Evangelical Christian leaders from around the world are mourning the death of evangelical figure John Stott, who died Wednesday at the age of 90.
An Anglican theologian from the U.K., Stott was the chief architect of the 1974 Lausanne Covenant and the author of over 50 Christian books in which he took complex theology and explained it in a way lay people could understand. One of his most popular books was Basic Christianity (1958), which has been translated into more than 60 languages, according to Christian book publisher InterVarsity Press. He has also influenced millions of Christians through other well-known titles including Christ the Controversialist (1970), Issues Facing Christians Today (1984) and the one he always considered his best: The Cross of Christ (1986).
Graham helped organize the international meeting that unveiled the Lausanne Covenant, a historic document that served as a...
Bibliophile wrote: Since no bishop has weighed-in: You speculate that Stott, JPII, all dead Catholics and Anglicans are in Hell. What Protestant, for certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is in Heaven?
Dear CATHOLIC Bibliophile Excuse me but let me say this as kindly as I may.
I am a Baptist and I need NOT a Roman Catholic bishop to weigh in on matters of Christ and Salvation, because God Himself has given us His Holy Word, the Bible.
1 John 5:9-13 9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. 10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Bibliophile wrote: If Pope John Paul II said it once
Dear CATHOLIC Bibliophile
As politely as I may, it doesn't matter how many times your beloved John Paul II recited the Nicene Creed, Scripture is clear:
1 John 2:21-23 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, AND BECAUSE NO LIE IS OF THE TRUTH. 22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Some (quote) olive branch the Catechism of the Catholic Church extends to Muslims, to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Creator, by whom and for whom all things were created, by professing how Catholics and Muslims adore the same (quote) god.
If Pope John Paul II said it once, he said the Nicene Creed (the Gospel in a nutshell) a 1000 times. It is the clearest summary of the Trinity, the Christology of Christ and his Church: one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
His masterwork, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, does speak as positively about Islam as it can since all three monotheistic religions converge at the God of Abraham (YHWH). However, by no means is one saved through Allah, Muhammad or the Koran.
That John Paul II (inadvertantly?) kissed the Koran is (in my opinion) not the best but this doesn't make him evil.
Unless Islam starts reciting the Nicene Creed, CCC 841 serves, not as a plan for salvation, but as nothing more than an olive branch to those, like me, in great need of the Gospel.
My guess is that Rev. Stott and John Paul II may be enjoying a good cup of tea while laughing at our many online musings.
Bibliophile wrote: Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter and his successor bishops. If one of these bishops is on this blog he could weigh-in about Rev. Stott's eternal resting place, but the rest of us have not been given the authority to judge this matter.
CATHOLIC Bibliophile Whew! I don't know about you but I won't even want to lend the keys to my old Buick to someone who didn't know the difference between diesel and gasoline. Kind of like your all's Pope John Paull II couldn't get it right that the Lord Jesus Christ our Creator is NOT and is in no way whatsoever Allah, the evil fasle god of a demon possessed, murderous pedophile.
CCC 841 is something even a Calvinist can see is clear wrong.
Yes, the Pope's got keys alright, what to take another guess who gave them to him?
Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter and his successor bishops.
If one of these bishops is on this blog he could weigh-in about Rev. Stott's eternal resting place, but the rest of us have not been given the authority to judge this matter.
Martin, yes, people can do the same with J.I. Packer who apparently has a better record than Stott. But mixing heresy with truth, only equals one thing heresy. Anyway, Martin please read the summary for the sermon, Confronting & Correcting Error.
As I pointed out Stott may have been a very nice fellow (or for that matter, J.I. Packer) may be also. I hope that he passed God's test for being a Christian, I haven't been given the "gift" to see into a person's heart, and I don't think even the apostles were given that "gift" But,
But at least one has to realize that,
Matthew 13 3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow; .... 8 "And others fell on the good soil, and yielded^ a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 "He who has ears, let him hear."---NASB
I would hope this man at least had a positive yield when it came to producing for the Lord.
I don't mean to minimize the errors or weaknesses in Stott's theology, but I think that to assess justly a person's Christian identity, one has to look at the whole of his teaching, as well as the fruit of his life. Stott was no universalist-- he believed that salvation was by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone, received solely on the basis of His penal substitutionary atonement. Read his commentary on Galatians, Romans, or his book on the Cross of Christ. They are biblical, edifying, and evangelical. I came to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture as a result of reading his booklet entitled "The Authority of Scripture."
Michael Hranek wrote: To be clear what God Himself says to us and teaches us in the Bible is TRUTH and to the measure we are in agreement with His word we are right and where we aren't we're wrong.
Often many truly believe they are in total agreement with the Holy Scriptures because of their own interpretation e.g Mr Stott. If we reject gifted men who went before us, then let us examine ourselves and make sure we really are in good and wise scriptural company.
"the danger of those who say that they do not need the theology of gifted men of the past and reject it, because they have their Bible and their own interpretation of it!"
Rob wrote: Michael, I say with Spurgeon, that Calvinism is merely a nickname for the gospel!
Rob Oh! You like Spurgeon?
You might want to take careful note of the fact C.H. Spurgeon spoke much of Christ and made much of the Biblically Revealed Truth of Christ and urged people to believe on Him to be saved.
And more than this Spurgeon was FAR from ecumencial like Stott and Packer and most likely would have run afoul of the modern day Calvinist types of today who are "long on talk while short on prayer and 'soul winning' and even "buddies with Roman Catholics" as he did with the hyper-Calvinists of his day. (Spurgeon did open-air preaching did you know that?)
Rob wrote: For instance, was Stott's view of Hell, any less God honouring and unbiblical, than Arminianism?
"A clergyman of the Church of England, Dr. Stott has been well-known for advocating evangelical Christianity over the last decade, however, he has publicly distanced himself from the Biblical position on the doctrine of hell, and at least 'tentatively' holds to an annihilationist view (that is, the belief that the wicked, instead of suffering an eternity of conscious punishment, will at some point cease to exist)." From the Banner article Controversy Dogs John Stott in America
Very Good Jim the 5 sola's are indeed a good barometer, and from reading alot of Stott, I would say both he and Packer would both hold to the 5 sola's!
Dr. David P Murray | 12/6/2009
COMMENTS | 
for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
Oh! You like Spurgeon?
