Source: The Times, Europe - October 05, 2005
By: Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
Quote:
The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching
document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are
not actually true.
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their
five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of
scripture, that they should not expect "total accuracy" from the
Bible.
"We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy
or complete historical precision," they say in The Gift of
Scripture...
...But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and
at times conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those
that this country's Catholic bishops insist cannot be "historical".
At most, they say, they may contain "historical traces"...
...They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways "appropriate to
changing times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries".
The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say,
but continue: "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in
other, secular matters."...
... As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops
cite the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early
creation legends from other cultures, especially from the ancient
East. The bishops say it is clear that the primary purpose of these
chapters was to provide religious teaching and that they could not be
described as historical writing.
Similarly, they refute the apocalyptic prophecies of Revelation, the
last book of the Christian Bible, in which the writer describes the
work of the risen Jesus, the death of the Beast and the wedding feast
of Christ the Lamb.
The bishops say: "Such symbolic language must be respected for what
it is, and is not to be interpreted literally. We should not expect
to discover in this book details about the end of the world, about
how many will be saved and about when the end will come."
Among other things, the Catholic Church says that the following
versus of the Bible are UNTRUE.
quote:
Genesis ii, 21-22
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while
he slept he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh;
and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a
woman and brought her to the man
Genesis iii, 16
God said to the woman [after she was beguiled by the serpent]: "I
will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall
bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and
he shall rule over you."
Matthew xxvii, 25
The words of the crowd: "His blood be on us and on our children."
Revelation xix,20
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its
presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had
received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.
These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with
brimstone."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...811332,00.html