Scriptural Mormonism Podcast Episode 107: Discussing Ecclesiology and Sacramental Theology (with Jennifer Roach Lees)

 

Episode 107: Discussing Ecclesiology and Sacramental Theology (with Jennifer Roach Lees)

Paul Haffner (RC) on Epiphanius's Silence Concerning the Death of Mary in Panarion 78

  

The question then arises concerning the nature of her passing, and concretely whether she died or not. This issue examines whether she experienced the separation of the soul from the body. The dogma of the Assumption of the Mother of God leaves open the question of whether or not she died. A minority of theologians hold that she did not in fact suffer death. In the late fourth century, we find the earliest known, non-Apocryphal mention of the close of Mary’s life, in the writings of St Epiphanius (315-403), Bishop of Constantia, on the island of Cyprus: ‘Whether she died or was buried we do not know . . . Say she died a natural death. In that case she fell asleep in glory, and departed in purity, and received the crown of her virginity. Or say she was slain with the sword according to Simeon’s prophecy. Then her glory is with the martyrs, and she through whom the divine light shone upon the world is in the place of bliss with her sacred body. Or say she left this world without dying, for God can do what He wills. Then she was simply transferred to eternal glory.’ St. Epiphanius genuinely may have not known, or else he was being careful not to play into the hands of contemporary heretics, the Antidicomarianites and the Collyridians. The former group denied the perpetual virginity of Mary; the latter, erring in the opposite direction, maintained that divine worship should be given to her. To claim that Our Lady died was to give possible fuel to the former heresy (for it was to suggest that the body of Mary was subject to the corruption of the tomb, and thus minimize her prerogatives); to assert that she did not die was to encourage the latter. (Paul Haffner, The Mystery of Mary [Herefordshire, U.K.: Gracewing, 2024], 210-11)

 

Joseph Blenkinsopp on the Expansion of Biblical Books “in the direction of eschatology” by their Authors or Other Prophets

  

. . . beginning about this time, we begin to hear increasingly frequent allusions to earlier prophets and their sayings. At his trial for sedition in 609 Jeremiah was saved by timely appeal to the eighth-century prophet, Micah of Moresheth (Jer. 26:17-19; Mic. 3:12). This incident, by the way, provides one of the firmest pieces of evidence for the expansion of prophetic books in the direction of eschatology and the millenarian expectation. For if Micah's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem were to have any force when quoted at the trial it could not have been followed then, as it is now, by the prospect of a glorious future. About half a century later the exilic Isaiah ascribed great importance to the fulfillment of predictions by his prophetic predecessors. Shortly after the return, Haggai berated his contemporaries in language borrowed from Amos. He also made use of Jeremiah's metaphor of the king as Yahweh's signet ring (2:23, cf. Jer. 22:24), while Zechariah used the other Jeremian figure of the Branch (3:8; 6:12, cf. Jer. 23:5; 33:15). The prediction of seventy years' exile in Jeremiah (25:11; 29:10) is also taken up by Zechariah (1:12; 7:5) and perhaps also in Haggai's reference to the right time ('et) for rebuilding the temple (1:2). With this process of appropriation and reinterpretation a decisive step has been taken to- wards the "recycling" of prophetic texts in apocalyptic writings of the Greco-Syrian and Greco-Roman periods. (Joseph Blenkinsopp, Prophecy and Canon: A Contribution to the Study of Jewish Origins [University of Notre Dame Center for the Study of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity 3; Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006], 102)

 

 Further Reading:

Biblical Prophets Changing their Words and the Words of Previous Prophets

Is the Trinity actually biblical? | Dale Tuggy vs Joshua Sijuwade

 

Is the Trinity actually biblical? | Dale Tuggy vs Joshua Sijuwade

Lutheran Johann Gerhard (1582-1637) Appealing to θεοπνευστος in a Way Similar to Modern Protestant Apologists

  

. . . our adversaries themselves acknowledge a distinction between sacred Scripture, which is theopneustos [θεοπνευστος], “God-breathed,” and the writings of the Fathers, and that the latter are to be tested by the former as by a norm and rule. (Johann Gerhard, Confessio Catholica, The Catholic Confession: Book I General, Volume IV, Part II, Chapter XIII: The Fathers, ed. James D. Heiser [Malone, Tex.: Repristination Press, 2026], 261)

 

Lutheran Johann Gerhard (1582-1637): The Apostles Erred in their Premillennialism and Belief in the Then-Future Return of the Person of Elijah

  

Even the Apostles Erred before Receiving the Promised Spirit

 

Before receiving the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, all the apostles clung to the error of an earthly kingdom of the Messiah. Before Christ’s resurrection, all labored under ignorance of the true meaning of the predictions concerning his resurrection. All maintained that Elijah would return in his own person.

 

But if all the apostles could error before the infallible assistance of the Holy Spirit was given to them, then certainly all the remaining doctors of the Church—to whom that immediate assistance of the Holy Spirit does not belong—can also err. (Johann Gerhard, Confessio Catholica, The Catholic Confession: Book I General, Volume IV, Part II, Chapter XIII: The Fathers, ed. James D. Heiser [Malone, Tex.: Repristination Press, 2026], 15)

 

Thomas Buckley on Salvation and Regeneration in Titus

  

Salvation through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit

 

“But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us...” (Ti 2:4, 5). Thus does the apostle Paul recall to Titus the mystery of our religion (cf. 1 Tm 3:16). Thus does he introduce in the very heart of the epistle, a veritable compendium of New Testament theology, the epitome of God’s redemptive exercise (Ti 3:4-7). To a generation caught in the maelstrom of passion and even satanic hatred appeared God’s mercy incarnate in Christ Jesus and clothed in ‘‘goodness and loving kindness” (Ti 3:4). Though the Greek usage for ‘‘goodness” appears frequently in Paul, the particular word for ‘loving kindness” (philanthrōpeia) appears only here. It was actually much more familiar to the language of Hellenistic cults, especially to the cult of the ruler. And as in the preceding pericope which celebrated God’s grace (Ti 2:11-14), certain other terms possess a cultic resonance.

 

But again it is the tone which is significant. It enhances the solemnity which pervades this hymn to God’s manifest mercy. It enhances our sense of the Christian religion’s ageless mystery. Augustine recalled the text at least fifty times in the course of his writings. And through the generations the Roman liturgy has set forth its message of hope on Christmas day.

 

God has saved us, ‘‘not because of deeds done in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy” (Ti 3:5). The argument is Pauline. And that salvation which God works in his mercy waits upon “‘the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Ti 3:5, 6). Now the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit refers to Baptism. Verses 5 and 6 could very well derive from an ancient baptismal hymn. As a sacrament, Baptism is the very conduit of the Spirit and grace. And in its appropriation to the Holy Spirit, it is linked to the premier eschatological reality of the New Testament after Christ. For it is the Holy Spirit which effects regeneration and renewal in the light of the risen Christ.

 

Regeneration or palingenesia in Stoic tradition bespoke a cosmic restoration. In Jewish expectation it bespoke the renewal of the Messianic age. But here the usage bespeaks that spiritual rebirth which should issue in eternal life (Ti 3:7). The word may have been familiar to the mysteries, but the concept is different. Here regeneration waits upon the Holy Spirit whose largesse touches all, not merely the initiate. Though the typically Pauline concept of baptism which implies dying to the old man and rising with Christ (Rom 6:1ff.) is not brought to the fore here, regeneration bespeaks renewal in the Holy Spirit. And this latter concept is hardly introduced with the Pastorals. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” Paul had written to the Corinthians (2 Cor 5:17). To be in Christ is to wait upon the Spirit. For it is the Spirit which would renew men and women after the likeness of Christ (cf. 2 Cor 3:18). And Christ, embodying that surpassing goodness and loving kindness which men predicate of a merciful God, abides our Savior, ‘‘so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life” (Ti 3:5). Then, as though to conclude a solemn profession of faith or even a liturgical hymn, the pronouncement is made, “The saying is sure” (Ti 3:8). (Thomas Buckley, An Apostle to the Nations: The Life and Letters of St. Paul [Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1981], 481-83)