One of my favorite tropes from old Westerns is the town Madam, who you would think would be just coarse and vile... but ends up really being one of the good guys and helps the heroes out. It is the proverbial "Hooker with a Heart of Gold."
The only thing is... well... it's nice that she's nice and all, but she's still got a really lousy job that is problematic.
If you can make this distinction, then you can understand the Lutheran position on the Papacy being the Antichrist. We say nothing doctrinally about specific popes - they may indeed have hearts of gold. I liked, as a guy, Benedict XVI, and I hope Francis is a decent fellow as well. But the simple fact of claiming to have the authority of the papacy is... anti-christ. It robs Christ. It clouds the Gospel under a veneer of works and obedience... and that is sad.
And thus, as always, I will pray for repentance, for myself and for all.
1 comment:
I had to look up "trope."
A literary trope is the use of figurative language.[1] For example, the sitting United States administration might be referred to as "Washington". Since the 1970s, the word has also come to mean a commonly recurring literary device or motif, a cliché.[2][3]
The term trope had its first known use in English during 1533 and it derives from the Greek τρόπος (tropos), "turn, direction, way", derived from the verb τρέπειν (trepein), "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change".[2]
Found the Greek reference interesting since the kingdom of the pope turns, directs, alters, and changes the true Gospel.
One of my favorite Firefly episodes is "Heart of Gold," which now gives me pause. Funny the eye for and eye justice of it all. And the sacrifice of life was the head madam who died trying to save her family of prostitutes.
My favorite quotes is from that episode. "This is just a moment in time. Step aside and let it pass."
Interesting post.
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