As we will see, it is clear that the Noahide religion and any so-called ‘ethical’ religion without Christ, naturalism, religious liberty, state agnosticism, Freemasonry and modernism ultimately all converge together.
Paul Cahill, LifeSite, 4/24
The following is Part IV in a series on Catholic teaching on the rise of the prophesied Antichrist. Read Part I here; Part II here; and Part III here.
(LifeSiteNews) — In the last part, we considered the “Seven Noahide Laws.” Here they are, as expressed by 12th century rabbi Maimonides:
- the prohibition against worship of false gods;
- the prohibition against cursing God;
- the prohibition against murder;
- the prohibition against incest and adultery;
- the prohibition against theft;
- the command to establish laws and courts of justice.
[…] The prohibition against eating flesh from a living animal was added for Noah.[1]
The Jewish religion holds these seven Laws to apply to all mankind. The Torah (“the Law”) represents a specific covenant between God and a chosen people, and it is not necessary to be a part of this covenant for the gentiles to have “a portion in the world to come.”
On the contrary, the respected Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh has said, “the concern is for Gentile observance of the ancient religion of Noah, the only religion which is incumbent on all who are not Israelites.”[2]
This is why the enormously influential twelfth century rabbi Maimonides states that, in the supposedly messianic era to come, the Gentiles “will all return to the true faith” – namely, that faith of which Judaism and the Noahide religion are the respective expressions for Jew and Gentile.[3]
Compatibility
Are the Noahide Laws intended to be compatible with other religions?
The Noahide paradigm holds that the Jewish people remain “the light to the Gentiles,” and so it should be clear that these Laws will be interpreted and administered according to presuppositions of the Jewish religion.
This paradigm holds that Noahidism is essentially the first religion given to mankind, and that Judaism is merely a specification of it for the Jewish people.
Some writers seem to suggest that the observance of these minimalist Laws, without any great number of rites or prayers, constitute the entirety of the religion possible and permitted for gentiles.[4] Given the minimalism of Noahidism, it seems reasonable to think of it as a “practical” or “partial” deism – a form of naturalism closely linked with the Enlightenment and Freemasonry – in which God is detached from the individual Noahide.
Others writers suggest that other religions can be compatible with the seven Laws, and thus can either be legitimate in themselves, or can be “purified” so as to become compatible.[5]
This former idea is very similar to the outlook taken by Freemasonry.[6] It is also similar to that of “perennialism,” which holds that there is a “transcendent unity of religions,” and that “[t]he differences between the religions are as providential as the aspects they have in common” and that “[t]he true and revealed religions were all sent by, refer back to, and grant access to, the same Absolute Reality.”[7]
It is unclear whether, in the Noahide paradigm, the toleration or existence of so-called “ethical monotheisms” is to continue in the supposedly “messianic age.”
However, in the last piece, we saw that a significant school holds that Trinitarian Christianity is incompatible with the Noahide Laws and the Noahide religion, because it is construed as a species of idolatry. As such, it is either illegitimate and unacceptable – or in need of “purification.”
Having considered the matter from the Noahide and Jewish perspectives, the focus of this piece is to look at the matter from the Christian perspective, and ask whether the Noahide religion is compatible with Christianity.
We shall see that it is not compatible. Christianity is fundamentally opposed to the presuppositions of Noahidism, and for reasons which place the Noahide religion uncomfortably close to what is expected in the religious system of the Antichrist.
Rationalism & naturalism
Even though some writers say that the Noahide Laws must be accepted because they have been revealed, Noahidism is manifestly a naturalist religion, imposing only an obligation to monotheism and a set of laws discernible by natural reason.
The respected Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh speaks of the “fundamentally rational quality of Noahism” and writes as follows:
[T]he Israelite is presumed to be ignorant of the Law as long as he has not been expressly instructed in it; but this excuse cannot do for the Noahide, whose conspicuously (indeed, exclusively) rational code is accessible to the human conscience.[8]
In one sense, this presents the Noahide religion as the codification of natural law. It is certainly true that much of morality is knowable in this way. It is also certainly true that the existence of “God, the origin and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from the created world.”[9]
Prior to and apart from supernatural revelation, natural philosophers such as Aristotle demonstrated much that is correct about God and morality through the use of natural reason. This is the subject of “natural theology,” which is quite distinct from naturalism.
Although these laws are all knowable through reason, some Jewish authorities state that, in order to be meritorious, they must be observed specifically because they have been revealed by God as well.
However, the positive exclusion of the objective divine revelation of Christ, and the redemption which he has wrought for us, makes the Noahide religion a religion of rationalism and naturalism in the sense defined by Fr Denis Fahey:
Naturalism consists in the negation of the possibility of the elevation of our nature to the supernatural life and order, or more radically still, in the negation of the very existence of that life and order. […]
Naturalism may be defined therefore as the attitude of mind which denies the reality of the Divine Life of grace and of our Fall therefrom by original sin.
It rejects our consequent liability to revolt against the order of the Divine Life, when this life has been restored to us by our membership of Christ, and maintains that all social life should be organized on the basis of that denial.[10]
Rationalism and naturalism have been the key ideologies advanced since the so-called Enlightenment and French Revolution. One principal form in which naturalism has been advanced is the so-called “liberty of religion/worship” and the “separation of Church and state.”
By this is meant the denial that both civil society and each individual have duties towards God and the true religion – and instead, the claim that all citizens and groups are equally free to worship in accordance with their own religious principles, without regard for the true God or true religion.
This naturalism, including in relation to civil society, is fundamentally incompatible with the Catholic religion, and has been repeatedly condemned by the Church. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII drew attention to the number of times that the latter has been condemned by the Church, and called it “the legal apostasy of society from its divine Author.”[11]
This is because, even at its “best,” naturalism relegates Christianity to one of many possible or permitted religions, and treats supernatural revelation as mere opinion and a private affair. It uncrowns and dethrones Jesus Christ as the Incarnate God and King, and at most offers Him a place in a pantheon of gods or wise religious teachers.
This is precisely the offer rejected by the early Christian martyrs, and against it, Fr. Fahey writes:
We must combat that mentality [of naturalism] and proclaim the Rights of God.[12]
In addition, this naturalist de-christianization of the state were and remain key tenets and aims of Freemasonry, as Fr. Edward Cahill writes:
Freemasonry sets up a code of morals and a principle of human virtue and beneficence independent of God; and while it affects to ignore Our Divine Lord, or where circumstances require, pays a homage of lip service to His sacred Name, its very essence is opposition to Him and to His mission on earth.[13]
Click Link Below to Continue Reading
Thank you, I read the other parts as well.
I can understand how those who don’t know Christ could fall for the wiles of the anti-Christ.
However, Christians also know that when Christ returns He will descend from the clouds in great glory accompanied by legions of angels, if I remember my gospel right. They will not accept or believe any of anti-Christ’s “great signs, works, and wonders” knowing they are Satanic.
The legions of angels will likely be necessary to combat the legions of demons already at work on this earth and to cast them out along with the anti-Christ and the false prophet.
The world is being prepared for the appearance of Antichrist coming down out of the clouds in a space ship.
Yes, no doubt they’re prepared to accept more illegal aliens, even those not of this earth. (with tongue in cheek, lol)
How very punny! 🙂
Incidentally, Christ’s descent from Heaven bears a striking similarity to His Ascension to Heaven.