A New Pope, A Protestant Perspective

The Catholic Church has a new Pope.  He is called Pope Francis, is from Argentina and is named after Francis of Assisi.  Pope Francis is said to be a simple and humble man and this is to be admired.  With the recent scandals he needs to clean up and reform the Vatican and the church.  Secularists and secular minded Catholics want women priests and acceptance of homosexuality.  But Pope Francis is said to be traditional, conservative, and pro life.  Hopefully he will stand strong on moral and social issues and not give in to secular forces.  He has criticized capitalism but has stood against Liberation Theology which is Marxism with Christian language.  

But most importantly the Roman Catholic Church needs to be reformed by the Bible.  Oddly enough, if Pope Francis were to reform it by the Bible he would have to eliminate the office of Pope.  Catholics claim Peter was the first Pope, but their is no evidence of this.  The Pope is said to be the vicar of Christ (that is his representative on earth).  But the Holy Spirit is the representative of Christ on earth.  There are also prayers to and the veneration of Mary and the saints (this is idolatry).  Veneration is said to be less than worship but is seems to get awfully close to it.  Mary is also said to be without sin and is basically made to be a co-mediator with Christ.  This is not what the Bible teaches (1 Timothy 2:5).  There is also the Mass where the elements are believed to become the actual body and blood of Christ, this is called transubstantiation.  The Mass is seen as a continual sacrifice of Christ.  But once again this is not what the Bible teaches (Hebrews 10:10-12).   

But the biggest problem with the Roman Catholic Church is it's doctrine of salvation.  They believe salvation is accomplished by faith in Christ plus their own works.  They deny that we are justified by faith alone, even though it is what the Bible plainly teaches (Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:15-21).  Unfortunately, Catholics seek to earn favor with God through sacraments, rituals, and works.  Roman Catholicism ends up denying that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  They end up teaching a different gospel than the one taught in Scripture (see Galatians 1:8-9). 

The Catholic Church doe not believe that Scripture alone is authoritative.  They see the Catholic Church itself as authoritative.  There are some true Christians in the Catholic Church but Roman Catholicism is not Biblical Christianity.