Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: Resolving Differences in Catholic-Lutheran Consensus

Running head: JOINT DECLARATION ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION 1
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
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JOINT DECLARATION ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION 2
Joint Declarations on the Doctrine of Justification
The JDDJ (Joint Declarations on the Doctrine of Justification) is a religious doctrine that
was agreed upon and created by the PCPCU (Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity)
of the Catholic Churches and the LWF (Lutheran world federations) in late 1999 based on an
extensive ecumenical dialogue (Lutheran World Federation, & Catholic Church, 153). The
document argues that churches shared an understanding that is common regarding the
justification of God’s grace by having faith in the Christ. It resolved a conflict among the parties
involved that had existed for more than 500 regarding the justification nature which formed the
basis for a protestant changes. The WMC (world Methodist councils) applied this agreement in
2006 (Lutheran World Federation, & Catholic Church, 145). WCRC (world communion for
reformed churches) which involves eighty million followers from the Presbyterian, congregation
churches, united, reforming, and waldensian churches) followed it in 2017 (Lutheran World
Federation, & Catholic Church, 159). Based on its substance the LWF and the CPCPU accept in
this agreement that ex-communications that relate to this justification document set upon by the
Trent councils are not applicable to the Lutheran church teachings as formulated in the
document. At the same time, these churches also claim that what their Lutheran faith condemns
is not applicable to the teachings by the Catholics as set forth in the justification document.
Among the Lutherans the adoption for this joint justification was not universally accepted.
Among the 124 LWF followers, 35 voted against it including the churches under the ILC
(international Lutheran council) (Lutheran World Federation, & Catholic Church, 162).
The JDDJ concludes basically that the remaining and past differences between the
Roman Catholics and the Lutherans do not cause disruption to their justification doctrine
consensus. According to the JDDC, there are three differences that now exist after the