Tuesday, April 05, 2016

The Dividing Line earlier today

Dr. James R. White discusses 4 different issues:
1. the Popes and the change of Roman Catholic Theology since Vatican 2; (Francis is different than Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) But why didn't Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) say any of this while he was Pope? 
2. Rachel Held Evans and her liberalism and support for Trans-genderism;
3. a troubling article at Desiring God (by Nick Roen) about homosexuality and same sex desires (I also had trouble with this article when I read it; Dr. White nails the problems); (parts of the article by Roen are right; and it is no way like the Rachel Held Evans article; but it is troubling nonetheless. It needs to be re-written and clarified.)
4. the issue of "Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God" with Joseph Cumming and Nabeel Qureshi on Unbelievable Radio Program. 



Addendum:
From the article about Pope Benedict XVI, that Dr. White referenced:


Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the importance of the salvation of souls:“The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized person is lost forever. After the [Second Vatican] Council, this conviction was definitely abandoned. The result was a two-sided, deep crisis. Without this attentiveness to the salvation, the faith loses its foundation.”He also speaks of a “profound evolution of dogma” with respect to the dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church. This purported change has led, in the Pope’s eyes, to a loss of the missionary zeal in the Church — “any motivation for a future missionary commitment was removed.”Pope Benedict asks this piercing question: “Why you should try to convince the people to accept the Christian faith when they can be saved even without it?” As to the other consequences of this new attitude in the Church, the Catholics themselves, in Benedict’s eyes, have become less attached to their faith: If there are those who can save their souls with other means, “why should the Christian be bound to the necessity of the Christian faith and its morality?” asks the Pope Emeritus. And he concludes: “But if faith and salvation are not any more interdependent, even faith becomes less motivating.”Benedict also refutes both the idea of the “anonymous Christian” as developed by Karl Rahner, as well as the indifferentist idea that all religions are equally valuable and helpful to attain eternal life.He says: “Even less acceptable is the solution proposed by the pluralistic theories of religion, for which all religions, each in its own way, would be ways of salvation and, in this sense, must be considered equivalent in their effects.”


Link to Rachel Held Evans article.

Link to the Desiring God by Nick Roen article that has many of us troubled.

In the section on Joseph Cumming vs. Nabeel Qureshi:
Who is Joseph Cumming?   (former missionary in North Africa and one of the founders of the Evangelical Yale Reconciliation Movement)  

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