The Pope And Protestant Activities

“And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.” —1 Peter 3:13–16

Undoubtedly, most of you read the press dispatch from Rome under date of February 17 [1931], which was printed in practically all the larger newspapers of America, concerning the pope’s attitude toward Protestant work in Italy. I quote the item as found in the Chicago Daily Tribune:*

“Italy’s unity of thought and spirit is being menaced by a spread of Protestant activities in the Italian peninsula, Pope Pius XI declared today while instructing Lenten preachers and the parish priests of Rome on the objectives of their Lenten sermons. The pontiff urged the preachers to combat Protestant proselytism tooth and nail and pledged them his aid in all ways.

“The pope spoke with vehemence and implied strong criticism of the Italian government for permitting Protestant activities here since the Lateran treaty had established Catholicism as the state religion. The pontiff’s remarks followed a campaign in the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican organ, which had been attacking Wesleyan and American Methodist establishments in Italy.”

Assails Proselytism

“The invasion of Protestantism, said the pope, was one of the country’s greatest evils. ‘From the lagoons of Venice to the Ionian sea of Sicily,’ continued the pontiff, ‘and especially in Rom, our Rome, this proselytism is being promoted and is allowed to go on with so much damage to souls and with such menace to that which is most precious in the life of pa people, namely, deep unity of thought and spirit which is never so effectively affirmed as in religious unity.’”

“This is permitted to go on in such a way that even the Protestants themselves are astonished at the progress they are making. It is allowed to continue to such an extent that yesterday there was talk of a Protestant pilgrimage to Italy and today there is talk of holding a Protestant synod in Italy. It is allowed to go on till it even tries to acquire territory in Italy.”

Pictures Other Evils

“Besides Protestantism, Pius pictured other evils which he said are menacing Italy today and against which he told his preachers to direct their sermons.

“First the pope spoke of the immoral and sacrilegious press. Then he brought up immoral picture shows, saying ‘the vaudeville acts which accompany them are quite as indecorous and offensive to the modesty of young men and women as can be imagined.

“And, third, the pope discoursed on the breaking of the Sabbath, asserting that in this the government of Italy was one of the worst offenders, since it engages in public work on the day of rest.

“The pontiff said he had sought to intervene against these evils but without effect.”

May I say at once that if the pope only knew it, he would find evangelical Protestants thoroughly at one with him in his campaign against immoral and sacrilegious books and picture shows. Protestants too, if really sincere, stand firmly against desecration of the Lord’s Day and all else that is conducive to irreverence toward God and loose behavior among men. We can therefore unhesitatingly commend the head of the Roman Church for his stand in regard to these matters. But when it comes to the consideration of his attitude toward Protestant activities, we find ourselves obliged to dissent sternly to his position, and it is my desire this evening to turn to the Word of God itself and inquire what it is that the pope objects to.

Before doing this, however, let me point out that the pope has done three things for us in his Lenten message for which we may well be grateful. First, he has shown us how hopeless is the effort which many leading churchmen are making to fuse Protestantism with Romanism [Catholicism]. The reunion of Christendom is an ideal that has appealed to a vast number of our religious leaders. It has been their hope to see all the various Protestant sects united in one great body and then to see this body returning again to the Roman Catholic Church, and they have fondly hoped that the pope would gladly welcome them, thus healing the schism created by Protestant Reformation. But Rome never changes and it is very evident that there is only one way for Protestants to go back into the arms of old “mother church” and that is by complete submission to the self-styled “Vicar of Christ,” who dwells on the banks of the Tiber.

Secondly, the pope’s message demonstrated afresh Rome’s age-long hatred to the Gospel. Many weak-kneed Protestants were beginning to hope that Rome had given up her unrelenting attitude toward evangelical Christianity. But it is evident from this message that the papacy is as violently opposed to the Gospel of the grace of God as in the days of Luther, Calvin, John Knox, Zwingli, and the other reformers.

Third, this document proves the fallacy of the statements which the late Cardinal Gibbons and other American Catholics, desirous of conciliating the people of the United States, have made, declaring that the Roman Catholic system has never been a persecuting church, but that the horrors of the inquisition and the cruel persecutions of Protestant Christians in centuries gone by were carried on by the state and not by the church. But in this sermon, the pope berates the Italian government for not putting a stop to the Protestant activities in Italy. In other words, he calls upon the government to draw the sword of persecution, for there is no way by which the Italian government could stop evangelistic work in Italy other than by closing the churches and missions and prohibiting religious liberty, in which case, one can well imagine what would be the fate of those faithful preachers of the Gospel who undertook to obey God rather than man. Imprisonment, death, or exile would be the only means whereby they could be silenced. And this the pope knew right well when he scolded Mussolini for allowing the Protestants to continue their work in Italy.

But I have no thought of taking up your time in abusing the pope or the Roman [Catholic] Church. I simply desire in accordance with the Word of God, to give you a reason for the hope that is in me, a reason why I am a Protestant Christian, and to point out what it is that stirs the ire of the papacy because Protestants are permitted to labor in Italy. This is a day when we need to be clear and definite as to our convictions and when we must not shrink from expressing them plainly when our faith is called in question.

Evangelical Protestantism has always stood for an open Bible, an open Bible in the language of the common people in whatever country its missionaries are working. It is this above everything else that Rome hates, for she well knows that if the people have free access to the Bible in their own language without note or comment, they will soon be delivered from the spiritual tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church. It is true that Rome professes to believe the Bible as much as we do, but she puts tradition on a level with the Holy Scriptures, teaching for doctrine, the commandments of men, and thus makes the Word of God of none effect through her traditions, as the Jews did in the days of our Lord. In some countries where they find it absolutely necessary, in order to head off Protestant criticism, the Roman hierarchy has told the people they were free to read the Bible, but it must always be the Bible with the notes inserted by Roman priests, many of which, as the context shows, are a direct contradiction to the Word itself. But even a Bible like this is dangerous to trust in the hands of an intelligent truth-seeking Catholic. For as he reads it, he soon begins to wonder why it is that in all the New Testament there is no mention of Peter as the first pope; no word of the papal chair or line of popes succeeding Peter; no word of a man as head of the church; neither does he find any mention of the mass; no hint of a continued unbloody sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. Search as he will, he cannot find a special priesthood in the New Testament church and there are no great ecclesiastical dignitaries in gorgeous vestments lording it over the people of God. There is not a syllable about auricular confession, nothing about indulgences, no mention of a purgatory after death nor anything suggesting prayers for the dead or prayers to the Virgin Mary and the saints.

It is because of the absence of all these things in the New Testament that thousands of Italian Catholics as well as Catholics in other lands are turning away from the Roman [Catholic] Church. And yet, when one comes to consider it, it seems strange indeed that the pope should be so aroused and apparently so terrified over Protestantism in Italy, when according to the last census, the population of Italy is between thirty-five and forty million people and at the most, including nominal adherents, there are less than two hundred thousand Protestants in all that kingdom. But the pope well knows that if these two hundred thousand have an open Bible and continue to read it and to talk to their neighbors about it and get them to read it, it will not be long until tens of thousands more will be set free from all subservience to Roman tradition.

The next reason that I give why the pope detests Protestantism is that it [Protestantism] recognizes but one Head of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ, and this of course strikes at the very root of all papal pretensions. For if Christ is the only Head of the church, manifestly, the pope is a fraudulent pretender to a position which God never put him into. Peter’s chair is a myth and the bishop of Rome is simply a pretentious spiritual egotist who is usurping an authority to which he has no title whatsoever. When Cardinal Cajetan declared to Luther, “But the church must have a head, otherwise she cannot exist,” the great reformer replied, “The church has a Head, and that Head is Christ.” This is the true Protestant position. And every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of His body and linked with Him both by divine life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. To own any other head is to be unfaithful to our Risen Glorified Lord.

But the greatest conflict of all centers about the question of sacrifice. According to the Bible, there remains no more offering for sin, for “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Our Lord Jesus finished the work that saves when He died upon the cross; He settled the sin question to redeem us from the curse of the law and to free us forever from the judgment which our sins deserved. In opposition to this glorious truth, Rome brings in her wretched institution of the mass, and declares that every time her priests consecrate the wafer on her altars, they offer, as quoted above, a continual unbloody sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. It is a gross imposture. Scripture declares: “The life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” Again, “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” What need then of any other sacrifice, since Christ’s work is absolutely complete? And what folly to speak of an unbloody sacrifice when apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission! Rome’s pretended repetition of the sacrifice of the mass is not only a monstrous sham, but it is impious and blasphemous, for it belittles the work of the cross and treats the blood of Jesus as if it were no greater value than the blood of bulls and goats shed in the former dispensation. Rome’s priests offer this sacrifice upon what they call the altar, but there is no place in any Christian church for an altar today.

“No blood, no altar now,
The sacrifice is o’er;
No flame, no smoke ascends on high,
The Lamb is slain no more.”

One of the first things the reformers did when they took possession of the churches that were turned over to them in Germany and elsewhere was to tear down the altars and substitute the table. The Lord’s table speaks of a feast of remembrance. The mass and altar declare as plainly as any ritualistic system, that, to their sponsors, the work of Christ is insufficient and unavailing to put away sins.

I am always sorry when I hear Protestants talk of an altar in their meeting house, and invite people to come to kneel at an altar or an altar rail. “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle,” but that altar is not a piece of furniture in our chapels or meeting halls. It is primarily the cross on which our Blessed Lord was offered up a sacrifice for the sins of the world. And now it is the golden altar in heaven to which we draw near in full assurance of faith in association with our great High Priest, who ever liveth to make intercession for us.

Again Romanism [Catholicism] and Protestantism cleave asunder over the question of justification. “How can a man be just with God?” The Romanist [Catholic] cries, “By works of charity, by continuation of religious duties, and by a sacramental system.” The Protestant with his open Bible in his hands exclaims, “We are justified by faith alone, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who has put away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself.” “The just shall live by faith” was the great battle cry of the Reformation. This was the word that Staupitz gave to Luther in the Augustinian Monastery, and this was the message that came home to his soul in added power as he was climbing the so-called “holy staircase” in the church of St. John Lateran at Rome. It was this one verse that forever freed him from the soul-destroying doctrine of salvation by human effort and sent him forth to light the fires of the Reformation in Germany.

I may say without any hesitation that Rome knows nothing of the present justification of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. According to her system, there are sacred rites to be performed from the cradle to the grave and prayers and masses after death in order to insure eventually the salvation of her devotees, yet no one can be certain that the question is settle satisfactorily until the day of judgment. Her infants are baptized with a view of their regeneration and their deliverance from the taint of Adamic sin. Her children are confirmed at a tender age, in order that they may receive the Holy Ghost. During the years that follow, they are constantly exhorted to continue masses, to confess their sins to the priest, to do penance, to be faithful in good works, particularly alms giving, and yield slavish obedience to the behests of the church in order to insure their final salvation. Yet when they are dying, they are no more certain that they are justified before God than they have been in all the past years. The priest is still required to administer the last sacrament and to give “extreme unction.” Then after they are dead, relatives and friends are urged to pray for the repose of their souls and to pay money for masses in order that they may be delivered from the flames of purgatory. What a hopeless system, and what an utterly unscriptural sham it all is! In opposition to all this, how sublime is the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith alone in the finished work of Christ. “Be it know unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man (that is, Christ Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.” How perfect, how complete the clearance in which every believing sinner stands before God! Who would not exchange Rome’s wretched system of sacramental salvation and justification by works for the scriptural standard of peace with God through faith in Christ alone?

Next, may I again draw your attention to the fact as intimated before, that in the New Testament church there is no special priestly company. Instead of this, the apostle Peter tells us, when writing to believers generally, that we are all a holy and a royal priesthood. The simplest Christian has immediate access in priestly nearness to the very presence of God just as truly as the most intelligent and devoted minister of Christ. The priest is the worshiper, and “we worship by the Spirit of God and have no confidence in the flesh.” Therefore, there is no room in Protestantism for priestcraft. I do not mean that all Protestants rise to the blessedness of this, for alas! Alas! Hundreds who take that name are in utter ignorance of the precious truth of the priesthood of all believers. Otherwise we would never hear of Protestant clergymen. The very term is a misnomer. There are no clergymen in this sense in the New Testament. There are ministers of the Gospel, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, but as C.H. Spurgeon said once of the term “Reverend” when applied to man, so we may say of the term clergyman: “If you want to find the place of its origin, you must go to Roman Row in Vanity Fair.” The realization of our priesthood gives the death blow to all hierarchical pretensions, and of course is hated by the pope and all who would lord it over God’s heritage.

Lastly, I would emphasize the fact that evangelical Protestantism stands for confession of sins directly to God Himself in contrast to the Romish [Catholic] doctrine of confession to her priests. Nowhere in the New Testament are we exhorted to go to a priest to confess our sins. On the contrary, we are ever instructed to go direct to God Himself and “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” To His apostles, our Lord said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit; whose so ever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose so ever sins ye retain they are retained.” According to Romanist [Catholic] traditions, our Lord was here ordaining His apostles to the priesthood and giving them authority to remit sins when they were confessed to them, and to bind peoples’ sins upon them if they refused to confess them. But let us never forget the apostle Peter was one of the little group that day to whom the Lord spoke in that upper room and who leaves us in no doubt whatever as to what he understood the Lord to mean when He authorized him to proclaim remission of sins. For in Acts 10:42–43, we find Peter himself proclaiming remission of sins to Cornelius and his household and he does it in the following words: “And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Notice he doesn’t say, “Whoever confesses his sins to me shall receive remission of sins.” There is not a hint that implies that Peter had some kind of a cabinet set up in a corner of Cornelius’ drawing room with a lattice or veil hanging down where he could sit on one side and Cornelius and his friends in turn could come in on the other side and confess their sins to Peter and through him receive remission. Nothing of the kind! But when in simple faith they looked to Christ, they received remission of sins. And if on the other hand, they refused to trust Him, then their sins would be retained.

Every minister of Christ is a successor to Peter and the rest of the apostles, and as one of their successors tonight, I declare to you on the authority of the Word of God, that if you will come to Him as a poor sinner and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall receive remission of sins. And on the other hand, I say to you solemnly in the light of what is elsewhere revealed in this Blessed Book that if you refuse thus to come to Christ and turn away from the grace so freely offered, your sins are retained. They will remain upon your guilty soul and sink you down at last to the depts of the pit of woe. There is no purgatory in another world where you may be purged from sins unremitted here. The only purgatory is the precious blood of Christ. By His death upon the cross, He made purification for sins and when we trust in Him, we are purged from every stain by that precious blood.

This then is the Gospel that Rome hates. And it is the proclamation of these truths that stirs the pope to indignation and leads him to demand that Mussolini and the Italian government put a stop to Protestant activities. And it is this false Roman [Catholic] system that the papacy is seeking to force upon America in its openly avowed effort to make America Catholic. God grant that the day will never come when Romanism [Catholicism] will become the dominant religion of this great land and the Gospel of God be on the defensive. Blessed be His Name! We are still free to proclaim everywhere the precious truth that “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” This is the message of the New Testament and this is the essence of Protestantism.

Editor’s note: The article, “Pope Denounces Growth of Other Religions in Rome,” can be found here: https://archive.org/details/per_chicago-daily-tribune_1931-02-17_90_41/page/n15/mode/2up