4 Comments

  1. Adam F said:

    Great post! Thanks Matt.

    January 11, 2016
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    • Matt Nelson said:

      Thanks for reading, brother! GO LEAFS 😀

      January 11, 2016
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  2. bill bannon said:

    Benedict was a gentle soul and gentle souls can’t stand violence and section 42 is dominated by his anti violence idea to the point of his making mistakes. Benedict says that the ” prophets…challenged every kind of …violence…whether collective or individual…”
    That simply is not correct. The prophet Samuel ” hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal” 1 Sam.15:33 because Saul failed to kill Agag as ordered by God. Elijah killed a minimum of 552 men…two groups of 51 by calling down lightning ( 2 Kgs.1:10 and 2 Kgs.1:12) and the rest (450) after the test between him and the priests idolaters…1Kgs.18:40. You hear in the Mass how Eliseus cursed 42 boys who were killed by two bears. Jeremiah of the later prophets warns the Chaldeans that they will be cursed if they are merciful to the Moabites in battle…Jeremiah 48:10 “Cursed be he that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently; and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”
    Benedict is saying that God never ordered the herem massacre of the Canaanites but scripture repeatedly says God did. What Benedict missed was two key concepts that had he known them, he may have accepted the herem as scripture recounts them. First, God gave the Canaanites 400 years of lighter punishments first prior to ordering the herem ( read Gen.15:16…God to Abraham ” in the fourth generation, your descendants will return here because the wickedness of the Amorites is not yet complete”….then Wisdom 12:10 ” punishing them bit by bit, you gave them space for repentance”). Second, God only orders such things when a group’s sin is filled up or complete….hence again look at the Genesis quote above. And later in 2014 the Pontifical Biblical Commission stated that the herem never happened whereas Benedict is saying they happened but were really sins of the Jews. Both are incorrect and don’t agree with each other as you’ll notice.
    Read Wisdom 12 which is only canonical in Catholicism. It states in 12:5-6…” These merciless murderers of children,devourers of human flesh, and initiates engaged in blood ritual, and parents who took with their own hands defenseless lives, You willed to destroy by the hands of our ancestors.”
    Benedict and the PBC are hoping to clean up the Old Testament of violence but in the Old Covenant, God had to use violence because pre Christ man needed great threats jst be be good…hence the death penalties for sins like adultery…man lacked certain things that Christ achieved:
    ….Christ had not brought sanctifying grace: John 1:17 ” the law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
    …..Christ had not yet reduced the devil’s power so that possession cases abounded in His culture but not after Him: Luke 10:18 ” I saw satan fall like lightning…” Once Christ reduced satan, even non Christians have an easier time trying to be good.
    …… Christ had not yet been lifted up from whence He draws all men to Himself ( though many resist the drawing): John 12:32. ” And I if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself”.
    Benedict and the PBC theologians are embarassed by OT violence but they don’t notice that Christ is not embarassed by it and announces the worst massacre and its reason…Jerusalem in 70AD and Christ notes it will happen because they had not known the things which were for their peace Luke 19:42.

    January 15, 2016
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  3. bill bannon said:

    ps
    The idea of no herem is brought by God unless a group completes their sin is not only in Gen.15:16 but Christ repeats it in Jerusalem:
    Christ talking to the leaders in Jerusalem…Matthew 23:31-32. ” Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now FILL UP what your ancestors measured out.”
    That was an ominous moment for any Jew listening to Christ who knew Gen.15:16 as precedent to Christ’s ” fill up”.

    January 17, 2016
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