Equal Time: Rome is Also Wrong

It has occurred to me that my blog bashes on the errors of Protestants too much. Well... maybe it is more like I do not bash on the errors of Rome enough to make it sound fair. Lest someone assume that I am secretly a papist on the verge of signing my soul over to the Holy See, I will begin to outline my take on the well-beaten horse of Roman Catholic error.

Here is a comment that I made over at Past Elder. If you have not read Past Elder's blog, you are missing out on an intellectual titan. This man is brilliant and I encourage you to study his writings as this student does. Here is my comment:

[The Immaculate Conception of Mary] is just one of those cases where the Church ruins its credibility by participating in speculation and guesswork. Christianity is not about speculation, it is about the truth. When you are willing to speak authoritatively about things that you cannot know for sure (and have no proof that you got it anywhere other than your imagination), people are less likely to trust the other things that you have to say.

If you have a friend who tells you lies, guesses, and facts with the same amount of conviction, it is foolish to trust him on anything. I think these kinds of dogmas promote unbelief rather than combat it.

For example, the greatest damage that has ever been dealt to the true doctrine of Real Presence in the Eucharist is the speculative philosophy and superstition that surrounds the dogma of Transubstantiation. That kind of guesswork pushes people to reject all mystery in the Lord's Supper because Rome makes the belief look idolatrous and credulous.

Rome proves just how far she is out on the radical fringe of Christianity when she makes liberal statements like "theology is a progressive science" to support their new and different Gospels. As Lutherans, we wrote the book on pointing out Roman error (literally), but the truth does not play favorites with people who are wrong. We walk that narrow road between the errors of the Pope and the errors of Protestantism.