Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 4:48pm

PopeWatch: Idols

[21] (Now all the Athenians, and strangers that were there, employed themselves in nothing else, but either in telling or in hearing some new thing.) [22] But Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. [23] For passing by, and seeing your idols, I found an altar also, on which was written: To the unknown God. What therefore you worship, without knowing it, that I preach to you: [24] God, who made the world, and all things therein; he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; [25] Neither is he served with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing; seeing it is he who giveth to all life, and breath, and all things:

[26] And hath made of one, all mankind, to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, determining appointed times, and the limits of their habitation. [27] That they should seek God, if happily they may feel after him or find him, although he be not far from every one of us: [28] For in him we live, and move, and are; as some also of your own poets said: For we are also his offspring. [29] Being therefore the offspring of God, we must not suppose the divinity to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, the graving of art, and device of man. [30] And God indeed having winked at the times of this ignorance, now declareth unto men, that all should everywhere do penance.

[31] Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in equity, by the man whom he hath appointed; giving faith to all, by raising him up from the dead. [32] And when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some indeed mocked, but others said: We will hear thee again concerning this matter. [33] So Paul went out from among them. [34] But certain men adhering to him, did believe; among whom was also Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Acts 17:  21-31

 

 

One of many irritating features of this papacy is how the Pope twists Scripture to try to defend his actions and positions.  Case in point:

 

 

St. Paul announced Jesus Christ to “idol worshippers” in Athens without attacking them, but by building bridges, Pope Francis said Wednesday.

“We also ask the Holy Spirit today to teach us to build bridges with culture, with those who do not believe or with those who have a creed different from ours. Always build bridges, always reach out, never aggression,” Pope Francis said Nov. 6 in St. Peter’s Square.

“Let us ask him for his ability to delicately inculturate the message of faith, placing on those who are in ignorance of Christ, a contemplative gaze, moved by a love that warms even the most hardened hearts,” he said at the general audience.

In his weekly catechesis on the Acts of the Apostles, Pope Francis described St. Paul’s discourse on the Areopagus as an example of inculturation of the Catholic faith in Athens.

“In the heart of one of the most famous institutions of the ancient world, the Areopagus, he achieved an extraordinary example of inculturation of the message of faith: he announces Jesus Christ to idol worshipers, and he does not do so by attacking them, but by becoming … a builder of bridges,” Pope Francis said.

Go here to read the rest.  Holy Father you can read the New Testament with a magnifying glass and you will never find where Saint Paul ever invited idols into a place of worship for Christians.  Indeed, what Saint Paul says about the worship of idols explains much that is transpiring in our own day:

 

[22] For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. [23] And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things. [24] Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. [25] Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

[26] For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. [27] And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. [28] And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient; [29] Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, [30] Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

[31] Foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. [32] Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.

Romans 1: 22-32

Would that the Pope  read the Bible for instruction, rather than to mine it for specious arguments.

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Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, November 7, AD 2019 8:56am

Paul went to the Athenians, pointed to the altar and said “I know who the unknown God whom you honor is. Let me tell you about Him.”

Which is totally the same as that time St. Boniface came to Rome from the forests of Thuringia and planted an oak tree in old St. Peter’s because Donnar was the name by which the germans honored the Creator; and then told the Christians of Rome how they had much to learn from the native spirituality and folk wisdom of the people who once upon a time nailed Roman skulls to oak trees.

Not.

MikeS
MikeS
Thursday, November 7, AD 2019 9:24am

And the episode at the Areopagus was Paul’s least successful proclamation of the Gospel.

GregB
Thursday, November 7, AD 2019 1:13pm

St. Paul also said that he would only preach Christ, and Him Crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:1-2:
*
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
2 When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

trackback
Thursday, November 7, AD 2019 2:33pm

[…] YOU CAN READ THE NEW TESTAMENT WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS AND YOU WILL NEVER FIND WHERE SAINT PAUL EVER INVITED IDOLS INTO A PLACE OF WORSHIP FOR […]

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