The New Pope

The following article is posted from Peter Jones' newsletter. His
ministry is "Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet." I thought some of
you would find this interesting as the world digests the
implications of the new Pope.

Somewhere in the personal library of the new Pope, Benedict XVI, is
a leather-bound copy of Calvin's Institutes, and (surprisingly) a
copy of my article, "1 Corinthians 15:8: Paul, the Last Apostle." In
the hundreds of stories that will appear about the new pope, this
trivial fact will not appear!

In 1988, representatives from the French Reformed Seminary of Aix-en-
Provence in southern France where I taught for 18 years were guests
at the Vatican through the auspices of some very orthodox French
priests who loved Christ and the Scriptures and who wanted us to
visit Rome. We were shown the more protected tourist sites, such as
Peter's tomb and the pagan necropolis under St. Peter's
Cathedral.

We were also received in the private quarters of Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, who at the time was serving his seventh year as Prefect
of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This same
Ratzinger is now Benedict XVI.
Who is Ratzinger? For liberal observers, he is Papa Ratzi, the
polarizing, ruthless enforcer, the "papal rottweiler," disciplining
Latin American "liberation" theologians, denouncing homosexuality
and gay marriage, and reining in Asian priests who see non-Christian
religions as part of God's plan for humanity.

For Bible believers, his courageous positions, made in the light of a
deep and informed commitment to biblical theism, have created a
bulwark against rising world paganism.

Who is Ratzinger? Here is my personal testimony, for what it is
worth. This very powerful ecclesiastical figure, even then the No. 2
in the Vatican hierarchy, warmly received us, an unimpressive group
of French orthodox Protestant/Reformed theologians, for two hours.
In the first hour, in fluent French, he gave a magnificent overview
of the state of theology and of the dangers of German liberal
theology in particular. His critique of Bultmann was superb.

We Protestants then took an hour to present the case for orthodox
Protestant theology. Cardinal Ratzinger listened with rapt
attention. Our time together was not a casual, nor perfunctory
"audience," but a genuine theological exchange. I was impressed
by his intellect, by his linguistic ability (fluency in at least five languages)
by his theological wisdom and by his openness to biblical theology.

As we left, we gave him a bound copy of Calvin's Institutes, and he
graciously accepted my article on the apostle Paul as the last
apostle. Clearly my article did not change his mind about the papacy
but I have it on good authority that he has been reading the copy of
Calvin's Institutes.

The next day while sight-seeing in Rome I happened to
meet his secretary, a French priest. "How did the Cardinal
enjoy our visit?" I asked.

Without hesitation he replied: "The Cardinal said he wished there was a
seminary like that in the Catholic Church."

I have rarely thought about that moment, until today. As the
presiding Cardinal announced in Latin: "Habemus papam…Josephus…"
I knew it was Ratzinger and I stared at the photo I have had on my
study wall for many years, drawn strangely in to an event of global
proportions.

I began to put things together.When Ratzinger said in his homily
at a pre-conclave Mass in St. Peter's, denouncing the essence of
paganism: "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism
which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its
highest value one's own ego and one's own desires";

When, in his first address from the Vatican balcony he spoke of
the "joy in the risen Lord, trusting in his permanent help";

When, in his first papal homily in the Sistine Chapel, addressing
all Christian churches, he said: I take this opportunity to send all
of them my most cordial greetings in Christ, the only Lord of all";

I did think: "That's the same Ratzinger I met for those two hours
seventeen years ago."

How do Protestants respond, seeing that Rome often masks the pure
Gospel of grace and sometimes places Christ behind Mary and even the
Pope? The massive glistening white marble statue of Mary on a hill
dominates the city of Santiago, Chile, with the head of the Serpent
under her feet, while a small figure of Christ on a little cross
below, to the left, is hardly visible.

How do we respond? This morning, Robert Godfrey, historian and
President of Westminster Seminary in California (where I am adjunct
professor and scholar in residence), ended our daily chapel by
announcing the name of the new pope. He then did something few
Protestants do. He prayed that the Spirit might lead Benedict XVI
into a deeper and fuller understanding of Scripture and the Gospel.
Knowing what I learned about this man in that short but meaningful
encounter, surely this prayer is not in vain.

Peter Jones
Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet
http://www.rbvincent.com/reformedcharismatic.htm
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