From the beginning of salvation history, God has used visible, centralized human authority to communicate His will, convey His blessings, and foster unity among His people. For example, there was Noah, the righteous head of a family (cf. Gen. 6:8, 7:1) and Abraham, the righteous head of a tribe (cf. Jas. 2:21-24). God made covenants with Abraham to make of him a great nation (cf. Gen. 12:1-3, 15), a great kingdom (cf. Gen. 17) and a universal blessing (cf. Gen. 22:15-18). He confirmed these covenants in the persons of Moses and David, and fulfilled them in Jesus, who established the Catholic Church.
God understood that simply communicating His truth—whether in written or oral fashion—would not be sufficient to safeguard truth and associated unity among His people. Given our fallen human nature, self-righteous anarchy is bound to occur in the absence of clearly established, God-given authority. So He appointed visible leaders throughout salvation history to protect His people when truth and unity were threatened.
This God-given authority proved crucial in dealing with the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. As recorded in Numbers 16, these three men led an uprising that threatened to undermine the authority of Moses (cf. Num. 12:7-8) and therefore the unity of the Israelite people. In seeking to bring “reform†to the people of God, the trio took advantage of the ecclesiastical crisis of their day: the trials and tribulations of wandering in the wilderness. Listen to the words of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, for they are eerily similar to the protests of the Protestant Reformers:
Answered by
muriithi
at
Oct 10, 2009 04:12 PM
