episode 12 do you live from Montreal Quebec Canada this is CBS and now here's your host David Ross we're back I'm back with episode 12 I'm burning through these Vatican 2 episodes just because I'm inspired I'm on fire I love all the key medical counsels I love the church and I'm loving reviewing these highlights because it's been a while I don't know how long maybe a year since I read this this book this translation of the documents of Vatican 2 with the commentaries and the footnotes and everything very excited I'm very excited I hope you're inspired and you're excited you can forgive all my weak commentary that I add on verbally and just take what inspires you go off to read the documents yourself get excited if you're not part of the church join the church help others into the church and for God's sake stay in the church persevere in your faith build your faith in your faith through prayer and the sacraments continuing now with the documents medica - this is a de verbum on Revelation picking up right where I left off - the successor of the successors of the Apostles sacred tradition hands on in its whole purity God's Word which was entrusted to the Apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit thus led by the light of the Spirit of Truth these successors can and their preaching reserve this word of God faithfully expand it and make it more widely known consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone the church draws for certainty about everything which has been revealed let me say that again it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the church draws her certainty about let me say that a third time it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed therefore both sacred tradition and sacred scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of devotion and reverence how can you have devotion to sacred tradition when you don't believe in sacred tradition how can you love tradition when you deny tradition I'm not bashing the crosses Protestants here I love the Protestants most of them are way more Christian than I that I am I don't to say than I'll ever be because I want I want to aim a little bit higher than that I love when you deny tradition it doesn't make any sense we have to acknowledge tradition we have to even if you acknowledge scripture that implies a love of tradition because it's by tradition we got scripture when the different writings were proposed as canonical the church fathers used tradition to judge the written word they used the oral word judge the written word that's how we got our Canon of Scripture so if you claim to love Scripture you are really admitting that you love tradition and and of rent the sacred tradition and sacred scripture form one sacred deposit of the Word of God which is committed to the church holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people United with the shepherds remain always steadfast steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles in the common life in the breaking of the bread and in prayers so that in holding to practicing and professing the heritage of the faith their results on the part of the bishops and faithful are remarkable common effort the task of authentically interpreting the Word of God whether written are handed on has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the church let me say that again the task of authentically interpreting the Word of God whether written or handed on which is to say whether scripture or tradition the task of authentically interpreting the Word of God has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office which is to say the Pope and the bishops who teach in union with the Pope the Living Magisterium the task of authentically interpreting has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching the Southern Baptist Church no there's no such thing that the Holy Roman Catholic Church Southern Baptists are lovely people but they don't have a church they're an ecclesial community there they're a Christian community in an imperfect relationship with Mother Church I love them I hope they enter into full communion and there are means of salvation available to them they are designed office is not above the Word of God but serves it let me say that again the teaching office the living Majesty on the Pope and the bishops who teach in union with the Pope they are not above the Word of God but they serve the Word of God teaching only what has been handed on they can't add stuff willy-nilly they can't make stuff up they can't make up a doctrine or a Dogma say I'm going to dogmatically define ex cathedra that Montreal Canadians are the greatest hockey team that ever played that's a bad example because I hate sports and I particularly hate the Montreal Canadiens no offense to those who love them but we can't just willy-nilly define stuff the living Magisterium can't willy-nilly display it's dependent on the Word of God completely dependent on it so this teaching office is not above the Word of God but serves it teaching only what has been handed on listening to it devoutly guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully by divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed it is clear therefore that sacred tradition sacred scripture and the teaching authority of the church in accord with God's most wise design are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls boom what more and I say this is powerful let me read that again it is clear therefore that sacred tradition sacred scripture and the teaching authority of the church in accord with God's most wise design are so linked and joined together that one cannot that one cannot stand without the others so you can't just have Sola scriptura you need sacred tradition and you need the Living Magisterium that is to say that you need the oral tradition of the church and you need the Pope and the bishops who teach in union with the Pope you can't just have Scripture there is no scripture without tradition and there's no tradition in Scripture without the Living Magisterium to interpret it to hand it on to protect it because they're all essential the faith the church God has positively ordained it it is clear therefore that sacred tradition sacred scripture and the teaching authority of the church in accord with God's most wise design so why did God design it this way because he's infinitely wise that's the answer God ordained it this way this is how Christ built his church don't complain don't argue get in moving on to chapter 3 now the divine inspiration and the interpretation of Sacred Scripture this should be interesting in composing the sacred books but chose men and while employed by him they made use of their powers and abilities so that with him acting in them and through them they as true authors consigned to writing everything and only those things which he wanted the sacred scriptures are the only place where this happens let's read it again in composing the sacred books God chose men and while employed by him they made use of their powers so they have free will they have creativity they know the languages in which they wrote they had cultural knowledge they had knowledge of family life and civic life and agriculture they had knowledge of politics and geopolitics and finance they had all kinds of knowledge and they were able to make use of all that as God used them you create scriptures amazing as true authors consigned to writing everything and only those things which he wanted the whole experience therefore since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit the primary author it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted to put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation therefore all Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching for reproof for correcting for instructing injustice that the man of God may be perfect equipped for every very powerful I mean the the gift of holy scripture cannot be underestimated we need to bear in mind just how powerful this gift of the Word of God is the written word of God how powerful it is it's a very unique contribution to the literature of the world it stands above all the other forms of writing as it is it has for its author its primary I'm jumping now down to the next highlight which is in the footnotes the first sentence of article 3 refers to so-called natural revelation the indications about nature God's nature and activity to be gathered from the existence of created things but what follows deals with supernatural revelation which is not dumb evidence hard to interpret but a series of personal acts and utterances the last and definitive one is the incarnation so making a little distinction there between natural revelation and supernatural revelation natural revelation is sometimes referred to as the next footnote here arises the question of the two sources of divine revelation scripture is clearly something different from a living oral tradition but as sources from which we may learn what God has in the past revealed and scripture and tradition be treated separately or must they always be taken together the prevailing view since the Council of Trent has been that they may be treated separately and statements of revealed truth which is to say dogmas may be gathered from tradition alone though they are in no way contained in Scripture this answers the question that I often raise and sometimes posed to me do all of the dog must go back necessarily to explicit written tradition which is to say the sacred writings the scriptures or are some based entirely in tradition not written in Scripture but only in contained in sacred tradition and this text seems to be saying that they don't need to explicitly go back to Scripture the reading this again the prevailing view since the Council of Trent has been that they may be treated separately and statements of revealed truth that is to say dogmas may be gathered from tradition alone so dogmas may be gathered from tradition alone though they are in no way contained in Scripture interesting them make a mental note of this this is a footnote this is not an infallible statement this is just talking about the history since trans theologians have all in on this side okay so bear in mind this is just a footnotes not infallible the other opinion recently revived which claims to be the pre Tridentine teaching maintains that all Christian revelation is contained in Scripture not necessarily in explicit terms sufficient to prove it but at least by implication which may which can be made explicit in the light of tradition so this is the other point of view so I guess this footnote is presenting both alternatives the question was much debated in the council and the majority of the fathers preferred not to decide it one way or the other the final text in article a explains the nature of each of the two forms of transmission and in article 9 sand cysts on their functional unity so it's unresolved and again if there's ambiguity in the language its to make sure we have room moving forward to explore this further very interesting though the next footnote this the Apostles did in the first place by word of mouth that world transmission has never ceased in the church preaching instruction of converts catechize ethic ethics are still oral person-to-person communication the message must be normally passed on by personal contact Christianity can never become a mere book religion at the same time in the New Testament the exact norm the exact form excuse me of the Apostolic message with all its characteristics of time and the next footnote of the development of Dogma note that the first medium of this development is the consideration and contemplation of revealed truth by the faithful who are implicitly compared with Mary treasuring these things in our heart the next note the ancient fathers of the church early Orthodox Christian writers up to and including st. Grady the person was I'm not sure why I made that note I have to go back and look at where that comes note 20e witness the little present excuse me one moment gonna mark my place here just marking as read okay the next footnote this careful formula was one of the last additions to the text made by made at the Pope's request it does not exclude the opinion that all revelation is in some way they'll perhaps obscurely contain in scripture but this doesn't this may not suffice for certitude and in fact the church always understands and interpret scripture in light of her continuous tradition see the end of article 12 so I'm going to go back and see where this the successor of the Apostles secret tradition hands on the period which entrusted the Apostles thus led by the lightest spirit of truth these successors Canada preaching preserve the Word of God faithfully explaining it making it more widely known consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone the church draws our certainty about everything which has been revealed that's that phrase that I emphasized over and over again mm-hmm and the footnotes that is this careful formula was one of the latest additions to the text made at the Pope's request it does not exclude the opinion that all revelation is in some way though perhaps obscurely contained in Scripture but this may not suffice for certitude and in fact the church always understands an interpret scripture in light of her continuous tradition so this footnote is basically saying that there was careful language used and the Pope himself insisted on this and it makes it emphasizes that that the church is the church has the power of interpretation and that the church is not dependent exclusively on sacred tradition but it doesn't rule out the possibility that each and every dogma is contained at least implicitly in Sacred Scripture moving on to the next footnote the latin term for the beginning the latin term for the teaching office is Magisterium including in its broad sense all who proclaim the word with authority in the church it generally generally refers to the Pope and the bishops collectively their duty is to serve the Word of God just a simple straightforward clarification there the next footnote of him excuse me an earlier draft of the Constitution I joined the adjective salut Therese tending to salvation to the word truth another last minute change substituted the phrase for the sake of our salvation to avoid seeming to limit the truth itself the point remains the same and can be shown by quoting a text from the following official footnote excuse me half a glass let's go back and see footnote 30 31 where does that come from therefore since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly faithfully and with error that truth it's inspired it's the Word of God Holy they wanted to include an earlier draft wanted to say saving truths but another last minute change substituted the phrase for the sake of our salvation to avoid seeming to limit the truth itself this is important as the owner of a young earth creationist as they're very important to understand that Vatican 2 leaves this open it made a point of emphasizing that it's not only matters of faith and morals it's not the truths of pertaining to faith and morals that are protected from error everything is protected from error the inerrancy of the Bible touches on everything so let's see what st. Thomas Aquinas is continuing here this is st. Thomas Aquinas now any knowledge which is profitable to salvation may be the object of prophetic inspiration but the things which cannot affect our salvation do not belong to inspiration hence Augustine says that although the sacred writers may have known astronomy nevertheless the whole experience did not intend to utter them to utter through them any truth apart from that which is profitable to salvation he adds that this may concern either teachings to be believed or morals to be practiced the Bible was not written in order to teach the natural sciences in order to give information on merely political history at treats of these and of all other subjects only insofar as they involved in matters concerning salvation it is only in this respect that the veracity of God and their and the inerrancy of this inspired writers are engaged this is not a quantitative distinction as though some sections treated of salvation and were inerrant while others gave merely natural knowledge and were follow it is formal and applies to the whole text the latter is authoritative and inerrant in what it affirms about the revelation in God and the history of salvation according to the intentions of its authors divine and human it makes no other affirmations so let me read that again just to get to get it straight this is a little bit this is this is important and earlier I'm going to read the whole footing on 31 and earlier draft at the Constitution had joined the adjective salutary attending to salvation to the word truth in the context of the holy spirit is the author of all the truths in the sacred scriptures another last minute change substituted the phrase for the sake of our salvation to avoid seeming to limit the truth itself the point remains the same and can be shown by quoting a text from the following official footnote st. Thomas Aquinas says any knowledge which is profitable salvation etc etc I want to jump down now it is only in this respect that the veracity of God me and Aaron save the inspired writers are engaged is not a quantitative distinction as though some sections treated as salvation while others gave Mary merely natural knowledge it is formal and applies to the whole text the latter is authoritative and inerrant in what it affirms about the revelation of God and a history of salvation according to their according to the intentions of its authors to by a human it makes them not no other affirmations so I'm gonna have to go away and think about that meditate on that how it pertains to the well I mean in terms of Genesis and the saving truths of faith and morals contained in the story of origins I think I'm on safe ground with the dogmatic support I have in defeat a dogmas such as the dogma that God created a good world and that sin entered the world through sin and death came into the world by way of original sin and the dogma of original sin these are all defeated dogmas and there's another infallible dogma of church that the soul of the human is the form of the body of the human all of these teachings which are infallible dogmas support my young Earth Creationism this this question of an Aeron see the the scope of inerrancy in the Bible you is is subtle as we see in this footnote we're talking about the saving truths and we cannot chop up the Bible into individual pieces and make two piles these are the saving truths and these are the irrelevant palpable truths of natural science Natural History days because we can't do that that's what this footnote is saying we cannot do that so the implication is that it's all important it's all connected to saving truths and the Bible in all of its parts is inerrant but there is no affirmation about natural science there's no affirmation about history there are as we read in another portion of of the official document of Vatican 2 here on Sacred Scripture there are things reported in Scripture that are that are unholy for example people sinning people falling away people being stiff-necked and so on and so forth and there are historical events and apparent contradictions right that are different points of view even in the forecast of the three synoptic Gospels you have different apparent contradictions in their testimony of the different ways of resolving that and understanding that it's a very it's a very hairy issue but the main point of biblical inerrancy is that in that all of the Bible and all of the scriptures and in all of the parts are protected from an error moving on article 12 insists on two of the main points made in Pius the 12th sense equivocal divino of flaunt a spirit - the first is the importance of the intention of the human author of a scriptural book or passage we must understand what he was aiming at in order to interpret his words a right the second is the distinction of literary forms in ancient Israel Israelite literature as in any other there were many distinct types of literary composition each with its recognized and conventional style idioms and usages there were different conventional ways of representing the past for example of writing history with varying proportions of literalness or symbolism the comparative study of these conventions has greatly clarified for us some difficult parts of the Old Testament straightforward comment in that footnote moving on scripture is its own best commentary it must be treated as a whole and understood according to the analogy of faith analogy of faith note that one function of scripture scholars is to help the church's understanding of Scripture to mature so we can mature in our understanding of Scripture but with the help of the theologians apostolic men refers to the generation partly contemporary with the Apostles but younger than they for example Mark and Luke just a little technical clarification there you moving on now I don't have a lot of time left but let's move along one more footnote this is perhaps the most novel section of the constitutions not since the early centuries of the church has an official document urged the availability of scriptures for all let's go and see what that footnote is talking about but no number fifty easy access to sacred scriptures should be provided for all Christian faithful not a very controversial statement but I guess some Protestants insist that the church tried to hide the Bible or limit to production of the Bible there were very valuable so they were chained often chained to the churches but that's footnote this draws the practical consequence from the affirmation of Divino a font a spirit to the original text has more authority and more weight than any translation older new modern language versions therefore should be should by preference be made from that text not from pre-existing translation obviously it's always better to go to response now I don't know I'm not gonna get too far in this this there's a lot here I obviously enjoyed this response by Frederic see grant whoever he might be probably a Protestant of some sort but this is a response to de verbum I'll do it next time because I think I'm running out of I think I'm running out of time here I don't want to rush and panic like I often do at the end of these these episodes but I will come back it's four o'clock now got an interview with Matthew Murdock at 5:00 I think at 5:00 so I might be able to I'm really happy I got to plow through few of these today making progress and lots and lots to see lots of footnotes coming up and excited to see how it shapes up with my notes and it's it's it's inspiring me to go back and read the documents again meditate on my favorite parts of the 16 documents about it you to and to fall even ever more deeply in love with Christ in His Church so that's it for this episode we'll talk to you soon thanks for being here god bless for as little as $1 per month we can support the charitable mission of CVS which has already enrolled hundreds of guests and patrons and their immediate families in the Scalabrine League of the millinery fathers of st. 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