Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: kosta50

***I remember in our glorious thread getting into some heated discussions with a loyal Reformed. She got to where she was posting some almost anti Matthew posts. :) Not quite anti, really, but very very irritated against their content.

I can see why the Gospels can be a fly in their ointment.***

Not a fly; a serious and deadly contaminant.


161 posted on 05/07/2009 5:11:24 PM PDT by MarkBsnr ( I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 158 | View Replies ]


To: MarkBsnr
Not a fly; a serious and deadly contaminant

That's because their true "gospel" is St. Paul. Obviously, he was among the greatest of the Apostles, but for a radically different reason, both historically and ecclesiastically.

The Church could integrate St. Paul, despite some things he says (his Epistles, after all, are not considered on the same level as the Gospels), seamlessly by placing him higher than the Old Testament and lower than the Gospels.

The Prots who interpret the Scriptures literally can't do this precisely because there is a disconnect in some of the things St. Paul says.

And while the Church made subtle corrections (after all, no one was perfectly orthodox and fully in grasp of the whole faith; it took the Church over three hundred years to organize it into a theological whole), such as in the Creed where we say "and he rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures." Those are St. Paul's words, (as is much of the Creed) save for the he rose, which the Church inserted in place of St. Paul's "he was raised."

The very beginning of the Creed is also borrowed from St. Paul, but heavily altered. Yet, interestingly one of the most crucial things remained unaltered: the Creed calls "God" only the Father, as St. Paul did; the Son and the Spirit are referred to only as the Lords. I find that a little disturbing, given that the orthodox belief is that all three divine hypostases are one and the same God (in essence).

The Creed, of course, makes sure that the co-equality and co-eternity of the Holy Ttinity is made certain when they say that all three are worshiped and glorified, and I see that as an inelegant attempt to integrate some of the most non-Trinitarian statements of St. Paul into orthodox Triniatrianism.

166 posted on 05/07/2009 6:32:28 PM PDT by kosta50 (Don't look up, the truth is all around you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 161 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson