tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76175253417614666102024-02-20T00:20:27.807-05:00Paredwka: Catching the BallFor I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you... 1 Cor. 11:23Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-19312344460996140382018-12-19T23:15:00.002-05:002018-12-19T23:15:34.491-05:00Ninth Year AnniversaryToday marks the ninth year anniversary of my family's reception into the Orthodox Catholic Church. Looking ahead at the tenth year, I can only say what I've said all along: it is by far the best decision we have ever made.<br />
<br />
For those reading who are Lutheran, Reformed, or some other Protestant, I encourage you to genuinely explore the Christian faith lived and taught by the canonical Eastern churches. If <i>reformation</i> is to be the answer to Rome's claim on the Christian faith in the West, then the Orthodox East is the genuine reformation Rome needs.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-1965589023907097432018-08-30T00:05:00.000-04:002018-08-30T00:06:50.675-04:00The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church<br />
Inevitably Orthodox believers in the West are approached about their faith by curious Westerners. The questioner usually expects an answer that relates closely to other Western Christian answers widely in play today ... but usually finds the answer is more complicated than that. Perhaps one of the most distressing topics for a Western, non-Orthodox Christian to ask Orthodox Christians is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This question has definite and specific answers in the minds of many non-Orthodox Christians, and so the same caliber of answer is expected from our Orthodox neighbors and friends.<br />
<br />
Our Orthodox answers, though, can be very confusing. For example, the following answers might be encountered:<br />
<ul>
<li>I don't know.</li>
<li>His death was to prove His humanity.</li>
<li>It was NOT a sacrifice for sins.</li>
<li>It WAS a sacrifice for sins.</li>
<li>It was to bait Satan.</li>
<li>It was to trample down death by death.</li>
<li>It was so He could rise from the dead.</li>
<li>It was to be an example for us.</li>
<li>It was because He loved us. </li>
<li>It was to outweigh our sins with His righteousness.</li>
<li>...and so on...</li>
</ul>
If you ask the question and receive all of the above answers from all sorts of different people, the sane conclusion would be that the Orthodox do not know what they believe. That may sometimes be true, but that is hardly much different than any other Christian group. What is troubling is not so much that some Orthodox people (including clergy) cannot answer well, but that they do not have a clear answer to a question that is so important to us. <i>Why is it not important to them?</i><br />
<br />
The short answer is that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is so hugely integrated into Orthodox spiritual life - that is, the life all Orthodox Christians live as Christians in the Church - that they do not see it in abstract terms. They see it instead as going to Church, as celebrating the Eucharist, as being baptized, as wrestling with the sinful passions, as going to confession, as showing love and forgiveness to one another. Orthodox Christians emphasize the cross as a way of life first and foremost. It is the life of Christ become our life.<br />
<br />
The difficulty with answering the non-Orthodox question, "What do you believe about the crucifixion of Christ" with the answer I just gave is that for the non-Orthodox, Western Christian all those things I listed under "the cross" do not get at what the Western Christian <i>needs to know</i> about Orthodoxy and the crucifixion of Christ in order to make basic sense of the Orthodox Church. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>No Penal Substitution</b><br />
<br />
I speak a lot with traditional-minded Lutherans, and something important to Lutherans - even if they do not use this term - is this thing called <i>Penal Substitution</i>. They use it to mean that God enacted a great exchange on the cross between Christ and the rest of humanity. Christ took on the sins of everyone that ever lived and ever will, and he suffered the penal requirement for those sins, i.e. the punishment. In exchange Christ offers to the world His righteousness so that those who believe in Him can be excused from everlasting punishment and enter into eternal life with all its benefits. Luther went so far as to claim that Christ somehow suffered the punishment of everlasting hell on the cross, at God's ordaining. Well-taught Lutherans have a hard time conceiving of a cross that does not revolve around Christ suffering the agony of hell mystically on the cross in our place.<br />
<br />
Penal Substitution boils the atonement down to merit, specifically to a transfusion of merit from Christ to the sinner. The premise is that we do not have our own righteousness, and that God will not accept us unless we are righteous. Penal Substitution teaches that it is enough to have the credit of righteousness transferred to us in order to be accepted by God, provided the punishment that our sins would have deserved is paid off also. Penal Substitution teaches that Christ suffered whatever punishment was due to us for our sins, thus clearing the ledger to fill with the credit of His righteousness, i.e. His merit. Christ will enact this great exchange and transfusion of merit to anyone who will believe in Him as their Lord from the heart (not just outwardly or carelessly so). <br />
<br />
Orthodoxy does not know the first thing about Penal Substitution. It never has. Atonement has never been understood as a transfusion of merit in Orthodox Christianity. Nor has there ever been a teaching about Christ suffering the agony of hell mystically on the cross in our place.<br />
<br />
Right here it is easy to see why many Lutherans might think Orthodoxy does not have a teaching on the atonement. Many do not know that their belief about the atonement is something unique to them - unique to Martin Luther and the Reformation age, and uniquely flowing from that time in Western history. Many do not realize that salvation by "faith alone" is actually a belief in the transfusion of merit/credit from Christ to the believer. "Faith alone" merely describes the condition by which that transfusion takes place.<br />
<br />
Orthodoxy boils the atonement down to life, specifically to a transfusion of life from Christ to the sinner. The premise is that we do not have our own righteousness, and that God will not accept us unless we are righteous. Orthodoxy teaches that we must be reconstituted as righteous beings in order to be accepted by God. Orthodoxy teaches that Christ offered His pure, righteous life to God for the purpose of transfusing it to us, and thereby reconstituting sinners as righteous beings. Anyone who believes from the heart can receive this transfusion of life for free by entering the Church.<br />
<br />
<b>Transformation</b><br />
<br />
Given everything that has just been said, the essential purpose of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is one thing for the Lutheran and another for the Orthodox. For the Lutheran it is transforming his status. For the Orthodox it is transforming his being.<br />
<br />
There is a transformation of being in Lutheranism. There is a transformation of status in Orthodoxy. For the Lutheran no transformation of being can take place unless first the sinner gains a status that allows God to deal with him in love rather than wrath. Only on this condition can God begin to transform the sinner's being toward righteousness, a goal that is not reached until all the dead are raised to life again. For the Orthodox no transformation in status can occur unless the human being is first remade into that which can embody the status. This remaking - in its total process - begins at Baptism and is finished when all the dead are raised to life again.<br />
<br />
<b>Judgment</b><br />
<br />
Both Lutherans and the Orthodox believe that Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. As has been said, Penal Substitution teaches that judgment fell on Christ on the cross. Orthodoxy does not teach this. If you hold to Penal Substitution, and you believe you have received Christ's merits to use as your own, then you expect Christ's merits to get you safely through the coming judgment. What is judged is faith clinging to Christ's merits as if they were your own.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, Orthodoxy teaches that we will be held accountable for how we used the gift of transformation that was given us in Baptism. In that we have put this gift to good use, we will be rewarded. In that we have failed to exercise this gift we will suffer loss. If we have ignored or rejected this gift entirely, we will lose it altogether and be cast out among the unbelievers. What is judged is how your faith acted through love. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
All that has been said so far only calls attention to some differences in approach that should be kept in mind when examining the significance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church. Those coming from a Lutheran tradition did not learn their perspective just by taking a class or reading a book. They soaked in it, maybe for a lifetime. The Orthodox Church is a different place altogether. Contrary to the opinion of some, it is a place where the cross is central. Due to expecting different results from Christ's crucifixion, though, what the centrality of the cross looks like in Orthodoxy will be different than how it appears in Lutheranism or other Protestant groups holding to similar ideas about the atonement. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<h2>
<b>The Centrality of the Cross</b></h2>
<br />
The Scriptures give us the account of Adam - his creation, his union with Eve, and their mutual fall from innocence. They are removed from Paradise, from that special place of abundant life and fellowship with God. They are exiled to extract what life they can from an earth cursed to reflect the power of sin and death at work in themselves. This is the divine explanation for the condition of our world, and for those who are born into it. It is a world fallen from God.<br />
<br /></div>
It is not a world abandoned by God, though. The Scriptures of the Old Testament give ample witness to God's persistent desire for mankind to return to Him. He does not abandon Adam, even though He exiles him. He seeks out Noah, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the judges, and the prophets. Exile is not abandonment.<br />
<br />
The song of the unfruitful vineyard in Isaiah 5 and the parable of the wicket tenants in Matthew 21 describe God's persistence and disappointment. He plants, He builds, He nurtures, but mankind uses his freedom to render it all useless. So God tears down, destroys, and starts over. Mankind refuses to be rehabilitated, and God refuses to give up on us.<br />
<br />
Jesus Christ is God's final solution to a recalcitrant humanity. In Jesus Christ mankind returns from exile. While the Incarnation is the foundation for that return, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the center of gravity that draws all creation into the resurrection of Christ. The cross remains the center of gravity for each and every human being who wishes to return from exile in Christ until the Second Coming. <span style="color: #cc0000;">What is the significance of the crucifixion in Orthodoxy? To gather all mankind and all creation into Christ, so that in Christ all may be restored to God via the resurrection and remain with Him forever.</span><br />
<br />
How can it be that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is central in the faith and life of the Orthodox Church, when most Orthodox (clergy included) do not seem to be able to talk about these things? Let's turn the question around: who has needed this kind of answer before? who has held a differing view of Christ's atoning sacrifice that it needed such an explanation?<br />
<br />
The cross is every Orthodox Christian's closest companion. I will enumerate just some of the ways this is so:<br />
<ul>
<li>Holy Baptism initiates a person into the likeness of Christ's death on the cross, causing him or her to die with Christ and be sundered from the dominion of the Evil One</li>
<li>Chrismation bestows the Holy Spirit and seals the senses of the baptized by application of chrism with the cross</li>
<li>Absolution of sins is given during confession with the sign of the cross</li>
<li>The Eucharist is consecrated with the descent of the Holy Spirit and the sign of the cross </li>
<li>The sign of the cross is made often (even profusely) in times of trouble, thanksgiving, prayer, meals, entering or leaving a church or holy place, etc.</li>
<li>Prayer ropes to aid in praying the Jesus Prayer are tied in cruciform knots</li>
<li>Priests bless the faithful with the sign of the cross by hand or with an actual cross; such blessings happen outside of services as well as during them</li>
<li>Marriages are blessed with the cross as lives of holy asceticism</li>
<li>Reposed faithful are absolved and buried under the sign of the cross</li>
<li>The entire ascetic life of fasting, alms, prayer, and repentant struggle against the old Adam is the personal application of the cross of Christ over every nook and cranny of the Christian's life until he or she breathes his last</li>
</ul>
In short the life of the Orthodox Christian is a life under the cross of Jesus. Christ did not just die by the cross, though. He also conquered by the cross. The victory of His resurrection and ascension is intimately connected to His cross. The Church is the outgrowth of that cross and victory. The Orthodox Church is marked by the cross with all its hardship and blessedness combined - from the impressive outlines of history (especially in the Early Church and 20th Century Russia) to the small homes of the most average Orthodox families. And She is buoyed by God's Grace more so through it all. <br />
<br />
Our focus is on the experience of the cross. Participation in the spiritual life of the Church teaches more about the cross than anything I have written here, because in the end it is not the intellect that must finally come to terms with the truth of the cross as much as it is the totality of the human heart and experience. It's okay that some people need the intellectual answer about the cross. That's part of being human. It's just not necessarily the same thing as carrying the cross and following Jesus with it. <br />
<ul></ul>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-80540607034585817052018-08-25T01:45:00.001-04:002018-08-25T01:45:24.154-04:00Thoughts About the Church<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before I became an Orthodox Christian I was taught the Church is properly invisible. I was taught that the Church is something you can only see here and there in the world, wherever God's Word was rightly taught and the Sacraments administered according to Christ's institution. But from where do right proclamation and Sacraments come? The Apostles mediated to us through the Scriptures alone. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Sola scriptura</i> serves as a replacement for the authority of the institutional Church. It is the reduction of ecclesiology to a reference manual. Those who apply the manual in genuineness of heart by proclaiming its message and performing its rites expect to get the result described in the manual: forgiveness, rebirth, salvation, and inclusion in the Church ... the Church referenced in the first century manual. The first century Church is the only authoritative Church, according to this model, since she is the only Church described by the Scriptures. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So we see this leaves a gulf between the authoritative Church and us today who wish to join this Church. In the first century I could find the Church by finding one or more of the Apostles. Where do I go today? In lieu of an institutional Church that claims to be the unbroken continuation of that first century Church, the Protestant model I received accessed the "true" Church by applying the manual as mentioned above. In this way the Church would make an appearance as Word and Sacrament were rightly used. Outside those moments the Church could not be seen, and therefore its existence was taken on faith. She was present only secretly in the hearts of those who received the Word and Sacraments.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The various Protestant groups seem to have their own ways of manifesting continuity with the New Testament Church in the here and now. For some it is in the moment of giving your heart to Jesus. For some it is where two or three are gathered in Jesus' name. For others it is establishing a formal congregation that calls a minister to proclaim and administer the Sacraments. However, because of <i>sola scriptura</i> the idea of continuity with the original Church remains among Protestants, expressed in various degrees of repristination. This is a good thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When the article pertaining to the Church was added to the Nicene Creed at the Second Ecumenical Council, no one had any doubt the Church was visible, though. What was harder to maintain was that she is <i>one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic</i>. By appearances she is rent by the Arian heresy, torn by the Meletian schism, profaned by the Pneumatomachians, and smeared by conflict. Yet the holy fathers asserted there is only one Church, which they were laboring to manage as good stewards. The institutional Church of the Second Ecumenical Council was as much the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church to these holy fathers as was the Church of the Apostles' day. The only difference is that care of this one Church had succeeded from the Apostles down to them in that time and place, just as they would be succeeded by others after them until Christ returns.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Those living in the <i>sola scriptura</i> house and maintaining adherence to the Nicene Creed often carry the burden of compensating for the loss of their church's historical continuity with the fathers of the Second Ecumenical Council. It's a very difficult burden, made more burdensome in that it is an impossible task. No matter how much a pastor or layperson or congregation does to fill the gap - no matter how many fathers are quoted, no matter how liturgical the worship, no matter how authentic the vestments, no matter how sincerely devoted to the cause one is - it will never be enough. These are secret attempts to create the Church for yourself, perhaps even a perfect Church for yourself or for those you love. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What the fathers of the Second Ecumenical Council knew, though, is that the perfection of the Church is her communion - that is, a communion that brings the perfect (i.e. full and complete) life of the Holy Trinity to bear upon all the imperfect people gathered into Her. These fathers bore witness to the visible character of the Church's communion by laboring to demarcate and defend her visible boundaries together in council. The horizontal (earthly) elements are maintained so as to maintain the vertical (heavenly) elements, and vice-versa.To think that 1200 years later their work would be overturned out of desperation to escape the tyranny of an episcopal see that should have been their chief successor. What a terrible result that has been sown among us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The real struggle for modern man, especially in the wake of the most recent abuse charges stemming from the Roman Church, is that <u>any</u> truly visible church could be the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, His very Body and Bride on earth in whom He abides and manifests Himself to the world. For those coming from the house of <i>sola scriptura</i> it requires a leap of faith, that the Lord Jesus really is in charge of His house. </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-86903675483395919312015-02-09T22:44:00.000-05:002015-02-09T22:45:12.824-05:00The Eschatological Kingdom Is in Our Midst<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaT7_4_OuArTmVJh58kEX7oyf2YizM5y4p13yD7jCvtDB8dbgSUm-eX3VIP4roE_1gjD8x0RtSrLxLooZ0DVcHHte637xbS7LFsEKzOO03TYyX_tgtsdvgBpMRsxrPN9VOREFlaZTaBYg/s1600/parousia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaT7_4_OuArTmVJh58kEX7oyf2YizM5y4p13yD7jCvtDB8dbgSUm-eX3VIP4roE_1gjD8x0RtSrLxLooZ0DVcHHte637xbS7LFsEKzOO03TYyX_tgtsdvgBpMRsxrPN9VOREFlaZTaBYg/s1600/parousia.png" height="262" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have noticed a couple trends in church life as of late. My Roman Catholic friends share with me articles emphasizing the struggle to hang on to traditional Christianity, such as pro-Latin Mass articles, and the efforts of certain Ordinaries to shore up the moral defenses of their dioceses against secular moral antinomianism. [Consider <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Archbishop-speaks-about-strictures-on-teachers-6067471.php" target="_blank">this article from SFGate</a>.] At the same time I see in the media a certain bias that seeks to de-moralize (pun intended) Christianity by propping up half-witted stories about the Crusades [consider: "<a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/06/inventing-the-crusades" target="_blank">Inventing the Crusades</a>" from FirstThings.com as fine correction]. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This makes me consider my own churches - the ones that I belong to, that are my Orthodox family - I see a related problem emerging: emigrant families are united in a strong faith, but their children raised in America are less so, and their children even less than that. Meanwhile a minority of fiery-minded Protestants (and some Roman Catholics) convert to holy Orthodoxy, but their parishes often remain small or mission-sized, never really attaining to the scope of ethnic community life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is community life that I am noticing. I am noticing that Christian community is dwindling in America in general. The most faithful-seeming communities (i.e. traditionally moral, traditionally liturgical) are often small yet intense. In Orthodoxy ethnic communities seem to do better, having greater numbers of families in their communities, but if we compared the religious life of ethnic communities in America to the standard religious life in their home countries the decline is more noticeable. Where are the droves coming to Vespers? Where are the devoted <i>many</i> attending weekday liturgy? In America it is the few or the none.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Christian community is dwindling. It is growing more and more outdated, more and more disengaged from modern life with all our cool inventions, easy transportation, and evolved sensibilities. Through technology and science we have broken with antiquity to forge a new world. How can ancient Christianity be deciphered by the generations of people who believe <i>old</i> is unevolved and backward?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For Christians our challenge is to take the unchangeable revelation of God's interactions with mankind and carry it forward to the generation of people who think they have become gods by their own hands. I have seen a few different solutions to this dilemma: </span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Reform the churches to reflect doctrines and morality that make sense to modern people. If Luther could prove the Roman Catholic church wrong, then so can any other person or generation. The Episcopal Church went off the deep end with this method, but most churches in America feel the pressure to go this route in some way, shape, or form.<br /> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Preserve the Church like a time capsule, or repristinate the liturgical (and moral) practices of a by-gone era. Of course the repristinators usually have an overly-idealized and narrow view of what they are repristinating. Orthodox churches can fall into the first trap, and ultra-conservative Protestant groups tend to have people devoted to the second.<br /> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Limit Christianity to its essentials, and insist only on those. Of course this leads to a limited Christianity. Lacking fullness these groups find the gaps are filled in by secular movements.<br /> </span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I will say that the more the Church looks like the secular culture, the more superfluous it is. Secular culture itself intends to be Church-less. No compromise can ever be achieved with it, only a lessening of the Church. I will also say that forcing cultural paralysis and ecclesiastical repristination are both artificial. Some people will be happy living in the past. I might be one of them. Most people don't have the imagination or the luxury, though. They can only live in the present, and those of us enamored with by-gone days of Church life sometimes have to, too. And it is in the present where the challenge lies. It is in the present where the Church in America (if not the modern World) faces its crisis.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The average person who is heroic enough to walk into a traditional church - and here I will directly speak to my own home, the Orthodox Church - will find the fullness of the Church waiting for them. They will encounter beauty, and symbolism, and authentic spirituality, and everything that pertains to our life and salvation in the kingdom of heaven. But they need a key to unlock the mysteries they encounter. What they encounter in the Church is different from what is in the world ruled by horn of secularism. They need to be confronted with the essence of that difference, so they know that what they find in the Church is not another relic of the past that needs <i>reforming</i> or <i>updating</i>, but is that which will itself inevitably conform the entire universe to the schematic of the kingdom of God. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I believe we must confront one another with eschatology, that is, with the future reality of Christ's kingdom that is present in our midst. We hold that Christ is risen from the dead, that He has ascended to the right hand of God, and that He not only rules over everything now, but that He will come again on the clouds with great power and glory to make His rule compulsory and universal over the entire creation, over those alive and those who have died (for He will raise all the dead). This same Jesus Christ - crucified, risen, ascended, ruling, coming again - presides in our midst weekly in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. We partake of a reality that shall endure to the point of overthrowing all other attempts at reality. This is our measuring stick, the enduring fullness of the future kingdom in our midst today. This is our measuring stick, and it is the canon that we must work to impart to one another, to nurture, and to protect. Even if all people in the world should fall away from this truth, it remains truth, and it shall endure beyond the existence of the heavens and earth themselves. In the end we will only find ourselves on the right or the left of it.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Those heroic few who come to our churches must be told. When church is over, they will go home. They will turn on their TVs and watch HBO, CNN, and FoxNews. Even if they never hear a slanderous word against the Church, they will hardly hear or see anything <i>for</i> the Church. There will simply be an empty void, and it will be filled with CNN's coverage of same-sex marriage, of FOXNews' tit-for-tat sensationalism, with TV and movies glorifying fornication, murder, and adultery, with cursing and vulgarity and nudity and gore. It's nearly everywhere by insinuation where it isn't by intention. Then the heroic few who are inundated with the passions of the world and yet still come to church will hear what? That the morality, liturgy, spirituality, and pure faith of the Church endures. That what they see and hear and are called to order their lives around will endure beyond all other choices before them, because the Church belongs to that single enduring reality that trumps all other claims to reality by the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our midst.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-20464261827499029212014-06-10T07:45:00.000-04:002014-09-06T01:38:16.457-04:00The Wedge Becomes the Ax<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbz7FKHD9kw3FTWLxufdHDjjWixx61zREwokUM2mBmfxJj1brydLnIZPeFQqQpYaMTtxt-csUOnqFu0i5rA0EXQGxLKsIGt_ZA9Gt-85uTkyJhkEvKVi9v7GkKjo3f3iohpOUSX0CuoQ/s1600/hacked+cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbz7FKHD9kw3FTWLxufdHDjjWixx61zREwokUM2mBmfxJj1brydLnIZPeFQqQpYaMTtxt-csUOnqFu0i5rA0EXQGxLKsIGt_ZA9Gt-85uTkyJhkEvKVi9v7GkKjo3f3iohpOUSX0CuoQ/s1600/hacked+cross.jpg" height="206" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
In my previous post I dealt with the idea that the Lutheran teaching on justification maintains continuity with the patristic witness on the topic, specifically focusing on those Fathers of the Church cited by the person to whom I was responding. In the process of addressing this issue, the following conclusions were brought out:<br />
<ol>
<li>The Orthodox Church, in that its teaching purports to be that of the Fathers, relies on them to elucidate the Scriptural teaching of salvation, including Justification.<br />
</li>
<li>The Orthodox Catholic teaching on Justification - as seen just in the Fathers cited - involves having been justified, being justified, and the hope of being justified in the future. That is, a) we are justified in Baptism through the transformation of our human nature into the likeness of Christ's human nature, b) we are progressively transformed according to the inner man through faith working through love, growing in likeness to Christ, and c) we hope to be found righteous on the Last Day when we are assessed of the stewardship of our initial baptismal transformation and gift of the Spirit in Baptism. In short, justification in Orthodoxy (and Catholicism) is transformation. <br />
</li>
<li>The Lutheran concept of justification teaches that our fate at the Last Judgment will be determined by the merits of Christ becoming our merits through faith, and that because Christ has earned a declaration of righteousness we will be found righteous on that Day through faith alone. <br />
</li>
<li>The Lutheran concept of justification depends on a slight - <b>but very serious</b> - emendation of the patristic witness: instead of justification conceived as the merits of Christ acquiring transformation for us (viz. the Resurrection in the Spirit), justification is conceived as the merits of Christ themselves being our righteousness. The transformation belonging to the Resurrection is excluded in every respect from our righteousness before God. The transformation belonging to the Resurrection is seen as God's free gift to those who believe, the logic being that since faith acquires Christ's merit, what that merit deserves (transformation; surety of being found righteous at the Last Judgment) must come naturally from it.<br />
</li>
<li>The Lutheran departure on the teaching of justification can be seen not only in the description of how one becomes righteous in and of itself, but also in the way in which Lutherans come to different conclusions about the value of works, the means of transformation, and the criteria of our Final Judgment<br />
</li>
<li>The Lutheran position, by departing from the patristic witness, manages to drive a wedge between the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. The wedge can be described as making Christ a Treasury of Merits for our justification, rather than the archetype of our transformation for our justification. Where there should be a smooth transition from the work of Christ to acquire humanity's ultimate transformation (via the Cross and Resurrection) to the work of the Spirit who impresses the transformitive work of Christ upon us in order to transform us, Lutheranism instead re-orders salvation by inserting a Treasury of Merits between Christ's saving work and the transformation that the Spirit works in us. <br />
</li>
<li>This doctrinal wedge between Christ and the Spirit has resulted in a breach of catholicity among Lutherans. Whenever faced with an issue of catholicity vs. 16th Century Reformation principle, catholicity is made subservient to the wedge - and is ultimately expendable.</li>
</ol>
<div>
In this article I wish to demonstrate how the Lutheran change in <i>what salvation is</i> (lex credendi) required a change in <i>Christian worship</i> (lex orandi). </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
Sharpening the Wedge</h3>
<br />
When considering the connection between Lutheran justification and Lutheran worship, my mind immediately went to a document from my first year at seminary. The document is "Luther's Liturgical Criteria and his Reform of The Canon of The Mass" by Bryan Spinks of Churchill College, Cambridge (Grove Books Ltd, June 1982). In this article Spinks makes the argument that Luther's reform of the Canon of the Mass was misdiagnosed by liturgical scholars as conservative, pruning, and haphazard. Instead, he argues, Luther's reform of the Roman Canon was radical, intentional, and driven by his firm belief in justification by faith alone. <br />
<br />
Spinks writes (pg. 37):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The reason for the new canon [found in <i>Formula Missae</i> and <i>Deutche Messa</i>] is to be found in Luther's doctrine of justification by faith and its relation to the command 'Do this in remembrance of me.' The old canon was in obedience to this command, for throughout it spoke in terms of 'We do.' It was a response to God's action in Christ, seeking by faithful obedience and repetition and intercession, to enter into the sacrifice of Christ. This seems to have been precisely Luther's objection. For Luther, the sacrifice of the cross and the forgiveness of sins were God's gift to man which could only be received with thanksgiving. It could not be actively entered into by man, whether by imitation or by intercession. 'Do this in remembrance of me' was to proclaim again what God had done for man, and Luther seems to have concluded that the most effective way of doing this was by letting God himself speak in the words of institution. Thus Luther's reformed canon replaced 'We do' with 'He has done.' His starting point was 'Dominus Dixit.' As he explained:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
' " He sent forth his word, and thus (<i>sic</i>) healed them," not: "He accepted our work, and thus healed us." '</blockquote>
Instead of trying to participate and enter into the sacrifice of Christ by lifting our hearts to the heavenly altar, we stand in awe with Isaiah as Christ speaks to us on earth, granting us pardon, and therefore taking us up into his sacrifice. In doing this, Luther believed that he had replaced the canon with the gospel; the canon had given up its place at the marriage feast to Christ its master. </blockquote>
Note that Luther does not object to entering into the sacrifice of Christ, according to Spinks. What he objects to is entering into that sacrifice by offering our own sacrifice (by imitation or intercession). According to Spinks, Luther believed that Christ Himself takes us up into His sacrifice through the word of forgiveness. The Sacrament of the Altar is but a visible sign of this word of forgiveness. By believing the words, "Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins" (Small Catechism) one worthily receives the Sacrament, for it is only by faith that one can receive the merits of Christ that constitute Lutheran justification. The purpose of the Mass for Luther is to proclaim salvation by faith alone, which necessitates the exclusion of any sacrificial work on our part.<br />
<br />
However, the Roman Mass is loaded with sacrificial language. A cursory reading of the historical development of the Roman Mass will reveal that the thanksgiving that happens in the Mass happens precisely through making an offering (i.e. sacrifice). For a very long time everyone was expected to present a token offering - viz. bread or wine - to the clergy at the offering procession. These offerings were tokens of the complete offering of one's self to God in the sacrifice of the Mass. In the ancient mind there was no sense of <i>thanksgiving</i> without giving it in some tangible, material way. The spiritual sacrifice of the Mass offered by us is essentially incarnated through the physical offering we make. Our offering is taken up by Christ and perfected by making it His Offering - even His Body and Blood offered for our salvation once-for-all on the cross, and perpetually present in heaven for our benefit. Certainly an abuse of this idea arose when people made offerings but then did not follow through with actual participation in the liturgy itself (as in the Private Masses). Yet the principle of sacrifice in the Mass is as old as the document evidence for the Roman Mass itself. <br />
<br />
For Luther to excise sacrificial language from the Canon (as well as the Offertory) does not restore the Roman Mass to an earlier, more pure form. It does not restore a lost catholicity. It witnesses to Luther's break with catholicity. It demonstrates just how new and radical Luther's teaching is. <br />
<br />
<h3>
The Ax</h3>
<br />
Luther's approach to the Roman Mass can be put this way: What are all of our human works doing in the place where God is trying to give us His completed work of salvation that can only be received by faith and not by works? For Luther the Mass is about the Gospel, and the Gospel is about proclaiming access to a Treasury of Merits that makes all human work unnecessary in view of one's relationship to God now and in the coming Final Judgment. And this Treasury of Merit can only be owned by putting your faith in it (or more specifically, in Him, for this Treasury of Luther's is Christ). Therefore the Mass's job is to set forth the object of faith - the incarnate Treasury of Merits - so that it may be received in faith.<br />
<br />
But why would this preclude offering a sacrifice? It does not preclude <i>any</i> sacrificial offering, but simply a propitiatory sacrificial offering. Consider the Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXIV:19 on the subject:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Moreover, the proximate species of sacrifice are two, and there are no more. One is the propitiatory sacrifice, i.e., a work which makes satisfaction for guilt and punishment, i.e., one that reconciles God, or appeases God's wrath, or which merits the remission of sins for others. The other species is the eucharistic sacrifice, which does not merit the remission of sins or reconciliation, but is rendered by those who have been reconciled, in order that we may give thanks or return gratitude for the remission of sins that has been received, or for other benefits received.</blockquote>
We see here how the Apology wishes to divide sacrifices that gain God's favor from sacrifices that render thanksgiving - as if that were possible. The Apology goes on to make a serious argument against the "ceremony of the Mass" availing <i>ex opera operato</i>. The Lutheran view formulated here is that the only offering made in the Mass is one of thanksgiving, and that this thanksgiving must come from the heart (faith). Yet the polemic tries to characterize the offering of the Roman Mass as simply an empty work of men that works just because you do it. I am sure there was some room for criticizing empty ritualism, but the point of the polemic goes beyond that. The polemic asserts that offering the Mass for the living and the dead is meaningless. It cannot avail against sins <i>unless one is present to participate in genuine faith</i>, and then the help against sins comes from the eating and drinking in faith, not the offering in the Mass. For while the Lutherans admit a "real presence" of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament, they exclude the continual offering of this same Sacrifice (viz. Body and Blood of Christ) for our benefit. This Sacrifice cannot be sacrificed in our midst, because when it was originally offered that offering was alone sufficient to acquire the <u>merits</u> necessary to save. (Here save means not only to give entrance into the Church, but also into the heavenly banquet at the Parousia.) <br />
<br />
It is as if the Lutherans were to ask, "Why do you need more merits? Christ covered that need. You must be trying to add human works to the equation." The complaint rests on this notion that Christ is not only a Treasury of Merits, but that when He said, "It is finished" He meant that He had acquired all the merits we need to be forgiven and to enter into the coming kingdom now and forever. Any attempt to offer works, sacrifices, and especially Christ's own offering on the cross cuts against the "it is finished" conception of Christ as an already complete Treasury of Merits for us. To suggest that Christ's offering is made present and continuously offered in our midst in the sacrifice of the Mass suggests that salvation (as defined above) is not quite settled, and that maybe we do not have enough merits <i>really</i> to be saved yet.<br />
<br />
Yet the Roman Mass is not built on the presupposition that Christ is an all-sufficient Treasury of Merits in the Lutheran sense. The Roman Mass is built on the presupposition that we are taken up into Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit and presented to God in the most supreme fellowship. This is accomplished by the only means possible: the self-offering of Christ on the cross. The offering of the cross is exactly this, that Christ has offered up humanity itself back to God by offering up Himself as the perfect and True Man (Ecce Homo), who offers up His life that it may become the life of the world that had lost its life through sin. This is the supreme epitome of humanity AND divinity, because it is the pinnacle of love. The world can be transformed and returned to God by passing from death to life in Christ's death and resurrection. The sacrifice of the Mass is based on the baptismal experience, and it is the continuation of this baptismal experience until the Parousia. <br />
<br />
The Roman Mass is also built on the presupposition that Christ's priesthood is perpetually active in heaven and on earth. The priesthood held by individual men is a stewardship of Christ's priesthood in our midst. In the sacrifice of the Mass, not only is our offering taken up into Christ's Offering, but the priesthood in our midst at the altar is revealed as really Christ's own priesthood by that same Offering, wherein Christ perpetually does the sacrificing. All is taken up into Christ, or better put, Christ is all in all. <br />
<br />
Since the Roman Mass does not know of a 'gospel of completed merits' it cannot meet Luther's needs. The Roman Mass accomplishes what Christ's sacrifice accomplishes, because it is the entire creation taken up into Christ and His offering through the Church. It is all creation taken up into Christ and returned to God. This includes the dead, for Christ descended to the dead in Hades and brought salvation there, too. Did He do it by offering merits to those who lacked them, or did He do it by overcoming the very power that imprisoned those there, that is, by transforming death to life? It is the latter, not the former. <br />
<br />
Since the Roman Mass is concerned with the Catholic and Orthodox Gospel, and not the Lutheranized gospel of the 16th Century, it has in view that our transformation spans the time of our baptism until our bodily death and even into the General Resurrection. In this time we may sin, face evil, and we will definitely face all sorts of needs and require every sort of divine help as we sojourn in this life towards the life to come. All of this, too, is taken up into Christ's offering, that it may be transformed into that which will transform us into the likeness of Christ. <br />
<br />
<h3>
Firewood</h3>
<br />
The fruit of Luther's liturgical reforms can be seen down to the present day. When I was a Lutheran I was very concerned about keeping traditional Lutheran liturgy alive. This meant keeping the Lutheranized Mass dressed up in as much of its historical reverence and ceremony as possible. After all, if you believe that Lutheranism has fixed the problems of the historical liturgy, and therefore returned the Mass to its proper purity, shouldn't you all the more try to maintain catholicity by maintaining all the outward forms, prayers, and ceremonies of that liturgy? After all, <i>lex orandi, lex credendi</i> and all.<br />
<br />
Yet Luther's reforms of the Mass severed the silver cord of catholicity by cutting out the Gospel for a high medieval, reformationed gospel. The element of catholicity that remains is a belief that Christ's true Body and true Blood are present for the faithful to eat and drink at the Mass. <br />
<br />
I have seen at least two directions Lutheran worship has taken based on Luther's reforms of the Mass. One has been to maintain a Catholic exterior - observing traditional vestments, medieval ceremonies, and the like - in an attempt to establish (the facade) that Lutheranism is the historic Catholic Church gone right. Historicity and catholicity is of the utmost importance among these Lutherans, and they might say that without historicity and catholicity Lutheranism is neither Lutheran nor Catholic but <i>Protestant</i>. Yet the truth of the matter is that the liturgical evidence is stacked against their claim for catholicity. Such Lutherans can make their liturgies as solemn, rubrically precise, and ceremonially right as possible, but they will never be catholic, because they lack the Faith that kept all that sacrificial language in the Roman Mass not just since Pope St. Gregory the Great's time, but as far back as the document evidence for the Roman Mass itself exists. Without this catholic Faith the best Lutheran liturgy can attain to in terms of catholicity is wishful thinking. <br />
<br />
The other direction I have seen Lutheran worship take is based directly on Luther's revision of the Gospel. Spinks points out that what traditional elements Luther left in his Mass were for the sake of the weak who would stumble in the faith if too many obvious changes were made. What Luther insisted on was that his gospel was preached above all, so that the simple people could hear it and believe it. The modern purveyors of Contemporary Worship in Lutheranism have based their revisions of worship on this model. The people need to hear the preaching of the Luther-gospel, but they should not be offended by old ceremonies and out-dated customs that have no relevance for the simple, modern man. Catholicity is not an issue in these churches, because their worship leaders have adequately learned the Lutheran lesson: faith alone in the message is the goal, while ceremonies are to aid the simple people in learning and sincerity toward God. Catholicity is expendable, because the only history that counts is the writing of the autographs of the New Testament, followed by Luther's interpretation of them, followed by the needs of modern man.<br />
<br />
The Contemporary Worship situation is a real threat and problem for the catholic-minded Lutheran. The only way to preserve catholic-esque worship in many Lutheran congregations is to sell the idea that Lutheranism is supposed to maintain a sense of catholicity, and that this notion of catholicity should be valued, cherished, and defended. "Liturgical Worship" becomes a necessary part of this battle for catholic identity in the hearts and minds of Lutheran parishioners. This is why a high interest in "liturgical worship" often leads people out of Lutheranism, because Lutheran Worship is in its essence NOT catholic (as was said above), and the quest for catholicity eventually leads one to the Orthodox or Roman churches where true catholicity comes from in the first place.<br />
<br />
Having said all of this about Lutheranism, I cannot help but look at today's post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church. Liturgically-speaking there is a lot of confusion going on there. There is a lot of freedom given to people to do what seems best to them, and not enough oversight. The Contemporary Worship milieu has infected the faith and piety of that church. It is an infection from the ground up. I cannot help but wonder what influence the introduction of a new gospel in the 16th Century by a German monk has had on the present liturgical infection Rome experiences today? I also cannot help but wonder what will happen to that church if its bishops do not do something about the problem soon, before another generation grows up thinking the current way of things is what Christianity is all about. Liturgical indecency is comparable to bad morals: in a church both have great power to scandalize, and both can drive sincere people right out of the faith. </div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-28883257459042328582014-05-17T02:58:00.000-04:002014-09-09T10:42:41.200-04:00Response to Quiet George<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeMHhgkkqW0a-mz1t22DI4ZQ3ws_sBAuwVgyDnuJUb2BDH2_Xu9Go2gC39J2LYXOCALg-iepnJx0RSQzaBRt1z0ZnauL13Yj5gbsbs-sdmNiWhrZ7rMT1cYWK_7-Clnv6aXrwTzg4Eyeo/s1600/christ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeMHhgkkqW0a-mz1t22DI4ZQ3ws_sBAuwVgyDnuJUb2BDH2_Xu9Go2gC39J2LYXOCALg-iepnJx0RSQzaBRt1z0ZnauL13Yj5gbsbs-sdmNiWhrZ7rMT1cYWK_7-Clnv6aXrwTzg4Eyeo/s1600/christ.jpg" height="253" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong style="font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">"Crucifixion" (1617) a statue by Juan Martínez Montañés</strong></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have been alerted to a blog post written by George Fields (Quiet George), which was written against a post I had written last year on the topic of Justification, Lutheranism, and Orthodoxy. The <a href="http://paredwka.blogspot.com/2013/05/be-reconciled.html" target="_blank">post I wrote</a> is from May 2013, and <a href="http://www.tdaviddemarest.com/2014/01/23/the-errors-of-the-christian-east-justification/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mr. Fields' post</a> is from January of 2014. <br />
<br />
First off I would like to praise Mr. Fields' post. I have been poking at Lutherans here and there on this topic for some time, hoping someone would give an intelligent reply. Usually what I get are responses from Lutherans whose theology has become conflated with Calvinism, or more often Lutherans who do not know their own Confessions or the doctrinal stance of their own Synod. Eventually someone capable of representing something like the Lutheranism I learned while in seminary was bound to come along. Thank you, Mr. Fields, for actually bringing a higher-grade Lutheranism to the table.<br />
<br />
He writes about my post and the comments,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The argument seems to be as follows: it is ridiculous for God to charge us with a debt, then kill someone else (His Son) and so declare us not-guilty, since our guilt was somehow “transmitted” to another. This is not true justice, but really an affront to justice, for justice demands that goodness be rewarded, and evil punished. If those who do good are punished, and those who do evil saved, even though the evil have in no way become less evil, there is in no true sense “justice” being carried out here, but a miscarriage of justice. Furthermore, the fact that this miscarriage is carried out by the “judge” himself, that is, God, does not make it any less unjust. Rather, it only renders God Himself unjust, which is blasphemy.</blockquote>
What Mr. Fields has argued in his summary is that somehow I object to the notion of a sacrifice for sins (offered to benefit sinners), that I find God to be unjust to command such an offering by Christ on the cross, or I am somehow complaining about an issue of justice. That's nonsensical, but there you have it.<br />
<br />
I am afraid Mr. Fields, like the commentators in my original post, has not grasped the substance of the article. The substance can be summed up as follows:<br />
<ol>
<li>The atonement made by Christ does <u>not</u> does change God so He will accept sinners, but instead is the means by which sinners are changed so as to be able to return to God.</li>
<li>Christ's atonement does <u>not</u> involve Christ Himself suffering punishment that God otherwise would have inflicted upon <u>us</u> for our sins. It does involve offering His righteousness to God and to us.</li>
<li>Justification in Christ is moral transformation first and foremost (i.e. renewal), akin to Sanctification.</li>
<li>The Lutheran Confessions (which Mr. Fields says are the minimum that <u>must</u> be believed) limit Justification to the forensic category, and forbid from It the category of renewal or Sanctification in any way (which renewal and Sanctification are the <u>source</u> of good works, not to be confused with good works themselves). See specifically FC SD III:39ff.</li>
<li>The LCMS (I am not concerned about other Lutheran groups so much) has enshrined these views in its dogmatic texts, and requires adherence to these views as a condition of ordination and continuation in pastoral ministry. </li>
</ol>
<br />
There is no denial of Christ's atonement in Orthodoxy. Jesus Christ dies for our sins. He makes an offering of Himself to His Father to save us from our sins. He bears our sins in His body upon the tree of the cross. (But as He died for our sins, He rises for our Justification.) In fact this Offering is central in the life of the Church on a weekly - if not daily - basis in the Eucharist. Many Orthodox priests or laymen do not know how to give a satisfactory answer to Lutherans about this topic (and vice-versa). But I digress...<br />
<br />
<h3>
Regarding Criticism of the Orthodox Catholic Faith</h3>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
The Claim - The Fathers Espouse the Lutheran Doctrine</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
Mr. Fields writes (emphasis his own):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Herein lies the true contention between our Eastern Orthodox brothers and us: what they believe needs to be completed within ourselves, we believe to have been completed in Christ as the recapitulation of Mankind, i.e, the New Adam.</b> They believe that Christ has begun and made possible what we believe He has finished, and it is for this reason that we find it entirely fitting that Paul always speaks of the consummation of our salvation as already having been accomplished. Christ is already “all in all”; we have already “died with Him”, &c. This is not something soon to come, nor is it something dependent on our action. Christ has done it, and all of us in Him.</blockquote>
And further on Mr. Fields writes (emphasis his own):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What follows is a series of quotations from the Fathers (quoted by Chemnitz) concerning the nature of justification. <b>By quoting these passages from the Fathers, Chemnitz shows two things: first, that the Lutheran doctrine was espoused by the Fathers, and second, that that which the Fathers said is to be assumed as included in the Lutheran doctrine.</b></blockquote>
And again Mr. Fields writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
However, one must note how all these Fathers seem to view our deification, our justification, our sanctification, our glorification, our being “honored”, &c., as having already been completed, done in the past, that is, done in Christ already. For the Fathers, all of these things are accomplished, for, as Jesus says, “It is finished.” It is this concept which defines the Lutheran doctrine of justification, that is, the completed nature of it, and also the doctrine of a “Forensic Justification”, for that which God has declared cannot be changed. In Christ’s death, God has already condemned sin. In His resurrection, He has forgiven mankind and raised it in Christ. The judgment is already given; man is forgiven and sanctified. We who are in time must “wait” for the Old Adam to die off, that we might procure the fullness of our verdict, but in God, who is beyond all time, the declaration is firm and eternal.</blockquote>
He cites the following Fathers of the Church in support of the above view: St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Basil the Great, and Tertullian.<br />
<br />
The point made is that the Fathers assert that salvation entire is accomplished complete in Christ and given to us. Therefore the Fathers agree with the Lutheran claim that nothing more needs be done but wait for the consummation, and they are not in agreement with the Orthodox who say our salvation yet needs to be completed within ourselves.<br />
<br />
<h4>
The Reality</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
I do not wish to take away anything from the statements of the Fathers. They are Orthodox Fathers. Everything that was cited from them is accepted by the Orthodox Church. The problem is that Mr. Fields (or perhaps Martin Chemnitz) only cites portions of the Fathers that seem to agree with his position while ignoring those statements that disagree. Some examples should explain the point. <br />
<br />
<u>St. Irenaeus of Lyons</u><br />
<br />
Mr. Fields quotes "Against Heresies" book III, chapter 18, paragraph 7 (though he does not cite it - tsk tsk). St. Irenaeus sums up his point in that paragraph with the following words, "<i>God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man, that He might kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man; and therefore His works are true.</i>" In this portion of his monumental work St. Irenaeus is defending the reality and purpose of the Incarnation against those that would deny that Christ really and truly became man. Hence the focus on that topic. It's good to place things in context. In the following quote that I am supplying St. Irenaeus is defending the role of human freedom against the Gnostic notion of predetermined natures. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.vi.xxxviii.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Book IV, ch. 37, par. 7</a> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
On this account, too, did the Lord assert that the kingdom of heaven was the portion of “the violent;” and He says, “The violent take it by force;” that is, those who by strength and earnest striving are on the watch to snatch it away on the moment. On this account also Paul the Apostle says to the Corinthians, “Know ye not, that they who run in a racecourse, do all indeed run, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. Every one also who engages in the contest is temperate in all things: now these men [do it] that they may obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. But I so run, not as uncertainty; I fight, not as one beating the air; but I make my body livid, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when preaching to others, I may myself be rendered a castaway.” This able wrestler, therefore, exhorts us to the struggle for immortality, that we may be crowned, and may deem the crown precious, namely, that which is acquired by our struggle, but which does not encircle us of its own accord (sed non ultro coalitam).</blockquote>
If St. Irenaeus has stated that our attainment of the kingdom and its immortality is complete because of our union with Christ who accomplished everything for us, then why does he say we must struggle for immortality, that the crown of immortality is <u>acquired</u> by our struggle and not without our struggle? I highly suggest the entirety of this chapter which precedes this paragraph (linked above), where St. Irenaeus places the keeping of the commandments under the power of our free will, and faith in the Gospel likewise under the power of our free will. Having such free will (and thus accountability) in regards to obedience and faith, man is required to use it in both capacities in his struggle to acquire the crown of immortality, and it will not come apart from our efforts. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.vii.xii.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Book V, ch. 11, par. 2</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When, therefore, did we bear the image of him who is of the earth? Doubtless it was when those actions spoken of as “works of the flesh” used to be wrought in us. And then, again, when [do we bear] the image of the heavenly? Doubtless when he says, “Ye have been washed,” believing in the name of the Lord, and receiving His Spirit. Now we have washed away, not the substance of our body, nor the image of our [primary] formation, but the former vain conversation. In these members, therefore, in which we were going to destruction by working the works of corruption, in these very members are we made alive by working the works of the Spirit.</blockquote>
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Here it is affirmed what God does, namely washing away our sins (i.e. justification) in Baptism, and what is our part, namely working the works of the Spirit, by which works we are made alive. How can that be, though, if God has done everything in Christ, and our union with Him means we are already made alive? Thus St. Irenaeus.<br />
<br />
<u>St. Basil the Great</u><br />
<br />
Mr. Fields quotes St. Basil in defense of the Lutheran position (which position is allegedly in agreement with the Fathers but stands against Orthodoxy). Once again I do not wish to take anything away from the words of St. Basil, but I prefer to add context. Consider the following from St. Basil:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.vii.xvi.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">On the Holy Spirit, ch. 15, par. 35</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The dispensation of our God and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall and a return from the alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the reason for the sojourn of Christ in the flesh, the pattern life described in the Gospels, the sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection; so that the man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives that old adoption. For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the example of gentleness, lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ, says, “being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” How then are we made in the likeness of His death? In that we were buried with Him by baptism. What then is the manner of the burial? And what is the advantage resulting from the imitation? First of all, it is necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut. And this is impossible unless a man be born again, according to the Lord’s word; for the regeneration, as indeed the name shews, is a beginning of a second life. So before beginning the second, it is necessary to put an end to the first. For just as in the case of runners who turn and take the second course, a kind of halt and pause intervenes between the movements in the opposite direction, so also in making a change in lives it seemed necessary for death to come as mediator between the two, ending all that goes before, and beginning all that comes after. How then do we achieve the descent into hell? By imitating, through baptism, the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized are, as it were, buried in the water. Baptism then symbolically signifies the putting off of the works of the flesh; as the apostle says, ye were “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism.”<br />
And there is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the filth that has grown on it from the carnal mind, as it is written, “Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” On this account we do not, as is the fashion of the Jews, wash ourselves at each defilement, but own the baptism of salvation to be one. For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the image of death, and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit is clear: the reason is because in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the destroying of the body of sin, that it may never bear fruit unto death; on the other hand, our living unto the Spirit, and having our fruit in holiness; the water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death, while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is wrought in us through the Spirit. In three immersions, then, and with three invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to the end that the type of death may be fully figured, and that by the tradition of the divine knowledge the baptized may have their souls enlightened. It follows that if there is any grace in the water, it is not of the nature of the water, but of the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God.” So in training us for the life that follows on the resurrection the Lord sets out all the manner of life required by the Gospel, laying down for us the law of gentleness, of endurance of wrong, of freedom from the defilement that comes of the love of pleasure, and from covetousness, to the end that we may of set purpose win beforehand and achieve all that the life to come of its inherent nature possesses. If therefore any one in attempting a definition were to describe the gospel as a forecast of the life that follows on the resurrection, he would not seem to me to go beyond what is meet and right. Let us now return to our main topic.</blockquote>
This paragraph opens with a recounting of the nature of salvation in order to provide context for what St. Basil has to say about Baptism. This is important, because the issue he wrangles with is not the nature of salvation, but the relationship of water to Baptism. Accepting what he has to say about salvation we are invited to peer closer at Baptism.<br />
<br />
He says "<i>the man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives that old adoption.</i>" He notes that our imitation of Christ is not limited just to imitating His way of life through keeping the Gospel commandments, but also includes imitating His death and resurrection through being baptized. Baptism imitates Christ's death through the destruction of the body of sin in our submersion, and it simultaneously imitates Christ's resurrection by giving us the Spirit who enlightens and enlivens the soul, restoring it to its original life which was lost by Adam. <br />
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The goal of imitation is perfection of life. To this end is the imitation of death, and the earnest (meaning the sign that promises what is to come later) of the life of the resurrection to come, viz. the gift of the Holy Spirit who vivifies our souls.<br />
<br />
St. Basil also indicates that the purpose of the Gospel's directives ordering our behavior is "<i>to the end that we may of set purpose <u>win beforehand and achieve</u> all that the <u>life to come</u> of its inherent nature possesses.</i>" Through the keeping of the commandments we that have been made alive in the Spirit struggle to achieve all that belongs to the resurrection to come - which is the meaning of St. Paul's statement in Philippians 2, "<i>Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.</i>"<br />
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In short St. Basil says we are being saved through imitation of Christ - both by receiving what Christ has done and bestows, and in what we achieve in the Spirit by means of our action. Such is the context he provides for understanding Baptism in water.<br />
<br />
Mr. Fields has indicated that Justification means we have everything now, so we only wait for the consummation, that our action is out of place, since Christ has finished everything for us. St. Basil has come to a different conclusion - one that is the teaching of the Orthodox Church. There is what we have in earnest as first-fruits, there is what we achieve in the Spirit, and then there is the perfection and complete fulfillment of these things to come at the Second Coming. Mr. Fields accepts the earnest and the coming perfection, but objects to our achieving beforehand all that belongs to the coming resurrection as part of our salvation. <br />
<br />
Another reference from St. Basil:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.vii.ix.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 8, 18</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For He Himself has bound the strong man and spoiled his goods, that is, us men, whom our enemy had abused in every evil activity, and made “vessels meet for the Master’s use” us who have been perfected for every work through the making ready of that part of us which is in our own control. Thus we have had our approach to the Father through Him, being translated from “the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” We must not, however, regard the œconomy through the Son as a compulsory and subordinate ministration resulting from the low estate of a slave, but rather the voluntary solicitude working effectually for His own creation in goodness and in pity, according to the will of God the Father. For we shall be consistent with true religion if in all that was and is from time to time perfected by Him, we both bear witness to the perfection of His power, and in no case put it asunder from the Father’s will. For instance, whenever the Lord is called the Way, we are carried on to a higher meaning, and not to that which is derived from the vulgar sense of the word. We understand by Way that advance to perfection which is made stage by stage, and in regular order, through the works of righteousness and “the illumination of knowledge;” ever longing after what is before, and reaching forth unto those things which remain, until we shall have reached the blessed end, the knowledge of God, which the Lord through Himself bestows on them that have trusted in Him. For our Lord is an essentially good Way, where erring and straying are unknown, to that which is essentially good, to the Father. For “no one,” He says, “cometh to the Father but through me.” Such is our way up to God “through the Son.”</blockquote>
Here St. Basil defends the dignity of the Son's work. As he makes the defense he describes what the Son has done for us, and he focuses on the proper use of words in dispute.<br />
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Have we been perfected? St. Basil says yes. In what way? By making ready the part that is in our own control. Is perfection still to be obtained? St. Basil says yes again. In what way? Stage by stage through our works of righteousness and illumination of knowledge. What is the goal, the blessed end? Knowledge of God bestowed by Christ on those that have trusted in Him. Here we see not only that perfection is obtained stage by stage, but that faith is counted by working toward this perfection.<br />
<br />
Another reference from St. Basil:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.ix.vi.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Letter to Nectarius</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So we ought always to adore His loving kindness, and not to repine, remembering those great and famous words of the great athlete Job, when he had seen ten children at one table, in one short moment, crushed to death, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.” As the Lord thought good so it came to pass. Let us adopt those marvellous words. At the hands of the righteous Judge, they who show like good deeds shall receive a like reward. We have not lost the lad; we have restored him to the Lender. His life is not destroyed; it is changed for the better. He whom we love is not hidden in the ground; he is received into heaven. Let us wait a little while, and we shall be once more with him. The time of our separation is not long, for in this life we are all like travellers on a journey, hastening on to the same shelter. While one has reached his rest another arrives, another hurries on, but one and the same end awaits them all. He has outstripped us on the way, but we shall all travel the same road, and the same hostelry awaits us all. God only grant that we through goodness may be likened to his purity, to the end that for the sake of our guilelessness of life we may attain the rest which is granted to them that are children in Christ.</blockquote>
The letter is one of comfort for a bereaved person. It deals with death and the Christian hope. While expressing great hope that the deceased has passed into heaven, he seeks God's mercy for those left behind (including himself) "<i>that for the sake of our guilelessness of life we may attain the rest which is granted to them that are children in Christ.</i>" <br />
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If more references from St. Basil are needed, consider <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.ix.ccxxxvi.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Letter 235, par. 3</a> and <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.ix.cclxx.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Letter 269, par. 2</a>.<br />
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<u>St. Athanasius the Great</u><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxv.iii.iv.xvii.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Letter LXII.—To John and Antiochus.</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But do you, having your foundation sure, even Jesus Christ our Lord, and the confession of the fathers concerning the faith, avoid those who wish to say anything more or less than that, and rather aim at the profit of the brethren, that they may fear God and keep His commandments, in order that both by the teaching of the fathers, and by the keeping of the commandments, they may be able to appear well-pleasing to the Lord in the day of judgment. But I have been utterly astonished at the boldness of those who venture to speak against our beloved Basil the bishop, a true servant of God. For from such vain talk they can be convicted of not loving even the confession of the fathers.</blockquote>
<div>
This quote demonstrates that there is concern about the coming judgment - specifically that there is a need to keep the teaching of the Fathers and keep God's commandments if we are to be pleasing to God on that Day. If St. Athanasius agrees with the Lutheran teaching, should not faith alone be enough to allay any fears of the coming judgment, as Mr. Fields claims?</div>
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Note also the high esteem St. Athanasius holds for St. Basil the Great, quoted above. The two are notable collaborators against Arianism. St. Athanasius focuses heavily on the co-divinity of Christ against the Arians. St. Basil defended the co-divinity of the Holy Spirit against those off-shoots of the Arian party, the Pneumatomachians. The respective emphases of these two defenders of Orthodoxy helps us to see where the trouble lies between Lutherans and the Orthodox Church on the issue of Justification. All that Christ has done for us as God and Man, which St. Athanasius spends so much time describing against the Arians, is the content of our salvation, and is what is to be believed in order to be saved. Lutherans and Orthodox generally agree on this (there are some areas of difference, but they are not the current issue). What Lutherans and Orthodox do NOT agree on is what this work of Christ means when it is applied to a person that comes to faith. That area is the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is over the work of the Holy Spirit that Lutherans and Orthodox disagree when it comes to Justification. We agree on what Christ has done for our Justification, but disagree on the implementation of Justification to believers by and in the Holy Spirit. We generally agree on St. Athanasius' topic, but disagree on St. Basil's topic. St. Athanasius and St. Basil agreed with each other, the Orthodox Church agrees with them both, but the Lutherans dissent from St. Basil's topic, as noted above. <br />
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<u>St. Cyril of Alexandria </u></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_john_06_book6.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John., Book 6 (Jn 10:10)</a><br />
<i></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
10<i> The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For the restoration to life is common to both saints and sinners, to both Greeks and Jews, as well as ourselves, for: <i>The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tombs shall awake, and they that are in the earth shall rejoice</i>, according to the sure promise of the Saviour. But the participation of the Holy Spirit is not thus common to all, being the <i>more</i> than <i>life</i>, as it were something beyond that which is common to all; and will be bestowed only upon those who are justified by faith in Christ: and the Divine Paul also will prove this to us, saying: <i>Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall all sleep, but we-shall not all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.</i> For indeed all shall rise from the dead, because this is granted to all nature, through the grace of the Resurrection; and in One, that is, Christ, Who was the first and foremost to break down the dominion of death and attain eternal life, the common lot of humanity was changed and made incorruptible, even as also in one, that is, the first Adam, it was condemned to death and corruption. But there will be at that time an important difference among those who are raised, and very widely distinct will be their destiny. For those who have gone to their rest with faith in Christ, and who have received the earnest of the Spirit in the appointed time of their bodily life, will obtain the most perfect grace, and will be changed to the glory which shall be given from God. But those who have not believed the Son, and have deemed such an excellent reward of no account, shall be once more condemned by His voice, and, sharing with the rest in nothing save in the restoration to life, shall pay the penalty of such prolonged unbelief. For they shall depart down into Hades to be punished, and shall feel unavailing remorse. For, saith He, <i>there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth</i>.</blockquote>
This passage seems to be in full agreement with the Lutheran view, which is why I reference it here. A Lutheran should love this passage, as should an Orthodox Christian. St. Cyril says that those who are justified by faith will be blessed with all good things, specifically the most full participation in the Spirit. He also says that those who die in faith, and who received the earnest of the Spirit (presumably in Baptism) while yet in this life, will obtain the most perfect grace in the resurrection to come. I wish to suggest that justification by faith here is the same thing as believing and receiving the earnest of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, just as the most full participation in the Spirit is the same as obtaining the most perfect grace. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_john_10_book10.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, Book 10 (14:24)</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
24 <i>He that loveth Me not keepeth not My words. </i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And so vice and virtue are separate and widely opposed to each other in quality, or how could one speak without falling into error? But both characters cannot belong to any one among us in the same relation and be fulfilled in action. For either a man is good or bad, though he may not have reached the height of iniquity or virtue. Then when the one principle is powerful within us, the other, that is the opposite, will be weak. And so if the formal principle of virtue consist in keeping His commandments, is it not most plain that in not keeping them wickedness originates? Just as to have in himself the Father and the Son, which is the origin and basis of all satisfaction of soul and glory, is in store for him that keeps His commandments, so he that keepeth them not is wholly cut off from participation in the ineffable Divine nature; which is, in effect, incapacity to enjoy any blessing. If any man then think it a good and desirable thing to partake of the Divine nature and to have God Who is the Father of the universe indwelling and abiding in the shrine of the heart by His Son, in the Spirit, let him thoroughly purge his soul, and wash away the stain of wickedness, by whatever means he can; and most of all, by all kinds of well-doing. For then will he become truly the temple of God; and He will rest and abide in him, according to the Scripture. For then it will not be with him as it was with the lawyer mentioned in the Gospels, who did not wait for grace from the Saviour, but said that he went self-called to follow Him; and, eager to seize so desirable a blessing, exclaimed, <i>Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest</i>: but what said Christ to him as in a parable and in riddles, <i>The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head</i>. By <i>foxes</i> and <i>birds of the heaven</i> He meant wicked and unclean devils, and the spirits of the world and of the air, which love to dwell and take up their abode in the hearts of pleasure-seekers, fulfilling their own lusts, and so cramping the miserable souls of those who receive them that God can find no place at all for rest in them. This is what He means by <i>laying His Head</i>.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let us then cleanse our hearts from every defilement, for so will God dwell in us and will render us proof against all the malice of the devil, and will make us happy and blessed, and will render us partakers of His ineffable Divine nature.</blockquote>
Here we see that performing "all kinds of well-doing" helps to wash away the stain of wickedness and to purge the soul of sin. If we wish to be the temple of God, we must draw near to God by practicing virtue. In no way could we fairly assume St. Cyril denies the power of faith or Baptism (or the Eucharist); but he enjoins us especially to practice works of virtue so that we may become temples of God. Are we not already such through Baptism? What could our works contribute to becoming the temple of God and becoming partakers of the Divine nature that Baptism has not worked?<br />
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He says following the commandments drive out the demons of the passions that occupy the place where God should be within us. The view of St. Cyril about the condition of a person after Baptism is that passions do persist in the heart, but our task is to uproot them so as to make more room for God. In this way we will become temples of God and partakers of His nature, for we will have evicted (put to death) what stands in the place that is supposed to be the abode of God. For St. Cyril you can "possess" God more and more, it seems!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_john_10_book10.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, Book 10 (16:8-11)</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
8, 9, 10, 11 <i>And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. </i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The third reproof by the Comforter will be, as the Saviour says, the most righteous condemnation of the prince of this world. And what form this reproof takes I will explain. For the Comforter will testify to the glory of Christ, and, showing that He is truly the Lord of the Universe, will reprove the world as having wandered astray, and as having left Him Who is truly God by Nature and fallen down and worshipped him whom Nature owns not as God, that is Satan. For the judgment against him is, I think, sufficient to show that this statement is true. For he could not have been condemned and lost his power, nor have paid the penalty of his conflict with God, being delivered into chains of darkness, if he were by Nature God, Who sits unshaken on His throne of majesty and power. But now we see him so incapable to preserve his own honour, that he is even cast under the feet of those filled with the Spirit, I mean the faithful who have confessed that Christ is God. For they trample the demon under foot when he tries and struggles. When then any one sees the swarm of impure demons shuddering and cast out by the prayers of such men, and by the working power of the Holy Spirit, will he not with reason say that Satan has been condemned? For he has been condemned by his no longer being able to prevail over those who have been impressed with the seal of righteousness and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, through the faith that is in Christ. How then, tell me, have we trodden all his power under foot, according to the saying in the Psalms addressed to every man that lives in the world? <i>By the help of the Most High thou shalt tread upon the asp and basilisk; the lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under foot.</i> When then the Comforter from heaven enters souls that are pure, and manifests the righteousness of His mission by faith impartially bestowed, then will He show that the world is bound in its own sins, and without share in the grace that is from above, since men repulse their Redeemer; and He will also reprove the world----as causelessly accusing those who have believed----of sin, and as far as they have rightly been justified, although they gaze not on Christ as He departed unto God and wrought marvels, but honour Him by faith. It was, I think, with some such thought as this in his mind that Paul said: <i>Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn?</i> For the mouth of all lawlessness is stopped, according to the word of the Psalmist, as it can lay nothing to the charge of the faithful elect, who are invested with the glory of the righteousness that proceedeth from faith. He will reprove the world as having gone astray and resting its hopes on [the devil], who has received such condemnation that he has lost all the glory of his former condition, and only deserves our contempt, and to be held of no account by those who worship God.</blockquote>
In this passage St. Cyril describes being impressed with the seal of righteousness and sanctification by the Holy Spirit. The believer in Christ is made comparable to wax that receives the image of a seal impressed upon it. This is what our Justification is. It is our transformation by the Spirit according to the image of the Righteous One so that we are made righteous. And likewise Sanctification: it is our transformation by the Spirit so that we are made holy. Justification and Sanctification are a matter of a person being transformed through the Holy Spirit. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_john_12_book12.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, Book 12 (20:22-23)</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
22, 23 <i>And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. </i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For He proclaimed that He would send down to us from heaven the Comforter, when He was ascended to God the Father; and this, indeed, He did, when He had gone away to the Father, and vouchsafed to shed forth the Spirit abundantly upon all who were willing to receive it. For any man could receive it, through faith, that is, and Holy Baptism; and then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the voice of the Prophet: <i>I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh</i>. But it was necessary that the Son should appear as co-operating with the Father in granting the Spirit; it was necessary that those who believed on Him should understand that He is the Power of the Father, That has created this whole world, and called man out of nothing into being. For God the Father, at the beginning, by His own Word, took of the dust of the ground, as is written, and fashioned the animal, that is man, and endowed him with a soul, according to His Will, and illuminated him with a share of His own Spirit; <i>for He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life</i>, as is written. And when it came to pass that through disobedience man fell under the power of death, and lost his ancient honour, God the Father built him up and restored him to newness of life, through the Son, as at the beginning. And how did the Son restore him? By the death of His own Flesh He slew death, and brought the race of man back again into incorruption; for Christ rose again for us. In order, then, that we might learn that He it was Who at the beginning created our nature, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit, our Saviour again grants the Spirit, through the outward sign of His Breath, to the holy disciples, as being the firstfruits of renewed nature. For Moses writes concerning our creation of old, that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. As, then, at the beginning, man was formed and came into being, so likewise is he renewed; and as he was then formed in the Image of his Creator, so likewise now, by participation in the Spirit, is he transformed into the Likeness of his Maker. For that the Spirit impresses the Saviour's Image on the hearts of those who receive Him surely does not admit of question; for Paul plainly exhorteth those who had fallen through weakness into observance of the Law, in the words: <i>My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you</i>. For he says that Christ will not be formed in them save by partaking of the Holy Spirit, and living according to the law of the Gospel. Therefore, as in the firstfruits of creation, which is made regenerate into incorruption and glory and into the Image of God, Christ establishes anew His own Spirit in His disciples. For it was necessary that we should also perceive this truth, namely, that He brings down and grants the Spirit unto us. Therefore, also, He said: <i>All things, whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine.</i> And as the Father hath, of Himself and in Himself, His own Spirit, so also the Son hath the Spirit in Himself, because He is Consubstantial with Him, and essentially proceeded from Him, having by Nature in Himself all the attributes of His Father.</blockquote>
Here St. Cyril explains what it means that Christ breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. Three things are of immediate importance for our discussion. The first is that the Spirit is given to those who believe and are baptized - therefore there is a giving of the Spirit initially in this way. Second, the very thing that above was called 'impressed with the seal of righteousness' (i.e. Justification) is here called being impressed with the image of Christ upon the heart. Christ is our righteousness, but our Justification goes beyond 'possessing' Christ and must include being transformed by Christ according to the heart or inner man.<br />
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Third, Christ is not formed in a person except by partaking of the Holy Spirit and observing the 'law of the Gospel.' Here St. Cyril wishes to show how undeniable it is that the Spirit transforms a person into the image of Christ, as he has been saying. Thus he cites St. Paul as proof, and even goes on to explain that such forming of Christ in us can only happen by the working of the Spirit (on God's part) and our living according to the Gospel law (on our part). The suggestion here is that for St. Cyril our Justification is not a single event or possession, but Justification lies on a continuum of growth, because it is about our transformation into the image of Christ. Baptism was not undone in those whom St. Paul worked to form Christ again, but to some extent the goal of Baptism was thwarted - our inner transformation into the image of Christ (i.e. Justification). The means by which this thwarting is corrected is the Spirit and our works.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_john_09_book9.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, Book 9 (Jn 14:19)</a></blockquote>
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19 <i>Yet a little while and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me: because I live, ye shall live also. </i> </blockquote>
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For we shall either suppose that this is what He means by <i>Yet a little while and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me;</i> or else turning aside to a different point of view----especially when there is intertwined with His words the saying <i>Because I live, ye shall live also</i>----we reason somewhat on this wise. For after His Revival from the dead, when He had effected for our nature the return unto that whereunto it existed from the beginning, and had made man incorruptible, He ascended, as it were by way of first-fruits and in the Temple of His own Body first, unto God the Father in heaven. But after in the meanwhile accomplishing a short time, He will descend again, as we believe, and will return again unto us, <i>in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels</i>, and will set up the appalling tribunal before all men, both evil and good. For all created things shall come to judgment. And rendering becoming awards, corresponding to the life each one has led, He will say to them on the left, i.e. to those that have minded the things in the world: <i>Depart from Me ye cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels</i>; howbeit to them on the right, i.e. to the holy and good: <i>Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.</i> For they shall be with Christ and shall reign with Him, and shall revel in the heavenly blessings, having been made conformable to His Resurrection, and escaped the meshes of the ancient corruption, being endued with the long and ineffable life, and living endlessly with the ever-living Lord. For that they who have practised a life dear to God and exalted, shall be with Christ without ceasing, to wit contemplating His divine and unspeakable beauty, Paul will make clear where he says: <i>For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord</i>; and again, to them that have chosen to mortify worldly passions: <i>For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory</i>. So----for I will sum up the meaning of the Lord's saying----the lovers of the evil things in the world shall go down to Hades and be banished from the presence of Christ; howbeit there shall be with Him and dwell with Him for ever the lovers of virtue, they who have kept inviolate <i>the earnest of the Spirit</i>, and being with Him of a surety they shall also behold His Divine Beauty without all hindrance.</blockquote>
The point has been raised by Mr. Fields that an eternal declaration of righteousness has already been passed on those with faith in Christ, because by faith they possess Christ and therefore possess the verdict of innocence proper to Him in the face of our judgment before God. Those with faith will be on the right hand of the Judge, because His merits are substituted for their (lack of) merits in the Day of Judgment. In fact, His merits become their merits.<br />
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St. Cyril uses different language. Those that will dwell with Christ forever are those that have practiced a virtuous life, they who have kept inviolate the earnest of the Spirit. Given all that we have read from St. Cyril, the keeping inviolate the earnest of the Spirit is not hard to understand. The Holy Spirit was given (to faith in Baptism) as the sign of promise that Christ has raised our humanity again to incorruption (promising therefore our future resurrection at Christ's Return). The Holy Spirit transforms our inner man into righteousness and holiness according to Christ's image, restoring us to humanity's original innocence. At the same time we have to live in accord with the Gospel law, so as to evict the passions from within and cultivate those virtues that belong to the life entrusted to us by the Spirit - thus growing in the likeness of Christ, which is itself a growth in justification and sanctification. In this way we can become temples of God and enter into union with the Divine nature. This is Orthodox soteriology, not Lutheran.<br />
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<u>The Basis of Judgment</u><br />
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Mr. Fields and Lutheranism in general links Justification with a "not guilty" or "innocent" verdict that applies in the face of the judgment according to our works. Christ is declared righteous, and so those with faith are declared righteous because they "possess" Christ (and thus possess the merits of His righteousness as their merits). This is the basis of Lutheranism's certainty of salvation, and is central to Martin Luther's great discovery about faith. The problem, though, is that Mr. Fields has claimed that his view of Lutheran Justification is that of the Fathers. If so, then they ought to agree with him about the scope of Justification, especially its implications for the Final Judgment. We have already seen that the most significant Fathers cited by Mr. Fields come to very different conclusions about our Justification - not so much in its source (Christ) but in what it means for a person actually to be justified (the work of the Holy Spirit). <br />
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I'd like to think citing more Fathers and teachers from Mr. Fields' list is just overkill. (I am willing to do it, though, if needed, and more beyond the ones he quoted.) I make one exception: I think it is profitable to return to St. Basil for a description of the the Judgment to come. <br />
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<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.vii.xvii.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 16, par. 40</a></blockquote>
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40. Moreover by any one who carefully uses his reason it will be found that even at the moment of the expected appearance of the Lord from heaven the Holy Spirit will not, as some suppose, have no functions to discharge: on the contrary, even in the day of His revelation, in which the blessed and only potentate will judge the world in righteousness, the Holy Spirit will be present with Him. For who is so ignorant of the good things prepared by God for them that are worthy, as not to know that the crown of the righteous is the grace of the Spirit, bestowed in more abundant and perfect measure in that day, when spiritual glory shall be distributed to each in proportion as he shall have nobly played the man? For among the glories of the saints are “many mansions” in the Father’s house, that is differences of dignities: for as “star differeth from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead.” They, then, that were sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption, and preserve pure and undiminished the first fruits which they received of the Spirit, are they that shall hear the words “well done thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.” In like manner they which have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or have not wrought for Him that gave to them, shall be deprived of what they have received, their grace being transferred to others; or, according to one of the evangelists, they shall even be wholly cut asunder, —the cutting asunder meaning complete separation from the Spirit. The body is not divided, part being delivered to chastisement, and part let off; for when a whole has sinned it were like the old fables, and unworthy of a righteous judge, for only the half to suffer chastisement. Nor is the soul cut in two,—that soul the whole of which possesses the sinful affection throughout, and works the wickedness in co-operation with the body. The cutting asunder, as I have observed, is the separation for aye of the soul from the Spirit. For now, although the Spirit does not suffer admixture with the unworthy, He nevertheless does seem in a manner to be present with them that have once been sealed, awaiting the salvation which follows on their conversion; but then He will be wholly cut off from the soul that has defiled His grace. For this reason “In Hell there is none that maketh confession; in death none that remembereth God,” because the succour of the Spirit is no longer present. How then is it possible to conceive that the judgment is accomplished without the Holy Spirit, wherein the word points out that He is Himself the prize of the righteous, when instead of the earnest is given that which is perfect, and the first condemnation of sinners, when they are deprived of that which they seem to have? But the greatest proof of the conjunction of the Spirit with the Father and the Son is that He is said to have the same relation to God which the spirit in us has to each of us. “For what man” it is said, “knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.”</blockquote>
St. Basil the Great sets forth wonderfully the Orthodox teaching on the final judgment. Let us focus on the following in particular, "<i>In like manner they which have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or <u>have not wrought for Him that gave to them</u>, shall be deprived of what they have received, their grace being transferred to others; or, according to one of the evangelists, they shall even be wholly cut asunder, —the cutting asunder meaning complete separation from the Spirit.</i>" St. Basil indicates that those that have received the earnest of the Spirit are expected to work for God if they wish to enter into glory. God is looking for works - fruits. The one who obstinately expects to be saved by faith apart from works on that Day will be in for some serious trouble. <br />
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From all of this we can see why the Orthodox say 'We have been saved, are being saved, and hope to be saved.' We have been saved: Christ's cross and resurrection, our Baptism and reception of the Spirit; we are being saved: our continual transformation in the Spirit by faith working through love; we hope to be saved: the Final Judgment according to our works. The Final Judgment is not settled already, because its basis is our works done while in this life - not the blanket ownership of Christ's works or our unworthy works. In fact it is because Christ's merits have been applied to us that we must work, because the outcome of that application is our transformation into the likeness of Christ. That's Justification, and Sanctification, and Salvation. <br />
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The Orthodox concept of salvation is thus very simple and straightforward. Salvation is being transformed from the old to the new, from the likeness of the earthly man to the likeness of the Man from heaven. The transformation-period extends from our New Birth to the General Resurrection. At the Judgment we will be assessed. What we want to avoid is being stripped of our gifts and cast out. What we want to achieve is to be accounted good stewards of the earnest of the resurrection that has been entrusted to our care. Did we put it to work according to the Master's instructions, did we squander our time, or did we bury the gift? It's that simple. But it's hard, because it requires us to die to ourselves every day and instead live for God by His Grace and Help and Mercy. This is the Faith of the Scriptures, the Fathers, the Orthodox Church.<br />
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<h3>
Regarding the Lutheran Teaching Put Forward</h3>
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Does Lutheranism Maintain the Integrity and Spirit of the Patristic Witness?</h4>
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No. Whenever the topic of Justification arises, Lutherans run to the cross and say, "See, it's finished. We're justified and going to heaven." But the issue of becoming justified involves two things, 1) Christ overcoming the problem of our sin, death, and bondage to the devil, and 2) our reception of Christ's "solution" or "victory." The division over Justification between the Orthodox Church and Lutherans is primarily about the second part, not the first part. There are differences over the first part - which Mr. Fields points to when he makes a case for Christ suffering our punishment - but no matter how you calculate the atonement, it still amounts to Christ dying for the forgiveness of our sins and being raised for our justification. We could not be forgiven without the cross (though the Orthodox like to point out that God has always been desirous of forgiving us, and did not need to be bought off with a payment of human suffering), and we could not be justified without the resurrection.</div>
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What Mr. Fields and the Lutherans do is shift the weight of Justification from cross & resurrection to the cross. They say on the cross Christ pays the penalty for our sins, and supplies perfect righteousness to God for us. The supplying of perfect righteousness (Christ's merits) <i>to God </i>while taking away sins is called our Justification. The resurrection is reckoned the proof that Christ's offering is accepted, and that the cross accomplished everything. The reception of "it is finished" is through the Holy Spirit, who creates faith in a person from nothing, and through this faith gives to the believer Christ with His "it is finished" so that It is Finished <i>for you</i>. The consequence of the cross with its "it is finished" is that the Final Judgment is solved in our favor. The Lutherans claim this is taught by the Scriptures, but what that really means is that Luther and the other Lutheran teachers have come to these conclusions (contrary to the Fathers, I contend) and passed on their teachings to their disciples down to the present day. </div>
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The Orthodox Church, in keeping with the Scriptures as taught by the Fathers, hold the cross and resurrection in a different relationship. Christ's offering on the cross was simply the offering of a completely righteous Man to God. Yet this righteous Man is also the Son of God. His righteousness is established in the face of the absolute worst the Enemy could throw at Him, and by facing this <i>worst</i> He overcomes all that holds humanity in slavery. As the Lamb of God He bore our sins in His body to death on the cross, defeated Death with His Divinity, and was raised again to Life in victory over the devil. The resurrection itself is the transformation of our dead human nature into glorious, heavenly perfection in Christ. Though Christ became true Man without sin, He still bore the likeness of sinful flesh - that is, He endured the consequences that come from sin infecting humanity and creation. His resurrection finally and fully transforms the humanity of Adam into its glorious perfection. The atonement is finished on the cross, but the transformation of human nature happens in the resurrection. Justification is a transformation - death leading into resurrection. What we receive in the Holy Spirit is the beginning of our share in that transformation through union with God. The transformation continues throughout this life and comes to completion at the General Resurrection, where the works of all will be assessed in light of the gift given in the Spirit.</div>
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So there are two places where the Lutherans significantly depart from the Orthodox: whether or not God's justice requires Christ to suffer the punishment due us in order to make atonement, and whether Justification is a matter of total transformation or acquisition of merits. <br />
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<h4>
Justification: Attribution, Possession, or Transformation?</h4>
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Mr. Fields writes (emphasis his):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Chemnitz goes on to quote perhaps another thirty passages from various Fathers. You may ask me, “That is all very interesting, but why do you speak so much about the Incarnation and union with Christ, when my question was about Forensic Justification?”</b> The answer is that, according to Chemnitz, no one can understand the “sinner being declared righteous” unless he understands that this very same sinner is completely united to God himself and made a sharer of all His benefits, and that this “sharing” is not merely one of “give me that which is yours, that I might pretend that it is mine,” but rather it is a true union, that all that Christ has done, He has done as a man, and so man has done it, and can be judged as having done is justly by God. The “forensic justification” follows only from this understanding of the Incarnation, which is why for Chemnitz, Luther, and all of the orthodox gnesio-Lutheran theologians, there could be no justification, no atonement, without a full Incarnation (not the Nestorian incarnation proposed by the Calvinists), for if God did not truly become one with Mankind, then the sinner being declared righteous would truly be a miscarriage of justice — a lie put in God’s mouth, just as our modern Eastern brothers often say.</blockquote>
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I applaud Mr. Fields for pointing to the necessity of unity with God in order to share in all the benefits of salvation. This is an essential point of agreement between the Orthodox Church and the Lutherans. And it highlights that the issue at which we divide most significantly is that of the Holy Spirit and His work. Some more from Mr. Fields:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Now the purpose of the Incarnation was this: that God not only became a man, but rather became all mankind. Just as we were all in Adam, we are now all recapitulated and summarized in Christ, not by way of analogy but in truth, which is to say, ontologically. When He does righteousness, so we do righteousness, for we are summarized in the one Who has done it. When He dies, so mankind dies with Him, thus satisfying the declaration of God: “You shall surely die.” Yet, Christ, being God, was not contained by death, and so rose again unto immortality, so all mankind being in Him shall rise again into immortality and be participants in the divine nature, as we already are, and all these things, not by transaction or legal agreement, or by the “decree of God” but because Christ truly now is all mankind. There is only one “sanctified” man, and only one “justified” man, and that is Christ. There is only one immortal, one infinite, one sinless, &c., and we cannot be any of these things merely by attribution. Rather, we must be joined physically into the one who is; and to our everlasting happiness, this very grafting into the infinite occurred in the act of the Incarnation.</blockquote>
Mr. Fields links the source of Lutheran justification with physical union with Christ. He denies that a Christian is righteous by attribution, but claims that being declared righteous comes from a physical union with the One who is righteous. More from Mr. Fields:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It is also wrong to say that God is “treating us forensically righteous even though we are not actually righteous,” for forensic merely means to declare righteous, which God does justly and in truth, for He declares Christ righteous, and so He is. He alone is the one who is “forensically justified.” Yet to say Christ is “forensically justified” must entail that we are actually righteous, for we are one with Christ, the righteous one, and if He is righteous, so are we, though sin clings on in the form of the Old Adam. ... </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The good subdeacon goes on to say that God does not merely want to forgive us, but to bring us out of our sin and corruption. But as is clear, this God has already done. Now we only wait this brief moment of life, that the evil of corporeal death, which once was the loss of all of man’s self, now has become sanctified in Christ’s death and has been transfigured into the death of sin in us and the final liberation of Christ from the shackles of our sin.</blockquote>
Christ is the only one forensically justified. Yes! And if Christ is actually righteous, then we that have union and communion with Him must be actually righteous in Him. (Yes! - I say as an Orthodox Christian.) But what does he mean by <i>actually</i>? The Lutheran Confessions, when speaking of conversion (i.e. becoming a Christian), explicitly forbid Justification from including any sense of renewal or (what I would term) <i>actuality</i> in us. The point of the Lutheran Confessions is that the declaration is based on Christ and not on anything in us, and they earnestly resist muddying the waters on this issue. Consider the following from the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, III:39ff (emphasis mine):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That neither renewal, sanctification, virtues nor good works are tamquam forma aut pars aut causa iustificationis, that is, our righteousness before God, nor are they to be constituted and set up <u>as a part</u> or cause of our righteousness, or otherwise under any pretext, title, or name whatever <u>to be mingled in the article of justification as</u> necessary and <u>belonging thereto</u>; but that the righteousness of faith consists alone in the forgiveness of sins out of pure grace, for the sake of Christ's merit alone; which blessings are offered us in the promise of the Gospel, and are received, accepted, applied, and appropriated by faith alone.</blockquote>
And the following from the same writing, III:54 (emphasis mine):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Likewise also the disputation concerning the indwelling in us of the essential righteousness of God must be correctly explained. For although in the elect, who are justified by Christ and reconciled with God, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who is the eternal and essential righteousness, dwells by faith (for all Christians are temples of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who also impels them to do right), <u>yet this indwelling of God is not the righteousness of faith of which St. Paul treats and which he calls iustitiam Dei, that is, the righteousness of God, for the sake of which we are declared righteous before God</u>; but it <u>follows</u> the preceding righteousness of faith, which is nothing else than the forgiveness of sins and the gracious adoption of the poor sinner, for the sake of Christ's obedience and merit alone.</blockquote>
This second quote was written against Osiandrianism, which claimed that our righteousness from Christ does not come by His human obedience, but by communication of the "essential righteousness" of the Godhead. The Formula took the opportunity to set straight for Lutherans the role of God's indwelling when it comes to righteousness: faith receives the merits of Christ, God dwells in the Christian by faith, <u>but indwelling is a result of righteousness, not a cause</u>. <br />
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Note that two things are prevented in this part of the Formula. The first is pure Osiandrianism - that the righteousness bequeathed to the Christian is that of the Godhead rather than the value of Christ's obedience to the Law. The second thing prevented is that the Justification that comes by faith should involve an ontological change (or other form of change) within us that would turn us into something righteous within - even by just a little bit! Rather the Formula asserts that all such forms of inner transformation, renewal, Sanctification, etc. are a <u>result</u> of being found completely righteous through the giving of Christ's merit to the sinner through faith. <br />
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Now to Mr. Fields' point. If Christ is declared righteous, then we must be <u>actually</u> righteous? What does that mean, Mr. Fields? Righteous where it counts? Righteous in our nature, ontologically? Righteous by legal attribution? Wait - you said NO to attribution. You said, "Rather, we must be joined physically into the one who is [infinite and sinless]; and to our everlasting happiness, this very grafting into the infinite occurred in the act of the Incarnation." He then proceeds to point to the sacraments as fulfilling or playing into this reality.<br />
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It is not correct to say that <u>we</u> are justified "in the act of the Incarnation," because that leaves out Christ's human obedience unto death, it leaves out Christ's sacrifice for sins on the cross, and it leaves out the resurrection (Rom. 4:25). That's a dangerous word choice, especially in Lutheranism. In the Lutheran context it sounds like Osiandrianism. <br />
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In Orthodoxy the Incarnation re-establishes an ontologically righteous humanity - and I wonder if this is what Mr. Fields is aiming at. The declaration of Christ's righteousness by God, though, is based on His entire obedient life and death as True Man. The reality of His righteousness (forensic, ontological, and personal) is what the resurrection is all about. The resurrection is the righteousness that is communicated to us in the sacramental life of the Church - for righteousness is tied to life as two sides of the same coin. Or we would be happy to reverse that - the righteousness of Christ communicated to us in the sacramental life of the Church is that of the cross and resurrection.<br />
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</u> That the Son becomes <i>every man</i> (or more specifically the recapitulation of all mankind) certainly happens at the Incarnation, but our personal grafting into Christ happens at our Baptism, Confirmation, and participation in the Eucharist. I link these three as one, because that is the normal method of Christian initiation and they should happen together. But for the sake of the discussion I will say our grafting "into the infinite" happens at Holy Baptism. When we are baptized our fallen human ontology dies and rises in union with Christ by the Spirit. In Baptism we undergo an ontological change by means of the Spirit. If Christ is born (incarnate) to be like us, we are reborn (baptized) to be like Him. He is Incarnate in the likeness of sinful man, we are reborn in the likeness of the crucified and resurrected Man. We must maintain the distinction (never separation) between what the Son does and what the Spirit does.<br />
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In Orthodoxy our grafting into Christ through Baptism justifies us, that is, makes our human nature partakers of Christ's crucified and resurrected human nature that He holds in personal union with His Divine nature. Our human nature becomes a righteous (i.e. justified) human nature, because it enters into union with Jesus Christ, the New Adam. In this way Justification, as it occurs in Baptism, is a matter of Christ's cross and resurrection being applied so as to affect a transformation in us, as was said before.<br />
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Mr. Fields' description of Justification seems to be close to the Orthodox mark, which is a good thing. But is it Lutheran? I have already established that Lutheranism does not allow any sort of personal renewal or transformation into Justification. The Justification from (Lutheran) Baptism works the same way. Any renewal or sanctification-like activity is treated as a <u>result</u> of being imputed with the merits of Christ. Even the term regeneration does not admit into Baptism's <u>justifying activity</u> any notion of renewal or ontological change in us. Whenever a linking of <i>regeneration</i> with Justification happens in Lutheranism (whether talking about Baptism or not), the term must refer to the creation or strengthening of faith. This is insisted in the <a href="http://bookofconcord.org/sd-righteousness.php" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration III:18ff</a>. And since in Lutheranism faith is the sole work of the Holy Spirit in a person, this is the limit of any transformation language in Lutheran justification. That is, in Lutheranism, the only thing that is transformed in the act of being justified in Christ through the Holy Spirit is <u>the human will</u>. It is transformed from an unbelieving will to a believing will. And a believing will grasps hold of Christ's merits and possesses them, and is thus justified apart from any works. Any form of personal transformation beyond that of the human will is excluded from Lutheran justification and categorized as Sanctification - the fruits of being justified by faith.<br />
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Mr. Fields' argument for Lutheran justification can be summed up as possessing righteousness, because through faith we possess Christ - who was incarnate, suffered, died, and rose again. From an Orthodox standpoint this is still less than <i>transformation.</i> It is not enough to simply possess Christ. One must be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ through union with Christ. It is not simply possessing Christ's merits that saves, but being transformed by the Holy Spirit according to the image and likeness of Christ. Justification as 'possession of Christ's righteousness' without Justification being transformation into Christ's righteousness is really just the attribution of righteousness - it isn't strong enough. From an Orthodox standpoint, the Lutherans have driven a wedge between Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit with their doctrine of justification. <br />
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In order to avoid what was for him an unbearable problem of works, Luther shifted our righteousness before God from the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in which we cooperate (post-Baptism) to an all-sufficient Treasury of Merits (called Jesus Christ) which is conveyed to us through faith. In the Lutheran context Mr. Fields goes a bit afield (sorry for the pun) by suggesting righteousness is conveyed by physical communion (though I think he means only to emphasize the importance of the Incarnation for our Justification), in that physical communion involves the indwelling of God, which the Lutheran Confessions forbid to the category of Lutheran justification. But Mr. Fields' position remains irrevocably Lutheran in that he upholds the sufficiency of this Treasury of Merits for our right relationship with God now, as well as our future salvation on the Day of Judgment. The wedge is the transformation of Christ into a Treasury of Merits. Instead of the merits of Christ obtaining for us our means of transformation, the merits of Christ <u>themselves</u> become the object, replacing the necessity of our ongoing transformation in Justification for our eternal salvation.<br />
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Conclusion</h3>
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Mr. Fields asserted that the Lutheran Confessions should be read in continuity with the Fathers - that they maintain the continuity of the Fathers! - but even with just a cursory examination of the teaching of the Fathers it is clear that this is definitely not the case. The Lutherans have broken continuity with the Fathers - and thus with any catholic principle they may have been aiming at. The basis of Lutheran theology is first and foremost a 16th Century reading of the Scriptures through the lens of Martin Luther and his compatriots. Any trained Lutheran worth his salt will tell you that "the Fathers can err." This is the usual excuse given whenever a particular Father disagrees with a Lutheran teaching. But even before the Scriptures, the foundation of Lutheran theology is that of the <i>reformation</i> of the existing Catholic Church, an attempt to return her to a more pure form. Unfortunately <i>reformation</i> gave way to <i>deformation</i>, most notably by driving a wedge between the work of Christ and that of the Holy Spirit. Deformation in soteriology has led to deformation in ecclesiology, as can be seen not only in Lutheran history but in many of the modern day Lutheran problems. Ultimately what has been progressively deforming up to this very day in Lutheranism is its <i>catholicity</i> (as just one example, consider the theological resistance to infant communion in the LCMS by its Confessional leadership). There is no cure, because the deformation is caused by a breach with the Holy Spirit (viz. the wedge). <br />
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A Lutheran reading this will most likely be abhorred. Lutheranism was formulated to reject salvation as transformation and cooperation. At the same time there is a strong sense of communion with God in Lutheranism, and a strong sense of identification with Christ. The beauty of Lutheranism is that it still sees salvation in terms of union with Christ. What is missing is the proper work of the Holy Spirit in its theology, His proper work having been only forced out of place rather discarded. Ideally in every Divine Service the Lutheran pastor stands at the altar and invokes God to make present the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness, life, and salvation of all present that are allowed to commune. All of Lutheran theology comes together in that sacrament - justification and sanctification; forgiveness, Christ's righteousness, our transformation in the Spirit, and the eternal destiny of the elect - all there through communion with Christ. In that moment the differences might seem slight. But still something is not right, and it gnaws from the background when it's not yelling in your face. What catholicity that is there in Lutheranism is slipping away...<br />
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The Orthodox Church offers only the Catholic Truth, which includes unbroken continuity with original Christianity, the Scriptures rightly divided throughout history by her Fathers, and a spiritual life that conforms to our eternal destiny. I wish the best for those who feel compelled to be Lutheran, but I hold out hope for more than the best that Lutheranism can give to them. <br />
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If anyone is interested in the Patristic teaching on the atonement itself - the offering of the High Priest on the Cross - I heartily recommend Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon's podcast on Ancient Faith Radio entitled, "<a href="http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/features/the_love_of_god_and_the_passion_of_christ" target="_blank">The Love of God and the Passion of Christ</a>."<br />
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To Mr. Fields directly I say two things:<br />
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<li>Thank you for taking the time to address my post in the public forum. I have greatly benefited from the exercise. </li>
<li>In the future, when you make quotations (like from Chemnitz or Dr. Scaer or anyone), please PLEASE cite exactly where a reader can find that quote. </li>
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To anyone that has actually made it to the end of this very long post, give yourself a gold star. It was a long read!</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-88033217819034010132014-05-01T22:58:00.000-04:002014-05-01T22:58:45.608-04:00Introducing a New ThingWhen discussing issues like infant communion with Lutherans, one should remember that Lutheranism is a dissenting movement. Lutherans dissent from historical Christianity in favor of an a-historical Christianity that is agreeable to a separate and historically-removed reading of the Scriptures, yet one that at the same time makes perfect sense through the lens of 16th Century thinking. Infant communion can never be a reality in Confessional Lutheranism, because it would require breaking the 16th Century bubble. Infant communion could become a reality for <i>Lutherans</i>, though, if they were wise enough to see past the limitations of the 16th Century which prevents them from seeing the Scriptures in their natural light. <br />
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For the Lutheran there can be no <i>introduction</i> of infant communion (which would be the <i>introduction</i> of Communion of the Baptized), because to do so requires giving credence to the interpretation of the Scriptures by the Orthodox, Catholic Church in history - the very Church that made Lutheranism a possibility by giving the Reformers something from which to dissent, though they quote her, cite from her, and claim to have adopted nothing contrary to her even as they dissent from her. The Lutheran Church does not know infant communion, because she disavows the Orthodox and Catholic Church's history as her own in order to procure a new history, with new fathers (Luther, Chemnitz, and many others), and new traditions that have never known infant communion. Some would argue this was not the intent of Lutheranism, to be this new thing, but alas intent and purpose have not endured. A new church exists, with a separate consciousness and separate breath and separate mind. The only way to have infant communion in this <i>newness</i> is to introduce it for the first time.<br />
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It is not surprising that those adherents of this new church should fight tooth and nail to keep out what was never there in the first place. Subjects fight for their king, and in this case the Lutheran-version of theologians fight to maintain their <i>otherness, </i>their<i> dissent, </i>their<i> new way of thinking that is the only way they have ever known</i>.<br />
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However, not everyone in Lutheranism was sold this bill of goods. Many were told that Lutheranism is simply the continuation of the Catholic Church in the West. Many were told that the Orthodox and Catholic Church's history is supposed to be their history as Lutherans. Many were taught from the beginning to cherish not only the Scriptures but also the early Christians whose foundation Lutheran theology is supposedly built upon (Nicene Creed, Apostolic Creed, Athanasian Creed, and for you guys and gals at seminary all that great stuff you learned in Early Church class). Many, including myself, were told from the beginning that Lutheranism must not ever be something new, but hold continuity with the past and account for it. To such as these infant communion is a vital test of the Reformation's enduring legitimacy. <div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-90750136410381269682014-03-02T00:28:00.000-05:002014-03-02T02:45:58.167-05:00A Greater Appearance than the Transfiguration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Below you will find an excerpt from a homily by St. John Chrysostom on the Transfiguration of Christ. The entire sermon may be read at <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200156.htm" target="_blank">NewAdvent.org</a>. All people have the promise to see Christ in a far greater brightness than the disciples did on the mount of transfiguration, because He will appear in order to judge every single person that has ever lived or will live. As St. John Chrysostom so eloquently states it, "No man will there appear rich or poor, mighty or weak, wise or unwise, bond or free; but these masks will be dashed in pieces, and the inquiry will be into their works only." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The threat of judgment is a sobering thought. To accept the thought can bring about an opportunity for transformation, though. If I am slighted, or hurt, or caught up in the middle of some distressing situation where I would normally become angry, yell, speak ill, or become vengeful, it is the thought of my own judgment that can calm me down and hold my will captive to God. If it is present in my mind that my behavior in that moment - even every idle word (Mt. 12:37) - must be answered for by me, then I will choose my words with caution and discretion, as well as my actions, thoughts, and heart. We are not given anyone else to judge and to bend according to our judgments other than ourselves (and maybe our children as we guide them in choosing good over evil, but even that with compassion and respect for the adults they one day must be!). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That judgment is assured also clarifies Christ's commandments in the gospels. He has acquired everything we need for our rehabilitation and adoption into the household of God, and He has left us with instructions that tell us how to use that rehabilitation and adoption. He's accomplished everything for us, given us the fullness of His grace and kingdom within us by the Holy Spirit in His Church, leaving to us only what pertains to free will. That is the only thing He has left to us to rein in under His reign, though even there He gives us great assistance through His grace and sacraments. If it is only free will that I must be concerned about - with all of heaven ready to support it - then that is truly an easy yoke and light burden. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And when it is in that one area, my free choice, that I fall short, it then is all the more shameful and sad. What more can Christ do for me than what He has already done? What more can He give? What more can He teach? What more can He promise? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Of course the answer is 'nothing more.' The mystery of a man or woman's salvation lies in his or her freedom. The mystery of the crucified and risen Christ's victory lies in that His kingdom advances without overturning but instead upholding free will. He does not have to force us, but wins us over by truth and love. And when in our freedom we embrace Christ and endeavor to be the friends of Christ (Jn. 15:14), then we become living mysteries ourselves in the Christian sense of the word - i.e. living sacraments of the kingdom. And in this friendship lies true freedom that no man can take from you, for it is hidden with Christ in God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In connection with my thoughts above, I am linking the article from which I found the icon of the Last Judgment. The article is entitled, "<a href="http://www.stspyridons.org/the-basis-of-gods-judgement/" target="_blank">The Basis of God's Judgment</a>."</span></div>
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<b>From Homily 56 on St. Matthew</b></div>
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<i>by St. John Chrysostom</i></div>
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6. <q style="font-style: italic;">And when they heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202204" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">Matthew 17:6-8</span></div>
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How was it that, when they heard these words, they were dismayed? And yet before this also a like voice was uttered at Jordan, and a multitude was present, and no one felt anything of the kind; and afterwards again, when also they said, <q style="font-style: italic;">It thundered,</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202205" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">John 12:28-29</span> yet neither at that time did they experience anything like this. How then did they fall down in the mount? Because there was solitude, and height, and great quietness, and a transfiguration full of awe, and a pure light, and a cloud stretched out; all which things put them in great alarm. And the amazement came thick on every side, and they fell down both in fear at once and in adoration.</div>
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But that the fear abiding so long might not drive out their recollection, presently He puts an end to their alarm, and is seen Himself alone, and commands them to tell no man this, until He is risen from the dead.</div>
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For <q style="font-style: italic;">as they came down from the mount, He charged them to tell the vision to no man, until He were risen from the dead.</q> what they were about.</div>
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7. Nothing then is more blessed than the apostles, and especially the three, who even in the cloud were counted worthy to be under the same roof with the Lord.</div>
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But if we will, we also shall behold Christ, not as they then on the mount, but in far greater brightness. For not thus shall He come hereafter. For whereas then, to spare His disciples, He discovered so much only of His brightness as they were able to bear; hereafter He shall come in the very glory of the Father, not with Moses and Elias only, but with the infinite host of the angels, with the archangels, with the cherubim, with those infinite tribes, not having a cloud over His head, but even heaven itself being folded up.</div>
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For as it is with the judges; when they judge publicly, the attendants drawing back the curtains show them to all; even so then likewise all men shall see Him sitting, and all the human race shall stand by, and He will make answers to them by Himself; and to some He will say, <q style="font-style: italic;">Come, you blessed of my Father; for I was an hungered, and you gave me meat;</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202207" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">Matthew 25:34-35</span> to others, <q style="font-style: italic;">Well done, thou good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things.</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202208" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">Matthew 25:23</span></div>
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And again passing an opposite sentence, to some He will answer, <q style="font-style: italic;">Depart into the everlasting fire, that is prepared for the devil and his angels,</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202209" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">Matthew 25:41</span> and to others, <q style="font-style: italic;">O thou wicked and slothful servants.</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202210" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">Matthew 25:26</span> And some He will <q style="font-style: italic;">cut asunder,</q> and <q style="font-style: italic;">deliver to the tormentors;</q> but others He will command to <q style="font-style: italic;">be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness.</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202211" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">Matthew 22:13</span> And after the axe the furnace will follow; and all out of the net, that is cast away, will fall therein.</div>
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<q style="font-style: italic;">Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun;</q> <span class="stiki" id="note202212" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px;">Matthew 13:43</span> or rather more than the sun. But so much is said, not because their light is to be so much and no more, but since we know no other star brighter than this, He chose by the known example to set forth the future brightness of the saints.</div>
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Since on the mount too, when He says, <q style="font-style: italic;">He did shine as the sun,</q> for the same cause did He so speak. For that the comparison did not come up to His light, the apostles showed by falling down. For had the brightness not been unalloyed, but comparable to the sun; they would not have fallen, but would easily have borne it.</div>
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The righteous therefore will shine as the sun, and more than the sun in that time; but the sinners shall suffer all extremities. Then will there be no need of records, proofs, witnesses. For He who judges is Himself all, both witness, and proof, and judge. For He knows all things exactly; <q style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: none;">For all things are naked and opened unto His eyes.</q><span class="stiki" id="note202213" style="background-color: #ffff99; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; text-decoration: none;">Hebrews 4:13</span></div>
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No man will there appear rich or poor, mighty or weak, wise or unwise, bond or free; but these masks will be dashed in pieces, and the inquiry will be into their works only. For if in our courts, when any one is tried for usurpation, or murder, whatever he may be, whether governor, or consul, or what you will, all these dignities fleet away, and he that is convicted suffers the utmost penalty; much more will it be so there.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-33119644066341156182014-02-16T11:59:00.000-05:002014-02-17T03:06:18.893-05:00Unafraid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Christ_cleans_leper_man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Christ_cleans_leper_man.jpg" style="width:250px" /></a></div><i>'A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter."</i><br />
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The Law of Moses forbade anyone to touch a leper, for they were unclean (Lev. 5:3). Yet the Lord Jesus touches this leper, and in so doing He cleanses the leper from his leprosy. Has the Lord broken the Law? No. Why? Because the one that touches the leper shares in his uncleanness, is made unclean by it, and becomes guilty for failing to preserve himself in purity. Does Christ become unclean? No, but rather His purity overcomes the uncleanness of the leper to make him clean and pure. If anyone else had touched the leper, he or she would be subject to the infection, corruption, and disease that comes from mingling with what is unclean (in this case, leprosy). Why? Because anyone else is born into the world under the sway of the devil, whose power over us is death. And the sting of death - the sting that we are stung with - is sin. And the power of sin - that is, what highlights it and makes us see it but cannot deliver us from it - is the Law. <br />
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But Christ is not under the power of the devil. He is conceived by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. As He says before going to His crucifixion, <i>"I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me"</i> [Jn 14]. The Lord Jesus is God's Son, very God from very God, begotten, not made, being of one essence with the Father, but who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven and was made Man. He is the Life of the World, and all things that are made have been made through Him. He is not bound by the devil, He is not subject to death and corruption, He commits no sin. In essence He has no need of the Law, because the Law is given to sinners so they will have knowledge of their sin. The Lord Jesus is Lord over the Law, and the one who comes to fulfill it. <br />
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So in this way we see that the Lord was not careless about the Law, or disobedient to it (as a Jew circumcised into the Law on the eighth day). He is Lord over it, uses it according to its purpose, and upholds it. How does He uphold it? He tells the one cleansed to show himself to the priest - whose job it was to certify if one was cleansed of leprosy - and to offer the sacrifice prescribed in the Law. In this way the Law witnesses to the priest and the people of God that this one that was unclean, this one that was required to wear disheveled hair and torn clothes and live away from everyone else in exile - this one can come home to his family and friends, for he is made well and whole again.<br />
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We know that what the Lord Jesus does for the leper is just a microcosm of what He had come to do for all people of all time. If for the leper the Lord Jesus touched his leprosy, for us He touches our stinging sin with His precious blood, taking away our sins in forgiveness. If for the leper the Lord Jesus crosses the barrier of isolation by reaching out to touch him, for us He crosses the barrier of death by the death of His cross. And as the leprosy was taken away, so has death's hold on us been taken away, and with it the devil's grasp on us. Christ made the leper free from physical illness and exile, but in us He breaks the hold of sin, death, and the devil and implants the kingdom of God within us. <br />
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That is the great triumph of Christ, that He accomplishes a cleansing for the whole human race - even the entire creation. His resurrection from the dead has opened the kingdom of heaven to all that will put their trust in Him and obey His voice. <br />
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I think many of us naturally want to recoil from people like this leper - and I mean people who seem disadvantaged to us, like people who are visibly impoverished, or visibly impaired in their body or mind, or clearly overcome with circumstances we would not wish on anyone. I think at some level we recoil because we are afraid it's contagious - not necessarily in a literal way, but maybe in such a way that their problems will become ours, and we will be sucked down into their misery. And this is frightening. <br />
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But the Lord Jesus teaches us to be unafraid of other's misery. He does this by securing our joy. He does this by becoming our life, our meaning, and our love. He does this by training us to say no to all the false joys in the world, with their false security: money and possessions (give them to the poor), pride (see Publican vs. Pharisee), lust of the eye (pluck it out!), food (fast and pray), and whatever else makes us take no thought of the kingdom (deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow). One by one we are encouraged by our Lord Jesus to dig up what we find in our heart that stands between us and the kingdom planted therein by Christ. And when we recoil from those people who need goodness and love, we can be sure there is something that needs to be dug up, because we are afraid of what cannot hurt us, instead of encouraged by the One who wishes to crown us with glory! But when we train our free will in the way of Christ, the love of Christ flows and gains momentum, and all things become new - in our lives and in the lives of the people we reach out and touch. <br />
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Christian love can be bold, because Christ Jesus is the guarantor of that love, and He will back it up 110%.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-88671921348236289282014-02-10T02:20:00.000-05:002014-02-10T02:21:48.913-05:00Our Mother Tongue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bfw8kdX6BeY/TssgUndyOVI/AAAAAAAACak/oMj6cbplKF8/s400/IMG_0025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bfw8kdX6BeY/TssgUndyOVI/AAAAAAAACak/oMj6cbplKF8/s1600/IMG_0025.JPG" style="width:225px" /></a></div><i>"In the morning, while it was still very dark, [Jesus] got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed." [Mk. 1:35]</i><br />
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The day before the Lord Jesus had been in Simon Peter's house. He spent the day healing the multitudes and casting out demons. So the next day He rises before dawn - that is, while it is still dark - and went to a deserted place. He got away from everyone in order to pray. This is a distinguishing feature of the Lord Jesus' life. He prays regularly. Raised in a pious home He was taught to pray. And though He has great compassion on the people that come to Him, He still makes the effort to pray. <br />
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Do we think about God as One who prays? Well here we have God Incarnate, that is, the Word Made Flesh. God has become a human being just like us, except without sin. So what the evangelist St. Mark is showing us is how a real Man lives. It seems like it's just a glimpse, because soon the disciples track Him down and off they go to continue the Lord's mission of preaching and casting out demons. But we definitely see the One who is God praying, and it is because He is God's Son, and it is because His is a real Man. <br />
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And that is the stage upon which we join the Lord Jesus. We are fallen men and women, but Christ died to cancel our fall, rose to initialize our new life, and in the Church has adopted us into the family of God. In Christ we are real Men and real Women - truly Man as He is. So where is prayer in our life? Our life is hidden in Christ, who has ascended to heaven to rule, to fill all things. So that is where our conversation belongs - in Christ, in heaven.<br />
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Earthly life demands much from us without us being famous or working miracles as it was with our Lord. Do we talk to God? The Church has given us the words, which hearken back to our Lord's own instructions to say, "Our Father...," and use the same psalms and Scriptures He used in His earthly prayers. But do we put forth the effort? And when life gets in the way, do we push back to make sure the conversation between our souls and heaven itself does not fall away? <br />
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We have been given a great gift in Christ, in Baptism, in the Church. The fullness of the kingdom of heaven is entrusted to us for our benefit. But we can lose track of it. We can bury it. We can disregard it. And we can cover it up so that it makes no difference in our life. If we pray, though, as our Lord prayed, this cannot happen. It is the soul that becomes numb to God without us knowing, and it is prayer that keeps the soul warm through closeness to God, if you will. <br />
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A lot can be said about prayer, but I only wish to say that a Christian cannot rightly omit it. If prayer is missing from our homes, then our homes lack Christianity in some sense. The Lord Jesus knows it takes effort to maintain a prayer life! But it is how we learn the language of heaven and make that blessed place's language our mother tongue. Amen.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-64810226608944362432014-02-02T12:00:00.000-05:002014-02-02T12:00:03.945-05:00Growing Amazing Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsVu1drsHUZMoSB7Y5Hlaf3UZk0z2YWxuEZRilYHs63PaVWg5OeR3L-CIHZfA4g5EdoyDzJIxMTrSLKIzVmhEj20bYE_P1115fkYDHdE1VFBt9ZAep4uqQExjtyVw-kOQRtgAJxuyd0rjn/s1600/Image+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsVu1drsHUZMoSB7Y5Hlaf3UZk0z2YWxuEZRilYHs63PaVWg5OeR3L-CIHZfA4g5EdoyDzJIxMTrSLKIzVmhEj20bYE_P1115fkYDHdE1VFBt9ZAep4uqQExjtyVw-kOQRtgAJxuyd0rjn/s320/Image+10.jpg" style="width:275px" /></a></div><i>'And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.' [St. Mark 1:23-26]</i><br />
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Not everyone believes in unclean spirits anymore, but they do exist. Unclean spirits are demons, angels that had rebelled against God and now are fallen from both heaven and the Grace of God. Cast out of heaven their abode is in the air above us - the aerial realms of which St. Paul speaks in Ephesians 6, <i>"Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."</i> (By heavenly places, he indicates the aerial realms of the earth, not Heaven itself where God and the good angels and saints dwell.) Or again in the second chapter of St. Paul's same epistle, <i>"And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience."</i><br />
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Demons exist, and they work on mankind to lead us into temptation, to take away our free will, ultimately to destroy us by getting us to destroy ourselves. In some cases they enter a person's body and operate from within. But even when that has not happened the demonic powers have great power over the souls of mankind. This changes when we are baptized. When we receive Baptism and Chrismation (Confirmation) we are made righteous and holy, and we are sealed with the Holy Spirit against the demons. From then on the only influence they can have over us is that which we give them through our free will.<br />
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Perhaps this man in the synagogue that was possessed was a random victim, or perhaps he opened himself up to the unclean spirit through some sin or wrongdoing, or even some voluntary partnership. We are not told. That is because the lesson is not about the life of this poor man. The lesson is about the Lord Jesus and His power over demons.<br />
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Our Lord quiets the unclean spirit and casts it out. Please understand: before the coming of Christ the entire world lay in the clutches of demons like this one and worse. The devil is comparable to the wicked Pharaoh that oppressed the Israelites in Egypt. This happened when Adam and Eve believed the serpent's words in Paradise, and broke God's commandment, and brought death upon themselves, and were cast out in sinful weakness. In so doing they gave themselves up to the power of demons, which is the power of death, because they disobeyed God through the prompting of their leader, the devil. It's just as St. Paul says in Romans 6, <i>"Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?"</i> <br />
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Christ came to free us from this terrible situation. St. Paul says in Hebrews 2, <i>"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."</i> The demon in the synagogue quakes in fear, because it recognizes the Strong Man who has come to bind it. What the Lord Jesus does to this one demon in the synagogue demonstrates the victory He has come to achieve and share with us, namely release from bondage to the unclean spirits that secretively subvert our obedience to God, and the firm establishment of the kingdom of heaven in our midst. In freeing this man from possession by the unclean spirit, the Lord Jesus has revealed His own mission to free all of us from the clutches of sin, death, and the devil so we might return to God. This He does ultimately in His voluntary death for us on the cross, so that by His resurrection He might enable us to become temples of the Holy Spirit, slaves of righteousness leading to eternal life, and adopted children that eagerly desire to be like their heavenly Father. <br />
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Today's evolved and modern people shake their heads when they hear such things. But this is the truth, whether modern man will believe it or not. When modern man dies, he will see for himself but it will be too late, and then he will wail and wish he had believed otherwise. The kingdom of God exists and is present. Sin is real, as are demons AND angels. Christ is risen from the dead, and He IS coming again to judge everyone by their works. Today is the time we have been given to cast out the likeness of demons from ourselves - anger, despair, lust, pride, and the rest - and to become like our heavenly Father - putting on meekness, forgiveness, forbearance, kindness, and love. None of this is possible unless first we become grafted into Christ. But for those of us so grafted through Baptism, what excuse will we give if we take lightly the free gift given to us, if we adopt the unbelief of the modern world? Modern man is in a grave situation, for he does not believe or take these things seriously. He is worse off than the unclean spirits, for at least they believe and tremble! Modern man scoffs and laughs. But men and women can still change, while demons will not. This gives us hope, as does the mercy of God in Christ. Modern men and women can still be saved. Only unrelenting love can sober such a foolish heart, because modern man must have something to see that endures all things - especially that can endure himself! Unrelenting love can do this, and in this love modern man can come to see God, see himself, and see through tears the way home. So not only are we Christians called to walk in obedience to God for our own sakes, but also for the sake of those that do not yet believe. And if we will plant the seeds of Christ through love, God will amaze us with what He grows from it. <br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-60410573359555876932014-01-26T12:00:00.000-05:002014-02-11T02:50:18.753-05:00Made Beautiful by the Gospel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcTiH_CPr-vyiQT8hsYGEGWrroX1BkswM0_2mKMDKjy4Wtip71wk4dNoyvWSLGzbQlEQ62gV8yBpeyNyfRFPpw4jRM2iwPOR-ASGZUjeHBiO-UGqFMqLrMa82LUhrpifhlnNZHw2qO5Y/s1600/Gospel+Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcTiH_CPr-vyiQT8hsYGEGWrroX1BkswM0_2mKMDKjy4Wtip71wk4dNoyvWSLGzbQlEQ62gV8yBpeyNyfRFPpw4jRM2iwPOR-ASGZUjeHBiO-UGqFMqLrMa82LUhrpifhlnNZHw2qO5Y/s1600/Gospel+Book.jpg" /></a></div><i>"Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." [St. Mark 1:14-15 RSVCE]</i><br />
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There was a master craftsman who was on a journey. In his travels he came upon a pot in a city. This pot was filthy. Not only was it covered with dirt and other stains, but it was also being used as a chamber pot. Yet this master craftsman immediately recognized that it was no ordinary pot. Sure enough, upon examining it he discovered that this pot was made of precious metal, though it had been dented and abused terribly. It had undoubtedly once belonged in a king's palace. The craftsman inquired after the pot, and purchased it from its owners. He cleansed the pot with clean water, and he took it to his workshop. There he carefully removed the stains, hammered out the dents, and restored the pot to its original shape. He polished the metal - which was precious silver and gold - set it with jewels, and restored to it the great beauty and love by which it was first made. At last he brought it to his king and presented it as a gift. And the king accepted the gift with joy. <br />
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We know that our Lord Jesus is also a master craftsman. Not only did He learn this skill from His foster-father St. Joseph, but He is the Son of God through whom the Father made all things that exist. When He says, <i>"Repent, and believe in the gospel,"</i> it is as if He is saying each of us is like this poor abused pot, but now since He is here we can be cleansed and restored and brought to the King, His Father and ours. <br />
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But unlike the pot in this story, we have a part to play. The craftsman in the story does not say anything to the pot - because it is just a pot - but the Lord Jesus says to us, <i>"Repent, and believe in the gospel."</i> To repent means that the mind of the world outside the Church can no longer be our mind. There must be a break, and there must be a willingness on our part to do the breaking as often as it must be done. We must gain the mind of Christ, and this can only happen if believe the gospel. <br />
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The gospel of the Lord Jesus must become our new mind, because it is His mind, and it is the beating-heart of the kingdom of God. So that means we should know the gospels in our Bible! Some of us are great with sports statistics and some with movie quotes, because these have touched our hearts and brought us joy. The gospels in our Bible are greater than those things, and what they contain will outlast the memory of every movie or sporting event there ever will be. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of Christ in the gospels will never pass away.<br />
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It is amazing that what St. Mark records next is how our Lord Christ calls His first Apostles. And who do you think He calls? He calls Simon, who is St. Peter, which is where St. Mark is traditionally believed to have gotten most of his knowledge for the gospel he wrote. Who else does Christ call? St. Andrew, St. James, and ... St. John, who himself wrote the fourth gospel. So you see that already in the beginning of our Lord's ministry on earth He was taking care to provide witnesses that would tell you everything, so that you - like them - might trade in the mind this spiritually-blind world gives you for the mind of Christ, so that you could believe the gospel and live in the gospel, so that you might be saved from this perverse and wicked generation. <br />
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And so this is how our Lord Jesus begins His ministry on earth as a teacher and prophet. He says to us all that we need new minds and hearts, and new deeds and lives, which He is happy to give us. But again, we are not lifeless pots; we are human beings made in the image of God. It is up to us whether we will undergo the scrubbing necessary to remove a worldly mindset, and the heat and pounding required to hammer out the dents that come from falling into sins. But how can we ever become polished and shining if we don't! Kings don't like garbage cans at their banquet tables, so out of love for our heavenly King we should each take care to place ourselves into the hands of our master craftsman, our Lord Jesus, and be recast according to the mold of His gospel. Let us become vessels of love and generosity and goodness while we are in this world, because in the next world there will be no garbage cans at the King's banquet table, but only those made beautiful by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. <br />
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<div style="font-size:7pt; font-style:italic; color:gray">Image taken from a product for sale at <a href="http://www.orthodox-shop.eu/index.php/kirchenbedarf/kirchenausstattung/bucher/verziertes-evangelium-jevandjelje-mit-ikonen.html" target="_blank">Orthodox-Shop.eu</a>.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-38994483672882854852014-01-17T06:00:00.000-05:002014-01-17T06:00:00.942-05:00Preserve Us Against the Evils in the World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/The_Torment_of_Saint_Anthony_(Michelangelo).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/The_Torment_of_Saint_Anthony_(Michelangelo).jpg" style="width:250px" /></a></div><span style="font-size:9pt; color:gray">Pictured left is Michaelangelo's <i>The Torment of St. Anthony (1487-9). It depicts the saint's trials against demonic forces in the wilderness.</span></i><br />
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O our venerable and God-bearing Father Anthony! We believe that you have great boldness in prayer standing before the throne of the Holy Trinity, and the All-Merciful Lord always hears you, His faithful servant. Wherefore, we humbly fall down before you with compunction, Saint of God: never cease to intercede for us to the Lord, Who is worshiped and glorified in the Trinity, that He may look mercifully on us and not let us perish in our sins, but would raise the fallen and give correction to the evil and wretched lives, averting our future transgressions, and forgive all faults committed in word or thought from our birth to the present hour. O ascetic of virtue, seeing the infirmity and sorrow of the present times, do not cease to entreat Christ God to not withdraw from us His loving-kindness, but to preserve us from worldly temptations, devil’s snares, and fleshly desires, so that we may receive all necessary for this temporary life, deliverance from affliction and tribulation, and unyielding patience to the end. Implore that we may lead the rest of our lives in peace and repentance and to pass from earth to heaven escaping tribulations, demons of the air, and eternal torments, and be worthy of the Heavenly Kingdom with you and all the saints that pleased our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, to Whom is due all glory, honor, and worship, together with His Father without beginning and His All-Holy, Good and Life-Creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. <div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-60335826891423850672014-01-15T02:18:00.000-05:002014-01-23T15:35:45.496-05:00Gone But Not ForgottenIt is amazing what you can find on the Internet. I was reading a new chapter in the updated version of the text required for the class I teach, when I discovered something kind of fun, or funny. The textbook made the point that photos you share online can often be found through search engines - the point being that nothing on the Internet is really private at all but public. So I decided to see if some of my photos that are posted on Facebook with privacy restrictions would show up. They did not, but something did that I did not expect. Aside from pictures on my blog I saw this:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz59-1yfrqwXwdxCfrLGMp4IxpBed92cNBR5OcDqn69nxhCE9jF15TYUVbiS-DHx31jySieStJ_akIwB-f7q_k1nC7GdRMmGwz3l8VXorKqIWnSAF9iWyg0NGkiYy4zWjPnuCxnFh-Ib8/s1600/Paredwka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz59-1yfrqwXwdxCfrLGMp4IxpBed92cNBR5OcDqn69nxhCE9jF15TYUVbiS-DHx31jySieStJ_akIwB-f7q_k1nC7GdRMmGwz3l8VXorKqIWnSAF9iWyg0NGkiYy4zWjPnuCxnFh-Ib8/s320/Paredwka.jpg" /></a></div><br />
This might have been an image I used once, or it might be one created to look like it came from my blog, but it caught my eye because I don't have images with this title on the Internet. Where on the Internet was this stored, and what else would be there? Did someone not update their links even after all this time? (For those that don't know or forgot, this blog was once called "Dropping the Ball" when I was a Lutheran, mainly because I was deeply concerned that the Lutheran Church or churches were not preserving the faith from the Apostles and apostolic age. I changed the name to "Catching the Ball" when my family and I converted to the Orthodox Christian faith, because this Church manifestly has maintained the faith from the Apostles and the apostolic age.) <br />
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I found it on Scott Diekman's "Stand Firm" blog in a post entitled "<a href="http://stand-firm.blogspot.com/2012/01/remember-when-1.html">Remember When... #1</a>." You can read the post yourself. In short, though, some fun was made at my expense for becoming an Orthodox Christian. It made me laugh, not because it was funny, but because it somehow seemed memorable to Scott after all this time (three years at the time of the post, five years now). Of course it should be memorable, because when a Lutheran pastor makes the difficult walk away from what his friends, family, and comrades tenaciously, even vociferously declare to be true for all time for all people in order to embrace something that is other than that, it is a startling testimony against all their own hopes and dreams and may even defy comprehension. But beyond its incomprehensibility the uncomfortable truth remains: someone at the heart of Lutheranism has witnessed against it, and he has staked his life on it. <br />
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I am not writing this to bash, decry, or shake my fist at Lutheranism. Mr. Diekman's post made me laugh, because it made me reminisce and caused me to reflect. Having come to the Eastern Orthodox Church I've come to something far greater than the East (especially since the West is alive and well here, too). I've gained freedom, perspective, and stability in the Church. Surprisingly I've satisfied my searching and wrestling, or at least I've removed what did not satisfy. I tend to feel like a soldier that has fought long in war, but now has to adapt to civilian life. There's no one to fight with anymore, nothing to "fix," nothing to reform - other than myself. That's not a pleasant prospect, but it is the only "reformation" that Christ has bequeathed to us, and it is what taking up the cross daily means. <br />
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<b>What Is Different, What Has Remained the Same</b><br />
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<i>I think I moved to a foreign country.</i><br />
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I attend an Antiochian Orthodox Church. That means it breathes Byzantine air, sings Byzantine tunes, phrases its hymns and prayers in long Greek-like run-on sentences, and it generally feels like I've wandered into a strange new planet. There is no German or Latin (except at Agape Vespers, and I'm the one reading it), but there is Greek and Russian and Romanian and Arabic. The potlucks have hummus instead of ham balls (btw, I love hummus), but there's still coffee (and it's even strong enough for me). But beyond the ethnic and cultural differences there is the Mass, in Byzantine style, but it is the Mass. The bloodless sacrifice is offered, which I think is all I ever wanted since I figured out what it was as a Lutheran (and I had a hard time at that). The cross and resurrection and Christ's ceaseless intercession in the Most Holy Place not made by human hands for our sins is present every Sunday. That is to say, our very atonement sits at center stage every week, wherein we taste for ourselves how Christ fills all in all. <br />
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So I would say I have gained consistency between my lex credendi and my lex orandi. What is new, though, is that I have very little to do with making sure that happens, except to fulfill my role as a Subdeacon in the Liturgy - but even in that sense this consistency between faith and practice goes on independently of me. I make nothing happen. Something greater than me is going on, as it should be.<br />
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<i>I'm not a pastor anymore.</i><br />
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Some of my friends that converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy were Lutheran pastors, and a couple have been made priests in the Orthodox Church. I have not. It has been enough to renounce my vows made at ordination in the Lutheran Church so I could be free to live according to the Gospel of Christ. I say it is enough, because I sincerely liked the Lutheran Church. I liked being a pastor, and I love the people I shepherded as a servant of Christ. I enjoyed the Lutheran Mass in my parishes, and I enjoyed catechizing youth and new converts. I am deeply attached to my Lutheran family, friends, and colleagues (even the ones that don't speak to me anymore). Sometimes, though, the head has to rule the heart. It was enough to gain the freedom of Orthodoxy; I need nothing more for myself. I still am satisfied with what I carry with me from before my conversion, even the parts that I no longer have. <br />
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By the design of God I am a Subdeacon, which in Orthodoxy is a degree in the priesthood. It is among what is called the minor orders (so I am a Mr. not a Rev.). I get to use my experience and background today in the Church in a way that helps other people in a liturgical setting. I get to be close to the altar, and when the Bishop is present close to the Bishop. That is God's grace, and I thank Him for it. I don't think I desire to be a Deacon or a Priest - and since I'm happily married I never have to worry about being a Bishop! - so this is a change I live with. It is also a change for people that used to know me as "Pastor." Now I'm just Ben, and that's fine. I still carry the past with me, but now it lives hidden in an expatriated future. That might be what some would call 'the price' or 'the cost,' but I think it is more accurate to say it is the fulfillment and redemption and transfiguration of all that my time as a pastor was truly about. I can't make the world Orthodox. I certainly can't make Lutheranism or other Lutherans Orthodox. But I can be Orthodox, and at least *in me* heal Lutheranism in a way it could not heal itself through its history of reformation. I'd like to think that other Lutheran converts may feel the same way. <br />
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<i>I still like reading the same books.</i><br />
<br />
I still read about Western rite liturgy. I love it. I love the Western Mass, and I'm blessed to be able to serve at <a href="http://www.holyincarnation.org/">Holy Incarnation</a> when I visit - though I don't get to visit as often as I wish. I still sometimes read Luther - and I enjoy it more, probably because I do not feel the tremendous pressure to make him palatable when he is not. I can see him for who he is: a product of his times who felt quite justified in bucking the authority of the medieval papacy for his own reading of the Church and her Scriptures. The Book of Concord is sometimes still fun to read, because now I am no longer obligated to harmonize it with the mark of catholicity it misses. Instead I can revisit once deeply held assumptions in its pages and muse upon their source and outcome, their value and the extent (or limit) of their vision. All of these things are still part of me, but now I have room in my life to continue on the road that began with them - out of the mindset of 16th century Wittenberg and into those places and times where there is comparative consistency, catholicity, and unity. I have not arrived so much as I have been granted the freedom to embark on the journey.<br />
<br />
I still like Orthodox theological books (of course), but I no longer have a Lutheranism upon which to bring them to bear. So again that leaves me with the primary Christian task of bringing them to bear on myself, or using them to help me appreciate more deeply the Church all around me. (Btw, to all those Lutherans back in the day that enjoyed what I wrote about the condition of Lutheranism and the LCMS and the Ablaze! movement - like Mr. Diekman, who featured some of my writings on his own blog - <span style="color:red">it all came from the Orthodox Church</span>.) <br />
<br />
<i>I'm still squeamish about Rome.</i><br />
<br />
I have never wanted to be a Roman Catholic. I still don't. But in coming to Orthodoxy I have come to see that Rome is not what Lutheranism makes it out to be. The Western rite in Orthodoxy draws upon the liturgical tradition of Rome to a large extent. My first instinct whenever I do something new-to-me in the Western rite is to mentally flinch because of Rome-a-phobia. Every time that mental flinching has proved silly once I actually saw what was really going on. The rosary, for instance, is a really nice thing. I am conditioned against Rome (and so are a lot of Orthodox laity and clergy for their own reasons), but I would liken my experience of Rome-a-phobia to brainwashing, unintentional as it may be. And it takes time to undo brainwashing.<br />
<br />
<i>I still like going back to the seminary.</i><br />
<br />
Let me tell you that I have surprised a few people by having the audacity to show up at my old Alma mater in Fort Wayne. Maybe given everything I've said above it does not seem so strange. I still love the campus, and I love the library. I don't go to chapel or anything, but I do go to the library. I especially like to run into old friends there, like anyone would. <br />
<br />
<br />
In the end I don't think I've exchanged one world for another. I have not stifled my former identity to become someone new, or forgotten myself in order to gain a new Byzantine styled self. I have had to have patience, though, as I got to know (and get to know) what is new-to-me or foreign, but never at the expense of what is right and good and true. In time my personal cosmos has enlarged, if anything. And I am better off for it. <div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-69643259228696606642013-10-08T16:27:00.000-04:002013-10-08T16:27:15.931-04:00True Humanity (with Fr. John Behr)<iframe width="500" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Gy-gCEWh5-4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-13104163714569656262013-09-25T02:39:00.001-04:002013-09-25T02:39:55.398-04:00The Eucharist Is EssentialTo not have the Eucharist at the center of your worship is to displace the Cross and Resurrection from the heart of the community, for that is what the Eucharist is. To bar infants and small children from the Eucharist is to exclude them from Good Friday, Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the Just on the Last Day, and the gathering of the Elect into the eternal Kingdom - for all these are summed up entirely in the Eucharist. Participation in the Eucharist is no more optional than Christ's self-offering for our salvation, for they are one and the same. The historical events are done to establish the Kingdom, while the Eucharist is given that this Kingdom may be established in our midst and rule in our bodies and souls, so that when the Kingdom comes for all to see we may be found in its midst with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the elect, and reign with Christ unto ages of ages.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-91282410690015511202013-06-20T02:33:00.000-04:002019-07-07T23:55:13.379-04:00Akathist to St. John of Shanghai and San FranciscoIn honor of the feast of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco I am placing an akathist to him here on my blog. I found this akathist at <a href="http://www.sfsobor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=70&lang=en" target="_blank">Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco</a>.<br />
<br />
Information about akathists in general is available at <a href="http://orthodoxwiki.org/Akathist">Orthodox Wiki</a>, as well as information about and images of <a href="http://orthodoxwiki.org/John_%28Maximovitch%29_the_Wonderworker">St. John</a> himself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCqlQ0uL0R_JjWE9_ouDjt7yg6eSHzOCoRln5OdMVoHDA89MLeyQQVnc2ZsQwP5EBw5mewe3ukDBoxhJvVyqBGP4wA5-kdQlqB5g2gPMHBK3ZtzQzTTD4b2BhyGYfF2fpzJckEA3pQ_E/s1600/John_Maximovitch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFCqlQ0uL0R_JjWE9_ouDjt7yg6eSHzOCoRln5OdMVoHDA89MLeyQQVnc2ZsQwP5EBw5mewe3ukDBoxhJvVyqBGP4wA5-kdQlqB5g2gPMHBK3ZtzQzTTD4b2BhyGYfF2fpzJckEA3pQ_E/s200/John_Maximovitch.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>
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<div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
AKATHIST HYMN <br />
to Our Father among the Saints <br />
JOHN Archbishop of Shanghai & San Francisco, the Wonderworker</div>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 1</u><br />
Chosen wonderworker and pleaser of Christ, who pourest forth inexhaustible streams of inspiration and a multitude of miracles upon the whole world, we praise thee with love and call out to thee:<br />
<br />
Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 1</u><br />
An angel in the flesh wast thou manifested in these latter times by the grace of God Who ever careth for men. Seeing the beauty of thy virtues, we cry out to thee:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who from earliest childhood wast adorned in piety.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst ever live in fear of God and do His holy will.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst manifest the grace of God through good deeds done secretly.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who dost hearken to the prayers of those in distress.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst hasten, full of love, to save thy neighbors.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, joy to all who fall down before thee with faith.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 2</u><br />
Beholding the abundance and variety of thy virtues, O holy Hierarch, we see in thee a living source of God's wonders in our time. Thou dost refresh with thy love and miracles all who cry in faith to God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 2</u><br />
Being filled with love and replete with theology, O divinely wise John, made wise by the knowledge of God and adorned with love for the suffering, teach us also to know the true God in love as we call out to thee in admiration:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, unshakeable stronghold of Orthodox truth.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, precious vessel of the Holy Spirit.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, righteous denouncer of impiety and false doctrine.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, zealous fulfiller of the commandments of God.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, ascetic who didst not allow thyself to rest upon a bed.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, beloved shepherd of the flock of Christ.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 3</u><br />
By the power of the grace of God wast thou manifest as a father to orphans and instructor of the young, raising them in the fear of God and preparing them for the service of God. Wherefore all thy children look to thee with love in gratitude cry out to God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 3</u><br />
Thou shouldst truly be praised from the heavens, and not from earth, O father John, for our words are feeble beside thy deeds. Yet offering to God what we have, we cry out to thee thus:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst protect thy children by thine unceasing prayer!</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst ever guard thy flock with the sign of the Cross.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou whose love knew no bounds of country or race.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, bright luminary beloved of all.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, model of unceasing prayer and loving kindness.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, bestower of spiritual consolation upon those in need.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 4</u><br />
Overwhelmed by the tempest of perils, we know not how to praise thee worthily, O Hierarch John. Thou didst travel to the ends of the earth to save thy flock and proclaim the glad tidings of the Gospel to those in darkness. Giving thanks to God for thine apostolic labors we cry out to Him: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 4</u><br />
Those near and far have heard of the greatness of thy miracles, which are made manifest by the mercy of God even to our days. And so we also, marveling, cry out in awe:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, enlightener of those in the darkness of unbelief.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst lead thy people from the Far East to the West.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, fountain of miracles poured forth by God.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, loving chastiser of those who have gone astray.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, swift consoler of those who repent of their sins.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, guide of those who walk the straight path.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 5</u><br />
Thou wast manifest to be a divinely bestowed light to stop the destructive forces of fallen nature, O holy Hierarch, preserving thy flock on the island of Tubabao from the deadly wind and storm, by thy prayer and the sign of the Cross. Teach us who call upon thee for help, O holy woderworker, to cry out in wonder unto God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 5</u><br />
All who have trusted in thy help in desperate circumstances and adversities have found deliverance, O bold intercessor, before the Throne of God. Wherefore, we trust in thine intercession before God, and cry out to thee:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who dost avert the dangers of the elements.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who by thy prayer deliverest from need.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, inexhaustible giver of bread to the hungry.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, abundant wealth for those who live in poverty.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, consolation for those in sorrow.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, quick uplifting for those who have fallen.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 6</u><br />
Preaching salvation though slow of speech, thou wast shown to be like a new Moses, leading thy people out of the captivity of the godless, O all-blessed John. Deliver us also from bondage to sin and the invisible foe, that, rejoicing, we may cry out to God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 6</u><br />
Shining forth in thy righteousness, thou didst do the impossible and persuade the authorities of this world to have pity on thy flock, O good shepherd. Wherefore, with them we also cry out to thee in thanksgiving:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, good shepherd who didst prepare for thy wandering flock a peaceful haven.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst show the greatest care for children and the sick.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, helper of all who call thee with faith.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, for in thy weak body wast the power of God made manifest with abundance.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who foilest the attacks of the unrighteous.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, destroyer of lies and exalter of truth.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 7</u><br />
Desiring to glorify as is meet the ancient saints of the West, of lands which had fallen away from the truth, thou didst revive their veneration in the Orthodox Church, O lover of the saints of the East and the West. With them pray thou today in heaven on behalf of us who chant on earth: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 7</u><br />
We see thee as a new chosen one of God, who wast manifest in the latter times as one of the holy Hierarchs of Gaul, exhorting thy flock to preserve the same Orthodox faith that they confessed, and astonishing the peoples of the West by thy holy life. Preserve us, that we too may abide in this Faith, who cry out to thee:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who wast a new Martin by thy miracles and ascetic feats.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who wast a new Germanus by thy confession of the Orthodox faith.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who wast a new Hilary by thy divine theology.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who wast a new Gregory by thy love and glorification of God's saints.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who wast a new Faustus by thy monastic fervor.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who wast a new Caesarius by thy steadfast love for the canons of the Church of God.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 8</u><br />
A strange sight didst thou behold: in the New World thou didst encounter thy former flock in tribulation. Here wast thee called to suffer persecution and by thine patience, righteousness and instruction to guide the flock, and didst erect the church of the Mother of God, the Joy of All Who Sorrow. Now marveling at thy patience and longsuffering, we all cry out to God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 8</u><br />
Giving thyself wholly unto Christ, O laborer of Christ's vineyard, thou knewest no rest even at the end of thy much-suffering life; help us, the unworthy, in our labors as we strive to be faithful to Christ, crying out in praise to thee:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst endure unto the end and so didst attain salvation.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who wast deemed worthy to die before the Icon of the Mother of God.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst keep thy faith and courage in the midst of unjust persecution.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst labor to the end for thy flock and didst repose, seated, as a hierarch.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst comfort the flock by being buried among it.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who workest wonders for those who come to thy relics with faith and love.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 9</u><br />
All the angelic hosts rejoiced at thy soul's ascent to • the mansions of heaven, marveling at the wonders thou didst perform on earth through the action of the Holy Spirit, to Whom we sing: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 9</u><br />
Orators find it impossible to describe thy life of sanctity with their many and eloquent words, O righteous father John, for thou didst become a living dwelling-place for the grace of the ineffable God. Yet, unable to be silent at the wonder revealed to our age of feeble faith, we glorify thee:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, divine palace from whence the counsel of the Good King is given.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, for in thy humble activity thou hadst angels serving with thee.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst gain a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, infirmary wherein every ailment is divinely healed.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, depository wherein thy holy labor of prayer was hidden.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, blessed temple of the Holy Spirit.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 10</u><br />
Desiring to save the world, the Savior of all hath sent unto us a new saint and through him hath called us forth from the dark abyss of sin. Hearing this call to repentance, we, the unworthy ones, in turn cry out to God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 10</u><br />
THou art a wall sheltering us from adversity, O father John, for through thy heavenly intercessions are we delivered from the attacks of demonic passions and from afflictions which beset us on earth. Before thy firm support of prayer, we cry with faith:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, sight to those who are blind.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who by the power of prayer givest life to those on their bed of death.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who with divine wisdom dost enlighten those in confusion and doubt.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, refreshing water to those perishing in the heat of sorrow.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, loving father to the orphaned and abandoned.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, holy teacher of those who seek the Truth.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 11</u><br />
In thought, word and deed thy life was a hymn to the Most Holy Trinity, O most blessed John. For with much wisdom didst thou explain the precepts of the true Faith, teaching us to sing with faith, hope and love to the one God in Trinity: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 11</u><br />
We see thee as a radiant lamp of Orthodoxy for those in the darkness of ignorance, O good shepherd of the flock of Christ. Thus, even after thy repose, thou dost reveal the Truth to those ignorant thereof, illumining the souls of the faithful, who cry out to thee such things as these:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who with divine wisdom dost enlighten those who languish in unbelief.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, rainbow of quiet joys for the meek. </li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thunder to those obstinate in sin.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, lightning burning up heresies. </li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, downpour of the dogmas of Orthodoxy.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, dew of the thought of God.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 12</u><br />
With reverence and thanksgiving do we receive the grace that hath been poured out upon thee by God, O most lauded father John. Glorifying the wonders of a holy hierarch who once walked among us, we cry out to God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<u>Ikos 12</u><br />
Singing praise unto God, the heavenly choir of saints rejoiceth that He hath not forsaken the fallen and faithless world, but hath manifested His almighty power in thee, his meek and humble servant. O blessed John, with all the saints we greet thee and give honor to thee:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, new star of righteousness which hath shone forth in heaven.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, new prophet who wast sent before the final reign of evil.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who like Jonah dost warn all of the wages of sin.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who like the Baptist John calleth all to prayer and repentance.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who like Paul endured much for the sake of the Gospel and the preaching of the Faith.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, new apostle whose miracles instill in us faith and awe.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 13</u><br />
0 all-radiant and most wondrous God-pleaser, holy hierarch John, consolation for all who sorrow, accept this, our offering of prayer, that through thy prayers to our Lord we may be delivered from fiery Gehenna and by thy God-pleasing intercession we may chant forever unto God: Alleluia!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>This Kontakion is recited thrice, whereupon Ikos 1 and Kontakion 1 are repeated.</i></div>
<br />
<u>Ikos 1</u><br />
An angel in the flesh wast thou manifested in these latter times by the grace of God Who ever careth for men. Seeing the beauty of thy virtues, we cry out to thee:<br />
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: none;">
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who from earliest childhood wast adorned in piety.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst ever live in fear of God and do His holy will.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst manifest the grace of God through good deeds done secretly.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who dost hearken to the prayers of those in distress.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, thou who didst hasten, full of love, to save thy neighbors.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, joy to all who fall down before thee with faith.</li>
<li style="text-indent: -20px;">Rejoice, O holy hierarch, father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Kontakion 1</u><br />
Chosen wonderworker and pleaser of Christ, who pourest forth inexhaustible streams of inspiration and a multitude of miracles upon the whole world, we praise thee with love and call out to thee: Rejoice, O holy hierarch, Father John, speedy helper amid misfortunes!<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-47538737301869358962013-05-30T01:57:00.000-04:002014-01-15T17:09:30.563-05:00Be Reconciled<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrPccHpu1XOqcMwPJkprMi2HB6F5A6rQrs8MUlqQOLr8oehc1i8YviaNq7APhTZ_datuxzfsM4DHNd0h8uhCacbg3YgNO9qq7nDBq8_Jn4bSf3vx9ICIM1BqqV9GVhKcNRZji5gT7BTo/s1600/Liturgy.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrPccHpu1XOqcMwPJkprMi2HB6F5A6rQrs8MUlqQOLr8oehc1i8YviaNq7APhTZ_datuxzfsM4DHNd0h8uhCacbg3YgNO9qq7nDBq8_Jn4bSf3vx9ICIM1BqqV9GVhKcNRZji5gT7BTo/s320/Liturgy.jpg" style="float:left; padding: 10px" /></a>In Lutheran dogmatics a sharp distinction is made between justification and sanctification. Justification is to be declared righteous. Sanctification is to be made holy (or declared and made holy). Justification is a forensic act. A careful consideration of the Formula of Concord Article III (Righteousness of Faith Before God) makes this clear. Justification is carefully hedged in juridical terms, and set against the idea that one is actually made righteous by the Holy Spirit as a matter of renewal. Specifically we can cite the following from the Epitome [selections from par. 12-23]:<br />
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<blockquote>Therefore we reject and condemn all the following errors: <br />
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3. That in the sayings of the prophets and apostles where the righteousness of faith is spoken of the words justify and to be justified are not to signify declaring or being declared free from sins, and obtaining the forgiveness of sins, but actually being made righteous before God, because of love infused by the Holy Ghost, virtues, and the works following them. <br />
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7. That faith saves on this account, because by faith the renewal, which consists in love to God and one's neighbor, is begun in us. <br />
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8. That faith has the first place in justification, nevertheless also renewal and love belong to our righteousness before God in such a manner that they [renewal and love] are indeed not the chief cause of our righteousness, but that nevertheless our righteousness before God is not entire or perfect without this love and renewal.<br />
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9. That believers are justified before God and saved jointly by the imputed righteousness of Christ and by the new obedience begun in them, or in part by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, but in part also by the new obedience begun in them.<br />
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10. That the promise of grace is made our own by faith in the heart, and by the confession which is made with the mouth, and by other virtues.<br />
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11. That faith does not justify without good works; so that good works are necessarily required for righteousness, and without their presence man cannot be justified.</blockquote><br />
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Why the care? Why go so far as to restrict the concept of justification to a forensic declaration? Surely the Scriptures speak at times of being imputed or reckoned righteous, but at other times do they not speak of being made morally righteous as an interior, spiritual renewal similar to the Lutheran concept of Sanctification?<br />
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What makes Lutheran justification a matter of faith alone is its target, or better put, the aim of Christ's atonement. In the Book of Concord the target of the atonement is God's wrath. Consider paragraph 9 in this very article (emphasis mine):<br />
<blockquote>9] 6. We believe, teach, and confess also that notwithstanding the fact that many weaknesses and defects cling to the true believers and truly regenerate, even to the grave, still they must not on that account doubt either their righteousness which has been imputed to them by faith, or the salvation of their souls, but must regard it <b>as certain that for Christ's sake</b>, according to the promise and [immovable] Word of the holy Gospel, <b>they have a gracious God</b>.</blockquote><br />
Also the Augsburg Confession itself, Article III (emphasis mine):<br />
<blockquote>1] Also they teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, did assume the human nature in 2] the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably enjoined in one Person, one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and 3] buried, that He might reconcile <b>the Father unto us</b>, and be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.<br />
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4] He also descended into hell, and truly rose again the third day; afterward He ascended into heaven that He might sit on the right hand of the Father, and forever reign and have dominion over all creatures, and sanctify 5] them that believe in Him, by sending the Holy Ghost into their hearts, to rule, comfort, and quicken them, and to defend them against the devil and the power of sin.<br />
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6] The same Christ shall openly come again to judge the quick and the dead, etc., according to the Apostles' Creed.</blockquote><br />
Regarding par. 3, the confessors state their belief that Christ's work of redemption was to reconcile the Father to us, though St. Paul indicates the opposite in 2Co 5:18 and Eph 2:16 - that the Father has reconciled us to Himself and one another through the cross. <br />
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The work of redemption in the Lutheran Confessions is primarily to affect something in God (viz. His justice/righteousness), and secondarily or consequently to affect a change in us. Justification is identified with the former, and Sanctification with the latter. The work of atonement - meaning the birth, life, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ - merits or earns Justification by providing to God both the righteousness that He requires from human beings and suffering the penalty for disobedience that we have incurred. Since this work is complete, meaning all legal accounts have been settled with God, nothing can be added to this redemption. Faith alone remains, that is, one only has to embrace this forensic acquittal and imputation in order to apply it to oneself. God is appeased, so now if we will believe - and keep on believing this - we never have to worry about the wrath of God unto hell again. It all depends on satisfying the justice and wrath of God, as if that is the problem that must be solved before we can reunite with God.<br />
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But what if that was not the problem? Yes, we lack righteousness, and Christ supplies righteousness to us. The Epitome III says well:<br />
<blockquote>3] 1. Against both the errors just recounted, we unanimously believe, teach, and confess that Christ is our Righteousness neither according to the divine nature alone nor according to the human nature alone, but that it is the entire Christ according to both natures, in His obedience alone, which as God and man He rendered to the Father even unto death, and thereby merited for us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, as it is written: As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous, Rom. 5:19.</blockquote><br />
But what if Christ did not satisfy any punishment? Yes, Christ suffered for our sins, but what if that did not mean that the stripes He suffered were a replacement for the punishments coming to us in hell? Or (as Luther puts it) that Christ did not suffer the full fury of God's hell and punishment spiritually on the cross, but just suffered the cross and the human experience of abandonment and death that comes with it? What if all that Christ suffered was simply a matter of obedience - that He suffered out of obedience to God, and this obedience alone unto death atones for ours sins? And that where obedience is supplied for all, punishment is taken away for all? Is justification still by faith alone? <br />
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Perhaps, because then it still remains a legal matter. All that has happened in what I've described is that the legal condition that punishments be suffered as a condition for forgiveness is removed. Forensic righteousness must still be supplied.<br />
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Yes, except the concept of punishments is not all that is removed. With the canceling of any need to satisfy punishment also goes the primary difficulty of the wrath of God. <br />
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Wait, are you sure? There will be a Day of wrath, according to St. Paul's gospel. (Romans 2) Yes, this is true. What I mean is that the wrath of God is no longer the target of the atonement. God loves us and wants us to be righteous. He is not interested in having someone punished before He is willing to forgive, so there is nothing in God that needs to be changed. The target is actually all of us - those who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.<br />
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So two things need to be considered regarding Formula of Concord III:<br />
<ol><li>That the aim of the atonement was not that we should gain a gracious God or have Him become reconciled to us - as if He were angry and we wanting reconciliation - because God has always been gracious towards us, and we as a race have gone astray in our hearts and acted as enemies of God (i.e. the other way around). <b>The aim was not that God should be made to change and reconcile, but that we should be made to change and reconcile.</b></li>
<li><b>There is no need to satisfy a legal requirement for punishment when sin has been replaced with righteousness.</b> If wrath awaits us on the Last Day, it is due to a lack of righteousness. The idea that God's justice must be satisfied by suffering punishments comes from Anselm and medieval scholasticism. Anselm posited that God's honor is offended by man's sins, and in the fashion of typical Normal chivalry he believed that any slight against honor had to be satisfied. Thomas Aquinas took exception to the idea that the atonement was to restore something in God, since God does not need sacrifice. We need sacrifice, so Christ's work was interpreted as supplying merit and suffering penance - a system the Lutheran confessors try to reject. Their success was limited, in that they still held fiercely to the notion that Christ needed to satisfy a divine justice that could only be appeased by meting out suffering and not by innocence alone.</li>
</ol><br />
Given that justice is not satisfied by suffering but only by obedience (which in this world is often in the face of suffering), and that Christ's sacrifice is offered to God because we need it so that something in us may change, justification is not a purely forensic act. In order to be effective it must be a transformative act. At this point some of my readers may be going back over what I just said and saying, "Yeah, but it <i>could still</i> be a purely forensic act." Really? Why? If you tell someone, "Faith alone saves," then from what is faith saving? Not an unreconciled God, because God's attitude is always one of reconciliation. We need to reconcile. From wrath? But Christ died not to change God's wrath but to change you. Wrath is still coming. Christ's death didn't take away wrath, or the God who is wrathful over sin. Christ died to give you righteousness - His righteousness. Faith is the core, but faith leads into Baptism, Confirmation/Chrismation, and the Eucharist. Faith is the beginning of <i>your</i> change. And by faith through Baptism you die and rise again in Christ. You change. <br />
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So when the Scriptures use the word that means Justification it speaks morally. It is not speaking about a change in God, it is speaking about a change in you. It is speaking about Christ in you through the Holy Spirit, sharing and imparting to you His pure and incarnate self that is righteousness itself. And when the Scriptures speak of Sanctification, it is to be taken in the same fashion except in terms of holiness. <br />
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From the change in you through union with Christ comes the forensic acquittal. Abraham was accounted righteous because his heart turned toward God (faith). This is the seat of actual righteousness. In Christ the same applies to you, but even more in that Christ supplies to the willing heart all that He offered to the Father in love for your salvation. Christ supplies the Grace necessary for that inward renewal that we need for our salvation. <br />
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So the Lutheran Confessions are not correct on this point. They tried, but were unable to get outside the box of medieval scholasticism. There are many Lutherans that know there is more to Justification than the legal aspect, but as Lutherans they are committed to this article and others that drop anchor in a place irreconcilable with catholic and orthodox interpretation, thus pitting Lutherans against 1500+ years of the Church. This is not a comfortable place to be.<br />
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The Roman Church, though limited by medieval scholasticism, has generally not bought into Anselm's idea that something in God must be appeased as much as in the ideas of Thomas Aquinas, which includes the concept that all actual sins must be temporally expiated (though Christ expiates the eternal guilt), either here or in Purgatory. Even though Rome has applied effort in combating the Angry God perspective, they still suffer from Papal Supremacy - which has become Papal Infallibility. :-(<br />
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The Orthodox Church, though, does not depend on this medieval trap. Lutherans should consider, as a matter of consistency, a move to communion with the bishops and churches of the East. Consistency? Yes, consistency. Reformation of the western church was not entirely successful through the efforts of the 16th century reformers. The reformers were not able to find the necessary correctives to the problems posed by Rome. The Orthodox Church retains that necessary corrective. Lutherans in this country ought to consider achieving reunification of the west with the east through themselves and their own congregations. It is something to think about.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-47850516503099844582013-04-04T22:56:00.000-04:002013-04-04T22:56:21.823-04:00Why the Marriage Debate Cannot Be WonIf the debate is about homosexuals being granted the same civil marriage rights as heterosexuals, I have to say there is nothing in our current form of polity that can stop it. We've adopted a form of government that permits almost anything, so long as enough people mobilize to demand it. Our society values freedom above all else, and in the homosexual marriage debate we are seeing what human beings ultimately do with unrestrained freedom. This is all a moot point from the perspective what is legally possible, for in America anything is legally possible if people mobilize to demand it.<br />
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That does not mean there is no philosophical or religious angle to this issue. There are a lot of religions in America, and religion involves beliefs about what reality is all about. Science that investigates human origin is usually heavily biased by evolutionary philosophy, which undergirds some of the pro-marriage thinking in the debate. However there are still other philosophies. All systems - religious and philosophical - use a combination of evidence, experience, thought, and faith (conviction) to arrive at the conclusions they hold. There will never be an end to the religious and philosophical debate, since in such situations few people are able to listen to opposing view points without seeing their own biases or getting emotional. There can be no meaningful debate if the debaters argue from emotion instead of logic.<br />
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But frankly the issue of homosexual marriage confronting and dividing our country is not an issue of religion and philosophy so much as it is an issue of government. Within the current governmental structure the only way to stop homosexual unions from being legalized is to convince those with deciding power that 1) a different philosophical/religious perspective on this issue needs to be adopted, or 2) that homosexual unions are demonstrably harmful to those involved, families, communities, or society in general - no matter peoples religious and philosophical views. <br />
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We have this issue before us because of the form of government we have chosen for ourselves. Period. Human nature is what it is; it seeks what it wants. As an Orthodox Christian I can say with a high level of confidence that those who desire to inherit the kingdom of heaven will not live as practitioners of homosexuality, no matter how much they may be tempted to do so in body, mind, or spirit - just as it is with those tempted with adultery, sex outside of marriage, and other sexual practices found among men but forbidden by Christ through His Apostles and His Church. Those outside of Christ will not necessarily struggle against these practices, and so will do whatever they find in themselves, whatever that may be. <br />
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If Christians are unhappy with the choices the people in our society are making, we ourselves have at least two choices:<br />
<ol><li>Leave for another society whose government and/or people hold allegiance to Christianity;</li>
<li>Do a much better job articulating our position against opposing philosophies.</li></ol><br />
I do not include the third idea of establishing a different government, because Christians should not engage in revolutions. The Christians is Syria are being persecuted terribly for not rising up against Asad. It's evil that they are treated this way. The weapons of Christians are not revolution and war, but prayer and love and fidelity to Christ. <br />
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We are making our city on the plains of Shinar, with its tower reaching up to the heavens. The ultimate solution to this problem will come from God. We may find ourselves conquered by Islam or torn apart in war for our crimes, so that by one means or another we may return to sanity. I'm personally hoping for the Parousia.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-40656525144005232982012-09-24T02:45:00.000-04:002012-09-24T02:45:55.063-04:00Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain<span style="color: #b45f06;">"You who are sinning, it is your responsibility to stop, become sorry, and return to God."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"You who have returned, God has led you away from your sins, brought you to repentance, and numbered you among His elect in Christ."</span><br />
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<i>Wait, but didn't God decide before the foundation of the world which of us He was going to save?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"</span><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"You who are sinning, God will hold you responsible for your sinful actions, unless you change your ways."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"You repentant in Christ, God alone has saved you apart from any work or merit on your part."</span><br />
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<i>Wait, but didn't doesn't God alone ultimately decide who ends up turning away from sin, being repentant, and coming to Christ?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"</span><br />
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<i>Wait! If God alone determines who will come to repentance, receive forgiveness, and be numbered among the elect - and man has no cooperation towards this end - then why is it my job to change myself? How can you tell me God will hold me accountable for my actions, if I have no way out of the condition that causes my actions except God chooses to release me from that cause? If I am bound, how can I be blamed for what binds me? If the only way to change depends solely on God, then why doesn't God change everyone?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Those teachings are not being used in the right place, even though they describe our beliefs correctly. We are not supposed to tell people that their coming to faith and remaining in it depends solely on God, and that it has nothing to do with them, but only God's choice, EXCEPT when we are talking to current believers who need more reason to hope that they will be saved. You're not supposed to tell people this up front!"</span><br />
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<i>Why? If God alone chooses who gets to be saved, and He alone makes it happen, then being up front about this belief can harm nothing. God's will shall still be done, right? So long as His Word and Sacraments are administered according to His command those whom He chose to be saved will be, and the others will not. </i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"It's not faithful to tell people up front that God alone has already decided who will believe, and which believers will remain in the faith until the end. You have to tell people this truth at the right time. Only once they've believed everything else we've taught can you tell them this. Then it's comforting. That's what God wants."</span><br />
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<i>Really? So God doesn't want people to know that the seating in heaven and hell has already been assigned by Him before the world began?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Now that's not fair! God does not choose who goes to hell from before the world began. All people are going to hell because of Adam and sin. God just chooses which of us He'll save. He only assigns the seating in heaven from before the world began."</span><br />
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<i>So what about people who believe but fall away from the faith?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"That's their own fault. We always have freedom to reject God."</span><br />
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<i>So God alone can cause a person to become a believer; people have no freedom in that. But a person does have the freedom to reject God?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Yes."</span><br />
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<i>So that means regarding those that fall away that God gives saving faith to some people, but He didn't provide them with the ability to persevere in the faith until the end. They relapse due to their own fault, and God's okay with that. He just lets them go. But He knew they were going to relapse, because He didn't plan for them to make it to the end in the first place. So why did He give them faith in the first place?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"It's a mystery."</span><br />
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<i>Indeed. You said a mouthful. Maybe just so He could use them to help other people come to the faith, or something like that?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Who knows. God can do what He likes. He's wiser than us."</span><br />
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<i>I see. So unless God forces a person to believe, they will never believe. And if a person believes by God's power, they can still reject that, right?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Right, except God doesn't force anyone. He just makes the unwilling willing."</span><br />
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<i>What's the difference?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"To be forced is to do something against your will. God doesn't do that. He just changes our will entirely."</span><br />
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<i>Really. You have a dazzling intellect.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Wait till I get going! Mankind, due to sin, is an enemy of God, unable to receive the things of the Spirit. His will is at enmity with God. Not only is his will inclined to not believe in God, but it is hostile to God in spiritual matters. No human being could possibly believe in God, because deep inside he doesn't even like God! So God, through the Word and Sacraments, has to come upon a person and renew his will! Then a person can believe - no, wait -- then a person DOES believe! Fantastic, isn't it!"</span><br />
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<i>It's really something. But tell me, if man's only hope is for God to fix his will so that he doesn't shluff off from Christ and end up in hell, why doesn't God just do that for everyone? If that's the only way, then why wouldn't God do this for everyone? Doesn't He want everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Yes, He does, but you forget that we have freedom to reject God."</span><br />
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<i>Actually, no I didn't forget. According to your theory everyone is born rejecting God. It is God alone who changes that rejection into belief. He does this, according to you, based on a predetermined cosmic plan of election, in which God determined before a single human being existed which would end up saved out of all those destined for hell. And this plan is not changed on the fly, but is fulfilled according to God's purpose precisely. Ultimately if I am saved, God gets the credit for putting me on His list before any human being ever existed. And if I am not saved it is because God refrained from changing my will toward faith and causing me to remain steadfast until the end. Sure there is initial blame for man's condemnation with man (though maybe I'll ask you about that another time, since it doesn't seem fair to write off everyone just because their father sinned...), but since only God can save us, don't you think it would be great if He would?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"You are going beyond Scripture here. God's will is a mystery. He wants to save everyone, but doesn't. He doesn't have to explain it further."</span><br />
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<i>That's not very nice. It makes God look like He doesn't care, but that maybe He's just using us as some kind of plaything. You don't believe in Limited Atonement, do you?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Oh goodness, no! Yuck! We believe Christ died for the salvation from sin for all people, both those going to heaven and those going to hell."</span><br />
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<i>But the only way for a person to be saved through Christ is if God wills it from eternity.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"You're taking it out of order again. We don't talk about that, except to a believer who needs to be comforted with a greater sense of security that he or she is going to heaven. It's more pastoral that way."</span><br />
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<i>Pastoral? What's pastoral about taking something you believe to be absolute truth and hiding it from your parishioners, and only sharing it when they are emotionally vulnerable and more succeptible to believe whatever makes them feel better. Is that really what you call being pasTORal?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"That's not nice. I think you're putting the worst construction on that."</span><br />
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<i>Am I?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Yes. You just don't believe the Bible. All of this is from the Bible."</span><br />
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<i>Actually, it's not. It's from a bunch of Europeans who came along 1400+ years after the New Testament was written. They couldn't see past the problems of the previous 200 years, so they re-read their Bibles and found all sorts of interesting new teachings that had never been recieved in the Church of Christ. This is one of them.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"You're way out of line now. The Bible is clear that our teaching is the truth."</span><br />
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<i>Then why did we have to wait 1500+ years from the time of Christ for these teachings to be formulated?</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"That's be--"</span><br />
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<i>This is going on too long. Let me suggest an older interpretation that has been around as far back as we have records of Christian interpretation of Scripture, and that has always been believed everywhere by all people in the Church: God predestined salvation for the human <b>race</b> from before the foundation of the world. The whole human race is on His planned seating list in heaven. But not everyone is willing to come to the wedding feast. God desires all to come. God makes everything ready. His guests need only accept the invitation. Though He knows ahead of time who will come, versus who will reject Him, He makes the same preparations for all, because He loves all and wants all to come to the same end - blessedenss in His kingdom forever. Everyone has the same chance - He reaches all with the same powerful, grace-giving and illuminating call. But He forces no one, because He does not want slaves or pre-programmed robots, but sons and daughters. And it turns out that it is our own marriage feast that we are invited to enjoy. If we accept God brings us to the blessedness He has prepared. If we reject we will burn with the malcontents. It's that simple.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #b45f06;">"Wait - I have one question for <b>you</b>: if a person has freedom to accept or reject (even if God helps him have the greatest possible chance to accept), doesn't that detract from the honor of Christ as our only Savior? Don't I become my own Savior?"</span><br />
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<i>No, because Christ's honor does not lie our cosmic manipulation (as if we were robots to be programmed), but in the restoration of the human race to the family of God. The honor of Christ is that He corrects all that is askew with humanity in His incarnation, that He carries our personal sins to its end in His death, that He defangs death by sanctifying it with His own Life, and grants unto us life in a new creation of which He is the New Adam, and that He sends us the Holy Spirit to incorporate us into this mystery, that we may become one Body with Him, and remain with Him always. His honor is preserved for all time in the salvation established and offered to each person. But since He does not decide for us whether we will be saved or not, He leaves that to you. That's why the Scriptures everywhere appeal to us to do, to act, to believe, to change, to return, to accept. Those words are not clever codes for something else, but mean what they say. To will something, though, is not a work. A slave can will to be free, can will to not obey his master's wicked commands, can <b>will</b> all sorts of things - but never does the will translate in ability or power to the one who is bound. It is entirely free in its choosing, yet impotent and powerless in its ability. It is this way for the unconverted man. The only reward he receives is from willing evil, and the reward is pleasure from sin. Such a spiritually bound person can freely will to do the good, but lacking the power and ontological freedom to accomplish it he remains under the power of sin (i.e. he gets nowhere). Christ comes to the man in this bondage and offers release. In this situation the sinner's will is illumined and enboldened by Christ's powerful and very real offer. In this situation, due to the power and salvation of <b>Christ</b>, if he wills it the slave is set free, and becomes a son of the Kingdom. If we speak this way we give far more honor to Christ than we ever had before. Amen.</i><div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-77379212829612755532012-07-21T02:24:00.001-04:002012-07-21T02:25:24.734-04:00The Body is for the Lord<i>The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.</i> [1Co 6:13b]<br />
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<i>But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.</i> [1Co 6:17]<br />
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<i>Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.</i> [1Co 6:19-20]<br />
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Immorality? What does this mean? The word is actually <i>porneia</i> (por-ni'-ah) meaning illicit sexual intercourse, adultery, fornication (sex outside marriage), [the practice of] homosexuality, [the practice of] lesbianism, intercourse with animals, etc. <br />
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We must define the word, because much that is porneia in our society is accepted, promoted, and transmitted to us seamlessly through television, movies, music, and the Internet. Simply put we define the word because its meaning may not be so obvious to us nowadays. Our souls have become dull to porneia from overexposure. <br />
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St. Paul is dealing with a situation in the Corinthian congregation where terrible porneia is being tolerated. Not only does the congregation need to come to its senses and deal with the problem according to Christ, they need to be reminded just what the body's relationship to Christ really is. <br />
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The body is for the Lord. The Lord is for the body. Our very identity as Christians is bound up with the body of Jesus Christ - the very body that suffered, died, rose to life, is seated at the right hand of God, and that shall come again in glory to judge the world. The body of the Son of God Himself. We who believe have been baptized into His body - buried through baptism into His death, raised to His new life. Our very humanity has undergone a change - a healing - by being united with the humanity of Jesus Christ. We have died and risen with Him in Baptism. He has poured out His Spirit on us in the Pentecost of our Chrismation/Confirmation. He has fed us with His own flesh and blood in the Eucharist, that we may live in Him and He in us, that we may not die - even when we do die! - but live to God forever. This is the story of each and every Christian. We are changed. We are new. We are of one Body with the Lord. Ans thus we are Christians.<br />
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Therefore our bodies are for the Lord. Having passed over from the old to the new in this way, it is horrifying to think that we should take what is holy (our bodies) and hand it back over to spiritual harm and bondage again. But this is what happened in the Corinthian congregation. And this sort of thing is what we are tempted with. No one is tempted with anything unique, but all are tempted with what is common to mankind. We are tempted to take what Christ has redeemed - our bodies - and to return to Egypt, so to speak, to feed our flesh with acts of porneia or images of porneia or ideas of porneia, etc. <br />
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That this is so speaks to a critical issue: our power of desire and our self control. If we go back to the beginning, to Christ's preaching in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7) we can see that He is constantly aiming at our hearts, our power of desire and choice, and our use of self control. It can be a demoralizing read! If we read it with an open heart the light of truth can really hurt the eyes, so to speak - or rather the reality of our situation can really hurt our pride. But after a while our spiritual eyes adjust, the pride melts a bit, and we can begin to accept ourselves for who we are. And we begin to accept that this is how God sees us - and this moved Him to come down from heaven, to teach us, to die for us, and to rise again for us and to save us in the Church - ultimately to grant to us grace that can change us if we wish to be changed.<br />
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Our bodies are for the Lord, and the Lord for our bodies. We who have become united with the Lord in the Church are one Body with Him [Eph 1]. And we are one spirit with Him. We are temples - bodily churches - of the Holy Spirit. Our calling is different than what you will find in the world. We have been given a kingdom of the heart - of sincerity, of love, of faith, of hope. It's not a faraway reality, but interwoven within us. The challenge of each Christian is to set the heart after Christ - not only to believe, but to meet the daily challenge of belief. That means self-control on the one hand, and perseverance in love on the other. And let prayer center us. Amen.<br />
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<a href="http://www.biblestudytools.com/rsv/1-corinthians/6.html">1 Corinthians 6 (RSV)</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-1481732101875598602012-06-26T01:48:00.000-04:002012-06-26T03:49:23.581-04:00Pharisee - yeah, that's me.It is a frightening thing to realize that you yourself are a Pharisee. This realization comes when you finally see that the desires of your heart are not the desires of Christ's commandments, but rather fame, honor, and other personal desires. Seeing this truth about ourselves is a stinging yet saving gift from God, because then the false man who is built with the framework of pride and the bricks of delusion can crumble. Or to put it another way, we can begin to actually leave all behind and follow after Christ. After the rubble is torn away what remains is the man of flesh who depends solely on God for all his good and necessities - even his very breath. This vision of the self is crucifixion and burial. But God raises the dead and makes the dead alive in Christ, formed not with pride and delusion, but with the mystery of our salvation in Christ. That is to say, God accomplishes something in us our Pharisee-ism would never permit Him to do before.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-57854238788576910812012-05-10T01:53:00.000-04:002012-05-10T16:44:00.219-04:00An Unpopular Message"<i>But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.</i>" [2 Peter 3:10-13, NKJV]<br />
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In the news today are two opposite stances on the legal recognition of homosexual marriage in our country. North Carolina has determined that such unions contradict their constitution. President Obama has expressed his support for the legal recognition of homosexual unions as marriage. There are a lot of celebrations and grumblings on both sides of the issue because of these announcements. <br />
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As a Christian, though, this matters very little to me, that is, it matters very little to me what my President thinks about this, and it matters little to me that North Carolina has taken the stance it has. It matters little to me, because I do not look to the government to create right and wrong. It matters little to me because my hope is not in this world. My hope is in Christ. My hope is in His Kingdom, which is established by His cross and resurrection. <b>My hope lies in a reality that supersedes all other realities.</b> My world revolves around He Who Is, Who Was, and Who Is Coming. He is the light in my sky, the food on my table, the origin of my species, the only true goodness, and the only future that exists.<br />
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Most people in our society have a different perspective than this. Most people see only the earth which is passing away. Did Christ not say, "<i>Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?</i>" [Luke 18:8, NKJV]. Their hearts have become animalistic through the love of wicked things and self aggrandizement. The love of wicked things prevents a man's heart from being able to find the Kingdom that Christ says is within you [Lk 17:21]. But this is considered normal in the world - among our friends and family and co-workers and such - and no one notices any problem. They seem to want it that way. And Christians face the same temptations, though it is through the mercy and power of God that we are being made into something different.<br />
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Christians in our society are characterized as a people with a message to be believed. While it is true we have a message of Good News for the world, it is also true that we have an unpopular message that comes with it. The Good News is good for those who accept it. It is not good for everyone else. Peace, renewal, salvation is our message, but so is judgment, revealing of secrets, and a definite End. This creation has its source in spirit - in the God who is spirit - and God will not endure wickedness forever, for it grieves His heart that men's hearts are evil [Gn 6:5-6]. He endures it now, says St. Peter [2Pt 3:9], so that all may have time to return and change and be changed by the grace of God. This is all God wants from us, that we turn our hearts back to Him and begin to do the good so that we may live [Ez 18:21-32].<br />
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But the End shall come. The End of this world, the End of wickedness, the End of devilry, unbelief, and perversion – and the End of not knowing God. All will know God, because He will appear and all that ever lived will appear before Him. But the hearts that were bitter against Him in this life, smoldering against Him in this world will ignite in agony from meeting Him face to face. The One they despised from afar will come near, and their hearts will overcome them in agony. The hearts that changed, though, and that came to their senses and were anointed with the love of God will radiate joyfully with the fire of His love when they meet Him face to face. The One they believed in and loved will draw near, and their hearts will overcome them in joy. <br />
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God will cause those who believe Him and love as He loves to endure in His Kingdom beyond the End of this world. His Kingdom shall endure, and because of His enduring Kingdom the world that is today shall be transformed, purified, and made new. The very work that Christ desires to work in every man's heart and life will in the End, after the heat and judgment, be accomplished for creation itself. There will be a new - a renewed - heaven and earth. Then creation shall no longer groan in expectation, but shall come into joy. In this End all that is contrary to God shall be shut out, and only the Good shall remain.<br />
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Most people in the world will not be part of this. That's a strong statement but it is sadly true. For most people their hope is in this world, and this world is the limit of that hope. So while in this world they build kingdoms after their desires. Today it is homosexual marriage. Before that it has been killing unborn children (and this continues). Before that the sexual revolution (and this continues). Tomorrow it will be something more. Eventually it will be absolute war against Christianity - and this has already begun, but I mean it will be more overt. <br />
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And while in this world they resist the Truth. God has implanted the Truth in each person, for He made us after His own image, but they will continue to heap up reasons not to believe: there are so many gods to choose from, "I only believe in science" (<i>Nacho Libre</i> comes to mind), religious people are often bad so religion must be bad (this is a logical fallacy), etc. All this serves to insulate their hearts from the real issue. <br />
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It all comes down to the heart: "<i>This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed</i>" [John 3:19-20, NKJV].<br />
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The battleground is the human heart, between righteousness and perversion, faith and unbelief, divine love and self-love. From our hearts we must become different. We are all sick, spiritually ill, and even physically warped by our spiritual ailment. From our hearts we must come to our senses and become willing to change toward Christ. The few who are and (by God's grace) do are true Christians. Scripture shows, though, that in these Last Days most will not because they love their sickness. That only leaves them this world, this time, to fashion their tower of Babel, their illusion of reality.<br />
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So the President, after showing great intolerance to religious freedom (a Constitutional term) earlier this year, now voices his support for legally recognizing homosexual unions as "marriages." This is not of God; it's the world and Babel. On the other hand one state in the union is blocking homosexual marriage. This comes about because we live in a democratic society where the will of the majority in the society has a certain amount of say in what goes on. People of faith still have a say, though who can say if that's the motivation in this case (only God knows). But it will not last. These are the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. These are the days of Jeroboam's revolt and of Babylon. These are the days when man repeats the error of Babel. Scripture has foretold it. And in the end the Scriptures will be fulfilled. <br />
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For those of us who have been made Christians, I am of the opinion that we should say what we believe, vote as Christians, but not argue with unbelievers about homosexual unions. Our argument is not one of "reason," but of reasonable faith and faithful reason. Their argument is one of reason in a spiritual vacuum / of unbelieving reason - which is limited to this world that is passing away. It is reason without eyes. Society cannot be held accountable to Christ - yet - because society is not baptized into Christ, not sealed with the Holy Spirit, not communicants of Christ's Body and Blood, not a participant in the Eschatological Kingdom. Society will be made accountable to Christ when He comes on the Last Day, because on that Day there will be a baptism in fire, the permanence of the Kingdom, and the visible presence of Christ on His judgment seat. <br />
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If we are to engage our world we must first look to Christ to change our own hearts after His sacred heart that loves us enough for Him to be crucified and die for us. We must seek to enter into the mystery of God's heart and find God's burning, fiery love for mankind that seeks to inflame us with goodness, peace, and love. In the mystery of the fire of God's love we will see how no wicked thing can exist there, and how blessed it is to be made good by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. This is a deep mystery, but it is the mystery of the faith open to all who believe, who will walk in Christ's ways because they believe Him and love Him and are being made new by Him each and every day. <br />
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Being changed by Christ is a life-long process for us in this world. Only when we have begun to be changed by the gift of God can we actually open our mouths and speak to unbelievers with the hope that they will change and follow Christ on a given issue - or at all. The message is transformation through the gift of God. We are poor witnesses if we ourselves are not willing to be transformed. But this is the reality to which we must bear witness in this world. This is the only salvation for men, and the only hope in the skirmishes over morality in our society. But then again, considering how the Pharisees responded to St. Stephen, we ought to remain sober about what is likely to happen to Christians confessing Christ in the world.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-71358136619614094832012-04-29T22:59:00.000-04:002012-04-29T23:16:03.065-04:00Abusing the Thief<p>I've been reading up on the topic of Christian initiation. At the moment I am thoroughly enjoying <i>Christian Initiation: Baptism in the Medieval West</i> by J.D.C. Fisher (SPCK, 1965). What's great about this book is that he focuses on the liturgical evidence in order to determine what was really going on. He is mostly successful in letting the data speak for itself, without importing a predetermined viewpoint. Senn, in his compendium on Liturgy, tends to mix his Protestant bias (or is it a Kavanagh bias?) into the data. I have found little of that in Fisher's work (which Senn relies on in his own book).</p>
<p>It is amazing how the initiation rite that we identify today as Baptism-Confirmation-Eucharist continued in Rome unbroken well into the middle ages. I would also include the historic catechumenate before Baptism, too, since Rome maintained its basic form even after the majority of catechumens transitioned from adults to infants. I was taught in seminary that this disappeared much earlier - that what was medieval was bad, corrupt, and askew. The evidence shows a great deal of consistency in Rome for the first 1000 years regarding the basic structure of initiation.</p>
<p>In Milan, Gaul and Germany, though, something seemed to happen that is hard to account. There is a gap in the data between the patristic age and the medieval age in Milan. At the time of Ambrose there was in Milan a definite baptism-confirmation-eucharist form to the initiation rite (using our modern distinctions for these). This included an anointing after Baptism that was associated with Baptism itself, and a separate anointing associated with the seven-fold grace of the Holy Spirit. 300+ years later in Milan and the surrounding area, from when the next data set is available, the confirmation portion seemed either a) to disappear or b) now to be associated with the unction that immediately followed the actual Baptism or c) both. This practice is also found in various areas of Gaul and Germany about the same time. When Charlemagne tried to have the provinces adopt the practices of Rome, in some of those locations lacking what we might call the Confirmation rite by the bishop, some tacked it on the end - after the newly baptized were communed -- actually an entire week after. Those locales where the "Confirmation rite" was identified now with the anointing after the Baptism by the presbyter seemed not to think anything was missing from their rite. However, at least as regards the data surrounding Milan, it is clear to us something did disappear. This may have happened due to political upheaval, war, bishops becoming corrupt and/or inaccessible, etc. Whatever the reason, enough time elapsed where some locales did not practice a "Confirmation rite" with Baptism distinct from the post-Baptismal anointing.</p>
<p>So of course, when these places are asked to adopt the liturgical practices of Rome, and a greater awareness of the liturgical differences among provinces makes its way around, debate ensues. And of course someone has to play the Thief on the Cross card:</p>
<blockquote>Amalarius admits that he has heard the question asked "whether without the laying on of the bishop's hand a baptized person can possess the kingdom of heaven. The thief who on the cross confessed the Lord, and heard him say, <i>To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise,</i> did not receive the imposition of the hand, although we believe him to have been baptized on the cross in his own blood" (Fisher, p.69)</blockquote>
<p>Why is it that anytime someone wants to escape an established practice the Thief on the Cross is the great proof that <u>fill in the blank</u> is unnecessary for salvation? Good grief this has been going on a long time. Then it was, "Well, the thief didn't receive the imposition of hands (or even anointing with Chrism, for that matter) by a bishop. It must be dispensible." Today it's, "Well, the thief didn't do any good works, but Christ accepted him" (even though he defended Christ against the malefaction of the other thief). Or, "Well, the thief on the cross wasn't baptized" (but we forget today what it means to be baptized in blood). Or, "The thief didn't have to confess his sins, didn't have to receive communion, didn't this, didn't that, etc."</p> It's amazing how long this sort of faulty logic has been going on.</p>
<p>It is established that the Thief on the Cross had faith, because he showed his faith by his prayer and defense of Christ. It is established that Christ accepted him. These are wonderful, positive, incontrovertible facts. But that does not mean Christ did not give us a Baptism of water and the Spirit. That doesn't mean that Christ didn't give us the remembrance of His Pascha in the Eucharist. That doesn't mean that what the Apostles established on Christ's authority (which authority is that of the Father, for the Father sent the Son, and the Son sent the Apostles <i>as the Father sent Him</i>) isn't given to us to keep and treasure and receive for our salvation. All it means is that Christ alone is the judge in exceptional situations, and that He accepts repentance. But that does not mean He sanctions negligence. The thief's situation applies to us only when we become like the thief: crucified with Christ, confessing Him before the Church (symbolized by the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Apostle) and the world (symbolized by the other thief, the Pharisees, and the Romans).</p>
<p>If you notice - the thief was not interested in how little he could get by with from Christ. He did not hold back. Though before him hung a dying man seemingly without power or hope, the thief saw the Savior and the coming Kingdom of God and asked to be a part of it. And Christ gave it to him.</p>
<p>What does Christ give us when we ask this of Him? When we do not hold back but become fools in the world and believe and come to Christ, what does Christ give us? He catches us up to the thief, first. He says, take your cross and follow Me. He gives us the cross in Baptism. He gives us death so that we, too, can become citizens of Paradise through rebirth by water and the Holy Spirit. He makes us kings and priests unto our God in His Kingdom. This is what He gave to the thief: Baptism.</p>
<p>But unlike the thief, we are still in the world (though not of the world). The thief's body was buried, his soul passed to rest in Paradise. But you and I have not experienced this yet. We have not suddenly encountered Christ at the eleventh hour and been invited into the vineyard for our denarius. We are called at other times in our life: the ninth, sixth, maybe third or first. And in this, though, Christ does not withhold Paradise from us, but rather seeks to communicate it to us in the Church - the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Eph. 1). We who are in the world are given the Holy Spirit in the Church, that the Paradise in which the thief was granted to rest at the close of his eleventh hour may rest in our hearts and souls, and transform us into the likeness of our homeland and our King, so that whether we live or die, we are Christ's. <b>Today</b> is the day of salvation, as it was for the thief.</p>
<p>So let us not ask if this or that is really necessary for our salvation. Let's not minimize. Let's not enter this mentality into our discussions about what should or should not be done. Rather rejoice! For in every mystery of the Church we find Christ. Rejoice! Christ is all in all, the Church is His fullness, and we are made one flesh and one blood with Him. All things are new, including us. The thief points us to the fullness that only comes from Christ, and that means for us the thief points us to the Church, and the Church <i>is</i> fullness.</p>
<p>Obviously, in the context of liturgical rites, we wish to be careful not to lose anything that should not be lost. I would assume those in Milan, Gaul, and Germany in the eighth and ninth centuries didn't think they had lost anything. But the answer then and now should not be, "Is it really necessary?" Rather it should be, "Where does this come from? Why haven't we had this before? Does this change transmute the rite into something different? Is this really something different or not? Is Christ magnified? Is love impinged? Are the weak scandalized? And so forth. But let's not ask, "Is this necessary for salvation?" Because this question is Pandora's Box. You cannot just take a peek. Once asked it replicates like a virus. In asking we presume to make relative the active and present eschatological kingdom of Christ in our midst, manipulating and painting it whatever color we wish, whittling it down, deforming it into something else. But really it is not the active and present Kingdom of Christ that we are reducing, reforming, ruining, but it is ourselves.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-51964486377627204952012-04-17T14:39:00.000-04:002012-04-17T14:39:25.924-04:00Sanctification is SalvationSome thoughts from my reply in a private conversation on sanctification:<br />
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<blockquote>You are right to say that sanctification is a present reality, current process, and a future realization. Sanctification is definitely more than a theological category or a stage in the application of salvation to an individual (like conversion, justification, sanctification, etc.). Sanctification is really a descriptive word for *how* God saves. If we consider the fall of man into sin, man underwent a change to his nature that corrupted the good creation of God and resulted in man's perpetual bondage. For man's salvation in Orthodoxy sinful man needs to be transformed back, so to speak. He needs to change, both in his nature (what make someone a human) and in his person (what makes you "you"). Adam's personal sin had a negative-sanctification effect on his human nature, which rendered it and him corrupted and enslaved to sin, death, and the devil. The salvation of Christ through the cross and resurrection applies a positive-sanctification effect that heals and restores man in Christ (to say the least). So in some respects that sanctification - in terms of how Christ sanctified human nature through His Incarnation, and put our sin to death in His flesh through His own death, and triumphed over death with Life in the resurrection - happens objectively outside of us, literally in Christ, and is a pure gift that we cannot cooperate with. In this sense we see Christ as the Second Adam in whom the first Adam finds salvation. <br />
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But in the sense that this sanctification of human nature has been applied to the individual person, that's where our energy must unite with God's energy in us, because then the issue is always actualizing what we have in Christ as we make free choices. God gives us what Christ has done in total through Baptism, Chrismation, and the Eucharist, but it depends on our faith as to whether and how we will continue from this. We have the communion of Christ's healed and sanctified human nature, so as Christians we have a saved (sanctified) human nature in common, but my person is not the same as Christ's person is not the same as your person, etc. That which makes me "me" must work out my salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that God is at work in me to actualize the sanctification that Christ has accomplished outside of me and has implanted into me through my communion with Him in the Church.<br />
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So sanctification is a word that describes the work of God to save mankind. It is carried out objectively by the work of Christ in the Incarnation, His life, passion, death and resurrection. It is given to me through faith and Baptism-Christmation-Eucharist (these go together). It is actualized throughout that which is uniquely "me" (i.e. my person) through my cooperation with God at work in me (e.g. faith working through love). This is sanctification in Orthodoxy. And this is "salvation."</blockquote><br />
<b>Some additional thoughts...</b><br />
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In this light we can understand justification. "Sanctification" means literally "to make holy." Justification means literally "to make righteous." In patristic writings, translations of the Scriptures into other languages, and the general liturgical and sacramental context of historic Eastern and Western Christianity the only difference between those two actions is the word "holy" versus "righteous." The essential "how this happens" is the same. In English we tend to call this "how" itself sanctification, which can be a bit confusing. <br />
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In time tangential concepts arose in the West about merit, God, the law, and the cross which further obscured the simple teaching retained by the East. Certainly the retention of the Greek language (minimizing the "lost in translation" syndrome) helped to keep the matter focused, while in the West the loss of the nuances of Greek theological language to the less precise, more juridical Latin language helped deprive many devout men of necessary key insights. St. Augustine takes a lot of blame for this, as an early and huge player in Latin theology who himself did not know Greek; but the blame is perhaps better laid at the lack of Greek and not St. Augustine's person. <br />
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Yet still for this reason (and others) Western Christians often have a hard time understanding Orthodox thinking on these matters, because in the West the conversation is built on so many alien concepts that arose and ripened in the Western theological climate alone. In order to understand the practice of the Orthodox Church (for that is how we use our theology here) one has to strip down to what seems to be basic concepts and make adjustments to the placement of certain familiar concepts (God's love, judgment, juridicism, sanctification, merit, sacrifice, etc).<div class="blogger-post-footer">"Some, when they actively observe the commandments, expect this to outweigh their sins; others, who observe the commandments without this presumption, gain the grace of Him who died on account of our sins. We should consider which of these is right."
- St. Mark the Ascetic, On Those Who Teach that They are Made Righteous by Works</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0