Saturday, April 23, 2005
ANTINOMIANISM
Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I have major concerns about the theology behind Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Renewal. Shawn Patrick Thornton is about to demonstrate for you why I have those concerns.
Thornton is the author of a recently published book titled In Defense of the Christ: Why Jesus would Disown Christianity.
Thornton is a lapsed Catholic. As he describes himself in the first of his three part series press release titled “Inside the Mind of Benedict XVI”:
[Thornton] is the author of a 2005 published book entitled, In Defense of the Christ: Why Jesus would Disown Christianity (www.christbestseller.com). Shawn can be reached at www.shawnpthornton@aol.com . Shawn spent 14 years in Catholic schools including a Jesuit high school and university. On February 13,1978, after a long spiritual odyssey Shawn experienced Spirit Baptism and writes from the creative 27 year expansion of that experience.
Ah yes, that “Spirit Baptism” that leads one astray. Thornton is hardly the first to take this path. He will not be the last. There is a long history of just this sort of story throughout the pages of Christianity. "Enthusiasm" is deceptive. But Thornton explains it better than I can. His article will:
demonstrate that Benedict [Pope Benedict XVI] and his Church are in error on these matters [calling condoms, masturbation, married priests, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, stem cell research, a woman’s right to choose, etc. a sin, making our new pope a fundamentalist Roman Catholic-ct] and that these theological errors will force billions of hours of undeserved guilt and fear upon defenseless children and the theologically naïve.
Is it even worth exploring how "children" are going to divorce and remarry, conduct stem cell research, become a married priest, or chose to abort a pregnancy, and thus suffer "undeserved guilt"? That use of the word "children" here is a shabby attempt at deception.
Where does this fundamentalist Catholic error originate in Thornton’s opinion?
Pope Benedict XVI and his Church view God and man as separate beings.
In the author’s opinion, this is the root and core of the theological errors promoted by Rome. You see every mystic knows that all is one:
If in fact the mystics of all faiths are correct, and man shares the same spirit as God…then man is inherently righteous and doesn’t need the salvation that the Church claims to offer.
So much for Jesus Christ who is no longer necessary in Thornton’s faith.
The fact that there are a multiplicity of gods embraced by searching mankind seems not to penetrate the minds of those who believe all is one. Contradictions in doctrine notwithstanding, those who are so eager to write their own faith are convinced that only the backward Roman Catholic Church has gotten it wrong. Thornton informs us:
In summary, as the people of the United States and of Europe become more theologically sophisticated, the concept of ‘sin’ and ‘punishment’ goes into the trash can and they leave the Church.
Now that man has declared himself god:
The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ”.
This is where Spirit Baptism can lead—to the hubris that we are god. Somehow the author seems to have missed those passages in Genesis where the serpent speaks to Eve offering her the ultimate prize. Thornton does cite the Apostle Paul for his argument, indicating he is not a complete stranger to Scripture, though his interpretation is twisted:
To Paul, the “spiritual man” is a person, sometimes called a ‘mystic’, who has had the spiritual awakening called by Buddhist’s and Christians alike, “Spirit Baptism”. Spirit Baptism gives a person knowledge that they do not possess a separate spirit, but instead that they share the one spirit of God with all of mankind.
Perhaps he was sick on that day in theology class when that other spirit was discussed. He certainly seems to have missed a major portion of cosmology class.
This is one man who has been led astray by Pentecostalism. How many others have already joined him? How many others will he persuade by this book he has written?
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
