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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The Roman Church ≠ the Bible Church (Part 2: Cardinal Gibbons speaks today)

      Continuing from Part 1 where Franz Pieper identified the Lutheran Church as the Church of the Bible, now he presents the plain writing of "our American representative of Rome" to identify the opposite Church.  James Cardinal Gibbons had authored the book Faith of our Fathers in 1876 and  Pieper quotes Gibbons from an 1894 edition beginning with a preface (see corresponding 1905 edition Google Books):
But without reserve our American representative of Rome, Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, represents Rome's fundamental tenet concerning the obscurity of the Scriptures: "The Scriptures are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance."

James Cardinal Gibbons
But I want to do Pieper one better.  I want to reprint Cardinal Gibbons' entire paragraph – in all its Romanist glory!:

We must, therefore, conclude that the Scriptures alone cannot be a sufficient guide and rule of faith because they cannot, at any time, be within the reach of every inquirer; because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance, and because they do not contain all the truths necessary for salvation.  – James Cardinal Gibbons - Archbishop of Baltimore


Now someone might claim that Cardinal Gibbons' statement may not apply for today since it was originally published in 1876 and is therefore "long gone".  Then I would have to reply with the question: Why has Cardinal Gibbons' book been republished in America and elsewhere almost continuously from 1876 to 2015... why are there 25 pages of editions in WorldCat if Gibbons' book does not represent official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church?  And why were there 4 pages of editions in the year 1917?... the 400th Anniversary of the Reformation?  Do you suppose there will be another official edition in the year 2017?

What?  Did somebody say this teaching of Gibbons is the same as that of a highly respected professor at Concordia Theological Seminary-Fort Wayne?  If so... Fort Wayne, meet your American forerunner in the Roman church... who was not Richard John Neuhaus.  (Just sayin')

Sola Scriptura! Scripture alone!

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