The Protestant Canon

[Katholikos]

Jesus quotes the Septuagint and calls it "scripture" --

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written:

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'

And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this SCRIPTURE has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Luke 4:16-21, quoting Isaiah 61:1 and 58:6.

Please note:

(1) The "book" was a scroll, which Jesus unrolled to find the section he cited.

(2) The Septuagint was used in the synagogue of Jesus' day.

(3) The scrolls read in the synagogue were deemed the inspired Word of God.

(4) Jesus could read Greek, which means he could probably write (see John 8:6).

(5) Jesus said the Septuagint was 'scripture.'

(6) Jesus was trilingual -- Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek.

Jesus, all of the Apostles, Paul, and all of the sacred writers of the NT accepted the Septuagint as scripture. The Septuagint was used by the Apostles to evangelize the entire Greek-speaking world.

Martin Luther in the 16th century was the first Christian who rejected the Septuagint -- he said it wasn't scripture. And all Protestants follow Luther. Most Protestants don't know that Luther rejected Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation and said that they also were not scripture. Philip Melanchthon, Luther's co-conspirator in the Deformation, restored the NT writings, but left the OT as Luther had desecrated it. It remains for Protestants a partial Bible to this day.

Ave Cor Mariae, Likos

[Katholikos]

Duplicate post deleted.

Edited January 2, 2004 by Katholikos

[beng]

I said "You can see the results of it today as the stance over the ages has changed even on unam sanctum to mercy to everyone.  This is a cultural reaction, not a tradition/biblical one.  [by the way, i'm not ignoring the rest, but this last quote sums up your middle chunk - i try to keep things short]"

and you said

"unam sanctum is old"

"Even fathers acknowledge that God could save people according to His own will."

what are you implying?

salvation by grace alone, salvation by faith alone.  i've had grace on my mind a lot, forgive me.  they play a large role together anyway

Ahh, I read about Unam Sanctam. Aparently I didn't quiet get it.

Some stuff from newadvent entry on Religious Tolleration

But does the proposition that outside the Church there is no salvation involve the doctrine so often attributed to Catholicism, that the Catholic Church, in virtue of this principle, "condemns and must condemn all non-Catholics"? This is by no means the case. The foolish and unchristian maxim that those who are outside the Church must for that very reason be eternally lost is no legitimate conclusion from Catholic dogma. The infliction of eternal damnation pertains not to the Church, but to God, Who alone can scrutinize the conscience. The task of the Church is confined exclusively to the formulating of the principle, which expresses a condition of salvation imposed by God Himself, and does not extend to the examination of the persons, who may or may not satisfy this condition. Care for one's own salvation is the personal concern of the individual. And in this matter the Church shows the greatest possible consideration for the good faith and the innocence of the erring person. Not that she refers, as is often stated, the eternal salvation of the heterodox solely and exclusively to "invincible ignorance", and thus makes sanctifying ignorance a convenient gate to heaven for the stupid. She places the efficient cause of the eternal salvation of all men objectively in the merits of the Redeemer, and subjectively in justification through baptism or through good faith enlivened by the perfect love of God, both of which may be found outside the Catholic Church. Whoever indeed has recognized the true Church of Christ, but contrary to his better knowledge refuses to enter it and whoever becomes perplexed as to the truth of his belief, but fails to investigate his doubts seriously, no longer lives in good faith, but exposes himself to the danger of eternal damnation, since he rashly contravenes an important command of God. Otherwise the gentle breathing of grace is not confined within the walls of the Catholic Church, but reaches the hearts of many who stand afar, working in them the marvel of justification and thus ensuring the eternal salvation of numberless men who either, like upright Jews and pagans, do not know the true Church, or, like so many Protestants educated in gross prejudice, cannot appreciate her true nature. To all such, the Church does not close the gate of Heaven, although she insists that there are essential means of grace which are not within the reach of non-Catholics. In his allocution "Singulari quadam" of 9 December, 1854, which emphasized the dogma of the Church as necessary for salvation, Pius IX uttered the consoling principle: "Sed tamen pro certo pariter habendum est, qui veræ religionis ignorantia laborent, si ea est invincibilis, nulla ipsos obstringi hujusce rei culpa ante oculos Domini" (But it is likewise certain that those who are ignorant of the true religion, if their ignorance is invincible, are not, in this matter, guilty of any fault in the sight of God). (Denzinger-Bannwart, 11th ed., Freiburg, 1911, n. 1647.)

As early as 1713 Clement XI condemned in his dogmatic Bull "Unigenitus" the proposition of the Jansenist Quesnel: "Extra ecclesiam nulla conceditur gratia", i. e. no grace is given outside the Church (op. cit., n. 1379), just as Alexander VIII had already condemned in 1690 the Jansenistic proposition of Arnauld: "Pagani, Judæi, hæretici aliique hujus generis nullum omnino accipiunt a Jesu Christo influxum" (Pagans, Jews, heretics, and other people of the sort receive no influx [of grace] whatsoever from Jesus Christ) (op. cit., n. 1295). In her tolerance toward the erring the Church indeed goes farther than the large catechism of Martin Luther, which on "pagans or Turks or Jews or false Christians" passes the general and stern sentence of condemnation: "wherefore they remain under eternal wrath and in everlasting damnation." Catholics who are conversant with the teachings of their Church know how to draw the proper conclusions. Absolutely unflinching in their fidelity to the Church as the sole means of salvation on earth, they will treat with respect, as ethically due, the religious convictions of others, and will see in non-Catholics, not enemies of Christ, but brethren. Recognizing from the Catholic doctrine of grace that the possibility of justification and of eternal salvation is not withheld even from the heathen they will show towards all Christians, e. g. the various Protestant bodies, kindly consideration. Concerning these dogmatic questions, cf. Pohle, "Dogmatik", II (5th ed., Paderborn, 1912), 444 sqq., 453 sqq.

We don't make new doctrine. Develop doctrine, we do.

Edited January 2, 2004 by beng