Insight on the News
Barrier Going Down?
● In March a joint commission of Roman Catholic and Lutheran theologians of the United States issued a statement that the ‘primacy of the pope’ need no longer be a “barrier to reconciliation” of their respective churches.
Many today do not realize that the sixteenth-century Protestant breakaway was more of a protest against Church government than against doctrine. Back in the fifth century, Leo “the Great,” bishop of Rome, had claimed superiority over all other bishops. Enforcing this, the fifteenth-century Council of Florence officially pronounced the bishop of Rome to be “the true vicar [administrative representative] of Christ,” having “full power of feeding, ruling, and governing the whole Church.” Protestants of the following century rejected such papal rule as unscriptural. Any hope of reconciliation darkened when, in July 1870, Vatican Council I took the further step of declaring that the pope was “infallible” in defining doctrine of faith and morals.
How, then, does this Catholic-Lutheran commission a hundred years later propose that the impasse be solved? First, Lutherans would be asked to accept the pope’s primacy in the sense of his being a ‘special minister’ having a ‘special responsibility’ and as symbolizing the global Christian unity. Then, the Roman Catholic Church would be asked to accept the Lutherans as a self-governing “sister-church” in a “larger communion.” The issue of papal infallibility? Well, the theologians would just leave that for ‘future decision.’
Unity of true Christians is both Scriptural and desirable. It comes, however, not by compromise and evasion, but by holding to the straight teaching of God’s Word. The Bible makes no man, but only Christ Jesus the head of the Christian congregation or church.—1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 5:23.
Space Fantasies
● Recently, through books, newspaper reports and motion pictures, there have been attempts to tie in the Bible with an imagined “space visit” to earth some thousands of years ago. Ezekiel chapter one, containing a vision of a celestial chariot, is highlighted in the attempt to prove existence of spacecraft millenniums ago. Supposedly based on this, “scientific” drawings of such spaceship have been published.
Comparison between the claims and the facts shows the absurdity of the whole idea. In one case, “four living creatures” described by Ezekiel become—in the “scientist’s” mind—four propulsion motors for the spacecraft! Ezekiel chapter ten shows that they were—not metal propulsion motors—but “cherubs,” living angelic messengers of God. The prophetic vision is clearly symbolic, not of a space venture, but of divine destruction then approaching apostate Jerusalem.
Similarly, many puzzles of the past—astonishingly immense constructions found in ancient civilizations; their amazingly fine work in metals; their astronomical calculations—are piled together in an effort to support the theory of a visit by superintelligent persons from outer space. But today’s ignorance of ancient capabilities does not prove the theory of the moneymaking books and films. The problem lies largely with the false idea that man has been “evolving,” a theory that fails to credit men of the past with the intelligence the Bible shows they possessed.—Gen. 4:21, 22.
All of which goes to show that what makes money today does not necessarily make sense.
Shifting Values
● The way people use their leisure time is a fair index of what their set of values is. There was a time when people used evening hours for family association and recreation, for reading, including the reading of the Bible. What is the situation today?
A recent Gallup poll in the United States posed the question, “What is your favorite way of spending an evening?” Of those interviewed, almost half listed “watching television.” Less than one out of seven preferred reading, only one out of ten included “engaging in family activities at home.” One wonders, too, what type of reading is done by those who do prefer it. The improbability of its including any consideration of God’s Word is indicated by the fact that less than one out of thirty gave ‘attendance at religious meetings’ as a preferred way of spending an evening. The rule applies to the use of leisure time also that ‘you reap what you sow.’—Gal. 6:7.