on April 19, 2005 by pat in christianity, society, theology, Comments (5)
New Pope rebukes Cardinals who embrace post-modernism
Yahoo! News – German Cardinal Becomes Pope Benedict XVI
Although I do not agree with the doctrine and theology of the Roman Catholic Church, I do admire the newly elected Pope’s warning against post-modernism.
As dean of the College of Cardinals, Ratzinger had delivered a particularly sensitive homily at John Paul’s funeral. He followed it up with a fiery speech to the cardinals before they entered their conclave Monday, warning about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism — the ideology that there are no absolute truths.
“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as a fundamentalism,” he said. “Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.”
Its true that we cannot settle for relativism and call truth as simply “fundamentalism.” However the greater question is not about the titles of relativism and fundamentalism but finding truth and authority itself. Does it come from the traditions and creeds of men or from the inspired Word of God, the Holy Bible?
Resources about postmodernism:
http://monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/topic/postmodernism.html
Patrick
March 21, 2006 @ 5:43 pm
Test comment
Patrick
March 21, 2006 @ 5:44 pm
another test comment
Kory
August 10, 2007 @ 12:39 am
Doh, the archived comments are gone! (please see http://lacson.name/archives/2005/04/new_pope_rebuke.html#comments)
Hey Patrick… I found an old note to myself to follow up on this post… so 2 years, 3 months, and 5.3 days later:
I completely agree with the first half of your reply to my previous post (see archive). Indeed, scripture is inspired by God and the hands of the author’s were simply the brush He chose to use to create a masterpiece. 2Peter 1:20-21 clearly explains what we both know to be true. But again I ask, “did God discontinue His inspiration…?”
You referenced Deut 4:2. There, the Almighty says, “In your observance of the commandments… you shall not add to … nor subtract from it.” Again we agree, though this doesn’t apply to my question. As a side note, obviously the Holy Spirit continued to add to scripture from that point through His revelations. Paraphrasing my question, if His revelation stopped, when?
And on Reve 22:18 we agree, but on :19 we can get into authority. The Bible was assembled by the Church Christ appointed, and protected with love since then. Even Luther recognized that he couldn’t “take from the words of this prophetic book.” By who’s authority, though, did he move them to an apochrypha (holy and advisable to read, but not inspired) section. In the early 19th century, publishers removed the books entirely. It sometimes seems that people consider the dueterocanonical books to be evil while it is the breath of their Creator they reject.
Again we agree on Rom 11:34. Of course man cannot, in any way, supercede his most high Creator.
I haven’t studied the Westminister Confession, but suspect its prophet has slanted its contents with personal interpretations (2Peter 1:20). Maybe not, however, and I’d eat my words if it in no way contradicts the true teachings of Christ that have been handed down by His Church that He established.
The papacy, of course, cannot “create” new truth. For a moment, consider John 21:25. There are many truths about our Lord that we won’t know of in this life. But, can you tell God that He is not allowed to reveal some of those things to us at any given moment if He so desires? Of course we can’t. So, to whom would He reveal yet unknown truths? What if He established a Church with which He (not man) could shepherd His people through carefully timed revelations for the unfolding of His ultimate plan? So, in the interest of serving the Almighty God, please show me even one single instance of His true Church contradicting His sacred scripture (which His church is solely responsible for loving and protecting).
P.S. I like the new (within the last couple years at least) site!
patrick
August 10, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
Welcome back Kory! It has been a while. The reason the archives were gone was some comments did not make the upgrade successfully. I’m glad you were able to find the older comments.
Anyway about your question. We’re really fighting an old battle as you can imagine which can best be summarized into three parts:
1) Inspiration
2) Authority
3) Sufficiency
Inspiration
The biblical language used for inspiration (theo-pneustos) was specific to the apostles and prophets. (2Tim 3:16; Eph 3:1-7) In Eph 3:5, Paul says that what was once hidden as a mystery long ago has been now made known through Paul, the apostle, specifically called by God to convey God’s message “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit..”
Our english word inspiring may apply to great literary works of theology, music, and even sermons. But in no way are they of equal weight in how the scriptures were “inspired”, that is God-breathed.
Why? God has qualified the means to how His Holy Scriptures are to be given: through the Prophets and Apostles.
Authoritative
Given God’s qualifications for who would write His scriptures, only what His scripures are authoritative. Not to say authority figures do not exist outside of the bible, but spiritually binding authoritative propositions can only come from the Holy Scriptures. Have you ever noticed how disputes in the New Testament were always initialized with 3 words, “It is written.” Why? The folks in the 1st century saw the Book of the Law (the old testament) as the authoritative word of God. They did not settle spiritually binding matters by introducing tradition. Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees because of their traditions and many times said, “It is written” and when Jesus spoke they knew what He said to be true because he fully explained what they’ve heard before in the Old Testament scriptures.
Sufficiency
Lastly God’s word is sufficient. The Scriptures that God has given us through His apostles and prophets are sufficient. You said:
That is certainly a novel idea but God warned of such ideas in Gal 1:6-9, calling such men “accursed”. I’m probably the one you’ll hear this from being a software engineer: The bible has internal safety mechanisms that prevents itself from being modified. What you say above is actually what I recently heard from the Latter day Saints folks who knocked on my door. They were saying similar things of “what if God’s church was no longer pure and that new revelations were enacted by God to save His church” and so on. I don’t mean any disrespect by lumping you with the Mormons but statements like that can be concluded as:
* God was surprised by the fallout of His church and had to correct it by sending new prophets when he has said His Scriptures were complete
* God is willing to contradict His scriptures in order to save His church
* God is not sovereign because all the events that are occurring now require more revelation.
2Tim 3:16-17 is a key verse that says:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adquate, equipped for every good work.” All of the scriptures are adequate or sufficient for every good work. It is enough to do battle with all of today’s battles even in the church and outside the church.
Peter said something similar in 2Peter 1:3,4 “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” We have everything we need for life and godliness. All spiritual struggles, emotional needs in life can be found in the knowledge of Him which is fully revealed in the Scriptures.
Lastly, you asked:
By His True church – I take it you mean the Catholic church, which is known to make the claim as the True Church of Christ. I can give a few:
* Praying and Praise to Mary and the Saints (Acts 14:8-18 Paul told the people not to praise him, but God)
* Purgatory (to be absent in the body is to be present in Christ – 2Cor 5:8, Phil 1:23 no intermediary state)
Wow – I certainly did not mean to write this much but hopefully it wasn’t too much but just enough for you to consider! Thanks again for visitng.