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There is one thing everyone is forgetting here. There is one true Church of Christ that he established with His death and the gift of the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago and that is the community of Christians. That is what a true church is. It is not a denomination or a religion. The Church is made up of the Christians of the world. These denominations are merely formal structures for Christians to organize. No denomination, orthodox, roman catholic, or protestant group has it perfect. Protestants broke off of the roman catholic church because they forgot the true meaning of “the Church” and instead were more concerned with following their man-made traditions which ended up and still to this day with some, consume them, among many other reasons. Christ warned us against the traditions of men as a way for the devil to lie and lead us astray and wants us to follow him together with our full hearts and to trust in him and to follow His words and sacred scripture. I am a born-again Christian who attends a Presbyterian church and am currently studying at Catholic University of America in Washington DC. I can tell you as such, and as I am sitting in the capital of the roman catholic church in America, this is nothing new. Remember, this document came from a section of the rcc that was established to deal with what they called heresy by doing what they felt was the “christian thing to do,” (since they are the only so called true-christians under the divine wisdom of the vicar of Christ) by rounding up those who disagreed with them and killed them. Do you think that sounds like the divine wisdom of Christ to you? I think not. Those are the kinds of things that can happen when we stop following God and follow our own way. The devil takes those times and decieves us to do his work. To have ecumenism with the rcc is not possible nor in the best interest of the members of the reformed faith. Until the rcc can refute by scripture the ideals of the reformed faith, to have ecumenism with the rcc would only be sacrificing those core principles of Christianity. Our differences are too great and our basis of faith are not the same. As a friend of mine here at school put it, “I am a catholic before I am a Christian.” Enoguh said. Their allegiance is to the pope, their doctrine and traditions rather than to the Word of God and His grace by faith. According to the rcc, since we have no apostolic succession, our ordinations and sacraments are invalid and therefore the members outside of the rcc can not receive salvation. I am glad the pope did this because it serves as a wake up call to progressive and reformer catholics who did not know that the rcc had this stance and who are truly more committed to the Word of God rather than the laws of the pope. Hopefully this will make them recognize the evilness of this doctrine and push for change.

The key is to remember we are brothers and sisters by faith, not by membership of a certain church. Any so called “church” that says its way or the high way to hell, as the rcc does, is the true heretic and ally of the devil whether they intend to be or not. Christ tells us that is we are born of the water and spirit, our names will be written in the book of life and we will have eternal life. Anyone who tells you differently is not speaking the Truth and it is a lie to bring you away from the glorious gift of the Spirit. “Many will come in my name but will not be of me,” Christ said. Remember that. Those who limit the Kingdom of God by putting made up doctrine, tradition or requirements on faith that are not based in scripture and only fit what they want rather than what God wants will be judged and condemned by their own arrogance.

All the historical information we need as true Christians is the Bible. The lineage of popes and bishops is useless and not important to the furthering of the kingdom of God. We were called as Christians to spread the good news. Not to create a power hungry arrogant religion so it gives us what we want rather than what God wants. The rcc’s new statement has served as a blow to Christian reformers inside the rcc who strive to bring it back to Christ. I hope and pray that they are not discouraged and will continue on their work to open the eyes and hearts of the leaders in the rcc to Christ’s love, truth, wisdom and grace. Just remember fellow Christians, pray often, put your love, faith and trust in God, read the Bible and live a good life for the glory of Him. Don’t ever loose sight of that. That is all He expects. Pick up your cross and follow Him!