Trent? Vatican II? JDDJ? Unam Sanctum? Was gibt?
Is the Roman Catholic church on the side of the angels, or...er, not so much?
Does it agree with us Lutherans (and with Paul) that we're saved by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith (as Vatican II and the JDDJ would seem to indicate, or does it believe (as the Council of Trent insisted) that we Lutherans are going to hell for believing that very thing?
THe dilemma is a real one, since according to Roman Catholic teaching both Vatican II and Trent are infallible, and both represent the church's official teaching.
A church which soundly embraces the liturgical and sacramental character of biblical Christian faith and staunchly defends the rights of the unborn and the sexual ethics taught by the apostles on one hand, while continuing to make presumptuous claims for itself institutionally and managing to simultaneously both condemn and endorse the Gospel itself on the other, is a puzzle oft remarked upon by confessional Lutherans. But there's something about a video (especially this guy's videos) that gets the point across in a way that mere words can't.
Which is it, Roman Catholic brothers and sisters? Are we your brothers and sisters, fellow combatants in the battle for the Faith Once Delivered? Or are we heretics and schismatics, or saved from that status only by the accident of our having been born centuries after the Western Church was sundered by the Reformation? And ELCA and LWF folks... how can even you be post-modern enough to think that in light of the paradox described below the JDDJ is worth the paper it's printed on?
HT: Beggars All
Does it agree with us Lutherans (and with Paul) that we're saved by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith (as Vatican II and the JDDJ would seem to indicate, or does it believe (as the Council of Trent insisted) that we Lutherans are going to hell for believing that very thing?
THe dilemma is a real one, since according to Roman Catholic teaching both Vatican II and Trent are infallible, and both represent the church's official teaching.
A church which soundly embraces the liturgical and sacramental character of biblical Christian faith and staunchly defends the rights of the unborn and the sexual ethics taught by the apostles on one hand, while continuing to make presumptuous claims for itself institutionally and managing to simultaneously both condemn and endorse the Gospel itself on the other, is a puzzle oft remarked upon by confessional Lutherans. But there's something about a video (especially this guy's videos) that gets the point across in a way that mere words can't.
Which is it, Roman Catholic brothers and sisters? Are we your brothers and sisters, fellow combatants in the battle for the Faith Once Delivered? Or are we heretics and schismatics, or saved from that status only by the accident of our having been born centuries after the Western Church was sundered by the Reformation? And ELCA and LWF folks... how can even you be post-modern enough to think that in light of the paradox described below the JDDJ is worth the paper it's printed on?
HT: Beggars All
Comments