Dear reader: this writing is in tutor/student dialogue format for more entertaining discourse. Enjoy!
Music is the Transcendent Language of the Liturgy
TUTOR: OK, student, to get back on the bandwagon, we remind ourselves that we are progressively showing that music is revelatory, at least objectively.
STUDENT: Yes, and it has been an awesome ride so far!
TUTOR: Yes, recall, firstly, that the ultimate language of the Mass is music- and, secondly, that the liturgy perfectly communicates the essentials of our faith implicitly. Hence, how can music not, as the language of the Mass, in some sense, reveal the mysteries of faith, the object of the Mass?
STUDENT: Yes, and we have persistently been showing this through the lessons. More particularly, this has been demonstrated wonderfully in everything we have done so far. Toward that end, maybe you could review what we have worked on so far.
Western Music is Not Relative
TUTOR: No problem. Firstly, we showed that western music is not relativistic: that if we use natural law and harmonics, the Western scale of 12 notes follows as the simplest objective music that exists. Hence, music is not arbitrary but rigorous and logical.
Moreover, we have begun to establish, again, that this same natural music contains some mind-blowing analogies of Catholic mystery and doctrine that cannot be denied objectively but only questioned about whether God intended them or not.
The Greater Ages in Music
STUDENT: I agree, and I will chime in on the first analogy: in the first lesson of analogies, we showed that the Greater Ages of the World, both in the joys and sorrows, follow a simple musical scale with an awesome metaphor in the octave. More specifically, the first and last phases of human history, whether in joy or sorrow, have basically identical characteristics, in this—that the world in the beginning is totally wicked, sparing a remnant [Noah and his family], and the world at the end is totally wicked [the great apostasy] sparing a remnant [small portion of Gentiles and most Jews]. In addition, the world at the beginning is destroyed by water, whereas the world at the end, by fire; finally, the first world is starting to be redeemed, whereas the final world is being utterly redeemed. Hence, the beginning and the ending ages of humanity are like octaves.
TUTOR: Doing good, keep going.
The Trajectory of the Greater Ages
STUDENT: You got it. In that second analogies lesson, we saw that the Development of the 12 notes of Western music through the aforementioned “fifths of fifths” yielded a powerful meaning: the scale tends to alternate between a NT event and its associated OT prefigurement.
The Sacramental Journey, Descending Joy
TUTOR: Good, and now let’s tackle the Sacraments scale. Here, we should talk about the scales. Do you remember that in music, there could really only be four possible scales that are objective and not subjective so as to enable them to be the only ones that could possibly have divine analogy?
Scales that Can Reveal
STUDENT: Yes. More specifically, the scales had to have the following characteristics: firstly, they needed to be complete, meaning that they required all notes of the pure key.
TUTOR: Good. What else?
STUDENT: Yes, secondly, they needed to have uniqueness, meaning, each note of the pure scale needed to occur only once, sparing the final octave which we shall discuss momentarily.
TUTOR: Good, keep going.
STUDENT: Yes, the next thing was that the scale needed to be unidirectional, that is, that it stays in one direction from beginning to end—no back ups. Continuing, it required beginning with the base key note; this is obvious, since any other note is subjective; that is, we would ask why?
TUTOR: Excellent, and that would imply what characteristic to succeed?
STUDENT: It would need to resolve, meaning to end with an octave of the base note.
TUTOR: Ok, but why the base note for the octave?
STUDENT: Yes, this is because we need to have a sense of finality, that is, not left hanging, since with notes between the base note octaves, exclusive, one is left unfinished, incomplete, as it were.
TUTOR: Very Good. And before we proceed to work out the four scales from this, what would you say to someone who would challenge our assertions that these are the only objective, intrinsic scales for all music theory.
STUDENT: Yes, the issue is mainly simplicity. Why? Because, in simplicity, you don’t do anything that would need subjective explanation.
TUTOR: Explain.
STUDENT: Sure. Let us take the “base key note” principle. This means that if we commence the scale with any of the other six notes in the pure key, we have to ask why, since only the base key note needs no explanation. Similarly, for completeness: if the scale leaves any of the pure notes out, it is not simple, since omissions are nonessential complexities.
TUTOR: Good, continue.
STUDENT: Yes, similarly, if a scale lacks unidirectional nature, then it backs up at at least one point, which, once again, makes one ask, why did you do that? Not necessary, off the path. Moving on, with regards to uniqueness, if any notes other than the octave [which we have seen is used for resolution] are repeated, it is once again an arbitrary complexity: why did you do that? Finally, resolution with the octave is self-explanatory.: if it is true for objective simplicity that we always begin with the base note, then ending in anything other than the base note octave leaves one hanging, which is again an arbitrary complexity: why did you end on 3 and not 8?
Scale Characteristics
TUTOR: This is very good. Now then, we are about to recall with all these characteristics above that there are absolutely four and only four scales that match these qualifications, no more, no less. Can you recall for our readers what that is?
STUDENT: Sure. We ask, how do we get four? The issue is that if we assume such qualities as above, then for a scale in question, there are only two possible parameters, each with only two possibilities:
This was then two parameters each with two possible values, making 2 x 2 = 4 possible scales:
Consistent:
Inconsistent:
TUTOR: Good, but let us stop here. We have what are termed consistent and inconsistent scales. Explain.
Consistent Scales
STUDENT: Yes, the consistent scales are where the emotionmatchesthe direction. The first two of our scales in our studies were in this category and were the initial scales of our lessons: the greater ages. Here, it is common sense: the greater ages have two dimensions: ages of joy and ages of sorrow. So, on the one hand, we think of joy as ascending, or growing, and, on the other hand, we think of sorrow as getting worse, or descending. Hence, it followed that the scales of the greater ages were ascending joy and descending sorrow.
Inconsistent Scales
TUTOR: Ok, and, on the contrary, what is inconsistent?
STUDENT: Yes, obviously, inconsistent would then be where the direction does not match the emotion, that is, it is its opposite. These we can also call ironic. In other words, this was where one aspect of the mystery was good and one was bad.
TUTOR: Very good! And since these are more complex, we would expect them to reveal more complex mysteries about the faith.
STUDENT: OK, but where might one find the more complex mysteries?
Scales for Truth and Grace
TUTOR: Well, quite appropriately, the greater specificities of the faith are revealed in none other than the Catholic religion itself, its two great dimensions for the human person: intellect and will!
STUDENT: Yes, I get it now. The human person is made for two great realities: to know God and to love Him, and knowing is the Intellect, or the truth, and loving is the will, or grace—the sacraments. Hence, in some sense, one of the two ironic scales would need to reveal the doctrines of truth, and the other ironic scale would need to reveal the sacraments. But which is which?
TUTOR: Good question. Let us just go ahead and state them, and then show why. To the point, they worked out to the other two scales left from above:
Student, please explore the first scale on the history of doctrine.
STUDENT: Sure, this was profound, as follows: for the doctrinal scale, the Church was ascending in knowledge of God and His mysteries from antiquity to the present day through her doctrinal development, but the scale was sad,because the world persistently rejected her apocalyptic testimony.
TUTOR: Good, and the sacramental scale?
STUDENT: Yes, in contrast, the profundity of the sacramental scale was that the receiving of the sacraments in life, each in their own place, is wonderful and joyful because God gives us grace with such beautiful signs and meaning. But then our life is nevertheless a physical descent toward death; hence, again, descending joy.
TUTOR: Great, we have completely wrapped up our review. Well, one more thing: these final two scales make sense as the closing of the dimensions of the faith, seeing as they deal with refined So now we are ready to look at the doctrine scale in much more detail. Are you ready?
STUDENT: Absolutely!
TUTOR: Good, here we go. Well, once again, regarding the truth, the Church’s doctrinal development over the last two millennia has been largely an “illuminative way”, an ascension of mystery, and this has subsequently had consolations and desolations. Consolations have occurred since she has grown in knowledge and understanding of God and His mysteries, but desolations have transpired because, at every step, a great portion of the world rejects her teachings. Hence, with a great ascent of deeper intimacy with God but great sadness in the world’s opposition to these, ascending sorrow would be the appropriate scale.
STUDENT: That makes sense. Now, where do we go from here? I mean, just as with the other scales, we laid out each note to its corresponding event or entity; I am assuming that we will be able to do something similar here?
Working Out the Ages of Doctrine
TUTOR: Absolutely, but first, we will have to establish some grounding theology. Let us proceed..
STUDENT: Lead on!
TUTOR: Ok, so I think the best place to start is to look at the big picture of the doctrinal history of the Church to try and ascertain if any rigor is present, which could then possible give us around 7 steps of development.
STUDENT: Right, 7, since the scale has seven steps.
TUTOR: Yes. Now, let us walk through this. Clearly, the first age is Pagan Rome. In that age, there was no formal development, seeing as the first Ecumenical Council would not emerge until the Church exited the persecutions through the glorious triumph of Constantine.
STUDENT: True, and that first Council was Nicaea, right?
TUTOR: Yes, and it dealt heavily with the nature of God as Triune and Incarnate. Now, here we can notice something off the bat, and it is this: if we note, as we just stated, that doctrinal development proper, meaning formally, doesn’t commence until after the Church’s freedom from persecution, perhaps this gives an insight into when the development should commence in our theological analysis.
STUDENT: I agree, what do you suggest?
Pagan Rome as the Purgative Way
TUTOR: Well, I argue that if we are to see an “illuminative way” in the Church, we should note that that doesn’t commence in a normal saint’s life unless they first go through a purgation.
STUDENT: You are right, the purgative way. And let me guess: because Pagan Rome does not have formal development and Is also a dark time, like the dark night of the senses, perhaps our theology and illuminative way doesn’t start until we emerge from pagan Rome. Is that right?
TUTOR: Yes, absolutely! In fact, this is theologically appropriate as follows: in the way of the saint, the purgative way is a time when the soul of the saint receives the Spirit, and the Spirit is out to correct the flesh—not destroy it, but correct it. Consequently, the flesh does not like this and perceives the incoming Spirit as a threat to its well-being and so scourges the saint in pain. This is fulfilled by pagan Rome and the Church. Here, the Empire is the flesh of the world.
STUDENT: Yes, let me interject; I think I get it: God forms the Church and injects it into the body of the Empire. The Empire perceives the Church as a threat and so persecutes it, even though the Church is not out to destroy the Empire but merely to renew it.
TUTOR: Excellent, and there is another thing: in the purgative way, there are many times some small amount of illumination, but it cannot take precedence.
STUDENT: I can surmise why that would be: because the saint is so engrossed in working to do penance and pain, it simply doesn’t have enough time for any substantial illumination.
TUTOR: You got it, and hence, only small amounts of illumination are possible. In a similar vein, within the age of Pagan Rome, the Church was so consumed with enduring the persecutions of that same purgative way, that it didn’t have much opportunity for formal development of doctrine. And actually, this makes sense historically: it would have been too dangerous to form a council of the Magisterium, since if the Romans caught them, all the bishops would all be slaughtered on the spot, leaving the Church in an eternal Episcopal abortion before it ever got off the ground.
The Church’s Illuminative Way: the Ages of Doctrine
STUDENT: Excellent, and I surmise the conclusion of all this is that the illuminative way proper does not commence until the Church is freed, or, that is, Constantine.
TUTOR: Amen, you got it, bro. Hence, our ages of doctrinal development must effectively begin with Nicaea.
STUDENT: Good, so what is the first age?
The Trinitarian and Christological Heresies
TUTOR: Well, use common sense: clearly, after an analysis of the major heresies that afflicted the Woman of Mystery in the first Millennium of Christianity beyond the third century, we conclude with fair certainty that the strong majority of important heresies for this post-Pagan-Rome era are mainly Trinitarian and Christological in nature.
STUDENT: Now that I think about it, I would say that you are right. Consider the list:
TUTOR: Yes, these are clearly a list of primary heresies assaulting the Church since Constantine until the Schism. Yes, some exceptions exist, like Pelagianism, but effectively, the primary focus of the first age is God as Triune and Incarnate. What do you think is next?
STUDENT: Well, you just named it, the Great Schism!
TUTOR: You got it. And the Schism is, doctrinally, an assault on Peter, since it denies that Peter is the supreme shepherd of the Church, able to decide ultimate doctrinal questions of his own volition.
STUDENT: Good, now what?
TUTOR: Well, the Middle Ages ensue. Here, I would say that what is most important is the moral decay of the Episcopacy and what is effectively proto-Protestantism, which decries the self-same moral fall.
The Dualisic Heresies: Residual Purification
STUDENT: OK, but what about Islam in the crusades, and the resurgence of the dualistic heresies?
TUTOR: Yes, I would respond as follows: firstly, I would say that our analysis in this course only focuses on spiritual movements at their outset, not later impact that they have. In other words, Islam already arises in the first age of illumination, that is, the phase of our Trinitarian and Incarnational heresies, Consequently, jihad activity later is just its symptom, not the disease itself. As for the dualistic heresies—that is, Albigensianism and the Cathars—these are really resurgences of the same type as their origin in pagan Rome. More to the point, the dualistic heresies can be seen as an appropriate apocalyptic manifestation of the purgative way itself.
STUDENT: Really? How so?
TUTOR: In this: remember that the purgative way creates a war between flesh and spirit, especially per the testimony of St Paul. However, the Catholic clarification is that the flesh is not intrinsically evil. The flesh of our mortal bodies is inherently good. It is rather that the spirit of our being is perversely oriented toward our flesh, so that our desires are disordered. Consequently, the incoming Holy Spirit is not out to annihilate the flesh but to, again, correct it. But in this first great age of purification, it seems appropriate that heresies should arise that make an absolute war between flesh and spirit! Hence, as with Gnosticism, or Marcionism, or Manichaeism, all of which arise in the first three centuries of Christendom, matter is evil [in and of itself!], but spirit is good. Albigensianism and the Cathars are just raising this heresy’s ugly head once more.
STUDENT: This is fascinating. And let me then say this: this actually fits the way of the saint. How? In the sense that even after one exits the primary purgative way, some purification persists in the illuminative way, so that, subsequently, the resurgence of dualistic heresies [a type of the purgative way] can image that the Church is getting a renewed bout of purification in the illuminative way apocalyptically just as with the individual saint’s experience.
TUTOR: Excellent observation. In consequence of this, once again, the primary doctrinal issues in the Middle Ages are what is left, namely, the proto-Protestants—such as Wycliffe, Hus, and the Waldenses. These, we repeat, are contesting the Magisterium because of its moral corruption, and this then becomes the essence of the Middle Ages doctrinal age.
Protestantism and Supernatural Death
STUDENT: OK! And clearly, the next age is none other than Protestantism. And lo and behold, it takes proto-Protestantism to the hilt: totally attacks the Bishops and Sacred Tradition, which are the subject of the scandal in the previous age, and clings merely to Scripture.
TUTOR: Yes, for we can say this: that whereas the Protestants can agree on virtually nothing as a whole, nonetheless, they agree on this much: that the Episcopacy and Sacred Oral Word of God of the Catholic Church are bogus, invalid, and lacking any credibility whatsoever.
STUDENT: Great, where do we go from here?
TUTOR: Good question. I think, for this, we need to look at what happened in Protestantism. Remember that, as above, the Protestants completely rejected the Magisterium and Sacred Tradition and clung only to Scripture to find God’s truths. How successful were they, student?
STUDENT: Ah yes, not very successful at all. For, they pulled the rug out from underneath themselves. This is because the bishops and tradition are the essential ingredient to resolve doctrinal issues of Scripture, that is, to rightly interpret the Word. Consequently, without this terribly vital aid, the Protestants were doomed to confound the living hell out of doctrine, out of the Bible, and out of interpretation. The result was religious chaos that the world had never seen, or at least in Christianity.
TUTOR: Good, and what subsequent age did that lead to?
STUDENT: Yes, the result of the hurricane of ideas was clearly an age of rejecting not only Christianity itself, but of all supernaturally inclined religion. For, if a message is confounded, what else can be said except that the Messenger and the message will be rejected.
TUTOR: Absolutely! Indeed, after the apocalyptic ocean waves in roaring confusion that were the Protestant rebellion, the world’s natural reaction was to say to hell with all organized religion and thereby to all supernatural conceptions of reality.
STUDENT: Yes, very accurate. More to point, the great confounding of the supernatural order led the world to reject it and descend into a merely naturally good environment, one that retains only reason and stoic efforts for wisdom and goodness.
TUTOR: Absolutely. In fact, the first religious movements to emerge out of this catastrophe were deism and rationalism, and predictably enough, they denied Divine Intervention, as in miracles, and Divine Revelation, as in Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium—but especially Scripture. And not surprisingly, since truth is easily confounded with just Scripture without the guidance of the Church, how much more impossible was it to find truth with only reason and without any Divine Revelation. Consequently, the supernaturally dead infidels, as we can call the deists, rationalists, and others, confounded religion even more than the Protestants, as TAN book of Church history testifies: that just as there seemed to be as many forms of Protestantism as there were Protestants, so there were as many forms of infidelity as there were infidels.
STUDENT: Very good! And in light of these things, I think it is safe to say that this age that succeeds the conundrum of Protestantism can be likened to supernaturally dead infidelity, or solo-Ratio, as a companion successor to sola-Scriptura.
TUTOR: Yes, I think that sounds good. Now for the final age. What do you think it is?
The Secular Apostasy: Its Nature as the Fall
STUDENT: Well, I would say, what else is there except complete secular death, in which all truth is rejected—not merely all Divine Revelation, but even reason, the last vestige of truth of the previous age. This is effectively the 20th century down to our own day.
TUTOR: Excellent. And what ideologies do you think comprise the main forms of this secular godlessness.
STUDENT: Well, I think the clear ones are atheism, relativism, and the companion of these, materialism.
TUTOR: Good. Explain why these spiritual forms, or lack thereof, constitute total rejection of all truth, even reason.
STUDENT: Sure. Firstly, atheism is contrary to reason since it denies the existence of God, the last vestige of authentic religion. This is irrational since the Church defined at Vatican I that the Creator’s existence can be known from reason, or, that is, from the things He has made. Also, since atheism ascribes to existence nothing more than blind matter and energy, a transcendent reality is no long possible. This leads to the reality of no objective moral code, since objective morality precludes the idealistic existence of a transcendent reason itself, an ethereal realm of ideas that form absolute truths where applicable. Hence, atheism can have no ultimate objective, and absolute moral code, only what is expedient. And since morals, as just mentioned, flow from reason, atheism becomes completely irrational.
TUTOR: Good. What about relativism?
STUDENT: Relativism is even easier to see as irrational. The result is immediate: relativism denies objective reality in beliefs and morals. Hence, for them, any one belief or moral system is just as good as any other. There are no absolutes, even if, by common sense, they have one or more incompatible elements. This is absolutely absurd. Reason precludes that one can make rational arguments between clauses of potential veracity, so as to ascertain truth from falsehood, It assumes as an axiom that no two mutually contradictory statements can both be true at the same time. Hence, relativism is not only irrational, it is completely irrational, the supreme antithesis of reason!
TUTOR: Great! And materialism?
STUDENT: Materialism is contrary to reason because it pits itself against two principles of rational thought: the existence of a soul and the necessity of some afterlife of reward and punishment. Here, even the deists and rationalists usually saw a human soul, a spiritual principle that enables the human person to know and fathom abstract laws and goods, such as, but not limited to, philosophy, math, science, a Creator, and moral principles. These clearly distinguished a human being from an animal, which cannot ascertain anything beyond the mere material. Too, if a person has a spiritual soul, it must be immortal, since it cannot fall apart like a physical body. Consequently, it is arguable from reason that the soul must journey to some place or places of recompense after death, seeing as, clearly, justice is not always had in this life. From this, we conclude that a brute existence of living merely for this physical world is incompatible with human nature and destiny, even if the afterlife is not fully understood. And therefore, materialism, which is living for brute goods of this world alone, is irrational.
TUTOR: Excellent, student, you have finished our analysis. Let me recap for us:
In the first age, post-Pagan Rome, the Trinity and Incarnation were attacked. This was about 300 – 1000 AD. Then, in the second age, Peter was attacked, or the Supreme Apostolic Successor, the Great Schism. This was like 1000 AD, more specifically around 1050 AD. Then, in the Middle Ages, the primary problems were the beginning corruption of the Episcopate and the associated attack on the Magisterium from the proto-Protestants, as in, mainly, Wycliff, Hus, and the Waldenses. Next, the full Protestantism ensued, which brought the attack on the Bishops and Tradition to its apex, leaving them with only Scripture, which they necessarily confounded ad infinitum. This was obviously 1500 A.D. Consequently, because the message was confused, the message and messengers were rejected. This led to an age of supernatural death and the retention of only reason. Finally, in the modern era of the twentieth century unto today, even reason was rejected, leaving no truth at all, only secular darkness. This was manifested in atheistic materialism in the East and then relativistic materialism in the West.
STUDENT: Great. So we have all this. But now, we were going to try and find some rigor or meaning to it, some logic, so that it is not merely arbitrary random history but ordered and structured theologically. Where is that?
The Catholic Pyramid of Truth
TUTOR: Excellent question! The answer is this: what is going on is that the devil is attacking the sources of Catholic truth in a hierarchical fashion.
STUDENT: Aha, I think I see what you mean: the ages are starting at the top of a pyramid of truth, if you will, and ending at the bottom. The list from our analysis is immediate:
Looking at this, it seems like it is a descent, but I am not sure how to categorize it. Can you help?
TUTOR: Yes, let us look at it.
In antiquity, the pyramid was an ominous sign. It shewed forth the continuation of Babel, that blasphemous pursuit of materialistic grandeur, attempting to ascend toward God. The Lord vanquished it by confounding the human tongue and forming the remnant Hebrew People. Egypt, a beast as it were, simply picked up where Babel had left off: a single nation and a single tongue, rather than the whole of humanity under one universal language. The great worldly wonder and spectacle of the self-same pyramids symbolized the tyranny of pagan man—selfish, polytheistic, and self-deifying—a power which used God’s only Chosen Ones to build their magnificent edifices, oppressing them in slavery, much like the renewed Babel of Pagan Rome, who persecuted God’s Chosen Ones in the Incarnate One’s Covenant.
Yet, the beauty of God is that He can take the things that pagans distort and use them for His own holy purposes. Toward that end, we will now probe that this frightening spectacle of arrogant materialism has a profound analogy for a great holy reality: a theology of the hierarchy of sources of Catholic truth above;
STUDENT: Ok, this is making sense. How will the correlation be made?
TUTOR: Yes, in the list we developed above, each element is a source of truth, and in the pyramid, two characteristics shall be probed.
STUDENT: What do you mean by this?
TUTOR: In this: the two characteristics relate to the two dimensions of the pyramid, height and width.
STUDENT: Ok, well the first thing that I notice is that there is clearly an inverse proportional relationship between the height of the pyramid and the width. More to the point, the higher up you get on the pyramid, the narrower, or less wide, it is, whereas, similarly, the lower on the pyramid you get, the wider it is.
TUTOR: Yes, excellent, and the correlation is immediate from common sense:
What do you think of this?
STUDENT: I think I can wager it. Let us start from bottom up.
First, at the bottom of the pyramid is Reason. It makes sense that Reason is on the bottom since it is has the least truth of all: unaided philosophy in basic monotheism and natural law. On the other hand, at the bottom of the pyramid, the width is the greatest and this means that Reason is the most evident source; all men have reason and can plainly see it. No man may excuse himself from seeking out truth with reason. "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." (Ps 14:1).
Next is Scripture: Scripture is less evident in the world than Reason, since only Christians have it. The New World Indians only had reason before Europe came to them. No savage can ever have Scripture unless it is brought to him. So, again, whereas all men have reason, not all men have Scripture. Scripture is less evident. Yet Scripture is much greater in truth than merely Reason. Immensely greater. For, from Scripture comes the story of salvation history, the innumerable characters, players, times, places, miracles, lessons, and so forth. What other writings can compare to the Bible? None! In another dimension, however, mainly to confine ourselves to Divine Revelation, Scripture is now the most evident source of Revelation. All three forms of Christendom accept the Scriptures. Yet, within Divine Revelation, the Scriptures are also the least reliable source of Revelation by themselves, since they are highly susceptible to misinterpretation without Tradition and Bishops. Protestants have Scripture, but they are all over the map on truth.
TUTOR: Excellent. I will fill in with the next source. This is Tradition and Bishops: the evidence for general Apostolic Succession and Oral Tradition is less in the writings of the Fathers than for Scripture. The vast majority of early church father testimony is clearly citing Scripture. Quotes that argue for valid Tradition and Succession from the Apostles are much less. So, again, Tradition and authoritative Apostolic Succession are less evident to humanity than Scripture. But Tradition is far more reliable than Scripture since it gives the right interpretation. With only Tradition, the Orthodox would still have all their dogmas, even without Scripture.
I will do the next one, too, the Supreme Apostolic Successor, Peter: Quotes in antiquity that speak of Peter's special office of infallibility are far less than quotes about general Apostolic Succession. Therefore, Peter's special role in Apostolic Succession is less evident than general Bishops, hence why the Orthodox do not accept him. But Peter is even stronger in truth than his other brothers combined, since with Peter, the fullness of truth on earth is known in Catholicism. Hence why the Orthodox are a little bit in error and debate a thousand years of what we know to be certain as dogma.
Finally, the Trinity and Incarnation lies even above Peter, since God is the ultimate source of truth, but those mysteries are so elusive, so hidden!
STUDENT: This is most excellent and radical. We have shown that as you go up the pyramid, the truth for sources gets more, yet the evidence for them gets less; that is, a veritable inverse proportional relationship between degree of truth and evidence for the source as legit exists!
What now, can we assuage from this?
TUTOR: This! It means that salvation history for the illuminative way of the New People of God is logical and structured, not random and aimless. It shows that because God’s sources of truth have a theological and rigorous nature, the devil was forced to attack them in the order of the structure. And it WAS logical. How? In this: if a lawyer is going to make a case, he must attack the weakest components of his enemies’ arguments first, then work down to the strongest.
STUDENT: You are right, like David and Goliath. For, if David had come out swinging directly at Goliath—who was a huge, unfathomably strong monster of a man—he would have been toast. NO! Rather, David used strategy: he went for the weakest point, and subsequently took down the whole monster in one flow.
TUTOR: Absolutely! Hence also for the devil. The source with the weakest evidence is God as Triune and Incarnate, and that is exactly what the evil one started with. Next is Peter, the supreme successor. And so forth, down to reason. And that is how, now, we have insanely irrational constructs like gender identity (paraphrased from an actual on-street test interview on YT)]
Music Reveeals the Ages of Doctrinal Development
STUDENT: All this is very good. We have shown that salvation history for doctrine is rigorous and logical. Hence, if music were to reveal it, we have an argument that is truly is from God, if we can work it out!
TUTOR: Amen, and we will work it out. Let’s get moving!
STUDENT: Yes, and here, we can recall that the ages of doctrinal development, If they were to be revealed in objective music, would need to be ascending sorrow, the counterpart to our sacrament scale of descending joy.
TUTOR: Amen. Ok, so now, as we begin, a problem exists: there are seven and possibly eight pure notes in our octave scale, but we only have five sources of truth, two short. What do we do?
STUDENT: Your guess is as good as mine.
TUTOR: There will be solution. First note that the octaves should be the phase of darkness, meaning, we start at pagan Rome and end with the minor secular apostasy of today. Each of these are total darkness, as we have seen, noting that whereas pagan Rome does not have atheism or relativism, they do have brute paganism, and all the morals violated like today: gluttony pools, emperor worship, infanticide sodomy, promiscuity, and so forth.
STUDENT: Ok, I now see how this solves one thing: pagan Rome to the modern darkness is eight notes, but only the modern darkness is a veritable step in our scale, since, from our analysis previously here, pagan Rome is the purgative way, and so not included in the illuminative way, whereas the modern day is the dark night of the soul which is part of the illuminative way. Hence, there are not eight but seven notes in our scale.
TUTOR: Right, but once again, seven is two more than five. Let me shed some light on a fix:
Firstly, here are the raw five ages:
Attack:
Trinity and Incarnation: Heresies 300 – 1000 AD
Here is the thing: if we are to get more than five, we need to break down a phase or phases into lesser parts, if it were possible In fact, this is what happens. Firstly, which ones and to what degree? Here, the meaning is straightforward: the source in question may have two subparts: attacked first in part, then in full.
STUDENT: Ok, that would work if exactly two phases can acquire this condition. But which two?
TUTOR: Well, think about it: what phase has a lot of activity that is a partial assault on the source, then a radical, total rejection.
STUDENT: Aha! The Trinity and Incarnation.
TUTOR: Yes! Why?
STUDENT: Because before Islam, the heresies are all assaulting only Jesus, or in some cases, aspects of the Trinity and Incarnation, Islam rather culminates these.
TUTOR: Yes, but Arianism, one of the first great heresies out of the arena of pagan Rome, like Islam, completely denies the Trinity and Incarnation. How therefore is not worse than Islam?
STUDENT: In this: not only did Islam fully deny the Triune and Incarnate God but went the ultimate length: it asserted a post-Christological Revelation, the Quran, or Muhammed. Arianism remained within a pseudo-Christian dimension, living inside a flawed but veritable structure of Christian Scripture and such. Hence, the first source is in part, with most of the Christo and Triune heresies, then in full, with Islam, again, a completely anti-Trinitarian and Incarnational heresy going so far as to claim a surpassing Revelation to Jesus, attacking one of the final attributes to Jesus: that we await no further Word from on High: The Son has spoken unto humanity, what more can supersede this?
TUTOR: Excellent, you passed the test. What of the other. What do you suggest?
STUDENT: Here I would say General Bishops and Tradition, and in this: Protestantism was a complete rejection of these, but it was clearly precluded by the development of scandal of the Bishops in the late Middle Ages. That is, the devil obviously had to sow sin in the Apostolic college in order to cause the repudiation thereof. Hence, the first great part of the Bishops phase is scandal of late Middle Ages, then the full renunciation of the college in Protestantism.
TUTOR: Excellent. We now have our ages for the seven steps:
STUDENT: Ok, so these would correlate to the scale of seven notes, just beyond the base primary minor note, unto the primary minor note octave, inclusive.
I would still like to inquire if there is more here. More specifically, regarding the black keys, or the flats, in the sacrament scale, they have meaning. More to the point, they were the imperfect notes of priests, such that you had to pass through them to get to the associated succeeding sacramental step. There were exactly five of them because five and only five sacraments require the priests or bishop. So what about these five flats here? What could they be?
TUTOR: Excellent question. Let me start by just using common sense, there are five such notes, the black keys in the illustrative key of the piano. And how many SOURCES of TRUTH are there?
STUDENT: Bingo! Five!
TUTOR: Yes! And also, what is the musical nature of these notes besides being imperfect?
STUDENT: I remember that you said in earlier essays that they are discordant, since they don’t fit with the pure chords. They are “off.”
TUTOR: Ok, now put two and two together. These five sources of truth are the SOURCE of division in the body of Christ, the sources that are rejected by the various religions down the way of development. That is, they break up the unity of the holy ones. They disrupt the ACCORD with one another!
The Black Keys, Sources of Discord
STUDENT: Yes! They are SOURCES OF DISCORD between the Church and those separated from her!!!
TUTOR: Yes! And what might this involve for us to verify in our scale:
STUDENT: I would say this, each of these black keys would precede the phase(s) that attack it in the scale, from the beginning to the end.
TUTOR: Good, but why precede and not succeed?
STUDENT: Yes, because the Church should have to consider a source of truth before it is rejected.
TUTOR: Good, So here we go. Let us look first at the placement of the sources of discord, or black keys, and the white keys, which are the pure steps. Here, we use “w” for a white key, and the associated name for the source, or black key, as itself. Note, then, that when a source, or black key, is followed by only one white key, it means that source only has one step against it, or, that is, in full, whereas, on the other hand, if two white keys, two steps against it, in part and then in full. Note, finally, that the first w is pagan Rome, and so is not included in our scale.
w
Trinity and Incarnation
w
w
Supreme Apostolic Successor
w
General Apostolic Succession
w
w
Scripture
w
Reason
w
Bingo, the only two sources with two white keys are Trinity and Bishops. All others are single w!
And now for something mind blowing!
STUDENT: Let us do it ! What?
The Parable of the Laborers as Revelation of the Doctrine Ages!!
TUTOR: The Parable of the Laborers!
STUDENT: You have got to be kidding me.
TUTOR: Well just hang loose blood, we gonna git you on the theology side!
STUDENT: Actually I can see an immediate parallel: the labor in the vineyard is to spread the Gospel. And it is hard work. We mus resist the opposition of heretics and schismatics and infidels and apostates. We must work against iniquity and error!
TUTOR: And how many times do the laborers go out?
STUDENT: Five!
TUTOR: What else?
STUDENT: There are twelve hours in the day and twelve notes. Also, labor begins at sunrise, just as the Church began her illuminative mission immediately after the night of pagan Rome. Moreover, labor ends at sunset, the modern dark night of the soul, the current minor apostasy.
TUTOR: And how do you think it will be worked out.
STUDENT: We will do a one to one correspondence between the notes of our scale and the hours in the day.
TUTOR: You got it bro! You wanna give it a try?
STUDENT: Absolutely, and just note, as correlate the notes to the hours, we will use the rigor of assigning a line on the hour number line as just after the hour in question.
TUTOR: Give an example:
STUDENT: Sure. Let us just use the simplest. The first marker is obviously dawn, which is right on the boundary between pagan Rome and the source note of trinity and incarnation. This makes the next marking hour of 3 to be on the boundary between the second pure step of Trinity [Islam], and the source Peter. With this in mind, every time that laborers are sent out, they are always sent out next to, on one side or another, a source of truth, always!
TUTOR: Sounds good, let us work it out.
STUDENT: Sure, Let us just note that our representation will be similar to what we just used for the musical notes, and that the number lines of hours in our visual representation will be shown as horizontal lines. So let us go:
w
0 ------------------------------
Trinity and Incarnation
w
w
3 ------------------------------
Supreme Apostolic Successor
w
General Apostolic Succession
6 ------------------------------
w
w
Scripture
9 ------------------------------
w
Reason
11 ------------------------------
w
STUDENT: Amazing! Every hour of sending laborers is right next to a source, and only one source:
0 [dawn] is next to Trinity
3 is next to the Pope
6 is next to General Bishops
9 is next to Scriptures
and 11 is next to Reason
Coincidence? How could all these scales so perfectly emulate all this? You decide!
God bless you for reading this far!
Menu icon by Icons8