Pastor to Catholics: 'Great whore' no more

[ProfessorAlan]

This was written as a political article, so I put it here, but it could have fit into a few other threads. Mods, feel free to move to a more appopriate spot.
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John Hagee apologizes for 'hurtful' comments. (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24599419/)

I never bought the theology of this, and hope the change of heart is not just political expediency.

[Ransom v. Unman]

It's a fuzzy line, but I think this has more to do with the pulse of the church than the pulse of secular politics.

Anyway, it's interesting to see Hagee backtracking so quickly on something that he'd been so adamant about for years.

[DrRita]

It's about time. Agreed Professor, in my younger day, I bought a lot of stuff I've since come to see an pure nonsense.

[ProfessorAlan]

Agreed Professor, in my younger day, I bought a lot of stuff I've since come to see an pure nonsense.
Yes, when I said I "never bought" this stuff, I lied a bit. I guess I bought it for a few years, but fortunately not for long.

"Pulse of the church" does seem to be changing, RvU - -generational shifts hitting in a number of areas.

[Xenia]

"Pulse of the church" does seem to be changin, RvU - -generational shifts hitting in a number of areas.

Please expound. I don't know what these terms are suppose to be saying in relation to the topic...

[ProfessorAlan]

Here is some expounding, X. Note that these are very broad generalizations, and of course whenever one makes broad generalization, there are plenty of exceptions, I understand that.

I was referring to what I sense among 20-somethings and youngers what seem to be different views from their elders on a range of issues, including political partisanship, the end times, stewardship of natural resources, recial reconciliation, and in this case, less hostile views towards the Catholic Church.

[Xenia]

Ahhh... okay... gotcha. Thanks!

[Lookin^Up]

The "great whore" of Revelation 17, as I understand the chapter, is a symbolic picture of the Antichrist's kingdom, a.k.a. the prophetic Babylon. Only uninformed minds would apply this term to the Catholic church. Catholic doctrine is strange in many ways--letting one powerful man control all policies, for instance, even calling this fallible man "infallible"; and vaulting Mary in importance out of proportion with the few times she appears in the New Testament--but I would not go so far as call it apostate.

The word "whore" applies more readily to a church that allows promiscuity in its midst, such as the Thyatiran church of Revelation 2:20-23. It would also describe the Antichrist's anti-God policies in the days just before Armageddon.

[ProfessorAlan]

Only uninformed minds would apply this term to the Catholic church.

It seems that way to me, too, but it was (still is, I'm afraid) a part of commonly-held end-time belief among some (many, I fear?) strains of Protestantism.