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Syllabus of Errors or project 2025: Giving to Caesar what belongs to God

 THE PAPAL SYLLABUS OF ERRORS. A.D. 1864   This document, though issued by the sole authority of Pope Plus IX., Dec. 8, 1864, must be regarded now as infallible and irreformable, even without the formal sanction of the Vatican Council. It is purely negative, but Indirectly it teaches and enjoins the very opposite of what it condemns as error. (Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The Greek and Latin Creeds, with Translations, vol. 2 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890), 213)  What authority attaches to this document? Cardinal Newman, in his defense of the Syllabus against Gladstone’s attack, virtually denied its dogmatic force, saying (Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, p. 108),  “We can no more accept the Syllabus as de fide, as a dogmatic document, than any other index or table of contents.”  But the Syllabus is more than a mere index, and contains as many definitions and judgments as titles. Moreover, the papal infa...

The Vatican rejects the MAGA movement

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    “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, ​whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood’.” Pope Leo on Palm Sunday, Vatican City   Do not all the peoples loathe iniquity? And yet it is spread by them all. Does not the fame of truth issue from the mouth of all the nations? Yet is there a lip or tongue which holds to it? Which nation likes to be oppressed by another stronger than itself, or likes its wealth to be wickedly seized? And yet which nation has not oppressed another, and where is there a people which has not seized [another]’s wealth? Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Revised and extended 4th ed. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 272.  It is precisely humanity’s complete dishonesty and the nations’ struggles with ...

The land of promise finds its realization in Jesus: not in types and shadows

See, I and the sons whom the LORD has given me are to be signs and portents in Israel, sent by the LORD of Hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. Isa. 8:18  In the Pauline writing two basic typological patterns appear—Adamic or Creation typology and Covenant typology. Each is related to a particular aspect of God’s redemptive purpose in Christ,(These two ideas may be present in Rom. 1:3f, where Christ is described as  descended from David and  Son of God . and, over all, they unite to form one interrelated whole. Thus, becoming a Christian is spoken of as a  new birth  (Exodus typology) and  a new creation  (Adamic typology); sometimes (e.g. Rom. 6:3) both ideas are apparently joined in the figure of resurrection.    Two principles are fundamental to Paul’s understanding of the OT. First, he reads the Scripture from the viewpoint of the ‘End-time’ in which  OT history and prophecy have become realized and fulfilled in Christ . The OT ...

Then what about the law: What then was the purpose of the law?

An account of the genealogy of  Jesus the Messiah , the son of David, the  son of Abraham . (Gen 12:3; 22:18; Ps 132:11; Isa 11:1; Lk 1:32; Jn 7:42; Acts 2:30; 13:23; Rom 1:3; Gal 3:16) Matt. 1:1  I will  bless those who bless  you , and the one who curses  you   I will  curse, and  in you  all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”, ( Gen 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 27:29; Ex 23:22; Num 24:9; Acts 3:25; Gal 3:8) Gen. 12:3  And the king will answer them, ‘Truly  I tell  you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,  you did it to me .’ Matt. 25:40  Inevitably, this leads to an inevitable question: “What, then, was the purpose of the law?” (Gal.3:19). The answer is complex, and, judging by what he says elsewhere (e.g. Rom 7), Paul makes no attempt to give a complete answer in Galatians 3. But intrinsic to its significance is its function in preparation for the coming of Christ “ ...