As a Scottish evangelical Protestant Christian it is hard to watch the Papal visit to Scotland without deep sorrow and sadness of heart !
The Head of the Roman Catholic Church is a frail 90 year old German who comes across very gently and softly when he speaks.He struck some solid notes regarding the danger my homeland is in from aggressive secularism and he was correct about the Christian heritage of the land of my birth. However there is much more to who this man is than is frail, gentle appearance.
What he represents is what people need to understand. Reflecting on what the Pope represents is very important. Why? because the solutions to the aggressive secularism of the modern day are not to be found in the Roman Catholic Church or its heretical dogma.
Sitting watching the celebration of the Mass in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow,which is located only a few miles from the hospital where I was born and the street my father grew up in during the Second World War I was both sobered and moved. Perhaps there was a measure of sentiment and homesickness in my heart, but there was more !
Why did I find it sobering ? I was reminded of the fact that the Roman Mass has not changed. It is still a wrong understanding and wrong practice of the Lord's Supper. The doctrine of 'transubstantiation' is a doctrine of Romanism not of Christ. This is not a mere theological footnote to be ignored. Roman Catholicism is sacramentalism, it is the idea that the saving grace of God comes to us through the observation of religious rites, ie baptism and eucharist. It teaches sinners to be dependent upon sacraments and priests and upon the church for their salvation and not upon the one who saves us from our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not an insignificant issue. If God in His word calls us to believe in His Son for the forgiveness of our sins and peace with Him it is plainly wrong to teach people anything else in the name of Christ.
All across Scotland lie the earthly remains of many who in refusing to embrace the heresy of Rome were murdered by her. (See my earliest blog about Patrick Hamilton). Rome has never acknowledged this reality and unless she does any talk of unity with those who understand the issues is merely talk.
Why was a I moved ? Not for the reasons some may have been moved. I was moved to sorrow and heaviness of heart for my fellow countrymen who in sincerity are duped by the Vatican and its advocates. I watched the old, the young, the healthy and the sick, the lofty and the lowly participate sincerely in the Mass, delight in the presence of the Pope and I was reminded of how tragic my homeland is. Rome offers no assurance of salvation, Rome does not preach salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Rome does not bring the true hope of the gospel to the people. Instead of keeps the people dependent upon a system that is full of pomp and ceremony but empty in terms of spiritual power and grace.
The true voice of the Protestant evangelical Christian in Scotland has been silenced. Few if any will speak up on these issues. Most will keep their head down and plough away in their little corner of Scotland and that is perhaps all they can do at this time in history. Yet today in the city whose motto is 'Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of His word and the praising of His name', thousands gathered to participate in a ritual that in reality denies the gospel rather than proclaims it !
My prayer is that if nothing else the Pope's visit will thrust the issue of Christianity to the fore in Scottish life and give an opportunity for the true gospel to be explained and proclaimed. May the Lord yet raise up true ministers of the gospel and visit a nation once so singularly blessed with evangelical and biblical Christianity but now so lost in religious formalism and secular relativism. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes......!
