The Lutheran Church and Rome | Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

Lutheran theologian Reverend Carl E. Braaten said, "If Luther were here today he would sound a different call, especially if he knew that his reformation would, in the long run, turn out so many illegitimate offspring."ⁱ

Dr. Alexander Campbell said, "The worshipping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, encased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ but the illegitimate daughters of that mother of harlots—the Church of Rome."ⁱⁱ

"Germany calls to ask: forgive Luther"
The Telegraph (December 31, 1994)....

In 1974, the fifth volume of Papal Primacy and the Universal Church: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue was published in the United States.ⁱⁱⁱ On December 31, 1994, the Telegraph of London carried the stunning article with the headline “Germany calls to ask: forgive Luther.”

In 1995, the Lutherans sent a delegation to Rome. Newspaper articles appeared in Germany and England stating that the Protestant churches were seeking forgiveness from Rome for the Reformation.

In 1998, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation issued their Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and the world press heralded it as a healing of the rift. This document – although seeming to make concessions on the doctrine of justification by faith – did not rescind any doctrines of the Catholic church and was couched in typical Catholic double-speak. Prayers for Salvation still must go through Mary in order to reach Christ’s ear. As Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury said, Rome is semper eadem (always the same), but infinitely flexible, when it needs to be.^iv

The AngloLutheran Catholic Church (ALCC), an ecumenical church that is “part of a pan - Lutheran movement leading to eventual visible, corporate reunion with the Roman Catholic Church,”^v released a statement on the Papacy that included these comments:

The ALCC officially recognizes the historical fact that the Pope is the actual successor to St. Peter, the first Bishop of the Diocese of Rome. …The ALCC officially and emphatically declares that the Pope is not “the antichrist.” He never was, and he never will be. We also hold that the Roman Catholic Church is not the “apostate church of the antichrist” or “the whore of Babylon.” …As Evangelical Catholic Lutherans one of our primary goals of the ALCC is visible, corporate union with the Bishop and See of Rome as an entity of Lutheran heritage in whichever form is most practical. …The ALCC officially believes, teaches, and declares that the Wittenberg (Lutheran) Reformation was an enormous and tragic mistake which, from its inception, was handled very badly by all sides.^vi

The Missouri Lutheran synod also claims that the Pope should not be regarded as the Antichrist.^vii

At the main Lutheran church in Berlin, commonly known as Der Dom, Catholics and Lutherans hold communal mass. Service leadership alternates between Roman Catholic and Lutheran theologians. Pictures of Mary have been reintroduced, and the ritual of candle lighting for favors from the virgin is once again common practice.

Ahead to Rome and the South African Churches

i. The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday, June 11, 1966.
ii. The Presbiterian Expositor: A Monthly Periodical. N. L. Rice, Editor, Chicago, 1857.
iii. Paul Empie and T. Austin Murphy (eds), Papal Primacy and the Universal Church: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1974).
iv. www.telegraph.co.uk
v. Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church Online.
vi. Anglo–Lutheran Catholic Church, The Papacy (Kansas City, MO): 2. PDF
vii. Protestant Reveille (1977).