George W. Bush's Theology and the Death of Pope John Paul II

Upon receiving news of Pope John Paul II's death, U.S. President George W. Bush has issued a statement from the White House, "The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd; the world has lost a champion of human freedom, and a good and faithful servant of God has been called home."¹

As a member of the United Methodist Church, Bush appears to have departed from the traditional orthodox beliefs of biblical Protestantism when he called the late Pope John Paul II "a good and faithful servant of God." If Bush do actually "read the Bible regularly"² as he so claimed, he would have known that the "gospel" of the Roman Catholic Church is not the true gospel as described in the Word of God.

Methodism is historically classified as a major branch of Protestantism. Without going into denominational distinctives, it would be fair to say that the five Solas are generally considered to be a good summation of the doctrines of Protestantism, which are defined as: Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), Sola Gratia (Grace alone), Sola Fide (Faith alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (All glory to God alone). By opposing the five Solas that are taught in the Word of God, the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church are clearly teaching the false gospel, which the Apostle Paul warned us about. As it is written: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" (Galatians 1:8 NIV)

It is obvious that the office of the Pope has to be occupied by someone who subscribed to all the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. As Roman Catholicism stands in conflict with the true gospel of Jesus Christ, it would therefore be logical to conclude that the late Pope John Paul II do not have true saving faith at all. Hence, the Pope cannot be considered a real Christian, much less "a good and faithful servant of God."

¹ Bush Hails Pope as 'Hero for the Ages', Reuters 2005, Sat Apr 2, 2005 06:27 PM ET.
² George W. Bush said, "I read the Bible regularly. Don Evans gave me the "one-year" Bible, a Bible divided into 365 daily readings, each one including a section from the New Testament, the Old Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. I read through that Bible every other year. During the years in between, I pick different chapters to study at different times."

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