Posted on 01/31/2015 8:43:45 PM PST by Morgana
My new book, The Protestant's Dilemma, shows in a myriad of ways why Protestantism is implausible. We sifted through many arguments to boil the book down to the most essential. A few chapters didn't make the cut but are still good enough to share. Here's one of them.
If Protestantism is true,
There's no way to know whether you're assenting to divine revelation or to mere human opinion about divine revelation.
Protestants and Catholics both believe that God has revealed himself to man over the course of human history, culminating in his ultimate self-revelation in Jesus Christ. But whereas Catholics believe that Christ founded a visible Church—which subsists in the Catholic Church—and has protected its doctrines from error, Protestants reject the notion of ecclesial infallibility, maintaining that no person, church, or denomination has been preserved from error in its teachings. Which means that anyone could be wrong, and no person or institution can be trusted with speaking the truth of divine revelation without error.
Universal Fallibility
“No one is infallible.” If Protestantism has a universal belief, this is it. Luther pioneered this idea when he asserted that popes and Church councils had erred. If they had erred, it meant God had not guided them into all truth; instead, he allowed them to fall into error and, worse, to proclaim error as truth.
And so the most a Protestant can do is tentatively assent to doctrinal statements made by his church, pastor, or denomination, since those statements, being fallible, could be substantively changed at some time in the future. We see this all the time in Protestantism, most commonly when a Protestant leaves one church for another due to doctrinal disagreement, especially after his church changed its position on an issue he considered important.
Consider the question of same-sex “marriage.” Until quite recently, all Protestant denominations taught this was a contradiction in terms. But now many have modified or even completely reversed this doctrine. Those Protestants who accept this new teaching believe that the old one was wrong—an erroneous human opinion that became enshrined in their church’s statement of faith. They can do this confidently, knowing that none of their fellow church members can plausibly claim that it contradicts an irreformable dogma that was infallibly revealed by God.
Ultimately, then, a Protestant (who remains Protestant) studies the relevant sources—Scripture, history, the writings of authoritative figures in his tradition—and chooses the Protestant denomination that most aligns with his judgment. But then, they say, Catholics do the same thing: studying the sources and then choosing the Catholic Church based on their own judgment. So they see no difference in this regard.
Because Catholicism is true,
Christians can know divine revelation, as distinct from mere human opinion, because God protects it from authoritatively teaching anything that is false.
How is the Catholic’s judgment different from a Protestant's, if at all? The difference lies in the conclusion, or finishing point, of the inquiry they make. Whereas the Protestant can ultimately submit only to his own judgment, which he knows to be fallible, the Catholic can confidently render total assent to the proclamations of the visible Church that Christ established and guides, submitting his judgments to its judgments as to Christ's.
And so a Catholic can know divine revelation, as distinct from human opinion, by looking to the Church, which speaks with Christ’s voice and cannot lie. For a Protestant, only the Bible itself contains God’s infallibly inspired words, so he desires to assent to that. But since the Bible must be interpreted by someone, the closest he can come to assenting to biblical teaching is assenting to his own fallible interpretation of it. And assenting to yourself is no assent at all.
The Protestant’s Dilemma
If Protestantism is true, all are fallible. So the Protestant must rely on his own judgment above that of his church. And the orthodoxy of the church itself is judged against his interpretation of the Bible. Thus is becomes impossible to distinguish between what divine revelation actually is versus what a fallible human being thinks it is. This fact makes the Catholic Church, philosophically speaking, preferable to Protestantism, since God’s truth can be known—and known with certainty.
I don’t care who you are - he just doesn’t look like a happy guy. Maybe a guy with gastroenterological pain.
I see someone wants to start the Saturday Night Fights.
Good job. Must not have enough division around here to suit people’s tastes.
He was married to a former nun.
Any book reviews? Author’s credentials?
For a lot of his life he wasn’t.
Has nothing to do with his faith. He was unhappy for a long time because He understood the Law and that living under the law there is no hope. When he understood Romans and justification by faith, the righteous shall live by faith, not in themselves or their works, he felt great relief. Later in life he felt depressed because of the stubborness of the German people, the Jews, and others to the Gospel and their continued desire to be under the law and have their works save themselves.
Clearly the catholics on FR want us ex-catholics to leave FR. Surely they don’t think these many antagonistic articles would convince us to convert.
I can leave FR and stop the monthly donation at any time.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning.
” Later in life he felt depressed because of the stubborness of the German people, the Jews, and others to the Gospel and their continued desire to be under the law and have their works save themselves.”
He was too impatient for change to happen.
Sounds a lot like modern day progressives.
lol
Catholics understand “Protestantism” about as well as the mainstream media understands Christianity.
This will not be refuted, but suddenly the argument will change and run off, howling it the opposite direction, daring us all to chase it.
It so saddens me that indeed, when we should all be working for The Kingdom, fighting Islam, and spending our time preaching the Good News that Jesus Christ came to save us all (a message sent to Jew and Gentile alike, as Paul sounded)...some people insist on slapping Christ in the face and distracting the lost from that Good News...by stirring the pot. I recognize Catholics as having their own faith traditions, and I am fine with that. But I judge trees by their fruit. If you must attack MY faith tradition...why aren't you spending your time witnessing to the Lost instead. And why is insisting making our differences more important than our common Grace...and clearly to you more important than the Great Commission.
In the debriefing after I am dead, if I am wrong, God will take care of it and set me straight...as he will do for those who curse their brothers. In the meantime...should we not be preaching His grace, and fighting the devil?
I have a good friend, an otherwise fine Christian, that is a "7 Day Creation" person first and foremost. DARE to opine that perhaps the Almighty took longer...and you might as well renounce your faith, because to HER...beating you into believing as she does is more important than winning souls. Science-believing people that SHE meets will never come to Christ because to HER, winning that argument is EVERYTHING. You cannot point out to her that she will be judged by God for having turned people from the faith...because what she wants is to force others over to HER views.
If I am wrong about that...I lose nothing. God will straighten me out five minutes after I die, and it probably won't matter then. But I don't want Jesus to shake his head in disappointment at me that I turned away His sheep by letting them think that his followers looked nothing like Him.
I am perfectly fine with Catholics. Preach, win souls. But I have to express disappointment in the ones that insist on attacking my traditions when I have done nothing to warrant that attack.
And clean up your own house before you come knocking on the door at mine. Just saying. Let's see you defrock the ones that molest little kids, not just move them around and tell the new congregation nothing at all about that little trouble at the last one.
Heck, there are lots of gods, aren't there? gods and sons of gods and all sorts of messengers? Go for it! You are right. The others are wrong. However you interpret the matter, you are right. god is one, but two, and three, and four... And it's all RIGHT! Let's just take care to speak out against "relativism!" LOL No but seriously, Praise Matthew. Matthew Goldblatt or whatever his name was. His c90CE word if he wrote it is TRUTH!
We do?
Oh. Your referring to our rejection of worshipping and praying to Mary even though the Bible says Jesus is THE Way The Truth and The Life.
“God then condones homosexual pedophilia.”
And “liberation theology.”
Not really, it took him several decades of trying to get to that point. Frustrated. Justfication by faith in Christ/works don’t save you is one of the toughest truths in the world to accept. It goes against the way of the world and every instinct natural man has.
According to the Pope Islam and Catholics worship the same god, so I guess that means Catholicism is no more Christian than Islam.
Martin Luther was a hero.
I for one am proud to follow his religion.
On the Jews and Their Lies (German: Von den Jüden und iren Lügen; in modern spelling Von den Juden und ihren Lügen) is a 65,000-word anti-Jewish treatise written in 1543 by the German Reformation leader Martin Luther.
In the treatise he argues that their synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes razed, and property and money confiscated. They should be shown no mercy or kindness,[2] afforded no legal protection,[3] and these “poisonous envenomed worms” should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time.[4] He also seems to advocate their murder, writing “[w]e are at fault in not slaying them”.[5]
This guy is awesome.
Seriously. I worship all y’all smart folks.
...Just can’t figure... Does Jew Jesus get slayed too? Is he exempt? Maybe he was German or something so he’s kosher?
Oh wait. No more kosher.
“New law.”
Then the “new new law.”
It’s all so confusing. But hey, let’s be intellectually honest and kill some Jews!
Except for Jesus, of course.
Because a Socialist Pope.....
Martin Luther was not a hero.
Right. When you see public figures doing charity as a result of bad press, it justifies the idea of faith being enough. I wonder if good works is essentially buying your way into Heaven.
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