Qui Propter Nos Homines
...Et Propter Nostram Salutem
G.D.O'Bradovich III
April 18, 2013
The Fourth Gospel has John the Baptist saying “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” upon seeing Jesus. The singular “sin” is spoken, explicitly indicating a singular sin and not multiple sins of the world.
In the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great of the Orthodox Church, the reading is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. This is in agreement with the Gospel.
The Roman Catholic Mass used the phase “peccata mundi”-”the sins of the world” -explicitly contradicting the wording found in the fourth gospel. Therefore, there must be a peculiar theological reason why the Roman Church has altered the Biblical text.
The theological and Christological implications of “sin” and “sins” are manifold and far reaching.
By taking away the sin of the world, one could speculate that this “sin” is the Fall of Man that is related in Genesis Chapter 3. It can be inferred from the fourth Gospel that Christ has repaired the defect of the Fall and mankind has nothing more to add to what Christ has done. It is not necessary to know of Christ in order to benefit from Christ's taking away of the world's sin.
In the context of the Mass, Christ takes away the "sins of the world" that have occurred since of the Fall This is not a one time event, but a continual process of removing sin. The implication is that since the “sins” continue, the faithful must repeatedly call upon Christ or His Vicar, to remove the world’s sins-where human sins are a possible subset of the world’s sins. In this understanding of "sins", the entire cosmos has been damaged by the sin in the Garden of Eden and sinning to the present day.
In the context of the mass, the universe will forever be in a defective state. Humanity can never free itself from this curse, while in the fourth Gospel this fault has been rectified by Christ, presumably through the crucifixion. The presumption is not a certainty since John the Baptist did not say “The Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world”, referring to a future event.
It could be said that the implicit meaning in John the Baptist’s statement is that Jesus, by his existence or being, removes the separation that sin creates. The reason why Jesus should be singled out by this appellation is not clear, since the fourth Gospel has no virgin birth or other miracles before the introduction of John the Baptist. The Gnostic introduction of the fourth Gospel is well known and will not be discussed here. The dualism that is present in the fourth Gospel has been the source of innumerable heresies.
Jesus’ purpose is to bring enlightenment, not only to a select group disciples or apostles, but the whole world. This gospel or good news of the beloved Disciple is that the defect of the Garden of Eden has been corrected, once and for all time, by Christ.
The beloved Disciple knows that Jesus must be sacrificed for the world’s sin. Unfortunately, it is not clear if John the Baptist knew of this atonement or not. From the Acts of the Apostles and from the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist is ignorant of whether Jesus is the Messiah or if he should look for another.
The author of the fourth Gospel has no such reservations of who is the “Lamb of God”. Much like a gnostic belief that Christ came, not to forgive sins forever into the future, but to bring enlightenment once and for all time to a fallen world, the salvation of the fourth Gospel is once and for all time.
Before the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Mass needed to be continually enacted to remove sins. However, we do not know the number of times it must have been performed to be effective.-King Henry the eighth (1491-1547) attended Mass five times daily. Of course, today we know, unlike Henry, that the Mass does not offer the possibility of the remission of sins. The forgiveness of sins is accomplished by the priest in confession. In the Greek Church, communion connects the living faithful with the departed faithful and has nothing to do with salvation as the priest forgives sins during confession.
From the above we can determine the following:
In the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great of the Orthodox Church, the reading is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. This is in agreement with the Gospel.
The Roman Catholic Mass used the phase “peccata mundi”-”the sins of the world” -explicitly contradicting the wording found in the fourth gospel. Therefore, there must be a peculiar theological reason why the Roman Church has altered the Biblical text.
The theological and Christological implications of “sin” and “sins” are manifold and far reaching.
By taking away the sin of the world, one could speculate that this “sin” is the Fall of Man that is related in Genesis Chapter 3. It can be inferred from the fourth Gospel that Christ has repaired the defect of the Fall and mankind has nothing more to add to what Christ has done. It is not necessary to know of Christ in order to benefit from Christ's taking away of the world's sin.
In the context of the Mass, Christ takes away the "sins of the world" that have occurred since of the Fall This is not a one time event, but a continual process of removing sin. The implication is that since the “sins” continue, the faithful must repeatedly call upon Christ or His Vicar, to remove the world’s sins-where human sins are a possible subset of the world’s sins. In this understanding of "sins", the entire cosmos has been damaged by the sin in the Garden of Eden and sinning to the present day.
In the context of the mass, the universe will forever be in a defective state. Humanity can never free itself from this curse, while in the fourth Gospel this fault has been rectified by Christ, presumably through the crucifixion. The presumption is not a certainty since John the Baptist did not say “The Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world”, referring to a future event.
It could be said that the implicit meaning in John the Baptist’s statement is that Jesus, by his existence or being, removes the separation that sin creates. The reason why Jesus should be singled out by this appellation is not clear, since the fourth Gospel has no virgin birth or other miracles before the introduction of John the Baptist. The Gnostic introduction of the fourth Gospel is well known and will not be discussed here. The dualism that is present in the fourth Gospel has been the source of innumerable heresies.
Jesus’ purpose is to bring enlightenment, not only to a select group disciples or apostles, but the whole world. This gospel or good news of the beloved Disciple is that the defect of the Garden of Eden has been corrected, once and for all time, by Christ.
The beloved Disciple knows that Jesus must be sacrificed for the world’s sin. Unfortunately, it is not clear if John the Baptist knew of this atonement or not. From the Acts of the Apostles and from the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist is ignorant of whether Jesus is the Messiah or if he should look for another.
The author of the fourth Gospel has no such reservations of who is the “Lamb of God”. Much like a gnostic belief that Christ came, not to forgive sins forever into the future, but to bring enlightenment once and for all time to a fallen world, the salvation of the fourth Gospel is once and for all time.
Before the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Mass needed to be continually enacted to remove sins. However, we do not know the number of times it must have been performed to be effective.-King Henry the eighth (1491-1547) attended Mass five times daily. Of course, today we know, unlike Henry, that the Mass does not offer the possibility of the remission of sins. The forgiveness of sins is accomplished by the priest in confession. In the Greek Church, communion connects the living faithful with the departed faithful and has nothing to do with salvation as the priest forgives sins during confession.
From the above we can determine the following:
Salvation is accomplished by
Sacrifice of the mass Communion Belief Knowing Predestination |
Who
Roman Church Orthodox Church Protestants Gnostics The elect |
Number of times needed to accomplish salvation
Not known, possibly it is never enough Pre 1962-only those in Communion with Rome had the possibility of, but no guarantee,of, salvation Post 1962-unknown Not applicable, Greek Church does not know who is saved. Once Once Those who are saved, were saved before Creation |
Salvation Guaranteed
No No Yes Yes Yes, but for the elect only-others are damned |
Conclusion
The above matrix is interesting in that the two oldest established churches (Roman and Orthodox) do not know who is saved (other than Saints who are in Heaven) and can not guarantee salvation to their faithful. These two churches offer the hope of salvation. Historically, Rome was confident that those not in communion with Rome were damned (the possible exception were the schismatic Orthodox Churches), however since Vatican II, this is no longer in effect. Since the 1960's, Rome has revealed that it is possible that even non Christians can be saved.
Protestants state they are saved by believing. Since Protestants are not unified theologically, except for not being Roman Catholic or Orthodox, what they believe greatly varies from denomination to denomination. Generally speaking, they believe that they are saved and this, many times, inexplicably leads to them knowing they are saved.
Gnostics know they are saved. It would seem that they see in John the Baptist's statement "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" the focal point of their understanding and develop their entire theology on this one sentence alone. This "sin", since there is only one, must be found in the Garden of Eden; the origin or beginning of humanity's fall from grace. In typical Gnostic fashion, the sin must be the cosmos created by the Demiurge or Jehovah, not the disobedience of Adam. The woman, later Eve, was exempt from this Divine disobedience since she only knew of the prohibition from Adam. Eve, of course, was disobedient to her husband.
Those who adhere to the doctrine of predestination say that only the elect have the possibly of being saved. One group beliefs that there is a set amount of people who will be saved, while the vast majority of humanity is damned. These saved people or elect were saved before creation, meaning there is nothing that these select people could do to be saved (since if was preordained by God), nor do anything to be unsaved (since it was preordained by God).
Based on the above, we can only state the following with certainty: Before the Reformation, fallible men of the Roman and Greek Churches did not have any guidance to know who among the faithful were saved or damned and, since the 16th century, many people say that they have been saved.
The Renaissance must have been a remarkable time to be alive.
The above matrix is interesting in that the two oldest established churches (Roman and Orthodox) do not know who is saved (other than Saints who are in Heaven) and can not guarantee salvation to their faithful. These two churches offer the hope of salvation. Historically, Rome was confident that those not in communion with Rome were damned (the possible exception were the schismatic Orthodox Churches), however since Vatican II, this is no longer in effect. Since the 1960's, Rome has revealed that it is possible that even non Christians can be saved.
Protestants state they are saved by believing. Since Protestants are not unified theologically, except for not being Roman Catholic or Orthodox, what they believe greatly varies from denomination to denomination. Generally speaking, they believe that they are saved and this, many times, inexplicably leads to them knowing they are saved.
Gnostics know they are saved. It would seem that they see in John the Baptist's statement "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" the focal point of their understanding and develop their entire theology on this one sentence alone. This "sin", since there is only one, must be found in the Garden of Eden; the origin or beginning of humanity's fall from grace. In typical Gnostic fashion, the sin must be the cosmos created by the Demiurge or Jehovah, not the disobedience of Adam. The woman, later Eve, was exempt from this Divine disobedience since she only knew of the prohibition from Adam. Eve, of course, was disobedient to her husband.
Those who adhere to the doctrine of predestination say that only the elect have the possibly of being saved. One group beliefs that there is a set amount of people who will be saved, while the vast majority of humanity is damned. These saved people or elect were saved before creation, meaning there is nothing that these select people could do to be saved (since if was preordained by God), nor do anything to be unsaved (since it was preordained by God).
Based on the above, we can only state the following with certainty: Before the Reformation, fallible men of the Roman and Greek Churches did not have any guidance to know who among the faithful were saved or damned and, since the 16th century, many people say that they have been saved.
The Renaissance must have been a remarkable time to be alive.