Re: ASA Statement of faith

From: Peter Ruest (pruest@pop.mysunrise.ch)
Date: Sat Jun 21 2003 - 00:34:45 EDT

  • Next message: George Murphy: "Re: ASA Statement of faith"

    George Murphy wrote:
    > Peter Ruest wrote:
    > > a) How does "one _and only_ Mediator" go beyond what I Tim.2:5 says?
    > > b) How does it go beyond biblical teaching in general?
    >
    > If the passage in the old Statement of Faith is understood as a reference to I
    > Tim.2:5, the addition of "and only" is interpretive. While this verse clearly speaks of
    > a unique mediatorial role for Christ, it cannot be understood to mean that there can be
    > no other mediator in any sense - specifically, in the sense of one human being praying
    > to God on behalf of others...

    The "and only" clearly is an addition to the Greek text. But I consider
    it a quite legitimate interpretation, faithfully reflecting Paul's (and
    God's) intention. I never understood it to exclude humans praying (to
    God!) on behalf of others (an interpretation that looks odd to me), but
    to exclude any creature from being elevated to a mediatorial position
    like Christ's (such as "Maria mediatrix"...).

    > ... My point here was not to argue for the invocation of departed saints, but to
    > note that the previous statement had language which seemed to exclude - unfortunately in
    > my view - some Christians. & if one's intention is in fact to make a distinctively
    > protestant statement, some more fundamental issue ought to be the focus.
    > This & related issues were discussed extensively in the 8th round of US
    > Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue. Papers can be found in H. George Anderson et al.
    > (eds.), _The One Mediator, the Saints, and Mary_ (Augsburg, 1992).

    Would you care to give me some thoughts of your own re. my second
    question? I don't care about "distinctively protestant", but about
    "biblical".

    Peter

    -- 
    Dr. Peter Ruest, CH-3148 Lanzenhaeusern, Switzerland
    <pruest@dplanet.ch> - Biochemistry - Creation and evolution
    "..the work which God created to evolve it" (Genesis 2:3)
    


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