Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI200458B
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00:01 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:02 And before the break, I was talking about 00:05 significant changes in the Roman Catholic Church 00:07 and how it relates to other churches 00:09 and governments because of Vatican II. 00:13 Now I'd like to just go through some documents, 00:16 but before documents remind you 00:19 if you've forgotten that was big at the time, 00:23 Pope Benedict when he was first 00:26 placed in that office, made a lot of news, 00:29 very negative in the Muslim world 00:31 by a speech that he gave at Regensburg University, 00:36 where he spoken 00:38 or where he taught for some time, 00:40 I think it was significant and perhaps chosen 00:42 because it was also a major center 00:45 of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic pushback 00:48 against the Reformation 00:50 'cause I've learned that nothing is by chance, 00:53 in the way the times and the places 00:55 and the context that Rome 00:57 chooses for these speeches and documents. 01:00 And he got into trouble 01:02 because he cited the historic conversation 01:04 between a Byzantine Emperor and the Iranian Muslim 01:10 General besieging Constantinople 01:14 as it was then, now it's Istanbul 01:17 and eventually felt to the Muslims. 01:19 And they got to discussing violence in religion 01:22 and the assumption in the discussion 01:24 was that Islam was violent. 01:26 And when that speech was broadcast, 01:29 the Islamic world started rioting right left 01:31 and center, which is sort of childish. 01:34 You're accused of violence, 01:35 so you become violent in objection. 01:38 But most people didn't notice the real speech. 01:42 That was just the setup. 01:44 He didn't think he'd get into trouble from a historic, 01:47 factual discussion. 01:50 It was a setup for his discussion 01:52 of violence within Christianity. 01:56 And he said Christianity too was once violent 02:00 until it adopted Hellenistic rationality. 02:04 And I could say until it adopted the ways 02:06 of the empire and adopted worldliness, 02:10 but if you accept his logic, then it was rather troubling 02:15 where he ended up because if it was once violent, 02:18 became nonviolent with Hellenistic rationality, 02:22 and then he gave three reasons 02:25 as to an incipient threat 02:26 of violence in Christianity again. 02:28 The last two, which is variations 02:31 on his preoccupation at the time 02:33 that secularism was bringing violence, 02:36 which I think is a hard, hard line to follow. 02:41 But his first point was ominous. 02:43 He said the reformers, this is exactly quote 02:47 as I can remember, 02:49 "The reformers by their insistence 02:51 on Sola Scriptura exposed Christianity 02:56 again to violence." 02:59 And this is post 9/11 when we know that 03:03 certain Islamic fanatics reading very selected 03:08 and self-serving passages from the Quran, 03:11 and listening to no other logic, 03:13 no other rationality, 03:14 no other humanity, other than, you know, 03:16 Allah wills it, we're willing to fly 03:18 into buildings and destroy themselves 03:20 and kill as many other people as possible. 03:22 The analogy is scary to say now that Christianity 03:26 through the Sola Scriptura model 03:29 of the Reformation, in other words, 03:32 Protestants are essentially 03:35 the next most violent possibility 03:38 in our modern world. 03:39 Horrible, not borne out by any facts, but, you know, 03:43 facts don't determine things as much as they used to. 03:46 So, you know, that was most interesting 03:48 and particularly from then on, 03:50 I started watching 03:52 the documents coming out of Rome. 03:53 For example, 03:55 this is all within the last 25 years 03:56 right up till the present. 03:58 There was a document 03:59 out of Rome called Ad Tuendam Fidem. 04:01 These are papal documents to defend the faith. 04:05 They were having trouble with theologians 04:07 who were denying both the primacy of the pope 04:10 and the inspiration of the Bible 04:11 and as well as other 04:12 foundational aspects of Christianity, 04:14 and they need to deal with them. 04:16 The document outlines that, 04:18 it said how they were dealing with theologians, 04:21 then it said how they were dealing 04:22 with those that were problems within the church, 04:25 and then it ended by saying, "Whoever believes 04:29 what the magisterium of the church 04:32 have rejected or rejects 04:36 what the magisterium of the church 04:38 has recommended is to be punished 04:40 with an appropriate penalty." 04:43 And to me, that's the language of the Middle Ages, 04:45 where the church 04:47 has a preeminent political position. 04:48 And if you offend the church, 04:50 they hand you off to the state to be punished. 04:53 Very ominous language. 04:55 Then the next document that's significant, 04:58 that Seventh-day Adventist 04:59 I know pay great attention to was called Dies Domini, 05:03 the Lord's Day. 05:06 This specified or the whole document 05:10 was talking about the Sabbath, 05:12 and it made no attempt 05:14 to dodge the obvious biblical reality 05:17 that the Sabbath was given by God 05:19 and The Ten Commandments 05:21 and really in a larger Old Testament context 05:25 to all peoples as the seventh-day of the week, 05:30 requirement of God. 05:31 And in the past, I know Seventh-day Adventists 05:33 have been challenged 05:35 on some of their proof texts, not anymore. 05:36 The Roman Catholic Church adopted all of them, 05:40 no challenge. 05:41 It reinforced the seventh-day Sabbath 05:44 except about halfway through it said this, 05:47 "While the early Christians had no direct instruction 05:52 from the Lord, they felt that 05:54 they had the authority to change it to Sunday, 05:57 in celebration of the Lord's resurrection." 06:00 Very interesting admission, but at the same time, 06:04 an assertion of an inherited authority 06:08 because with Rome, as with governments, 06:11 but here we're talking about religion, 06:13 authority is everything 06:14 and they have assumed the authority, 06:16 the mantle, that, by their interpretation 06:19 was given to Peter, the authority that 06:21 they have granted to the church fathers. 06:23 And curiously, the derivative authority 06:26 from the magisterium, 06:28 the power given to the church 06:30 and the integrity of the church fathers 06:33 to the scriptures that they have collected. 06:36 So Sola Scriptura is offensive to them 06:39 because as I've often read on Catholic material, 06:42 they assembled these documents, they assembled them 06:45 so it's their authority that determines scripture, 06:48 not sort of the other way around 06:50 judging the church by scripture. 06:55 The next one, and maybe I'll end this program 06:58 in discussion of this 06:59 and continue on another program, 07:01 these are the documents. 07:02 The next document that really created a fuss 07:05 within the Christian community, 07:07 which at that point was quite enamored 07:09 with the idea of the ecumenical movement. 07:12 And some decades ago, 07:14 its stated aim was to sort of bring everyone together. 07:17 I can remember even in Australia in the 70s, 07:21 hearing, visiting church leaders, 07:22 Protestant and Catholic talking about 07:25 healing the rift within Christendom 07:26 and coming back to the Mother Church. 07:28 It's not really the way it's expressed now, 07:30 but it was then. 07:32 And quite some years ago now, 07:35 but I'd say maybe about 15 years ago, 07:39 they came out with a document 07:41 called memory and reconciliation. 07:43 And it was reported widely in the press 07:46 but not saying where it came from that they had apologized 07:50 for the inquisition, 07:52 for the persecution of the Jews, 07:54 for the Sack of Constantinople, 07:58 where they sent one of the Crusades to pillage 08:01 and attack the other half of the Christian Church. 08:05 You know, whole thing, 08:06 a series of things were apologize for, 08:08 but it says in the document, 08:10 is it really possible to ascribe guilt 08:13 to the actions of another age. 08:15 And then the clunker in the middle of the document 08:18 that really troubled me it says this, 08:21 "Just as Christ, holy and undefiled 08:24 and incapable of error took upon Himself 08:27 the sins of fallen human beings. 08:29 So the magisterium of the church, 08:33 holy and undefiled and incapable of error 08:36 will apologize for the acts of human beings." 08:41 Basically, that acted on its behalf. 08:44 The intent I think, was good, 08:46 but in so doing, 08:47 they reiterated this exceptionalism 08:50 that Rome has always had, 08:51 which is antithetical to true religious freedom. 08:54 And from my perspective if it's not easily synthesize 09:00 with Bible truth, 09:02 the concept in the Old Testament 09:04 and the New. 09:05 No priest, no delegate of God 09:10 has the right to say that I know everything. 09:13 Even Moses, the greatest prophets 09:16 before John the Baptist, 09:19 and after his death, he was taken to heaven, 09:22 but even Moses was held at fault 09:24 because he whacks the rock and says, 09:26 "Must I bring the water out of the rock." 09:31 So, you know, the key is to St. Peter, 09:33 however, that legitimately or illegitimately they got. 09:36 They don't confer this absolutism on Rome, 09:40 it's not to be. 09:41 And so it's troubling to me, in this post Reformation era 09:46 when Protestants are forgetting 09:48 what they were that Rome is reiterating 09:51 some of the bolder claims of a prior day. 09:55 And I must say that memory 10:00 and reconciliation was really quite a disappointing one, 10:04 but it ended on a strange level 10:08 because it says we have apologized. 10:11 Now Protestants should reciprocate 10:14 and apologize. 10:16 And thereby hangs the tail 10:18 because in reality 10:19 some of this has already happened. 10:21 The World Lutheran Federation 10:24 have had two agreements with Rome the first, 10:26 that the disagreement with Lutheran Rome 10:29 was sort of a mistake, a doctrinal misunderstanding. 10:32 And the second document said there is no longer 10:35 any impediment to full reunification. 10:39 We've come a long way in 500 years, 10:41 and not all of it good. 10:44 And while Rome has got an openness now 10:48 that we could have wished for, 10:49 at the time of the Reformation, 10:51 there are still some deep misunderstandings, 10:55 deep assumptions that at the end of the day, 10:58 it might work against continued religious liberty 11:01 and need to be kept fully in mind, 11:04 by all who are as that speech spoke badly 11:08 of all who are insisting on Sola Scriptura. |
Revised 2020-04-29