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.
Hmmm... Looks like someone doesn’t want to admit that he/r and or his/er church have a YOPIOS.
Pot. Kettle. Black.
I did not give the answer you expected, so you gave it for me.
How . . . . autocratic.
Protestants "understand" the doctrines of the RCC.
They just don't agree with them. Nor does Scripture.
Who was really authorized to determine the Old Testament canon?
Romans 3:
[1] Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
[2] Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God.
Intriguing! I’ll have to think this through.
So your misrepresentations are intentional. I see.
They just don't agree with them.
As you are free to do.
Nor does Scripture.
According to your own personal interpretation of Scripture, to which you are of course welcome.
But when the word of God specifically contradicts your belief, you're left with error and presumption -- "it is perfectly possible..."
It's "perfectly possible" Christ didn't die on the cross, was secreted away, married and had children, as the idiotic "DaVinci Code" speculates.
But that isn't Scriptural either. Nor is it the truth.
We can't go too far astray believing "every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." (Proverbs 30:5)
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A sentence or two of Scripture regarding one incident, and I am to believe that Jesus did not love His mother in a special way? No, I do not believe that is so. I do not presume to know the mind of God, but I would be surprised indeed if Mary did not hold a special place in His heart.
Mary was not just another woman. She was/is the mother of Christ.
In my opinion the "YOPIOS rule" is always triggered, by all of us.
To the best of my knowledge, none of us - not the Catholics, not the Orthodox, not the Calvinists, not the LDS, not anyone - are sanctioned, authorized, official spokespersons for our respective congregations / churches / organizations / theologies. Which means that all of us are quibbling over our own personal beliefs / interpretations of said theologies, our efforts having no effect pro/con on the truthfulness / genuineness of the theologies themselves per se. Everyone is providing their own "personal interpretation of Scripture".
Unless we're claiming to have perfect knowledge of what each other (or each other's professed system) actually believes and observes on every point of doctrine and practice, IMO we should be charitable over issues of language and definitions - especially when there are vast cultural divides to cross - at least until we can validate that we properly understand and can correctly (re-)articulate what each other actually believes.
So that said, it doesn't matter to me whether you're a Catholic or a Calvinist or whatever, nor who belongs to what apostolic body, nor who holds to what gospel. If we're going to take shots at each other over our supposed differences in faiths, the least we could do is make sure we're not bearing false witness about what we claim the other guy (or his theological system) actually believes.
It seems you are being specifically instructed that you must believe it.
Then I hope you will accept my apology.
So true.
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Agreed.
If only they would.
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Perhaps, but I am afraid I am beyond conversion. :)
Off with your head!
Was Pope Honorius a heretic?
I agree it has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject at hand but, by your standards, waste your time and respond.
I understand why you would avoid it because the question is a trick: it does not appear in scripture.
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