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두란노아버지학교_ The Promise Keepers Roman Catholic
두란노아버지학교_ The Promise Keepers Roman Catholic

The Promise Keepers Roman Catholic:

The Art of Doublespeak

By David W. Cloud

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The Promise Keepers movement encourages men to adopt the "Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper." Promise Number six states, "A Promise Keeper is committed to reaching beyond any ... denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity." That is ecumenism, and Promise Keepers is proving to be one of the most ecumenically successful movements in history.

When men of God warn about this and expose Promise Keepers' ecumenism, though, two very different types of responses are occurring. First, some Promise Keepers defenders admit the ecumenical aspects of PK and glory in them. Second, other Promise Keepers defenders deny that PK is ecumenical in any unscriptural sense.

A case in point is information available on one of the unofficial Promise Keepers Internet Web sites. Posted on this site is "Promise Keepers Controversy--a Defense of Promise Keepers Ministry"--an extensive defense of PK against the charges which have been made by Fundamental, Bible-believing Christians. Consider an excerpt:

"The doctrinal error that is cited concerning Promise Keepers is its 'ecumenical emphasis.' Indeed one of the stated goals of Promise Keepers is to 'break down denominational barriers' and promote unity among Christians, but by definition a Christian is one who has 'accepted by faith God's gift of salvation which was made possible by Christ's death.' This would not include liberals who deny substitutionary atonement, or Roman Catholics who believe they are saved through the church or the sacraments. This would include all who have come to genuine faith in Christ, without regard to the denominational label they may wear."

The author of this, Jim Korth, says that his information is based on Promise Keepers books, attendance at a Promise Keepers conference, and an interview with Dallas Seminary professor Howard Hendricks, who speaks at PK meetings.

The problem is that Pastor Korth's defense of Promise Keepers denies the facts. He says that the unity sought by Promise Keepers does not include "Roman Catholics who believe they are saved through the church or the sacraments."

Every Catholic who accepts Roman Catholic doctrine believes that the church and the sacraments have a part in salvation. The New Catholic Catechism states: "The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation" (1129). Words could not be plainer.

It is plain that traditional Roman Catholics believe the sacraments are necessary for salvation. Are traditional Roman Catholics participating in Promise Keepers?

PK Founder Bill McCartney said plainly that Roman Catholics are invited to participate in Promise Keepers. He did not specify what kind of Roman Catholics.

Roman Catholic paper The Tidings (March 31, 1995) stated that Promise Keepers is "being expanded to include Catholic congregations." Catholics were encouraged to participate in Promise Keepers because "there is no doctrinal issue which should cause concern to the Catholic Church" and "there is no attempt at proselytizing or drawing men away from their [Catholic] faith to another church."

According to the December 1995 issue of the Charismatic Roman Catholic publication New Covenant, a Promise Keepers group is being formed in a Catholic parish in Tallahassee, Florida.

Further, the Promise Keepers field representative for the upper Midwest, Steve Jenkins, is a Roman Catholic. He represents Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. He became involved in Promise Keepers after attending the 1992 PK conference in Boulder, Colorado.

The July 23, 1995 issue of Today's Catholic contains an article entitled "Promise Keepers Christian crusade draws Catholic men." This paper reported that in July 1995, an official Promise Keepers Leadership Seminar was conducted at the Catholic Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio). More than 600 Catholic men participated. The meeting concluded with a Catholic mass led by the school's president, priest Michael Scanlon. This same priest distributed elements at one of the masses at the North American Congress on the Holy Spirit & World Evangelization in New Orleans, July 1987. He is a traditional Catholic. He believes the sacraments are necessary for salvation. He believes he can turn the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper into the very body and blood of Christ. He prays the rosary. He prays to Mary. In Indianapolis he told the story of being jailed for participating in ecumenical anti-abortion marches. During his time in jail he conducted masses and taught the Protestants how to pray the rosary. He considered it a great achievement that some of the Protestant anti-abortion crusaders adopted the rosary into their worship. This Catholic priest will not give up any of his heretical doctrines, but he certainly is not opposed to teaching them to any gullible "Protestants" who will listen. And now he is a participant in Promise Keepers.

Are these Roman Catholics confused about Promise Keepers' doctrines and goals? Have they been mislead? Why do they have the idea that Promise Keepers will accept them regardless of their false doctrine? I will tell you why. Because Promise Keepers already has accepted them and has made no issue of doctrine whatsoever. For Promise Keepers representatives to claim that they only desire unity among those who those who follow the true Gospel is a deception.

To claim that Promise Keepers is not ecumenical is nonsense. To claim that its ecumenism is scriptural is also nonsense.

The Promise Keepers doctrinal statement is weak enough to allow for all sorts of false doctrine. Consider what it says about salvation:

"We believe that man was created in the image of God, but because of sin, was alienated from God. That alienation can be removed only by accepting through faith God's gift of salvation which was made possible by Christ's death."

In today's confused, apostate, last days climate, this type of statement is entirely insufficient. The terms must be defined much more clearly than this. We won't take the statement apart word by word, but consider the last half of it. It says alienation from God is "removed by accepting through faith God's gift of salvation which was made possible by Christ's death." A Modernist will tell you that he believes this. A Roman Catholic will tell you that he believes this. Many cultists, in fact, will say that they agree with this statement. The problem lies in the fact that each would redefine the statement to fit his own unscriptural doctrine. Jesus warned that the wolf likes to dress in sheep's clothing. To say that salvation is "made possible" by Christ's death allows for the Catholic doctrine that salvation was purchased by Christ's death and given to the church to distribute to men through the sacraments. Roman Catholicism, with its priestcraft and sacraments, is a blatant denial of the sufficiency and efficacy of Christ's atonement and mediatorship, but there is room for Roman heresies in the Promise Keepers statement. The Roman Catholic Church acknowledges that salvation is "accepting through faith God's gift"--but it denies that salvation is through faith ALONE by grace ALONE as a gift ALONE ENTIRELY WITHOUT WORKS! In fact, the Catholic Council of Trent, which is still in force, placed a curse upon anyone who teaches this.

If the Promise Keepers leaders had simply added the words "salvation is through Christ's blood and death ALONE by faith ALONE and grace ALONE WITHOUT WORKS AND SACRAMENTS," much of this confusion could have been avoided and false gospels would be exposed. They do not do this, though, because they desire a broad ecumenical movement and they do not want to be so specific doctrinally that they will exclude large portions of the "Christian" world.

A wise pastor said, "We will have either a limited fellowship or a limited message." Those who preach the whole counsel of God find that their fellowship is extremely limited today. It is impossible to preach the whole counsel of God, like Paul did (Acts 20:27), and have a broad-based Promise Keepers-type fellowship. The Apostle Paul was concerned about the purity of the Gospel, but he was also concerned about the purity of every detail of Bible doctrine.

The Apostles not only preached the true Gospel; they exposed and condemned false gospels. The Apostle Paul said that those who teach false gospels and who mingle faith and works are cursed of God (Galatians 1:7-8). Promise Keepers does not expose and condemn false gospels. In fact, their own doctrinal statement leaves room for all sorts of false gospels. Beware of Promise Keepers. It is extremely dangerous and deceptive.

[Distributed by Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist News Service. This is a free listing. If you desire to receive this type of material on a regular basis, e-mail us, tell us who you are and where you are located, and request to be placed on the list. Please also include your postal address. Some of these articles are from the "Digging in the Walls" section of O Timothy magazine. David W. Cloud, Editor. O Timothy is a magazine-size monthly in its 13th year of publication. Subscription is $20/yr. Way of Life Literature, 1219 N. Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277. The Editor's e-mail address is dcloud@whidbey.net. The Way of Life web site is http://wayoflife.org/~dcloud.]

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