Over at Ref21 Carl Trueman suggests serveral reasons why Protestants convert to Roman Catholicism:
1. A sense of awe and liturgical tradition in much (not all) Roman Catholic worship that is lacking in evangelical Protestantism.
2. A disillusion with the lack of ecclesiology in much of evangelicalism.
3. A lack of confidence among evangelicals in the traditional Reformation formulations of justification by grace through faith, specifically in terms of imputation.
4. The attraction of Apostolic Succession.
5. A lack of confidence in the clarity or perspecuity of Scripture.
6. A perception that evangelical Protestantism has failed on pro-life and moral issues.
This is an important issue. I have met converts to Rome who left their evangelical churches for one or more of the reasons listed above. Primarily, my experience has been that Protestants leave for Rome (and Eastern Orthodoxy) because of the lack of reverence and historical rootedness within most evangelical churches.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
One of the issues is solo scriptura versus sola scriptura. Solo scriptura means "the Bible alone" without any regard for the church's historical interpretation of scripture. This leads to chaos, and every man interpreting scripture as he/she sees fit (i.e. Harold Camping). Sola scriptura, in contrast, regards church history as important to interpretation. Calvin quoted the church fathers extensively in the Institutes. Protestant pastors would do well to follow his lead and use the church fathers to support their views from time to time. If they did this, we'd lose fewer people to Rome.
Post a Comment