Tim Enloe writes on Dave Armstrong’s blog:
I also as a Reformed Christian want to say to my Catholic brothers that I strongly disagree with the views of my Baptist brothers Drs. White and Svendsen, and all their like-minded friends from other denominations. Nobody on either side of the divide needs to be “reminded” that the issues that separate us are very serious; much less does anyone need to be “reminded” of this at a time of great personal sadness when brothers have lost someone they consider to be their beloved Pastor and Father.
The stark insensitivity to basic human compassion that is produced by this utterly radicalized “timeless truth” version of justification by faith alone, where “Good News” supposedly consists of mercilessly beating other image-bearers over the head with abstract, impersonal Doctrinal Propositions and congratulating oneselves for superior fidelity to “Truth”, is not even remotely close to the position and spirit of the Protestant Reformers. Combined with a failure to appreciate the very good things that John Paul II did—things which only someone in the pope’s position of cultural visibility could have accomplished—it is a gross discredit to the Protestant cause today.
Thankfully, things are changing within our ranks.
If I might just say, Mr. Enloe is not in my “ranks,” nor is Paul Owen or all the others who have decided that compromise and a gospel without substance is all they have to offer to the world. I openly, if with sadness, draw the line where it must be drawn. He went out from us so that it might be demonstrated he was not of us. I still love the gospel more than the approval of men. No compromise.
John Calvin (who, until recently, was considered a Protestant Reformer):
This much it seemed proper to say in passing, that my readers may understand how very widely the Roman See, as it now exists, differs from the ancient See, under which it endeavours to cloak and defend itself. But whatever they were formerly, as they have no true and legitimate office in the Church, they only retain a colour and empty mask; nay, as they are in all respects the opposite of true ministers….I now leave all the pious to judge what the supreme pinnacle of the Roman hierarchy must be, to which the Papists, with nefarious effrontery, hesitate not to subject the word of God itself, that word which should be venerable and holy in earth and heaven, to men and angels. (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, vii:30.
