Participants: Stephen Bohr
Series Code: BOT
Program Code: BOT000005
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00:30 Well, hello again everyone.
00:32 We are on a roll. Today we are going to study lecture number 00:39 five in this series, The Bible or Tradition? 00:41 And I want to say that we are going to read 00:46 a lot of quotations. 00:47 And there's a purpose why we are going to read a lot of 00:50 quotations, and that is because I want you to hear from the 00:55 Roman Catholic Church itself what their 00:58 concept of tradition is. 01:00 And I want you to see that it's virtually identical to the view 01:06 of tradition that was held by the Jews in the days of Christ. 01:09 But before we get into our study, we want to ask 01:12 for the Lord's guidance in prayer. 01:13 And so I invite you to bow your heads with me 01:16 as we ask for the Lord's presence. 01:18 Father in heaven, we thank You for the privilege 01:21 of being here this evening. 01:22 We have a very solemn and important subject to study, 01:26 and we need the aid of Your Holy Spirit. 01:30 I ask that You will not only bless those who are gathered 01:32 here, but you will bless those who are viewing on television, 01:36 and over the internet. 01:38 I ask, Lord, that You will give them open hearts, 01:41 and open minds to understand and receive what we are 01:45 going to study this evening. 01:46 We thank You, Father, for the privilege of prayer, 01:49 and because we know that You have heard us, 01:50 because we ask it in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. 01:54 In our study of the rabbinical concept of tradition, 02:01 we noticed that there were certain key expressions 02:05 and terms that were used by the Jews in the days of Christ. 02:09 I'd like to review those terms that were used by the Jewish 02:15 leaders in the days of Christ, because we're going to come 02:18 back to them again this evening. 02:20 You remember that one of the terms that was used constantly 02:24 is the word tradition. 02:26 The expression, handed down. 02:30 The expression, passed on. 02:33 The expression, received, or the word received. 02:37 The word hold. The expression, unbroken succession. 02:43 And as we studied, we also noticed that the people were 02:48 expected to render implicit obedience to the theological 02:53 scholars who brought forth these ideas from what was 02:58 known as oral tradition. 02:59 In fact, when the religious leaders spoke from Moses' 03:05 throne, or from Moses' cathedra, they were considered 03:09 to be infallible. And people were required to obey because 03:14 they had to accept the authority of the religious leaders. 03:17 Now in our study today we are going to see striking 03:21 similarities between the Jewish view of tradition 03:25 in the days of Christ, and the view of tradition that is held 03:29 today by the Roman Catholic Church. 03:32 In fact, you're going to notice that the 03:35 terminology is identical, and the view is identical, 03:40 only there are different actors involved. 03:44 Now have you ever wondered, and I've asked this question before, 03:48 have you ever wondered how the Roman Catholic Church can 03:51 justify beliefs and practices that have no foundation 03:56 whatsoever in the written Scriptures? 03:59 I'm talking about traditions such as baptizing infants, 04:06 baptism by sprinkling, prayers for the dead, 04:11 and prayers to the dead, the canonization of saints, 04:16 purgatory, limbo, celibacy, indulgences, the worship of 04:25 images, the rosary, the immaculate conception of Mary, 04:30 Mary as the mediatrix between man and God, the observance of 04:36 Sunday, Lent, auricular confession, and many other 04:43 doctrines that I could mention. 04:44 How can the Roman Catholic Church expect the faithful 04:48 to believe and obey all of these observances when you cannot 04:53 find any hint of these ideas in the written Scriptures? 05:00 The answer to this question is the way in which the 05:05 Roman Catholic Church justifies all of these beliefs, 05:08 and observances that are not found in the written scriptures, 05:12 is by their view of tradition, which I've mentioned 05:17 is virtually identical to the view that the Jews had 05:20 in the days of Christ. 05:21 Now the actors are different. 05:23 In the days of Jesus it was believed that God gave these 05:30 oral traditions to Moses on Mount Sinai. 05:32 In the days of Christ it was believed that Christ gave these 05:37 oral traditions to Saint Peter. 05:40 So, in other words, in the Old Testament 05:42 it's God through Moses. 05:44 In the New Testament it is God, or Christ, through Simon Peter. 05:50 Now the Roman Catholic Church has stated, and they underlined 05:54 the fact that there are many things that Jesus did and said 05:59 which are not written in the gospels. 06:00 In fact, you can find this very clearly in texts such as 06:05 John 21:25, and John 20:30, 31, where the Apostle John says 06:12 that there were many things that Jesus did, and that Jesus 06:15 taught which are not written in the gospels. 06:18 So that much is true. 06:20 The problem is that there is no text in the New Testament 06:24 that says that these things that were not written 06:27 should be transmitted orally from the original generation 06:32 to succeeding generations. 06:34 In other words, there is no hint in the New Testament 06:38 that it was God's plan that these oral traditions, 06:42 that were never written in Scripture, should be passed 06:45 along from Peter, and the apostles, to a following 06:48 generation, and from that generation to the next, 06:50 and then to the next infallibly, and that those ideas and beliefs 06:55 should be accepted as being as trustworthy as Holy Scripture. 07:00 There's not a hint that God wanted oral tradition 07:04 to be passed along. 07:06 Now according to the Roman Catholic view, Peter and the 07:11 College of the Apostles passed on oral tradition to successors, 07:18 and those successors passed on these oral traditions to 07:23 the next generation of successors. 07:25 And that generation of successors passed it on to the 07:29 next generation in unbroken succession. 07:32 And they believe that at each stage the tradition, the oral 07:37 tradition was conserved pure. 07:39 Now it's interesting! 07:41 This concept is known as apostolic succession, 07:45 the idea of apostolic succession. 07:47 And the Roman Catholic Church bases this idea on a text that 07:53 we find in Matthew 16:18, 19, where Jesus said to Peter, 07:59 You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church. 08:03 And, basically, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that 08:07 the rock in that text is Simon Peter. 08:10 But when you look at the rest of Scripture you never find 08:14 a human being being described as the rock. 08:16 All of the other texts in the Bible say that 08:20 the Lord is the rock, starting with Deuteronomy 32:4, 08:26 The Lord is the Rock. 08:27 There's no hint in Scripture that Peter was the Rock. 08:31 Jesus was saying, you were Peter, a little pebble. 08:34 But upon this Rock, that is upon Myself, I will build My church. 08:39 But the Roman Catholic Church interprets Matthew 16:18, 19, 08:44 as the idea that the church was built on Peter, 08:47 and therefore Peter conserved these oral traditions pure, 08:52 and passed them along to succeeding generations, 08:55 and those generations to other generations. 08:58 What this means in Roman Catholic theology is that Peter, 09:03 presiding over the College of the Apostles, 09:06 was given the authority to preserve, define, explain, 09:13 and bring forth not only the written Word of God, 09:17 but also the unwritten tradition. 09:21 And the Roman Catholic Church believes that the Bishop of 09:24 Rome, also known as the Pope, along with the College of 09:28 Bishops in the Roman Catholic Church, has the same power today 09:33 as was held by Peter originally in the apostolic church. 09:37 Now the Roman Catholic Church then believes that the Pope, 09:41 in union with the College of Bishops, 09:44 the College of Bishops are the bishops on a worldwide level. 09:47 When the Pope speaks ex-cathedra, that is from the 09:52 throne, from Peter's throne, what he teaches is infallible, 09:57 and has apostolic authority. 10:00 Even 2,000 years removed from Saint Peter, they believe that 10:04 the Pope speaking, he speaks with the authority of 10:07 Saint Peter, and he speaks infallibly when he speaks 10:11 ex-cathedra, that is from the throne. 10:14 Now how does the concept of tradition 10:18 in the Roman Catholic Church work? 10:20 If you remember, when we studied the Jewish view of tradition, 10:24 we noticed that there were three key elements. 10:27 First of all there was a deposit of tradition that was 10:32 composed of the written Scriptures, 10:34 and also the unwritten traditions, 10:37 or the oral traditions that had been passed on. 10:39 In other words there was a deposit of divine revelation 10:43 composed of the written Scriptures, 10:45 and the unwritten traditions. 10:48 We noticed secondly, that in the Jewish view of tradition 10:52 there had to be a transmitting element that would transmit 10:56 these oral traditions from generation to generation 11:00 in an authorative, and in a trustworthy way. 11:04 And, of course, in Roman Catholicism the idea is that 11:09 one generation of bishops passes on the oral tradition 11:14 to the next generation of bishops, and that generation 11:18 of bishops passes on the oral traditions to the next 11:21 generation of bishops. 11:22 And they do it infallibly, and they preserve 11:26 it with absolutely trustworthiness these traditions 11:30 that were never written down. 11:32 So the Roman Catholic Church has the same idea concerning 11:36 the first point, and that is there is a deposit of tradition, 11:40 oral tradition, that was originally established by Peter, 11:46 and it's passed along. 11:47 The second element, of course, is the transmitting element. 11:51 That is the idea of apostolic succession. 11:54 Now the third element that we notice in the Jewish concept 11:58 of tradition, was that at each generation there needs to be a 12:02 living interpreter of the oral tradition to define whether 12:08 it is a genuine tradition or not. 12:09 Only each generation of bishops can bring forth from the deposit 12:16 of oral tradition, what they believe goes all the way back 12:20 to the times of Saint Peter. 12:22 Now this element in the Roman Catholic Church is called the 12:25 magisterium. It's the teaching office of the church. 12:29 The word magisterium means the teaching office. 12:32 In other words, in each generation there has been a 12:34 group of scholars, a group of theological experts that 12:40 are able to define what is a genuine tradition that goes 12:45 all the way back to the times of Peter. 12:48 They are able to define, they are able to apply, and they are 12:51 able to explain, not only the written Scriptures, 12:54 but also the oral tradition that has been handed down. 12:59 And so interestingly enough, the same three elements that we 13:03 found in our second study about the Jewish view of tradition, 13:07 which is a deposit of revelation, which contains 13:12 the written Scriptures, and the unwritten traditions; 13:14 secondly, a transmitting mechanism that can transmit 13:19 the oral traditions from generation 13:21 to generation reliably. 13:23 And number three, a group of scholars, and theologians 13:27 in each generation, who are able to teach and define 13:31 what is a true tradition, and what is not a true tradition. 13:35 The three elements are contained in the Roman Catholic view of 13:39 tradition, virtually identical to the concept that existed 13:42 in the days of Christ. 13:44 Now according to Roman Catholic theology, when the Pope speaks 13:50 ex-cathedra, that is from Peter's throne, his pronouncements must 13:55 be accepted as final and infallible. 13:58 That is to say the faithful must render implicit obedience 14:04 to the will of the Pope, and the magisterium of the church 14:07 under pain of being anathema, or being excommunicated 14:13 from the church. This is exactly the same thing that happened 14:17 in the days of Christ, isn't it? 14:21 We read statements from the times of Christ, from Josephus, 14:25 where he defined this in the very same way. 14:28 And, of course, in the days of Christ because the people 14:33 believed that the religious leaders were infallible 14:36 expositors of the oral traditions that had been given 14:39 to Moses, as a result, the populous were totally dominated, 14:47 and they were totally controlled by the religious leaders. 14:51 Now you might be wondering, Pastor Bohr, where do you find 14:55 this Roman Catholic view of tradition? 14:57 Okay, you've defined it. 14:58 You've explained it. 14:59 You've said that it's parallel to the concept of tradition 15:02 that existed in the days of Christ. 15:03 But where do we find proof in Roman Catholic theology that 15:07 this is the view that Roman Catholics hold? 15:10 Well, I'd like to warn you that this evening we are going to 15:14 read a lot of statements. 15:17 Most of the lecture is going to be reading. 15:19 Now I know that there's a risk in doing that because, you know, 15:24 people get bored when you read a lot. 15:26 But I figured that it would be a good idea to read a group 15:30 of statements from Roman Catholic authoritative sources 15:34 themselves, so that you can see that the terminology is used, 15:38 and the three ideas that the Jews held in the days of Christ 15:42 are today held by the Roman Catholic Church. 15:45 Now the first line of evidence that I want to share is from 15:50 Vatican Council II. 15:52 Have you ever heard of Vatican Council II? 15:54 Let me just give you a little bit of background. 15:57 Vatican Council II met from 1962 to 1965 under the 16:05 leadership of two Popes. 16:08 It began under the leadership of John XXIII, and it continued 16:13 under the leadership of Paul VI, because John XXIII died before 16:17 the council came to an end. 16:19 And I'm going to read some statements in a moment. 16:23 I want to go to the Council of Trent before that, 16:26 but in a moment I'm going to read you a group of statements 16:30 from the declaration that was written at this council by the 16:34 Roman Catholic Church regarding divine revelation. 16:38 It's called Dei Verbum, that means the Word of God, 16:42 the declaration on the Word of God. 16:45 But before I do, I would like to go back a ways 16:48 to the Council of Trent. 16:51 You know, the Council of Trent was called by the Roman Catholic 16:55 Church to try and counteract the Protestant Reformation. 16:58 The Council of Trent gathered from 1545 to 1563, 18 years. 17:05 It was the longest church council in the history of 17:08 the Roman Catholic Church. 17:09 And the express purpose was to counteract the growing 17:13 menace of Protestantism. 17:15 And I would like to read from the Council of Trent what it 17:19 has to say about tradition. 17:22 Notice this is found in the book by Philip Schaff, 17:26 The Creeds of Christendom. 17:28 This is what the council stated: 18:05 Ah, there's another key term. 18:10 And what's the next word? 18:16 Are you seeing the similarity? 18:23 Here's the key word again. 18:56 Are you following this? 18:58 The key words, receive, hold, passed on, 19:03 continuous succession. 19:05 The only difference is that in the Old Testament it was Moses 19:08 who supposedly passed on the oral traditions. 19:10 Here it would be the case of Peter doing it. 19:15 Now I would like to read also the profession of faith 19:18 of the Council of Trent. 19:20 This is a profession of faith that everyone in the Catholic 19:23 Church should confess. 19:24 Notice what it says. 19:25 And this is in the book, The Riddle of Roman Catholicism 19:28 by Jaroslav Pelikan. 19:44 Says the Roman Catholic. 19:48 Now listen carefully. 20:04 So the sacred Scriptures are under the control of whom? 20:06 Of the church, not the individual. 20:09 Now notice what the Roman Catholic is called to confess. 20:14 It continues saying: 20:26 Do you remember that word from Mark 7, 20:28 unanimous consent of the fathers? 20:31 Incidentally, there is no unanimous consent among the 20:35 Roman Catholic fathers, because they contradicted one another 20:38 on many different points. 20:39 Now I would like to go to what I mentioned before: Dei Verbum, 20:44 that is the conciliar declaration on the Word of God. 20:49 And, by the way, because this was decided and voted on in 20:52 a church council, it is considered the authoritative 20:55 teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. 20:57 This is not just some theologian that is saying this, 21:00 this is the Roman Catholic Church gathered in council; 21:03 all of the bishops from the world. 21:05 Now notice what it says. 21:44 What does it say next? 21:45 Um, identical to Mark 7. 21:51 Ah, same word as in Mark 7. 21:55 What? Identical to Mark 7! 21:58 To the what? traditions. 22:00 Do you notice the same terminology? 22:08 That's oral tradition. 22:41 Now it continues saying: 22:45 There's a key word. 22:57 What? There it is again! 23:18 That's the idea of apostolic succession; the group of 23:22 scholars that pass on the information, supposedly 23:25 infallibly, and reliably from generation to generation. 23:29 So it says: 23:52 In other words the Scriptures were not the finished 23:54 revelation of God. 23:55 The church has to continually bring forth new teachings, 24:00 and new doctrines from the deposit of oral tradition. 24:03 It continues saying: 24:36 Now notice this: 24:40 Do you have this concept in the Old Testament 24:43 in the days of Christ? Absolutely! 24:50 Does what? 25:22 In other words the Scriptures are not enough. 25:26 They are not sufficient. 25:27 The declaration continues saying: 25:43 Exactly what Flavius Josephus said about the Jewish 25:46 concept of tradition. 25:47 Now notice what this declaration continues saying. 25:51 Remember this is not just some Catholic theologian that's 25:54 writing off the top of his head. 25:56 This is an official proclamation of the Roman Catholic Church 25:59 in a council of the church. 26:01 Notice what it continues saying: 26:14 Now what's the next expression? 26:17 That's identical to what Jesus referred to in Mark 7. 26:48 He continues saying: 26:52 Now this is a very important paragraph. 27:10 So who is the only authoritative interpreter of Scripture? 27:15 Not only the church, but the teaching authority of the 27:19 church, the magisterium. 27:21 Is that identical to what's happening in the days of Christ? 27:24 The scholars were the ones who were qualified to define what 27:28 people needed to believe, and what they needed to practice. 27:31 Absolutely! It continues saying: 27:35 Which is the word magisterium. 27:46 I'd like to see all of these doctrines. 27:48 I mentioned at the beginning, handed down from where? 27:50 Certainly not from Holy Scripture, because Scripture 27:53 for example, says that baptism should be by emersion. 27:56 There's not a case of baptism by sprinkling. 27:59 There's not a case of a child being baptized. 28:02 There's not one reference to the idea that Mary was 28:06 born without any taint of a sinful nature. 28:09 The Bible doesn't even mention the birth of Mary. 28:12 So where are you going to get it from? 28:14 The only place you could get it from is from the supposed oral 28:17 traditions that have been handed down, 28:18 just like in the days of Christ. 28:20 So it continues saying: This teaching office is not above 28:23 the Word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been 28:27 handed down. Listening... 28:45 And then, this is the last part of the statement that I want 28:49 to read from Dei Verbum. 29:20 So is the belief of the Roman Catholic Church. 29:24 Did you see any similarity between what the council said, 29:29 and what we notice from Mark 7, and also what we noticed in our 29:33 second lecture about the view of Jewish tradition? 29:36 The terminology is identical, and the concept is identical. 29:40 The only difference is that it's God, through Moses, 29:43 and in the case of the Christian church it's God through Peter, 29:47 but the ideas are exactly the same. 29:50 Now the second source that I want to read from is the 29:55 Roman Catholic Catechism; the most recent 29:57 Roman Catholic Catechism. 30:00 It is a massive book, and it was actually authorized by 30:04 John Paul II, so this is official 30:06 Roman Catholic teaching. 30:08 I'm not, once again, reading statements from scholars, 30:12 or theologians of the Catholic Church. 30:13 I am reading from official sources, which are considered 30:17 to be trustworthy, and authorative, and infallible 30:22 by the Roman Catholic Church. 30:23 What I'm going to read is from Article 2, of the Catechism 30:28 of the Catholic Church, and this section of the Catechism deals 30:33 with the transmission of divine revelation. 30:37 And it's divided in paragraphs, so I'm going to read certain 30:40 paragraphs that we find in Article 2. 30:43 First of all paragraph 76. 30:53 Notice the expression handed on. 31:21 And the second way the Catechism says that it's transmitted: 31:36 And then in the very next section you have a subtitle 31:40 that says, continued in apostolic succession. 31:43 In other words, the written Scriptures, and the oral 31:45 traditions are passed along by apostolic succession. 31:48 And so lets read from paragraph 77. 32:02 Hum, interesting. That's apostolic succession. 32:13 There's not a faintest hint of this in the New Testament. 32:24 Listen carefully now. 32:32 Now lets read paragraph 78. 32:37 See the transmitting mechanism idea, and the deposit of the 32:40 faith idea, and the idea that you have a magisterium in each 32:45 period of history to preserve and teach the tradition? 32:49 So it says in paragraph 78: 33:30 Now the next section in the Catechism, 33:33 right before paragraph 80, is titled, One Common Source. 33:37 The Catholic Church teaches that oral tradition, and the written 33:41 Scriptures have one source. 33:42 Now notice what the Catholic Church says in paragraph 80. 34:20 So what the Catholic Church is saying is that there's one 34:23 deposit of tradition: the written tradition, 34:26 which is the Bible, the New Testament, and the unwritten 34:28 traditions, and they both come from the same source. 34:32 Now right before paragraph 81, you have the subtitle, 34:37 Two Distinct Modes of Transmission. 34:39 It says there, Sacred Scripture is the... 34:47 And then it continues saying: 35:19 So who are the ones that are established to preserve 35:22 oral tradition to make sure that it's trustworthy? 35:25 the successors of the apostles. 35:27 Same idea as with the Jews, different terminology, 35:31 in that case. Now in paragraph 82 it says: 35:40 It's not talking about the book of Revelation. 35:42 It's talking about the divine revelation. 35:49 Now listen carefully. 35:51 This is really important. 35:58 In other words the Roman Catholic Church says, 36:01 We do not go by Sola scriptura. 36:03 It continues saying: 36:16 The next subtitle is: Apostolic Tradition 36:21 and Ecclesial Traditions, paragraph 83. 36:25 The tradition here in question comes from the apostles. 36:30 And now notice the key terminology again. 36:36 Ah, if you were here for the Mark 7 study... 36:39 I mean the terminology is identical. So it says: 37:02 The next paragraph, 84, is preceded by the subtitle, 37:07 The Heritage of Faith Entrusted to the Whole Church. 37:11 I'm reading now from paragraph 84 of Article 2, of the Roman 37:16 Catholic Catechism; the most recent one. It says: 37:59 In other words, because the truth of oral tradition has been 38:03 passed along by apostolic succession, from bishop to 38:06 bishop, the people in order to be in communion with their 38:10 bishops, have to believe what their bishops teach. 38:13 That's basically what it's saying. 38:14 And then you have another paragraph which is titled, 38:18 the subtitle comes before it, The Magisteriam of the Church. 38:22 And I'll read paragraph 85 and 86. It says: 38:36 Listen carefully. 38:42 So who are the ones that have the authority to teach? 38:46 Only the theologians of the Church. 38:50 This article continues saying: 39:08 And paragraph 86 says: 39:23 That is seriously open to question! 39:47 So let me ask you, As we've read these statements from 39:51 Dave Attaboom, and from the Catechism of the Roman Catholic 39:55 Church, can you see the similarities between the Jewish 39:58 view in the days of Christ, and the Roman Catholic view? 40:01 And listen, folks, the view that was held by the Jews in the days 40:06 of Christ led to the rejection of Jesus Christ, 40:08 and led to the apostasy of the Jewish nation. 40:12 Can the same be said today of Roman Catholicism? Absolutely! 40:18 Now I'd like to read you a statement from Pope Pius XII. 40:23 And this is a very interesting statement about the power 40:27 of the magisterium in the Roman Catholic Church. 40:29 Do you understand what I mean by magisterium, right? 40:32 The magisterium are the scholars of the Roman Catholic Church 40:36 that hand on the traditions, supposedly, in an infallible, 40:39 and trustworthy way. 40:41 This is what Pius Xll once said: 41:01 Are you understanding what he's saying? 41:03 He's saying there's some things in the deposit of the faith 41:06 that are obscure and implicit. 41:09 But he's saying, the magisterium exists in order to illumine and 41:15 clarify that which is obscure and that which is implicitly 41:21 contained in the oral tradition. 41:23 And so the Roman Catholic Church will look for a word in a text, 41:29 or a single text, and they'll take it out of context. 41:31 They'll say, See, there's a hint that what the Church teaches now 41:35 is the truth, but really Scripture has nothing to say 41:39 about most of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. 41:42 They're based almost totally on written tradition. 41:48 Now I want to read several additional quotations. 41:51 These are from theologians of the Roman Catholic Church. 42:06 Now listen to the second paragraph. 42:30 So both of them, he says, are of equal sacredness, 42:34 but one is more safe and clear, and that is unwritten tradition. 42:41 That, by the way, was written by Joseph Faa de Bruno, 42:46 Roman Catholic scholar. 42:48 Here's another one from Francis Butler. 42:50 All of these are statements from Roman Catholics. 43:01 There's an open admission. 43:49 No he's going to give a list. 44:07 We believe that there's 66. 44:08 The Catholic Church says, No, there's 72, 44:10 because they accept the apocrypha. 44:12 It continues saying, notice: 44:42 Now listen, this is a very important statement. 44:45 This statement that I am reading now is from John O'Brien, 44:49 who taught for many years at the University of Notre Dame. 44:53 And so this is a very significant 44:55 statement that he makes. 45:03 That is the magisteriam. 45:17 By the way, that's not John O'Brien, that's a conclusion 45:21 to the statement by Francis Butler. 45:25 But now lets go to the one that comes from John O'Brien, 45:30 who was the teacher for many years at Notre Dame University. 45:35 This is what he says. 45:59 How could it be more explicit? 46:01 That's John O'Brien. 46:03 He wrote a book called The Faith of Millions, a book that sold 46:07 thousands and thousands of copies, if not hundreds of 46:10 thousands, perhaps millions. He continues saying: 46:20 And I say, Yes, the Holy Spirit. 46:22 They say No, it's the teaching office. 46:25 He continues saying: 46:47 Now here's another statement from Joseph Faa de Bruno. 47:30 Protected by whom? 47:41 So the idea is God makes sure that in the process of 47:45 transmission, these scholars keep it right. 47:49 Now notice this statement from John Laux. 48:27 So, basically, he's saying that the Roman Catholic Church 48:31 doesn't base its faith on Scripture or oral tradition. 48:35 You say, Then what does it base it on? 48:36 Well, lets continue reading. 49:03 In other words, It is the magisterium that defines 49:06 whether something is true or not, not even the Scriptures, 49:09 or the oral tradition. 49:10 Notice what Bertrand Conway had to say. 49:39 Now notice the challenge. 50:07 I mean talk about indicting yourself by your own quotations. 50:14 And this is the reason why Keith Fornier more recently said this: 50:26 In other words, the Church is above the Book. 50:29 That's practically blasphemy to say the Church 50:34 is above the Book. 50:35 And the Church infallibly interprets the Book, 50:39 and everybody has to obey what the Church has to say. 50:43 Now let me read you another statement from John O'Brien, 50:47 the same teacher from Notre Dame University. He says: 50:58 The Church is the mother of the Bible, in other words. 51:01 This is what he's saying. 51:16 Now listen, this is incredible! 51:45 Are you understanding what the issue is here? 51:49 You see, Protestantism goes by Sola scriptura, 51:53 and slowly Protestantism has forsaken that. 51:56 You know, you take somebody like Tony Palmer, for example. 51:59 You know, you've heard of him. 52:01 You know, he says Christians need to unite. 52:02 In fact, do you know that he says Protestants are to blame 52:05 for the divisions in the Christian world. 52:07 He says because before Protestantism there was only 52:11 one church, the Roman Catholic Church, 52:12 everything was united. 52:14 After that, as a result of the Protestant Reformation, 52:17 you have 33,000 denominations. 52:20 And so he says we all have to come under the umbrella 52:23 of the one Catholic Church again. Interesting! 52:27 So from the forgoing quotations, and from empirical observation, 52:33 we can reach the following conclusions: 52:37 Roman Catholicism has virtually an identical view of divine 52:41 revelation as did apostate Judaism in the days of Christ. 52:45 The three elements of the sacred deposit of written 52:49 and oral traditions, the transmitting mechanism 52:52 as authoritative, and a living interpreter in every age, 52:58 is present in both systems. 53:00 And the terminology is virtually identical. 53:03 Words such as tradition, handed down, passed on, 53:07 received, hold, unbroken succession are found in both. 53:13 In both systems the belief is that the oral traditions go 53:18 supposedly back to an original source. 53:20 In the case of the Jews, it was God through Moses. 53:25 In the case of the Roman Catholic Church 53:27 it is God through Peter. 53:29 Amazingly, in Matthew 23:2, do you remember that Jesus 53:33 said that the scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses seat? 53:37 The word seat there is cathedra, and basically what it meant 53:42 is that the scribes and Pharisees said that they had 53:46 the authority of Moses to teach, because they were the 53:49 successors of Moses. 53:50 And so the Pope today says, I have the right to infallibly 53:55 teach because I am the successor of Peter. 53:58 And when the Pope speaks ex cathedra, that is from the 54:02 throne, what he speaks is infallible, and you have to take 54:08 it to the bank, and you have to obey it. 54:10 In both systems they pay lip service to the idea that 54:15 tradition and Scripture are equal, but in actual practice 54:20 tradition is higher than Scripture. 54:24 In both Judaism and Roman Catholicism people were, 54:30 and are expected to render implicit, and unquestioning 54:34 obedience, and submission to the views of the 54:37 scholars of the church. 54:38 Any divergence is swiftly punished by excommunication, 54:45 or in the case of the Jews in the days of Christ, 54:48 expulsion from the synagogue. 54:50 The Roman Catholic Church has taken measures to correct 54:56 some of its scholars who have gone astray from what the 54:58 magisterium teaches. 55:00 I could tell you the story of Hans Kung. 55:02 I won't take the time; we don't have the time to do that. 55:05 But he was a teacher in Europe and he was defrocked from his 55:09 position because he taught views that were different 55:11 from the views of the Church. 55:13 And so, folks, what is happening in the Christian world today 55:19 is practically a copy of what was taking place 55:23 in the days of Christ. 55:24 I'd like to end by reading a statement that we find in 55:28 The Desire of Ages, 466, 467, on what is really 55:33 apostolic succession. 55:35 Ellen White states this: The Pharisees had declared 55:38 themselves the children of Abraham. 55:41 Jesus told them that this claim could be established only by 55:45 doing the works of Abraham. 55:46 The true children of Abraham would live as he did, 55:50 a life of obedience to God. 55:52 They would not try to kill One who was speaking the truth 55:55 that was given Him from God. 55:57 A mere lineal decent from Abraham was of no value. 56:01 Without a spiritual connection with him, which would be 56:05 manifested in possessing the same spirit, and doing the same 56:09 works, they were not his children. 56:11 And then she goes on to say, This principle bears with equal 56:15 weight upon a question that has long agitated the Christian 56:19 world: the question of apostolic succession. 56:22 Descent from Abraham was proved, not by name and lineage, 56:27 but by likeness of character. 56:29 So the apostolic succession rests not upon the transmission 56:34 of ecclesiastical authority, but upon spiritual relationship. 56:39 A life actuated by the apostle's spirit, the belief and teaching 56:44 of the truth that they taught, this is the true evidence 56:48 of apostolic succession. 56:50 This is what constitutes men the successors of the first 56:54 teachers of the gospel, which means that if any theologian 56:58 today teaches contrary to what scripture teaches, they are not 57:03 successors of anyone. 57:05 Because the teachings that are brought forth today must be 57:09 firmly based upon the written Scriptures. 57:13 Man shall not live by bread alone. 57:16 Man shall live by every word that proceeds 57:19 out of the mouth of God. 57:21 Man shall live by a thus saith the Lord 57:25 in the written Scriptures. |
Revised 2014-12-17