Sometimes, not even Jesus can get His prayers answered. Just before His death, He prayed:
“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
The recent declaration of the Catholic church’s Pope Benedict XVI has guaranteed that prayer won’t be answered soon. Quoting largely from a 2000 document called “Dominus Jesus,” the Pontif declared:
1. Protestant churches aren’t churches
“Christ established here on earth only one church,”
“It is . . . difficult to see how the title of ’Church’ could possibly be attributed to [Protestant communities], given that they do not accept the theological notion of the Church in the Catholic sense and that they lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church.”
“These separated churches and communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church.”
2. Salvation is only available through the Catholic church
Only the Catholic church “has the fullness of the means of salvation.”
The document also reaffirmed the “primacy of the Pope.”
Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) questioned the Vatican’s statement at a time where society as well as the Christian body is struggling with division and placing great emphasis on unity.
“We are puzzled by the release of a statement of this kind at this time in the history of the church. An exclusive claim that identifies the Roman Catholic Church as the one church of Jesus Christ . . . goes against the spirit of our Christian calling toward oneness in Christ.
“For now, we are thankful to God that our calling to be part of the church of Jesus Christ is not dependent on the interpretation of the Vatican. It is a gift of God. Receiving this gift, we appreciate the Roman Catholic Church as a part of this family.”
To reference Jesus’ prayer, here’s what I find most troubling about the Pope’s pronouncement:
1. Jesus, not the Pope, is the head of the church
“For you granted him [Jesus] authority over all people . . . “ (John 17:2).
2. Salvation comes from Christ alone
“ . . . that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:2-3).
3. The Bible, not man-made doctrine, should define who is a part of the Church of Christ.
“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20b-21).
I do pray that one day Jesus’ prayer will be answered.
