The Stairway to Heaven

One of the most popular rock songs of the seventies begins with the lyrics, “There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.” The words, written by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones of the group Led Zeppelin, reflects the fashionable message of antimaterialism that pervaded much of rock music in the late sixties and seventies. The notion of dropping out of the rat race and rejecting the corporate mentality of one’s parents formed the foundation of many a rock musician’s career. Today, one often hears people refer to the entire decade of the eighties as the “me decade” as if during that period of time Americans were somehow more self- centered and money hungry than during any that came before it. One popular newspaper framed the mindset with a poem:

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray my Cuisinart to keep
I pray my stocks are on the rise
And that my analyst is wise
That all the wine I sip is white
And that my hot tub is watertight
That racquetball won’t get too tough
That all my sushi’s fresh enough
I pray my cordless phone still works
That my career won’t lose its perks
My microwave won’t radiate
My condo won’t depreciate
I pray my health club doesn’t close
And that my money market grows
If I go broke before I wake
I pray my Volvo they won’t take.

Christianity has had a much longer tradition of critiquing a materialistic lifestyle. Jesus’ life was lived as a rejection of the merely material perspective. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that we can become enslaved by the desire for money and things. He pleads with us to go beyond concerns for what we will consume and to seek our creator and His will. In Matthew 6:24-25 Jesus taught that “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

In spite of the fact that materialism is apparently held in low regard by large segments of both popular and religious culture, surveys indicate that it influences the thinking of many Americans. In a recent survey, George Barna found that seventy-two percent of Americans believed that people are blessed by God so that they can enjoy life as much as possible, and fifty-eight percent agreed with the statement that the primary purpose of life is enjoyment and fulfillment. Eighty-one percent believed that God helps those who help themselves. These responses point to the validity of what has been called our “therapeutic culture.” The first commandment of this culture appears to be do whatever makes you feel good, whatever helps you to cope materially. When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment He responded by saying we are to love God (not things) with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mk. 12:30, 31). That kind of love is self-denying and sacrificial.

In this article, I will look at the threat materialism poses to the church and propose ways for Christians to avoid this snare.

The Millionaire and The Dreamer

In his book The Gospel and the American Dream, Bruce Shelley tells the true story of a man who boasted to others that he would be a millionaire by age thirty-five. This young man was known as a really nice guy with a good sense of humor. He was considered bright, thoughtful, and generous to a fault. In 1984 he had acquired many of the appearances of success. He was flying to Dallas from Phoenix weekly on business. He drove a nice company car, and had moved his family into an exclusive neighborhood. He was also doing all the things that wealthy young men should do. He was the program chairman of the local Lions Club, president of the 200-member Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and a board member for the local Boys Club. However, on a Sunday in May 1985, the family missed church for the first time in months. The aspiring millionaire spent the day struggling in vain to scrape together enough cash to salvage his business, his image, and his pride. At 11:30 that night, after the family went to bed, he laid out his insurance policies and then went into the garage. He got into his expensive, company-provided BMW and turned on the ignition. He was dead within minutes.

Here is another story about someone that I know. My friend had an important job working for a large defense contractor in the Dallas area. After a number of years, he had placed a substantial amount of money into 401(k)s and other investments, money that most people would consider their financial security for their retirement years. He had also completed a masters degree in theology and left his well paying job in order to teach part-time at a local Christian college for far less pay. However, this young man’s real dream was to purchase a large old house in the city and fill it with students who desired to know God deeply and to live in community with others who wanted to do the same. Eventually, he found just such a house. Knowing that it would consume most, if not all, of his savings, he bought it. It is now a few years down the road and my friend has virtually run out of money. But his dream is coming true. The house has been completely renovated and both graduate and undergraduate students are living in it. He conducts Bible studies and reading groups with students living in the house and some who do not. He is broke, but he is excited and rejoicing in what God is doing.

The two lives described here depict two different faith systems. The millionaire, claiming to have faith in the God of the Bible, ultimately had placed his faith in things. When he was in danger of losing them, he gave up on life itself. My friend who is renovating the old house is just about out of money. However, he is optimistic and excited about the ministry he is having in the lives of the students living there. He is aware of the financial difficulties that his dream presents, but he is trusting in God to provide even when good business sense may argue against it.

Could it be that many Christians have succumbed to the notion of rugged individualism, placing the building of an earthly empire above the building of God’s kingdom? James 5:1-3 holds a severe warning for those tempted by wealth. “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.” God warns believers against placing their faith in things and treating people as expendable commodities.

The Sources of Materialism

In spite of both secular and religious messages against materialism in our culture, it still seems to have a great deal of influence on the lives of typical Americans. Why is this? I propose that there are two sources of materialism: philosophical materialism and functional materialism.

C. S. Lewis defines philosophical materialism as the belief held by people who “think that matter and space just happen to exist, and always have existed, nobody knows why; and that the matter, behaving in certain fixed ways, has just happened, by a sort of fluke, to produce creatures like ourselves who are able to think.”{1} Philosophical materialism imagines a universe without a spiritual dimension. Carl Sagan, one of the most popular and prolific writers on science in history, held to philosophical materialism. He wrote that the physical cosmos is all that exists, and we inhabit this cosmos as the result of a series of chance occurrences. If one holds to this position, being anything but materialistic would be illogical. This does not mean that philosophical materialists treat all people as if they were merely things. It just means that they have no good reason for treating them in any other way. The atheist philosopher Kai Nielsen wrote, “We have not been able to show that reason requires the moral point of view, or that all really rational persons, unhoodwinked by myth or ideology, need not be individual egoists or classical amoralists. . . . Pure practical reason, even with a good knowledge of the facts, will not take you to morality.”{2} Bertrand Russell wrote that humans are nothing more than impure lumps of carbon and water, and yet late in life talked about his love for humanity.{3} What is there to love about impure lumps of carbon and water? It is hard to live out philosophical materialism. That is why there are very few who hold to this viewpoint.

Survey after survey reveals that the vast majority of Americans believe that a God exists. If most Americans believe in God, why do so many of them live as though He is unimportant? Why do they act like functional materialists? Why do so many Christians measure their success in life by materialistic standards? We could blame our modern society. The triumph of scientism, the tendency to reduce every phenomenon to materialistic components, often leaves little room for behavior motivated by a spiritual reality. However, I believe that the problem goes deeper than this.

Every believer experiences a battle between the spirit and the flesh. In Galatians 5:17 Paul writes, “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” Further, he warns the Galatians that people whose lives are filled with selfish ambition and envy, among other things, will not inherit the kingdom of God. This is not saying that one will lose his or her salvation, but that a life consumed by materialistic desires is probably devoid of a spiritual dimension. If the Holy Spirit is not evident, there is no regeneration and no salvation.

Jesus’ ministry was filled with teachings about materialism, both in parables and more directly. In fact, the beginning of His ministry is highlighted by His experience in the wilderness where Satan tries to tempt Him with materialistic seduction. Consideration of the temptation of Christ sheds light on how our surrounding culture operates in much the same way as Satan did in the desert.

Materialistic Temptations

In examining the seduction of materialism and its impact on the church, it is significant that at the beginning of Jesus’ short ministry He was lead into the wilderness by the Spirit to experience deprivation and temptation (Matt. 4:1). Biblical writers often use the word tempt to mean “to try something for the purpose of demonstrating its worth or faithfulness.”{4} Jesus’ fasting in the desert provides His followers with an example of earthly suffering they could relate to. It also provides a model for how to resist temptation.

Satan’s testing of Jesus in Matthew 4 should be a warning for Christians in our highly materialistic culture. Satan still uses these techniques today to test the faithfulness of the body of Christ. Matthew tells us that the first temptation Satan uses is to fulfill a perfectly normal bodily need. Jesus is hungry; He had fasted for forty days and nights. Satan suggests that He turn the stones into bread, something well within Jesus’ capabilities. Believers wrestle with the same suggestion from Satan today. But what is wrong with fulfilling normal bodily functions? We need food, clothing, and shelter (and some would add sexual outlets) to survive. God made us that way, right?

Satan’s temptation is to reduce human nature to what might be called the will to pleasure principal, the idea that sensual pleasure explains all of our motivations and needs. Jesus responds with the Scripture “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4). He replaces the will to pleasure view of human nature with a will to meaning view. We cannot live on food alone; humans must have meaning and purpose to survive. In his personal struggle to survive a Nazi concentration camp, the psychologist Victor Frankl discovered that when men lost meaning they quickly died. Mankind needs a transcendent reason to continue striving against the struggles that life presents. It is the Word of God that provides the only true foundation for this struggle.

Next, Jesus is tempted with a formula for instant status. Satan suggests that He perform a miracle that would surely convince the Jews that He is their Messiah. He should throw Himself down from the temple. His survival will be just the right sign needed for the Jews to recognize Him. The only problem with this plan is that it is not the will of the Father. Jesus might gain notoriety, but He would lose His integrity. Jesus responds by declaring that we are not to put God to the test. We are not to presume that God will accept our plans with miraculous support. We conform to His will; He does not conform to ours.

Finally, Satan shows Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world and tells Him that they are His if He will only worship him. Satan is tempting Jesus with what might be called the success syndrome. If Jesus’ goal is to be the king of the Jews, why not do it the easy way? Jesus replies to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’” (Matt 4:10). Likewise, we are not called to success, but to obedience. There are many messages in our surrounding culture encouraging the pleasure principal, the importance of status, and the idea of success at all costs. However, as believers we are to seek a higher standard than pleasure, regardless of what others think and often in the face of disappointing results.

Material Possessions and the Church

A Cuban pastor recently attended a conference in Dallas and noticed how people here often say that they have no time. He said that people in Cuba have relatively few things but rarely run out of time. This brings to mind the idea of opportunity cost. This rule from economics tells us that if we spend our resources on one thing we cannot use them on another. If our focus is on things, and our time is spent buying, using, fixing, and replacing them, do we really have time to build the relationships with people necessary to communicating the Gospel?

In his book A Biblical Theology of Material Possessions, Dr. Gene Getz suggests some biblical principles to guide Christians in their relationship to material things. First, he notes biblical warnings against being materialistic. As we mentioned earlier, it is possible for believers to be in bondage to things; we cannot serve both things and God. Second, accumulating wealth brings with it specific temptations. The fifth chapter of James and the book of Amos describe how financial power can lead to economic injustice as well as other forms of oppression. In Acts 8, Luke warns believers that some in the church will use the Christian message to benefit themselves. Since this was present at the very beginning of the Church, we should not be surprised or discouraged when we see it happen today.

As the church looks for the imminent return of Christ, believers should avoid the increasing tendency to intensify love for self, money, and pleasure. The warning in 2 Timothy 3 tells us to avoid those who succumb to this temptation. Christians also have to constantly be on guard against self-deception and rationalization when living in an affluent society. When the church at Laodicea imagined itself self-sufficient and without need, Jesus described them as wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17-18).

How then do Christians avoid materialism? The apostle Paul writes that godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Tim. 6:6). Do we have enough faith to believe this revealed truth? If so our first priority in life should be the pursuit of contentment rather than riches. As Paul declares, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Phil. 4:12-14).

When God blesses us with abundance, our goal should be to use it in creative ways to further God’s kingdom, for where our treasure is so is our heart (Matt. 6:19-21). Jesus taught the disciples not to be absorbed with worry about the future but to seek His kingdom and his righteousness (Matt. 6:34).

What happens when people use their material possessions in harmony with God’s will? A good example is given in Acts 2. When believers had given up their claim to even their personal belongings, God added to their number daily. How we use our wealth has a great impact on the watching world. A second effect is that love and unity are created in the body of Christ. When the church was sharing their personal possessions, “all the believers were one in heart and mind”(Acts 4:32). What could be more powerful in our materialistic age than a church using its wealth to further God’s kingdom, united in love, and growing daily in numbers? This is how the early church had such a remarkable impact on its surrounding culture. Do we have enough faith to trust God for the same today?

Notes

1. Lewis, C. S., Mere Christianity (MacMillan: New York)

2. Craig, William Lane, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), 61.

3. Israel Shenker, “The provocative progress of a pilgrim polymath,” Smithsonian (May 1993), 128.

4. Graham H. Twelftree, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 821.

©2001 Probe Ministries.

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About the Author

Don Closson received the B.S. in education from Southern Illinois University, the M.S. in educational administration from Illinois State University, and the M.A. in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He served as a public school teacher and administrator before joining Probe Ministries as a research associate in the field of education. He is the general editor of Kids, Classrooms, and Contemporary Education.

What is Probe?

Probe Ministries is a non-profit ministry whose mission is to assist the church in renewing the minds of believers with a Christian worldview and to equip the church to engage the world for Christ. Probe fulfills this mission through our Mind Games conferences for youth and adults, our 3 1/2 minute daily radio program, and our extensive Web site at www.probe.org.

Further information about Probe’s materials and ministry may be obtained by contacting us at:

Probe Ministries
1900 Firman Drive, Suite 100
Richardson, TX 75081
(972) 480-0240 FAX (972) 644-9664
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Dantes version of Purgatory.

Is this the view you hold of a loving God? No wonder people go to church based on fear…

Totally unscriptural, totally full of Paganism, totally reprehensible.

 

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You have escaped damnation and made it to Purgatory, a place where the dew of repentance washes off the stain of sin and girds the spirit with humility. Through contrition, confession, and satisfaction by works of righteousness, you must make your way up the mountain. As the sins are cleansed from your soul, you will be illuminated by the Sun of Divine Grace, and you will join other souls, smiling and happy, upon the summit of this mountain. Before long you will know the joys of Paradise as you ascend to the ethereal realm of Heaven.

 

Level 1 - Limbo

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Charon ushers you across the river Acheron, and you find yourself upon the brink of grief’s abysmal valley. You are in Limbo, a place of sorrow without torment. You encounter a seven-walled castle, and within those walls you find rolling fresh meadows illuminated by the light of reason, whereabout many shades dwell. These are the virtuous pagans, the great philosophers and authors, unbaptised children, and others unfit to enter the kingdom of heaven. You share company with Caesar, Homer, Virgil, Socrates, and Aristotle. There is no punishment here, and the atmosphere is peaceful, yet sad.

 

Level 2

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You have come to a place mute of all light, where the wind bellows as the sea does in a tempest. This is the realm where the lustful spend eternity. Here, sinners are blown around endlessly by the unforgiving winds of unquenchable desire as punishment for their transgressions. The infernal hurricane that never rests hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine, whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them. You have betrayed reason at the behest of your appetite for pleasure, and so here you are doomed to remain. Cleopatra and Helen of Troy are two that share in your fate.

 

 

Level 3

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In the third circle, you find yourself amidst eternal rain, maledict, cold, and heavy. The gluttons are punished here, lying in the filthy mixture of shadows and of putrid water. Because you consumed in excess, you meet your fate beneath the cold, dirty rain, amidst the other souls that there lay unhappily in the stinking mud. Cerebus, a canine monster cruel and uncouth with his three heads and red eyes, dwells in this level. He growls and tears at the damned with his teeth and claws.

 

Level 4

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Just before the river Styx is the Fourth Level of Hell. Here, the prodigal and the avaricious suffer their punishment, as they roll weights back and forth against one another. You will share eternal damnation with others who either wasted and lived greedily and insatiably, or who stockpiled their fortunes, hoarding everything and sharing nothing. Plutus, the wolf-like demon of wealth, dwells here.

 

Level 5

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The river Styx runs through this level of Hell, and in it are punished the wrathful and the gloomy. The former are forever lashing out at each other in anger, furious and naked, tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth. The latter are gurgling in the black mud, slothful and sullen, withdrawn from the world. Their lamentations bubble to the surface as they try to repeat a doleful hymn, though with unbroken words they cannot say it. Because you lived a cruel, vindictive and hateful life, you meet your fate in the Styx.

 

Level 6 - The City of Dis

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You approach Satan’s wretched city where you behold a wide plain surrounded by iron walls. Before you are fields full of distress and torment terrible. Burning tombs are littered about the landscape. Inside these flaming sepulchers suffer the heretics, failing to believe in God and the afterlife, who make themselves audible by doleful sighs. You will join the wicked that lie here, and will be offered no respite. The three infernal Furies stained with blood, with limbs of women and hair of serpents, dwell in this circle of Hell.

 

Level 7

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Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood, is the Seventh Level of Hell. The violent, the assasins, the tyrants, and the war-mongers lament their pitiless mischiefs in the river, while centaurs armed with bows and arrows shoot those who try to escape their punishment. The stench here is overpowering. This level is also home to the wood of the suicides- stunted and gnarled trees with twisting branches and poisoned fruit. At the time of final judgement, their bodies will hang from their branches. In those branches the Harpies, foul birdlike creatures with human faces, make their nests. Beyond the wood is scorching sand where those who committed violence against God and nature are showered with flakes of fire that rain down against their naked bodies. Blasphemers and sodomites writhe in pain, their tongues more loosed to lamentation, and out of their eyes gushes forth their woe. Usurers, who followed neither nature nor art, also share company in the Seventh Level

 

Level 8- the Malebolge

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Many and varied sinners suffer eternally in the multi-leveled Malebolge, an ampitheatre-shapped pit of despair Wholly of stone and of an iron colour: Those guilty of fraudulence and malice; the seducers and pimps, who are whipped by horned demons; the hypocrites, who struggle to walk in lead-lined cloaks; the barraters, who are ducked in boiling pitch by demons known as the Malebranche. The simonists, wedged into stone holes, and whose feet are licked by flames, kick and writhe desperately. The magicians, diviners, fortune tellers, and panderers are all here, as are the thieves. Some wallow in human excrement. Serpents writhe and wrap around men, sometimes fusing into each other. Bodies are torn apart. When you arrive, you will want to put your hands over your ears because of the lamentations of the sinners here, who are afflicted with scabs like leprosy, and lay sick on the ground, furiously scratching their skin off with their nails. Indeed, justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.

 

Level 9 - Cocytus

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This is the deepest level of hell, where the fallen angel Satan himself resides. His wings flap eternally, producing chilling cold winds that freeze the thick ice found in Cocytus. The three faces of Satan, black, red, and yellow, can be seen with mouths gushing bloody foam and eyes forever weeping, as they chew on the three traitors, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. This place is furthest removed from the source of all light and warmth. Sinners here are frozen deep in the ice, faces out, eyes and mouths frozen shut. Traitors against God, country, family, and benefactors lament their sins in this frigid pit of despair.

Catholic view on Elohim

Elohim

(Septuagint, theos; Vulgate, Deus).

Elohim is the common name for God. It is a plural form, but “The usage of the language gives no support to the supposition that we have in the plural form Elohim, applied to the God of Israel, the remains of an early polytheism, or at least a combination with the higher spiritual beings” (Kautzsch). Grammarians call it a plural of majesty or rank, or of abstraction, or of magnitude (Gesenius, Grammatik, 27th ed., nn. 124 g, 132 h). The Ethiopic plural amlak has become a proper name of God. Hoffmann has pointed out an analogous plural elim in the Phoenician inscriptions (Ueber einige phon. Inschr., 1889, p. 17 sqq.), and Barton has shown that in the tablets from El-Amarna the plural form ilani replaces the singular more than forty times (Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, 21-23 April, 1892, pp. cxcvi-cxcix).

Etymology

Elohim has been explained as a plural form of Eloah or as plural derivative of El. Those who adhere to the former explanation do not agree as to the derivation of Eloah. There is no such verbal stem as alah in Hebrew; but the Arabist Fleischer, Franz Delitzsch, and others appeal to the Arabic aliha, meaning “to be filled with dread”, “anxiously to seek refuge”, so that ilah (eloah) would mean in the first place “dread”, then the object of dread. Gen., xxi, 42, 53, where God is called “the fear of Isaac“, Is., viii, 13, and Ps. lxxv, 12, appear to support this view. But the fact that aliha is probably not an independent verbal stem but only a denominative from ilah, signifying originally “possessed of God” (cf. enthousiazein, daimonan) renders the explanation more than precarious. There is no more probability in the contention of Ewald, Dillmann, and others that the verbal stem, alah means “to be mighty”: and is to regarded as a by-form of the stem alah; that, therefore, Eloah grows out of alah as El springs from alah. Baethgen (Beitrage, 297) has pointed out that of the fifty-seven occurrences of Eloah forty-one belong to the Book of Job, and the others to late texts or poetic passages. Hence he agrees with Buhl in maintaining that the singularform Eloah came into existence only after the plural form Elohim had been long in common use; in this case, a singular was supplied for its pre-existent plural. But even admitting Elohim to be the prior form, its etymology has not thus far been satisfactorily explained. The ancient Jewish and the early ecclesiastical writers agree with many modern scholars in deriving Elohim from El, but there is a great difference of opinion as to the method of derivation. Nestle (Theol. Stud. aus Würt., 1882, pp. 243 sqq.) supposes that the plural has arisen by the insertion of an artificial h, like the Hebrew amahoth (maidens) from amah. Buhl (Gesenius Hebraisches Handworterbuch, 12th ed., 1895, pp. 41 sq.) considers Elohim as a sort of augmentative form of El; but in spite of their disagreement as to the method of derivation, these writers are one in supposing that in early Hebrew the singular of the word signifying God was El, and its plural form Elohim; and that only more recent times coined the singular form Eloah, thus giving Elohim a grammatically correct correspondent. Lagrange, however, maintains that Elohim and Eloah are derived collaterally and independently from El.

The Use of the Word

The Hebrews had three common names of God, El, Elohim, and Eloah; besides, they had the proper name Yahweh. Nestle is authority for the statement that Yahweh occurs about six thousand times in the Old Testament, while all the common names of God taken together do not occur half as often. The name Elohim is found 2570 times; Eloah, 57 times [41 in Job; 4 in Pss.; 4 in Dan.; 2 in Hab.; 2 in Canticle of Moses (Deuteronomy 32); 1 in Prov., 1 in Is.; 1 in Par.; 1 in Neh. (II Esd.)]; El, 226 times (Elim, 9 times). Lagrange (Etudes sur les religions sémitiques, Paris, 1905, p. 71) infers from Gen., xlvi, 3 (the most mighty God of thy father), Ex., vi, 3 (by the name of God Almighty), and from the fact that El replaces Yah in proper names, the conclusion that El was at first a proper and personal name of God. Its great age may be shown from its general occurrence among all the Semitic races, and this in its turn may be illustrated by its presence in the proper names found in Gen., iv, 18; xxv, 13; xxxvi, 43. Elohim is not found among all the Semitic races; the Aramaeans alone seem to have had an analogous form. It has been suggested that the name Elohim must have been formed after the descendants of Shem had separated into distinct nations.

Meaning of the Word

If Elohim be regarded as derived from El, its original meaning would be “the strong one” according to Wellhausen’s derivation of El, from ul (Skizzen, III, 169); or “the foremost one”, according to Nöldeke’s derivation of El from ul or il, “to be in front” (Sitzungsberichte der berlinischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1880, pp. 760 sqq.; 1882, pp. 1175 sqq.); or “the mighty one”, according to Dillmann’s derivation of El from alah or alay, “to be mighty” (On Genesis, I, 1); or, finally “He after whom one strives”, “Who is the goal of all human aspiration and endeavour”, “to whom one has recourse in distress or when one is in need of guidance”, “to who one attaches oneself closely”, coincidentibus interea bono et fine, according to the derivation of El from the preposition el, “to”, advocated by La Place (cf. Lagarde, Uebersicht, etc., p. 167), Lagarde (op. cit., pp. 159 sqq.), Lagrange (Religions semitiques, pp. 79 sqq.), and others. A discussion of the arguments which militate for and against each of the foregoing derivations would lead us too far.

If we have recourse to the use of the word Elohim in the study of its meaning, we find that in its proper sense it denotes either the true God or false gods, and metaphorically it is applied to judges, angels, and kings; and even accompanies other nouns, giving them a superlative meaning. The presence of the article, the singular construction of the word, and its context show with sufficient clearness whether it must be taken in its proper or its metaphorical sense, and what is its precise meaning in each case. Kautzsch (Encyclopaedia Biblica, III, 3324, n. 2) endeavours to do away with the metaphorical sense of Elohim. Instead of the rendering “judges” he suggests the translation “God”, as witness of a lawsuit, as giver of decisions on points of law, or as dispenser of oracles; for the rendering “angels” he substitutes “the gods of the heathen“, which, in later post-exilic times, fell to a lower rank. But this interpretation is not supported by solid proof.

According to Renan (Histoire du peuple d’Israel, I, p. 30) the Semites believed that the world is surrounded, penetrated, and governed by the Elohim, myriads of active beings, analogous to the spirits of the savages, alive, but somehow inseparable from one another, not even distinguished by their proper names as the gods of the Aryans, so that they can be considered as a confused totality. Marti (Geschichte der israelitischen Religion, p. 26), too, finds in Elohim a trace of the original Semitic polydemonism; he maintains that the word signified the sum of the divine beings that inhabited any given place. Baethgen (op. cit., p. 287), F.C. Baur (Symbolik und Mythologie, I, 304), and Hellmuth-Zimmermann (Elohim, Berlin, 1900) make Elohim an expression of power, grandeur, and totality. Lagrange (op. cit., p. 7 urges against these views that even the Semitic races need distinct units before they have a sum, and distinct parts before that arrive at a totality. Moreover, the name El is prior to Elohim (op. cit., p. 77 sq.) and El is both a proper and a common name of God. Originally it was either a proper name and has become a common name, or it was a common name has become a proper name. In either case, El, and, therefore, also its derivative form Elohim, must have denoted the one true God. This inference becomes clear after a little reflection. If El was, at first, the proper name of a false god, it could not become the common name of a false god, it could not become the common name for deity any more than Jupiter or Juno could; and if it was, at first, the common name for deity, it could become the proper name only of that God who combined in him all the attributes of deity, who was the one true God. This does not imply that all the Semitic races had from the beginning a clear concept of God’s unit and Divine attributes, though all had originally the Divine name El.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05393a.htm 

LOL. Priest Charged with Drunken Driving after Crashing into Restaurant

SMITHVILLE, Texas (AP) - A Roman Catholic priest is charged with drunken driving after crashing a pickup truck into a restaurant and injuring ten people in Smithville, Texas.

Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper David Adkins says five of the victims were taken to hospitals Monday night, none with life-threatening injuries, after the Reverend Karel Fink’s pickup smashed about ten feet into the restaurant.

Adkins says the priest’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit after the crash, and that Fink told authorities he accidentally pressed the gas instead of the brake.

The Diocese of Austin says Fink was released from alcohol treatment within the past couple of weeks.

Bishop Gregory Aymond says, “Obviously he needs more treatment to continue his recovery.”

Another view of Catholics

English - Are Roman Catholics Christians? ©1985 by Jack T. Chick LLC See this tract in other languages E-mail this tract to a friend.If any images do not load, simply right-click (Windows) or control-click (Macintosh) on the picture placeholder and select, “Show Picture.”

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Are Catholics Christian?

Question: Are Catholics Christians? If not, why? This is not a negative question. I desire to honestly know if Catholics are considered to be part of the Christian faith.

Answer: This is a most important question anybody can ask. Am I a Christian? Or am I a Christian in name only? Do I have a living relationship with Christ?

Well then, who has the right to call himself Christian? Like the Jews of old, people still fool themselves in thinking that they are right with God because of some ritual (like circumcision or baptism) or because of their heritage (”I was born into a Christian family and attend a Christian church”).

According to the Bible, a true Christian is chosen by God before the foundation of the world, redeemed and forgiven by the blood of Christ, illuminated by the Spirit, knows and obeys the truth of the Gospel. A Christian is someone who trusts in Christ for his salvation, and gives all praise to God for His grace. (Please read Ephesians 1:3-13).

Does a Roman Catholic fit this description? Superficially he does. He believes in Christ and speaks about the grace of God. But if he follows the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, regretfully I must say that he does not really believe in Christ nor does he know the grace of God. Please allow me to explain.

The Gospel teaches that “a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). God regards a person just and righteous who trusts wholeheartedly in Jesus, and who does not attempt to win God’s favour by his imperfect obedience of the Law. Sadly, Roman theology has rejected God’s way of salvation. To faith, Rome adds a set of deeds (many of which are human inventions) and curses anyone who dares to completely trust in Christ alone for salvation. ‘If anyone says that the faith that justifies is nothing else but trust in the divine mercy, which pardons sins because of Christ, or that it is that trust alone by which we are justified, let him be anathema.’ (Council of Trent, session 6, cannon 12).

We firmly believe that our sins are pardoned because of the sacrifice of Christ alone. Rome would have us perform acts of penance and suffer in purgatory to expiate our sins. The Bible proclaims Christ, the Priest who offered himself once for all. Rome would have us apply to her priests who daily offer their sacrifices on the altar. The Bible proclaims Christ as the only Mediator, Rome would have us apply to other mediators, like Mary, the saints and the church.

Again, we assert that we are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). The Bible clearly defines what grace is: “to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt” (Romans 4:4) Grace is unmerited favour, as opposed to the merit of works. Rome outwardly teaches that we are justified by grace. However the “grace” of Catholicism is a very strange species. The Catholic Church states that “we can then merit for ourselves…the graces needed…for the attainment of eternal life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2010). To merit grace is a contradiction in terms. Rome would not allow you to receive the gift of salvation with a grateful heart, but would have you work like a slave to merit it.

We are forced to conclude that the message of Rome is a different gospel. It is a false gospel. I say this with much sadness and concern for the multitudes of Catholics who blindly follow this false system. I must warn every Catholic that Christ is of no avail to you unless you relinquish any confidence in yourself and your works, and in every other creature. Faith must be in Christ - alone!

Having said that, I gladly add the following caveat. There may be some nominal Catholics who, either out of ignorance or willful rejection of Catholic doctrine, truly trust in Christ alone for their salvation. They are Christians and really belong to God.

The book of Revelation describes a deceptive and false religious system named Babylon. It is not my intention here to discuss the exact nature of this Babylon - the principle remains the same. Some Christians are trapped inside this deceptive system and God gives them a specific command: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). Thank God that even in Babylon, God has His people. If you are a Christian entrapped in the false religious system of Rome, hear God’s calling and come out of her. You will experience liberty and life like never before.

Copyright Dr Joe Mizzi. Permission to copy and distribute this article without textual changes

Should Roman Catholicism really be classified as a Christian religion?

Should Roman Catholicism Be Considered
A Christian Religion?
by Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon

doShould Roman Catholicism really be classified as a Christian religion?

No.

Roman Catholicism is not a Christian religion and in this article we will explain why.

Many Evangelical Christians today have very positive feelings about both

the Pope in particular and Roman Catholicism in general. Others are uncertain as to how Roman Catholicism should properly be classified in light of biblical teaching. That such support and/or perplexity is undergirded even by many Christian organizations can be seen in the following response sent out to those inquiring about Catholicism by a leading Christian apologetics ministry. This standard reply was given by a group which specializes in the analysis of comparative religion and cultic theology. In answer to the question, “Is Roman Catholicism Biblical?”, the verbatim response was as follows (copy on file):

1. Does the Catholic Church teach orthodox Christianity? Answer: Yes.

2. Does the Catholic Church teach salvation by good works or by faith? Answer: They teach it by faith.

3. Does the Catholic Church teach another gospel? Answer: No.

This reply would certainly lead many to conclude that Roman Catholicism should be classified as a legitimate Christian faith.

Of course, Roman Catholicism claims it alone is the one true Church on earth. The Catholic Encyclopedia argues, “The term Roman Catholic has come to be the accepted designation of the one true Church….”¹ It also teaches that God has indeed revealed Himself “and that the Catholic faith is that revelation.”² In addition, it describes the Catholic Church as “The Church founded by Jesus Christ,”³ and defines the Church in the following manner, “When the Church is spoken of, it means that visible religious society, founded by Jesus Christ, under one head, St. Peter, and continuing under the governance of his successors, the popes…. It is thus the role of the Church to present the means of salvation given by Christ, [i.e., the sacraments].…”⁴

Under the heading of “Doctrine of the Catholic Church” we read, “It is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the all-embracing means of salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained.”⁵

Under “Church Membership,” we find Pope Pius XII cited in his On the Mystical Body of Christ (1943). He teaches that only Catholics are to be considered members of the one true Church. “Actually, only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized, and who profess the true faith [Roman Catholicism], and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body…” [i.e., Protestants].⁶

Finally, under the heading “Protestantism,” we find that the official position “of the Catholic Church was set forth in the twenty-five sessions of the Council of Trent…”⁷ which thoroughly anathematized Protestantism. At least here Protestantism retains its curse.

All this proves that Roman Catholicism claims that it alone is the one true Church on earth, and that Protestant churches are false—or at the very best, to be liberal, inadequate.

But what if it is actually the Roman Catholic Church which fails qualification as the one true Church—according to at least three of its own requirements? The Catholic Church itself has officially defined the identifying marks of the one true Church. In The Catholic Encyclopedia we are told there are four criteria endorsed by the Council of Trent: 1) oneness of doctrine, 2) the generation of true personal holiness dispensed through the Church’s means of sanctification (e.g., sacraments), 3) Catholicity (universality of mission) and 4) apostolicity—teachings and practices derived from Christ and the apostles.⁸

First, can it logically be maintained that the Catholic Church has a “oneness of doctrine?” In the sense of doctrine, the term “Catholicity” was classically defined in the “Vincentian canon” (5th century) as “What has been believed everywhere, always, by all.”⁹ Individual Catholics aside, have even the popes always maintained unity of doctrine? How is this possible with the doctrinal contradictions and controversies in Catholic history, tradition, and Scripture (e.g., the Apocrypha)? What about the serious differences found in the various competing forms of modern Roman Catholicism such as liberal, moderate, conservative, mystical and charismatic? Does Vatican II agree entirely with Trent?

Second, on what biblical basis can true holiness be said to be dispensed through the Roman Catholic Church and its beliefs and practices? Biblically, it is clear that sanctification, or growth in holiness, comes principally through the work of the Holy Spirit applied individually to true believers in Christ through the renewing power of both learning Scripture and obeying it. If so, of what value are the Roman Catholic sacraments and other practices for the process of sanctification? Especially if individual Catholics are attempting to earn their own salvation by good works and are not yet even saved? In fact, by inhibiting personal salvation through unbiblical doctrine and practices, Roman Catholicism inhibits true sanctification because sanctification is not possible without regeneration (cf., Jn. 6:63; Col. 2:23).

Thus, millions of Catholics today think they are Christians when in fact they are Catholics. Of course, the same may be said of Protestants who reject the gospel. Nevertheless, perhaps it is the fact of a largely unregenerate church which explains the strong comments of former Franciscan priest Emmett McLoughlin. In his Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church he argues as follows:

The purpose of this book is to show that the Roman Catholic Church in its most important work [sanctification] is a failure. Among its members crime and immorality are greater than the unchurched or the members of other churches. Whatever else the Roman Catholic Church may be able to do… it cannot, it has not, and it does not make the majority of its members better and holier….

That the Roman Catholic Church has been one of the most powerful influences in the history of all civilization cannot be seriously denied….

[Nevertheless] It is my contention and my sincere conviction, from my experience in the Catholic educational system, my life of fifteen years in the priesthood, and thirteen years of constant observation and intense study since leaving the Church, that its influence on all civilization has been far more of evil than of good….

Morally, this book will show the high rate of crime and sin among Roman Catholics everywhere, and particularly in the United States. It will also demonstrate that this immorality is not in spite of Catholic education and training, but directly because of it.¹⁰

Today, some have even claimed up to one-third of the 57,000 Roman Catholic priests could be HIV infected—and now, several books exist on priestly pedophilia—with up to 3,000 priests apparently involved.¹¹

The third Catholic test for identifying the one true Church is apostolicity. But if the Roman Catholic Church rejects key teachings of the apostles, how can it logically be considered apostolic—that is, derived from them? Thus, the Catholic Church fails in at least three of its four criteria for evaluation of its own authenticity.

Again, all this raises the question, “Can Roman Catholicism truly be considered Christian?”

Merely having some degree of doctrinal orthodoxy does not, by definition, prove a religion is Christian. For example, in Church history, certain unorthodox or heretical sects have accepted the doctrine of the Trinity and yet denied other cardinal doctrines of the faith. Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in the inerrancy of the Bible far more consistently than Catholics. Yet, no one argues they are Christian but themselves. Mormonism provisionally accepts the Bible as the Word of God and in certain ways believes in the atonement of Christ. Yet no religion is more anti-Christian.¹² The Way International teaches “salvation by grace” and other biblical doctrines, yet denies the Trinity and the deity of Christ. They cannot be properly classified as Christian either. Even Muslims are devout monotheists having many moral views in harmony with the Bible. But none of these religions can be classified as Christian because what makes a religion Christian is both a) a fundamental body of correct doctrinal belief that true Christians have always believed in without compromise and b) religious practices and lifestyle among its members that conform to biblical standards.

No one denies that the Catholic Church historically today believes many Christian doctrines. They are monotheists, they believe in the Trinity, that God is Spirit, the reality of sin, Christ as God, the virgin birth, and heaven and hell.

But they also offer many unbiblical doctrines such as salvation by works. Further, even the orthodox doctrines they hold have a tendency to become compromised in various ways. The deity of Christ itself is impacted by Rome’s teaching that Christ is incarnated in the Church.¹³

All this underscores a simple fact. Claims to be Christian need to be thoroughly evaluated with proper attention to 1) word meanings, 2) doctrine as a whole and 3) lifestyle and practices. If we look at Roman Catholic doctrine comprehensively as well as its word meanings and practices, this would seem to require the categorization of Roman Catholicism, as a whole, as not being Christian.

From the perspective of the sociology of religion alone, the Roman Catholic Church indeed may be called a Christian religion, but certainly it cannot be considered a biblically orthodox Christian religion.

Even if we must reduce the issue to a single doctrine, what primarily determines whether a religious body is Christian or not is the basic gospel message of salvation, not how close a given religion can come to the historic doctrines of Christianity. Let’s take an example. Say there is a very powerful and influential worldwide religion with a half-billion members. It’s called “the church of Christianity.”

Say this world religion is orthodox on every major teaching of historic Christianity, such as—the deity of Christ; salvation by faith in Christ alone, the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, biblical inerrancy, the Fall of man, the virgin birth, incarnation, the Trinity, second coming, the atonement of Jesus Christ, etc.

But now let’s say this religion is only “ninety-nine percent” orthodox. There is only one historic doctrine it refuses to accept. It absolutely rejects salvation by grace through faith alone and teaches that, in the end, a person is ultimately to recognize that they are saved by their faith and their good works.

Is it still a Christian religion? After all, it’s ninety-nine percent Christian. It’s as orthodox as can be in every area but one. In fifty Christian doctrines its teachings are biblical; there is only one doctrine it opposes.

Biblically, such a religion cannot possibly be classified as Christian. Again, how close one gets to Christianity isn’t the issue; it is: Does one accept the gospel or not?

Now, consider Roman Catholicism. The fact that it accepts many Christian doctrines is irrelevant. That it teaches salvation by works proves that it is not a Christian religion. The fact that some are saved within the Roman Catholic Church only means that some, like Luther, have found salvation (by God’s grace) because they studied the Bible—or because Christians witnessed to them and they were saved by hearing the gospel.

But just because there are some people who are saved in Roman Catholicism and because it has a number of biblical teachings is insufficient reason to conclude that Catholicism is Christian and that therefore Christians and Catholics can worship together as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Luther also said this, “If I declare with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of God’s Truth except for that one little bit which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ no matter how boldly I may be professing Christ….”

The gospel—anything but minuscule—is what the world and the devil have always opposed. And it continues to be opposed today in the Catholic Church. Therefore, Christians who think Roman Catholicism is Christian, “Evangelical Catholics,” who seek to bring their “separated brethren” back to Rome, and Evangelicals who have converted to Rome need to ask where their commitment is to the gospel—that doctrine of salvation by grace alone, that the world and the devil are at this moment attacking. And if their commitment isn’t to taking a strong stand in defense of the gospel, is their commitment really to Christ and His Church? We don’t think so—it cannot be.

On this key issue alone Catholicism fails the test of being Christian. But Roman Catholicism also teaches the following doctrines that negatively impact or deny the biblical teaching on salvation:

• Justification as the infusing of righteousness based on good works, not the imputation of righteousness as a judicial decree of God.

• The Mass “as truly propitiatory” and, in some sense, truly re-sacrificing Christ.

• The seven Catholic sacraments as infusing grace for purposes of sanctification and salvation. (But if the Sacrament of Holy Orders confers supernatural power on Roman Catholic bishops, priests and deacons to “serve as a teacher as Christ Himself,”¹⁴ how is it that Roman Catholic bishops, priests and deacons can so consistently oppose the key teaching of Scripture?)

• Baptism, penance, suffering in purgatory, indulgences etc., as having the power to remit or forgive sin or its punishment.

• Catholicism alone as the one true Church.

No one can deny that given the above teachings relating to salvation, that Catholicism offers a different gospel than the one clearly stated in the Bible.

But Catholicism also teaches doctrines which undermine the authority of the Bible itself:

• The pope as infallible in matters of doctrine and morals. Further, Peter was the first pope, and Christ instituted the office of the papacy.

• Catholic tradition has divine authority and is to be equated with the word of God.

• The Apocrypha is also the word of God.

• The teaching authority of the Church as the final and only correct interpreter of the Bible to its people. This means that individual Christians cannot properly interpret the Bible on their own. This is why the Protestant view of individual interpretation is referred to as a product of “theological rationalism” and condemned by Rome.¹⁵ The Documents of Vatican II teach, “The task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living, teaching office of the Church….”¹⁶

The above teachings indicate that the Catholic Church has also undermined the authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures. But further, the Catholic Church also teaches the following items listed below, again, none of which are biblical:

• Mary was born without sin, is sinless, ascended bodily into heaven and is a “co-Redemptrix” “Mediatrix” and “Queen of Heaven” in God’s plan of salvation. She is to be venerated/”worshipped” and offers all the graces of Christ to men who adore her, whether in the Church or at thousands of her shrines/altars throughout the world.

• Faith is an intellectual assent to the doctrines of the Church. In fact, true faith “demands that we believe” in Roman Catholic doctrines without which we cannot be sanctified or saved.¹⁷ (Apparently then, Christians whose faith in the Bible alone compels them in their conscience to reject Catholic belief are without true saving faith.)

• Catholic saints are to be venerated. True “saints” and “priests” are comprised of an extremely minuscule portion of the body of Christ.

• Sin is to be compartmentalized into moral/venial categories.

Perhaps it would do well to remind Protestants that, historically, one of the greatest enemies of Christianity has been false religion. It is the growth of such religion throughout the world that has remained the most serious threat to the health of the Church and will continue to do so far into the 21st century.

Is Roman Catholicism Christian? In a nutshell, it would seem that there are so many ways in which Catholicism is not biblical that it is logically impossible to classify it as a genuine Christian religion.

All this is why the obstacles between Catholicism and Evangelicalism are insurmountable, at least until there is fundamental biblical reformation in Rome.

Notes

1 Robert C. Broderick, ed., The Catholic Encyclopedia, revised and updated (NY: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1987), p. 528, emphasis added.

2 Ibid., p. 44.

3 Ibid., p. 99.

4 Ibid., p. 115.

5 Ibid., p. 170, emphasis added.

6 Ibid., p. 381.

7 Ibid., p. 499.

8 Ibid., p. 371.

9 F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, Press, 1988), pp. 26, 2.

10 Emmett McLoughlin, Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church (NY: Lyle Stuart, 1964), p. 10.

11 Patrick Dixon, The Whole Truth About AIDS (Nashville: Nelson, 1989), p. 22; cf. Jason Berry, Lead Us Not Into Temptation and US. News and World Report, October 5, 1992.

12 John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Mormonism (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1992).

13 Gerrit C. Berkowuer, The Conflict with Rome (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1958), pp. 191-211; Walter M. Abbot, gen. ed., The Documents of Vatican II (NY: Guild Press, 1966), p. 141; Paul G. Schrotenboer, ed., Roman Catholicism: A Contemporary Evangelical Perspective (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1980), p. 41; H. M. Carson, Dawn or Twilight? A Study of Contemporary Roman Catholicism (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1976), pp. 41-42.

14 Broderick, ed., p. 438.

15 Ibid, p. 514.

16 Abbott, pp. 117-118, emphasis added.

17 Broderick, ed., p. 213

 

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