Christianity Today Explains Why Evangelicals Should Be Happy About Pope Benedict

EXCERPTS:

1. He takes truth seriously. Born in Bavaria in 1927, on the eve of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, young Joseph Ratzinger saw firsthand the brutality and terror of the Nazi way of life. Behind totalitarian violence was utter contempt for the truth claims of the historic Christian faith. As a schoolboy, Ratzinger once witnessed his Nazi teacher replace the cross in the center of his village with a Maypole, a neo-pagan symbol of Teutonic native religion.

Despite the defeat of Hitler and Stalin, the de-Christianization of Europe and, to a lesser extent, of North America continues to pose a great challenge to the church today. This is why Cardinal Ratzinger spoke, on the eve of his papal election, of the "dictatorship of relativism."

On his episcopal coat of arms are the Latin words "cooperatores veritatis," a phrase taken from 3 John 1:8, "That we may be fellow workers for the truth." The Christian faith stands or falls with the imperious claim that the almighty Creator of all that is has acted in space and time to reveal himself in nature and history and to redeem the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a statement about the way things are, not merely about what is "true for me."

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Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

7 thoughts on “Christianity Today Explains Why Evangelicals Should Be Happy About Pope Benedict”

  1. Of course, the writer also notes that “The Roman Catholic Church is not a cult and the pope is not the Antichrist.” So the lunatic fringe of evangelical Christians may not agree with him/her.

  2. Jean, the write also notes, “Evangelics are not a sect,” but isn’t a sect any Christian community that is not in communion with Rome?

  3. Wow…we have a Pope that thinks the bible is the word of God??
    “we can rejoice that this new pope honors the Bible as the divinely inspired and authoritative written revelation of God.”

  7. FWIW, canonists tend to use the word “church” for a Christian group that has maintained holy orders (e.g., Orthodox Churches, Polish National Catholic Church) and the term “ecclesial community” for a group of Christians that has not maintained orders, (e.g., Lutherans, Methodists).

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