Posted on 07/24/2012 3:07:03 PM PDT by Teófilo
Brethren: Peace and Good to all of you.
This blog post presents a broader commentary to this MSNBC headline: Is liberal Christianity signing its own death warrant? I invite you to read that news piece.
I have said many times before that the decline among the US mainline Protestant churches (Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, etc.) is due to their embrace of secular values and pseudomorality.
In my opinion, their faithful departed are seeking a more vigorous or emotive faith and for that reason are leaving the so-called Mainline Churches and are joining Pentecostal or Evangelical communities. Or, they might become more interested in historical Christianity and therefore leave for the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or independent Anglican churches. Or maybe they become agnostic or “spiritual” without belonging to any “organized religion” and the trappings that come with it.
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Tenet
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Explanation
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Consequence
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Sola Scriptura
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That the written Scripture only is the sole rule of belief, morals, and practice for believing Christians.
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The absence of a proven, credentialed and authoritative hermeneutics that is external to the individual believer leads to interpretative anarchy – for a single believer or group of believers will always find a purportedly compelling reason to reinterpret the Bible to suit their own agenda
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Sola Fide
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That faith alone is necessary for the salvation of individual Christian and that good works lack intrinsic salvific value.
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The experience of faith was emptied of any objective contents and was made subjective, enabling the individual to determine his status as “saved” by the emotive contents of his or her salvation experience – the individual believer is now empower to approach Scripture individually, purportedly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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Free Examen
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That the individual alone exercises “priestly” power to approach Holy Scripture and to interpret it on the basis of his or her salvific experience alone, as permitted by sola scriptura and illuminated by sola fide.
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Faith and belief having been emptied of objective contents and free from external hermeneutical authority. now depends on the subjective contents the individual believer deems fit to find. Dissent is built into this tenet for if the individual believer objects to what his pastor teaches and his community believes, he can leave to search for another community or found his own.
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Sola Gratia
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That salvation is due to “grace alone” apart from individual efforts of sanctification and cooperation with grace.
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The consequence is that there’s no Christian morality or orthopraxis that is ultimately binding. The “Grace vs. Works” conundrum being resolved in the favor of grace “through faith”, and faith having been subjectivized itself, they further built their morality on subjective principles such as “compassion, acceptance, understanding” defined apart from any objective grounds such as saving works.
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PING.
But why should I adhere to a body of beliefs that CLEARLY runs contrary to Scripture?
- Call no man “Father”
- All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (including Mary, the mother of Jesus!)
- Deny the plain reading of Scripture that tells me that I am saved by GRACE through FAITH, it is NOT of works, lest ANY man should boast. The whole of Galatians demolishes a system of man-earned salvation
Besides, not all Protestant denominations are in decline by any means; the liberal mainline groups are in trouble, to be sure. But, it is because they deny the power of the Gospel to save, they accept humanism in place of God’s authority, and they gladly have opened up their hearts to all manner of perversion of sin. No, I contend that the Church of Rome is not the only vested authority by God over His kingdom.
I was an Episcopalian. When that body embraced places of religious authority for sexually active gays and lesbians and endorsed the idea that God’s laws are “evolving”, I left. For a long time I drifted and grieved. Then one day, I attended a service in an evangelical and growing Baptist church. I didn’t know their songs and there was no liturgy, but the sanctuary was overflowing with vibrant, excited young Christians! I miss the beautiful ceremonies and the wonderful old songs, but, oh, I’m so glad to be home again in a Christian community. They’re not fancy, but they have the important things right.
The mainlines are dying because they have forsaken God’s WORD.
Simple.
No more complicated than that.
I'm an independent, fundamental Baptist
The 300 year old UCC church in my town is all about rainbow flags, gay marriage, Palestinian statehood and drum-circles. I imagine the lights could be kept on simply by hooking up to the founding parishoners’ bodies spinning in their graves.
Written as if the Roman faith in the USA is not suffering a decline right along with the rest of Churchianity in this country.
It’s in the same shape - let’s not kid ourselves.
The secular culture is winning out across the spectrum of biblical faith and tradition.
I bristle at the implication that such a decline would not happen if we were all still subjects of the Roman church and that their traditions are superior to those attempting to follow biblical ones.
I'm an independent, fundamental Baptist
Misuse of the term “evangelical”. That, btw, is always a fatal flaw in any discussion because, after all, no one will understand what he’s hearing, nor what he is saying.
“That the written Scripture only is the sole rule of belief, morals, and practice for believing Christians.”
That’s right, Buster. Most things in the Bible are simple enough to read and interpret at face value, without some priest telling me what I just read. I don’t read through the rose-colored lenses of 2,000 years of the accumulated traditions of men. Too many old, established denominations have made the simple tenets of Christianity seem complicated and conflicting.
Ever hear of William Tyndale? He was insisting that the Bible should be given to the people in English, that it should be explained to them, and that they should learn how to read it. One bishop named John Bell told Tyndale that it would be better for the people to be without God’s law, as long as they had the pope’s law. This was Tyndale’s famous response: “I defy the pope and his laws! If God spares my life, in a few years a plow boy shall know more of the Scriptures than you do.”
I say, Amen!
This is happy catholic talk that comes due to a base ignorance of protestant theological issues. No biggie. Protestant are generally not privy to the broad issues of catholic theology.
What has killed the liberal protestant denominations in europe and is currently killing the liberal denominations in the USA and the Catholic church in latin america is the Arian heresy. The arian heresy came in through liberation theology in the catholic church — and in the protestant church a theological school of thought called “Higher Criticism”. I know little of liberation theology beyond what I’ve been told by conservative catholics. I can say more about the “higher criticism” school. The “the higher criticism” school evaluates the bible as if it were a myth—like norse or greek myths. Seen in these terms there are no miracles and Jesus is just a man. The “Higher Criticism” school dates from the 17th century. They got their start as an off shoot of descartes.Who in turn brought into Christendom the greek notion that “man is the measure of all things.” That is, if man is the measure of all things—then that includes God.
Catholics on the board need to stop digging a hole for themselves with the sola matters. The secularists are reigning triumphant. The interesting question is why.
Teo, I agree with the above. Completely. As an ordained elder in the Methodist (UMC) Church, I would fully endorse every word in the above.
However, your analysis of the root of that embrace, an analysis based on what I believe is a misunderstanding of the Solas, can never be correct if the understanding of them is skewed. I don't think there is any intentional misunderstanding. I think there is simply misunderstanding.
Sola Scriptura is not premised on just any old hermeneutics one feels like using. It must be a spiritually and ecclesiastically acceptable, rational, historic, and comprehensive hermeneutic. It must recognize as well that the scriptures are the words of the Apostles and the Prophets, and that they are, therefore, authoritative.
A Sola Fide that does not distinguish between the salvific moment and the continuing weakness of the flesh (sinful nature) is a salvation that is doomed to failure for "if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." In other words, one cannot focus on good deeds and ignore bad deeds which are predetermined by our nature to happen.
I would call your "free examen" the "priesthood of believers", and there is no priesthood of believers that teaches individualism -- individual religion -- that is not subsumed under an Ecclesiastical structure. In other words, there is no "individual Christianity", that is to say, no "lone wolf" Christianity. Jesus, Himself, founded the Church, and Christians are to be Church Christians. Nor is there sacramental individualism in any church that is not based on "in extremis" situations.
Sola Gratia has received acceptance from the Catholic Church. The Joint Declaration on Justification by Faith says,
15.In faith we together hold the conviction that justification is the work of the triune God. The Father sent his Son into the world to save sinners. The foundation and presupposition of justification is the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. Justification thus means that Christ himself is our righteousness, in which we share through the Holy Spirit in accord with the will of the Father. Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.[11]
Allow me to be clear that there are still quibbles on both sides regarding some of the emphases, but there is also acceptance of the basic premise that "God Saves, and we don't save ourselves."
The repentent thief on the cross didn't need nor had time for "reason", all he knew was what he thought , what he believed ... what he wanted to believe and that was Christ was in fact LORD and could/ would "save" him and take him to be with Jesus in HIS Kingdom ... a place he believed actually existed.
and what was Jesus' reply .... ?
The Good Thief was repentant.
And look around, they do...
Love of the truth is not a bad emotion to have...Man's philosophical reasoning as you refer to will just provide a larger shovel for you to dig deeper into the ditch y'all have fallen into...
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Why?
'Cause he was truly repentant in his heart ... or he got jailhouse religion?
And how is either position explained as a truth (in relation to the repentant thief)
However, the "intellectual suicide" charge is a bit of a mixed bag. Is Protestantism up a creek without an external, authoritative interpretive tradition? Yes it is (and as everyone knows, Fundamentalist Protestants argue among themselves merely by quoting verses back and forth, and no one ever convinces anyone else. But . . . if by "intellectual suicide" you mean they don't subject the statements of G-d to human reason or modern science before agreeing to believe them, then you are way off. People who believe so strongly will always be around. You may not agree with them, but they'll never become extinct, and certainly not because they don't subject the powers of G-d to human intellect.
Aside from that, how would you feel if someone said Catholics commit intellectual suicide because they believe in the virgin birth, the resurrection, or Fatima, hmmm? Sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander, shouldn't it?
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