In a classic example of shooting oneself in the foot (here, implicitly denying the inerrancy of the autographia of the Bible [which is a Catholic doctrine]), Peter Barley wrote the following to 'answer' the LDS understanding of Rev 14:6-7:
LeGrand Richards, taking as his text Revelation 14:6, 7, comments: ‘John saw the bringing back of the gospel to the earth to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.’ Several texts of St. Paul are pressed into service as additional proof.
The Book of Revelation was written to bring strength and comfort to the Christians of John’s day, who were undergoing persecution. The symbolism is not easy to understand, but what is perfectly plain, both from the opening verses of the book and from the concluding chapter, is that the author believed that the end of the world was at hand, and that the events he described would soon take place. This belief in the imminence of the end of the world was common in the early Church. We know this from St. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and the first letter to the Corinthians. Moreover, it seems clear from 1 Corinthians 7:25-32 that St Paul himself shared this view. It is, therefore, difficult to see how John and Paul could have been pre-announcing the advent of Joseph Smith’s restored Church, expected eighteen centuries hence, when both believed that the end of the world would come in their time. (Peter Bartley, Mormonism: The Prophet, the Book and the Cult [Dublin: Veritas, 1989], 69, emphasis added)
This, of course, contradicts what the Biblical Commission of June 18, 1915, stated concerning the Second Coming in the Epistles of Paul:
Question 1: To solve the difficulties that occur in the epistles of St. Paul and of other apostles, where the Parousia as it is called, or the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of, is it permitted to the Catholic exegete to assert that the apostles, although under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they teach no error, nevertheless express their own human views, into which error or deception can enter?
Response: No. (DS
3628)
