President Of The Evangelical Theological Society

[Katholikos]

From Jimmy Akin's blog: (Akin is on the staff of Catholic Answers, catholic.com)


[b][color="#FF0000"]Dr. Francis Beckwith Returns To Full Communion With The Church[/color][/b]

(Jimmy Akin)

Dr. Francis Beckwith, the president of the Evangelical Theological Society, has become Catholic. Dr. Beckwith was raised Catholic but became an Evangelical Protestant in youth. After a review of Catholic theology and its basis, however, he has been reconciled with the Church.

I recently learned of Dr. Beckwith's intention to pursue reconciliation. Apparently my own humble writings were of use to him in his journey, and he was kind enough to say so. In view of the sensitivity of the situation, however, I of course agreed to refrain from making the matter publicly known. He also was kind enough to let me know just before he went to the sacrament of reconciliation.

Last night I received a note from Dr. Beckwith indicating that the matter had become public, and so I would like to offer warm felicitations regarding his return to full communion with the Church.

The source through which the matter was made public happened to be James White's blog, and as you can imagine, Mr. White is not happy.

In particular Mr. White raises the question of what Dr. Beckwith will do given his present status as head of the Evangelical Theological Society.

Prior to his reconciliation, Dr. Beckwith shared his thoughts on that matter with me, and though I will let him speak for himself on the subject, I will say that he intends to handle the matter in a gracious and frank manner and has already taken steps in that direction.

On his blog, Mr. White questions whether Dr. Beckwith could remain a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, writing as follows:

Let's ponder the hypothetical situation of a President of the Evangelical Theological Society converting to Roman Catholicism in the midst of his tenure. In 1998 I attended the national meeting of the ETS in Orlando , Florida . At one of the sessions some of the founding members were being asked questions about why they did certain things, why they wrote the statement of faith as they did, etc. A woman asked a question of the panel. "Why did you write 'the Bible alone' in the statement of faith?" The ETS statement of faith is very, very short. It reads:

"The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory."

Roger Nicole rose, slowly, and made his way to the podium. He looked out at the lady and said, "Because we didn't want any Roman Catholics in the group." He then turned around and went back to his seat. While most sat in stunned silence, I and a friend with me broke into wild applause. The brevity of the response, and Nicole's dead-pan look, was classic. Most looked at us like we were nuts, but we appreciated what he said. Here, one of the founding members made it clear that the ETS was founded as a Protestant organization and that primary to their own self-understanding was a belief in sola scriptura.

Mr. White is correct about the text of the ETS statement of faith or "doctrinal foundation." It's found online here.

While the ultimate interpretation of this statement is up to the ETS itself, I would point out two things:

1) The statement of a single founder, such as Dr. Nicole, regarding the interpretation of such a statement is analogous to that of a single founding father regarding the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In other words, it is not of itself conclusive, however enthusiastically Mr. White and his friend might receive it.

2) If the founders of the ETS intended to exclude Catholics from the organization, they did not frame their doctrinal foundation in a way that would, in fact, block Catholics from being able to agree to it.

The Bible and the Bible alone is the word of God written (as opposed to the Word of God Incarnate, the word of God in nature, or the word of God handed on through the Church in parallel to Scripture). Only Scripture is divinely inspired such that every assertion of the sacred authors is asserted by the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the Bible is inerrant in the autographs. And, of course, God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.

There is thus nothing in the ETS doctrinal foundation that a Catholic could not agree to in good conscience and it is not an effective instrument for excluding Catholics from membership.

This situation will, of course, be very sensitive for members of the Evangelical Theological Society and its leadership, as well as for Dr. Beckwith and his family, and I ask readers to keep the matter in prayer.

At the hour I write, Dr. Beckwith has not posted on Right Reason, a blog in which he participates, regarding his return to full communion, and I do not know if he will do so, but I invite my readers to watch that blog for possible updates and to offer their felicitations to Dr. Beckwith in the combox below.

VISIT RIGHT REASON.


DR. BECKWITH'S HOME PAGE.

(All the links appear to have been lost when I cut and pasted this.)

This news is brought to you by smiley-faced Likos

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Awesome.

[homeschoolmom]

[url="http://rightreason.ektopos.com/beckwith.html"]http://rightreason.ektopos.com/beckwith.html[/url]
Link to Right Reason

[Katholikos]

Thanks for the link, HSM!

I'm almost as joyful at this news as when Mortimer J. Adler, the most influential philosopher of the 20th century, (finally) became a Catholic in 1999, at the age of 97.

Likos

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Katholikos' post='1265356' date='May 5 2007, 04:29 PM']Thanks for the link, HSM!

I'm almost as joyful at this news as when Mortimer J. Adler, the most influential philosopher of the 20th century, (finally) became a Catholic in 1999, at the age of 97.

Likos[/quote]

Influential? I've never heard of him.

[Katholikos]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1265360' date='May 5 2007, 05:34 PM']Influential? I've never heard of him. [/quote]

You've never heard of the Great Books program? The Aspen Institute where the great minds in philosphy met periodically to ponder the great mysteries of the universe? Never read any of his books, such as "How to Think About God?" Hmmm. That isn't only my own assessment BTW, several philosophers have written that about Adler. He taught philosophy at Chicago U for years, and started an institute for the study of philosophy in San Francisco, but I've forgotten the name of it. And, this clinches it, he was interviewed by Bill Moyers who asked him why he himself wasn't Catholic, since he had made so many converts to the Church through his teaching of Aquinas. <giggle giggle>
He answered that he didn't have the gift of faith. He got it late in life, but he finally got it. He became an Episcopalian first. He asked to be baptized on his hospital bed during an illness and his wife, an Episcopalian, called her clergyman (you'll notice I didn't say 'priest.')
But he finally made it all the way home to Rome.

We're talkin 20th century. You're too young. He was 97 in 1999.

Likos

[Katholikos]

The ex-Catholics and Evangelicals and other varities of Protestants at phatmass seem to be avoiding this thread. Hmmmmm. I wonder why? :

Don't youse guys have anything to say about this?

Here's this Evangelical guy with the great big brain, a philosopher and a theologian, and he's gone back home to Rome.

Doesn't it make you wonder if maybe the Church is right and you're wrong?

Likos

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Katholikos' post='1265388' date='May 5 2007, 05:31 PM']You've never heard of the Great Books program? The Aspen Institute where the great minds in philosphy met periodically to ponder the great mysteries of the universe? Never read any of his books, such as "How to Think About God?" Hmmm. That isn't only my own assessment BTW, several philosophers have written that about Adler. He taught philosophy at Chicago U for years, and started an institute for the study of philosophy in San Francisco, but I've forgotten the name of it. And, this clinches it, he was interviewed by Bill Moyers who asked him why he himself wasn't Catholic, since he had made so many converts to the Church through his teaching of Aquinas. <giggle giggle>
He answered that he didn't have the gift of faith. He got it late in life, but he finally got it. He became an Episcopalian first. He asked to be baptized on his hospital bed during an illness and his wife, an Episcopalian, called her clergyman (you'll notice I didn't say 'priest.')
But he finally made it all the way home to Rome.

We're talkin 20th century. You're too young. He was 97 in 1999.

Likos[/quote]
I've heard of other 20th century philosophers...Josef Pieper, Martin Buber, Fr. William Clark...I'm not a philosophy major, mind you, but I've heard of a few philosophers.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Katholikos' post='1265922' date='May 6 2007, 12:20 PM']The ex-Catholics and Evangelicals and other varities of Protestants at phatmass seem to be avoiding this thread. Hmmmmm. I wonder why? :

Don't youse guys have anything to say about this?

Here's this Evangelical guy with the great big brain, a philosopher and a theologian, and he's gone back home to Rome.

Doesn't it make you wonder if maybe the Church is right and you're wrong?

Likos[/quote]
I'll bite-- He was never a Bible Christian to begin with. He was tricked by the smells and bells of Rome. <-- tongue firmly planted in cheek

[desertwoman]

Just read the comments on Right Reason's blog on his return to the Catholic Church. They pretty much summed it all.

[Paddington]

[quote name='Katholikos' post='1265922' date='May 6 2007, 02:50 PM']Doesn't it make you wonder if maybe the Church is right and you're wrong?[/quote]


I wonder that daily.

[N/A Gone]

[quote name='desertwoman' post='1266051' date='May 6 2007, 02:04 PM']Just read the comments on Right Reason's blog on his return to the Catholic Church. They pretty much summed it all.[/quote]

Those comments are so polemic and off base "following the ECF's rather than the gospel" automatically assumes that they are off base with each other, and that us modern types must be be better readers of scripture than them. It is just an argument of denial.


"Im so sorry you are returning to rome, I could never get assurance of salvation..."

man, I should really leave my wife, cause I cant get her to mushy mud pie tacos, so very tasty and good for you,.

Does it ever occur to people that OSAS is wrong? Ironic that "bible christians" are often more indoctrinated then the average catholic.

[Katholikos]

Hey, somebody should post this news on Budge's discussion board.

She ain't commentin' on it. The Protestants -- Evangelical or not -- are laying low. Ain't heard a peep from 'em.

Likos

P.S. 'cept for Desertwoman

Edited May 7, 2007 by Katholikos

[Budge]

Its been posted on my board. {By the way, I have no problem outing apostate evangelicals}

[url="http://p094.ezboard.com/fcatholicreformationfrm22.showMessage?topicID=9220.topic"]http://p094.ezboard.com/fcatholicreformati...icID=9220.topic[/url]



Am I surprised that someone converted out of one of the many SOLD OUT evangelical organizations? {dominionists and Revelation 17 Christians all}, not really.

This is Bible Prophecy in action.

What is interesting is they never convert to Roman Catholicism based on a conversion experience via faith in Jesus Christ or being led by God but always by Roman "history" and ECFs.
[quote]
However, in January, at the suggestion of a dear friend, I began reading the Early Church Fathers as well as some of the more sophisticated works on justification by Catholic authors. I became convinced that the Early Church is more Catholic than Protestant and that the Catholic view of justification, correctly understood, is biblically and historically defensible.
[/quote]Those early deceivers have left trails lasting centuries.

[url="http://rightreason.ektopos.com/archives/2007/05/my_return_to_th.html"]http://rightreason.ektopos.com/archives/20...turn_to_th.html[/url]

Interesting letter....given that Benedict is going to battle with the sects in Latin America this week.


[quote]Dr. Beckwith,

As a former Roman Catholic, I am grieved, both as a member of ETS and as a Christian brother. I am all too familiar with the great resistance to the Gospel Rome has around the world. I know of Roman priests inciting riots and burning Scriptures, homes and churches. While followers of Rome in the US customarily dismiss these kinds of things as individual acts of Third-world priests, the truth is more sinister. A good friend of mine from Mexico had the opportunity to hear John Paul in Mexico and then in the US with only a few months between. In Mexico he exhorted the people to resist the evangelicals and painted our work as evil. In the US, he schmoozed Protestants and called us brothers. While there are certainly followers of Jesus in the Roman organization, Rome itself is opposed to the true Gospel. Until they renounce infallibility and condemn idolatry (the current and previous pope have both referred to Mary as co-redemptrix), there is no hope for Rome.

I take great issue as well with your assertion that joining Rome is somehow erring on the side of historical and theological continuity. The Western Church was very diverse in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, the semi-Pelagian, authoritarian, relic-venerating party was firmly in control. When a church splits, how do we decide which is the true Church? Do we search the Scriptures or do we decide the the one who controls the property and trademark is the true Church? I realize the the papacy was able to keep St. Peter's and the name, "Catholic Church," but somehow it just doesn't seem as convincing as "the Word rightly taught, the Sacraments rightly administered, and discipline rightly applied." May God have mercy on you for those you are leading astray.

Without hatred or rancor,
Travis D. Hutchinson[/quote]

[Winchester]

[quote name='Budge' post='1266680' date='May 7 2007, 08:37 AM']What is interesting is they never convert to Roman Catholicism based on a conversion experience via faith in Jesus Christ or being led by God but always by Roman "history" and ECFs.
Those early deceivers have left trails lasting centuries.[/quote]
If you're already a Christian (which I believe you can be without being a Catholic,) then Faith in Jesus is already present; you're merely aligning yourself with His Will in a more perfect manner. Your "interesting" observation isn't an argument, it's agitprop. See, the Bible thinks quite highly of history so I find it "interesting" that you think so little of it.

Early deceivers like those who combatted the Arian Heresy. Yeah. History sux.