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“If thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed, than having two hands to go into Hell, into unquenchable fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.” (Saint Mark 9.42-43) |
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Jorge Bergoglio — (“Francis”):
“Receive the forgiveness of God and go among the line of souls who contemplate Him, the souls of those who are unrepentant, and thus cannot be forgiven, simply disappear.” and “Hell does not exist, the disappearance of sinful souls exists.”
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Jesus Christ:
“Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Saint Matthew 25:41)
“If thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell.” (Saint Matthew 5:30)
Pope Francis insists that such antiquated concepts as Hell and punishment — even eternal and unimaginable suffering — cannot possibly be true! In fact he recently assured us that “No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel. Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves” 1
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Who, then, uttered this nonsense?” you demand.The answer, of course, is Saint Mark. What is more, we reply, we have never heard of the Bible as a logical formulary, or Sacred Scripture understood as a treatise on logic!
Is there a “logic of the Gospel”, we ask? One that supersedes, and so validates or invalidates statements in (the words of) the Gospel? In order to really arrive at what is written in the Gospel and uttered by Christ, must I invoke Hypothetical Syllogisms, simple Modus Ponens, or De Morgan’s theorem in determining their logical consistency and their place in a Truth Table?
I have difficulty —
apart, of course, from the Sacred Deposit of Faith entrusted to Holy
Mother Church by God Himself — with the following contention: it is
now apparently incumbent upon me to explain to my acquaintances that
in Saint John 8.58, in using the temporal term before Jesus is
not expressing antecedence — inasmuch as it would be an anachronism
in light of the concept of eternity which preceded time —
— and therefore His subsequent use of the temporal and existential concept
of “am” while not a breach of the concept of eternity is nevertheless
a breach in the concept of time. Therefore (∴) Christ, in
this and most instances, could not possibly have meant what He seems
to have very clearly, simply, and unambiguously stated concerning
the
“invisible" and the eternal”? (Q.E.D)
In other words, I must propose the teachings of Holy Scripture not in terms of faith — but logic — or more to the point, in terms of logical consistency; and while Francis’s appeal to logic is absurd, the inevitable conclusion of what amounts to what may be called a propositional exegesis of Sacred Scripture itself is not absurd in the least!
But we must both vigorously and respectfully disagree with Francis, Bishop of Rome, that the Four Gospels are logical treatises bound to laws inherent in propositional logic rather than the Laws of God enunciated by His Son and the Prophets in Sacred Scripture.
Indeed, one of the vexing issues that, in broad circles, “do not accord with the logic of the Gospel” is in today’s reading: Jesus became angry. It does not “fit” the progressive (and fictitious) notion that Jesus — and His Father, for that matter — never become angry! In fact, they are never offended! They are totally understanding and accepting of our idiocy, even our blasphemy! After all, you have seen the real Jesus in velvet art, pop culture, and in the rudifacient “children’s homilies” at Mass by Deacon Dick:
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“See Jesus
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I hate to break it to you and to offend your feminized sensitivities — and proclivities — but Jesus was a man. Not Mr. Rogers, not Mrs. Doubtfire, and definitely not a wimp. He was beaten, scourged, mocked, crowned with thorns, and crucified — that is not the stuff of wimps. Or delicate men.
And, yes — He occasionally became angry!
It is recorded in and testified to in all four Gospels-that-are-not-textbooks-on-logic.
We believe it!
Not
because you have arrived at a satisfactory truth-variable through
logic — but because God said so — in Holy Scripture. And because
it is what the Holy Catholic Church authentically teaches and
has taught for 2000 years. Because it makes sense! And because Christ
is True God and True Man!
The Bible is not a Truth Table. It is the Living Word of
God. It is Truth, just as Christ is Truth Himself
(Saint John 14.6) — and most annoying to some, a truth at which you
will never arrive through propositional logic.
Only through Faith.
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1 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-marriage-idUSKCN0X42TB
Geoffrey
K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable PDF VersionComments? Write us: editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Further Reading on the Papacy of Francis:
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Francis as the Prince of this World and the Logical Conclusion of Vatican II
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The Art of Plausible Deniability: Closing Thoughts on Amoris Laetitia
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Francis — the Great Divider in the Post Modern Catholic Church
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Against Pharisees: by Bishop Athanasius Schneider concerning Amoris Laetitia
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A Tale of Two Popes: The Newest Paradigm — The Emeriti, Resignation, and Dissolution
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Quotations from Chairman Francis and other Philosophical Absurdities
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PachaPapa — a Pagan Pope — and Definitely not my “Holy Father”
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Carefully Crafted Bad Language — from the Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth?
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The “Amazonian Face” of the New Church of Accompaniment and Ecology
Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
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