Mr. Matthew Bellisario has posted a short blog item titled: "Luther, Calvin, Hitler, Stalin and Mao." He selects as his text Matthew 10:28 which states:
Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Mr. Bellisario has overlooked the fact that there is a shift from plural to singular. The command to "fear him" is a reference to fearing God. It is God who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Thus, when faced with persecution, we ought not to fear our persecutors, but rather we ought to fear God.
Perhaps Mr. Bellisario should read Thomas Aquinas' Catena Aurea, where he would find the following attributed to Chrysostom (I haven't confirmed that it is authentic, but let it suffice for Mr. Bellisario that his hero Thomas Aquinas approved of it): "Observe how He sets them above all others, encouraging them to set at nought cares, reproaches, perils, yea even the most terrible of all things, death itself, in comparison of the fear of God."
- TurretinFan
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
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2 comments:
I suppose MB believes Luther and Calvin are practitioners of divine arts in divinations with such a phrase, a phrase that gives rise, in my mind, to wonder about his own sanity and ask, is he nuts?:
"... If we could compare the numbers of the murdered by Hitler, Stalin and Mao, compared to the murdered and tortured souls served up by the devil's servants, Luther and Calvin, who would be the most heinous criminals of mankind? One kills the body, and others the soul. "
For me, this sort of accusation just underscores Jesus' own teaching, which, mind you, goes both ways as an argument in the natural realm:
Joh 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Joh 15:17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Joh 15:18 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
Joh 15:21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
I went to the link of MB. He does have a great dislike of Protestants. Aftering reading through some of it I dont see anything really objective from his side of things on his claims.
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