The spawn of the whore of Babylon

So, the rumours are confirmed. Frank Beckwith, President of the ETS, has returned to Roman Catholicism, and he tells us all about it in his own words here.

Some may remember that I spoke about my own temporary conversion to Roman Catholicism here. To quote myself:

"Oh, and another thing. I decided to become a Catholic today. Yep. A big papal 'thumbs up', a nice dollop of Pope-loving, and I'm a red robed, hat wearing, ground-kissing, staff swinging counter-reformation papist. Admittedly, in about half an hour I'm back to being protestant. This was only a short-lived jaunt into the realms of Romism; but it was the only way I could justify taking a break from my work on All Saints Day (a Catholic holiday). Some may call this intellectual dishonesty. I call it pragmatic intellectual flexibility"

Yea baby! Bad taste, terrible timing Tilling is back on form.

Actually, I am a bit of a scholar on Catholic dress fashion, as this post ably demonstrated.

And there aren't many in biblioblogdom that have sought to include Catholics in their own worship songs. But if you remember, I did - in my immortal song, Holy and you Know it (© 2006, CTRVM)

And if all of this wasn't enough, I've even given my readers a peek into one the most beautiful moments in the entire history of Catholic-Protestant ecumenical dialogue in this post.

Oh, and I'm loving the Popes new book on Jesus as I've recently mentioned, and I wrote a lengthy blog series on another Catholic's work on science and Christianity (Küng's Der Anfang aller Dinge). It should be no secret, then, that I have a small soft spot for Catholicism. I admit it. Not enough to stop me gladly being an evangelical, but a soft spot nonetheless. So send me to the Evangelical Inquisition: I plead guilty (unless I'm offered enough money, of course, in which case I deny everything and I'll get back to cursing the spawn of the whore of Babylon, and pronto).

Of course, I disagree with some things implied by Beckwith in his leaving statement. Jim West commented about that here (though in the process he managed to call me the antichrist. Again). And I will disagree with Beckwith about other matters too. Strong formulations of inerrancy, for example. Which reminds me, I recently read something by Dr. Barry H. Corey, recently appointed as the president of Biola University. He claimed: 'I don't cross my fingers, nuance or flinch when I say the Bible is inerrant'.

Now, Corey sounds like a very wise and likeable man in what I've read. But I, one the other hand, were I to need to confess the Chicago Statement, for example, will have had to have crossed my legs and fingers and arms so often, that I'd end up looking like the ribbons on a busy May Pole. As for flinching, I'd look like a serious case of Tourette syndrome.