The Primacy of the Pope

Treatise Compiled by the Theologians Assembled at Smalcald

1537

1] The Roman Pontiff claims for himself [in the first place] that by divine right he is [supreme] above all bishops and pastors [in all Christendom].

2] Secondly, he adds also that by divine right he has both swords, i.e., the authority also of bestowing kingdoms [enthroning and deposing kings, regulating secular dominions etc.].

3] And thirdly, he says that to believe this is necessary for salvation. And for these reasons the Roman bishop calls himself [and boasts that he is] the vicar of Christ on earth.

4] These three articles we hold to be false, godless, tyrannical, and [quite] pernicious to the Church.

5] Now, in order that our proof [reason and opinion] may be [better] understood, we shall first define what they call being above all [what it means that he boasts of being supreme] by divine right. For they mean that he is universal [that the Pope is the general bishop over the entire Christian Church], or, as they say, ecumenical bishop, i.e., from whom all bishops and pastors throughout the entire world ought to seek ordination and [confirmation, who [alone] is to have the right of electing, ordaining, confirming, deposing all bishops [and pastors]. 6] Besides this, he arrogates to himself the authority to make [all kinds of] laws concerning acts of worship, concerning changing the Sacraments [and] concerning doctrine, and wishes his articles, his decrees, his laws [his statutes and ordinances] to be considered equal to the divine laws [to other articles of the Christian Creed and the Holy Scriptures], i.e., he holds that by the papal laws the consciences of men are so bound that those who neglect them, even without public offense, sin mortally [that they cannot be omitted without sin. For he wishes to found this power upon divine right and the Holy Scriptures; yea, he wishes to have it preferred to the Holy Scriptures and God's commands]. And what he adds is still more horrible, namely, that it is necessary to believe all these things in order to be saved [all these things shall and must be believed at the peril of forfeiting salvation].

7] In the first place, therefore, let us show from the [holy] Gospel that the Roman bishop is not by divine right above [cannot arrogate to himself any supremacy whatever over] other bishops and pastors.

8] I. Luke 22, 25. Christ expressly prohibits lordship among the apostles [that no apostle should have any supremacy over the rest]. For this was the very question, namely, that when Christ spake of His passion, they were disputing who should be at the head, and as it were the vicar of the absent Christ. There Christ reproves this error of the apostles and teaches that there shall not be lordship or superiority among them, but that the apostles should be sent forth as equals to the common ministry of the Gospel. Accordingly, He says: The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors, but ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. The antithesis here shows [By holding these matters against one another one sees] that lordship [among the apostles] is disapproved.

II. Matt. 18, 2. The same is taught by the parable when Christ in the same dispute concerning the kingdom places a little child in the midst, signifying that among ministers there is not to be sovereignty, just as a child neither takes nor seeks sovereignty for himself.

9] III. John 20, 21. Christ sends forth His disciples on an equality, without any distinction [so that no one of them was to have more or less power than any other], when He says: As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. [These words are clear and plain:] He says that He sends them individually in the same manner as He Himself was sent; hence He grants to no one a prerogative or lordship above the rest.

10] IV. Gal. 2, 7f St. Paul manifestly affirms that he was neither ordained nor confirmed [and endorsed] by Peter, nor does he acknowledge Peter to be one from whom confirmation should be sought. And he expressly contends concerning this point that his call does not depend upon the authority of Peter. But he ought to have acknowledged Peter as a superior if Peter was superior by divine right [if Peter, indeed, had received such supremacy from Christ]. Paul accordingly says that he had at once preached the Gospel [freely for a long time] without consulting Peter. Also: Of those who seemed to be somewhat (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me; God accepteth no man's person). And: They who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me. Since Paul, then, clearly testifies that he did not even wish to seek for the confirmation of Peter [for permission to preach] even when he had come to him, he teaches that the authority of the ministry depends upon the Word of God, and that Peter was not superior to the other apostles, and that it was not from this one individual Peter that ordination or confirmation was to be sought [that the office of the ministry proceeds from the general call of the apostles, and that it is not necessary for all to have the call or confirmation of this one person, Peter, alone].

11] V. In 1 Cor. 3, 6, Paul makes ministers equal, and teaches that the Church is above the ministers. Hence superiority or lordship over the Church or the rest of the ministers is not ascribed to Peter [in preference to other apostles]. For he says thus: All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, i.e., let neither the other ministers nor Peter assume for themselves lordship or superiority over the Church; let them not burden the Church with traditions; let not the authority of any avail more than the Word [of God]; let not the authority of Cephas be opposed to the authority of the other apostles, as they reasoned at that time: "Cephas, who is an apostle of higher rank, observes this; therefore, both Paul and the rest ought to observe this." Paul removes this pretext from Peter, and denies [Not so, says Paul, and makes Peter doff his little hat, namely, the claim] that his authority is to be preferred to the rest or to the Church.

12] VI. The Council of Nice resolved that the bishop of Alexandria should administer the churches in the East, and the Roman bishop the suburban, i.e., those which were in the Roman provinces in the West. From this start by a human law, i.e. the resolution of the Council, the authority of the Roman bishop first arose. If the Roman bishop already had the superiority by divine law, it would not have been lawful for the Council to take any right from him and transfer it to the bishop of Alexandria; nay, all the bishops of the East ought perpetually to have sought ordination and confirmation from the bishop of Rome.

13] VII. Again the Council of Nice determined that bishops should be elected by their own churches, in the presence of some neighboring bishop or of several. 14] The same was observed [for a long time, not only in the East, but] also in the West and in the Latin churches, as Cyprian and Augustine testify. For Cyprian says in his fourth letter to Cornelius: Accordingly, as regards the divine observance and apostolic practice, you must diligently keep and practice what is also observed among us and in almost all the provinces, that for celebrating ordination properly, whatsoever bishops of the same province live nearest should come together with the people for whom a pastor is being appointed, and the bishop should be chosen in the presence of the people, who most fully know the life of each one, which we also have seen done among us at the ordination of our colleague Sabinus, that by the suffrage of the entire brotherhood, and by the judgment of the bishops who had assembled in their presence, the episcopate was conferred and hands laid on him.

15] Cyprian calls this custom a divine tradition and an apostolic observance, and affirms that it is observed in almost all the provinces.

Since, therefore, neither ordination nor confirmation was sought from a bishop of Rome in the greater part of the world in the Latin and Greek churches, it is sufficiently apparent that the churches did not then accord superiority and domination to the bishop of Rome.

16] Such superiority is impossible. For it is impossible for one bishop to be the overseer of the churches of the whole world, or for churches situated in the most distant lands to seek ordination [for all their ministers] from one. For it is manifest that the kingdom of Christ is scattered throughout the whole world; and to-day there are many churches in the East which do not seek ordination or confirmation from the Roman bishop [which have ministers ordained neither by the Pope nor his bishops]. Therefore, since such superiority [which the Pope, contrary to all Scripture, arrogates to himself] is impossible, and the churches in the greater part of the world have not acknowledged [nor made use of] it, it is sufficiently apparent that it was not instituted [by Christ, and does not spring from divine law].

17] VIII. Many ancient synods have been proclaimed and held in which the bishop of Rome did not preside; as that of Nice and most others. This, too, testifies that the Church did not then acknowledge the primacy or superiority of the bishop of Rome.

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GJ - So why did Wisconsin Lutheran College (WELS) feature Archbishop Weakland, aptly surnamed, to give a special lecture at their college? Why did they advertise and promote this lecture, inviting the public? Why were a number of Roman Catholic priests featured in the same series?

Canary in the Coal Mine: The Episcopal Church

GJ - Canaries were once used in coal mines to warn the workers of methane and carbon monoxide. If the canary started to sway on its perch, or died, the miners left immediately. Today the Episcopal Church is serving as a similar warning to other denominations. All the Leftist, apostate political stunts described below are familiar to Lutherans - or should be. ELCA is already dissolving slowly, while apostate leaders cling to the ruinous doctrines, policies, and perverse disciplinary actions of the Episcopal leaders. The LCMS, WELS, and ELS are no different. See the commentary below on the worldwide situation of Episcopalians.

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Mirage in the Diplomat's Mind: the Myth of the Vibrant Western Anglican Church

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
11/5/2007

The Rev. Frederick Quinn, an American diplomat and Episcopal priest, believes that the current fractious nature of the Anglican Communion can be blamed on a narrow group of Global South primates including Peter Akinola (Nigeria) and Drexel Gomez (West Indies) who do not represent the breadth and depth of religion in Africa. Scripturally and structurally, it mirrors the remnants of a colonial church tradition, one where African bishops rigidly follow in the footsteps of a departed generation of autocratic British mentors, he said.

Quinn said the current Anglican Communion food fight is symptomatic of wider tensions produced by religious globalization. He described the myth of the "Global South" as a mirage in the desert.

"Global South" implies a monolithic body when, in reality, the group's membership appears to be porous, driven by a small number of special interest advocates primarily in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and their American franchise holders. Membership and financial data about the group is as difficult to come by as that of a corporation registered in the Cayman Islands. . The organization projects a billboard slogan -- North-South divide. Northern churches are cold, dwindling in numbers, and ignore the Bible. In contrast, the growing South is energetic, biblically correct, and the home of judges ready to declare what is acceptable practice throughout the Anglican Communion.

This slick North-South divide is no more accurate than numerous other discredited religious clash-of-civilization comparisons that have appeared and disappeared during recent centuries. Amartya Sen, the Pakistani-born Nobel-Prize-winning author, has warned about the dangers of such distorted religious reductionism. "The hope of harmony in the contemporary world lies to a great extent in a clearer understanding of the pluralities of human identity, and in the appreciation that they cut across each other and work against a sharp separation along one single hardened line of impenetrable division." (Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence, The Illusion of Destiny (New York: Norton, 2006), xiv.)

The Rev. Quinn clearly understands neither the theology of the Global South nor what separates them from the West.

First of all, the gospel came to African through two groups - The Church Missionary Society (Evangelical) and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (Anglo-Catholic). These two groups divided up Africa and other areas of the world. Akinola (Nigeria) is a product of Evangelicalism, and Gomez (who is not African but Caribbean) is a product of the Anglo-Catholic movement. Both men are gospel driven. Theologically the Global South is monolithic. It is driven by the gospel which they will never compromise.

Four things drive them: The authority of Scripture, a gospel that changes peoples lives, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and cultural particularities embedded in worship that makes it distinctively African or Caribbean, but not necessarily Western.

The so called "rigid positions" of Akinola and Gomez are fictitious. First of all, these two men do not see eye to eye about the Anglican Communion itself. Akinola is ready to take his province out of the Anglican Communion while Gomez is not. In fact, Gomez made it clear to this writer that all the archbishops and bishops of the Anglican Communion should go to Lambeth next year so that the liberals could not try and reverse Resolution 1:10 passed in 1998. At this point in time, with an emerging ecclesial structure in North America that could lead to a full blown orthodox province, Akinola and his CAPA bishops just might blow off the present Anglican Communion altogether. A current Nigerian newspaper report says that Akinola and his province are seriously weighing whether or not they will boycott the Lambeth Conference next year. Akinola has called for a postponement of Lambeth to allow for a cooling off. Rowan Williams has rejected that option.

The possibility that the Province of Nigeria might leave the Anglican Communion was raised recently by Bishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos (Nigeria), who told an Anglican audience in London that Nigeria must forget about Britain and the US. He pointedly referenced the fact that his primate, Peter Akinola, has the full backing of his Synod against gay unions and does not act alone. He then said, "If the Anglican Communion thought its problems would end with the demise of Akinola, they were wrong. We have looked to them in the past as the church from where the gospel came to us. But the evidence now suggests that they have turned the gospel upside down and that it is Britain that needs our help."

Perhaps the Rev. Quinn did not read that story.

Quinn said the Anglican Global South faction and their American supporters have missed an opportunity to draw on the rich contributions of the African American religious ethos, Pentecostal, liberation and other post-colonial theologies. Asian, Latin American and African Christians have been in the forefront of developing such forms of religious expression linking eternal truths with local settings and cultures.

Here again he is talking nonsense. Orthodox African Anglicans hold the same theology as African Americans (Baptists), Pentecostals and others, when it comes to their doctrine of salvation. Where they differ is that the Global South is distinctively Anglican, and being gospel driven is the fastest growing Protestant denomination in the Global South. Is Quinn asking them to give up their distinctively Anglican ethos for something else? In that case, they would not be Anglican.

Allow me to add a personal note here. More than 25 years ago, I worked as an associate pastor of a 1,000 member black church in NJ. I was the token white male. The service ran two hours each Sunday. The music was joyful and upbeat, the preaching biblical (and at least 40 minutes in length), the plate was passed around three times, and each service ended with an altar call. Fast forward to Eastern Nigeria. I am sitting in a church on Sunday morning. It is 9 am. The service lasts for six hours. There are three massed choirs. There are hour-long sermons from Scripture - biblical exegesis with practical application. The plate is not passed. You get up out of your seat and dance your way down the aisle and put your offering in a large basket. There are altar calls. This service is three times longer than an African-American service and six times longer than a regular white service.

The difference between Global South Anglicanism and Western Anglicanism is not primarily one of culture or worship styles. It is theological. It is the authority of Scripture from whence comes their views of sexuality, while it is Western Anglicanism, with its innovations, that has gone off the rails on faith and morals. Quinn has it all wrong. Cultural differences certainly, but the Book of Common Prayer and Scripture are at the heart of everything. To put it another way, Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi is just as home in my Episcopal parish in Paoli, PA,as my rector would be in the cathedral in Kampala. In fact, Archbishop Orombi taught us a couple of things about African worship that stick with me to this day.

"Nigeria's Akinola does not represent the rich, creative possibilities of African Christianity," writes Quinn. He cites one example: "In February 2006 Muslim-Christian riots broke out again in Nigeria. Akinola's widely circulated response said, 'May we at this stage remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly on violence in this nation.' As then president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, he added, if intimidation by Islamic fundamentalists continued, "CAN may no longer be able to contain our restive youths should this ugly trend continue.

"On June 19, 2007, Nigerians voted him (72 to 33) out of the presidency of the umbrella group representing more than 50 million Nigerian Christians, the Nigerian press reported. Akinola's abrasive style had cost him support, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Nigeria was drafted to replace him. In what was traditionally an automatic vote to make the outgoing leader vice president, the Association's 300-member general assembly similarly rejected Akinola. Nigerians cited his rigidity and intransigence toward Muslims as reasons why new leadership was needed."

Let us unscramble this. Akinola can be tough. His style is certainly "abrasive," but he is not stupid and he has the full backing of 18 million Nigerian Anglicans and his House of Bishops. His being voted out of CAN was as much a political act as say the transference of power in any American denomination, or changes of leadership within the NCC or WCC. This is not unique to Nigeria. Even presuming Akinola's style of leadership is tough, unyielding and arrogant, he is still far less arrogant than half the tyrannical revisionist bishops in the American House of Bishops, men and women who are doing their best to eviscerate the orthodox and wipe them out of the Episcopal Church! One has only to read endless VOL stories on how Charles E. Bennison ran the Diocese of PA for more than a decade. Quinn doesn't know the meaning of ecclesiastical white western Episcopal tyranny!

Being rejected by any body of persons is essentially a political act. It is not a reflection of their theology or the health of the church, which in Akinola's case is the healthiest province in the entire Anglican Communion and is growing at a fast clip. He already has 18 million plus members and plans to double that in three years. By contrast, the TEC, the CofE, the Anglican Church in Canada, the Anglican Church in Australia, and New Zealand put together might be the equivalent of three or four of his largest dioceses. And he has 18 archbishops!

Quinn talks about a conflict of interest over the drafting of an Anglican Covenant, and says Gomez should withdraw himself from the Design Group. Why? So Western Anglican liberals would have a clean sweep and write a Covenant to meet the pansexual needs of the US, Canada, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, leaving out the fastest growing segment of Anglican Christianity, namely the Global South! Quinn talks about "a balanced, even-handed document". My God! What sort of even-handed document do you think the Anglican Consultative Council would produce if they had their way! The Africans, the Global South, the Southern Cone, orthodox Anglicans in Australia, the US would be left totally out in the cold, their voices would never be heard. The liberals, whose provinces are slowly withering and dying, would rule the day and literally force schism on the whole Anglican Communion, a schism that has already begun with the election of the homoerotic Gene Robinson to Bishop of New Hampshire.

No, the truth of the matter is that Quinn has it all wrong. Dead wrong. It is the theological and moral innovations of western pan-Anglicanism that is driving the whole Anglican Communion to the brink of schism, not Akinola, Gomez, Venables, Jensen or Duncan.

Quinn can spin it all he wants, but population growth numbers do widely favor the South, and the "southern" countries so-called "diversity of religious expressions" is more in his mind than in reality. There are no theological and moral differences between Akinola and Robert Duncan Bishop of Pittsburgh. Their worship style might reflect different cultures, but they are exactly on the same Prayer Book and Biblical page .

Quinn should know this as he watches the Episcopal Church break up over the next few months. American Episcopal dioceses are seeking ecclesiastical shelter from the very African provinces he mocks.

Quinn's day is done. So long as the spiritually deadening effects of homosexual practice continues to haunt the Anglican Communion then it is finished, because underneath that moral issue lies the authority of Scripture, the redeeming power of the gospel. Now that is a sword worth falling on and dying for.

UOJ Stormtrooper Finds New Target

"I promise to believe that faith does not matter. Everyone is already forgiven. I got that. But why were you so stern with me before? Wasn't I already forgiven? Oh, twice? The first time counts but doesn't really count. Then I have to decide it does count. OK, but what about the Means of Grace?

Don't tase me, bro."

No Puns This Time - WELS Giving Is Up

For the fourth straight month, Congregation Mission Offerings—the offerings congregations submit for WELS’ collective ministry, known as CMO—exceeded offerings of the same month from the previous year.

CMO for the first 10 months of 2007 is up $900,000—or about six percent—over the same time period last year and is forecasted to be $500,000 greater than budget. Also, gifts from individuals are $700,000 greater than the prior year and $100,000 greater than budget.

Todd Poppe, WELS chief financial officer, urges caution in using the results to forecast support for the balance of the year and the future, but he acknowledges they are encouraging. “We need the continued financial growth to support the ministry plan approved by the convention and our prayer for ministry growth in the future.”

The revised budget forecast points to a surplus of $1 million which, in accordance with Synodical Council policy, would be used to re-establish a buffer fund. The buffer fund can be used to offset support shortfalls in the second year of the biennium or beyond.

Executive Summary

Operating Fund

As of September 30, 2007

The attached financial statements reflect the results for September and year-to-date. Although the results are encouraging, caution must be employed when using them to forecast support for the balance of the year and the future. Actual results are heavily dependant on Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) for the balance of 2007 and the first six months of 2008. CMO subscriptions for 2008 will not be known for several months.

Financial support for September of $1.8 million exceeded, on a comparable basis, the prior year by $200,000. Investment income accounted for $110,000 of the increase while CMO increased only $20,000. Expenses for September are in line with budget and reflect the reclassification of school subsidy to the $2.6 million special fund transfer to Ministerial Education by the Synodical Council.

Through September, support of $11.6 million exceeded the prior year by $4.4 million. The increase reflects the following:

• First installment of a five-year gift, plus foreign currency gain of $2.8 million
• Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) receipts are $650,000 greater than the prior
year. The increase reflects the Conference of President’s encouragement which
resulted in a reported increase of $550,000.
• Gifts from individuals of $950,000 are $650,000 greater than the prior year and
represent fifty percent of the forecast. The change was led by Walking Together with an increase of $300,000. Mission Partners and Other gifts increased $150,000 and
$200,000, respectively. Much of this increase was likely realized from the efforts of the COP leading up to the convention.

Expenses of $7.4 million are in line with budget and are $200,000 greater than the prior year.

The increase reflects:

• Internal borrowing debt repayment of $1.2 million incurred in July vs. $200,000 which
was not recorded until December the prior year
• Funding $1.8 million of school subsidy from the special funds transferred to Ministerial Education by the Synodical Council
• Inflationary pressures on wages, benefits and other expenses.

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GJ - No surprise, now that Gurgel--the hastily retired SP with the spiritual gift of leadership--is living in a secure, undisclosed location in Asia.

The blurb on the Asia seminary is confirms the ongoing efforts to promote false doctrine. Al Sorum, of all people, is the NT professor at the Mequon Sausage Factory. He recently traveled to the Asian seminary to teach students there, for six weeks. Dreadfully expensive. Why not just mail them a box of Waldo Werning books? Or the latest from Paul Y. Cho?

Dr. E. Allen Sorum, New Testament professor at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, just returned from teaching a six-week course in Hong Kong on Oct. 27. Future courses will be taught by Prof. Ken Cherney and Dr. John Brug from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, and Prof. Keith Wessel from Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn.

Missouri and WELS have a shared vision of promoting Fuller Seminary doctrine around the world. Why duplicate efforts? In fact, why bother at all? The Asians can get their Fuller Seminary doctrine directly from honest missionaries who admit where they have studied, bragging about being Fuller graduates. The chief characteristic of WELS Fuller alumni is they deny being Fuller alumni.

Others have predicted that WELS will face the music in a few more months, when all the bills come due. If the members and pastors show confidence in the new SP with their offerings, then perhaps they will trust in a new direction in doctrine. Only God's Word can accomplish that, but who who relies on that today?