The Pope, Pastors and Protestants
From 11–13 September, Singapore hosted the visit of Pope Francis. How should we think about it as Christians? Caleb prompts us to consider how our faith can be lived out practically.
Papal Visit
For only the second time in our history, Singapore hosted the Pope, the bishop of Rome and global leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Argentinian, is the first non-European to hold the leadership role that traces its roots and legitimacy to the apostle Peter. He spent three days in Singapore for the final leg of an Asian tour after visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste. Not since Pope John Paul II’s five-hour long visit to Singapore in 1986 has a sitting Pope visited our shores.
It is not uncommon for heads of state to visit nations to cultivate good ties. But the Pope is both the sovereign of the Vatican and religious head of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church. Thus to the 395,000 Roman Catholics in Singapore, his visit carries deep religious significance.
Minister Edwin Tong pointed to the common emphasis on inter-religious peace and harmony that the Vatican and Singapore both share. Pope Francis’ own statements on inter-religious dialogue have been well-known. To this end, the Pope participated in an inter-religious dialogue with youths at Catholic Junior College during his Singapore visit, and stressed the importance of religious harmony at his State Address.
Religious freedom is another concept that Pope Francis has championed. In his 2020 Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, he wrote that “one fundamental human right must not be forgotten in the journey towards fraternity and peace. It is religious freedom for believers of all religions.”
So it was no surprise that Singaporeans of all faiths and creeds, including non-Catholics were excited for Pope Francis’s historic visit.
As Singaporeans we should rightly give thanks that values of religious harmony and freedom are shared and upheld in this land and that visiting leaders like Pope Francis are an occasion for us to celebrate them.
The apostle Paul teaches us to pray for governments: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim 2:1-2).
But the general interest Roman Catholicism and Christianity generated by the papal visit should also occasion us to recall our distinct beliefs. Baptists and evangelicals should rightly remember, discuss and remind ourselves of what sets us apart from our Catholic friends. Perhaps the curiosity of unbelievers about Christianity is also a good opportunity for the Gospel to be shared.
Pastors
Interestingly, last week at GBC we also saw visits from international religious leaders and shepherds of the flock - in GBC’s first-ever Weekender we hosted like-minded pastors who came to discuss and learn how to shepherd the flock of God better in the local church.
In God’s providence, these two weeks back to back ought to remind us of core truths about the church, about pastoral leadership and Gospel ministry. At the heart of that difference is that one draws its understanding of church, leadership and ministry from years of magisterial church tradition, and the other from God’s own Word, the Bible.
The reformer Martin Luther fleshed the latter out very clearly in “An Assertion of All the Articles” in 1520: “I do not want to throw out all those more learned, but Scripture alone to reign, and not to interpret it by my own spirit or the spirit of any man, but I want to understand it by itself and its spirit”.
In this way, while we can esteem Pope Francis highly as a global leader worthy of respect, we should not be confused by the use of Christian terminology and familiar language.
Words like “shepherd”, “flock”, “church”, even “Gospel” as used by the Roman Catholic church should be understood as words used with different meanings. On our part, when we see those familiar words in Scripture, we want to understand them as Scripture explains them.
Faithful pastors will do nothing more than give us the Scriptures for our regular spiritual diet. 2 Timothy 4:2-3a calls on them to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.”
We should never tire of praying for pastors to minister out of confidence in the Word of God.
At our Members’ Meeting last week, when asked to share about the Weekender, one of the pastor-participants from the Philippines asked if we would pray for him and his church to be faithful in teaching the Scriptures. We should never tire of praying for pastors to minister out of confidence in the Word of God.
Protestants
The principle of sola Scriptura, or Scripture’s role as final authority was a key point of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th century. It sets us apart from our Roman Catholic friends in that Scripture alone is our rule for faith and practice. Our leaders shepherd us on the basis of that authority.
Scripture alone, is our rule for faith and practice.
The other four Solas clarify how man is saved: justification that is by faith alone and not requiring man’s works, through Christ alone and not on any other Savior, according to God’s grace alone to the exclusion of human merit and effort – thus, all the glory in salvation is God’s and God’s alone.
This theme of Soli Deo Gloria is at the heart of the preparation efforts for the upcoming Reformation Concert in October. The songs and readings of that evening will reflect the believer’s heart cry: “not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory” (Psalm 115:1).
As we read the news of the world around us, it is right for us to pray and hope that interreligious peace and harmony continue to flourish in Singapore and throughout the world, even through the leadership of Pope Francis wherever he has influence. We wish him good health and success as he continues to advance these interests. We even share the joy of our Roman Catholic friends and neighbors in this once in a lifetime visit from their religious head.
But to safeguard religious harmony in Singapore we must also maintain our doctrinal distinctives as religious freedom allows us to. It is no offense to say that we believe differently from our neighbors. We ask nothing more than the freedom to believe as Scripture obligates us to. Our continued prayer should be for the recognised freedoms to practice the Christian faith according to the Scriptures.
Let us learn from the convictions of Luther, who said famously at the Diet of Worms (1521): “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures, or by evident reason (for I put my faith neither in popes nor councils alone, since it is established that they have erred again and again and contradicted one another), I am bound by the scriptural evidence adduced by me, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot, I will not recant anything, for it is neither safe nor right to act against one’s conscience. God help me. Amen.”
Protestants and evangelicals revere above all, the glory of Jesus Christ, advanced in God’s one and only gospel — the only means by which we can be saved – the righteousness of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone. To read more about why the Reformation still matters, read these two articles from Stephen Nicols and from Michael Reeves.
So we pray: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:20–21).