Showing that he is as ignorant about Roman Catholicism as he is about “Mormonism,” Matthew A. Paulson, while commenting on the Shepherd of Hermas, wrote that:
Probably
the most prestigious Christian voices of antiquity decidedly opposed to the claim
that Shepherd of Hermas was canonical is that of Tertullian (AD
150-222). He designates it apocryphal, and rejects it with serious scorn, as
favoring anti-Montanistic opinions. Interestingly, Gonzalez speculates that
this non-canonical book led to the penance system of the Roman Catholic Church.
Considering the amount of revenue this penitence system brought in over the years,
it is understandable why the Roman Catholic Church adopted this
non-canonical book. (Matthew A. Paulson, Breaking the Mormon Code: A
Critique of Mormon Scholarship Regarding Classical Christian Theology and the
Book of Mormon [Livermore, Calif.: WingSpan Press, 2006, 2009], 187,
emphasis in bold added)
I am sure that my Catholic friends and readers of this blog
will find this hilarious. It is also dead wrong and just plain stupid. Roman Catholicism has never “adopted”
the Shepherd of Hermas. Here is the dogmatic decree of the Catholic canon from session
4 of Trent (April 1546)—one will notice that the Shepherd of Hermas is missing:
783 [DS 1501] The sacred and holy ecumenical and
general Synod of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Spirit, with the same
three Legates of the Apostolic See presiding over it, keeping this constantly
in view, that with the abolishing of errors, the purity itself of the Gospel is
preserved in the Church, which promised before through the Prophets in the Holy
Scriptures our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God first promulgated with His own
mouth, and then commanded “to be preached” by His apostles “to every creature”
as the source of every saving truth and of instruction in morals [Matt. 28:19
ff.; Mark 16:15], and [the Synod] clearly perceiving that this truth and
instruction are contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions,
which have been received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself, or
from the apostles themselves, at the dictation of the Holy Spirit, have come
down even to us, transmitted as it were from hand to hand, [the Synod]
following the examples of the orthodox Fathers, receives and holds in
veneration with an equal affection of piety and reverence all the books both of
the Old and of the New Testament, since one God is the author of both, and also
the traditions themselves, those that appertain both to faith and to morals, as
having been dictated either by Christ’s own word of mouth, or by the Holy
Spirit, and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continuous succession. And so
that no doubt may arise in anyone’s mind as to which are the books that are
accepted by this Synod, it has decreed that a list of the Sacred books be added
to this decree.
784 [DS 1502] They are written here below:
Books of the Old Testament: The five books of Moses, namely,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Josue, Judges, Ruth, four
books of Kings, two of Paralipomenon, the first book of Esdras, and the second
which is called Nehemias, Tobias, Judith, Esther, Job, the Psalter of David
consisting of 150 psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of
Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Isaias, Jeremias with Baruch, Ezechiel,
Daniel, the twelve minor Prophets, that is Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas,
Michaeas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggaeus, Zacharias, Malachias; two books
of the Machabees, the first and the second.
[DS 1503] Books
of the New Testament: the four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John; the Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke the Evangelist, fourteen
epistles of Paul the Apostle, to the Romans, to the Corinthians two, to the
Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, two to the
Thessalonians, two to Timothy, to Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews; two of
Peter the Apostle, three of John the Apostle, one of the Apostle James, one of
the Apostle Jude, and the Apocalypse of John the Apostle. [DS 1504] If anyone, however, should not accept the said books as
sacred and canonical, entire with all their parts, as they were wont to be read
in the Catholic Church, and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate
edition, and if both knowingly and deliberately he should condemn the aforesaid
traditions let him be anathema. [DS
1505] Let all, therefore, understand in what order and in what manner the
said Synod, after having laid the foundation of the confession of Faith, will
proceed, and what testimonies and authorities it will mainly use in confirming
dogmas, and in restoring morals in the Church.
Further Reading:
Listing of articles responding to "Breaking the Mormon Code"
