Book Review: Standing Room Only: A Contemporary Expose' of the Roman Catholic & Evangelical Agreement

Philip De Courcy begins his book by delving into the history of the Reformation and the Biblical doctrines that the reformers held dear. He goes on to talk about the ECT (Evangelicals and Catholics Together) agreement and shows how it undermines the very foundation of what the Reformers stood for.

The bulk of the book goes into great detail about what the Roman Catholic church doctrine teaches. He quotes extensively from the Catholic catechisms, and Catholic publications, bishops, and popes. He shows how many Catholics really do not know what their church teaches. They may tell you one thing, honestly believing it to be what their church teaches, but De Courcy digs out what the church doctrine really is from church authorities from ages gone by up until current times.

His contention is that while Evangelicals are joining hands with Roman Catholics over social issues of our day, it necessarily puts the true Biblical Gospel at risk. Evangelicals are agreeing to set aside key doctrines that have to do with the salvation of men & women in order to achieve peace at any cost with Rome.

Philip De Courcy says the following:

The fallacy of ETC is that one can consistently believe in two opposing propositions as the same time. It is implied, that at worst, the choice between the theology of Catholicism and Protestantism is a choice between what's good and what's best. But that is not true. One cannot possibly believe, as Protestantism does, that salvation is by faith, apart from works, and at the same token believe that good works contributes to the obtaining of eternal life. Surely this is theological oil and water.

To give Roman Catholicism an Evangelical make over is most diabolical. Rome's creeds, catechisms, decrees, and dogmas have anathematized the one true biblical gospel, for which she has never repented. Therefore, to be saved, a Catholic would have to believe the true gospel and reject Catholicism's false gospel. Roman Catholicism is no safe house for troubled sinners but a prison where men and women are bound to tradition, shackled to ritualistic works, and tied to a false home of heaven.

Philip De Courcy then reviews for a little more than two pages the differences between Roman Catholicism and biblical Christianity. I will list just a few of his points out of many here:

Protestants believe in justification by faith alone---that salvation comes only by the grace of God; Roman Catholics believe that salvation is secured by faith plus good works---only as channeled through the Roman Catholic Church.

Protestants believe that water baptism is not essential to salvation; Roman Catholics believe that baptism is essential to salvation.

Protestants believe that the Lord's Supper is commemorative and the elements remain as they are; Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine are actually changed by the miracle of transubstantiation into the real flesh and blood of Christ.

Protestants believe that no one has the right or power to forgive sins save God alone; the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the priest can and does forgive sins.

Protestants believe that good works should result from the faith of the Christian in union with Christ, but that they are not an essential part of justification before God; the Roman Church teaches that one can earn the eternal reward of heaven by performing the corporal works of mercy.

De Courcy spends a fair amount of time outlining what the Bible teaches on salvation, justification and sanctification so the reader is thoroughly familiar with both views by the time he/she is finished reading the book.

He closes the book with a quote from a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic and then draws a parallel from that.

"...Although twenty life boats and rafts were launched-too few and only partly filled-most of the passengers ended up struggling in the icy waters while those in the boats waited a safe distance away. Some were already overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their half-filled boats aimlessly in the night, listening to the cries of the lost. Each feared a crush of unknown swimmers would cling to their craft, eventually swamping it."

In drawing an analogy to the Titanic, this book bears witness to a generation of Evangelical Protestants scrambling in panic for safety in the lifeboat of ecumenical alliances. This panic has been brought about by the horrifying sight of a morally shipwrecked society, sinking in a sea of relativism due to the iceberg of pluralism. What becomes plain, however, is that the seeming safety of this ecumenical lifeboat comes at the cost of throwing truth overboard and leaving Roman Catholics to drown without the hope of the gospel. Without fear the purpose of this book has been to rock that boat.