Posted on 06/10/2007 3:02:20 PM PDT by NYer
Many modern people have the notion that the principal mission of the Catholic Church is to impose belief on unbelievers. The reality is that most of its time is spent trying to restrain belief in everything from spoon-bending to the aliens who allegedly speak to us through a cat in Poughkeepsie.
The riptides and cross-currents of religious enthusiasm in American culture are kaleidoscopic and dizzying. Cradle Catholics can be forgiven for just ignoring the whole thing and many of them do. But it’s still worth taking into account because some religious trends can have decided real-world effects.
Some of the effects of unrestrained belief can be amusing.
For instance, after five centuries of being told by Protestant polemicists that we “Romanists” do not trust the saving grace of Jesus Christ and ignorantly seek salvation by the works of the law, it is a weird thing for a Catholic to see the spectacle of kooky apocalyptic Protestants eagerly excited about the birth of red heifers because this will (they hope) be the prelude to rebuilding the Temple of Solomon and the re-institution of the Mosaic sacrificial system. Just how that Temple will be rebuilt when the Dome of the Rock is situated on the site of the Temple is not quite as clearly worked out.
Which brings me to something just as kooky, but less amusing.
Recently, James Dobson, a leading Evangelical and a usually sensible man, hosted on his show one Joel Rosenberg, author of something called Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future. Rosenberg claims to know “what the Bible says” about what is happening in the Mideast and is not shy about making “predictions regarding the fate of the Middle East regarding issues such as Iran’s nuclear threats against Israel, the arms race and ultimately ... Armageddon.” Here’s a snippet:
Dobson: “Well, Joel, let’s explain to everybody how Ezekiel 38 turns out, because Israel is about to be attacked, and a huge number of troops from Russia and Iran are coming toward Israel to destroy it, and what happens?”
Rosenberg: “Well, God is going to move. You won’t find in the Scriptures that the United States is coming to rescue Israel or the European Union, but God says he is going to supernaturally intervene — we’re talking about fire from heaven, a massive earthquake, diseases spreading through the enemy forces. It is going to be such a clear judgment against the enemies of Israel that Ezekiel 39 says that it will take seven months to bury all the bodies of the slain enemies of Israel. “
Such standard-issue Evangelical prophetic cocksureness is an excellent example of why a magisterium is so useful and necessary.
Not only does the magisterium help us know what is essential to the faith, it also helps us remain free of what is unessential. For the various species of Protestantism, in addition to denying real biblical truths such as the Real Presence or infant baptism, also have a tendency to invent “biblical truths” that do not exist and impose them by means of a sort of cultural pressure via charismatic preachers with pet theories who, in their own sphere, are granted an infallibility the Pope could never dream of.
Now, a Catholic is quite free to have a kooky private reading of Ezekiel 38-39 as a prophecy of the “coming resurgent Soviet Union” and its alliance with Muslims, communist Chinese or whoever, all in a vast Cecil B. DeMille battle against Israel. The Church has all sorts of room for eccentrics, and everybody needs a hobby.
But a Catholic is not free to go around telling everybody that “this is the clear teaching of the Bible” and demand it be believed. For the fact is, this kooky theory is emphatically not the clear teaching of the Bible, nor does it have any sanction whatsoever from the Church, the tradition, the Fathers, the councils or the popes. It is a pure novelty we can and should ignore.
What we should not ignore is Rosenberg’s claim that, “Given the events going on in our world today, people at the Pentagon, people at the CIA, people at the White House are asking to sit down and talk about these issues, to understand the Biblical perspective, because it is uncanny what is happening out there and it deserves some study.”
I suspect that Rosenberg is exaggerating his clout with the big cheeses in DC. I doubt that the Pentagon’s intel meetings are dominated by exegeses of Ezekiel 38.
But I do think it matters if a significant portion of the American polity drinks in such bizarre theories as if they were God’s revealed Truth.
Ideas have consequences, especially crazy ones. Most crazy ideas do no harm.
Crazy ideas about the Middle East, backed by the force of arms, stand a better than average chance of killing millions.
I thought it was a bit of an overreach. MAGICSTERIUM would have been droll, and MAGISTERICAL would have been witty, but going for the two-for-one and saying MAGICSTERICAL is just sophmoric.
Your kind words are a treasure to my heart and soul. Thanks precious saint.
I’m usually available at least some in the evenings. But have not bothered with a lot of things because they just didn’t seem very important to comment on. And, there are some things that have been round and round the same mountain for the several 100th thousandth time . . . seemingly . . . Wheee.
Trying to increasingly make my time count more for The Kingdom vs just venting my spleen! LOL.
LUB,
LUB,
:)
Masterfully put, as usual.
Thx, Thx.
You are welcome to consider my PhD to be in . . .
sophmoric, if you wish.
BTW, I did use
magisterical several times initially . . . felt it lacked some element of the reality.
It's the same me, not earing no fancy duds, and my friend Christine was WAITING ON ME!! I finally brought it to her attention and we laughed and that took care of that. But I can see how seductive that is. If everyone listens when you talk, after a while you start thinking you must have something cool to say. My second boss, in Mississippi, told me,"Don't take yourself too seriously. They're just being polite." ('IC'? Wuzza? Why am I so confused? always? Jeesh?)
I've lived long enough to realize that not all explanations are even reasonable approximations of "objective reality" . . . sometimes . . . even my own explanations.
I do hope, however, that brittleness, sacred shoulder chips and thin skins do not become sacraments in any group.
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked [man], thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. - Eze 33:7-9
And not just them, but you and I and every other Christian have a duty to the Word of God (albeit to a lesser extent than they): keeping the lamp in plain view, loving one another, forgiving, being merciful, seeking His will, being and doing and speaking as He leads us to proclaim the Gospel.
So when the Great White Throne judgment comes, I will be held to account not only for myself but for everyone I have “touched” in this life. But my prayer is that, because I have eschewed all the doctrines and traditions of men across the board, then no one else will be held to account for me. And conversely, whenever I testify to another, I encourage them to look to God, not me.
To God be the glory, God alone.
= = =
INDEED, INDEED, INDEED!
It’s the same me, not earing no fancy duds, and my friend Christine was WAITING ON ME!! I finally brought it to her attention and we laughed and that took care of that. But I can see how seductive that is. If everyone listens when you talk, after a while you start thinking you must have something cool to say. My second boss, in Mississippi, told me,”Don’t take yourself too seriously. They’re just being polite.” (’IC’? Wuzza? Why am I so confused? always? Jeesh?)
= = =
I very strongly agree, Dear Bro.
My current pastor is reasonably humble for a 30 something year old. But even he seems to enjoy hearing himself talk.
On the other hand, he’s been persistently sharing a good exhortation and challenge recently—that we out honor one another—especially in our families.
It just pulls me in difference directions. I don't know whether to pay attention to the "magic" part or the "hysterical" part. Nothing in a Ph.D. says you can't still be sophomoric. Take Mark Levin and all the little names he calls the politicians. I love the guy but it's sophomoric as all get out.
Thank you so much for your encouragements!
I meant it quite plainly.
You are welcome to consider my PhD to be in sophomoric.
Someone has to stand up for the sophomores.
difference directions.
. . . perhaps the difference between sophomores and freshmen?
They refuse to recognize that He was there all along but they didn’t acknowledge Him and then they want to blame someone.”
= = =
Actually, I’ve met a fair number who had no blame whatsoever . . . they just felt the RC edifice had taken them as far as it was able or going to . . . and that mercifully, Holy Spirit took them further outside the RC edifice than they were able to go within it.
I’d think authentic believers of every stripe could rejoice in that.
Either the goal is for people to get as close as possible to . . .
GOD
. . .
OR
. . .
to a human edifice, organization.
I’ll always choose God over a human anything.
You’d be wise, to, too.
You earlier wrote:
I thought you knew I wasn’t talking about IC oversight groups only
I also wrote a lengthy, thoughtful, profound revelatory, deep, insightful, able to solve all the problems of the world and then some, response -- and then lightning came and, praise God all I got was a parity error.
I think it all amounted to we all need to try a little harder.
If you know better then let me know.
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