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There are many holes in Dr. Scott Hahn’s beliefs and “conversion” that I won’t take the time to discuss. From independent sources it appears Dr. Scott Hahn is a loose cannon at best. This was the same conclusion I came to in reading this article. As only one example in his testimony he says,
“They read more Scripture, I thought, in a weekday Mass than we read in a Sunday service.”
This is an astounding statement since these are the same Sunday services he was pasturing. One would hope that if this was the case he would have included more scripture in his sermons. There are many more of these “weird” assertions throughout this testimony.
I know this may seem like a Protestant (a Calvinist no less) bashing a Catholic but his doctrine and beliefs seem to be erratic and the examples are too numerous to mention here. But as one example, in his Protestants days he was involved with a hard-core Arminian youth group while professing to be a Calvinist. Now he’s involved with charismatic Catholics and his Catholic beliefs and teachings are suspect at best. Please do not take my word for it but see the following Catholic website:
http://www.catholicintl.com/epologetics/hahndebate.asp
I was going to post it but it is 82 pages long.
I looked at him with a blank stare. I could feel sweat coming to my forehead. I used to take pride in asking my professors the most stumping questions, but I never heard this one before. And so I heard myself say words that I had sworn I'd never speak; I said, "John, what a dumb question." He was not intimidated. He look at me and said, "Give me a dumb answer." I said, "All right, I'll try." I just began to wing it. I said, "Well, Timothy 3:16 is the key: 'All Scripture is inspired of God and profitable for correction, for training and righteousness, for reproof that the man of God may be completely equipped for every good work....'" He said, "Wait a second, that only says that Scripture is inspired and profitable; it doesn't say ONLY Scripture is inspired or even better, only Scripture's profitable for those things. We need other things like prayer," and then he said, "What about 2 Thessalonians 2:15?" I said, "What's that again?" He said, "Well, there Paul tells the Thessalonians that they have to hold fast, they have to cling to the traditions that Paul has taught them either in writing or by word of mouth." Whoa! I wasn't ready. I said, "Well, let's move on with the questions and answers; I'll deal with this next week. Let's go on."
First of all, in my respectful non-Catholic opinion, 2 Timothy 3:16 doesn't have to use the word ONLY when describing the value of scripture because verse 17 goes on to use the words "complete" and "every" when describing the benefits. If scripture will in fact make a believer complete in everything he does, what need is there of anything more?
In addition, it is not to say that non-Catholics such as myself believe that nothing at all should be used in addition to scripture, ie extrabiblical writings and teachings, so long as those are based on scripture. If something is contrary to scripture, it should rightly be disregarded.
Oh, and to use prayer as an example pitted against scripture is absurd, considering that scripture itself instructs us to pray! It's actually an example of 2 Timothy 3:16 in action.
And with regard to the next quoted verse - and no doubt you've heard this argument before - back when Paul was teaching, all the early Christians had were his oral instructions and early writings, in addition to the Tanakh or OT. The word traditions in effect means oral transmission of the body of precepts, ie the illustration and expansion of the written law. And once again, if it lines up with scripture, great. If it is contrary to scripture, not cool at all.
It's like HarleyD's tagline says - 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
I think the answer to the Jesuit question would be something like: "More than one might think. Or more than any liberal secular humanist could ever count. Not all would admit that they still say Mass in Latin. And, of course, we could never be sure who they all are or where they are..." [wink]
I would imagine even John McLaughlin and Jerry Brown still remember a little Latin.
http://newoxfordreview.org/2002/sep02/newoxfordnotes.html
PING! To read later.
These threads sure do have staying power!
ping