Pope Benedict XVI vs. The 'Dark Passages of Scripture'

In this episode, Trent shares how Pope Benedict XVI provides a way of avoiding Christian "fundamentalist" approaches to the Bible that can lead to "fundamentalist atheism."

00:00 Intro
00:57 Fundamentalist Atheists
02:56 Divine Pedagogy
06:45 Switching Sides
08:35 Dark Passages
10:41 Old Testament Language
13:55 Questioning Literal Nature
17:35 Conclusion

[cory]

Trent

You will never know how many souls God speaks to through you.

I am a Catholic High School Theology Teacher and I use your material often to guide struggling teens in their faith. They go off to college and reach out with their evangelization stories of how they are walking with other struggling young adults and how they refer back to your work and the work of Catholic answers to pay it forward to others.

Keep the content coming

God Bless Brother

[jackieo]

The God of the Old testament doesn't seem so harsh when you realize that most of the "idolatry" of the ancient world involved child sacrifice.

[bman]

People: OMG I’m so smart. The OT God is so mean and the NT God is so nice and loving.
OT God: I will never give up on my people no matter how much they betray me.
NT God: If you harm children, your eternal fate will be so bad you’re going to wish you drowned in the ocean instead.

[killianmiller]

The dark passages for me are often vivid and honest depictions of how creation is broken, though not irreparably. It goes to show that Jesus died and rose not just to save me as an individual, but to redeem the whole world.

[liamehrecke]

Trent, I just want to thank you for helping me be more fully converted to the Catholic Church. You've helped me get past many difficult doctrines in the modern world. You have helped me understand my faith more deeply, and I can't thank you enough!

[gunsgalore]

It is important to remember that there have been sources from other ancient civilizations that state that they "utterly destroyed" all of Israel, women and children included, and blotted them off the face of the Earth. We know that didn't happen, so there is evidence that this is just ancient language for "We kicked their butts." It doesn't cover everything, obviously, but it certainly can explain things found in Joshua and other books.

[reviewspiteras]

Pope Benedict XVI was a very wise man of God. I was to young at the time he was Pope to understand his wisdom; his views against comunism were great too.

[bhgtree]

Thanks Trent. I see the 'dark' passages in the OT as a history of the times (and unfortunately similar terrible things are still happening in our own times). God loved His people, no matter what they did wrong and sent great prophets and leaders to lead them back again and again. The Inspired writers give us things as they were, without covering over the bad things.

[PhantomRed]

So close to 100k subs! Favorite Catholic YouTube channel. God bless you Trent.

[treeckoniusconstantinus]

Atheist biblical literalists are often just former Christian fundamentalists who lost the Christianity but didn't lose the literalism from their fundamentalism. Pray for them.

[littleboots]

Know that you have many protestant viewers Trent. Through your videos I have learnt more about Catholicism and Christianity generally and through discussions with other viewers in the comment section Protestants and Catholics are learning more about each other. That can only be a good thing.
May God Bless you and your family.

[Serquss]

We wouldn’t expect people a thousand years in the future to immediately understand the cultural context of our truth claims; therefore why would we expect ancient authors to write truth claims in a way that we ought to understand literally?

[Xymage]

I would love to see an episode about the Canaanite "genocide", I recently watched Shameless Popery's video on it and thought it was very well put. I think a lot of peoples issues arise with the old testament because they apply modern thinking to a time of over 2000 years ago and it always helps to be able to explain the differences at the time (like you did with the "dashing against the rock" comment in the Psalm)

[jamaicanification]

Hey Trent speaking as an Anglican Christian myself this tracks with the way that I read the Old Testament passages. Combining an idiomatic view that takes into account the literary genre of the text with a distinction between the literal and spiritual reading of scripture. Not only St Augustine but Origen and St Gregory of Nyssa also promote this view, seeing the conquest passages in a spiritual light in terms of struggling against sin. I also think the Jewish understanding of the text is helpful.

[gunsgalore]

Dawkins crying while Pope Benedict XVI shoots lasers from his eyes... You have been nailing it with the thumbnails lately.

[marilucervantes]

Trent this episode was very good, I like how you find the knowledge and present it to us in a great review😍. Thanks

[rutherglenroad]

This was one of your best offerings, Trent. God bless your ministry.

[DanyTV]

Thanks for the video, we always need to know more about the Bible.

[Quis-ut-Deus-]

Hi Trent! Lots of love and prayers from Poland. For a few months now, I've been enjoying a beautiful grace of rediscovering my faith, getting it in order, assuming the role of God's priest for my family as their leader in prayer and the readings and talks of the Scripture. It's been beautiful and you are one of those that I thank for precisely what you do and the way you do it. You are one of the tools the Holy Spirit has been using on me, to revive my apathetic cradle catholicism and "one day I will" kind of mundane approach of "armchair" believer. You are the one He put in front of me and made me discover and keep and use for my dose of "dadly" fuzzy warmth and genuine caritas you radiate, on top of all your humbling knowledge. Thanks on behalf of myself, my wife and our four kids who (among others) thanks to you can enjoy having a better husband and father who is filled with new zeal on this most challenging of paths.

[x-popone]

At the end of the day, God has the right to judge people and we are not owed life. If God commanded the Israelites to kill women and children, then this is not evil. We don't need to force ourselves into a situation where we need to defend God as if He were human. If I commanded people to kill innocent women and children, I would be evil, but there's no reason to think this applies to God too, especially since He has the right to take life as He sees fit.