Posted on 08/27/2010 11:45:13 AM PDT by Hank Kerchief
I've been trying to explain the realities of medieval literacy, the invention of the printing press and lingua franca to the YOPIOS crowd for years.
The TRUTH is that prior to about the 15th century the ONLY written languages in Christendom that were developed enough for the Bible were Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Hebrew was somewhat shunned, but ALL literate Christians could read Greek or Latin and usually both. So, any argument regarding the translation of the Bible is moot, it's no different from the demands a decade or so ago that American schools offer Ebonics.
Another stark reality is that before the printing press, the cost of a Bible was far more than an average person could earn in a LIFETIME because all books had to be inscribed by hand and this was a very lengthy process. Nearly all books were owned by large churches and cathedrals and universities. This is why you hear stories of Bibles being locked up, it had NOTHING to do with keeping the contents secret and EVERYTHING to do with keeping a valued treasure from being stolen. Even when Gutenberg first printed his Bible the cost was far greater than the average person could afford (of the Bibles printed by Gutenberg, only one is known to have been privately owned by an individual); however, as with ALL technology, the cost eventually came down.
That brings us to literacy. The medieval Christians did learn mathematics, because that was important; however, as they couldn't afford books and there weren't any to read anyway. As books became less expensive, literacy rapidly became more the norm.
It is like computers, thirty-five years ago the earliest personal computers came on the market but they cost more than cars, few people could afford them and nobody knew how to use them. For well over a decade people who used computers were seen as strange (have a teenager watch "Revenge of the Nerds" and see how they react to the idea of people being made fun of for having computers), but as they became more affordable, they became the norm and EVERYONE learned how to use them. The SAME THING happened with books and literacy starting in the 16th century.
Now consider this, God KNEW that the Christian world would be almost totally illiterate for FIFTEEN CENTURIES after the Resurrection, why would He develop a means of Salvation that was conditioned on technology that wouldn't exist for FIFTEEN CENTURIES? It would be as if Christ had said, "There will be a new Covenant, but NONE of you will be part of it and neither will the next fifty generations."
Who are or were the Schullers? btw, the OPC too is heading for it’s third split in 80 years (and it’s been around for about 80 years!) — a Former Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) ruling elder Paul M. Elliott is leading this exodus to form a new acronym.
Have you worshiped a Mary yet today?
Pffft.
the new mass came in and tradition went out the window, no wonder they are so ticked off these days
Well, it depends if that someone else is actually Christian and believes in ONE God, a Triune God: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They may not believe this, or even that Jesus was/is 100% man and 100% God
The analysis of the New Mass brings three basic conclusions to light.
1) That the new rite is no longer based on sacrifice, but on a memorial meal, a concept harmonious with Protestant practice.
2) Rather than emphasizing Our Lord's presence in the Priest and in the Eucharist, which is the Catholic focus, the new rite emphasizes Our Lord's presence "in His Word and in His people." This too favors Protestant doctrine.
3) In the new rite, there is a downplay of emphasis on the Mass as propitiation, that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass makes satisfaction to God for sin. Rather, the Novus Ordo emphasizes the Mass as an act of Thanksgiving. Again, this is a shift from a Catholic orientation to one that is Protestant.
The book provides many examples of this new focus.
An Empire built on lies - are you talking about the Unitarians who deny the Trinity and the divinity of Christ?
Yes. The same UnitariansCatholics who, through forgery and deceit, built armies, seized territories, seized wealth and treasure, named Emperors, and deposed Emperors. Those UnitariansCatholics.
The same UnitariansCatholics who imaginanitively claim 1.2 billion members who practice the same faith. Those UnitariansCatholics.
The same UnitariansCatholics who, since the days of Constantine, have continued to build upon lies and deceit.
For example:
This is perhaps the most famous forgery in history. For centuries, until Lorenzo Valla proved it was forgery during the Renaissance it provied the basis for papal territorial and jurisdictional claims in Italy. Probably at least a first draft of it was made shortly after the middle of the eighth century in order to assist Pope Stephen II in his negotiations with the Frankish Mayor of the Palace, Pepin the Short. The Pope crossed the Alps to anoint the latter as king in 754, thereby enabling, the Carolingian family, to which Pepin belonged, to supplant the old Merovingian royal line which had become decadent and powerless and to become in law as well as in fact rulers of the Franks. In return, Pepin seems to have promised to give to the Pope those lands in Italy which the Lombards had taken from Byzantium. The promise was fulfilled in 756. Constantine's alleged gift made it possible to interpret Pepin's grant not as a benefaction but as a restoration.
The Donation of Constantine
Well, to ES’ defence, he has never said he speaks for GOD. The group he belongs to seems to hold Melek Taus as Lord.
There are woefully few children in the OPC. You don't suppose the primary reason is because no one will mate with them do you?
I’m also investigating another practice rumored to being in operation, that now some priests at mass say that Christ suffered up to the point of death, that He didn’t die. Dont know if that is true or not, but if they are saying he didnt die, what a heresy they got going on there.
"The Problem of the Liturgical Reform, a slim volume of only 111 pages, is a theological and liturgical study written by priests of the Society of Saint Pius X."
"Jesus knew the only way He would stop Satan is by becoming one in nature with him"Your group's pagan beliefs are chilling to Christians. Leave the worship of the devil behind and come to Christ, in Christ's Church, the One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church
"God the Father is a person separate from the Holy Ghost. Totally separate. ...Do you know that the Holy Spirit has a soul and a body separate from that of Jesus and the Father? ...God the Father then is a triune being within Himself. He's a person, He has His own Spirit, He has a soul. …A soul is my intellect. …God thinks. …separate from the Son and separate from the Holy Ghost. …God the Father is a separate individual from the Son and the Holy Ghost, who is a triune being who walks in a spirit body and He has hair…has eyes…has a mouth…has hands"
"When you were born again the Word was made flesh in you. And you became flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. Don't tell me you have Jesus. You are everything He was and everything He is and ever shall be... Don't say, 'I have.' Say, 'I am, I am, I am, I am, I am'" (ibid.) "When you say, 'I am a Christian,' you are saying, 'I am mashiach,' in the Hebrew. I am a little messiah walking on earth, in other words. That is a shocking revelation. ...May I say it like this? You are a little god on earth running around"
For comparison, what is your church’s history during the same time frame?
So your new Catholic church is Protestant, except for the rite of the mass, what a crack-up!
| In the course of the second half of the first century, however, a consistent terminology for these Church offices was becoming fixed. The letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch make clear that leadership in the Christian community, in all the Churches, is exercised by an order of "bishops, presbyters, and deacons" (To the Trallians 3:2; To Polycarp 6:1). Of these designations, bishop comes from the Greek episkopos, meaning "overseer"; presbyter from the Greek presbyteros, "elder"; and deacon from the Greek diakonos, "servant" or "minister". Thus, from that time on, these were the offices in what was already an institutional, hierarchical Church (this is not to imply that the Church was ever anything but institutional and hierarchical, only that the evidence for these characteristics had become unmistakably clear by this time). By the way, the term priest (Greek: hierus) does not seem to have been used at first for the Christian presbyter; the nonuse of this particular term in the earliest years of the Church was due to the need to distinguish the Christian priesthood of the new dispensation from the Jewish Temple priests, who were still functioning up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in the year 70 A.D. After that time, the use of the word priest for those ordained in Christ began to be more and more common. St. Ignatius of Antioch did not know of any such thing as a "Church" that was merely an assemblage of like-minded people who believed themselves to have been moved by the Spirit. The early Christians were moved by the Spirit to join the Church, the established visible, institutional, sacerdotal, and hierarchical Church-the only kind St. Ignatius of Antioch would ever have recognized as the Church. And it was for this visible, institutional, sacerdotal, and hierarchical Church--an entity purveying both the word and sacraments of Jesus--that this early bishop was willing to give himself up to be torn apart by wild beasts in the arena. He wrote to St. Polycarp words that were also meant for the latter's flock in Smyrna: "Pay attention to the bishop so that God will pay attention to you. I give my life as a sacrifice (poor as it is) for those who are obedient to the bishop, the presbyters, and the deacons" (6:1). To the Trallians he wrote: "You cannot have a Church without these" (3:2). St. Ignatius certainly did not fail to recognize that, in one of today's popular but imprecise formulations, "the people are the Church." His letters were intended to teach, admonish, exhort, and encourage none other than "the people". But he also understood that each one of "the people" entered the Church through a sacred rite of baptism, and thereafter belonged to a group in which the bishop, in certain respects and for certain purposes, resembled, on the one hand, the father of a family and, on the other, a monarch--more than some democratically elected leaders. |
| "This Church is Holy, the One Church, the True Church, the Catholic Church, fighting as she does against all heresies. She can fight, but she cannot be beaten. All heresies are expelled from her, like the useless loppings pruned from a vine. She remains fixed in her root, in her vine, in her love. The gates of hell shall not conquer her." Sermon to Catechumens, on the Creed, 6,14, 395 A.D. |
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