15. The Principle of Protestantism by Schaf
16. Through Western Eyes: Eastern Orthodoxy: A Reformed Perspective by Letham
Sunday, August 31, 2008
August
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tertullian and Iranaeus on Sola Scriptura
Tertullian (c. 155-220): Arguing with Hermogenes' teaching that matter is eternal, "But whether all things were made out of any underlying matter, I have yet failed anywhere to find. Where such a statement is written, Hermogenes' shop must tell us. If it is nowhere written, then let it fear the woe which impends on all who add or take away from the written word." Tertullian "condemns as madness" the notion that there was some kind of secret unwritten tradition of the Apostles. This was the doctrine of the Gnostics who believed that there was "secret knowledge" known and revealed only to a select few.
Iranaeus (c. 130-200) in his Against Heresies argues that the Scriptures where the safeguarding of the traditions of the apostles. According to Iranaeus, there are no unwritten traditions of the Apostles. Scripture is the authoritative record of the doctrines, teachings, and practices of the Apostles (cf. Against Heresies, III.1,1.)
These fathers did indeed teach that the Scriptures were to be understood and read in accordance with the regula fidei (the rule of faith) which was itself the received summary of what the Scriptures teach. But the apostolic tradition and the regula fidei both had their source in the Scriptures themselves.
The Shape of Sola Scriptura, 22-26)
Clement on Sola Scriptura
Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215): "But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves." (Stromata, Bk. VII, ch. 16)
By the way, Matheson notes in a footnote that Clement declares the legend of Mary's perpetual virginity as false, despite the claims of some that this was a universally accepted belief.
(The Shape of Sola Scriptura, 24)
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Frankenstein Against Nature
Frankenstein opens as a series of letters from Robert Walton to his sister, Margaret Saville. Walton has determined to find a sailing passage through the north pole, and the letters detail his travels to St. Petersburg, Russia, and then on to the coast before finding a boat and a crew. The story begins on a note of impossibility and doom. Even as the sailors set out in clear water, it's autumn, and Walton notes that winter is coming on; he doesn't know if he'll be able to find a clear passage through the north pole. This sets up the setting for the whole story: a mission of doom, striving against nature, trying to accomplish the impossible. The story begins in autumn; it begins just as everything is about to freeze, as everything is about to die.
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley (1797 - 1851) lived what appears to been be a fairly horrific life. She easily stands as a sort of icon for the romantic, feminist, intellectual and bohemian lifestyle. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, famed early feminist, died giving birth to her, her father, William Godwin, was a philosopher (enough said), her step-mother openly hated her, her step-sister was suicidal and eventually succeeded in the deed, and at the age of 19, Shelley tried to escape her familial hell by eloping with the soon-to-be literary genius of the English speaking world, (and already married) Percy Bysshe Shelly. The two of them and a sister left for the continent for a year of travels and returned with Mary pregnant with their first child that would die in infancy. Of their four children, only one survived, and Percy Shelley drowned only a few years later in a boating accident at the age of 30.
Speaking of her book Frankenstein, she writes in her Author's Introduction: "And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. I have an affection for it, for it was the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words which found no true echo in my heart. Its several pages speak of many a walk, many a drive, and many a a conversation, when I was not alone; and my companion was one who, in this world, I shall never see more. But this is for myself; my readers have nothing to do with these associations." (Frankenstein, Puffin Classics, 7-8)
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tradition
"In present day usage the term commonly denotes unwritten doctrines handed down orally in the Church. It is therefore often contrasted with Scriptures. However, a remarkable scholarly consensus shows that in the early church, Scripture and Tradition were in no way exclusive concepts because they coincided with each other completely.
...
The concept of "tradition" when used by these [apostolic] fathers, is simply used to designate the body of doctrine which was committed to the Church by the Lord and His Apostles, whether through verbal or written communication. The body of doctrine, however, was essentially identical regardless of how it was communicated. No evidence suggests that the apostolic fathers believed they had recourse to any type of secret oral traditions. At this point in the Church's history, Scripture and the Christian tradition were coinherent concepts..."
(The Shape of Sola Scriptura, by Mathison, 19, 21)
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Was He Speaking Ex Cathedra?
Gregory the Great (Pope?) writes: "Ego autem fidenter dico, quia quisquis se universalem Sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari desiderat, in elatione sue Antichristum praecurrit, quia superbiendo se caeteris praeponit. Nec dispari superbia ad errorem ducitur, quia sicut perversus ille Deus videri vult super omnes homines; ita quisquis iste est, qui solus Sacerdos appelari appetit, super reliquos Sacerdotes se extollit."
Which roughly translates: "Therefore I fully affirm that whoever calls himself the universal Priest, or wants to be called that elevates himself to Antichrist, because he vaunts himself over all the others. Not only does this extreme arrogance lead to error, it's also perverse since this person wants to be seen as God over all people; thus whoever he is, who wants to be called the Priest alone, he exalts himself over all the other priests." (Cited in Principle of Protestantism, 169 -- Feel free to correct my translation if it needs it.)
One postscript to this quotation: This is an example of the medieval and patristic pedigree of Protestantism. It wasn't like Luther and Calvin came along and decided they really didn't like the Pope, flipped through their Bibles till they came to a bad name to call him, and them slapped "Antichrist" on the Papal See. They were in good catholic company calling the office of the "universal bishop of the Church" Antichrist. It was at least part of the teaching of the fathers.
Doug Jones on Sola Scriptura
From Doug Jones' Forward to Sola Scriptura by Keith Mathison:
"C.S. Lewis once quipped that the more medieval he became in his outlook, the farther from Roman Catholicism he seemed to grow. The history of the doctrine of sola Scriptura tends to produce the same effect in many of us. Once one gets beyond the superficial, individualistic, confused accounts of this doctrine presented in contemporary Evangelicalism, this teaching becomes very natural, organic, medieval, and apostolic.
In contrast, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox accounts fall out of rather perfectionistic and rationalistic commitments that are alien to the earthiness of biblical reality. Submitting to an infallible magisterium requires relatively little faith; everything is, in principle, neat and clean, like a doctor's office or a robot husband. A perfect husband would make for a very easy marriage; faith wouldn't be hard at all... Submission takes on much more fascinating dimensions when marriage involves sinners...
In this light, the various widely publicized departures of many Evangelicals to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy have the distinct aroma of youthful haste and short-term zeal. The Sanhedrin was far better organized than the fishermen, and it had a grand liturgy, an authoritative line of oral tradition, and a succession of leaders. In a healthy church, those forms are good and holy. But to have turned to the Sanhedrin at that time would have been to embrace apostasy. Truth, beauty, and goodness were with the fishermen."
The Temporary Historical Necessity of Protestantism
Schaf insists that Protestantism earns its right to exist only for as long as we offer to the rest of the Church significant correction in areas that need it. A sect, if we are willing to admit the title, "loses its right to exist, in the same degree in which the body from which it is a secession has corrected the faults that led to it... If sects would be true to themselves, they must as soon as they have fulfilled their commission unite themselves again with the general life of the Church, that they may thus as organic members of the body acquire new vital energy; and the Church, on her side, should make special efforts to gather once more under her motherly protection and care, the children that have forsaken her and are now estranged from her bosom. To this duty the Reformed Church is specially called, as the largest part of these modern separatist movements have sprung from her communion." (134-135)
Episcopacy and the Leaven of the Pharisees
Schaf also takes the Anglo-Catholic Oxford movement to task: He suggests that many who are in this school are attracted to it by a "feeling of poetical romance" and not a few of them have aspirations to the hierarchy inherent in an episcopal system. And for all their insistence on history, Schaf says that this is the glaring hole in their system. The "utter misapprehension of the divine significance of the Reformation, with its consequent development, that is of the entire Protestant period of the Church." They have no conception of historical development, much less the great blessing of the Reformation to the broader Church. He calls their "external, mechanical conception of the Church and episcopacy" nothing more than the "old leaven of the Pharisees." He bases his assertions on the fact that there is no scriptural authority for such a rigid apostolic succession as is commonly held in those communions that insist upon it. There is not high priestly caste in the Christian Church, clergy are servant-leaders of the flock, but are in an important sense still members of the priesthood of all believers. Their's is a specific calling in the body of Christ which includes real authority, but it is not a hierarchical system of automatic authority. Finally he scoffs at those who would think that merely returning to an episcopal polity would fix all the problems of Protestantism: "Preposterous imagination! Can the Church be renovated, by putting on a new coat?" (122-126)
The Prostitution of Protestantism
Schaf decries the multiplication of denominations and sects in Christendom and insists that this is not inherent in the Protestant principle: "If such were the fact, the Reformation must stand in direct contradiction to the holy scriptures, and be adjudged by its own umpire to condemnation, as a sinful work of man... Teh sect-system, like Rationalism, is a prostitution and caricature of true Protestantism, and nothing else... Away with human denominations, down with religious sects! Let our watchword be: One spirit and one body! One Shepherd and one flock!... Rationalism and Sectarianism are the most dangerous enemies of the church at the present time. They are both but different sides of one and the same principle, a onesided, false subjectivity, sundered from the authority of the objective. Rationalism is theoretic Sectarianism; Sectarianism is practical Rationalism." (119, 121)
Monday, August 25, 2008
Get Rid of Your Own Popery First
Schaf identifies rationalism as a problem that has infected both Protestant and Roman Churches. Of course keeping in mind that Schaf was writing in the mid nineteenth century, this is still fairly prophetic as things have tended. But whatever the case, he suggests that whatever common enemies and problems we have ought to be solved first. Before taking aim at eachother there ought first to be a concerted effort to eradicate common philosophical problems. He says, "Luther and Calvin, if they should make their appearance now, would act very differently, in the altered state of things, from what they did three hundred year ago. Their main zeal would be directed no doubt against such purely negative pseudo-protestantism [Protestant Rationalism], as something altogether worse than popery itself..." And turning to the Protestant problem with rationalism he exhorts us: "Let us first with united strength expel the devil from our own temple, into which he has stolen under the passport of our excessive toleration, before we proceed to exorcise and cleanse the dome of St. Peter." (p. 104-5)
Really Alive
My children are alive. They burst with sounds and action. They cannot be stilled.
My son is four years old. He's four years old and forty-one pounds. His bedroom is an arsenal of swords, guns, and armor. He is a fighter.
The other day we had company coming for dinner. This company was coming in the form of a family blessed to have four boys, and the prospect of war games throughout the night was clearly on my son's mind. A little while before the guests arrived, my wife and I found him in the living room lining up the guns and swords and various pieces of armor. I could almost hear him saying to himself, 'And we might need this, and this, and this...' Of course his mother ordered him to return the weapons to his room; he could display them there to his heart's content.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Fifteenth Sunday of Trinity Season: Toward a Theology of Other People 5: Pss. 122, 124, & Mt. 28:16-20
Opening Prayer: Gracious Father, we thank you that you have invited us here yet again. We thank you that you speak to us again, despite the fact that we are quick to forget what you have said, and despite the fact that we have often ignored what you have said. Empower your Word now, by your Spirit, and give us ears to hear, hearts to treasure your words, and the ability to obey. Through Christ our Lord.
Introduction
We continue our consideration this morning of a theology of other people. Today we consider those other people closest to us in space and time: our families. These neighbors live in the same house as you, and some of them sleep in the same bed as you. These people are no less gifts to you, they form a central part of your tradition, and they are the first place you are called upon to express catholicity.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Faith and the Invocation of the Saints
Central to the Reformers' objections to certain practices in the Roman Church was the issue of faith. And here I'm not referring initially to the issue of sola fide, though that does come in later. The issue was worship, and the question had to do with worshipping in faith.
So let's take the question of the invocation of departed saints: Mary, Peter, John, etc. Whether this invocation is done through icons or not, the issue has to do with the question of faith.
Schaf: Justification and Sanctification
Central to Schaf's work (The Principle of Protestantism) is the insistence that the Church as the body of Christ on the earth possesses the fullness of Christ now in no less or greater a degree than when Christ first ascended into heaven and poured out the Spirit of the Father on the Church. And at the same time, this reality is still being worked out in history. In other words, the task of the Church is to grow into and more fully develop what is already there, what has already been given in the gift of the Spirit. Of course the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and therefore in him, the fullness of the Trinity is bestowed upon us. Yet, there is a continual working out of this reality. The Christ whom we have become one with in the Spirit must still be impressed upon us more and more. At the end, when the kingdom is delivered to the Father, and Christ is fully and obviously all in all, then this gap will be closed. The reality will have worked its way out into all of reality.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
More Schaff on Tradition and the Jesuits
More Schaff:
"[Tradition is] the regenerated reason, the Christian consciousness of the Church; which stands not beside the scriptures as an independent fountain, but is simply the stream of their contents reaching to us through the life of the Church, embracing always only what is contained in the scriptures themselves." (91)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Fourteenth Sunday of Trinity Season: Theology of Other People 4: Ephesians 2
Opening Prayer: Gracious Father, we ask that you would remind us this morning of all that you have done for us, how far you have brought us, and how merciful you have been to us all along the way. And having reminded us of your grace, give us the courage and wisdom to understand where we are now, and where we are going. Through Christ our Lord, Amen!
Introduction
We’ve considered the fact that the people God has given to us are gifts, and that they form the tradition that God has bestowed upon us. We also considered the command to pursue like mindedness. And we insisted that unity of mind is not the beginning of apathy but the beginning of sacrificial transfiguration. Today we consider the place of Trinity Reformed Church in the broader body of Christ, and the fact that this transfiguration of the world includes the entire body of Christ together.
Proverbs 22:26-23:3
The broader context of these verses is ten prohibitions like the original Decalogue (22:22-23:11).
This section has a beginning and ending inclusio that includes the promise that the Lord, their Redeemer, “will plead their cause” (22:23, 23:11). And this forms the overall theme of this Proverbial Decalogue – the ten commandments relating to the poor and finances in general.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Trinity Reformed Church Statement on Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Reformed Catholicity
The following will be up on the Trinity Reformed Church web site when our new site is up and running, but since there were a few folks interested in seeing it sooner, I post it here for your convenience.
One holy, catholic and apostolic Church
Trinity Reformed Church recognizes itself as part of the ancient Christian Church established by the apostles, rejoicing in the “faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jud. 1:3). We are thankful for the fellowship we share with all the faithful in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church throughout the ages. We affirm with the apostle that there is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:5). Therefore with the holy fathers, we confess that one faith as it has been handed down in the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, the Definition of Chalcedon, and Athanasian Creed. On this basis we cheerfully recognize the Trinitarian baptisms of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians, receive them (and all others who confess this ancient faith) to our celebration of the Eucharist, and warmly welcome them into membership in our congregation. Because there is one body and one Spirit, we insist that the unity of the body of Christ is fundamentally something to be preserved through humility, gentleness, and love in the Holy Spirit and is not dependent upon institutional forms, church polity, or bureaucratic decisions (Eph. 4:2-3).
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Faith, Tradition, and Pandora
Schaf says that there are several ways in which Protestant and Roman Catholic views on justification and authority overlap. He says, that the "word of God answers to faith, and tradition to love." In both instances, the Protestant insistence is that the first and ultimate instrument of justification is faith which alone receives and rests upon the gracious work of Christ, and likewise, the Scriptures, in the Protestant view are the only ultimate and infallible rule of doctrine and practice.
At the same time, the Reformed tradition has always insisted that works are necessary for salvation and naturally flow from authentic faith. Faith without works is deadbeat assent. Likewise, tradition is inescapable and far from being a threat to sound doctrine and practice, it is actually "absolutely indispensable." True and faithful Christian tradition "is not part of the divine word separately from that which is written, but the contents of scripture itself as apprehended and settled by the Church against heresies past and always new appearing; not an independent source of revelation, but the one fountain of the written word, only rolling itself forward in the stream of Church consciousness." Thus, just as good works do necessarily flow from faith and are essential for salvation, so too, faithful tradition flows from and is necessary for the life of the Church through the centuries.
The Protestant complaint with Roman Catholicism is what Martin Chemnitz called the Pandora Box phenomenon. It's one thing to honor tradition, referring to ways in which the Church has meditated on the Scriptures and then spoken authoritatively on various issues. But it's quite another to use 'tradition' as a multipurpose grab bag out of which all manner of evil may proceed justified by the whims of wicked men who happen to find their names on a genealogical chart that traces back to St. Peter.
(The Principle of Protestantism, 71-72, 87)
Deliverdict in Schaf
Schaf says that one of the objections Roman Catholics have (or had) with the doctrine of justification by faith alone is that it involves God's "declaring a man to be what he is not in fact." Schaf goes on to point out that this is not so absurd since there are several instances of this very thing in Scripture. God loved us even while we were still sinners not for something he saw already in them, but for that which he intended them. Likewise, Abraham was called the father of many nations before he actually was.
But Schaf goes further and says that the Reformed "always acknowledged the true element here in the catholic doctrine, without sanctioning its pelagianistic trait." Thus, Schaf insists that God is not merely making a lone, abstract judgment that is unrelated to reality. On the contrary, the declaration of righteousness rests upon the objective union with Christ that exists, the "actualization of this principle in his person, is itself conditioned by the declaratory act, creative at the same time, going before." In other words, simultaneous to the declaration of righteousness is the creative union of the believer with the risen Christ, thereby enacting and performing the reality of the declaration.
(The Principle of Protestantism, 67-69)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Calvin and the Thunderbolt of Anathema
"In bearing with imperfections of life we ought to be far more considerate. For here the descent is very slippery and Satan ambushes us with no ordinary devices. For there have always been those who, imbued with a false conviction of their own perfect sanctity, as if they have already become a sort of airy spirit, spurned association with all men in whom they discerned any remnant of human nature."
Calvin the Schismatic
While Calvin insists that "ministry of the Word" and "celebrating the sacraments" in purity are the marks of the true Church, he maintains that so long as any church retains those two principles, we may "safely embrace" them as a church "even if it otherwise swarms with many faults."
He continues: "What is more, some fault may creep into the administration of either doctrine or sacraments, but this ought not to estrange us from communion with the church... I say that we must not thoughtlessly forsake the church because of any petty dissensions. For in it alone is kept safe and uncorrupted that doctrine in which piety stands sound and the use of the sacraments ordained by the Lord is guarded. In the meantime, if we try to correct what displeases us, we do so out of duty. Paul's statement applies to this: 'If a better revelation is made to another sitting by, let the first be silent'. From this it is clear that every member of the church is charged with the responsibility of public edification according to the measure of his grace, provided he perform it decently and in order. That is, we are neither to renounce the communion of the church nor, remaining in it, to disturb its peace and duly ordered discipline." (ICR IV.1.12)
Ezekiel Staying Alive
Ezekiel's commission is an utterly terrifying task. His job is to tell the wicked that they are going to die. And if Ezekiel fails to warn them, they will die in their sins, but their blood will be required at the hand of Ezekiel (3:18). However, if he does warn them and they die in their sins, Ezekiel will have delivered his own soul (3:19).
The reverse is also true: If a righteous man turns away from righteousness and pursues iniquity, and God lays a stumbling block before the man, Ezekiel is responsible for warning the man. If Ezekiel does not warn the man and the man dies in his sin, God will require the man's blood at the hand of Ezekiel (3:20). But if Ezekiel does warn the man and delivers him from his sin then Ezekiel has delivered his own soul (3:21).
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Adam Eats the Book and Is Sent to a Relative with Alzheimer's
Ezekiel is addressed as the "son of man," the "son of Adam" throughout his prophecy. This comes of course after having seen upon the heavenly throne "the likeness as the appearance of a man [Adam] upon it" (1:26). While there's a good bit of allusion and symbolism in the vision of God that Ezekiel sees, the recurring reference to the "firmament" is striking since that isn't a very common word, and apart from a couple of psalm appearances, this is the only other place it shows up with some frequency outside of Genesis 1.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Tasting Death
Our sermon text from this morning ends with the promise of Jesus that some standing there would not taste death till they had seen the Son of Man coming in his kingdom (Mt. 16:28). In one sense Jesus is probably talking about the judgment of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when he will reward everyone according to his deeds. But in another sense, Jesus is still teaching about the way the Kingdom works. He has just finished explaining his extreme discipleship program. He says if you want to follow him you must follow him with a cross on your back; the way to save your life is to lose it first. The kingdom of Jesus is all about tasting death. After 70 AD, Christians were still being persecuted, still being betrayed by family members, still being killed for their faith, still getting sick and dying. But Jesus says that this is the way of the kingdom: in order to follow him, you need to have a cross. You need to have splinters in your back. You need to have the taste of death in your mouth in order to live His resurrection life. If you want to have life, if you want to really live, you have to do it by eating and drinking death. This is because Resurrection is always on the other side of death. If you don’t know what death tastes like you haven’t been brought back to life. At this meal, Jesus says to give thanks, to rejoice, in the death of Jesus which is the death of all death, but this means that you need to see all your hardships, all your suffering, all your confusion, all your worries and fears, and all of your burdens in light of this reality. The writer of Hebrews says that “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” Christ has taken up into himself all of the curse of sin, he has tasted death for everyone, and this means that he died for all your hardships, all your suffering, all your death. Not so that you might be magically delivered from all of it right away, but so that you like him might overcome it, that you might learn obedience through suffering, that you might commit yourself to your faithful Father who raises the dead. So come eat, drink and rejoice: you are tasting death, but you are tasting the death of Christ who has already gone before us and he assures us that this is the way to life. If you want to find your life, come here and taste death that you may truly live.
Students are Neighbors Too
Every year around this time we begin to have a new set of neighbors descend upon this community. Students come to Moscow and Pullman from all over the northwest and from all over the world. A number of students will come here to Trinity, and this adds dimensions and dynamics to the kind of congregation we are. And, there are any number of reasons people might have for not being excited about this. College students are loud and obnoxious, they think they know everything, they get into trouble, they can be socially cliquish or awkward, it’s harder to find seats on Sunday morning, or it’s just difficult to find the people you’re trying to see and talk to, and the list goes on. But the exhortation from Scripture is to be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:1-2). These students are people that God is bringing us to love. Each year, he gives us brothers and sisters to care for, to bless, to encourage, and to befriend. Do not see these young people as getting in the way of our community or fellowship; see them as the community and fellowship that God is calling you to embrace. And do not forget as you do so that there are many others outside who will not show up on Sunday. These are the students piled into the coffee shops, the students being loud at all hours of the night, the students who think main street is a drag strip, the students who steal your parking places and walk around town looking lost and confused. And you are no less called to minister grace to them. Jesus looked on the multitudes with compassion because they were like sheep having no shepherd and he said the harvest is plentiful, pray that the God of the harvest would send workers for the harvest. Therefore walk in love as Christ has loved you and given himself for you, and give yourself to loving these neighbors, caring for their needs, and befriending them and showing them kindness. Be grace to them.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Effective Resistance
In the first of a collection of letters, Lewis responds to an article on 'Conditions for a Just War.' His primary point is once again related to authority and who has the duty to assess information and make decisions regarding going to war and the like. This does not mean that "private persons must obey governments commanding them to do what they know is sin, but perhaps it does mean (I write it with some reluctance) that the ultimate decision as to what the situation at a given moment is in the highly complex field of international affairs is on which must be delegated."
Lewis goes on to argue that extreme pacifism effectively divides the Christian world and results in "no clear Christian witness." A far better strategy would be for Christians to insist upon what they do know and all agree upon. "A man is much more certain that he ought not to murder prisoners or bomb civilians than he ever can be about the justice of a war. It is perhaps here that 'conscientious objection' ought to begin. I feel certain that one Christian airman shot for refusing to bomb enemy civilians would be a more effective martyr (in the etymological sense of the word) than a hundred Christians in jail for refusing to join the army."
(Timeless at Heart, 126-127)
Pacifism and the Historical Jesus
Interestingly, Lewis likens the search for biblical grounds for pacifism to the modern search for the "historical Jesus." He says, "I think there are people who will not find this sort of thing difficult to believe, just as there are people ready to maintain that the true meaning of Plato, or Shakespeare, oddly concealed from their contemporaries and immediate successors, has preserved its virginity for the daring embraces of one or two modern professors... Any theory which bases itself on a supposed "historical Jesus," to be dug out of the gospels and then set up in opposition to Christian teaching, is suspect."
(Timeless at Heart, 64)
Turn the Other Cheek
On Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount, Lewis suggests three possible interpretations. The first is the absolute literal hermeneutic of the pacifist, the second is the hyperbolic interpretation which assumes that Jesus was not being literal but overstating his point for effect (much like the exhortation to cut off limbs and pluck out eyes that cause one to sin). Not satisfied with either of the first two, Lewis suggests a third option which he explains:
More Lewis on War
Lewis says that a significant part of the question of war has to do with the question of authority. He asks how one could arrive at the conclusion that "I must disobey if I am called on by lawful authority to be a soldier." He summarizes the various forms of authority as "special or general" and "either human or divine."
Lewis on War
In the essay Why I'm not a Pacifist, C.S. Lewis writes: "Nor am I greatly moved by the fact that many of the individuals we strike down in war are innocent. That seems, in a way, to make war not worse but better. All men die, and most men miserably. That two soldiers on opposite sides, each believing his own country to be in the right, each at the moment when his selfishness is most in abeyance and his will to sacrifice in the ascendant, should kill each other in plain battle seems to me by no means one of the most terrible things in this very terrible world. Of course one of them (at least) must be mistaken. And of course war is a very great evil. But that is not the question. The question is whether war is the greatest evil in the world, so that any state of affairs which might result from submission is certainly preferable. And I do not see any real cogent arguments for that view." (Timeless at Heart, 57)
Friday, August 08, 2008
A Continual Sacrifice
Hughes Oliphant Old points out that the worship of the Temple was daily worship. Every morning and evening there were sacrifices in the temple and "these daily temple sacrifices were called the tamid, the continual sacrifice." One of the places Old is referring to is Exodus 29 where Yahweh commands Moses regarding the sacrifices that are to be offered at the Tabernacle. The priests are to offer two lambs, "day by day continually" (Ex. 29:38). One lamb was to be offered in the morning and the other was to be offered in the evening, and He explains that this morning and evening sacrifice is to be "a continual ascension offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the face of Yahweh" (Ex. 29:42). This morning and evening pattern is perpetuity; this rhythm is continual worship, day by day, following the pattern of creation, morning and evening, morning and evening.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Protestantism: The Greatest Act of the Roman Catholic Church
Schaff argues that just as "the Jewish dispensation looked always towards the gospel... in like manner the discipline of the Roman Church involved an inward struggle, that became satisfied at last only in the evangelical emancipation of Protestantism." Thus, he says that the immmediate genesis of the Reformation was not in any number of political, scientific, or theological developments as much as it was bound up "in the very center of the religious life of the Catholic Church itself, as it stood at that time." He concludes: "The Reformation is the legitimate offspring, the greatest act of the Catholic Church; and account of true catholic nature itself, in its genuine conception: whereas the Church of Rome, instead of following the divine conduct of history has continued to stick in the old law of commandments, the garb of childhood, like the Jewish hierarchy in the time of Christ, and thus by its fixation as Romanism has parted with the character of catholicity in exchange for that of particularity." (The Principle of Protestantism, 48-50)
When Shepherds are Wolves
Documenting the deep roots of Reformation thought in the catholic tradition, Schaff quotes John von Gerson, the Chancellor of the University of Paris (d. 1489) who insisted that the apostle be heeded when he says 'Let every sould be subject to the higher powers...' But he insists that this is not an absolute requirement and when real authorities so abuse their responsibilities, duty to them ceases. He says, "I conclude then that obedience to superiors ceases to be a duty, where their works are openly bad and a source of scandal to the whole Church; where the shepherds are shearers; not sheep, but wolves; not sober, but drunken; not prelates, that give their lives for the sheep, but Pilates, that serve the lusts of others; casting forth their net, not to catch souls, but money." (from De reformatione ecclesiae in concilio universali, cited in The Principle of Protestantism, 46).
Pentecost as Reformation Day
Schaff begins his argument for the catholicity of the Reformation by pointing out that Christianity is all about reformation. "Chrisianity was such a Reformation, not simply of Judaism, but of Humanity as a whole." He goes on to insist that what Luther gave utterance to was already "darkly present to the general consciousness of his age, and brought out into full view that which thousands before him, in his own time, had already been struggling in various ways to reach. Genuine Protestantism is no such sudden growth, springing up like a mushroom in the night, as the papist, and certain narrow minded ultra-protestants, would fain have us believe. Its roots reach back to the day of Pentecost." (The Principle of Protestantism, 37)
All Things New
At the end of the introduction, Nevin compares this progressive sanctification of the Church to the life of individuals and says that they are not only analogous, but they are completely codependent. In other words, the ultimate sanctification and salvation of individuals is in the salvation of the Church as a whole.
"Only indeed as it is comprehended in this general process, can the particular process by which the salvation of the single Christian is accomplished, from the new birth to the morning of the resurrection, be carried successfully forward. He is saved in the Church, the mystical body of Christ; and can become complete, only as the whole is made complete which he is a part. His resurrection accordingly, the last result of the organic power of his nature, will be reached only in connection with the consummation of the life of the Church as a whole, when in the fullest and most glorious sense, old things shall have passed away and all things become new." (The Principle of Protestantism, 25-26)
Reformed Apostolic Succession
Again, Nevin: He insists that the Reformation did not go back and start over at the fourth or fifth century. Rather, the Reformation was the continuation of that true Catholic Christianity that had run all the way up to the Reformation. He says, "If Protestantism be not derived by true and legitimate succession from the Church life of the Middle Ages, it will be found perfectly vain to think of connecting it genealogically with the life of the Church at any earlier point." (The Principle of Protestantism, 23).
The Womb of the Reformation
Nevin again, speaking in support of an optimistic view of the progress and growth of the Christian Church down through the ages says that this does not mean there is never regression or apostacy along the way, but rather "Truth can be said to advance, only as error is surmounted and thrown into its rear. But this requires that the error should always, in the first place, make itself known and felt... In this view the Middle Ages form properly speaking no retrogression for Christianity. They are to be regarded rather as the womb, in which was formed the life of the Reformation itself." (From the Introduction to The Principle of Protestantism by Philip Schaff, 21-22)
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Protestant Catholics
I can't remember how many times I've heard it said that we call ourselves "Protestants" because the Reformers were "protesting" the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church.
However, not too long ago a professor pointed out to us that the Latin word protestare does not mean "to protest." It actually means to confess, to testify, to profess. It's an entirely positive term, meant to convey the affirmation of a certain stance rather than a negative term that quibbles and critiques.
Protestant Catholics are Confessing Catholics, Professing Catholics, Catholics who bear witness to the ancient faith found in the Scriptures and those faithful fathers down through the centuries who preserved and built upon it. To be a Protestant Catholic is to be committed to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, actively confessing the faith of that Church, celebrating the sacraments of that Church, following in the footsteps of the faithful who have come before us, while working towards establishing an even more glorious Christendom in the future.
The Way Forward
"The present state of Protestantism is only intermistic. It can save itself, only by passing beyond itself. In this country particularly, our sect system is an evil that may be said to prey upon the very vitals of the Church. The evil itself however is but the index of a false element, incorporated with the life of Protestantism itself. The case then is not to be remedied, by any merely external change. We are not called to a crusade against sects as they stand; as though storming them to the ground, we could do for Christianity all that is needed in this direction. Only as the sect principle can be reached and cured in the inward habit of the Church, may any such revolution, in connection with the openings and orderings of God's providence,) be expected to take place, as the existing crisis demands." (J.W. Nevin in the Introduction to The Principle of Protestantism by Philip Schaf, 17-18)
Truth and History
One other thought on Jeremiah's indictment of Israel's false prophets:
Not only is Truth a question of present and future, but given what Jeremiah says concerning the requirement of prophets to expose the sins of the people, Truth has everything to do with the past as well. Exposing sins is a task which includes recounting what has already taken place in a particular way. Confessing sins is the act of telling the story like God does and not massaging the facts to appease our conscience.
Truth, in order to be Truth, must bind up past, present, and future together.
Truth and Eschatology
The prophet Jeremiah explains the "false and deceptive visions" of the prophets of Israel in these words: "They have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading" (Lam. 2:14).
The falseness and deceptiveness of the visions and oracles is not merely a question of the factual truth or falsity of their words. It is primarily found in the trajectory of their words, where they lead. The immorality of their words is in their refusal to expose the sins of their people and thereby deliver the people from the judgment of God. False visions are false because they lead people into judgment. True visions are true because they lead people to restore their fortunes, they lead to the blessing of God.
In this sense, a prophet could say *true* things all day long about politics, the weather, religion, and history and still be a false prophet full of deceptive visions and oracles that are misleading. Truth is not merely a question of factual reality. Truth is a question of trajectory and eschatology.
Abstraction and Incarnation
Truth is a person. Truth has a story, brothers and sisters. Truth has a mother and father.
As I continue to meditate on the concerns of my friends who are grappling with issues related to what the Church is called to be and their place in it, more and more, the concerns I have boil down to a fundamental aversion to abstraction and rationalism.
If Truth is a person, a man with 32 teeth and a score of fingers and toes, a man with a story, history, context, this means that it is not enough to merely ask factual questions. It’s all well and good to ask questions about “apostolic succession,” “veneration of icons,” “episcopal polity,” the role of “tradition,” the “authority of the church,” and a whole host of other issues, but all of these are abstract ideas which have not yet touched down. Those factual questions are only half of the work, half of the question. And furthermore, no one comes to those ideas with clean slates; you cannot come to these questions with an ecclesiological tabula rasa. You were born into a story, a family, a tradition, and all of these questions have their own stories and complexities.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Broken for Tomorrow
In the sermon text this morning, Jesus warned the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He insisted that his provision of bread was sufficient for the disciples. Not only is their leaven dangerous, but the disciples shouldn’t need it. But this only makes sense if we understand how leaven worked in the ancient world. In the past, leaven was not a packet of yeast you bought at the grocery store. Leaven was actually a chunk of dough left over from the last loaf of bread you made yesterday. Leaven was actually dough from yesterday’s loaf. Leaven was a bit of leftover dough that you saved so that you could have bread not only today but also bread for tomorrow. And this is perhaps why Jesus points to the leftovers he has provided for his disciples. He has plenty of dough, plenty of bread for the disciples. But notice also how this leaven works. It is broken off from the main lump today in order to make a new loaf tomorrow. And the next day another part of the dough will be broken off for the bread on the following day. And this is precisely how Jesus taught about his own life and death. On the night in which He was betrayed he took bread and broke it and gave it to his disciples and said that it was his body broken for them. Later, Paul says we who partake of the one loaf are one loaf, but this means that just as we are also the body of Christ, we are being called to be broken. But you are not merely being broken for the sake of brokenness. You are being broken for tomorrow. You are being broken today so that God can make another loaf of you tomorrow, so that God may give you life tomorrow and next year, and so that your children and grandchildren and neighbors might have life. And in Christ the cumulative effect of your life being broken is life for the world. Each of us has the calling to die for our spouses, our children, our neighbors, our coworkers, and even our enemies. We do this willingly and joyfully because we know that we serve the God who provides not only today, but in our brokenness he is also providing for tomorrow.
Pastoral Collars
One of the newer sights for Trinity Church folks is seeing your pastors walking around town wearing clerical collars. I’ve been wearing one and Pastor Leithart will also be wearing one regularly. And we want to make sure that you understand what that means and what it doesn’t mean. One of the first associations with clerical collars for many is Roman Catholicism, but actually for most of the church’s history, Christian ministers have been publicly set apart by their clothing. Up until about a hundred years ago Presbyterian and Reformed ministers even wore distinctive clothing. You can see Reformers in many church history books wearing distinctive shirts and collars that designated their callings as ministers of the gospel. We are seeking to align ourselves with that tradition. But the purpose of a minister wearing a collar is tied to his vocation. We are public servants both for you and for the broader Moscow community. The reason mailmen, police officers, doctors, and other vocations have uniforms is so that they can serve. When we see the uniforms we know what they are called to do, and similarly, we want as ministers to be available, recognizable, and at your service and at the service of our community. Traditionally, the collar has represented the yoke of Christ, the fact that ministers are slaves of the gospel, and called to lead their congregations and communities in submission to the Lord Jesus and as Christ’s servants called to serve his people. Finally, one of the central callings of ministers is to speak, proclaiming the gospel, comforting the grieving, calling the wicked to repentance, and declaring forgiveness to the penitent. These collars at our throats remind both us and you of that responsibility. And that’s a terrifying responsibility, but it is actually the calling of all Christians. In baptism we have all been called to take up the yoke of Christ, to be his servant for the world, and to speak gospel light into the darkness of sin and death. Consider these uniforms as simple reminders to us all of this high calling, the calling to die to ourselves, giving ourselves away for our families, neighbors, friends, and even our enemies.
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