Catching Up to Liberal Protestantism / Pope Rejects Historic Christianity

Rome Works Fast CATCHING UP TO LIBERAL PROTESTANTISM “Catholic Liberals in 25 Years Destroyed What Took Protestant Liberals 300 Years” on page 1 is taken from an article by Dr. Robert Sungenis which appeared in the February 28, 2011 Remnant, a Roman Catholic bi-weekly. The entire article is on page 7. Dr. Sungenis observes that Dr Raymond Brown was one of the Roman Catholic liberal leaders who helped take the Roman Catholic Church down the path of destructive higher criticism. He is an editor of the Jerome Biblical Commentary published in 1968 with Rome’s Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat. When the somewhat revised New Jerome Biblical Commentary appeared in 1990, CN again showed that this officially approved commentary taught that the Bible contains myths, legends and fiction. It denies basic doctrine of historic Christianity. Raymond Brown is mentioned on 14 pages in the Christian News Encyclopedia. He lectured at the LCMS’s Concordia University, New York, where his anti-scriptural notions were not repudiated. When Christian News reviewed Brown’s “Responses to 101 Questions on the Bible” the headline was “Jesus Was Not the All Knowing God.” The subtitle was “Father Raymond Brown, Roman Catholic Modernist, Says Authors of New Testament No Eyewitnesses of Jesus.” An editorial on Brown’s book was titled “Who Will File Charges of False Doctrine Against Father Brown?” CN said: “Filing formal charges vs. Father Brown may do some good if it shows conservative Roman Catholics that the Pope is a theological modernist and universalist who maintains that God used evolution to create the world and that Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians can get to heaven without faith in the merits of Christ.” CN documented at great length Brown’s anti-Christian theology (Christian News Encyclopedia, pp. 4014-4016). Sungenis notes that Pope John Paul II regarded Brown as “one of the world’s best exegetes.” Pope Benedict’s new best seller Jesus of Nazareth (p. 1), again shows that Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is a destructive higher critic of the Bible and a fan of the non-Christian Lutheran Rudolf Bultmann who repudiated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No wonder Father Richard Neuhaus, a fan of Bultmann’s demythologizing of the Bible, ever since his student days at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, had such a high regard for Pope Benedict XVI. Will the hyper-euros and organized conservatives in the LCMS who have such a high regard for Father Neuhaus while they want CN to close shop, finally wake up. When Neuhaus died, the St. Louis seminary’s Concordia Journal published an editorial praising this champion of the Pope and Bultmann. Paul McCain of CPH, William Woeden, Mollie Hemingway of Steadfast Lutherans, The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, David Benke, and both LCMS seminaries were among those who praised Father Neuhaus. Had they been reading what CN has said about the growing modernism in Rome, perhaps they would not have been deceived by Neuhaus. They should have been spending more time reading The Remnant, Chronicles and other publications edited by conservative Roman Catholics rather than neo-con Neuhaus’s First Things which covered up the tremendous homosexual scandal in Rome including Neuhaus’s defense of leading homosexuals in Rome. Even “The Homosexual Pope” was praised as a great hero of the faith (pp. 5-6) POPE REJECTS HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY “Does the Pope Believe in the Resurrection?” on p. 3 from the Free Presbyterian Magazine of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland should come as no surprise to regular readers of Christian News. CN has documented the theology of leading liberals, including Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) for some 50 years. During these years CN has reviewed at considerable length such major officially approved Roman Catholic works as the 15 volume, 15 million word New Catholic Encyclopedia, the Jerome Biblical commentary, the Jerusalem Bible and the writings of hundreds of Roman Catholic theologians. Many of these works claim the Bible contains myths, fictions and errors. They attack such doctrine as the vicarious satisfaction of Christ. The 2263 back issues of Christian News contain one of the most complete records of what has been going on within all Christendom during the past 50 years. What has CN said about the present Pope Benedict XVI? “Catholic Press Promotes New Theology” was the title of the lead story in the September 20, 1993 Christian News. CN reported: “Following the Pope’s lead, the entire Catholic press now promotes the ‘New Theology’ says Bishop Richard Williamson of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, Minnesota, in a letter he sent this month to friends and benefactors of the seminary. “According to Bishop Williamson, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, appointed by the Pope to serve as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ‘is a Prefect for the Faith Without the Faith!’ Bishop Williamson maintains that Cardinal Ratzinger denies the scriptural doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ. Williamson notes that Ratzinger was a colleague and disciple of the leading progressive teacher, Karl Rahner.’ Rahner rejected such Christian doctrines as the doctrine of the Holy Trinity (See the Christian News Encyclopedia). CN published the documentation Bishop Williamson presented to show that Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) denied the scriptural doctrine of the deity of Christ. CN has published reviews of some of Pope Benedict’s writings showing that he is a universalist, an evolutionist, a higher critic of the Bible, and undermines such doctrines as the Trinity. The July 4, 2005 Christian News quoted at considerable length from Pope Benedict XVI’s book, Truth and Tolerance, where the Pope boldly promotes universalism and approves theistic evolution. “Pope Promotes Historical Criticism – Undermines Basic Christian Doctrine” was CN’s title of its August 8, 2005 review on page one of the latest edition of the Pope’s Introduction to Christianity. The report includes many quotes from Pope Benedict showing that he is a liberal higher critic of the Bible and undermines basic Christian doctrine. The Free Presbyterian rightly exposed Pope Benedict’s theological liberalism. The Pope’s refusal to take any real serious disciplinary action against the thousands of homosexual churchmen in the Roman Catholic Church is bad enough. His defense of and promotion of anti-Christian theology in Rome is far worse. Confessional Lutherans have never had more valid reasons for insisting with the Lutheran Confessions, Martin Luther, C.F.W. Walther, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s Brief Statement that the Papacy is indeed the anti-Christ of 2 Thessalonians. The pro-Loehe, anti-Walther Romanizers in the LCMS who highly praised Father Richard Neuhaus, one of Pope Benedict’s chief defenders, are wrong for not boldly recognizing that the Papacy is the Anti-Christ. They should keep up with what is going in the theological world by reading Christian News. The LCMS’s new Lutheran Study Bible should have boldly championed the doctrine that the Papacy is the Anti-Christ. A review of The Lutheran Study Bible in the Fall, 2010 Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly by Editor John Brug, says: “In some instances, one becomes concerned about lack of doctrinal clarity. The discussion of 2 Thessalonians 2 (p 2062) states that the Lutheran Confessions describe papal and Islamic doctrines as marks of Antichrist and that Antichrist will manifest himself as an authority over the church at the end of time. Where is the clear Confessional statement that the pope is the very Antichrist? A Lutheran study Bible should sound a clear signal at this point. In Revelation 17 (p 2224) the comments associate the prostitute with the goddess Roma and with a personification of Rome. But which manifestation of Rome? Imperial or papal?” The Muslims with their vicious Koran promoting hatred of Christians and Jews , and the Jews with their Talmud teach that Jesus Christ is a bastard and Mary a whore are not the Antichrist. The Papacy is the Antichrist of 2 Thessalonians 2: The Jews and Muslims do not “sit in God’s Temple.” Every Lutheran publication in the nation should reprint “Does the Pope Believe in the Resurrection?” The Pope of Luther’s day affirmed the Resurrection. He was not a universalist and evolutionist. Christendom today needs a Reformation far more today than it did 500 years ago. Roman Catholics who now recognize they have been betrayed by recent popes should climb on board.