25-03-2009, 03:07 AM
David, if you call those entries 'peer reviews' you need to do a little background check of these 'peers'. Flint is mormon, Wright is christian and Forbes is christian also. You could hardly expect a glowing review on anything that cast a shadow on orthodox views of the bible and Jesus. The one that made me nearly fall from laughing is Geza Vermes!!!! He was another DSS translator, catholic priests who also left the church and the priesthood. He considered Jesus to be just a Hasidic jewish holy man. Starting to see a pattern here??
I wonder why you should be so concerned about the secular world not agreeing with your views on religion when so many who claim to be christian don't even believe in the divinity of jesus nor that believing is essential for salvation. The following quotes are just a sample of hundreds by 'christian leaders'. I would think you would be more concerned with the dirt around the church's door(rampant child molestation both catholic and protestant with over 800 million dollars paid out in settlements/hush money) and how the world is to understand just exactly what you people do believe when none of you seem to agree at all. If there is a god, he can take care of himself and would hardly need defending by mere weak mortals. BTW, if there is but one true god why are there over 2000 sects of Christianity alone!!
Now back to the true ‘theologians’.
Geza Vermes spoke as part of a panel on religious approaches to truth that also included Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian of the Papal Household under Pope John Paul II.
Vermes devoted his presentation to arguing that on the basis of the New Testament, the image of Jesus that emerges is that of a charismatic, wonder-working Jewish holy man, and thus not the divine Son of God claimed by later Christian tradition.
The Greek-influenced version of Christianity developed by St. Paul and elaborated across centuries of Christian theological reflection, Vermes said, “would have perplexed Jesus the Jew.”
During a group discussion of religious leaders from around the world, held at the Thanksgiving World Assembly in Dallas, Texas, in March of 1999, Cardinal Francis Arinze, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, is quoted as follows:
"(A document from the Second Vatican Council) says that God's grant of salvation includes not only Christians, but Jews, Muslims, Hindus and people of good will. That is, a person can be saved, can attain salvation, but on condition that the person is open to God's action. ..." ...
Robert Ashley, news director at Dallas radio station KHVN-AM, asked Cardinal Arinze: "So you can still get to heaven without accepting Jesus?"
Cardinal Arinze answered: "Expressly, yes (he laughs with the audience)."
'If God himself gave freedom', article © March 20, 1999, by Brooks Egerton, staff writer of The Dallas Morning News, third edition, page 1G.
This is a very interesting situation, where the Vatican is proclaiming itself to be the one true church of Christ, and that all non-Roman Catholic denominations "suffer from defects" and "are not Churches in the proper sense", and other religions "are in a gravely deficient situation", while at the same time they are denying that faith in Jesus Christ is necessary to salvation, that non-Christians can be saved. Truly Amazing!
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Whoever seeks peace and the good of the community with a pure conscience, and keeps alive the desire for the transcendent, will be saved even if he lacks biblical faith, says Benedict XVI.
Boy!! That is a real doozie!
The Pope made this affirmation today at the general audience, commenting on a meditation written by St. Augustine (354-430).
Normally, “it will be in the sincere practice of what is good in their own religious traditions and by following the dictates of their own conscience that the members of other religions respond positively to God’s invitation and receive salvation in Jesus Christ, even while they do not recognize or acknowledge him as their Saviour (cf. Ad gentes, nn. 3, 9, 11)” (Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue – Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Instruction Dialogue and Proclamation, 19 May 1991, n. 29; L’Osservatore Romano English edition, 1 July 1991, p. III).
Pope John Paul II, General Audience, Wednesday 9 September 1998