It's not so much that I want to be confused, but that's the effect produced by hearing things like "It was the Church guided by the Holy Spirit that destroyed what God wanted destroyed!" Accusations of "Gnosticism" or "secret knowledge" seem to fly around this thread like frisbees, so hopefully you can explain to me how a statement akin to "We broke and burned things because God told us to" escapes such scrutiny.
Muslims said something similar when they destroyed the Library of Alexandria, but such a notion of God being the author of destruction is alien to Christianity as I understand it. On the contrary, death and destruction are the results of rejecting God's freely offered grace, not of acting in cooperation with it. You said:
One can only imagine how many other groups would be grasping on to even more heretical teachings if the Church had not destroyed them.
That's right. One can only imagine, and we can not at all be sure. Perhaps some good came out of it, but I utterly reject the claim that they were following God's will by doing so.
A related question is: Were the ones who crucified Christ free from sin because they were simply taking part in the economy of salvation? The answer, I think, must be an emphatic "no". Christ merely took the death that was offered him--the death that entered this world because of sin--and thus overcame it.
I wish you a Blessed Evening.
Same to you, dear friend.
I don’t agree with people who destroy anything in the name of the Catholic Church if it was not given to them to do so by the magesterium of the Church.
Why does it bother you If there were certain gnostic things that the Church might have destroyed?
I doubt you would have no problem destroying pornography in the name of God. Right?
“”Were the ones who crucified Christ free from sin because they were simply taking part in the economy of salvation?””
Of Course not!The Crucifixion of Christ was the only time that God gave power to man to do anything to Him.
They freely chose to crucify Him.