Friday, January 17, 2025

Kenneth A. Strand, German Bibles Before Luther: The Story of 14 High-German Editions (1966)

I just happened upon a PDF of the following interesting book: 


Kenneth A. Strand, German Bibles Before Luther: The Story of 14 High-German Editions (1966)

 

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Daniel Alan Brubaker on how Leo XIII's Encyclical "Rerum Novarum" (May 15, 1891) Laid the Seeds to Liberation Theology

  

Catholic Church and Catholic Social Teaching

 

In May of 1891, People Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum. The document on the one hand affirms the right to property and rejects socialism as injustice. However, it is also saturated with Marxist jargon and categories. The term “class(es)” and “the working class(es)” occur 32 times in the space of 20 pages, and the document uses the term “proletarian” as well as referring to the apparent oxymoron “unchecked competition.”

 

The Rerum Novarum contains the seeds of what later came to be known as the “preferential option for the poor” when it claims that “when there is question of defending the rights of individuals, the poor and badly off have a claim to especial consideration.” The statement seems to intend counterbalancing advantage of rich people via an imposed counter advantage to poor or weak people. However, here it countermands biblical justice, which says that neither rich nor poor should be shown favortisim, but everyone should be judged fairly (Leviticus 19:15).

 

The Rerum Novarum, through correctly defending property as essential to justice, nevertheless cracked the door to both injustice and socialism, when it declared, “the public administration must duly and solicitously provide for the welfare and the comfort of the wedding classes,” and “Justice . . . demands that the interests of the working classes should be carefully watched over by the administration,” and other such statements. The Rerum Novarum’s error at these points laid a foundation for the Catholic Church’s subsequent dalliance with liberation theology.

 

Having gained a foothold in the Catholic Church beginning in Latin America throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Marxism eventually bore fruit in the form of a bona fide socialist Pope, Francis. Douglas Farrow opened his 2017 article in the Catholic magazine First Things “’Is the pope Catholic?” used to be an answer, not a question.” The reference here is not merely to Francis’ embrace of liberation theology but also the slack and apparently compromising stance toward moral matters that, scripturally speaking, are rather non-negotiable. (Daniel Alan Brubaker, What’s Wrong With Socialism? A Biblical Investigation for Everyone [Lovettsville, Va.: Think and Tell, 2024], 192-93)

 

 

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Thursday, January 16, 2025

Michael Whelton on The Decretals of Pseudo-Isidore

  

The Decretals of Pseudo-Isidore

 

While the Donation of Constantine was mostly concerned with promoting the temporal power of the papacy, the Decretals of Pseudo-Isidore were directed at establishing its claim to supreme universal authority over the Church. This collection of genuine and spurious material bears the appellation Pseudo-Isidore because the forgers attributed the collection to St. Isidore of Seville. The Decretals date from the ninth century and appear to have been used for the first time at the Council of Soissons in 835.

 

The first part of this three-part collection is, according to the Cambridge Medieval History, “completely spurious,” containing seventy forged letters “attributed to Popes before the Council of Nicaea” (325). Also included were “two spurious letters of Clement, which were already in circulation.” The majority of the second part of the collection, containing the canons of councils, is genuine, the notable exception being the famous Donation of Constantine. The third part of the collection contains a skillful blending of false and genuine decretals.

 

Germany’s greatest Roman Catholic historian, Johan Josef Ignaz von Dollinger (1799–1890), was professor of canon law and church history at Munich University and president of the Bavarian Royal Academy of Sciences. He was regarded by his peers as one of the greatest historical scholars in Europe. In commenting on the Decretals, von Dollinger wrote that it was “filled through and through with forgery and error … it entered like a mighty wedge into the older structural organization of the Church and split it apart.” Rome’s acceptance and use of these fabrications ultimately severed her ties with the Eastern Church by destroying the shared, conciliar system of government (government by councils) and replacing it with a monarchical bishopric claiming complete universal jurisdiction over the entire Church.

 

The most influential book produced by the Roman Catholic Church was her code of canon law known as the Decretum, compiled by a Benedictine monk named Gratian in the tenth century. This code contained numerous forgeries. In fact, out of 324 papal quotations, only 11 are genuine. “Gratian misquoted the 36th canon of the Sixth Oecumenical Council which, giving to the patriarch of Constantinople equal rights with the patriarch of Rome, made it say the very opposite. Misquoting the synod of Carthage of 418, which forbade appeals across the sea, Gratian made the synod say the very opposite.” Johann von Dollinger comments as follows:

 

The effect of the False Decretals was great in the Middle Ages.… By incorporation and quotation in the Decretum of Gratian, the False Decretals received a definite authority in textbooks of canon law in the Middle Ages. The False Decretals have gained their chief fame because they were one of the great forgeries of history. Included in the collection are 60 letters or decrees of popes from Clement I to Melchiades (d. 314), of which 58 are forged … and a collection of papal letters from the 4th to 8th cent., of which the majority are authentic. Even in these sections, however, there has been tampering with the text. The forgeries are supported by liberal interlading with quotations from authentic letters and by attribution to popes whose letters were known to be lost. Even many of the genuine letters in the collection show evidence of tampering. The False Decretals were completely exposed in the 16th cent.

 

The great nineteenth-century Catholic layman Lord Acton was a German-trained historian who, as Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University, planned the twelve-volume Cambridge Modern History. On the subject of the False Decretals, Lord Acton writes:

 

Religious knowledge in those days suffered not only from ignorance and the defect of testimony, but from an excess of fiction and falsification. Whenever a school was lacking in proofs for its opinions it straightway forged them, and was sure not to be found out. A vast mass of literature arose, which no man, with medieval implements, could detect, and effectually baffled and deceived the student of tradition. At every point he was confronted by imaginary canons and constitutions of the apostles, acts of Councils, decretals of early Popes, writings of the Fathers from St. Clement to St. Cyril, all of them composed for the purpose of deceiving.

 

Writing in the same vein, Lord Acton adds:

 

The passage from the Catholicism of the Fathers to that of the modern Popes was accomplished by willful falsehood; and the whole structure of traditions, laws and doctrines that support the theory of infallibility and the practical despotism of the Popes stands on a basis of fraud.

 

In addition to the False Decretals, other forgeries made their way into the works of the famous St. Thomas Aquinas. In order to show that the Eastern Fathers had always recognized the authority of Rome, a forger created a collection of mixed genuine and forged quotations attributed to St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. Maximus the Confessor. This work carried the title, Thesaurus of Greek Fathers.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his book, Against the Errors of the Greeks, completed in 1264, unwittingly relied on this forged material to build his case against the Eastern Church for the supreme authority of the papacy. The enormous reputation of Aquinas afforded these forgeries an almost infallible status. The following three chapters employing the spurious material are from Aquinas’s work, Against the Error of the Greeks, as cited in Roman Catholic apologist James Likoudis’s book, Ending the Byzantine Greek Schism:

 

Chapter thirty-five

That he enjoys the same power conferred on Peter by Christ.

It is also shown that Peter is the Vicar of Christ and the Roman Pontiff is Peter’s successor enjoying the same power conferred on Peter by Christ. For the canon of the Council of Chalcedon says: “If any bishop is sentenced as guilty of infamy, he is free to appeal the sentence to the blessed bishop of old Rome, whom we have as Peter the rock of refuge, and to him alone, in the place of God, with unlimited power, is granted the authority to hear the appeal of a bishop accused of infamy in virtue of the keys given him by our Lord.” And further on: “And whatever has been decreed by him is to be held as from the vicar of the apostolic throne.”

 

Likewise, Cyril, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, says, speaking in the person of Christ: “You for a while, but I without end will be fully and perfectly in sacrament and authority with all those whom I shall put in your place, just as I am also with you.” And Cyril of Alexandria in his Thesaurus says that the Apostles “in the Gospels and Epistles have affirmed in all their teaching that Peter and his Church are in the place of the Lord, granting him participation in every chapter and assembly, in every election and proclamation of doctrine.” And further on: “To him, that is, to Peter, all by divine ordinance bow the head, and the rulers of the world obey him as the Lord Jesus himself.” And Chrysostom, speaking in the person of Christ, says: “Feed my sheep (John 21:17), that is, in my place be in charge of your Brethren.”

 

The quotations attributed to the Council of Chalcedon, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Cyril of Alexandria are spurious; John Chysostom’s is genuine. In fact, nowhere in the canons or creeds of the Seven Ecumenical Councils is there any reference to the supreme universal jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome.

 

Chapter thirty-six

That to him belongs the right of deciding what pertains to faith.

It is also demonstrated that to the aforesaid Pontiff belongs the right of deciding what pertains to faith. For Cyril in his Thesaurus says: “Let us remain as members in our head on the apostolic throne of the Roman Pontiffs, from whom it is our duty to seek what we must believe and what we must hold.”

 

This quotation is a complete forgery.

 

Chapter thirty-seven

That he is superior of the other patriarchs.

It is also clear that he is superior of the other patriarchs from this statement of Cyril: “It is his”, namely, of the Roman Pontiffs of the apostolic throne, “exclusive right to reprove, correct, enact, resolve, dispose and bind in the name of Him who established it.” And Chrysostom commenting on the Acts of the Apostles says that “Peter is the most holy summit of the blessed, apostolic choir, the good shepherd.” And this also is manifest on the authority of the Lord, in Luke 22:32 saying: “you, once converted, confirm your brethren.”

 

The statement attributed to Cyril is spurious, while that attributed to Chrysostom is genuine.

 

In his book, The Pope and the Council (published under the pseudonym “Janus”), Johann von Dollinger comments on the forgeries of Pseudo-Isidore that found their way into the works of Thomas Aquinas:

 

In theology, from the beginning of the fourteenth century, the spurious passages of St. Cyril and forged canons of Councils maintained their ground, being guaranteed against all suspicion by the authority of St. Thomas.… To ignore the authority of St. Thomas is … bad enough, but to slight the testimony of St. Cyril is intolerable. The Pope is infallible; all authority of other bishops is borrowed or derived from his. Decisions of Councils without his consent are null and void. These fundamental principles … are proved by spurious passages of Anacletus, Clement, the Council of Chalcedon, St. Cyril, and a mass of forged or adulterated testimonies.

 

It is obvious that if there existed abundant evidence attesting to the supreme authority of the pope in the canons, creeds, and councils of the Church and in the writings of the Fathers, there would be no necessity to forge it. The numerous forgeries were an attempt at revisionist history. Their very existence is damning evidence that the authority claimed by the papacy was not recognized by the early Church or by the Eastern Fathers of any era. (Michael Whelton, Popes and Patriarchs: An Orthodox Perspective on Roman Catholic Claims [Chesterton, Ind.: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2006], 148-54)

 

 

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"Testify Apologetics" et al. Embarrass Themselves on "Mormonism"


Atheist Alex O'Connor Exposes Evangelical Double-Standard Against Book of Mormon!





 

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Wednesday, January 15, 2025

David Michael Stanley on Romans 4:25

  

Christ’s death is here related to the forgiveness of man’s sin, while his resurrection is connected with man’s justification. The preposition διὰ with the accusative denotes a cause as operative in the mind of the agent. Here it is the intention which the Father had in « handing Christ over » and in raising him from death (the Father is undoubtedly implied as the agent responsible for both actions, since Paul habitually attributes Christ’s resurrection to the Father’s work). Paul has already discussed the function of Christ’s death in the remission of man’s sins (Rom 3:24–25). In the next section of this epistle, he will correlate the new life conferred in Baptism with the Father’s act of raising Christ (6:4). He will also discuss the relation between this new life and man’s justification (8:10), Accordingly the present verse is a trait d’ union between the two major dogmatic portions of Paul’s epistle, and as such, recapitulates his doctrine concerning the function of Christ’s death and resurrection in man’s redemption.

 

he was raised for our justification. The term δικαίωσις is probably employed as a simple synonym for δικαιοσύνη without any appreciable change of meaning. What does Paul mean by stating that Jesus was raised for our justification? The parallel form of the sentence is dictated by something more than the canons of rhetorical elegance (vs Oltramare). It is based upon Paul’s insight into the meaning of the atonement. Just as the Father revealed his justice in forgiving sins by means of Christ’s death, so too his raising of Christ manifests his fidelity to his promises of salvation because this resurrection has resulted in our justification. It is true to say that Christ’s resurrection effects man’s justification by constituting the object of justifying faith (Lietzmann). Yet the omission of the phrase διὰ πίστεως here (cf. Rom 3:21, 25) indicates that Paul has in mind a more direct connection between Christ’s rising to a new life « with God » (Rom 6:10) and the Christian life which he here calls « our justification ». As Lagrange notes, Paul’s statement proves the existence, in the Pauline conception of justification, of « un élément intérieur de vie », which is caused by Christ’s resurrection. If the verse means anything, it witnesses to a theological conception of the atonement in which Christ’s resurrection plays a role, with respect to man’s justification, that is in the same category of causality as his death, with respect to man’s forgiveness. (David Michael Stanley, Christ’s Resurrection in Pauline Soteriology [Analecta Biblica 13; Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1961], 172-73)

 

 

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178,000 Black Soldiers in 175 United States Colored Troops for the Union as Potential Partial Fulfillment of D&C 87:4

 In his interesting The South vs. The South, William Freehling noted that:

 

To entice 50,000 black soldiers (or as it turned out, 178,000), the president molded his army into the world’s most powerful antislavery bureaucracy. When the commander in chief issued antislavery orders, the command to step lively to the president’s new tune went straight down to enforcing military hierarchy. (William W. Freehling, The South vs. The South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001], 121)

 

This figure is collaborated by Dr. Paul-Thomas Ferguson:

 

By the end of the Civil War, there were 175 USCT regiments, containing 178,000 soldiers, approximately 10% of the Union Army. The mortality rate for these units was exceeding high. One of every five black soldiers in the conflict died, a 35% higher rate than other troops. In the process, sixteen USCT soldiers earned the Medal of Honor for their Civil War service. (Paul-Thomas Ferguson, “A History of African American Regiments in the U.S. Army,” February 11, 2021)

 

This could be seen as a partial fulfillment of D&C 87:4 vis-à-vis slaves “ris[ing] up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war.”

 

Elsewhere, Freehling also wrote the following:

 

 

. . . without southern anti-Confederates’ Unionism, Yankees’ other army would have been sorely tested. If all the South’s inhabitants, white and black, Lower South and Border South, had been solidly pro-Confederate, the North would have had to conquer the defense-friendly Ohio River, the guerrilla-friendly West Virginia mountain passes, and Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, just to reach the latitude where the Civil War in fact began. Free labor states would have had to replace over half a million Union soldiers and military workers who came from slave labor states. Federals would have had to find substitutes for the borderland’s industrial plants, especially Baltimore’s railroad hospitals. The Union would have had to conscript many more Northerners despite much more Yankee draft resistance. One southern anti-Confederate lost to the Union and empowering the Confederacy would have required two more Yankees fully enlisted to the war effort.

 

That arithmetic, Lincoln believed, would have defeated the Union. My guess: He was right. The North’s other arm was not that strong. All historians must guess about the potential outcome, for no one can write the definitive history of what never happened. But one conclusion is no guess: If the North had won without anti-Confederate Southerners’ reinforcements, victory would have come harder and taken longer, producing a very different Civil War narrative. (William W. Freehling, The South vs. The South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001], 202)

 

 

With few new Southerners and many new Northerners arriving, the North’s manpower plurality soared. At the beginning of the national republic, future slave labor and free labor states contained approximately equal shares of the nation’s population (with future free labor states containing 61 percent of the whites). By 1860, the North possessed 61 percent of all American people (and 70 percent of whites). During the war, 175,000 immigrants arrived in the Union and almost none of the Confederacy. From wartime newcomers, the Union recruited an estimated 75,000 soldiers (and the Confederacy almost none). (Ibid., 203)

 

 

Further Reading:

 

Resources on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies

 

 

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