H/T to Jeff Tan @ One Bread One Body. His post was the impetus for this post. I have quoted his words below and I have included comments (bottom) from the original post at his blog. Please note: The links, dates and Bible verse references are my addition.
"In the end, lazy as it seems to be, I am inclined these days to simply lift my arm and point to the Church Magisterium: there she is, the city on a hilltop. Don't take my word for it, take hers. In any other Christian denomination, the individual or the pastor's interpretation of the Bible is the foundation of debate. In the Catholic Church, the interpretation of Scripture and Tradition that is offered by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church is the sure foundation.
Let me be clear then that I refer to Christian denominations who share the Nicene Creed and the pronouncements of the councils up to about the first millennium at least. Those who hold to the inerrancy of Scripture, the closing of revelation with the death of the Apostles, the Trinity, the hypostatic union of Christ's nature.
In predicting the demise of Jerusalem, the Lord told his disciples to scatter away. Going against prevailing practice at that time, they were to depart from Jerusalem, rather than to hide within and wait out a siege. No such w
arning is recorded about the Church that he built on the rock of Peter. He declares a promise that asserts the opposite: "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) St. Paul confirms this when he calls the Church the pillar and foundation of Truth. (1 Timothy 3:15)
If you pose a difficult dogma to me, I'll point to that city on the hilltop. I may not understand everything she tells me, I may fail to uphold my avowed obedience to her judgments, but I trust my Lord, who told me to trust that city. Even if I don't feel like it, even when I don't understand it -- even when I feel like dissenting. You see, at the end of the day, I just don't feel comfortable with the idea that I know better than all those popes, bishops, clergy, scholars, doctors and ordinary Catholics down through the centuries. Even if I were to consider that many of those popes, bishops, clergy, scholars, doctors and ordinary Catholics were individually sinful, and perhaps often individually wrong in word and deed, I'd be loathe to dissent. The Lord has already warned of what fate awaits those false teachers and leaders. I shall observe whatsoever the Magisterium teaches, but there will be times when I shall not do as they (of the Magisterium) do. God have mercy on them if they cause scandal, but I shall not make of myself a rebel."
Thank you again to Jeff Tan over @ One Bread One Body. I have quoted his words above and I have included comments (below) from this post at his blog. The links , dates and Bible verse references are my addition.
This information is perfect for promoting discussion in my classes and that is one of the main purposes of my blog. Thank you, Jeff. We will be checking back often when the school year resumes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments:
I am inclined to adopt your attitude as well. Frankly, I think we have passed the point where a genuine reunion between Catholic and Protestant churches is possible, though relationships of charity should be encouraged. The Anglican Church was indeed a prospect, until they headed off into marxist-feminist territory a few years ago.
Protestantism is both a product of and a source of modernity. It's ambivalent relationship with apostolic authority has left it vulnerable to modernist subversion - the so-called Protestant Deformation (see definition below) into unitarianism and secularism.
As Enlightenment modernity disappears, so will Protestantism.
Jeff Tan says: The scary thing about the modernist trait in Protestantism is that it plays so well into the hands of pride. There is little to orient Protestants towards the notion of making oneself small or last of all when it comes to doctrinal certitude. One is one's own final arbiter of every judgment, and it is in those difficult matters of dispute that this is all the more crucial.__________________________________________________________________
Even scarier is this: suggesting the notion of holy obedience to Protestants, be it to the parish priest and to the bishop, is likely to receive a most intense objection. And this objection comes, not from the Bible, but really, from the Enlightenment. What a terrible and ill-suited master, who screams that the Catholic is therefore brain-washed or superstitious!
Herein also lies a twisted notion of obedience to authority. Rather than submit to bishops and the pope, the Protestant maintains obedience to the Bible, and its human authors long gone. Or obedience to Church Fathers when particular advice is deemed suitable. In defying the Septuagint, they obey the Council of Jamnia (in about 90AD - see definition below)
I am still stumped by the notion of Christians obeying a non-Christian council generations after the Church had been born at Pentecost. How's that for irony?
Sources & short definitions:
One Bread One Body
Nicene Creed - Catholic Encyclopedia
Church Magisterium - Marcellino D’Ambrosio @ CrossRoads Initiative
Hypostatic union means the union of the human and Divine natures in and under the one person of the Word, so that Christ is true God and true Man
Apologetics help on 1 Timothy 3:15: see Jimmy Akin "A Pillar & Foundation"
Dogma: a truth appertaining to faith or morals, revealed by God, transmitted from the Apostles in the Scriptures or by tradition, and proposed by the Church for the acceptance of the faithful. It might be described briefly as a revealed truth defined by the Church -- but private revelations do not constitute dogmas, and some theologians confine the word defined to doctrines solemnly defined by the pope or by a general council, while a revealed truth becomes a dogma even when proposed by the Church through her ordinary magisterium or teaching office. A dogma therefore implies a twofold relation: to Divine revelation and to the authoritative teaching of the Church. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Anglicanism: A term used to denote the religious belief and position of members of the established Church of England, and of the communicating churches in the British possessions, the United States (see EPISCOPAL CHURCH), and elsewhere. It includes those who have accepted the work of the English Reformation as embodied in the Church of England or in the offshoot Churches which in other countries have adhered, at least substantially, to its doctrines, its organization, and its liturgy. Apart from minor or missionary settlements, the area in which Anglicanism is to be found corresponds roughly with those portions of the globe which are, or were formally, under the British flag. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Protestant Deformation: Protestantism today is the result of a series of successive, secularizing departures from its origin. It has been on a down-sliding scale since the Reformation. This descending scale is the Protestant declension. Protestantism today is a peculiar heresy of the original religion. It is not the Protestant Reformation but what might be called the Protestant Deformation.
Septuagint: The ancient Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures. An old testament source for early Christians. Credible proof for Messianic prophecy.
"What Bible does the New Testament quote? Not the Hebrew Bible, since the majority of the New Testament was composed in Greek. The Bible used for most Scripture quotations in the New Testament is the same Bible used by the Ethiopian Jews and the same Bible used by Christians in the earliest centuries of the Church -- it is named the Septuagint (or LXX). The LXX is a translation of the Old Testament into Greek that was completed no later than 180 BC.The Council of Jamnia: seems to have taken place around 90 AD. This council established the canon for nearly all Jews.1 Yet it should be noted that the council did not speak for all Jews, there were Jews living in Ethiopia who either did not hear of it or did not accept the decision of Jamnia. To this day they use a different canon than their Palestinian brethren [Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol 6, p 1147].
. . . . . in any event, one must recognize that at the time the New Testament was written the LXX was in wide use and was widely respected by the authors of the New Testament and the Jewish people living at that time -- otherwise the New Testament writers would not have made use of it. Rapidly, however, it became more a Christian than a Jewish book. In fact, I think one can say with little exaggeration that it became the Christian Old Testament." The Old Testament Canon
1 There is debate as to whether the Council of Jamnia actually "closed" the Jewish canon because debate continued among Jews for hundreds of years afterward as to which books should be included or excluded. Even into the 3rd century A.D., controversy surrounded Ezekiel, Proverbs, Ruth, Esther, and others.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let your light so shine
So that they might know some kindness again
We all need help to feel fine
You are the city of God
You are the city of God
But if that city's on a hill
It's kinda hard to hide it well
You've got to stay pretty in the city of God
So let your light so shine before men
Let your light so shine
So that they might know some kindness again
We all need help to feel fine
No comments:
Post a Comment