth the expression of their own doctrine of justification.

Questioner: “Which is?”

R.C. Sproul: “Well, its complicated, but real quickly, the doctrine of justification in Rome involves several elements. It begins with baptism (sacramentally) where in the sacrament of baptism, justifying grace is infused into the soul of the recipient (its called the righteousness of Christ). It is infused ex opere operato (through the working of the sacrament). That infusion of grace places the infant in a state of grace and two things have to happen: one, they must cooperate with that grace and assent to that grace to be justified, (‘coopere et assentara’ are the exact words of Trent) to such a point that righteousness inheres in the soul for them to be saved. Now as long as righteousness inheres in the soul, you are in a state of justification (you are in a state of grace) until or unless you commit mortal sin. Mortal sin is called mortal sin because it kills the grace of justification in your soul. Now here’s also what is spelled out at Trent – you can commit mortal sin while you still have authentic faith – so you can have faith and not have justification – so faith alone will never suffice.

Faith is determined at Trent to be the fundamentum (the foundation), the initium (the initiation), and the rodex (the root of justification) – so you’ve got to have faith, but faith alone will not do it.

Now if you commit mortal sin, you don’t get re-baptized, even though you have lost the grace of justification, you go to the second plank of justification which is the sacrament of penance, defined by Trent as the sacrament for those who have made shipwreck of their souls. In the sacrament of penance you have to make confession, you have to get priestly absolution, and then you have to do your works of satisfaction which are necessary to gain meritum de congruo (or congruous merit) – merit that does not oblige God to redeem you but makes it fitting for God to restore you to a state of grace. And as long as you stay then in that state of grace and you have inherent righteousness (righteousness that is in you) then you will be saved. But if you die with any impurity on your soul, you go to purgatory (the purging place) until the impurity is removed.

The Protestant and I believe biblical view is that the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, all that He is and all that He has – becomes yours in the sight of God. And that the righteousness by which we are justified is not our inherent righteousness but strictly and solely the righteousness that Luther said is extra nos (outside of us) a iustisium alienum (an alien righteousness), somebody else’s righteousness. That’s the gospel – that what saves me is not my inherent righteousness but the righteousness of Christ that was performed in His life. Not in my life, in His life. And the moment I put my faith and trust in Him, I am redeemed forever.

I don’t have to worry about purgatory, I don’t have to worry about works of congruous merit, I don’t have to worry about inherent righteousness – I mean God is going to make me inherently righteous in heaven, but my justification does not rely upon that. It is not the gospel to go tell people, here, the grace of God will help you become inherently righteous, why don’t you come and join our church and we will give you the sacrament of grace to help you. That’s not the gospel.”

What is a Reformed Baptist Church?

Posted on by

The following article is written by a pastor friend of mine, Travis Peterson. He is a remarkable man in that he serves his flock Providence Reformed Church in Las Vegas even as he is legally blind. He is a very gifted teacher of God’s word and this article is a helpful explanation regarding the question, ‘What is a Reformed Baptist Church?’

Pastor Travis writes:

No matter what kind of church one claims to belong to, that label will carry with it definitions and distinctions which make one church different from another. As taxonomic classifications identify organisms from kingdom down to species, certain distinctions help us to know what a church is when we see what they claim to be.

When one sees the word “reformed” in a church’s name or identity, a few possible meanings may be present. For example, a church may suggest that being reformed is particularly tied to a Presbyterian denomination or confession, denying that any can be reformed who are not part of that group. More loosely, another may use the word reformed simply to mean Calvinistic as concerns the church’s beliefs relating to salvation. Still others fall somewhere in the middle, believing that a reformed church is one which has some particular distinctives, but which is not necessarily Presbyterian—Reformed Baptists for example.

Because Reformed Baptist is the context of Providence Reformed Church where I serve, and because many wrestle with exactly how to explain what a Reformed Baptist is, I thought it might be useful to pull together a couple of threads of thought and share them here. This post will include a summary of several key ideas which would take you a while to explain to someone else. Next week, I hope to lay out some strategies for explaining Reformed Baptist to others in a short and simple way. I am not here claiming to be the authority over how the phrase is used, but am only hoping to help explain what we mean in our church when we say “Reformed Baptist.” 

Reformed Baptist churches are:1

  • Christian
  • Protestant
  • Reformed
  • Baptist

Christian – Christian churches embrace the true message of the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The basic beliefs of Christians are often summarized in classic creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedonian Definition. These statements focus particularly on the identity of the one true God existing as trinity and the person of Jesus as truly God and truly man. This distinction separates Christianity from other world religions and cults which deny the trinity, the deity and humanity of Christ, or the basic gospel. 

Protestant – A Protestant church, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, embraces the five Solas of the Reformation. These churches believe that the Scripture alone is the final and highest authority for the church on earth. They teach that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. Protestants recovered these biblical doctrines during the era known as the Protestant Reformation.

Reformed – A subset of Protestant churches, Reformed churches embrace the beliefs of key doctrinal confessions such as the Belgic, Westminster, or Second London confessions. Much of what is recovered in these confessions beyond the basic faith of the classic creeds has to do with the authority of Scripture, the structure of the church, and the doctrine of salvation including election. Reformed churches are distinct from other Protestant churches which do not embrace these confessions and doctrines.

Baptist – A Baptist church is a Protestant church that expressly declares that only those who are saved by Jesus are part of the true church. Baptists believe that those who are saved obey Christ through the ordinance of believer’s baptism as a public declaration of their faith. Baptists value the autonomy of local congregations and the congregational voice in church government. These beliefs distinguish Baptist churches from our Presbyterian brothers.2

Other theological and practical particulars are often seen as identifying Reformed Baptists as different from non-Reformed Baptists. One author suggests the following five distinctives:3

  • The Regulative Principle of Worship
  • Covenant Theology
  • Calvinism
  • The Law of God
  • Confessional

The Regulative Principle of Worship – This teaching limits the acts of a church in worship to those which God commanded in Scripture. This distinguishes Reformed Baptist churches from others which practice the normative principle of worship, the belief that all things are permissible in worship so long as they are not forbidden in Scripture.

Covenant Theology – This doctrine accepts the covenant of redemption, covenant of works, and covenant of grace. The covenant of redemption is the plan among the persons of the trinity to rescue a people for the glory of God. The covenant of works is the covenant Adam failed to keep when he disobeyed God in the garden and brought condemnation on humanity resulting in the truth that no human being can now earn his or her way to God through good works. The covenant of Grace is the free gift of salvation by grace through faith in Christ who lived perfection and died as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of God’s people. Believers in covenant theology understand that Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promises from the Old Testament and that the Bible is a unified account of God’s accomplishment of his plan of salvation.  Covenant theologians, because of these beliefs, are distinct from dispensationalists. 

Calvinism – Calvinists believe in the sovereignty of God in the salvation of all who are saved. Calvinism embraces sovereign election and denies that people come to Christ without God first moving them to do so. 

The Law of God – A reformed understanding of God’s law includes the belief that the moral law of God is summarized in the Ten Commandments and that no one will fully understand the gospel apart from the law of God. Reformed Baptists will often see the law of God as useful to show a person their need for salvation, to help societies to restrain evil and destructive behavior, and to help the saved to understand the character of God and what pleases him. 

Confessional – Reformed Baptists often subscribe to the Second London Baptist Confession (written in 1677, published in 1689). This is not to say that there may not be small points that require further explanation or with which the church may quibble. Yet the Reformed Baptist Church will declare the confession to be a true summary of the church’s beliefs.

While different individuals or churches may disagree with one or more of the points above, they are a fair summary of what is broadly assumed to be a Reformed Baptist Church.

Next week, we will look at how to explain what a Reformed Baptist is in a short and simple way.

1 The 1st 3 items of this list are found in Daniel Hyde, Welcome to a Reformed Church (Sanford, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2010), Introduction.

2 Baptist began to distinguish themselves during the period of the English Reformation along with Congregationalists. Such Baptists are not linked with the anabaptist movement.

3 This list comes from Tom Hicks, “What is a Reformed Baptist?” (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Ministries) [article on-line]; accessed 15 July 2023; available from  https://founders.org/articles/what-is-a-reformed-baptist/; Internet.