MATT MAHER’S & MATT REDMAN’S DOCTRINELESS ECUMENICAL ALLIANCE

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Two of the most popular artists in Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)
are Matt Maher and Matt Redman. The two have produced many popular
songs that can be heard in just about any church of any flavor around
the world today. Songs like Redman’s Here For You, with references to the charismatic belief of a separate baptism of the Holy Spirit, and Maher’s Lord I Need You,
with references to the Roman Catholic doctrine of infused
righteousness would ring familiar in almost any modern Christian’s ears.

While it may appear that the music popular CCM artists like Maher and
Redman glorify God with the production of music that has been so widely
accepted by the church, most Christians have no idea the background and
agenda of these men. I wrote an article last year entitled Matt Maher is Not Saved, Stop Singing His Music in Church.
The article describes Maher’s Roman Catholic background and his
alignment with the damning doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and
why promoting his music in the pews neither does the church, nor Maher
himself any favors–let alone glorify the Risen Lord.

Maher and Redman, however, produced a song together, Remembrance, for the purpose of worshiping and having communion together–people from completely different doctrinal backgrounds. In an interview with Family Christian Bookstores, Maher says,

Like Matt Redman and I wrote a song about communion together. He comes from an Anglican or Evangelical background and I came from a Catholic background. We have completely different doctoral[sic] teachings about communion and about the Eucharist.
Does that mean that we can’t write a song together about the importance
of communion. Or that when Jesus says in the Bible, “Remember me … do
this in remembrance of me… that we can’t. What we can say is let’s try
to serve the Church with a song that somehow reflects truth and leaves a
little bit of room for the mystery of faith.

Maher
is correct that he and Redman have completely different doctrinal
teachings about communion and the Eucharist. The Roman Catholic teaching
is blasphemous and idolatrous–God hates it. Further, and more
importantly, what Maher failed to say is that he and Redman also have
completely different doctrinal teachings on salvation. In fact, Maher’s
church anathematizes any, like Redman, who claim to believe in salvation
by grace alone through faith alone. The Roman Catholic Church
explicitly denies Matt Redman’s supposed “evangelical” beliefs in the
Council of Trent which is held to be one of the most important councils
in the history of the RCC.

• Canon 12. “If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else
  but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ’s sake;
  or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him
  be anathema.”
• Canon 24. “If any one saith, that the justice received is not
  preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the
  said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained,
  but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema.”
• Canon 30. “If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification
  has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and
  the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there
  remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in
  this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the
  kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.”
• Canon 32. “If any one saith, that the good works of one that is
  justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also
  the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified,
  by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the
  merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit
  increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal
  life, …and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema.”

Why don’t the two artists do a joint production on that one? Sadly,
Redman’s association with Roman Catholics is not a new phenomenon.
Redman has held several joint concerts with Maher and last year he spoke and played at one of the largest Catholic youth gatherings in the U.K., which was replete with the idolatry of the mass. The Protestant Standard writes:

Throughout the day Roman Catholics speakers will bring
messages to the young people gathered there, and at the conclusion of
the day Cardinal Vincent Nichols will lead everyone in a time of
Adoration i.e. the Mass. None of this is unusual, or worthy of special
comment for it what we would expect at a Roman Catholic event. This
issue which attracts our attention on this occasion is the presence of a
leading Contemporary Christian Music artist, Matt Redman.

And Redman promoted the event on his own Twitter account.

Sadly, Redman is neck deep into the false belief system that doctrine
doesn’t matter as long as you can set that aside and hold hands and
sing together. Matt Redman was interviewed by Tony Cummings and said,

You’ve got Catholics there, you’ve got high church
Anglican, you’ve got house churches, Baptists, Methodists and no one
even cares. Denominations don’t even register on anyone’s radar. They
are all there centering around God. It’s great.

Yes, Matt. That is great. We’re so glad that God’s truth doesn’t
matter in your world, and we’re so glad that your millions of followers
are being taught to have a shallow understanding of God and center their
worship around their emotions and personal experiences instead of God’s
truth. Cummings then posed the following to Redman:

I remember interviewing David Watson and he was one of
the key figures in the development of charismatic renewal within the
Anglican church and I was quizzing him about Catholics on his platform
and that kind of thing and he had a very simple rationale. He said
anybody who confesses faith in Christ in sincerity and isn’t simply
using Christian profession but actually meaning something else – like a
cult might do – should be accepted as a Christian. It’s not for him to
argue the finer points of doctrine with them.

To which Redman responded:

I’ve got a friend in America called Matt Maher and he
wrote a song called “Your Grace Is Enough” which Chris Tomlin recorded
and that song has been sung all over the world. But Matt is a Catholic
guy, full-on. It’s funny isn’t it? Some people would think that “Your
Grace Is Enough” is probably the most unlikely title to come from a
Catholic guy. But that is what God is doing in the Church. It’s a unity
thing and unity comes when you all look in one direction, doesn’t it?
Worship is always going to be a very unifying thing. The moment we take
our eyes off all these differences between us and we look in one
direction, towards the Son of God, worship is going to unify.

But the unity is false. It isn’t around the true God or Jesus of the
Bible, and Matt Redman is putting up with it “readily enough.”

The Scriptures teach that unifying with unbelievers and those who
proclaim a false Gospel is an abomination to God. Roman Catholics are
idolaters. Roman Catholics bear the name of brother. 1 Corinthians 5:11
commands us not to even eat with such people as it gives a false
impression of their acceptance into the body of Christ and it
compromises the truth of the Gospel. Redman has chosen to be unequally
yoked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 2:14) instead of, as commanded in Scripture, exposing their unfruitful works to the light of God’s word (Ephesians 5:11).
Matt Redman has chosen to align himself with the doctrineless and
fruitless works of darkness masquerading as members of the church
deceiving himself and others (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Matt Redman and his Catholic counterpart, Matt Maher, are leading
millions of people astray–into the outer depths of darkness. Their
ecumenical alliance is not glorifying to God. Jesus Christ and His truth
is the foundation of the church and if that is set aside to build a
divided house, it will not stand (Mark 3:25).
To know God is to love Him, and you cannot know Him without knowing His
revealed truth found in Scripture alone. Holding hands and singing
songs with those who do not know God is not what biblical unity in the
body of Christ is. We are to avoid those who hold to a false doctrine
because it is they that cause divisions.

If you truly want unity in the body of Christ, separate from those,
like Roman Catholics, who hold to a false Gospel and proclaim a false
Jesus. Stop holding hands with false converts. Stop setting aside sound
doctrine for warm fuzzy feelings with apostates. And stop anathematizing
the few out there who are willing to stand up and contend for the faith
that was once and for all delivered to the saints.