The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns : Anglican Church League, Sydney, Australia

Dr. Mark Thompson,

Moore Theological College

Although this article is fairly accurate, one has to wonder why Dr. Thompson thinks that the Arminian, John Wesley, was somehow a friend of Evangelical and Reformed Anglicanism? The Arminians were always on the side of Archbishop Laud and the closet papists. That would include the Second Awakening Evangelicals of the 18th century who were Arminians. Make no mistake about it but the Arminians are no more a friend of the Gospel of grace than the Anglo-Catholics or the liberals.  Billy Graham, for example, in his twilight years "mellowed out".  That means that Graham no longer knows what he believes or why.  He basically adopted a liberal view that Roman Catholics and those who have never heard the Gospel are saved by works or "by the light they have."  That's way different from saying that the elect are saved by faith alone, by grace alone, and through the means of Gospel preaching alone.  (Acts 4:10, 12; Ephesians 2:8, 9; Titus 3:5-7; John 14:6; Romans 4:3).

The most perspicacious insight expressed by Dr. Thompson is when he rightly points out the deception of Anglo-Catholics when they try to re-interpret the 39 Articles of Religion to fit their semi-papist theology:

However, the real seeds of the problem we now face lie in the nineteenth century. John Henry Newman’s infamous Tract 90, published in 1841, encouraged Anglicans to read the Thirty-nine Articles as a Catholic document.² In this way he opened the door to the possibility that you might publicly assent to the Articles while reinterpreting them to say what you wanted them to say. What he did in the interests of a more Catholic version of Anglicanism others would do in the interests of a more liberal version before very long. As one scholar put it, ‘whether he intended to or not, he taught us to lie’.

 Click here to read Dr. Thompson's article:  The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns : Anglican Church League, Sydney, Australia