Radio interview questions pope's ways

Calvary’s Pastor Chuck Smith disputes Pope Benedict’s Catholic ways

We can come to God directly through Jesus Christ. We confess our sins to Jesus. - Pastor and Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith

By ALEXANDER
TheScroogeReport.com

July 16, 2007

COSTA MESA, California - Evangelical pastor and founder of the Calvary Chapel movement, Chuck Smith, fielded several questions about Pope Benedict XVI’s recent approval of a Catholic-centric document during the radio show Pastor’s Perspective today.

Chuck Smith

The document implies that the Catholic church is the only true church and the only true path to salvation.

“I really can’t understand why a person who is reading the word of God and believing the word of God can embrace the teachings of the Catholic church in this matter,” said Smith, who is the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif.

In answering a caller to the radio show, who asked why the Pope would make such a statement about the Catholic church, Smith said, “The Catholic church believes your righteousness and salvation is by good works. As Christians, we believe that it is by God’s grace you are saved, not by works.”

The Pope has had a wide spectrum of reaction to his recent approval of a document that states other Christian communities such as Protestants “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” since they don’t have what’s known as apostolic succession – that is, the ability to trace their bishops back to the original 12 apostles of Jesus.

It was “difficult to see how the title of ‘Church’ could possibly be attributed to them,” said the statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, purporting Roman Catholicism was “the one true Church of Christ.”

While discussing the practices of the Catholic church, including praying to Jesus’ mother Mary, Smith said, “We don’t believe Mary has any value toward praying to God. They also, pray to saints, and we don’t believe that has any value either.

“We can come to God directly through Jesus Christ. We confess our sins to Jesus,” he said.

Pastor’s Perspective can be heard on local Christian radio and KWVE.com.

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