Pope John Paul II has passed away

The news just flashed that Pope John Paul II has officially died. This is the end of an era, both for the Roman Catholic church, as well as for the world. It has been interesting hearing the French news commentary during the last 24 hours since went really downhill. It will also be interesting to see who his successor will be.

One of the legacies of his papacy will be the Journées Mondiales de la Jeunesse that he created to reach out to young people. Paris hosted this a couple of times.

As the March 2005 article Christianity Today article on France mentioned, there are some Catholics in France who are "evangelical" in the sense of putting great emphasis on studying the Bible. These are the ones that do the Alpha Course.

As a Protestant, there are some parts of official Roman Catholic doctrine that I disagree with. I have felt saddened about hearing of Catholics praying for the Pope's salvation, as assurance of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is one of the fondamentals of my faith, as far as I see it in the Bible.

However, there are also some parts of official or unofficial doctrines of other Protestants that I disagree with. In practice in ministry here, it is easier to work with Catholics who seriously study the Scriptures and fervently love God than it is to deal with some Protestants who either don't put any priority on what God has already said in the Scriptures or who are like the Pharisees, who placed more value on their own interpretations of the Scripture, but without a profond relationship with the God of the Scriptures. These ones practically worship the Bible (or their manner to interpret the Bible), rather than the Living God who graciously revealed Himself in the Bible and continues to reach out to people today. Jesus spoke in a much harsher fashion to the proud Pharisees than he did to those who realized their spiritual need.

As a Protestant, I am saddened and embarrassed by what seems to me like arrogance on behalf of some of my fellow Protestants. One thing I appreciate about the post-modern movement is a more humble spirit, with the realization that it is impossible to be completely neutral in our interpretations. For we all come at the Scriptures from our own cultural, historical, and theological background. For this reason, we are enriched at seeing how other followers of Jesus from other cultures read the Scriptures and what interpretations and applications they come up with.