Should Christian evangelicals work alongside the Roman Catholic Church?
This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1990.
Your question raises very large issues. I gladly admit that there are many true believers in the Roman Catholic church, and perhaps more nowadays than ever there have been. But the fact remains that Roman Catholicism itself still as ever contradicts and denies the basic principles of the gospel. I say that, in spite of the fact that the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC II) report on 'Salvation and the Church' tries to make out that there is no longer any disagreement at all between Roman Catholicism and evangelicalism over the doctrine of justification by faith; and many leading evangelicals nowadays take this same view. In this respect, Alister McGrath's critique of ARCIC II is very important. It shows that what Rome means by its modern statement of the doctrine of justification by faith is diametrically opposed to the gospel.
In my student days, the Christian Unions in many universities were constantly faced with the practical question: should they cooperate with Student Christian Movement of Great Britain (SCM) in their witness in the universities? Many members of SCM at the time were true believers, but SCM officially had adopted liberalism in their theology. Some Christian Unions, therefore, maintained that the Christian Union as such should not publicly join with SCM in their various activities, and that it could not do so without compromising the Christian Union's stance on the authority of Scripture. Such Christian Unions, of course, allowed their individual members freedom of conscience to do individually whatever they thought was right. Other Christian Unions did officially join with the SCM in their various activities. The resultant compromise was always and inevitably deleterious. The Christian Unions concerned became very vague in their attitude to Scripture and, ultimately, in their attitude to the gospel.
It seems to me that the same—only worse—will happen to evangelicals who advocate, as the late David Watson did, joining with the Roman Catholic church in joint ventures and activities. It will inevitably compromise the gospel. Here, Galatians 2:11–14 seems to me to be very much to the point. Peter, by his behaviour at Antioch, compromised what he really believed. He was guilty of that form of hypocrisy which in English is called dissimulation; that is, he pretended by his behaviour not to believe what in his heart he really did believe. In his heart he believed that circumcision was not necessary to salvation, nor did it contribute anything to salvation. But by his behaviour he gave the impression that he did think that circumcision was somewhat necessary to salvation, or at least contributed to salvation. Such dissimulation and compromise is disastrous for the truth of the gospel. It immediately blurs the issue, and leads to the general Christian public being uncertain as to what exactly are the terms of salvation.
This is notoriously so with the practice of infant baptismal regeneration. Compromise with it on the part of evangelicals inevitably leads to widespread grey areas, where people come to think that somehow baptism does contribute to a person's regeneration. It has engendered false hope of salvation in millions. The same thing is true about the Roman doctrine of justification. When Rome talks of being justified by faith, Rome is referring to baptismal regeneration.
The same also applies to the Roman doctrine of the Mass. Evangelicals in Rome nowadays will say that many Roman Catholic priests do not regard the Mass as a sacrifice, but only as a memorial; but the plain fact is that individual Roman Catholic priests are not free to say what the Mass means. The Mass, celebrated in a Roman Catholic Church—never mind by whom—means what the Roman Catholic church officially says it means. And the Roman Catholic church still officially insists that the Mass is a sacrifice and an offering. To compromise with it leads inevitably, at the very least, to people being robbed of a conscience made perfect.
Anyone who offers the Mass, or anything else, in order to obtain forgiveness of sins, as Rome constantly does, shows thereby that he or she does not have a conscience made perfect (see Heb 10:1–3). At worst, it leads unbelievers to imagine that, by offering the Mass, they put themselves in the right with God.
Therefore, what is at stake is not some minor doctrine peculiar to a narrow segment of the evangelical sect, but the very basis and the whole glory of the doctrine of salvation. I personally would be very sorry to see a Christian organization's valiant stand for the gospel forfeited, compromised and obscured by joining operations with the Roman Catholic church which, to the public, would suggest that Roman Catholicism's version of the gospel is a true and valid, if alternative, expression of the gospel.
Yours truly,
